Last minute...

Still looking for a fun and easy last minute Valentine's craft for children and adults to do together? This is courtesy of Martha and the full instructions are here. An adult will probably need to do the folding, but my four year old wrote out his friends names on them and signed them. He also punched the holes for the ribbon. We filled them with candy hearts:)
Enjoy!
Be sure and stop by on Valentine's Day. I'm participating in Jenn and Cheryl's Secret Admirer swap and we'll be having some fun here in ArtsyMama-land!

Rosey collections...

After being inspired by LushBella's lovely found object collages here and Linda Crispell's amazing collections showcased in her home here, I decided to display some of the treasures I received in the For the Love of Supplies swap in shadowboxes to be admired and appreciated.

Here is the new view from the dining room table. Pretty festive!
I also never realized that I had a collection of pink and blue aprons. I find them at estate sales all the time for a dollar or two. I decided to display these as well and also to cover up some of the clutter...or maybe it just creates more. Not sure:)

And mizz blue eyes, always right along side me on my crafting adventures.

Hope you're having a great weekend!

Supply love!

The winners of the goodie bags from the Anthropologie Valentine's event are:

Scarlett

Sandi M

Amy B

Please email me your address at artsy_mama@hotmail.com

Congrats!

I wanted to share the gorgeous boxes of supplies I've been receiving from my partners for the Love of Supplies swap. See tons more of the gorgeous creations that people have made here.
The wonderful Kim Caldwell sent me this Valentine box decorated in the most gorgeous glittery pinks. She then filled it to the brim with vintage goodness. Love it all, Kim!
Kim was so sweet to send my kiddos some goodies as well. We're happy campers here:) Here is what I sent to Kim.Shoshanah was another partner of mine. She has the most fun things! She owns an amazing shop, Hannah Grey Curiosities and Dry Goods. So she certainly gets her hands on some fabulous stuff. Look at all the fun retro vintage treasures!


She sent bundles of fabric and trim along with unique one-of-a-kind goodies of every kind! Thanks, Shosh!

My third partner was Michelle. Her delightful box put a smile on my face! Tons of great supplies here for my crafting endeavors. Thank you!!! Here is what I sent to Michelle.

So there you have it, folks! Now I am set with Valentine supplies for years to come:) One of the perks of hosting your own swaps is you usually end up with several partners when things go a bit awry. It all works out in the end. I hope that the others in the swap are enjoying their packages and please share them on your blog or the flickr group site.

Happy Weekend!

How much do I love you?

You know I'm always looking for ways to tell you guys how much I love you. Tonight I have some fun projects and a giveaway to share from my latest adventure.

Thanks to Jade over at the Craving Anthropologie blog I found out about an event put on by ReadyMade magazine at my local Anthropologie store about the art of making personal love notes. Seemed right up my alley so I headed out before hitting my caucus to vote.Two fabulous ladies from ReadyMade magazine flew from Chicago to share with us some unique, crafty ideas for Valentine's Day. They demonstrated the three projects above.First was pillow with a little pocket in front to tuck in a note of endearment. The next was this adorable You Light My Fire embroidered shadow box. They start with a shadowbox and put screen on it just like you would stretch canvas. They then embroidered the saying and little fire picture. Too cute!The third project was this Love Mobile Hanging Valentine. The trick that I thought was ingenious was to poke holes in the rubber seal around the top and hang your mobile string from the rubber. There could be endless uses for this design. Fun stuff and I won this very one as a door prize!They also had a poster (see top of post) that had some other fun crafty Valentine's Day ideas.A stitched little booklet to write notes to your hunny.Remember shrinky dinks? This is a heart keychain made from a shrinky sheet.A note made with gorgeous Basic Grey paper.Very tongue-and-cheek...very ReadyMade. Love it!Since you know I'm always thinking of my blog readers, I have three goodie bags to give away from the event. Each bag contains a copy of ReadyMade magazine, four sheets of Basic Grey papers from the Boxer collection, a page of Basic Grey Valentine rub ons, postcards explainging how to do each of the projects, a shrinky sheet and an Aveda gift.

To be entered in the giveaway just leave a comment here and make sure that I can reach you. I will draw a winner Friday morning.

Toodles!

The BE book is back!

This was a round robin book that I began just about two years ago. Sadly, not all round robins work out. The person I was going to do this with became quite busy with her art and writing her own book, etc. that it didn't work out. However, it arrived safe and sound back home to me this weekend. It was so fun to see it again after all this time, so I wanted I'd share it with you. The Be quotes are from the book BE: Life is here and it is now by Kobi Yamada.



She enclosed a bunch of goodies and I had just bought some of these fabulous shadowboxes. I thought they made the perfect display of my mail "art" that I received. I think I will do this more often. Not even necessarily stick them down, but just give them their own presentation for me to oogle at for a few days:)

Art + Cold= Fun!!

What do we do here in Minnesota in the middle of the winter for entertainment? We make Art Shanty's! There is a whole community of them on the lake we're just a few blocks away from. They have a festival of sorts where they do bike races on the ice, activities for kids and each shanty has a different theme. It was "mild" here today (in the 20's), so we ventured out and drove out onto the ice (yikes!!) to take a peek...Here's the Shanty of Misfit Toys.This one looks like a space station.The "ice garden" sure was colorful!

The Chalkboard Shanty.

Of course, gotta have a fishing shanty.

How would you like your office out here. Burrrr....

How's that for crazy??

February 1st!!!

Today is the day to mail out if you're in the For the Love of Supplies Valentine's Swap!! Look at the stunning boxes of goodies people have been sharing on the flickr group. Check them all out here! Gorgeous work, ladies!

The art of thrifting...

I've been having a lot of fun working on the "thrifting" chapter of my book. I pretty much exclusively go to estate sales here in Minnesota. If I'm traveling somewhere I sometimes will hit an antique shop or two. I hardly ever go to flea markets. I just don't run across them much in this neck of the woods. After reading this interview with Lisa Congdon on collecting, I was drawn to the book she referenced by Susan Sontag. I picked up a copy at the local library and it opens with this wonderful passage that I wanted to share with you, along with pictures of some of my favorite thrifted items. The book refers to a flea market, but I think its a similar mentality for any type of thrifting.

"It is the entrance to a flea market. No charge. Admittance free. Sloppy crowds. Vulpine, larking. Why enter? What do you expect to see? I'm seeing. I'm checking on what's in the world. What's left. What's discarded. What's no longer cherished. What had to be sacrificed. What someone thought might interest someone else. But it's rubbish. If there, here, it's already been shifted through. But there may be something valuable, there. Not valuable, exactly. But something I would want. Want to rescue. Something that speaks to me. To my longings. Speaks to, speaks of. Ah.."

"Why enter? Is there already enough? If could find out it's not here. Whatever it is, often I am not sure, I could put it back down on the table. Desire leads me. I tell myself what I want to hear. Yes, there's enough.

I go in." from The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag