Surface Design on T-shirt

Shhh . . . don't tell anyone, but I can be really sloppy. It seems like I'm constantly getting stains on my shirts. I'm tired of throwing out perfectly good shirts, so I got creative with some surface design.I decided to hide two little stains smack in the middle of the shirt with some writing. I guess I got a little carried away. Now, I'm going to add more layers with transparent paint. Can you see the stains? Hope not!

Here are some of the beautiful ATC's I received at our last trade. Lucilla (top left) used real clothes pins on her card and Louise (bottom left) stitched her cat using black thread. They are all so beautiful and creative.

Hand Painted Cloth

Has anyone seen Rayna's book, Create Your Own Hand Painted Cloth? I haven't received my copy yet, but have heard great reviews. Let me know if you've seen the book and my quilt.

A while ago, Anna Nowicki and I decided to trade ATC's. This is the beautiful card I received from her. It has bits of shredded paper, ribbon, and handmade beads. Thanks Anna, I love it.I'm afraid this is the only photo I have for this post because my camera has gone off to Greece again without me. Hopefully, it comes home with more great shots.

The grand opening of Pazzazz took place this past weekend. Of course, I went to all three performances and took three different friends. It was a lot of fun and a real blast from Vaudeville past. The best part of all was the costumes, and I'm not just saying that because that's what I worked on. Arlene Larsen is an award winning, Hollywood costume designer and I was really fortunate to work with her. It was a lot of fun, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

Back to making apricot jam.

It was a Colorful Week

This week was both colorful and creative. First was my ATC exchange. Ever since our exhibit at AFS and newspaper article, this group has been growing steadily, and this month we had 20 artists trading. It's always fun to see what everyone comes up with. Here are some of the beautiful cards that I received.

Top row: Mary Stanley, Angela Moll, Syd McCutcheon Second Row: Colleen Darling, Lindsay C (she's 10 yrs old), Joan Dineberg

Top row: Angela Howard, Pierrette Bottom Row: Judy Nilsen

This is a beautiful hand-painted piece that I purchased from Terri Stegmiller. I loved everything about this piece as soon as I saw it and it's even more beautiful in person. Thanks Terri.

I took the day off from work (always good) and spent it beading with a several of my creative buddies, Oleta, Jeanne, Mary and Lora. Deana Hartman lead the "Need to Bead" workshop and showed us quite a few stitches ranging from simple scatter stitch to encrusted collage. I have a large collection of beads (what a surprise) and brought way more than I could possibly use, but I just wasn't sure which piece I was going to work on. It was a lot of fun and I still have a long way to go before my piece is worth showing.

Cyber Fiber Postcard Trade

If you haven't already heard about the online trade and upcoming exhibition organized by Susan Lenz, you really should visit her Cyber Fiber blog. Susan has a wonderful assortment of postcards and ATC's available for trading. Here is postcard #40 that I reserved.Here is the bottom layer of my postcard for Susan. It consists of silk, inkjet photo, painted baby wipe & commercial fabric scraps. I added a total of five layers of yarn, painted dryer sheets, thread ball bunches and stitched each layer down.And here's the final card all trimmed, stitched and ready to mail. I really like the idea of recycling materials and love the layers of texture that this technique creates.

Swapped Not Traded

Today was the opening reception for our Swapped Not Traded ATC show. We had a pretty good turn out and had fun introducing newbies to the concept of ATC's. The room was surrounded with our framed ATC collections and there was one interactive wall that held the cards available for trade. Everyone could use the supplies to make an ATC, then swap it for one on the wall.
We meet one day a month to swap . . . so if you are interested and live around Santa Barbara, let me know.

Here is my SIL and son creating ATC's. You can see some of the framed collections in the background.

Syd found these hanging vinyl holders that were perfect to display the ATC's. Here are a few of the ones available on the interactive wall.

Received good news today. Two out of the three pieces I submitted to the Elverhoj Museum were juried into the show. Yeah . . . . it's going to be a great venue.

I also submitted ten pieces to the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum. Only five artists are chosen for this exhibit, so I'll be amazed if I get selected. I figure the more they see Fiber Art, the more accepted it will become.

A couple of weeks ago, I emailed a few fabric designs to Robert Kaufman. They were interested in seeing more, so I mailed off a complete package, but still haven't heard back from they yet. It would be very cool to have a fabric line with my designs. They may not be interested, but I figure I would rather try my best and get rejected than not try at all.

As you can see, I've been racing from one deadline to another and I still have a UFO Exchange quilt to finish in three weeks. I'm seriously looking forward to retirement!! Unfortunately, that is a long way off.

Nervous and Excited

I'm a bit nervous because I'm going to talk to my guild about my quilts. It's a big guild, probably 300 members. Public speaking is not high on my list of skills. I agreed to do it because I really need to conquer this fear and what better place than in front of your friends. I'll be showing 16 quilts created between 1996 and 2007. Please, wish me luck!

I'm really excited because I signed up for a two day workshop at the end of August with Sherrill Kahn. I can't wait, it's going to be a blast!I found these paint chips at the hardware store and had to have them. I have to make another trip for the rest of the colors. I'm going to use them to make some ATC's. Way to fun!

New Projects

It seems that summer presents many distractions. I haven't been working in my studio as often as I should be, but still have a few things in progress. It seems that I haven't been getting many comments lately either. Is anyone out there? I really enjoy hearing from you. (hint, hint)

These ATC's were made using crayon as a resist, acrylic ink, dye, marker, utee and stamps. I'm not sure what will happen to them now, but I feel like they need something else.
This piece just received its second layer of crayon. Next, I will add another wash of acrylic ink, let it dry and then iron it to remove the wax, but the pigment will remain. I'll post the results next time.A while ago, I purchased this lanyard disc at Michael's for $1.00. I found it the other day while looking for something else, and decided to give it a try. It is extremely easy to do and is a great project while watching television. I am using 2 pieces of chenille yarn in each slot which makes a very sturdy cord with a 1/2" diameter. Not quite sure what I will do with it yet, I'm thinking a handle for a handbag. Time will tell!

Art in the Mail

The last few days were great mail days! It is so nice to open the mailbox and find beautiful pieces of art instead of bills.

This postcard was a personal trade with Lynda. The texture on this piece is wonderful. It is lace, acrylic paint and treasure gold. Thank you Lynda, this piece is a treasure!

This ATC was another personal trade with SueB. It is made from Lotka paper that Sue further embellished with paint. The texture is difficult to describe, it is both smooth and bumpy at the same time. I've never seen anything quite like it. It is gorgeous, thank you Sue.
This postcard trade was through the Yahoo Surface Design Group. Norma B created this wonderful Monochromatic Color Composition. The subtle colors are beautiful with just the right amount of bright spark and movement. Thanks Norma, I love it.

ATCs Ready to Trade

Here a some of my ATCs being traded this month. These were started using leftovers from other projects. The green base was made at the same time as my "Spring of Creativity" canvas. It sat around for a couple of weeks until I decided to paint a shirt. I screened several paints and designs onto the shirt, but only the black layer made with the wire whisk managed to make it onto the ATC paper. The design evolved on its own after that. It has texture from gesso and tissue paper and color from acrylic paints, watercolor pencils and pearl ex powder.

Busy Art Week

Even though I didn't post anything lately, doesn't mean I haven't been creating. I guess I've been too busy to take the photos! I'm a very visual person, I need to have photos with each posting.

This month, my ATC meeting was at Art from Scrap. I received these wonderful little pieces of art from the many talented members. I really enjoy creating in a different medium than fiber, it makes me think differently. This month my ATC's were photographs that I have taken.

I also had a wonderful meeting with my Fibervision buddies. We had a short business meeting, a really good critique session and a Jeanne led a very fun lesson in portrait painting with Tsukineko Inks. I love these inks and this technique. It is very easy and we all had very good results. Here is the portrait I worked on, unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me, so I can't show all of them. Thanks Jeanne, it was a great lesson!

New ATC's

It's a lot fun to get to know other artists and trade these little cards. I must say, it is getting addictive! I like to try a new technique each month.

My card is at the top left. It's the one that looks like a paint splotch. The bottom layer was marbelized, the 2nd layer was screen-printed and the top layer was added with marker.

New ATC Group

This week has been a whirlwind! I got a lot accomplished and had some fun too!
One of the things I did was join an ATC Group. It meets one time per month at a local coffee shop to trade cards. Everyone was really nice and made me feel very welcome. There is an interactive ATC exhibit planned for later in the year. More news on that later. Several of my ATC's are directly below. They were painted on water color paper with the major shapes inked on top.
Here are the cards I received in exchange. There was a wide range of materials used. One was made from a brochure at the doctors office. Several were collages which used a combination of papers, magazine images, fiber, thread and ink. Some were completely painted, one was all fiber and one has been stamped and foiled. They are all wonderful and very unique.