Hello, Friend - Rooster Greeting Card

Hello, hello!  I hope you're having a good week.  I spent all of yesterday with my mom and a friend of hers who is visiting from out of state.  We took a short road trip to a neighboring county which has numerous boutiques and antique shops in and around a small town with a substantial Amish community.  At the "English" owned shops, I found a few vintage paper and alterable items to use in artwork.  At the Amish grocery store, I stocked up on things like basmati rice, couscous, and spices, as they charge much less for them than our local grocery stores do.

Sisters' Garden outside Kalona, Iowa

Being in a rural area, we saw a lot of rooster and chicken decorative items (both new and antique).  This made us think of another friend of my mom's, who is decorating her new kitchen with roosters.  My mom texted her several photos of things to ask if she was interested in any of them (some rather jokingly, like a large rooster cut out of sheet metal which was displayed on the door of a former outhouse!).  And thus roosters became the unexpected theme of the day; so much so that I ended up buying her something rooster-related at one particular store.  I think she will appreciate some unexpected happy mail, as her husband was diagnosed with cancer in the spring and their entire summer has been spent "doctoring."

To accompany her gift I created this card featuring, what else, a rooster!  I used a variety of patterned papers from my stash that go with the color scheme of her kitchen.  The rooster from Oxford Impressions was stamped on vanilla cardstock and colored with Prismacolor pencils and distress inks.  The sentiment is from Red Lead Paperworks.

I'll leave you with more photos from our day trip.

My mom and her friend at Sisters' Garden

My beautiful mom

A fall vignette at Sisters' Garden

Have you ever seen so many old wash tubs in one place?  They mostly held potpourri and other dry goods for decorating.  Iowa Farmhouse and Barntiques outside Iowa City

Iowa Farmhouse and Barntiques

Iowa Farmhouse and Barntiques

Thanks for popping in! 

Supplies:
Red cardstock from Stampin' Up; miscellaneous patterned papers from my stash; very vanilla cardstock from Stampin' Up; rooster from Oxford Impressions; sentiment from Red Lead Paperworks; splatter background stamp by All Night Media; Ranger Archival black ink; Prismacolor Premier pencils; odorless mineral spirits; antique linen and vintage photo distress ink; round and scalloped round dies by Sizzix; oval and scalloped oval punches from Stampin' Up; border punch by Martha Stewart; pop-dots.

March to the "Beet" of Your Own Drum - Mini Moleskin Journal Page

The best thing to do after a long hiatus is to simply jump in with gusto, so without further ado I will share with you the collage I created at last week's Art Journal Junkies Hangout at our local library.

This collage is in a mini (3.5 x 5.5 inch) Moleskin and features vintage book text and sheet music, an illustration from a "Big Dollar Stamps" book, and some S&H green stamps.  The beet was cut from a 1970s gardening book, and I selected the postage stamps to color coordinate with the beet.  The only non-vintage item on this two-page spread is the dark ocher washi tape.  I decided not to add any wet media, so this collage is what I call glue-book style.

I'll be honest; I've struggled to find my niche when it comes to art journaling.  But I think I've had a revelation.  Spending five weeks at another person's house this summer with limited art supplies taught me that I don't need to have my entire stash of ephemera, rubber stamps, inks, paints, stencils, pens, whatever.  I don't need (or desire) a ginormous art journal in which to experiment with the newest product or to practice the latest technique flooding the internet.  And finally, I don't want to write any deep thoughts on my art journal pages!  That is just not me.  This mini Moleskin, my beloved vintage ephemera, and some simple adhesives are all I really need to express myself and, more importantly, enjoy myself.  I'm just going to march to the beat of my own drum and see how things go.

Whew!  It feels so good to get this first blog post out of the way.  In time, I'll work backward and get caught up on sharing the things I created this summer while I was away from home.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a fabulous day.

Those Whom We Have Loved

The mother of one of my best friends from high school and college has passed away.  She had Alzheimer's and has been slowly slipping away over the past six years.  It's such a cruel disease and so hard on the person's family and friends.  So this weekend I've been making sympathy cards to send to my friend, his brother, and his mom's best friend and long-time neighbor.

Because it's easier to make sympathy cards for women, I started with this one for his mom's friend.  I think she will like the soft colors.  The stamps are all from Stampin' Up.  I stamped the large flower twice and trimmed away the outer petals from one of them in order to create a layered effect.  The Anna Griffin embossing folder used for the white layer is called Rosa.

Thanks for popping in.

Supplies:
Purple and lavender cardstock; whisper white cardstock from Stampin' Up; rubber stamps from Stampin' Up; mowed lawn and seedless preserves distress ink; Ranger Archival black ink; clear embossing powder; Anna Griffin embossing folder; oval and scalloped oval Nestabilities by Spellbinders; corner rounder punch; pop-dot.

Fly Little Bird

I created this card to send to someone very dear to me who has been going through some trying times.  And I'm sure you'll forgive me for not writing much today, since I'm not feeling too chipper myself.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

1901 Natural Geography - Vintage Mixed Media Collages

I don't think I've mentioned that I served on the advisory board for a local juried arts festival this spring.  That sounds more impressive than it really was, trust me.  Except for one night when we had to stuff packets for the artists, our monthly "meetings" were basically cocktail parties.  Most of the work is done by a full-time director, and the jurors were folks with genuine art credentials (one has a PhD. in art history and is an associate museum curator).  It wasn't until the day of the festival that I did any real work, and that simply involved staffing an information table, selling t-shirts, and playing cowbell in the Awards Committee Band.  Overall, it was a wonderful experience.  I met some great people and learned a lot about modern art and staging an arts festival.

This year's festival presented two major challenges.  First, the weather.  The festival is outdoors in a park, and it rained.  And rained.  And rained.  To say it was muddy is an understatement.  Second, just five days before the festival, our director "took a header" down the steps of her two-story home and seriously injured her shoulder.  Her husband and more experienced board members had to jump in to fill her shoes in those final days before the festival and on the big day itself, as she was forced to remain in bed.

From the Ganges

Which finally brings me to the topic of this post!  I wanted to create a special get well missive for our director as she faces surgery and physical therapy.  Since she appreciates original art, I set out to create a vintage mixed media collage in my style.  My substrate was a piece of watercolor paper (3.25 x 4.50 inches) painted with gesso.  After it was dry, I created my background by collaging and "de-collaging" various vintage book papers and sheet music.  For an explanation and demonstration of this process, please watch the video in this blog post by Caterina Giglio.

From the Ganges (closeup)

Once I had the papers the way I wanted, I dry-brushed the entire background with titanium white acrylic paint (any inexpensive brand from the craft store will do), lightly stippled on peeled paint distress ink, and dry-brushed on a little more titanium white.  My Ganges fellow was taken from a 1901 natural geography textbook that belonged to my great-grandfather.  He was adhered to the background using matte gel medium, along with a vintage Indian postage stamp from my stash.

Natives of Kaffraria

Since I had so much fun creating one collage, I made two more using other images from the natural geography textbook.  I used the same background technique but chose other distress inks (dusty concord for Natives of Kaffraria, above; barn door for Shanghai Soles, below) to complement the color of the postage stamps used on each collage.  I was darn lucky to find a vintage Chinese postage stamp in my stash--I'll save that story for another post.

Shanghai Soles

One thing you may notice about each collage is the one tattered edge.  Nothing makes my heart sing more than vintage sheet music, and even the lovely tattered edges deserve to be showcased.  You just have to be careful when working with them, as old sheet music is pretty delicate.

Each collage was sprayed with matte acrylic sealant and temporarily attached to a piece of heavy black cardstock for the purpose of this blog post.  I haven't decided yet what they will be adhered to permanently; perhaps a piece of presentation board?

Thanks so much for visiting my blog!

Supplies:
Strathmore 140 lb cold press watercolor paper; Golden white gesso; vintage book pages, sheet music and postage stamps; titanium white acrylic paint; peeled paint, dusty concord and barn door distress ink; Golden matte gel medium; Krylon matte acrylic spray sealant.

Little Boys - Altered Envelope

Now that my altered envie partner for May has received her envelope, I can share it with you here.   I returned to my roots and created a mixed media collage using a combination of old and new items from my stash.

I started with a "yard sale-bought" (as opposed to "store-bought") envelope.  A relative found a box of 250 Georgia-Pacific envelopes at a yard sale for the bargain-basement price of a quarter, and bought it for me.  The envelopes are good quality, but I inserted a piece of lightweight cardstock inside in order to give it a little more heft.

The little boys on the front were a postcard-sized piece of clipart I received with one of my Somerset Studio magazines.  I cut away some of the background so I could create my own using a vintage music lesson, washi tape, and patterned papers from my scrap folders.   To blend all of the papers together, I first dry-brushed white acrylic paint across all of them and then dabbed on pumice stone distress ink using a stipple brush.  The yardstick and alphabet images are stencils by Tim Holtz.  I also used a piece of punchinella (aka sequin waste) to stencil on the small, solid circles.  The larger, open orange circles are acrylic paint stamped on using the end of an old plastic hair roller.  I dry-brushed more white acrylic paint on top to age the orange paint a little.

On the back, I adhered a piece of sheet music from a small vintage music textbook.  The paper boy from Artistic Outpost was stamped on tissue paper and adhered with matte gel medium.  I sponged mowed lawn distress ink around the edges and added the same stenciling that I used on the front.  Because distress inks are water soluble, I sprayed both sides with an acrylic spray sealant before mailing (and before adhering the postage stamp).

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great weekend.

Supplies:
Georgia-Pacific A6 ivory envelope; little boy photo clipart from Stampington and Company; miscellaneous patterned paper scraps from my stash; vintage sheet music; washi tape; Fig. 5 rub-on; titanium white acrylic paint; orange acrylic paint; pumice stone, mowed lawn and rusty hinge distress ink; Adirondack black ink; white Gelly Roll pen; orange fine tip Sharpie; paperboy rubber stamp image from Artistic Outpost; yardstick and alphabet stencils by Tim Holtz; punchinella scrap; Derwent medium charcoal pencil; splatter background stamp by All Night Media; authentic mail art stamp from Red Lead Paperworks.

Simply Wonderful Mother's Day

We've been so busy around here that the word for Mother's Day was "simple."  We had a simple dinner of roast turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy, and vegetables.  I made a clean and simple card using patterned papers by Simple Stories and a "simply wonderful" stamp from Stampin' Up.

All in all, it was a simply wonderful day.  I hope yours was, too! Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies:
Yellow Swiss dot cardstock by Bazzill; naturals white cardstock from Stampin' Up; patterned papers  by Simple Stories; sentiment from Stampin' Up; Versamark ink; black detail embossing powder; oval, scalloped oval, and label Nestabilities by Spellbinders; Martha Stewart butterfly and border punch; corner rounder punch; rhinestone stickers; pop-dots.