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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Garage Sale FINDS!!!!

On Sunday we hit the road thinking we'd just go to a few garage sales. I was looking for baseball trading card pages for my ATC collection. What I found at just one garage sale for a whole $2 total is the following: Tell me if you don't see the inspiration for a quilted art hanging in this artists work for me in my future! "The artist is Friedrich Stowasser, born in Vienna in 1928, calls himself Hundertwasser Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt."... the blurb of the book goes on to say "True to the colorful variety of his names, he has pursued many activities as a painter, architect and ecologist, and as "one who awakens identities." I first saw this book several months ago on a weekend jaunt we took to Point Reyes, CA in a book store. I was quite taken by it but the price was too much at that time. To find it today and have it included with the other art supplies I also found at the same sale, well let's just say it was a GIFT! See, Teri C., THIS is WHY I GO! I stumbled across this full tablet of tracing paper, a not yet opened package of Collage Papers (value $8 at Wal-Mart, I checked it out later); an unused Monet Sketchbook with nice quality art paper! I loved this box. It's a pull out drawer and it's deep, great for storing lots of art supplies. Great condition, and I loved the art different on all sides! Also there, waiting for me to stuff them into a bag to take home were these full bottles of glitter glue that can be for grand kids crafts or Grandma's art! A terrific spool of nicely textured off-white twine, and this funky purple glittery fabric. I got it home to find it was a pair of pants someone had made probably for a costume. I see it cut up for all sorts of other arty things. Oh yes, and a bag of assorted buttons. So Two (2) $$ dollars poorer I came home with this bag stuffed full of goodies. The baseball trading card pages for ATCs? I found them at Wal-Mart in the baseball card section near the cash registers. Had to pay full price! OH well, worth the looking!

House Hold Chores = Gratefulness; 1/3rd of 1st sketchbook page

This is one third of a three part first page of my "Girlfriends" sketchbook, I'll be finishing up and sending on to the next artist of the ten of us to add to. I used hand dyed ribbon, felt, and wool roving, which I machine felted to black craft felt. Then I used embroidery floss and metallic threads to hand sew around the fabrics. Size: 9" X 6" I spent a good deal of yesterday doing house hold tasks. One of which was cleaning my refrigerator. One part of this was me sitting on the kitchen floor trying to put all the clean parts back together, finding I had this one long metal bar that only seemed to fit in one spot but once there the crisper drawers did not slide past it. Try as I might to position it in different ways I could not get it where it might belong. I swore, I laughed, I finally gave up and laid it on the bottom floor of the fridge till someone less spatially challenged than myself came along to fix it for me. And after doing the grocery shopping, something my DH normally does, but he is under the weather with exhaustion this weekend, I came home to put the food away and I became so very much aware of what abundance we have. I thought of saving this for what some are calling "Grateful Thursday"...but decided to post it today. There is so much poverty in our world, so many people living on the streets, going hungry... I just realized how fortunate we are to have a fridge to fill with food.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Announcing NEW BLOG for ATC TRADING

Find my ATCs for TRADE at this NEWLY SET UP BLOG: http://lynn-atcs.blogspot.com Sign up to be a follower there to stay up with my production of Artist Trading Cards. Are we having fun yet? ;~)

Sketch Book Cover is DONE!

Okay, I've taken on another challenge! Katey of "Kate's Corner" (see her blog in my side bar and visit to watch the progression of ten books being made by ten artists in a round robin fashion so that we each will wind up with a book with our own art on page one, and each of the other nine artists on the nine pages there after! The first step was to make a cover for our own book, which we will keep at home until our book comes back to us (nine artist pages richer) in however long that takes... My cover is made on a piece of black foam board. It is 9" across and 6" tall. I used ribbons by Vivian that I got from her ETSY store to embellish it. The central piece I machine felted using lace, ribbons, wool roving, felt scraps, thread nest, cotton fabric, and silver twine! I hung a silver metal sign from that that says "CREATE" on it. Something I picked up from Susan Steins' Quilt Shop in Minnesota last summer. I hand stitched some silver metallic threads to match the silver twine across the top. And I love it! My Cover!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

More Snail Mail ATCs from Wonderful Artist Friends

Getting snail mail now is fun, fun, fun. Today I got FOUR envelopes full of AWESOME ART and ATCs!!!! Lisa is in the ABC ATC Challenge group and this is the "B" ATC she made for me: "Bruce's Popcorn". Love it Lisa. This next group came from Kathy W. The butterfly ATC is made from real rose petals. So delicate and special. Thanks Kathy!!! She did the terrific collage on her card as well! Next I opened Kitties from Teri C. Oh they are so cute!!! Three little kittens with button eyes, stripes, flowers and zentangle shapes! And an itty bitty cactus card with Teri's signature watercolor cacti on it.Thank you Teri. Last but not least I opened Mim's envelope and out popped Ms Em "Looking Up". So quizzical. And a Ms Em under a wreath of leaves on the little envelope holding another collaged ATC on a wonderfully painted textured card. Thank you Mim. I love them all. And a separate larger card with a self portrait perhaps? Mim? Lovely!!!! I am ever so lucky to know so many very very talented artist friends who are so very generous with sharing/trading their art with me.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Animal Wednesday Sending You A Big Bear Hug!

This first interactive ATC BEAR is giving you a big bear hug! Photos 2 and 3 are the same bear...He is up for grabs/trade! This furry bear ATC went to Mim in the ABC group! He is "B is for Bear!" Made from wool roving and machine felted on craft felt. With fancy machine stitches for border.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Happy Blooming Tuesday

Happy Blooming Tuesday...The US contingent should be coming down from a three day weekend...and ready to return to work or otherwise "normal life"...not sure if the "Abroad" Group had anything different going on this past weekend or not...but welcome to the regular week and how better to start it than with some pretty flowers and three ATCs s for trade? ATCs #1: Water Color Yellow Flower... #2: Stamped "Don't Fence Me In" #3: Watercolor orange flower

Monday, May 25, 2009

Happy Cacti; She's Done! Sunflower Shines With Embellishments. A few extras including a MEME from SB!

My dear cousin Judy is responsible for growing these amazing cacti in her garden. She said the blooms last about a day and come once a year! Don't blink! HCM And Thanks Judy. The Sunflower competition calls the packets of sunflower seeds they sell for charity after the winning art for the packet is chosen Seeds of Hope. I have added seeds of hope to mine in the form of the brown and off white buttons in various sizes. Some small ones on the flower center itself and the rest you see around the inner border. I hope you can see the detail of stitching from these photos as well. (click to see) They were taken outdoors in bright sun and might mute the brilliancy of color just a tad. I feel very good about her, and need only to add her hanging sleeve and story. I'll take her to the art gallery in Davis on Friday next. So excited about branching out to a new area and group. I so appreciate all the kudos you have already given her and me. You make it all the more fun for it! THANK YOU!!!! ************************************************************************************ Yesterday was the 19th birthday of my first grandchild. Mikiah lives in Oregon on his own now, with his girlfriend. He is the son of my son, my first born. He's a sweet guy. I look forward to seeing that family in July when we wind our way home on a long road trip cross country. Happy Birthday Mikiah! ************************************************************************************* One more thing: I spent all of yesterday cleaning up my messes in my art studio (family room); kitchen (part art studio too); desk, oh so good to see wood again; and living room where I create art on the couch. (I added a little plastic chest of drawers for my stamp carving equipment, stamp pads, watercolors, colored pencils and sketch books. I feel so organized. I'm afraid to start anything new lest I make another huge mess again. LOL I just want to enjoy the neatness for a bit. Crazy me! ************************************************************************************ Soul Brush sent me a Meme who got it from Gina... Here goes: 1. What are your current obsessions? Oy, do we have enough time? ATCs of course, making stamps cut from eraser like material/Styrofoam; making art quilts; entering art shows; reading blogs and leaving comments. 2. What am I listening to: Not much, I have left my hearing aides out all day long, so there is a slight muffled sound coming from the TV in the living room, but I can't make out what is being said, nor do I care. 3. Which item from your wardrobe do you wear most often? Underpants, but I do change them daily. 4. What are you reading? Nothing right now. I recently finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and I am still in tears worrying about the characters. I can't get into anything until my grieving period ends. It's the best book I have read in ages. Maybe ever. Really. 5. What's for lunch? Why, do you want to come over? Today I grazed...some low fat cottage cheese, some almonds and walnuts, water...I think that's it. I was too busy to eat much. 6. What was the last thing I bought? This really amazing piece of eraser like material from the art store for carving stamps from. And some ink pads from Wal-Mart that I'm taking back. They are not inky enough. I got what I paid for. The more expensive ones from the art store are VERY inky! I need more of those. I also had to replace our counter top convection oven/broiler, as the door on ours broke. They aren't expensive so it wasn't hard to do. We never use the big range for the two of us. Just this little thing. Works great. 7. Guilty pleasure? I don't believe in guilt. And I haven't suffered any lately. Darn. I guess I am not having as much fun as I thought I was. 8. Sum myself up in a sentence. I am one happy, blessed, lucky, human being! 9. What's your best time of day? Waking up in the morning and getting ready for my day...checking my blog...reading comments, email, connecting with the world and looking forward to what I am going to do with this chance I've been given for one more day! 10. What's your greatest wish? To live as long as I can, as healthy as I can, and to love, and be loved. It's what it's all about for me. 11. What's your favorite way to create art? In my zone...half in and half out of body, allowing my unconscious to unfold without giving it much thought, but following this flow that happens and watch and enjoy the process. Now the rules: Answer the questions on your own blog. Replace one question. Add one question. Tag some people. Enjoy. (I added that)! ;~) Oh, I tag: Elspeth Kelly Cris Mim Marianne Karen S. Sylvain

Sunday, May 24, 2009

New ATCs for Trade; Wild Life; And Cris' Marvelous ATCS Arrive!

Remember the stamped Sunflower on my latest art quilt? Well this is an extra piece of stamped fabric and the top photo is the back of the ATC...[Goes to SoulBrush] And this is the front of same ATC...It is cotton, top sewn free motion on stamped fabric! Then I got busy on my felting machine using scraps from fabric, ribbons and threads found around my machines felting them onto pieces of craft felt. No backings on these, so they are light weight and flexible. Some are even 3 dimensional. Felted Abstract #1 [Goes to Lolo] Felted Abstract #2 Felted Abstract #3 [Goes to Teri C.] Felted Abstract #4 All four together: If you are interested in a trade please say so and email me your snail mail address if you haven't traded with me before. If you have I have your address already. (lynnc66@comcast.net...put ATC TRADE in your subject, thanks!) I couldn't believe the squirrel stood still long enough for me to capture both he and the owl in the same shot! Owl poses alone...thanks Owl.. And last but not least, Cris, Artist in Oregon's ATCs arrived yesterday! I love them both butterfly on pink cone flower... and climbing roses in front of a window. They are so well done, thank you Cris...they hold a place of honor in my ATC collection!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Sunflower Art Competition, Sunflower Art Quilt Almost done; Playing with Stamps

Last Saturday, while thrift shopping at Right and Relevant, I picked up this post card announcing an art competition and art show in Davis in June. The goal is to support the Mental Health Alliance in Yolo county...a neighboring county to ours. One can make any sort of art but it must have a sunflower as part of it. Could I make an art quilt in time to enter it on Friday, May 29th two weeks hence from then? I came home and got right to work. I already showed you the sunflower I made using both my felting machine (felt, cotton and wool roving)and my sewing machine (top sewing). Since then I have added some more top free motion sewing/thread painting its called to the area around the sunflower. And Thursday night after work I came home and stamped torn strips of some great orange fabric I had in my stash (also from a thrift store) using the sunflower I cut from the piece of Styrofoam and my green and turquoise ink pads. I also added a narrow border or darker red/orange that was left over from the very first quilt I made in my very first quilt class (July 2007). On Friday I got up early and pinned the borders to the sunflower and sewed them in place. It is almost finished. I am adding some seed beads to the very center of the flower and seed like beads (browns and off white) around the quilt on top of the red border. I'll show it all finished as soon as I sew on two more sides of beads. I think the brown beads set off all the orange. If you care to see the details of the stitches click on the photos. And finally, this is my little collection of handmade (by me) stamps I have carved out of that piece of Styrofoam and various sizes and types of erasers using an exacto knife. Am I having fun yet? You bet I am!!! I wish you all a fun filled weekend.