Warm thoughts on a frigid day...

Well, it's dang cold here in Minnesota. At 10 am this morning we had had more than 50 hours of sub-zero temperatures....and that was 12 hours ago! This is the longest stretch of continuous sub-zero temperatures here in 11 years. Yikes! Needless to say, I've been hunkering down at home. I re-arranged things a bit, put some more Valentine's things out and took some pictures. So I thought I'd share. Here is the view out our front window of the frigid weather outside. I just love these vintage little heart yo-yo pillows I found at an estate sale awhile back.Here is my studio, aka dining room. Love to fill it with my projects and other inspiration:)Found these vintage aprons at a sale this past weekend. I was inspired by the motif and the colors. May have to try blue and pink together in a piece.

Here's to a warm slumber...

Inspiration and trades...

Hi folks! Hope you all had a nice weekend. It's Sunday night and I'm soon off to bed, but I thought I'd show you my initial creative impulse from Bonnie's Inspiration prompt. This truly shows inspiration in action, for me. I had recently recieved the new BrocadeHome catalog and loved all the ornate white frames in it. I had this gawdy black frame that I only used at Halloween and decided to spray paint it flat white. I went to Michael's for the spray paint and found these fabulous Basic Grey transparencies on clearance for 25 cents! I came home and looked through my piles of magazines and catalogs (they always provide the best inspiration!) and put this together. The picture of the chair has written on the bottom I walked inside and took my cues from the lines yet written. I think I like it...hmmm...ask me in the morning:)

I also wanted to ask your opinion on something. In less than 2 months (!!!) I will be attending ArtFest for the very first time. Saying I'm excited is an understatement. I have heard that trading is a big, big thing there. People bring charms, ATC's, or any other handmade little goodies to trade. A little bit of their art to pass along to another and get something in return. I am so into these whimsy toadstools lately (too much Pan's Labyrinth, I guess!) and feel in love with this little girl holding a couple of mushrooms on the vintage Valentine's card I recently found. I decided to combine these all together with some vintage ledger paper and made some little paper rosettes to trade. They remind me of award ribbons. Oh so fun! I have a pin on the back if people would want to hang them on something. I may add some vintage text, probably some real ribbon off the ends, or maybe even some glitter. I can't wait to get my hands on the new Basic Grey Stella Ruby line to make some more. What do you think? Is this something you'd want in a trade?

Vintage Valentine Love

Look at all these super cute vintage Valentine cards I got at an estate sale today. They are so sweet, with little messgages on them and dates from the 30's and 60's. Many say printed in Germany. Fun find!! If you're looking for fantastic vintage Valentine images for your art or whatever go here. They're beautiful and she has many other holiday's (look on the left). Enjoy!!!

Thanks for all the fantastic photos in response to this post. Since we're now doing the challenge once a week, Bonnie is hosting this week here and I will be using your photos for my prompt next Sunday.

I got my March issue of Country Living magazine in the mail today. GREAT issue. Check it out! Pam posted some pictures here. Also found the Romantic Home magazine March issue with Alicia in it at Barnes and Noble yesterday that I was looking for. The issue has a theme of playing with color. Wonderful eye candy! The new Brocade Home catalog also arrived today. You can view the catalog here. I may have to try this with my old swim ribbons:) Yummy colors!

Lets talk about interior design...

Phil says expect an early spring. That sure sounds good to me, since it's -2 degrees here in Minnesota right now! I'm ready to start thinking about spring...and color!

All photos from Tricia Guild Pattern book

I have noticed on a lot of the artsy craftsy blogs out there people love to show pictures of their homes or inspiration from others homes. I know I always love to see a glimpse of the private spaces of total strangers:) Why is that?! Why is it that we are so intrigued by the homes of others? I have also always loved looking at interior design magazines and books. I especially love to see the spaces where artists create and live. It's fun to see where their muse lives.

Last night a book came in at the library that I had eagerly been anticipating for quite a while, Tricia Guild Pattern. She is founder of Designers Guild in London. This could quite possibly be one of the most beautiful books I have ever laid eyes on. The colors are so vibrant and textures so tantilizing I could hardly stand it. It was almost too much. I was so inspired, but didn't even know what to do with the creative spark that it brought forth.

One idea that Pam shared are her home files. She places pictures, bits of this and that into a journal to have a home for the colors, textures, patterns, etc. that inspire her. Also, Jennifer over at the Felt Mouse discusses her process of keeping inspirational pictures from magazines here. Can't forget Jennifer's amazing idea books!!! Do you keep a design journal? Something that you can page through and see how your tastes have changed and look to for inspiration in the dead of winter, when you need a little color?

Sometimes I confuse myself and think that I have to have a "style" that I stick with. In reality one day I'm into soft vintage shabby chic and the next day bright velvet damask. My outlet for my design tastes is certainly my home, but more than that I feel like it comes across in my art. When I look at Tricia Guild's Pattern book it makes me want to go to the scrapbook store and buy patterned paper that inspires me. It makes me want to try something cutting edge. I use patterned paper almost exclusively in my scrapbooking. I love it!! It's almost like looking at fabric for me. It seriously gets my creative juices flowing. Some scrappers that I think are fabulous at using color and pattern are Celine Navarro , Heather Burch, Nura Keif and Rita Weiss. I find it so delightful when people can bring to their art their sense of design.

Here are some design sites I frequent:

Oh Joy!

Heather's PresentPast Collection

Decor8

Print & Pattern

BrocadeHome

Anthropologie

Can't wait to see this....to get a peek inside her world:)

I'd love to hear where you find your design inspiration and how you manifest it. Does your art mirror your home?

Challenge change and {NEW} goodies!

Still need more photos.....pleeeaaasssee (see post below)!! Just one photo, anything. Anyone can send in, you don't have to be doing the challenge. Come on, it'll be fun:) Thanks! Also PLEASE NOTE: Bonnie and I have decided to have the Cabinet of Curiosities prompts once a week instead of twice and we will continue to go back and forth between our two blogs. Bonnie will post this Sunday and I will post the next. So the prompts will continue for 4 more weeks. Hopefully that will help ease some of the "stress" of the prompts coming too quickly and we can all take a breath and continue to enjoy the process. Also it's never too late to play along. Now that we're slowing things down a bit, we hope more people can join in the fun.

Well, I have some fun new artsy stuff around here that I thought I'd share. I'm always oogling Fleamarket studios wonderful finds, so I thought I'd share some of my fun finds from last weekend. You all know she has a blog now, right? So exciting! I don't go to flea markets, but here in Minnesota we have many estate sales each and every weekend all year long!! It's a treasure trove for finding wonderful vintage artsy goodies:) This past weekend I found this fabulous *mint condition* baby book ($2), pretty pink vase ($1), pile of number game pieces (perfect for these calendars), a Barbie paper doll from the mid-80's with some fabulous clothes ($2) and this fun little "basket" made from old colorful cards and sewn together ($1). Love it all! My kids totally scored too, I got a large doll house with all kinds of fun accessories for $6!!!

Then in the mail, I recieved a beautiful altered composition book by the wonderfully creative Tricia Scott. Just found her blog recently and LOVE her style!!! She also included a bunch of goodies including a couple of cards of her amazing art and some ephemera and such. So much fun! Thanks, Tricia.

On my recent trip to Anthropologie (which, by the way, says on thier web site that they are now going to have a catalog *every month*!!!!) for my new journal, I also found this gorgeous little notebook with Amy Butler print fabric on the front. The inside pages also have bits of her designs. Can hardly stand to write in it. Then I literally almost fell off my chair when I found out that Amy Butler now has scrapbook paper and tons of fun scrap supplies with her patterns, including a scrapbook bag ! This was all featured at CHA this past weekend and is soon to be released by K and Co. I am beyond excited about this!!!! You can see it all here and be sure and click on each collection to see the full array:)

If this weren't enough, I got two brand spankin' new mixed media arts books in the mail yesterday. Yawoza! First off, Kaleidoscope by Suzanne Simanaitis of ARTitude zine fame, has compiled a wonderful mega zine book that is full of eye candy and articles about digging deeply into your creative well and making art that is not just about being pretty, but about true expression. Unusual and insightful stuff. Just got a chance to page through it last night and it is full...I mean really really full of inspiration. Also got my the new book by Lesley Riley called Fabric Memory Books. She has always been such an inspiration for me for making fabric art, which is how I started this whole mixed media art "thing":) Love her work and what a treat to have her explain how to make many different kids of fabric books and projects. A must see!

Ok, must breathe now.....

Call for photos!

Photo by Joyce Ravid

I've been paging through some of my old photography books, some of my favorite online photo inspirations (from the uber creative Sarah Bowen), reading this new challenge on Misty's blog, and enjoying this genius idea. So now I would like to make a call for photos (actually 1 photo) from YOU! To prepare for my prompt for the Cabinet of Curiosities challenge that I will be posting on Sunday, I would love for anyone that visits this blog (who is interested) to email me one photo from their life. It could be absolutely anything.. their studio, their house, outside, wherever! Please send one photo to my hotmail email at artsy_mama@hotmail.com and also tell me where you live. I will be using it for my Sunday prompt, so make sure it is something that you would be ok with me using in a piece of art and publishing on my blog. I am always amazed at how blogs bring people together from all over the world. I would love to get a glimpse into each and everyone one of your lives. Thanks so much!!! edit- if you have a flickr account and just want me to pick one of your photos, let me know in the comments section and please give me a link to your flickr page. Thanks.

In other exciting news, I will be starting a new art journal centered around photos in this lovely new book I got at Anthropologie. The mushroom fabric pocket is also from there, it came on an adorable kids apron, but I just had to use it here. Hope to get started on it and share pictures from inside soon!

Also saw the movie Pan's Labyrinth this past weekend. Wow...quite the show! Go see it. Very intense. Totally gets your creativity flowing.

Cabinet of Curiosities {Wonder}

Ok, here we go with prompt #4....does that really mean this is the half way point!?! Thank you for such amazing feedback on these challenges. All of your work is so inspiring and real. If you're still working on other prompts, or just getting started, please don't feel like you're behind or that it's too late. This Cabinet of Curiosities project is meant to be done at your own pace. However you work best.

That being said, now we're going to think about the concept of wonder.....

won·der (wŭn'der) n.
One that arouses awe, astonishment, surprise, or admiration; a marvel.

The emotion aroused by something awe-inspiring, astounding, or marvelous.
An event inexplicable by the laws of nature; a miracle.

We're going to look at the first definition in regards to art. Who or what is it that inspires you...give you a sense of awe and admiration? This could be a particular artist or maybe something outside in the natural world. Think about a certain style you enjoy, or maybe a pattern or a color pallete. We are going to do a little "lifting" today.

In the scrapbooking world, "scraplifting" or the new term "scrapjacked" is popular. There's even a whole new blog by this name that you can check out here, it looks like a lot of fun! They defined this process as taking a scrapbookers (or other artists) style and "take their style hostage" and come up with your own take on their designs. Reinvent.

For our challenge I would like to open this concept up to lifting any sort of art or concept that arises a sense of wonder in you. Find a certain piece of art that you love. Go outside and be inspired by something in the natural world. Take this concept and go where you want with it. Have fun. Make it your own. Challenge yourself.

I have been very inspired by the work of Lauren Mumford. She does some amazingly creative things with vintage objects and creates her own Cabinets of Curiosities, of sorts. Check out some of her fabulous work below.

Artwork above by Lauren Mumford
I was especially in awe of these amazing glittery box creations by Lauren (below). So I took this as my inspiration and "art jacked" it and came up with my own version. This was really a lot of fun and as you get going, it'a amazing how your own style and creative ideas blossom and the piece becomes truly your own. Can't wait to see what artists you all pick and the amazing pieces you come up with. Go....have fun....and art jack someone!!!

P.S. I'm a librarian, so I always have a book to recommend:) I came across this book called The Art of Wonder: A History of Seeing by Julian Spalding when "researching" for this post. I ordered a used copy and just got it yesterday. It looks absolutely wonderful. (pun intended!) "This book tells the story of wonder- how our wonder gave rise to our religious beliefs, to our arts and sciences, and to many of our social structures."

Cabinet of Curiosities {Dream}

It's time for theme #3 of the Cabinet of Curiosities challenge! This prompt is over on Bonnie's blog. What she wrote about dreaming is fantastic. You're all going to have a lot of fun with this one:) My page consists of dreams that I have of traveling and exploring. The black-and-white picture is of me at the age of 19, when I went to Italy on my own for a creative photography class in Tuscany. Talk about a dream come true!! The picture was taken by professional photographer Harvey Stein with his pin hole camera. I've always loved it. Thinking about dreams, I remember back to wanting to be a National Geographic photographer. I think it was the combination of seeing new places along with my love of photography that made that seem so appealing. I guess I'm living a tiny bit of that dream by documenting my daily life in pictures and noting the changing of the seasons through photography. We'll see you back here for prompt #4 on Sunday.

I also jazzed up my banners for my etsy shop. They just seemed to plain...not quite me, ya know?! I added some yummy pink velvet ribbon, a flower on top of the rosette, some more ribbon and a vintage card from my collection to each and now they seem complete:)

As far as the moo cards I shared in yesterday's post. They do take orders from the US. The company is out of the UK, but I am in the US and had no problem. They came pretty fast and shipping wasn't bad at all! You can see some other fantastic ones here and here.

Feelin' the love...

I can't wait to see what Bonnie is going to post for prompt #3 tomorrow (Thursday) for the Cabinet of Curiosity challenge. I have really enjoyed seeing everyone's fabulous work! I think the prompt I did for Curiosity really challenged people and I love that you all see that as a good thing:) What fun, interesting, dynamic art everyone came up with. Fantastic!! Thank you for all of your great feedback on the challenge and the wonderful words on my creation. This is really a lot of fun! Remember I have links to most of the participants blogs at the right, so be sure and check out what amazing things people are creating.

I've been busy making a few more things for my etsy shop. After having my lovely holiday banner up since the first week of November that I made in Pam Garrison's class at Silver Bella, I decided it was finally time to come down. So I was inspired to make a similar vintage-style banner for Valentine's day. These have fun glitter hearts, sweet roses and a vinyl banner that looks like lace. I made a couple different styles for my shop, so check them out!

I also got my moo cards in the mail with my own art on them. How fun are these?!!!!

It's a girls life!

My sister-in-laws baby shower yesterday was fabulous! The house was decked out in pink, girly splendor. I got the nicest comment from my husband's cousin, who said that our house felt so warm and loving. Aww..very sweet! I also wanted to say how excited I am to see all the results for prompt #2 for the Cabinet of Curiosities. Thanks for all the great comments. So fun to see that people were inspired. Have a great Monday!

This doll is made by Nicole over at Raggedy Old Annies. Check out her blog...her dolllies are just adorable!

Cabinet of Curiosities: Prompt #2 {Curiosity}

Wow, the pages you are all creating are simply stunning! Great work and so much inspiration:) Sharon was nice enough to post this wonderful tutorial on starting an altered book using a children's board book. Go check it out! I'm posting this prompt a bit early, because the baby shower is tomorrow and I wasn't sure I'd have time to post. I can't wait! I'll be sure and take lots of pictures.

Now on to prompt #2......

cu·ri·os·i·ty (kyr'ē-ŏs'ĭ-tē)
A desire to know or learn.
A desire to know about people or things that do not concern one; nosiness.
An object that arouses interest, as by being novel or extraordinary: kept the carved bone and displayed it as a curiosity.
A strange or odd aspect.

As artists, we all have an innate desire to create. I know that my artistic curiosity is piqued when I see a piece of art that I really love and I wonder how it was made. I especially find myself baffled when looking at mixed media art that has so many wonderful layers and dimension and it almost feels like magic in how it all came together to make the finished piece.

Are YOU ready to make some magic?

For those of you that are lucky enough to have seen Sally Jean Alexander's fabulous new book full of eye candy and curiosities, Pretty Little Things, you may have tried some of these techniques already. Even if you have, the fun part is that your art will turn out different every time, depending on the order you do the steps. I first chose my color palette for the project. I was inspired by this picture in a magazine. I didn't use the picture in the layout, but it helped me to gather my supplies that all had the same feeling and mood that I was getting from the picture. Supplies you will need: pen, paper to work on, acrylic paints and brushes, gel medium or white glue, pretty papers that you love, old books (for text), magazines (for text or images), photograph, ink, chalk or oil pastels, baby wipes, pencil, rubber stamp and ink pad, sandpaper, scissors, 3D objects (flowers, buttons, ribbon, etc.) and charcoal pencil. Now write the words: PAINT, MAGAZINE, TEXT, PAPER, CHALK, PASTELS, CHARCOAL, PENCILL, STAMP, SCRATCH, WIPE, INK, PATTER, 3-D, WRITE, PHOTOGRAPH, SMUDGE, DRAW, SAND, SURPRISE onto a piece of paper. Cut out each word individually, put them in a bowl and mix them up. First, layout a piece of cardstock, watercolor paper, or canvas that is the size of collage you wish to create. Now you will close your eyes and pull out one word at a time and do that task on your paper. You can preset your limit (do the first ten tasks you pull out of the bowl) or do them all. The first word I picked was write. Write anything, a word, a phrase, or a single letter, any size with pencil, pen, ink, crayon, whatever! I chose to write a little bit about curiosity. Next I chose paint. Apply acrylic paints haphazardly on your canvas. Mix the paint up; don't worry about getting multiple colors on your brush. Next I chose picture/photograph. Tape, glue, stample, or whatever way you wish, attach your picture or photo to your page. This image is from Anahata Katkin. She sells some wonderful books with images to use in collage through her PaPaYa shop.Paper. Use gel medium or white glue to apply torn scraps of text, pretty or antique papers randomly. Use a paper towel to wipe off the excess gel medium so that the paper doesn't wrinkle.

Magazine. Tear a part of a page out of a magazine. Use gel medium or glue to adhere it to your collage. Wipe with baby wipes to remove areas of paint and ink. The more you rub the magazine, the more ink comes off and the more distressed it appears.
Sand. Sand the surface in various spots to remove layers. Select the grade of sandpaper you wish to use. Be sure and sand when the paint is dry.
Text. Tear a page from an old book. Use a sentence with at least three consecutive words from anywhere in the text. Also, create a new sentence using individual words that you cut from the page and rearrange.
Pattern. Create a pattern with any medium. A pattern is something repeated at least three times.
Chalk/oil pastels. Use randomly to color areas or create lines and shapes. 3D. Add a dimension object (or two..or three..) to you page. Let your imagination run wild!
Charcoal. Create depth by sketching, outlining, drawing or shading with a charcoal pencil. Rub it on the edges of the torn paper. I first used charcoal pencil on a piece in my class with Carolyn Peeler at Silver Bella. She said she had learned it from Sally Jean. Wow, what amazing depth this gives. I love it!!!
The final slip that I pulled out was stamp. Choose any rubber stamp and any ink and stamp as many times as you like. I stopped here, feeling like my page was complete. The remaining slips are: Smudge- wet your finger and wipe your artwork to create smudges. Draw- use pencil, pen or ink to outline something already on your collage, or draw a new shape. Scratch- scratch your artwork using a awl, craft knife, scissors. You may scratch randomly or a pattern in the surface. Surprise! This is a freebie, you choose the task. Do something you've already done or something you've never done. Explore!
That's it! Here's my finished piece. Have fun and let your curiosity run wild! Be sure and post your link in the comments so that we can all take a peek at your wonderful creations. We'll see you over on Bonnie's blog on Thursday for prompt #3.