Sumptious squares leads to Dreams!

Oh those darn sumptious squares started something for me.  As if I needed another distraction.  But maybe I did?  This was fun to create.  I learned about a small Works art show at Dennos Art Museum that anyone can enter, as long as the piece is no larger than 5x7x1.  So........I started playing and dreaming.

Hope you are having fun dreaming too!

Dennos Fun

Oh yes......we had fun!

Sunday was rainy.  Slightly gloomy.

So we popped over to the Dennos Art Museum for inspiration.

we ended up getting inspired, and the giggles and lots of goofiness!

A perfect day!

They have this super cool room at the Dennos with a projector a screen, and super cool technology to create these images of the kids as they moved, danced and posed.  They were going crazy in there. 

They could have stayed for hours.  And I would have kept on snapping picture after picture.

Now....I want to make my own fabric with these prints.  If you saw the most recent season of Project Runway and the episode where they got to design their own fabric......oh boy, oh boy!

scrumptious squares

The Yahoo Mixed media Group is doing a swap for 1 1/2 inch squares for the scrumptious squares in the Mixed Mania book study.  I was going back and forth with ideas and then....with deadline looming I just went for it.  This is a mosaic of polymer pieces.  Can I just say that these were a TON of fun to create.  I have lots of tiles with text.  I would just grab a few and see what they said.  And went with it.  I love how they conjure up little funny stories in my head. 

This is from a series of squares with vintage text, paper fabric (left over from the Stitch Alchemy book study) and lots of UTEE (colored and clear).  Unfortunately there is a lot of glare from the UTEE, making it a bit of a challenge to photograph and scan (I tried both).

Can't wait to see what the others have done with this swap! 

Another package I will eagerly await in the mail!!

Artist Trading Cards

Having a little fun this weekend making my Artist Trading Cards for a swap with yahoo mixed media group. 
These are fabric ATC, embellished with some beads, sequins and hand colored girlie.  I just adore her.  Each one is a little different....different background and framing fabrics.  Can't wait to see what I get in return....love these swaps!

Letter Inspired

I love adding text to my art.  So I mixed some words into a fun pendant for a necklace.  Using sheets of mica, I sandwiched some vintage text, added a rivet and viola a fun pendant.  To add another personal touch to the necklace I added two "petoskey" stone beads.  Petoskey stones are one of Michigan's beautiful stones found along the sandy shores of Lake Michigan.

Letters, Mail and Earth Day

Oh geez.......been a tad bit overwhelmed lately.  Playing catch up here. 
Happy Earth Day!  Honestly, we should celebrate Earth Day everyday!!!!!

In honor of Earth Day I used an eco friendly product, Regreet, which is a fun way to re-purpose greeting cards.  I love it.  Who doesn't love getting mail, the good ol' fashion mail that you get to hold and open and treasure!  I wrote some long overdue letters to a few friends and slipped in a "hop along kit," a kit to repurpose the card that I sent.  What is super fun about all of this is that re-greet will track your card, so you can see where it has traveled.  I LOVE that!  So my cards are officially on their journey.  Since you don't want to write a big, juicy note in the card, I created my own stationary with photos and wrote on the back of the paper.  Now my friends get a quick snapshot of our lives, a fun card and a reason to pass it along and share the love!  Go check out regreet today.....they are having a sale in honor of Earth Day!!  and Yes, I do know the owner of Regreet.  She is a dear friend back in Minnesota.  One of the funniest people I have had the honor to know.  When we get together I am guaranteed to be in tears from laughter.  She is an amazing story teller....amazing!  She started this business last fall and it has already expanded (yeah!!!!).  I am so happy for her.  Check it out!

So what HAVE I been up to?  Did a fun project for a silent auction donation.  Using the garden theme that was given to me, I glazed a terra cotta pot.  I was inspired by Moroccan tiles for my design.  I am pretty pleased with the results.

Tomorrow I am heading into two elementary classes to do a fun clay project.  One class will be making some funky flower pendants for Mother's Day gifts...I can't wait to see how they turn out.  The pendants are in a bisque firing right now so they will be ready to go tomorrow!

Clay rolled out and pendants drawn into clay                       Pendants loaded on kiln shelf     

To be continued......

Happy Earth Day!                        

April Showers

Sweet rain

steady

thirst quenching graditude

Spring Discoveries

Nature that weathered the winter so beautifully.

Honestly.

Flooded with many new art ideas.

Ideas that evolve from past explorations.  It all weaves together.

Time to focus. 

No Fool's today

No Fool's today. 

It was beautiful. 

Delicious. 

Quite Tropical if I must say so myself.

We loaded up the car to enjoy a day at the "beach" on our Stay-Cation for Spring Break 2010.  We headed for my favorite place...the Dunes. 

I brought my Doodle Journal, jelly pens and after some hiking plopped down to doodle and journal (to be finished this evening).  Now that is bliss.

Some of the sights and inspiration of the day....

View from one of the mighty sand dunes that I tackled.  It was amazing.  There was a cool breeze coming off Lake Michigan.  The temperature at the beach was a good 20 degrees cooler than inland.  

A day at the beach is well worth the cooler temperatures.

Who doesn't love rock hunting.  And this rock won our hearts!

Spring Break Souvenir

I just love our little world in Northern Michigan!  We have friends from Minnesota who are making Northern Michigan their Spring Break destination (clearly not your typical "hot spot" this time of the year....bless their hearts...they had hoped to be skiing but we have had amazing weather and no snow left to ski on.  Darn for them; but no complaints from me.)  When I found out that we were going to be able to see them on their visit I had to whip them up a little souvenir.  So I made this sweet little cupcake with the map of Michigan...a heart in Traverse City and then the title "Spring Break 2010"