Thank Shoe RSM!

Thank you Roberta Sperling, Editor in Chief and Sarah Hoban, awesome writer for RSM! Loved, loved the feature article of Sister Act. And sending you huge hugs for posting photos of my shoe on your Facebook page and in the new issue!

If you are one my blog followers you already know that I love sending a shoe in the mail. Each one is different and being sent for a different reason. Each shoe that I have altered has been a lot of fun for me making and mailing. I have been told by the recipient that there is a whole lotta joy in receiving such a piece of "mail"....very unexpected!

Happy Birthday Margaret!

 If you haven't already noticed, I have a thing about sending a shoe instead of a greeting card.  My sister Margaret lives in Memphis and is crazy about shoes so it was a special treat for her to receive my sentiment! 

 The rub-on's were sealed using Claudine Hellmuth's gel medium.  I have in the past hand lettered my sentiment using a permanent marker and then sealing.

 An art friend sent me a package of wooden buttons with a bird theme.  I now have one button left!  I use button-hole thread to sew the button onto the fabric flowers.

 It's hard to see inside the shoe so I will tell you that I wired pearls taken from an old necklace inside the bird's nest.  The nest rests on top of gold velvet leaves.  The inside sole paper was cut to size and then I collaged a couple of other images on top.  The bird was fussy cut from a companion paper and then I added the "fly" tag and gold crown.  I stamped the sentiment directly onto the paper.

I found tiny green trim in my stash that coordinated perfectly with the paper. I am now the talk of the neighborhood and her circle of friends!  Don't you love it when that happens!

Mail Art for Judi

Judi is a "shoe horse".....so when the theme of "mail art" was selected for our art group, I penciled in my notebook "Shoe for Judi"!  Her response to me made it worth all my creative effort!!!  Thanks girlfriend for all the kudos!

It you want to send a mail art shoe, just be sure to follow the postal regulations.

The birdhouse wooden buttons were given to me by another art friend.  It was perfect for adhering all the flower layers together.

A rubber stamp quote was stamped onto paste paper than I had made in a calligraphy workshop.  It was serendipity that it matched the background paper so well.  I attached a tiny tag I made with hand lettered "fly" with a string.  I received years ago before birds were so popular from another artist in a swap where she added a tag in the bird's beak.  I loved that detail so much that I have added it to my many birds too.

Three small pearls from an old necklace was wired to a nest embellishment before it was secured using E-6000 glue.  A velvet green leaf was placed under the nest.  OMG, I am beyond thrilled that Judi loved receiving her shoe!