Art is You Petaluma 2015

 I spent a magical weekend at Art is You in Petaluma, CA last weekend.  I took two full day workshops you can read about HERE and HERE.  One of the fun aspects of art retreats  is "swaps".  It is completely optional, but if you want to get in on the cool trades (like the awesome selection you can see here), you can make some small thing to share with the ladies you meet at the event.  I received several charms, a needle felted  book mark, an ATC, some inspirational words and pendants.

 Last Easter i made a bunch of silk flowers with my niece you can read about HERE.  I had quite a few circles already cut out so i decided to use them to make simple flowers for my swap.  About an hour later, all the petals have been melted with a candle (in as safe an environment as you can - ie cookie sheet, non-tippy candle, long tongs) ready to stack.

 In the interest of speed i used embroidery thread and a little button to create a simple attachment.  A small circle of felt on the bottom for a "stem".

 I added a simple card with my blog name using a safety pin.

 Here are the swaps made by a women i met at the  event.  We could choose from a fridge magnet or a pendant.  see  how fun this is!!  Thanks to all the gals I met and swapped with!

 On saturday morning there was a casual gathering called the Morning Motivator.  In honour of the Australian  memorial day we made poppies.  It was also to commemorate the passing of a couple of friends/artists to the event.  We were given a simple paper wrapped wire and told to make a circle at the bottom.  then two or three circles of red paper were passed out.  poke the wire through the middle, and voila - you have a pretty  flower.

 Here i am with my buddies Z and K and our flowers.  They used the flowers to decorate the tables at the luncheon.

 Speaking of flowers - aren't these amazing!?!  K gave them to Z as a thank you for putting her up for the weekend.  Those yellow stunners look good enough to eat!

The Sheraton Petaluma hosted the event - i had this lovely view for one of my classes.  Please check out my posts about the workshops i took with Diana Frey and Michael DeMeng.

Valentine Banner

For the last two years i participated in valentine swaps - where you created 10 or so valentines and sent them to online craft buddies.  Then the fun of receiving a mailbox full of cards just for you!! This is what i sent out last year.

This year i did not do any valentines - but I still wanted to enjoy the fun of seeing a dozen or more pretty valentines displayed somehow. 

So i hung up some cording on pretty thumbtacks on a wall in our kitchen (where a canvas usually hangs) and attached all the valentines i received from the swaps.  Plus a few from hubby thrown in as well. 

It is so pretty to see all the feminine touches all in one place.  They are attached with mini clothespins. Thanks again to all the ladies who sent me the cards.  To see them closeup - you can check out HERE .

 I did receive one special valentine in the mail from my niece Erica. I love how the rich brown colour conjures up thoughts of chocolate! Thanks Erica!

This past weekend we took a lovely drive through West Marin up to Petaluma for lunch and a stroll through antique shops.  (anyone else glad that football season is over?)  We stopped to take this picture of a farm and vineyard - it is practically like living with Tuscany in your own backyard.

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!

My Altered Book came home

My altered book, A Gift of Life, was returned home to my new home - down here in Southern California. These two images above are pages straight from the book - no artist intervention. As you may recall, (or read about it here) my book was an illustrated Hallmark book from the 70's with some nice nature images and some seriously schmaltzy prose about the gift of life - birds and bees, and deer and frogs. My Northern Cal altered book friends have decided to keep the group going - i will participate remotely or virtually or whatever way i can! They met last month for a final swap of the spring books and to initiate the new swap for summer. These two are by Shelly - never content to just do a simple spread,above she did a series of tags that can flipped back and forth to give different views of landscapes. Below she inserted a set of flaps showing an assortment of trees.This page by Carol has pop up fish swimming upstream, with a bonus fish that swings out of a secret pocket on the edge of the page. This page by Dorothy where she took the text printed in the book - and continued with her own handwritten thoughts.

Here are the sign in tags, decorated by each artist:
The great thing about this book, is that because it already had illustrations - with only a dozen or so "altered" pages - it seems done! I could add a few things here and there - but it still feels complete.

Thank you so much to Dorothy, Shelley and Carol for keeping this altered book art going and including me.

artistic affaire swaps

As with many of the art retreats, one way to get the participants involved before the festivites begin - there are swaps.  Some are casual freeform exchange of artist trading cards, some are more elaborate.  Fat books - where each participant created pages to be assembled in a book, are common.

But for the artistic affaire - i chose to be a part of two very different swaps! The first is a colour swap.  Each person is paired with another.  Each person picks a colour or colour theme.  You then decorate a small box and fill it with goodies, all in the colour theme of your partner.  The gal i am paired with chose pink and brown - very fitting for the printemps theme of the event!  i was back home for a couple of days last month and i grabbed a small cigar box and everything pink and brown i could find in my craft room.

I sanded the box before covering it with french dictionary pages

I then added additional papers and borders and a touch or paint.  The fun part was adding the nest and bird to the top and adding all the girlie ribbons and flowers.

The pink envelopes contain images, stamps and stickers.  There is a bundle of papers and an orgnaza pouch filled with buttons and shells and sparkly things.

The second swap was also a "one for one".  We were each paired with someone and told to create an altered birdhouse.  My swap partner has two passions - polka dots and owls.  Well - this would be a challenge!  Since i know nothing about owls  - i chose to create a barn instead of a traditional birdhouse. I found the wimsical owl printed paper in a gift shop near my rented house.

I painted the edges of the barn with robin's egg blue paint and collaged the sides with french dictionary paper and some vintage ephemera. 

I used some flattened stones to create polka dots on the sides and used some hand painted deli paper for the roof.  I added pink stripes to all the edges and a touch of metallic paint to age it.

I used the owl paper on the back (not shown)

Here are all the pretty swaps along with a chinoiserie gift bag i bought to carry them to my artistic affaire!  I cannot wait to see what i get "swapped" in return!

Crafting Malaise....

Ok - i have definitely gotten off to a slow start in 2009. Having guests, looking for a job, and having no current projects has kept me out of the craft studio. But you know, the weather here in Northern California is beautiful - the forecast is calling for a week straight of sunny blue skies and up to 70 degrees! So there is no time to waste my life staring into the computer worrying about what's going to happen. So how do i get out of this malaise? I signed up for things! I am never one to shirk responsibility or be late for a deadline - so the more projects i have lined up, the more time i will spend being artsy. So in no particular order - this is what i have to work on in the next few weeks:
Altered book swap - i have been meeting monthly with a group for over 6 years. Participants have come and gone - but there is a core group still wanting to meet, swap altered books, and create something in a fun workshop. Not knowing if i'll even be living here next month makes it hard to get psyched up for this - but i kicked it off yesterday, so i need to start working on a new altered book.
The images here are from the book i have chosen. It i called The Gift of Life by Dean Walley - a hallmark book from 1971 i picked up at an estate sale. It is a sweet book with lovely earth tone illustrations by David Welty. Things from the 70's can be a bit dated - with their overuse of the colour "rust" or burnt orange. But this one still feels somewhat contemporary. And there are many birds, which continues to be my obsession. There is a poem throughout the book that talks about motherhood and rebirth in simple prose. It will be interesting to see how the pages are altered.

I also signed up for a few other things: a wedding themed journal round robin. I just love weddings and have some fun ideas. Including creating a flock of bridesmaids with crepe paper dresses like this one.

Next I signed up for a trashy romance novel themed fat book. For those you just do one page - but make 25 or so copies or versions. That will be fun to do. Then you get a 25 page spiral bound book filled with everyone's bodice ripping artwork.
And finally - although who knows how many other projects i'll line up, i am going to do a valentine swap - i'll mail out 15 victorian valentines, and get 15 in return. I wonder if my husband will get jealous.....? Please stay tuned to see how these projects manifest themselves. I'll continue to share my ideas and tips for creating your own paper based works of art!

Birth of an Altered Book

Most of the altered books i create are for round robin swaps. I have lots of books that i buy with great plans to alter them, but unless i have the incentive (and the deadlines) associated with a group round robin - they just don't come to fruition. I have a new swap starting on Sunday - so i had better get started creating a new book.
At minimum you need a book, a theme, an intro, a sign in page for your artistic friends to leave their mark, and a few pages to set the tone. I also like to do the covers and inside covers - just because it makes it more exciting. I went to my local library book store to get inspiration (yeah, even though i have a hundred books at home). Well, i didn't find any.

So onto plan B. I went to an estate sale and did find a few cute books - but as often happens - i like them too much to alter. One is a luscious book filled with engravings of classical and biblical stories by Gustave Dore. Way too precious to alter - but i will make copies of the illustrations to use in another project. I have an idea that taking an etching and blowing it up could have some cool effects. Then maybe colorizing...? Who knows.

The other book is a sweet book of poetry. Well - that could make a great altered book - each spread could illustrate the words on the previous page. But nah, too small and sweet for my liking.
So on to plan C. (did i mention i have three days to put this book together? Well, not even - really only tonight, tomorrow night and Saturday) I have been keeping my eye on a music book from 1924. When i say keep an eye on it, i mean, like whenever i move it around - i have been keeping it on top of the piles of stuff in my studio. So i see it often and it has been getting some attention. I just love the art deco cover and the shape is nice. It is filled with sheet music of which maybe two songs i have heard of.
So here's my plan. I will take this beautiful music book from the 20's and it will become my new altered book. The theme? The title has not quite gelled - but the idea is that you will create altered collage to illustrate your favorite songs.
One of the songs that often comes into my mind when creating altered art, is from The Tubes - What do you Want from Life. Well, just the last line from the song, actually. "...and a baby's arm holding an apple." I think that song kind of sums up the goal with my artistic pursuits. To create something with a certain amount of "wha'?". All the great paper artists do it. Adding something that comes completely out of left field - yet somehow just works in the piece.
So that's it - the title of my new altered book is What do you Want from Life? Each of my artistic friends can depict the answer by using music as inspiration.