Valentine Charm Swap Loot

Just popping in for a moment, thought maybe you would like to see the results of the Valentines Charm Swap I hostessed recently on two yahoo groups. Wonderful artists from around the world participated, and it was so much fun! (Oh- and my contribution were the clay and glass bubble charms like I gave away for the OWOH giveaway, pictured below.)

Garage sale challenge

I hostessed a swap recently that was called the Garage Sale Challenge Fatbook. The artists had all summer to peruse garage sales, flea markets and dollar stores to find their materials. Anything already in their studio was fair game and could be used to create with as well.

I was excited to see the creative and resourceful pages they each came up with.

For the first set of pages I did, I spent a whopping 10 cents for a misc. baggie of sequins, beads and confetti. I love the shaker effect the little window makes. I used cancelled postage stamps, old pages from a book, a scrap of fun foam run thru my xyron, and scraps of scrapbooking papers. I traced the image on deli paper from one of my sketchbooks, and painted and watercolor penciled for softness.

The second set of pages were leftover pages from a book, that I had used to test out different colors of paint on. I then used rubber stamps and several layers of paint. More stamps, and a couple different layers of color misters, and sparkle misters. I had the butterflies left over from a class I taught earlier in the year.

Neither page was any great work of art, but it helped me to look thru things I already had with a new appreciation.

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.

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.