The man behind the throne...

And the final product!

Swap Carnage

Several people have asked me what it's like hostessing a swap. Well, I'll tell you, its alot of work, but it is rewarding in it's own ways. It's an honor to get to hold and touch and drool over so many pieces of art by so many talented artists. You make new friends, and you get to share the same passions that drew you to art in the first place with a ton of people who "get you"!

Here's a quick peek into this weekends binding marathon. Due to my arm injury, my sweet hubby jumped in and saved the day by punching when I couldn't do the repetitive motions. Mike is such a wonderful mate! Not only is he my best friend, but he'll jump in and help me with anything WITHOUT complaining! (He even acts mildly interested when appropriate!) He's very creative himself, and if I can't think of a way to fix it, or attach it, or pack it, he's sure to be able to. My Grandma always says I volunteer him out too much, but it's because I just KNOW he can fix it... and I'm so proud of him.

Come on in to the studio, and look at the carnage.

Final Flat Sissie Uploaded

Even more Flat Sissies

More Flat Sissies

Flat Sissies Fatbook Swap

Earlier this year, for the Sisters_of_the_Secret_Fatbook_Society yahoo group , I organized a fatbook swap called "Flat Sissies." I had in mind the best of both worlds, Paper Dolls and Fatbooks. Sixteen of the Sisters signed up, and I had them each mail their "character" in to be swapped and sent to the other players. Then each player dressed, and created scenes or adventures for everyone elses's character, as well as creating multiples of an intro page for their own character.

Now the pages have all come in, and the hullabaloo of swapping and binding has begun. The finished product is that each sister has an entire book of their own character, dressed by each of the other sisters, and a little story of what they did when they visited. They also have at the back of the book, a "friends" section, where a copy of each of the other players characters makes an appearance.

Each of the players did a wonderful job and took their "play" seriously. The resulting books are surprising, unique and wonderful.

The books are set to go in the mail on Monday morning, so I'm not spoiling any surprises by posting my pages today. These are the pages I created, starting with the intro page for my own character "Adelheid." I love old European advertising art, so each of my "sissies" I put into an ode to some of my favorite pieces. I tried to give the original artist credit by naming them or the title of the piece somewhere in the story. These are before I hand embellished them with glitter and jewelry and other bobeches.

I hope you enjoy!

Loot from my first charm swap!

Wow! I'd never joined a charm swap before, and I was a little unsure of what to expect. Although I've made many charms with many different materials, I still had never seen any like these talented gals brought to the table! Hosted by one of my art heroes Angela Hoffman of http://geminiangelsart.blogspot.com/, this was an exciting international swap! I'm going to definitely have to step up my game, although I did enjoy the polymer clay bubbles I made.

Background preparations for the coming year

I've felt the need to create more. Not neccesarily create more finished "products"-I do that all day long at work. I mean CREATE MORE... just for the sake of creating, for relaxing, for clearing my brain of all the backlog of stubs of ideas and thoughts that have never come to realization. To let it go, so it can fly out and grab creative molecules and fresh air and hopefully return to me fully charged and ready to go. So I've decided to create a workbook for myself of backgrounds. Just backgrounds. Several pages a week, until New Years Eve. Then on January 1st 2008, I will have a brand new workbook, ready to capture the imagination. And, I will not have to face the dreaded blank page block! There will be color and energy and motion that will be able to spark the fire. These backgrounds right now will serve to challenge me in a non threating way. I can use color combos I would never choose if I were working toward a "finished" piece. I can use tools that are haphazard and not "real artist" tools. I can be messy, not worrying about how this will affect the finished piece. I can be me, in all my glittery, painty, sticky glory.

Charms Charms Charms

I seem to be in a charm mode lately. 2 charm swaps in a month. And the attraction seems to be growing! As I was finishing these up the other night, I found myself considering making more as Christmas presents! I am also hostessing 2 charm swaps that will be due early next year. I loved working with this particular batch! I used antique wooden poker chips as the base, then applied TLS to them, touched them with rubber stamps to remove some of the TLS and baked. Next, I used Sculpey III to make the little "frames" for little bits I had punched from old Christmas cards. A dab of TLS, an eyepin, and I stuck the frames to the baked chips, popped them in the oven and baked again. Easy-Peasy.

Gifts for Giggles

On Saturday my friend Jennifer is getting married and I'm so excited for her. Her Hubby-to-be seems so nice. And after getting 6 much duplicated but still very appreciated crock pots (which I use constantly) at my shower, I vowed to always give a personal gift for showers from here on out. So here is the result of what I came up with for her. She's an interior designer, thus the paint strip and fabric swatches. Her little Grace is a big part of her life and couldn't be left out, along with her favorite color yellow. Steve gave her a rose on the first date, so I tried to add that too, along with the words to a favorite song. I was going for mondo-kitch here, and think maybe it works. And I had so much fun making it, that I don't even care if it ends up in the back of the attic!

Good companies

I do believe in sharing the names of those companies who have done me RIGHT!
The latest company I've caught being good is DELL. Here's the quick scoop on what they did-
A couple of weeks ago, one of the guys who works for us was robbed. His company laptop was stolen and we reported it to the police, and notified Dell. Dell was able to track it's location, and notified the police as to it's whereabouts. The police went in and caught the guy RED-handed. He had 17 stolen laptops that he was wiping the hard drives and selling them on e-bay. Wha-hoo score one for the good guys!

The Auction

In an effort to continue to have a creative home, Mike and I decided it was time to get new couches for the great room. Since my Mom is an awesome interior designer, we asked for her input. She had already spotted a promising auction in the paper, so we headed to that yesterday afternoon. We got there and fell in love with the masterbedroom set, but figured that there were so many people there that we would never be able to get it for our budget. We also liked the couch and loveseat (which looked like new), and set between us an agreed upon price of not more than a 400$ bid.

My Mom might be short, but boy is she mighty at an auction! Not only did she get us the couch and loveseat for our $400, but she also won the entire 7 piece Master bedroom Suite! Way to go Mom! She and my dad gave us the suite for an early Christmas present. An odd twist of fate was that it was my 6th grade teacher's auction! He and his wife were leaving for Florida to live permanently, and just wanted to get rid of everything quickly. They only got married a couple of years ago, and then bought this furniture. They moved down to Florida shortly afterward, and have barely used it. So when I tell you this was only used by a little old couple for a couple of months-IT'S TRUE!

So yesterday was gobbled up by transporting furniture from one house to another, and then moving it into position. Tonight, it's more moving into place and transferring stuff in drawers. Then on to the decorating!

Welcome one and all!

Well here goes. I'm jumping into blogland head on- I'm sure it will be a learning experience if nothing else. If you're reading this, welcome welcome welcome. If no one is reading this, Helloooo Dear Diary. As I continue on this path, I hope it'll encourage you, but at the very least, it'll focus me. You are now my accountability partners for art. To continue my quest to enjoy it, make it, celebrate it, and live it! Welcome Welcome Welcome!