Another Paris Bag

While I am getting ready for a craft fair I wanted to share another of my Paris totes. Each one has different embellishments and trims. Will be back to posting more regularly very soon!

Trip to Paris - I wish...

A few weeks back (see my August 8 post) I shared a journal page created with lots of mixed media elements I had laying around - Gelli print, stamping, chalks, silk, etc. I loved it so much I decided to turn it into fabric via spoonflower (if you haven't visited spoonflower.com yet, you are in for a treat)! My fabric (and wallpaper) came this week and I had to make something with it right away. Starting with one panel of fabric, I cut it in half horizontally to make the top of the bag. I found a black on black swirly fabric to lend a bit of sophistication for the bottom of the bag and the handles, and some wonderful tassle trim for embellishment. Been playing with Tim Holtz grunge paper and tattered florals die cut and stamps with embossing powders. And had a great Art-i-cake pendant by Amy Labbe that has a tiny photo of the Eiffel tower in the center of a metal flower - been saving this one for a special occasion. Tucked a scrap of black lace up under these two elements for a bit of panache. This was stitched on the front just below one of the handles. I also had some wonderful rose taffeta that I used for the lining so she has some fancy underpinnings. Can we say ooh la la????

Making My Own Fall Colors

Fall is my favorite season but we have to wait awhile sometimes for the least bit of color change. We do have some trees that flower & turn from yellow to rust in the fall season. And my Chinese tallow tree has been turning and dropping leaves for the last few weeks. But what I love to see is rolling hills and gentle mountains draped in the colorful finery of fall from my childhood in East Tennessee. So I have to make my own. This is a silk piece I am playing with. The dyeing is done but I still have a bit of embellishment to finish. Will show the finished piece soon!

Playing with Shrink Plastic

The weekend testing grounds... die cut shrink plastic! I used the Tattered Florals die from Tim Holtz and sandwiched a piece of shrink plastic between two sheets of grunge paper (another TH product). Ran this through my Vagabond. I also slipped in a piece of plain card stock against the outside plate furthest from the cutting blades. This seems to give me a better cut from the grunge paper and the grunge paper cushions the shrink plastic so it doesn't break or tear. Then I punched holes in my floral shapes, used various stamps with StazOn ink in Royal purple and used my heat gun to shrink the plastic. I didn't want flat flowers so stopped heating before they went totally flat and teased some of the ends up while they cooled. There is a white card stock shape in the last photo so you can see the amount of shrinkage. The largest flower went from 3-1/4" to about 1-1/2". End use? Don't know yet but really happy with the results. They will find their way into art somewhere!

ART 30/30

Can't believe this is Day 30 of the month long challenge - the time just flew by! I managed nearly every day, only missing the day that the internet decided to smack me. The photo above is what is on my painting table right now. Kelly has asked to see our painting tables over in Art Amusement so this photo will get double duty. I dare not show you the rest of the table. It is very scary. Let's just say this is all the room I have to work right now & leave it at that! The letters are about 7" tall and currently have a layer of paint skins. They will be mixed media and I will try to remember to take progression photos. Let's so make some ART folks!

The Way You See Me 29/30

This is what I did with part of the paint skins. I used another of Tim Holtz' stamps that reads "you're the one who makes me the way you see me". I love that the frame cuts off part of the letters - makes it look like pattern rather than readable words. The other part that I like is there are a few raggy holes that you can see through. The paint skin is sandwiched between two microscope slides and mounted in a premade frame. Some beads were sewn onto the loop in the corner with hand dyed silk thread and the pendant is hung from thin leather. Cool, huh?

Waste Not, Want Not 28/30

There are times when I work a piece of art exclusively from start to finish. And there are times, like now, when I have multiple pieces of art started all at once. This time I started 6 different pieces on the same day!! There is glass, wood basecoated, tags Gelli printed, watercolor background, stamping, and paint skins. Today I want to show you my paint skins. Recently, when I was in Houston for Artist Expo, I found this wonderful new (to me) palette that is non-stick. Since I use a dry palette for some paint applications I thought I would give it a try. It wasn't until I got it home that I realized this would be perfect for Gelli printing! I normally clean my brayer by rolling over a piece of scrapbook paper or other surface with the intention of reusing in other work. I remembered seeing another artist use paint peelings from her work table in some mixed media art a long time ago. If the paint will peel off this palette then I will have my own paint peelings. So I used the new palette to clean my brayer and let it build up over a couple of sessions of Gelli printing. While I was working on some other work the paint was allowed to dry a couple of days so the heavier areas would be totally dry. Using a very thin palette knife I was able to slide under an edge of the dried paint and gently work a large enough area free to peel the paint off the palette. I had enough layers of paint on the palette that it peeled off in very large sections. The green/gold photo was the top of the paint. The red section shows what was underneath. Wait until you see what you do with these!

Happy Dance 27/30

Fresh out of my brand new kiln are 3 new test tiles. An idea I had worked really well and I can't wait to do more! Back to playing with glass...

Internet Issues 26/30

Didn't skip yesterday on purpose! Just had my internet completely hosed. Still not sure it is completely back but we are working on it. Ah, tomorrow is another day...

Patterns 24/30

Sort of played hooky today but still managed to get a little artwork in - took it with me! Working on my zentangle britches and the final reveal will be in the next day or so. We went down toward West Palm Beach with a group of dive friends for the day. They went diving under a bridge looking for seahorses and other stuff while I sat under the bridge in the shade. This photo was taken of the sand under the bridge - I loved the patterns in the sand from the pigeons walking around. And there was just the smallest shell laying there. Today was all about marks and patterns everywhere.