Walks, Flowers and Art Journaling

Dana-bo-Baynah will be 8 on Friday!!! Just love this special pup and am looking forward to toasting her with a special bottle of wine we've been saving for a great occasion like this.  My SIL bought us a bottle from Real Dogs Wine.

My furry child and I have really been enjoying our walks (and long talks) around the neighborhood.  When we first moved here, I walked her in the cemetery up the road and took a lot of interesting pictures.  In recent months, we have found a great route using the sidewalks in the blocks immediately around our house and since the first buds of Spring, I've been taking pictures of the neighbor's flowers.  So nice of them to plant right next to the sidewalk so I don't have to feel like a stalker and climb into their yards.

Some of these are printed and ready to go into art journal entries.  Although I've been art journaling in one form or another for several years, I have been on a role lately as I am thinking a lot about my upcoming Art Journaling Workshop at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.  Lots of art love going on here!

If you art journal, what are your favorite prompts?

Card for Baby J

copyright 2011 Narah Kimberly A. Minardi All Rights Reserved

This is a card I made for my college roomie who's having a baby soon.  I seem to make Love the central idea in baby cards because I've not known greater love than for my babies and am happy for my friends and other loved ones who are about to experience the same.  (P.S. A decided I should add the string and I think it's a wonderful addition. :)

Creepy Relatives 2

Copyright 2011 Narah Kimberly A. Minardi All rights reserved.

My second piece for the Creepy Relatives swap.  This one was fairly straightforward also: another background using artists' paper from Somerset Studio (an Alice in Wonderland theme, forget the exact name), distressed, a vintage photo print, handmade collage paper, computer generated text and staples on card stock cut to 6" X 4".  

Creepy Relatives

copyright 2011 Narah Kimberly A. Minardi  All rights reserved.

Another swap group I joined- Everything But ATC's, had a "Creepy Relatives" swap and this is one of the pieces I created for it.  Halloween is at the top of my obsessions list, especially right now, so a creepy swap was right up my ally.  Of course, I also appreciated that we were supposed to add some funny text too.  :)

I kept it pretty simple for this one: some artist paper from Somerset Studio (New York Banker) which I distressed, a photo print from my antique collection, computer generated text and some metal beads.

Hope you enjoy!

Anyone else moving into Halloween high gear? :)

Glitter Witch

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Photos*]

Altered Photo copyright 2010 Narah Kimberly Minardi. All Rights Reserved.

This is a vintage photo I altered.  Glitter effect by above link.

Happy Thursday!! 

:)

Painting Small Cuties

Just signed up for this workshop with Suzi Blu and I am sooooooo excited!!!! What fun!!  Stay tuned for Angelo and Dana paintings!! :)

Oh, and in other news, I am now over 5,000 page views on this blog!! Yes, really!! How exciting!!  Do you think it's time for a give-away to celebrate?  If you do, comment below and tell me if it should be a belly dance DVD or a set of collaged cards.

Have a great day!! :)

Fun Collage Project

This looks like such a fun project!  Traci's book, Collage Unleashed, was one of the first books I got when I decided to look further into visual arts, and found it so exciting!  The crayon cupcakes mentioned here, the corrosponding wax abstracts, and some monoprints in my stash were inspired by her book and so was the above dyed paper towel.  Maybe they'll end up on a journal cover! :) (My Naturopath Dr. recommended journaling, as did a medium I saw in August.  Something I did a lot more of in the past and obviously should do now...)

Please let me know if you try this project!  You can comment below or email me.  (I'm tricking those darn bots and directing you to my website for my email address.  Much less spam that way. :)

Have a great weekend!

Paper Cloth

 Image Copyright 2011 Narah Kimberly A. Minardi All Rights Reserved

 Image Copyright 2011 Narah Kimberly A. Minardi All Rights Reserved

 Image Copyright 2011 Narah Kimberly A. Minardi All Rights Reserved

Image Copyright 2011 Narah Kimberly A. Minardi All Rights Reserved

This is paper cloth.  Kelli Perkins, author of "Stitch Alchemy" developed this method of gluing tissue paper, bits of paper to fabric; adding paint, ink and stitch to cloth.  The end product can then be stitched up into a bag or pillow or hopefully a tiny dress.  That's the plan I have for at least some of this paper cloth I made.  After eyeing it for years, finally this book made it into my collection thanks to a damaged book sale.  Wow, is it inspiring!  Kelli's method of explaining is totally meshing with how I'm operating right now;  not so many recipes and explicit directions, but plenty of examples and suggestions.  If you are brand new to mixed media and don't know how some of the materials work or where to get them and want more concrete directions, this may not be the book to start with, but definitely add it to your list for later on.  If you know some basics and want major inspiration, I highly recommend it right now!

(BTW, the "ingredients" in my paper cloth are: muslin, watered down tacky glue, pattern tissue, antique book pages, other book pages, Eco paint [tomato red= pink and pumpkin] mixed with gel medium, scraped Ranger Rainbow ink, sprayed mica ink, gesso stamped with a plastic bottle cap and machine stitching. So fun to play with!!!) 

Art Selling Experience

Not a suburb picture, but I wanted to share my table with you from the Spirit Fair at Sterling Yoga.  Lots of thinking and planning went into this little table.  A couple of Angels even came by the night before and helped me finish up the trimming, tagging, sleeving and set up run-through.  Really, if my new friends (I'll explain in a minute) Michael and *Michaela had not come to my rescue, I would have been selling my art for the first time on only a few hours of sleep... and me on a few hours of sleep can mean seriously bad things.

A friend of ours came to visit on Saturday- Bill. Bill has many friends and went to see some at an SCA event on Saturday.  Michael and Michaela, who are book binders, joined us back at the house.  Yes, that's right; two people who had never been to our house, one of whom I'd never met, and who know paper and truly understand the artistic process (including selling said art), paid a visit the night I was working every possible minute to get my wares ready for my first art vending experience.  They generously helped me finish so I could go to bed hours earlier than I would have been able to doing it all by myself.  Plus, we got to talk about art!! I have to give a big THANK YOU to the Universe for that!!

BTW, I just love what *Michaela does with her photography- specializing in celebrating and honoring the beauty in all people, regardless of whether they fit the "standard" model of beauty. 

My collage sheets are re-listed in my Etsy shop. Once I get the rest of the cards, journals and jewelry scanned/photoed, they will be up there too. There are some fairies (both elegant and adorable), beautiful mermaids and inspiring Deities just waiting for you.  Only a few of our belly dance instructional DVD's are left, but several of the performance DVD's are still in stock.  Does anyone know if I would be allowed to list those on Etsy since I did all the pre-production work, some of the filming and assisted in editing?  My husband did the rest of the technical work and he's not listed on my store... not sure if I can add him now.  My sister is also featured in two videos and my students in the other.

Also, you may have noticed that the blog has a new name: Vinegar and Glitter!!  I'm super excited about the personalization, and have a new website, which is far from finished, that will help people find me on my major websites.

Happy Monday!

Art Full Life

I am pretty sure someone has that blog name out there. All the good ones are taken. But, this isn't about my blog name, it is about what is building here for me. Oh, I made art, sewed, belly danced, taught belly dance, and tried incorporating as much creative activity into Angelo's activities before, but now ... now it is different.

Now, I am getting to _take_ belly dance classes with Maria Hamer, a friend of mine of the Zafira Dance Company. I was nervous about starting classes after not having had the opportunity to take a weekly class for so, so long... more than a decade. (I was also nervous about the drive over, but that's part of living in a new, big city.) But, it felt so good to dance and know I was going to see friends, and so good afterwards to have worked so hard in even a beginner class!! It felt so good knowing I'd be back the next day for her belly dance workout class, which was _completely_ awesome! Both nights, I was entirely overwhelmed with happiness! I was struck with the realization that I've wanted to be a _part_ of a community again for so long and to just participate and enjoy the dance. I in no way intend to offend anyone from the communities I helped form previously. I learned so much in that process and met wonderful people. However, it is a much different experience not having the weight of all that responsibility on your shoulders. I have simplified, just as I set out to do. I have radically simplified- a very Scorpio thing to do- and now I can *be*. I feel like I am, for now and in the foreseeable future done with any ambitions or goals other than to enjoy belly dancing. It has been so wonderful to be able to go to a performance or class [that I've taken] and then only drive 20 minutes home. Not 90 minutes late at night after having spent 90 minutes to 2 hours getting there, spending all day dancing and figuring out how I'm going to get food, etc. Twenty minutes! Easy peasy. Wow! I feel so blessed!!! Not just for the convenience of it, either. My friend Maria is an amazingly talented and dedicated individual, kind and a wonderful teacher. Oh, and world famous. That too. :)

On Sunday, I did drive an hour and a half to do a paid gig in Farmington, PA. But, it has allowed me to be able to pay for belly dance classes and buy some museum memberships. So, belly dance can still pay some bills. :)

Angelo has been enjoying much more creative activity too. He is loving the "book and card/toy room", as he calls it. It is his room that he will one day sleep in, and for now serves as a play room. His easel with chalkboard is set up with side walk chalk, his table is set up with stickers and paper in his room. The dining room is a secondary playroom as well since, as we Moms know, most of the day revolves around food in one way or another. He has his play dough, crayons and paper roll always out on the table and voluntarily goes to these over and over. We have also had more coloring/drawing/reading time due to the house being set up so much better than the other. (The laundry room and a bathroom are _right_off the kitchen. And the kitchen- I never knew what a difference a good set up could make. *Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Universe!!!*)

As if that weren't enough, I've made some mixed media collages lately too. Did I mention how the new, wonderful house-that-I-love functions so much better than the other house? Or was that just on Face Book? So all that better functioning allows our days to flow better and I've pulled down some simple supplies to keep in the kitchen so I can set up food and water for the kids, do a step for art, put in some laundry, do a step for art, fix my own breakfast, do a step, etc. And here is what I've completed so far. If you look closely, you'll see some old Trig homework of mine I found unpacking our "library".

Images from Somerset Studio's clip art and Tim Holtz stamps.

Images from Tim Holtz stamps, Art Chix Studio (My Gypsy Heart) and Somerset Studio's and clip art. Got the idea to make the fabric flower from Shona's post on Green Craft magazine.

Images from Art Chix Studio (My Gypsy Heart) and Somerset Studio's artists' papers and clip art.

Images from Somerset Studio's artists' papers and clip art.

We are even still unpacking since we moved only 3 weeks ago. What a good move! Here's to hoping your days are Art Filled also!!!

Holiday Art

This first piece of art was a last minute Halloween crown. I just felt I needed one. Angelo is modeling it here since it's adjustable and he is such a cute model. :) I made more Halloween art, but will post it later, maybe.

This piece, I made a long time ago when the free to print company www.ilovetoinspire.com asked me to do some collages using their materials. I used a quote and background from their site and cut it out in the shape of a house. The quote says "In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy." It surfaced a few days before Thanksgiving and I thought it was pretty appropriate to have it out to go with the theme of the day, especially with the house image.

The set of Christmas houses was for a blog challenge over at Art Chix Studios. I used their mini wooden houses, vintage letters background, Christmas fun images and Christmas post image. The challenge was to use their baroque trim in a holiday art project and the stars and medieval borders worked out nicely for this project. If you like it, pop on over to the Art Chix fan page and comment. It is a contest and I could win a $20 gift certificate for more Art Chix art supplies! Please, feed my addiction! :)

Hold True to the Dreams of Thy Youth

I added this picture to my Etsy listing for Vintage/Antique boy images. It was something I started in the collage workshop I taught in Charleston and finished later.

Crayon Cupcakes

I posted these pictures on Face Book also. Anyone who commented on them digitally or in person assumed I made them for Angelo, which makes sense, especially since we've been doing a lot of projects recently. However, they are for me and my mixed media art! :) Melt them on a craft/travel iron (no holes) and then smear on card stock to create a background! (Wipe off while hot to clean iron.)

Angelo did help me with them. He peeled off the papers and broke some of the crayons for me. I'm surprised we didn't have enough already broken to use, so i guess we'll have to color a lot more! :) And Angelo will get his own too, don't worry. :)

Cut apart disposable muffin tin (you'll be able to use multiple times), round corners (especially if little ones are helping), put broken crayons and glitter in tins. Avoid putting all 3 primary colors together or you'll get some muddiness.

Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees. Put tins on cookie sheet and into oven. Let melt about 10-12 minutes. Do not move the tins and let cool in the oven. Pop out and you get these cool crayon cupcakes! I'm sure Angelo will love playing with his once I make him some too. :) I'm going to use mine at the Art Retreat!!!! I'm so excited!!! :)

Update:

Angelo got his own set!  He liked cutting them apart with his plastic Melissa and Doug scissors and the cut edge made a really cool surface to color with. :)

Let the Detox begin!

Now that Angelo has not nursed for 3 weeks +, I've started a gentle detox. Just some lemon juice in hot water in the morning, some Yogi detox tea (just picked it up yesterday, so on the second cup- yummy!), and cutting down on grains and dairy. Nothing major to report, but I'll keep you updated.

I'm also going to an art retreat in upstate NY!!! I'm soo sooo sooooooooo excited about this, I can't even begin to tell you. But, I'll try. It is in Greenville, NY in a rural Victorian inn with forest reserves and antique shops nearby. Besides as many art supplies as I can stuff into my two checked and 1 carry on bag will handle (I'll save a pocket for clothes and deoderant, but that's really not too important), I'm taking a journal to do plenty of writing (daily, which is plenty relative to what I do now) and a yoga mat, maybe even a blanket (though don't want to take up too much room so I can fit in more art supplies) so I can do yoga outside.

It is a self-directed retreat where breakfast, dinner and an afternoon snack are provided. They have converted the carriage house into the art studio. I think there are 13? 15? rooms, so I won't be crammed in there with a bunch of people. I'll be free to just make and make and make as much as I want!!! That will go reallllllly far with detoxing my mind and spirit.

I was nervous right after we booked it, of course, because it will be a whole week away from my babies and I've not been away by myself even overnight since before Angelo was born. But, I got over that and am just so so sooooo excited!!! I leave in less than a month!!!

Don't want to write too much now since Angelo is finally asleep and it's just me and the kids here until Friday when Eric gets home from Charleston. Lots of people out of the office and he was called in to cover. So, I'm going to take advantage of this time and glue some stuff! :)

Witch Shrine

When I showed my husband this finished piece, he said, "Who knew an innocent little fruit crate could turn into something so creepy?" :) Exactly!!! Painted the wooden clementine crate, ripped, stamped and inked some skull paper and reassembled into a background. More ripping and inking for the mat. I altered the antique photo myself. My friend Brynna (my friend Terri's daughter) gave me the skeleton. The shroud over the top is tea dyed cheese cloth. I made this last year some time.

Altered Book pages

These are the first pages I did in my altered book. Lots of painting and stamping with odd things. All the photos are from my own collection. I've done a lot since then and really love having a place where I can keep art all in one place and have backgrounds already painted and ready to go.

Lina Cavalieri "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World"

Lina Cavalieri, the subject of these two art pieces, was a cabaret singer, opera singer and silent film star at the turn of the century (1874-1944). She was born an orphan in Rome, ran away from the orphanage and started her career shortly after (after first taking a collection at a cafe). Known for her dramatic skills, her charm, generosity and especially her beauty, she was known as "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World".

Like the "coincidences" I noticed when I posted the Cleo ATC, I am struck by how many Italian themes that seem to be appearing in my life lately. Lina was from Rome. My family and I attended a party at a friend of ours last week, Monia (and her husband Daniel and children Matthew and Jasmine) who is Italian and her party was attended mostly by Italians. (We had a blast!! Everyone was so laid back, yet also fun and energetic.) When we turned on House Hunters International yesterday, an Irish couple was looking for a home in Italy. Lately I haven't been willing to watch HHI because they seem to all be American couples looking for vacation homes on islands. :P But, I decided to check it out yesterday and was treated to beautiful scenery. And today, I look up Lina and find she is also Italian. OK, so not as many coincidences and maybe not as strong a connection as when I posted the Cleo ATC, but still striking to me. Maybe it's also because we have been talking more about getting the Rosetta Stone to learn Italian so we can teach Angelo. So, if you haven't made the connection, my married name is Italian, and that's why I chose an Italian name for my son. My husband's grandfather was Italian. How many times can I say Italian?

These images are from the Art Chix's "La Belle Epoque" collage sheet. Both pieces are on a substrate of card stock sprayed with multiple mica sprays with cheese cloth over top. That cheese cloth also embellishes the top piece. I also added decorative papers (some inked), stamps and dimensional stickers and sprayed the lace on the bottom piece with gold mica spray.

Life's Greatest Happiness

I made this ATC using inchies for the Art Chix turquoise inchies challenge. Images are from their cool butterflies/beautiful garland kit and My Lil' Love collage sheets. I painted a book page and glued it to an ATC sized piece of cardstock, tore the vellum quote, mounted the inchies on the "left over" part and put the quote to the side. Dementional paint outlines the inchies (except the middle one- I used a glitter marker for that) and the ATC.

If you try to read the text, it is probably one of the happiest moments in the book it comes from- the teenager who lives a hard life in the Appalachian mountains gets her first kiss. The guy will be her husband shortly after. I think the "Lil' Love" and the quote tie in nicely with this part of the story, though not all of it was intentional. :) It's funny what parts of a story end up as a background. It is usually completely ironic (a preacher coming to visit the couple on Christmas and the art was Halloween themed) or entirely appropriate (randomly choosing a book page to paint and it being this part of the story and already using a collage sheet titled "My Lil' Love".)

Couple Halloween things

Love Halloween! Never too early for Halloween art!

Chipboard base, paper backgrounds and borders (Martha Stewart and Bethany Lowe's Vintage Halloween), images Bethany Lowe's Vintage Halloween and Dover.

Paper background, Martha Stewart; image - Dover; crepe paper border pleated and glued; Distress Stickles (Ranger) inner border.

More Art Stuff

The base for this piece is an egg shaped playing card. Found a tin of them at the thrift store- score!! Painted with gesso, then sprayed with "Sea Oats" Starburst mica spray. The text is from an antique spelling primer, the bird and branch were cut out with my Cricut cutting system and then sponged with ink. The bottom border is wax paper sprayed with multiple mica sprays.

I got this image of Mata Hari from Art-e-zine. I cut the ATC background from card stock I sprayed with multiple mica sprays. Then I used a large background stamp, added the image and embellished with Distress Stickles (Ranger).

The photo for this work-in-progress came from Somerset Studio's "art to borrow". I cut the party hats from patterned paper and added fibers for the trim and pom pom. I drew in the wand and added color with colored pencils. I will be using this as a birthday card base. :)