Castle and Mermaid Tags

This is a castle themed tag I made for a recent swap.  The background is an acrylic mono print I made with metallic paints on water color paper, stamped with metallic pigment ink.  The stamped castle image (oops, stamp way upstairs and can't remember who made it) is colored with chalks, Prisma pencils, glitter gel pens and glitter glue.  The metal spot at the top is vintage.  Stickles around the border.

Something I rarely do, but am happy with the way it turned out: I added adhesive foam squares for a 3-D pop.

This tag was made for a fairy/fantasy swap.  The background was made the same way as above, but a different stamp was used and it's a vintage button vs. metal spot.  The stamped image is from Enchanted Gallery and was colored with Prisma pencils, chalks and highlighted with Stickles.

        

I thought I kept the image that showed the details best, but it's a bit blurry at the top.  :/


Next, I'll be able to show you an assemblage I'm working on.  It's close to complete and I'm pretty excited about it.  It's one I've had in my head for a while, so it went together fairly quickly.  A friend really liked an assemblage I made for my Dad and requested a piece of mine for his gallery of local artists, so it is loosely based on that one, but has its own distinct theme and details.  

A pile of fabric has arrived for some Fall sewing projects- all for Angelo.  I'm hoping the fact that I won't be able to use the sewing books for him next year (his current size is the largest in the books) will motivate me to get on that ASAP.  That and the fact that Halloween month is already here and the boy needs his costume!!

Hope you are enjoying the creative energy that comes with the season!!

Sanctuary

Originally, I meant to have the studio ready (tidy, presentable) for a big reveal at the end of February since I posted teaser shots of it in progress last year.  However, when I go up, I tend to jump right into creating or clean up a little so I can create more easily (or do yoga, etc).  Even my 2+ hour cleaning efforts a few days ago barely put a dent in it.  Clearly, that tidy and presentable space won't be happening any time soon and if I took pictures, you wouldn't have any idea what you were looking at. ;)  Since I am a recovering perfectionist, I'm not going to wait until the space is "perfect" to show it to you.  I'm posting these pictures I took a couple of months ago after we had a cleaning service come in (didn't have them come back because, though the job was OK to good, it was expensive enough that it should have been Excellent-Perfect IMO.  Not sure if that really happens with cleaning services.)

If you would like to see full progress, first see this and then this post.

Stairs leading up to the attic.  There are some amazing pictures on Pintrest that show painted/mosaic tiled stairs and would love to do that here.  My "Peace, Joy, Freedom" reminder at the top so I see it every time I go up. 

The belly dance and yoga space.  The mirrors and foam floor tiles are from the public studio I ran in Morgantown (Earth Movement Studio).

Shelves of distracting supplies.  It's great having them open and available, but I often have trouble being present with my practice thinking of all the things I want to make.  Maybe a curtain or sliding closet doors are in the future here?

View looking towards the stairwell.  Do you see that pocket door sawn in half?  I don't know who did that, but it breaks my heart.  (There's additional storage behind the mirrors, so that corner gets oversized and spill over items.)  There's a bathroom to the left.  Very convenient for washing brushes and palettes. 

View from the belly dance and yoga area into the mixed media and sewing area.  That's Josephine wearing the witch hat.  Her dress is to the right.

The mixed media area.  Just a couple of days ago, I started re-arranging things here to suit the way I am currently working.

Closer look at the really cool vintage shelves my husband found for me.  I think it's made of cut up wooden crates.  It looks like words/advertising on the bottom inside of those cubbies. My boxes of paint sit on top of this beautiful chest my brother-in-law carved and he and my sister made as a bridesmaid gift.

Sewing area with the cutting table in a regular state of piled up stuff when I'm not sewing.  Angelo's easel and art table are here too.  A fabric organizer will go on the wall to hold more of his art supplies; yes, yes it will.

When I walk into this sacred space of mine, I am washed over with happiness.  I just love being in there.  Even just going up to get something or drop something off makes me smile.  In here, I know my Soul gets to speak, and I am so grateful.

Another post is coming soon!  Some Art Journaling sneak peaks for ya!  Have a great day, my friends! 

Birthday Things

A birthday banner A and I made DH for his birthday.  A cut all the triangles out of scrapbook paper, put the stickers on and stapled the triangles to the ribbon.  He also used a sharpie ultra fine tipped pen to draw a border triangle around each piece.

A wooden frame A painted and put stickers on for DH's b-day.  He picked the color and everything!

A rotating tumbler A painted for DH's b-day.  He chose the heart stamp and color himself!  The pictures were chosen and cut by me in the interest of time.

A with the play town I made him for his b-day.  Oliver + S Little Things to Sew has the instructions and templates.  Instead of using foam as it suggested, I stuffed them with 90% organic cotton and 10% polyfill. I used the polyfill because I ran out of the organic cotton stuffing, but it really did give them more form, so I would consider it again.  The material is naturally dyed organic cotton, and is slightly heavier than the average quilter's cotton.  The windows are wool felt from A Child's Dream Come True, and the rich colors really made these buildings pop.  

This art satchel, made with a linen/cotton blend was made from instructions in Growing Up Sew Liberated.  Everything always takes longer than you think, but in this case, that's an understatement.  Whew!  But, I'm glad we'll have this, especially for traveling. The material is under Japanese fabrics over at Alewives Fabrics.



A birthday banner I made for A's b-day, the same way as mentioned above for DH's banner.

This is a bad picture of a really cool map.  The fabric panel, "What a World", is from Alewives fabrics.  I backed it with muslin and added ribbon loops at the top in case he wants to hang it up.  Maybe it will work more as a play mat.  We will see.  Right now, it is draped over the settee where he can check it out as he likes.  There are little people in local dress (or folk costume) in different regions as well as things that are common or known in certain places; like alpacas in South America and the Space Needle in Seattle.  Plus, the flags and time zones offer all kinds of learning opportunities.  The only thing missing is Antarctica, but we'll deal with that.  A fun intro to geography in any case! 

Haven't gotten to my weekly drawing exercise yet, but it's coming soon!

Catching Up- Handmade Christmas Gifts

"Race car" play mat made using "Sewing for Boys"- a wonderful book that will keep me in sewing projects for a long time!! All patterns are included: no need to enlarge, but you will need to trace them, often taping pieces of tracing paper together so it's big enough. This came together fairly quickly since I used all felt.  The felt is wool or wool blend, so it has a nice feel.  The colored pieces came from A Child's Dream Come True.

The wooden cars are from this Etsy shop.

Thomas back pack made with fabric from JoAnn.com and pattern/instructions from "Oliver + S Little Things to Sew".  This book is Adorable!!!  This project in particular was fairly long and detailed, but well worth it.

A puppet theater made from instructions in "Bend the Rules Sewing".  All the fabric came from JoAnn's.

This cute airplane puppet (and a royal family, doggie included plus pirate) were bought at Handmade Arcade.  The lady has an Etsy store, but after looking through 37 pages of puppets, I couldn't find the store. :(  But, they are adorable, so hopefully I'll find her card.

We are on to making Valentine's day cards and I've yet to show you what we made for DH's b-day.  Angelo's birthday projects are also underway.

Have a great weekend and Valentine's Day!!

Handmade Halloween Costumes

You'll recognize the mask DH is wearing as the one A  painted.  A's costume is made of wool felt from a pattern I drafted.  Dana's "ghost" costume is just material tucked into her collar.

Here, A shows off his spider legs.  The black widow marking was my husband's idea and handiwork.  It is automotive reflective tape- decorative and a nice safety feature for an all black costume. It consists of a pair of pants, and oversized long-sleeved shirt with a casing/elastic at the bottom and a separate hood (though, I did tack it down after he had it on. No sticking him with the needle, believe it or not.) The legs are stuffed with poly-fill and tied off for the segments.  the ends are all connected with quilters' thread.

My ghost costume was inspired by this one. (I opted out of the fishnets and heels.) It's the one I ironed the material, drafted the pattern for, cut and sewed in about 3 or so hours (lots of anti-perfectionist methods in play).  Now, deciding on a design... well, that took quite a bit longer.  There are no finished seams or hems, but there was a lot of snipping and ripping.  If you'd like to know more, please contact me.

Out collecting Treats.  You can see the Trick-or-Treat bag a little better here.  The outside and lining are both quilter's cotton for cuteness and strength.

Hope your Halloween was awesome!!!!!

Unrelated, I found a site that lists sheet music images from the Library of Congress. It is massive and though I'm not sure I'll ever get through it all, I'll have fun looking!


Also, check out www.VinegarandGlitter.com for the Altered Book Workshop flyer.  Today is the last day to register!!  

I made a baby

This one is made of cloth. I think I made this for Angelo for the Christmas of 2010.  I think I wasn't happy with the pictures, so I didn't post about it.  Or, maybe it just got away from me. ;0)

Pattern pieces for the clothing.

Pre-sewn muslin doll I tea-dyed, stuffed and embroidered.

Felt diaper with velcro tabs

Made from the back of a front stained baby tee shirt.

I wanted him to be able to diaper and dress the baby for fine motor skills and encourage nurturing.

He was much more interested in trains and blocks when I gave it to him, but now he hugs and gives baby a ride in the stroller.

Apron number 2

Amy Karol has an apron blog, Tie One On.  She suggests themes for aprons, people make them and she posts the pictures in her Flickr group.  This is the first time I've made the deadline (since she extended it and she's on the West coast. ha ha!) and the 2nd apron I've actually made with my hands.  There are a few designs in my head from other themes she's presented.  

This theme was Story book aprons.  This one above is from a book called "Go Away, Stay Away" about villagers who join together to rid themselves of demons and goblins and such that cause their misfortunes.  Kali actually gave me the book for altering purposes- thank you, Kali!! :)

What is it about aprons?  I like them.  How about you?

Hand Made Gifts for Dana

My beautiful puppy, Dana, turned 7 yesterday! Time really flies! She is such a blessing, such a grounding and loving force in our lives. We had a party for her on the 13th since last weekend DH was out of town and this weekend is Memorial Day.

One of her presents I gave her yesterday was this bone shaped pillow. She is so snuggly and just adorable when she rests her head on a pillow, so when I saw this cute fabric, I knew I just had to make something for her and a bone shaped pillow it was!

I free-handed the bone shape onto the fabric (used less than 1/2 a yard); cut out; stitched up leaving a hole for stuffing; clipped the curves; stuffed; realized 3/4 of the way through stuffing that I probably should have drawn on the "wrong" side of the fabric because it was looking more like a capital "I"; stuffed with organic cotton loose batting (a chop stick helped get it in the corners); used a blind stitch to close the hole; curled down the corners and stitched them to the sides so it looked more bone-like and less "I" like; gave it to the birthday girl and much tail wagging and doggie smiling ensued. :)

See how cute these doggies are? Remember how happy it made me just to serge the edges of this cloth? Actually working with it brought back those giddy feelings and they lasted longer. :)

This super sweet bag was Dana's Christmas present. Long ago, I tried ordering a bag with a black lab and Dana's name embroidered on it only to be sadly informed they were out of black lab bags. Having forever been thinking Dana needed something wonderful for travel, I made this. It is in dainty girly colors for my wonderful little girl.

You can see a little better here that I appliqued her name on it. You can also see the wrinkles better. Aren't you excited about that? ;)

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend! May you sit in peace when you remember those who have gone before us.

Namaste

More Hand Made Birthday Fun

The first photo is Angelo playing while wearing the elf hat I made him using Amy Karol's pattern in her book "Bend the Rules Sewing". I posted about a sewing miracle a while back on Face Book. This was one of those miracles- I ran into a lot of obstacles due to my sewing stuff being packed up in the attic. I spent many hours looking for the (thankfully already cut out) pieces, and the book, which I eventually checked out from a "not as local", but still pretty darn local library. Once I had the book, material, the right color of thread and my sewing machine finally corralled into my kitchen, the actual sewing went pretty smoothly. It is made of wool felt, so I didn't have to finish the seams or anything! I made it a little bigger than the template so he would be able to grow with it (per the book's clever suggestion.) This is the only hand made item I actually was able to sew him for his birthday. I wish I'd been able to make more, of course, but I know that without a dedicated and organized sewing space, the obstacles were just too annoying for me. I did manage to draw some very simple pictures and staple them between some construction paper for a hand made coloring book. I didn't scan those, but they were largely based on the types of drawings they teach you to make in one of Angelo's books (so, it is for very young children and the drawings are very basic.)

Here, you can see that he is wearing a bow tie. A super-adorable, bow tie made from vintage material that I got at Baby By Stevie's Etsy store. This is the least blurry picture I got since he was so engrossed in play. :) He asked for a bow tie, by the way. Insisted it be a bow tie, when I thought he was talking about a scarf when he referenced a picture on a book. I was pretty happy to oblige. I also went to Etsy and got him some Mama K's Aromatic Play Clay. It is all natural, gluten free, and made with organic essential oils. It is now a lovely blend of colors and scents, of course. :) We all enjoy it even if only Angelo is playing with it. I'll show you what we did with his dried up play dough later. :)

I found some very yummy all natural gluten-free cupcakes in our Giant Eagle's gluten-free freezer. They are made by French Meadow Bakery. As you can see, Angelo really enjoyed them. :)

Sewing Project Revealed

This is a wheel chair bag I made for my Dad. I thought the red stitching made it look like a feed sack, which is fun since my parents live on a farm. I used this from Sewing.org as a guide.

He is currently in the hospital due to Bullous Pemphigoid. I won't add a link lest you be tempted to look at the pictures. :( It is an autoimmune condition characterized by severe itching, blisters and nerve irritation. He is being treated with strong steroids, antibiotics and pain killers to address the condition. Finally, he is showing some improvement and once he is released from the hospital, he will go to a medical rehab hospital. He'll be able to use the bag there as he goes from his room to different therapies and hopefully the cafeteria. It went out in the mail today! Yay!