Karen's Cloth Collage

 

I wanted to show everyone K's finished fabric collage.  Isn't it beautiful!  She started with a piece of natural canvas, added an ecru lace overlay and then played with an assortment of fabric patches and words stamped on bleached muslin.  Then she added some nice contrast with black felt hearts and checkerboard.  and finally some BLING! 
See more from our play date HERE.

Fabric & Paper plus Sewing!

I spent the weekend with my friend K. and decided to explore the ideas in this magazine, SEW Somerset.

K. had book-marked a couple of ideas - the first was to make dresses on card stock.  

We were inspired by these paper and fabric party dresses by Collette Copeland. 

 K. made this dress - reminiscent of the dresses we made last year you can check out HERE.   I made the one shown at the top of the page. K. has yet to complete the composition - but look at the beautiful skirt made with torn fabric strips, test paper and lace.

 For my next dress i started with a piece of muslin cut into a classic ball gown shape.

 I tore little bits of paper and added some fabric  - the black and white checks and the paisley butterfly.

 I glued it down with a glue stick then added bright red thread.  i don't know how to "free motion" sew - we just used a normal machine and rotated the paper to get around the curves.  i wanted it to look sort of messy and loose!

 Next based on the inspiration of the magazine - i wanted to make a dress/birdcage!  I used a vintage map image for the background.  added three fabric birds and a few other things thrown in.  then sewed the birdcage with the red thread.  i added some stitch lines around the birds with a black sharpie pen.

 The next day i decided to add the frayed edge ribbon jauntily sewn on one side.

Next we both tried another idea from the magazine - a paper/fabric quilted wall hanging.

The piece shown was SEW beautiful!  by Kristen Robinson.

 I started with a heavy raw muslin background and laid on top various laces, fabrics and emphemera.  then added bits of lace and sayings stamped onto fabric with a brownish sepia ink.

 I sewed down all the larger pieces and glued down the smaller bits.  it is not quite finished - needs a few more chunky embellishments to fill in some of the empty spaces.

 K. started her wall hanging with a piece of muslin covered with ecru lace.  then she added patches of colourful pink, black and white fabric.  I love how she left visual "space" on the background.

Next she added words and phrases she had stamped on bleached muslin.  Touches of lace offset the bold black rick rack and felt hearts.  Thanks Somerset magazine for some great play date ideas.  And thanks K. for a great crafty weekend!

Altered Book - Just One More Word

At the 6 month mark in our altered book quest - we each received our own books back home to work on for the month of July.  The intro to my book you can find HERE but explains the "theme" is to create a spread with just one word.  My first spread used a few different images from my favorite Anthro catalogs - a pretty butterfly strewn sweater, a bed of flowers, and a tropical bird wallpaper.  The aged wood at the bottom is scrapbook paper. The flowers cut from a magazine.  The word is Breathe.  As in, just keep living and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us.

 My second spread gives you a bit of my frame of mind these days.  It has been about two months since my husband Jim passed away.  So yes - this is a sea of tears.  Cut from pictures in a Hawaiin tourist guide, the oceans and waves we experienced on our 25th anniversary trip in May.

 And for my third spread - this magnificent bird reminds us to look forward and Soar!  I covered the background with hand made paper and gave a little tent fold in the middle to cover the spiral holding the book together.  A couple of vintage air balloons cut from wrapping paper.  The die cut flower, cut from a sheet of lacey scrapbook paper with a bit of peach and grey oil pastel.  Sitting on top of vintage plaid wallpaper.  I might add a little bit of paint to soften the edges before i pack this up.

And finally here is one of the lovely birthday cards i recieved from my friend and play date partner Lucie.  A beautiful hand painted and collaged card with a touch of my favorite things - a bird, robin's egg blue, and vintage french text!  Please check out lucie's blog HERE to see more of her art!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to a Sweet Girl who turned TWO today - that would be me. 

Yes - i decided last year to start over at 1.  Just made sense.  Two is my "lucky age" since my birthday is August 2nd.  Seems like i was cheated out of a lucky year since i was, you know, only 2.  So this year we'll try again.

 When stealing, i mean "researching" vintage birthday cards online it seemed that Mary had a Little Lamb was a popular theme.

And kittens!

Here is my birthday present.  A vintage inspired wire basket for all my rolls of paper. It is from Pottery Barn and yes was a splurge, but i did get it on sale.  It comes with a fabric liner, meant for laundry, but i think i like it better without.  Here are some NEW papers i just acquired - but i have tons more and now they'll have a pretty place to live!

Summer Vacay Art

This past two weeks i was at my sister's summer cottage in the Laurentian mountains, outside of Montreal, Canada.  i did not plan any activities like last summer's hand painted scarves or jewelry making.  but i did go to the famous canadian dollar stores and bought several canvases, paint and brushes.  then at an art store i bought some nice glass beads on sale, 7 for $1, which i could not resist.  I purchased 4 canvases of various sizes and gave them all a background of blue and white paint - blended to create "sky".  I created the painting above.

My inspiration was a nature magazine with a hummingbird on the cover.
My sister's niece Tianna wanted to help me - so i gave her a canvas and told her to go for it!

Tianna is 9 years old and helped me paint last summer - so i said just create a flower from your imagination.  Her mom helped her with the outline of the bird - but she did ALL the colours herself!  (i did tidy up the edges just a bit).

Well her mom Tammy was so impressed she wanted to try it herself.  A talented artist with pastels, she has little experience with paint - but she did an awesome job!

Tianna flipped through a Quebec art magazine called  magazin'Art i always pick up when i am in Canada.  They have great paintings and sculpture by local artists.   i asked T to find something for me to paint - and she picked this.  Other than the creepy "wave person" we thought it was cute.

Tianna ran around all week at the lake in her itsy bitsy teeny weenie, polka dot bikini - so i changed the child in the picture to look like her!  All the paintings above were created with less than $10 worth of art supplies!

Here are two of three glass bead necklaces i made at the lake.  I used metal wire and crimp beads to separate the beads along the wire.  Tianna helped me with the crimping!  these used aqua and green beads, the third was hot pink and matched my niece's outfit - so she got to take it home!  I like to wear these two together  - so fresh and summery.  I've received many compliments and they were SO easy.  And for $1.00 worth of beads?  super cheap!

Here is another painting from the art magazine.

My niece did her own interpretation using water colour paint.  She really captured with essence of the watery highrise buildings.

and then, one rainy afternoon i had the cousins gathered to help me make clay birds in the style of the chicks we made with Jenny Hernandez back in the spring.

Erica, Tianna and her sister Talya all created a cute bird with styrofoam egg bodies and heads.  Skewers were used to join the heads to the bodies and for the legs.  Once they dry they should change to white and we could paint them.

however - since i used cheap clay from the dollar store, well they all cracked and fell apart.

:-(

but hey - it was still a fun rainy day activity!

Street Painting Festival

My friend Lucie was invited to participate in the San Rafael Italian Street Painting festival.  A few months ago she asked if i had any ideas - and i DID! 

I told Lucie about a sketch i saw in a restaurant years ago that i always thought would be fun to paint. It was a simple view through french doors to the san francisco bay and the golden gate bridge.  I did a quick drawing (from memory!) and sent it to her.  Oh the magic of cell phones and email...

Lucie turned that idea into a marvelous Matisse inspired masterpiece!  She is a true artist with a fantastic sense of style and colour.

This weekend was super hot - like 90-100 degrees so Lucie was determined to finish early this morning (after starting yesterday) before it got too hot.  Here she is adding the final colour to the slippers.  I should mention that she had some help on Saturday with her friend Marilyn and her son Alex.

Just love Lucie's whimsical style!

Bonus - Lucie's square was sponsored by the To Celebrate Life breast cancer charity here in Marin County.  The artists are not paid for their hard work and the pastel street paintings are washed away after the festival.  So we have to enjoy the beauty while we can.  Thank heaven for cell phone cameras!  Although sadly my battery died before i could take pictures of any of the other wonderful street paintings... :-(

Altered Book : Paper Dolls

I just finished working in L's altered book "Paper Dolls".  Such a cute theme!

 For my first spread i started with some really cool dyed paper in pastel stripes.  The "doll" was from a Dior perfume add.  She was so pretty with roses on her hat.  I ended up changing her clothes - i mean afterall - the book is called paper dolls, right?  The skirt was actually a small purse covered with felt flowers from an Anthropologie catalog. so cute!

 Next i used some paper dolls of a different kind - these were  from a sheet of Victorian style "scrap".  i took each of the oval victorian ladies and added paper skirts.  The orange skirt is vintage trading stamps.  The white skirt is dictionary page with a purple-y under skirt cut from a catalog.  The background and chaise are from - you guessed it, an Anthro catalog!

For our sign in page - L cut out little paper dolls for us to decorate and attach to the back of the book.  My little gal got an appliqued sweater and brocade skirt cut down from clothes in the catalog!