A Card Given and a Card Received

Happy Monday! I hope that your week has gotten off to a nice start.

I recently made a card for a friend of mine who is celebrating a birthday this week. Since I had a lot of supplies already out, I decided to fashion it off the piece that I created for my "500 posts" write-up the other day. I really love these beachy gals and thought that she would too.

Once again, I used some BasicGrey papers

and some corrugated cardboard,

along with ribbon and punch-out letters...

This will be on the inside.

I don't glue these down until I stamp on them or

 I write on them.

In case I make a mistake,

it affords me the luxury of making another one.

You know how that goes!...

But my biggest excitement was when I received

this beautiful card from my dear blog friend,

Nancy Maxwell James at Sugar Lump Studios.

She is such an awesome artist,

with a blog to match,

and you can find her here.

Thank you Nancy. I love it!!

Have a lovely rest of the week!

A great class to take, and a beach photo to share...

Hello friends!

I thought that you might be interested an on-line class that is being taught by Suzy Quaife, "Peaceful and Pondering Fabric Lace Book". If you are not familiar with Suzy's beautiful fabric and lace books and collages, check out her blog and her class here. She is also holding a giveaway to include some of the beautiful materials that she uses in her stunning artwork. I have already signed up, and look forward to September 14th, when the class begins.

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I may be absent from this blog for most of this month, since this summer has taken a "busy" turn. More on that later, but hopefully September will be a little less hectic. In the meantime, this late part of the summer seems to be portrayed in this lovely old photo which I recently purchased. Don't you just love Grandmother with her daughters and grandchildren having a nice day at the beach? I am not sure where it was taken, and wonder if the flags they are holding are country flags, or for something else. If you know, please drop me a comment. If you wish, save this photo to your computer and use it in some artwork!

Together by the sea

is our favorite place to be...

Do you have a favorite place?

Have a splendid evening!

Taking a class for a different twist in my art...

Hello there and happy February.

January is over. Hooray. My least favorite month of the year. I hate cold weather, and since Christmas is over, there is no need for it anymore. At least February holds the hope of spring here in North Carolina. If we're lucky!

Before boring January ended, I decided that not only was I ready for a change in the weather, but I was also ready for a change in my art. I found my self yearning to return to my mixed media roots of having some paper fun. With some color. Of course my love for vintage photos, fabrics, laces, and buttons will never go away, so I wanted to find something new to work on that would enable me to use all of my little lovelies. Not to mention doing something with all of the gorgeous scrapbook papers that I have, but rarely use. Oh, and let's not forget those rubber stamps!

If you purchase Somerset Studio magazine, you may remember the May/June 2014 issue, where the Artist Portfolio featured Heather Murray, a wonderful Canadian collage artist. I was instantly drawn to her art, which is colorful and vintage at the same time.

Here is the cover of that issue...

...and a portion of the article...

...along with some of Heather's work...

So I purchased one of her on-line classes, and am glad that I did. The class that I took was "The Memory Portrait Painting Project", and in it she shares how she builds up her substrate, and then applies color to her vintage photos and ephemera. What fun!

You can find the class here at The Trodden Path. And you can see more of Heather's art on her blog, My Ephemeral Imagination.

The class is geared to someone who wants to use family photos in their mixed media art, but of course, you can use any photo that you like, which is what I did. It was so much fun to work with acrylics again. And I got over my initial fear of taking an online class. The videos are great and the artist works in real time. It is the best of both worlds, as it almost feels like you are in the same room as the artist, but without other class interruptions and trying to keep up, since you are able to stop and restart the video as needed. I even signed up for a second class with another artist. More about that in a future post.

This is my first piece,

which I have entitled

"The Echoless Shore".

It's all about using what you have,

with a little color from cheap acrylic paints...

I got to use one of my favorite old beach photos

(I concede that I need a little practice on

the faces!)...

...and another for the background...

Not to mention some vintage sheet music,

a starfish from Florida,

and some fibers and paper from 

Basic Grey...

As I said before, I can't wait for warm weather, 

and I guess this piece proves that!

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Have you tried anything new lately?

Sewing Mends the Soul: Artwork by an Amazing Artist

Good morning. I hope that you had a great weekend.

This post is rather late in coming, but prior to the holidays I purchased a beautiful fabric collage from an amazing textile artist whose work I greatly admire. I have followed her blog for a long time now and finally decided to make one of her creations my own. It now hangs on the vanity mirror above my sewing station, and you will see why I put it there.

Suzy is from Australia, and her blog appears on my sidebar along with other blogs that I love to read. If you haven't yet spent some time with her, you can also visit her here. You will love Suziqu's Threadworks! Also be sure to check out her Etsy shop.

I took some photos of her creation.

It came beautifully wrapped in tissue

pattern paper, 

with a vintage doily,

and this lovely tag...

Pardon this bad photo, 

but I wanted to show you where I hung it.

It was hard to get a good picture because of

the reflection in the mirror...

so I took some closeups.

There is a lovely tag...

... which sits in a gorgeous lace pocket...

It has a vintage wire hanger...

...and many beautiful embellishments.

Her name for this piece shows below...

Now can you see why I hung it where I did?

Thanks, Suzy!

It's so nice to have this piece in my studio 

where I can think of you every time I sit down to sew!

Here's to beautiful artwork and their fine creators.

We are so lucky to have them.