Happy Birthday Marsha!

I have a goal this year to send a birthday message to each artist in my art group. So far, so good!  Marsha loves antiques as I do so I wanted to add special touches to her birthday greeting. The background ledger paper is very brittle with the entries written during the 1920's.  I used a stencil sprayed with Blue Denim from Ranger.  The Tulsa Bus Token dangles from the safety pin at the top.  And if I remembered correctly, Marsha enjoys Chinese food too so I added a fortune that I thought was funny.  I mounted my greeting on heavy card stock so that it could be hung if she wished. I misted a "copper/coffee" color onto the bright yellow measuring ribbon to give it an aged look. I really like using the Birthday Girl ATC that I purchased from Red Lead a few years ago.  I layered the stamped image on top of a paper towel that I used to clean the extra ink from my craft sheet.  Viva paper towels look like linen fabric when dried...very cool. The ball trim at the bottom was purchased from Rock Paper Scissors in St. Charles, Missouri.

FYI: You can have a closer view by double clicking on the photo.

Happy Birthday Sis!

It's Mary's birthday today...yes, Valentine's Day!  She's grown tired of receiving Valentine theme items for her birthday.....obviously I went in another direction!  (The photo is mom and dad holding Mary - the first born)

The canvas was dyed on one of my weekend trips with another sister to Arkansas.  I like dying yards and yards of fabric in different color palettes for artwork later in the year.  It's so messy and it's nice to do these types of projects outdoors.  We stay on Bull Shoals lake that has a shaded yard which is perfect so I can hang my material between trees for drying.  We're so far out in the country, one would have to hunt toward town.....so no one cares about my messy artwork.

When I need a break, Annie and I venture into Mountain Home to a delightful quilt shop and that's where I purchased the trim at the bottom along with the batiks that matched my canvas very nicely!

The white lace trim was salvaged from an antique tablecloth. I copied the black and white photo onto photo fabric that I purchased from Joann's Fabric store.

It was a bit frustrating to me that I couldn't locate all my great calligraphy tools and pens for this project.  It was poor planning on my part so I just had to free hand my lettering.  I used Jacquard's No Flow on the canvas before lettering "Family" as that was done with gouache. 

My white lettering pens would have worked perfectly if they weren't so darn dried out....so I had to make several passes and that's NOT a good thing!  My sincere apologies to Reggie Ezell, Lisa Engelbrecht and the dozen other nationally known instructors.

  I also had to go with a more solid background for the lettering to even be seen.  The small strip is adhered using French knots.

I had a new shiny locket that I applied gesso to and then rubbed some off after it was dry to take away the "new" look.  Inside the locket is a birthday wish from me to her.  I sewed antique buttons on with purple thread....an awesome spool that I also purchased at the quilt shop.

I asked my husband to find a twig for me and after a few second in the microwave, I attached it in the middle so that the wall hanging would not droop.  Eyelets are used on the top two corners where I threaded the silk ribbon and tied both the branch and canvas together.

Pending Artwork

My project when I was in Arkansas with my sister was to paint my fabric pages for a book that I am making. I challenged myself to work in a different color pallet than I usually work with. It took awhile before I found my "groove". The weather was perfect and I worked outside with nature. I made a portable laundry line to hang my pages to dry. The following photos are only half of what I painted. I find that I do better with my art projects if I have choices, extra for mistakes, and some to tear into smaller pieces for embellishments.

My sister had equally as much fun as she set up a sewing station with her Singer Featherweight on the deck.

After my project, I took a nap on the deck listening to her sewing machine hum away. That has to be the first nap outside ever....I never had an opportunity before.....what a great experience! (It wouldn't be the same in Midtown Tulsa!


I am definitely going to have fun making this book!

Fabric Book for Jan

The house book exchange was inspired by the newly published book "In This House" by Angela Cartwright and Sarah Fishburn. Our art group decided on partners for this exchange with only one rule. The book needed to be house shaped. In the back of the "In This House" book is a template that I used and enlarged it to my desired size.

The other inspiration for this book was from taking Lisa Engelbrecht's workshop. I had already made one fabric book for Annie (earlier post). Jan, my partner and awesome neighbor, really loved Annie's book and gave me lots of compliments. So I immediately knew that she would love and appreciate this book! !

Originally, I thought I would make it a surprise but that didn't work out so well. I needed Jan to supply me with family photos. She was generous in giving me lots to choose from which made planning the pages easy and fun! All the photos except one were transferred onto muslin fabric.

Enjoy!


You can click on the photo for a closer view. I made a blanket stitch on the roof line on each page.

































There is a special message on this page. I don't know when Jan will discover it....but it will be a surprise when she does!


You can still see the purple marking pen...however, if a few days the lines will completely disappear. I took the photos as soon as the book was completed!







This is the back cover.

Calligraphy Retreat

I'll be away this weekend for a calligraphy retreat with Lisa Engelbrecht! We're making a "Book of Intentions". Will post later......