SURPRISE!

whew! i'm caught up! well, at least i'm caught up on stuff that HAD to be done!

the last week has been fairly crazy, frantically trying to finish my last piece for the altered ancestor swap, my last chunky 4x4 page, 6 atcs, a small gift, and 6 dotee dolls, all mixed in with what felt like a million dr's appointments (the highlight being thursday, with 3 appointments scheduled within a 2 hour time span!) and way too few naps for my body's happiness. they're all mailed now, and hopefully they'll arrive quick so that i can post them here.

i also got some shopping in (of course), including a trip to ruby dog's last wednesday, their last day. i'd done a "ohmygod, you're closing, must stock up" trip a week or two before, but realized that there were a few supplies i wanted to stock up on (image transfer sheets and blender markers, namely). i thought i'd check out the stuff that she'd put on sale since i was last there, and spend about $60 or so. well! yeah, that didn't happen. i should have known better than to even attempt for a budget! but i got lots of neat stuff, including a whole bunch of stamps, and a stack of vintage labels from the 20s and 30s. my favourite is the snuff label!

and today was the start of the summer sidewalk sale at clipper street, so i went out to langley and bought a bunch of stuff, including ALCOHOL INKS! i've been dying to try them for a while now, but the packs of 3 bottles are $15 each, and i just haven't been able to justify it, cause i knew i'd want all the colours once i got started. the packs were $5 today, and i stocked up on all the colours they had on sale, and got the basic supplies regular price (that was sneaky of them, wasn't it! it worked!).

i've also received some pretty awesome mail, several different zine orders, a few things from etsy, some swap items, and most exciting, a PRESENT from cynthia at big_girlfeet! as i mentioned in my last post, she had a giveaway for her blogaversary, and i was one of the lucky winners!

she sent me a bunch of goodies (click on the pics to see the full thing, blogspot cuts them off!)

a mix cd full of yummy music (it's awesome for crafting to!), and a few yummy teabags.....

and this fabulous handmade reusable bag!!


it arrived friday, and i've already used it for two post office trips!
action shot!


i felt very spoiled! thank you ever so much cynthia!

more chunky pages!

i've been so impatient for these to arrive, because i was so excited about posting them here!

they were both made using the silicone transfer technique that i was talking about the other day, and damn, it's slick!

these pages were for rackycoo, who's just too bloody amazing for her own good, and i got all stressed out and had to send her two, i just couldn't make up my mind!

the first page is the red winged blackbird page, titled mother nature's art (i tried to put the word "art" on all the pages i did for this swap)

i painted the background a strong orangey red, and then used the silicone transfer technique to transfer the red winged blackbird. i added black and gold ink around the edges, and then decided it needed a bit more, so i used crackle medium over the ink. i added the cigar bands just because they're cool, and i wanted a bit more gold in it.


the back is very simple, a piece of joss paper with this stamp from invokearts.com.


the fibers were fun - the charms are all shrink art stamped with staZon ink using the stamp from the back and stamps from this set at invokearts. the lettering comes from this set.

and the second page was a circus themed page, titled "the art of childhood"


the base is mat board, and i did a silicone transfer using an actual bingo sheet instead of a reversed photocopy, so the numbers are all backwards, which just adds to it in my opinion! i think next time i'll paint the matboard, because it needs a bit more protection from the water than just the silicone. after the transfer had dried, i lightly painted it all yellow, and rubber stamped it with a cheapy stamp i'd bought micheals for $1.50 using purple pigment ink. it used to say PARTY down the side, which i hated, but i loved the diamond design, so i carefully cut the party part off (not that careflly - i stabbed myself while doing it!). i embossed the diamonds to adda bit more depth, and used green pigment ink to create a bordre around th eedge of the vintage playing card. i embossed that as well, mostly because the pigment ink didn't want to dry on the gloss of the card. i added the orange ticket and th red bingo chips, and a piece of a tim holtz distressables card, which i sanded lightly and edged in blue pigment ink. the bing chips have the letters A R T stamped on them using staZon ultramarine, which basically looks black!


the back was again very simple. a piece of patterned paper, brushed over with orange pigment ink to make the colours brighter and deeper, and the title with my name and stuff. the word art on this one is a stamp from alphastamps.

but the fibers! ooh, the fibers. i went a little overboard! as racky put it, the fibers are a circus all on their own!

polka dot and stripey ribbons, bright variegated wool and left over dyed green twill tape from an earlier tip in page, all strung with brightly coloured pony beads, bingo chips, a little strawberry button, a plastic hamburger, a bow, a few plastic flower beads, a little plastic scottie dog and at the vey end, a bell, same as on the jester's hat.

the silicone transfer technique is very cool, it came from the Collage Discovery Workshop by Claudine Hellmuth. i had to special order the silicone from a hardware store in the US, because we don't have the elmer's brand that's brushable up here. i'm really loving it.


i also sent her a copy of tim holtz distressables, which i picked up at a spring sale at clipper street in langley and never got around to sending her. i got a copy for myself as well, and it's quite a cool book. thought it's obviously all about using his supplies, it's got some awesome ideas in it as well.


and in other exciting news, i won a giveaway today! cynthia at big girl feet had a draw for her blogaversary, and i won! she's been doing her blog for 3 years now, which is awesome. i've only been blogging since september 12th 2007! i actually first saw cynthia's work about 8 years ago, when we were both selling at the same local store, and i fell in love with it then. i realized that she was on craftster, and found her blog that way. i managed to get a couple of her pieces a few years ago when she was doing a studio clean up sale, and they're both hanging in my studio now.

surprise!! jar of whimsies!!

i got a jar of whimsies in the mail today!!

it was so very exciting. i did a personal swap for whimsies several months back, but the person i was swapping with had a lot of stuff going on in her life, and we lost contact. today i opened my front door and tucked in behind our buddha was a big box wrapped in brown paper. i picked it up and looked at it, not recognizing the return address, and wondered at the customs form - "what did i buy for $3 that's this big??" (you know that's a sign you do too much online shopping, when you forget what all you bought!)

unfortunately, the canada post clumsiness strikes again. (they're SO HARD on packages!)


luckily, it was wrapped in multiple layers of tissue, so the glass was all contained. i spent an hour sitting with it, separating glass from whimsies, and it was great fun. i got to see every item so much closer than i probably would have otherwise! (and i didn't cut my self at all, always a good thing!)



i divied everything up into groups, and marveled over it all!

all of the plastic goodies (i LOVE those little fish for some reason! and the halloween cupcake charms look vintage, they're so cute!)


the miscellaneous stuff (that earring is so cool! it's a little metal slipper!)


all of the wood and cardboard (i have a slight obsession with little wood game pieces, so these were great!)


the sequins, a little frame and KEYS!! i love the old keys!


sewing stuff! i have an absolutely ridiculous amount of vintage buttons - like a full sized box full. when you think about how little buttons are, that's a hell of a lot of buttons! i just can't resist them. i love the yellow ones she sent!


and the beads!! the glass pendant is so pretty, i can't wait to make something with the cherries, skulls and dice, and i really adore the vintage black feathered hearts, they're my favourite! i think between the sequins and the beads, i'm all set for my dotees!

inspiration dotee dolls

a week or two ago i signed up for the dotee doll swap on craftster. dotee dolls are a style of art dolls created by dot. she posted a tutorial for them, and it seems to have exploded from there!

i just spent a very very long time tonight (my butt's numb!) sitting here looking through the dotee doll pool on flickr. to be perfectly honest, a LOT of the dolls aren't my style. at all. but there are some AMAZING dolls as well!

like these art themed girls with photo faces
this graphic black and white doll
this elvis dotee doll (hee hee!)
these awesome voodoo dotees
this beautiful icicle shaped dotee with a photo face
and all these AMAZING dolls made by hoola tallulah. i really really love the faces she does, especially the ones with black hair and beestung lips! (i'm predictable, i know!)

i think my big thing about the dotees is that i love any that are non-traditional, and beautiful faces make me so very very happy. i know i need to get started on my own dolls, but i'm still feeling rather overwhelmed even thinking about trying to find fabric in my studio....

but i know i need to. i still have a few weeks before they're due, but i'm trying to be less late with stuff, and besides, my sister sent over season 3 of weeds tonight, and decorating dotees will be the perfect project for watching it!

party!!! and an awesome handmade book.

on sunday i went to a party! it was a "point 5" party for my best friend's baby, and for the other 6 month old babies that he's "friends" with. there were lots of babies and kids there! because she was in school pretty much right up until he was born, there wasn't time to have a baby shower. sunday's party was kind of to make up for
that fact. i'm sad that i didn't get to do all the super cool shower stuff that i had planned, but i just wasn't up to it right now. stupid fibro!



first, the guest of honour! he's getting SO BIG!!! aww!



he liked the streamers when we were taking them down!

wearing his favourite hat!!


we had it at the amenities room in my friend's building, which was really nice. it's a big room with a kitchen and a bathroom in it, so the actual "party" area was L-shaped, which was perfect for a kinda quieter area for babies sleeping, changing diapers, etc, and it opened out into the giant courtyard that had two playground structures in it, so it was great for the outside activities and the kids. we were going to do it outside in the park across the street, but it was raining off and on and was wet and cold, and then it turned out they were filming a movie there today anyway, so it was actually good that we'd decided to move it inside!

we had a TON of food, so many people brought food. i made cupcakes, vanilla and chocolate, and bought humus and a veggie platter at costco that morning. d made rice crispie cake and bought a bunch of chips and cut up fruit and stuff. and we made punch, in a plastic halloween candy bowl with spiders along the sides!




(i'm SO peeved that my icing melted overnight! these are the best looking cupcakes, i left the ones where the icing slid off entirely to eat towards the end! i like my little flags i made though. and i LOVE the colours of the icing, that turned out well.)

i don't actually know how many people came.... i was going going going ALL DAY, and i never stopped to count! i'd say there was at least 20 people at any given time, though some people came late and some left early. there were about 4 babies, and 4 or 5 little kids, and then a whole bunch of 20somethings. and the dad's parent's came, which was awesome.

the mom wanted it to be more of a "family" party, so we planned fun kid activities. she made play dough with my mom's recipe, we had a colouring table, i made bean bags and d made a bean bag "toss" out of a cardboard box, i made up bubble solution and bubble wands, a pinata and an awesome performer. i brought my face paints too, but never had a chance to pull them out.

the play dough was a huge hit, though mostly with the grown ups!


the colouring was the same, again, mostly grown ups! i was so glad i'd grabbed a colouring book at the dollar store when i ran in to get name tags that morning, because people loved it.

the bubbles were a failure, because it was too windy - the wind broke them before we could blow them! it was damn cold outside too! but maybe another time.

the toddlers LOVED the bean bag toss, it was being used all afternoon, so that was awesome. i made the bean bags the night before out of cheap fabric and filled them with plastic beads, because i had a bunch and didn't want to buy some other kind of filling.


we didn't do a whole lot with decorating, but that was okay. since it was a point 5 party, we didn't do the gothy shower like we planned, just a few gothy touches. we just did streamers, the banner and coloured tablecloths.


i bought all the letters to make the banner. i got all the way home from the party supply place, and my I wasn't in the bag! so i made another one out of black cardstock... it wasn't shiny like the others, but it wasn't too noticeable.


it was a really really good day. exhausting though!! that was the first time i'd been into the city in months!

the only "shower" thing we really did was my "lessons to learn" book, and it turned out really nice. people really liked the idea, and lots of them filled out pages. i was running too late that morning to take pics of it, and it was still drying the night before, so i took one action shot, and then the rest of the pics were taken yesterday when d and torrin came to visit me.

action shot!!


front

the cover. the base is matboard, i made it in two separate pieces, with a strip of fabric joining them, so that it would bend back nicely, then covered it with the cool paper. the picture is one his mom took, the writing is stamps from martha stewart last halloween, and the heart is is a rhona farrel stamp, i believe.

the back.

fairly plain, just black cardstock covering a base the same as the front. the book is held together with book screws, so that pages can be removed and replaced.


the pages were a mix of red and white cardstock


inside the front cover.

some of the pages. i blurred out most of the writing, the only ones i didn't were my moms and mine, because i have permission to post them! i printed up a template in word using dashed lines and a fairly large font size to allow for two pages per sheet of paper. after i'd printed them out, i cut them in half, hole punched them all, and then stamped them all with black staZon ink.





i was SOOOOO happy with it! it turned out awesome, and the mom and dad really loved it.

ancestor piece and chunky page

more stuff to post!

a few more pieces that i've made have been received, so i can post them now.

first, another altered ancestor piece.

the recipient didn't know who these people actually are, she just found the pic with her family photos, so i used the friend stamp. she said she liked blue and brown, so i did that, and i was a bit worried it was too similar to the other piece i made, but it's different shades.

the background is the peeling paper technique from the claudine hellmuth book i bought a few weeks ago, using music. i saturated it with blue walnut ink, and then blotted it to get an even colour. it took FOREVER to dry! once it was dry i stamped it with staZon, the two brown shades, using a stamp set from joanns. i made the pic more brown before printing it, and then edged it with the dark brown staZon to create a "frame".

and a chunky 4x4 page

the background is strips of text attached with acrylic medium that was mixed with blue and white paint. the typewriter stamp is from alpha stamps (love!) and is stamped with staZon ultramarine (also LOVE!)


pop up! well, kinda. more like "pull tab"!


very cool stamp from alpha stamps, again stamped with the staZon. background was painted with the leftover medium/paint mixture from the front.

close up of the fibers - full of beads and teensy little shrinky dinks

that staZon ink works fab for shrinky dinks!

i was really happy with these two. this week i've been working on some more pieces using a silicone transfer technique, which is SOOOO damn cool, but all the piece i'm working on are still secret at the moment.

it's countdown time again! and another ancestor piece!

lisa voltrath is doing a countdown for fathers day, the link is HERE. they're linkware, as usual, so don't forget to post the link somewhere before downloading them! the first page is up, and damn, they're cute! i can't decide if my favourite is the little boy with the huge cowlick (it looks like a faux hawk!), or the two little sailor boys. so cute!


also, one of the altered ancestor pieces i sent out last week has been received!

this piece is a bit simpler in appearance than some of the ones i've done, but i really couldn't find anything else to add! i like the simplicity of it, actually.


it's a base of heavy weight cardboard painted with a mixture of pink acrylic and golden acrylic gel medium (regular gel) . before the mixture dried, i wrote the word love in it and textured it a bit. after it was dry i painted it with a wash of red paint, so that the colour would pool in the writing and the texture. it worked pretty well, though i kinda wish i'd had more texture over the main part of the body. i altered the photo of the recipients grandparents as teenagers to make it shades of red and pink before printing it, then glued it onto the background. i then used my big bite crop-o-dile to punch the holes in a heart shape before embroidering a chain stitch in raspberry coloured satin cording. i'd been dying to do some embroidery like this, so i was excited to try it! i wish the big bite had a bit bigger opening - the cardboard was almost too thick to fit!

june 2, 2008

it's monday night already, and i can't think of anything new to say since friday!

the last few days have been fairly mellow, i've been reading a lot. we've always been huge book lovers in our house, something i totally credit my mom for (and what better thing is there to credit your mom for than a love of reading, really? i love that she taught us to enjoy reading as much as we do.), but i've been going a little overboard lately! between trips to second hand book stores, a book sale at a senior's home and the grocery store in the past month, i still have stack of books to read, and i'm inhaling them as fast as i can!

of course, that means less crafting time!

however, my goal this week is to do at least a bit of sewing, which means my goal is also to clear off at least a portion of the table in my studio!

i also posted sign ups on craftster tonight for the alphabet atc swap, the GHI round. i was totally stuck on words for this round, until i started looking through a vintage children's dictionary, and realized how many words i have fun card ideas for! i'm tempted to start on them this week as well, just to have them completed, though i have a chunky page to finish as well. we'll see!