Diane Archer is an Oregon Artist. I've seen her several years in a row at the Metal Guild shows. I love her stuff. What a great idea to use maps in her jewelry. I wish I had thought of this idea first, although I have no idea how she does this. Her prices are very reasonable. Definitely check out her web-site.
I'm such a sucker for mixed media art. I can't say enough good things about her work.
My husband and Mother-in-law got me these books and DVDS by Claudine Hellmuth for my Birthday. I love Claudine's work and really wanted to take her classes when she visits Portland in October. Her classes are expensive, although I'm sure worth every penny. When I found these books and DVDs, I decided this might be the better way to go.
I would highly recommend these books to anyone. They are written in a very conversational way, but chocked full of information. The casual tone is very enjoyable and makes it easy to pick up the information. She has tips and hints based on what has worked best for her. She also give lots of variations to her projects to help you make art that is your own.
The DVDs are amazing. Being a very visual person, what I can't pick up off the written page is all laid out for me in her demonstrations. Watching her do the different collage techniques really let me see that I could do this too. I watched them for the first time this Saturday. I was glued to the screen the entire time. One thing that drew me to Claudine's work is her use of old photographs in her collages. I really want to make collages based on my family's photos. I got all the supplies I needed this weekend and can't wait to start on my first project. I think I'm going to start by doing a collage of my cats.
I was lucky enough to be recently added to the Delightful Blogs Directory. This directory is pretty new and they are always looking for new blogs to be added. I have found some great sites there. It's defintely worth checking frequently, because new stuff is added daily.
Today is Joan Miro's Birthday. He is in my top five of favorite artists. It was great to see Google acknowledge his birthday. I must admits it's things like this (and of course gmail, google maps and the new google calendar) that keeps me hooked on Google.
Happy Birthday Joan, your work continues to inspire artists everywhere.
If you get the chance, definitely check out the Art Show & Sell at Buckman Elementary next Friday and Saturday. They will have over 100 artists selling their work. Admission is $5 dollars on Friday and $3 dollars on Saturday. All proceeds help support this art magnet school.
This is quite possibly the coolest thing I have seen in a long time. My husband and I are completely Katamari Damacy obsessed. The video game is totally addicting down to the catchy music. The object of the game is to roll up as many items as you can with your Katamari ball. Anyone can play it and there is no shooting or violence. I've seen other knitted Katamari balls and even Katamari cakes. This has them all beat. This Katamari comes complete with magnets so you can actually roll things up. How cool is that? Amysbabies sells these on Etsy.
There is a brand new web-site called Visual Dictionary. These ambitious folks are trying to get a photo of every single word they can. They have only been running for about a month, so they don't have a ton of words documented yet. They are looking for submissions. I think this would be really fun to work on. It's a different concept than the Visual Thesaurus. I dig the visual thesaurus, but wish it didn't cost to use. Probably the most ambitious of them all is the Flaming Fire Illustrated Bible. They are trying to get a illustration for every verse in the Bible.
As an ode to Kraf-O-La, I decided to post an Eye Candy Tuesday. I'm slowly making my rounds through the craft blogs that I visit and dabbling in all the cool things that all these woman do. I posted my only quilt as inspired by Angry Chicken's Quilt Monday. I don't know if I have the courage to post a photo of one of my corners. It would be tricky to find one that is clean and without cobwebs.
I found these necklaces by Anne Black at Greener Grass Designs. The entire site is filled with super cool stuff. I was mostly drawn to these lovely necklaces. I love how delicate they look. Looking at how many colors are sold out, it seems like many other people like them as well. $45.00 is a fine price for these necklaces, though it's a bit rich for me. That's one of the great things about making jewelry, is that I can make something pretty for myself without spending much money.
If you grew up in the 1980's as I did, the above poem should be easily recognizable. Shel Silverstein had a huge impact on my childhood. I devoured his books and memorized his poetry. He got it. He talked to us like adults. He remembered what it was like to be young. I looked to Shel to tell me the truth. If you haven't been to his web-site, check it out. You can hear audio clips of Shel reciting poems. There are also activities for the whole family. I downloaded his Poetry Kit. I'm looking forward to doing the 'personal poetry puzzle'.
My cool Aunt from Florida was in town last weekend. I had the opportunity to take Friday off and show her around town. She loves Portland, but hadn't really seen the sites for many years. We ate breakfast at Genies. Then we headed to Powell's. She hadn't been to Powell's since the remodel. We walked through all the rooms and just enjoyed talking leisurely. I did buy my first Sublime Stitching pattern. I was so excited to find the Rock and Roll patterns. I can't wait to make my Record Store Geek something. I was looking for the bowling patterns. I want to embroidery bowling shirts for my bowling league team. For some reason, Powell's is always out of the bowling patterns. Then we toured the Pearl District. My Aunt loved all the cool old buildings that are getting revamped to hold businesses and housing. In the afternoon we toured the Hawthorne District and had lunch at the Bagdad Pub. We had such a great day meandering around the city and having great conversations. It's been along time since I've had so much one on one with my Aunt. It was such a great day!
My 12 year old niece had her Destination Imagination tournament this past Saturday. It's her third year of participating in DI. Every team who participates in DI is required to provide at least one person to volunteer as an appraiser. My husband and I have been nominated as their volunteers. This is my third year appraising and it's the second year for my husband.
What is DI? "Destination ImagiNation is a place where kids take
what they know and what they are good at and learn to apply it to solve
challenges, working together and cooperatively with a team and pushing
the limits of imagination to best not their competition, but themselves." This quote is from the DI website. It's open to kids of all ages. Teams work on the challenge they have chosen for months before the competition. They don't get any help from adults. The challenge that we appraised this time was launching ping pong balls or tennis balls at least 8 feet into a receptacle. Then the balls had to get back to their originally location. While all of this was going on, they had to perform a skit that tied into the coming and going of the balls. It's amazing what the kids came up with. There were so many different solutions to this problem.
My niece placed second in her category. Her team choose to do an improv challenge. Her team also won a DiVinci award. She will be competing at the State tournament next month. My husband and I won a 'Spirit of DI' award. We will be along to appraise again. This is such a great organization and the whole family has fun doing it. I would highly recommend this to all kids.
I planned a whole fun day for my husband on Saturday to celebrate Valentine's Day. First we ran a 5k (his idea of fun, I'm lucky I didn't die) and then headed to breakfast at Gravy. My husband loves biscuits and gravy, and Gravy has vegetarian gravy. After breakfast, I took him CD shopping at the CD Game Exchange. We went to the one on Mississippi as well as the one on Hawthorne. They truly are the best stores for used CD's. I had to stop in Memoir on Mississippi. They are super small, but filled with handmade goodness. They were having a sale on Queen Bee bags! My husband bought me the above bag. I've always wanted a Queen Bee bag and at 40% off, it was a steal. He said he was going to buy me flowers, but I am much happier with this instead.
The coolest part about the bag is that I can insert my 'Jolie Girl' 7 inch. Tonight my husband is taking me to dinner at the Chart house. I've a very lucky girl.
Who knew that Margaret Cho and Cross Stitch would make such a great pair? Crafty Like a Fox has a Hardcore Chick Series where you can purchase cross stitch kits of such hardcore chicks as Debby Harry or Tina Turner. I really wished there was an Ani DiFranco kit. I would have had to break down to buy that. This site also has sassy samplers, but I prefer the samplers over at Subversive Cross Stitch. Interesting enough, Julie from Subversive sent Margaret Cho a cross stitch sampler that said 'Candy Ass'. Margaret loved it. Below are a couple subversive samplers that I like.
I know who is getting this for Christmas!
I would love to have this hanging in my house. Too funny. This site also has a free tools section under How-to. She provides you with grids and alphabets so you can create your own sayings. Now I just have to figure out what I want to say. The possibilities are endless.
I am always looking for web-sites that have instructions on how to make a variety of things. I just discovered Craftown. From the free lessons to valuable resources and links, this is a site to check out. The lessons are pretty basic and the pictures aren't the best, but there is enough good stuff there to explore this site for quite some time.
This is a great web-site. MMCA is a group of professional artists that come together to share ideas and lend support to each other. There is some amazing work on this site. You can venture off into collage cyberspace with all the artists individual web-sites and links. I'm slowly making my way through the list. It's a great place to get inspiration.
The Flowers Grew White There, by Kathryn Kendrick. I love this piece. It's just one of many examples of amazing work people are doing. I have always wanted to create collages. I'm really good at collecting the material. Being a natural pack rat can come in handy. I just never sit down and make them. I obsess over what should go where, to the point that I don't make anything at all. I think I need to let go of the need for it to be perfect and just jump in.
My Record Store Geek found this web-site for me. Stuff On My Cat is a site where you can submit a picture of stuff you have put on your cat. It's just that easy. I can't wait to do this! My cats don't really like stuff on them, but I am determined to submit a photo to this amazing web-site. I have never laughed so hard in my life.
I was checking out Amy's blog and came across a post for Moss Graffiti. I love this idea. If you go to Stories from Space website, there is a recipe on how to make your own moss graffiti. I think this is something I'm going to have to try. Maybe on the bricks I have that already has some moss. I might have to make the bricks mossier. Is there such a thing?
Fabio from Italy posted this bookmark project on his web-site. You can download the PDF template to make "I fell asleep here..." bookmarks. I love the idea, but I would be tempted to make my own sayings or use a quote. The possibilities are endless.
My husband sent me this link to Cute Overload. It's definitely worth checking out. I find each picture is cuter than the last. It will brighten your day.
My husband found this great web-site that has threading diagrams for all Brother brand sewing machines. As I mentioned in my last post, I did have to dust off my machine before I could use it. I still don't know where the manual is. I know I have it because I keep everything. I will probably find it years from now. Luckily the directions on how to thread my machine are printed right it. It didn't have directions on how to thread the bobbin case...which of course is the hardest part. First I called my mom for help. She did a great job of walking me through the directions over the phone, but I still couldn't get it to work. Once my husband found the above directions, I figured it out. I was threading the bobbin case correctly, I just wasn't putting it back into the machine the right way.
Now that my sewing machine is sparkly and threaded, I can move onto a new project. I did buy a pattern to make a skirt. Cross your fingers! I couldn't find the exact New Look pattern I bought, but the one below is very similar. I can do this. It looks easy enough, right? Although I will definitely have to wait until after Christmas.
