MMM: What Was She Thinking?

"A Love Like Ours"

16 ' Round Canvas

I planned to do a canvas for my girlfriend's birthday (she requested something with a picture of her girls) so I asked her to email me some of her favorite shots. When I saw this one - with her eldest daughter in awe of their new arrival - I knew that I also had my piece for Mixed Media Monday's theme; what was she thinking. The expression of love and tenderness for her new baby sister was so powerful, that I was inspired to find a love poem to accompany it. The poem I found, A Love Like Ours, ended up serving as both the title and inspiration for the piece above.

Detail of acrylic base and pencil drawing

Several layers of watered-down paint are added

Detail of fabric frame - cut and staggered for interest

The painting was made using acrylic, vintage music sheets and wallpaper (which were then brushed over with watered-down paint in order to blend them into their surroundings), charcoal pencil (for both definition of the shapes and as a way to shade the edges), a ton of matte gel medium (to both adhere the collage elements and as a final wash), the tiniest bit of gold glitter (dusted on top of the gel medium before it dried to give the piece movement), a Swarovski crystal (at the ear) and a bit of fabric used as a frame. The poem is layered on top of the "awning" and reads:

A LOVE LIKE OURS

Within my heart their lies untouched / A love that's true and pure. / Someday I will reveal to you / And then you'll know for sure / That a love like ours was meant to be / Cultured in true romance / It will flourish well as you soon can tell / If you'll only take the chance. / Please lend me your heart and trust me / And let me call you my own. / For as long as our heart is growing / We will never be alone. -- Marvin W. Mabbit

Thank you for looking! To see more pieces on the theme, "What was he/she thinking", please check out all the talent on www.MixedMediaMonday.wordpress.com. xo

One World One Heart- CLOSED

2010 One World One Heart

Blogging event January 25th - February 15

I am so happy to be participating in the OWOH event for the first time this year. As a relatively new blogger, I'm grateful for the chance to meet like-minded artists and get to know some of you through this wonderful international party.

I thought about what such a varied family of artists might crave, and I decided that, like me, what we would all love is more stuff! So I offer you some of my favorites in my first serving of Blog Candy. . .

Win this OWOH Blog Candy!

Included in the package above are some of the things that I most love to work with. You will find: 6 swatches of fabric, Scrappy Chic ephemera, a wood mounted stamp, a bag of

Westrim Crafts Bead Rochaille, a 40 piece box of Swarovski crystals, a supply of vintage pages torn from a French book, 2 Martha Stewart tubes of glitter, alpha stickers and cardstock tags, Nostalgiques Stickers, 3 x 3 Bellishments frame, 3 distressed tags, a bird, a butterfly and an original vintage French postcard (used and stamped) from my personal collection.

For your chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment here and have a blog or email address so that I may find you when you win. The winner will be drawn by random and will be announced here on February 15th.

To participate in this event yourself, please click on the One World One Heart button on the right. There you will find all the answers you need to open your (blog) home to the world . . .

Kristin xo

MMM: Games People Play

"They All Talk About Her"

MMM: Games People Play

12 x 12 wood panel

I was really inspired this week by the current issue of Somerset Studio. In it, there is a wonderful article by Kristen Robinson, Unlocking My Creative Soul, in which she talks about taking a panel that she started in a workshop a while ago, and reworking it into something new. I too took a workshop a couple of years ago (Art and Soul) and although I put the pieces away as soon as I got home, I knew that one day, I would like to do something with them. Ironically, the artist whom I took the workshop from also had a wonderful article in this Jan/Feb issue: Misty Mawn. Her piece, Journaling through January, was (as she is in person) so beautiful and inspiring. I love the ethereal quality of her work and I tried to emulate that in my reworked piece above.

For this week's Mixed Media Monday prompt, Games People Play, I wanted to explore the mind games we can conjure up. The central image was from a journal that we made in class. The image was a magazine transfer of a sunglasses ad, and the body was defined by Misty herself. The "scarf" was created with torn ledger pieces and the "buttons" were made from a vintage dictionary page. The background has a base of acrylic and ink with stamping in relief. I reworked it by adding some definition with white pen and charcoal and then created the 12 x 12 wood base from many layers of acrylic, torn paper and more stamping in relief. I added a crumpled and distressed page torn from a vintage Reader's Digest version of The Three Faces of Eve. The quote on her glasses was also taken from a line in the story, "Eyes, eager and jubilant in anticipation of the applause she was sure would be forthcoming, she sat in her chair."

To be honest, I don't know if I was ready for Misty Mawn's class at the time. I was coming from a place of crafting more that creating art, and it is only now that I feel I could attempt to do the original teachings some justice. Thank you Misty for the continued inspiration!

To see more pieces on Games People Play, please check out all the talent on www.MixedMediaMonday.wordpress.com. To see more of Misty Mawn's work, please log on to www.mistymawn.typepad.com.

Art Tags for You!

First 3 to comment will win

As my Valentine's gift to you, I am offering these Art Tags to the first three people who would like them. Last month, I was the lucky recipient of one of three Art Tags that Peggy Gatto gave away on her blog and and now, as promised (finally), I am paying it forward.

If you would like to participate, please leave a comment and I will later ask for your address so that I may send it to you. And if you too would like to pay it forward, please do so. Take your time and have fun . . .

To see the original inspiration, please visit the talented Peggy at http://www.peggysamusement.blogspot.com/. I know you will love her work (and spirit) as much as I do!

MMM: Wings

"The Deluxe Cupid Kit"

Altered tri-fold box

(may be enlarged to show detail)

Detail of Wings

Makeup box before alteration

This week's Mixed Media Monday's prompt, "Wings," was the perfect excuse to use a tri-fold box that I received makeup brushes in for Christmas. As Valentines is around the corner, I thought that creating Cupid's wings would be appropriate for the theme. Since I had more space to fill within the box, what started out as a pair of wings turned into a complete kit: actually, "The Deluxe Cupid Kit."

From Left to right, the kit includes Cupid arrows in 3 sizes (love, marriage and baby carriage), a gold heart and key, the decorative wings (I imagine these would be used for formal occasions) are in the center and an affirmation mirror inscribed with the word "lover," and a bottle of fairy dust (borrowed from real fairies) in the top right corner. In the bottom right corner are intention tips (for use with the arrows) and a note, Thinking of You. I assume that the kit would be given as a gift for those little fellas who have just earned their wings . . .

The dirty details: This piece was made using (oh, so many) items. The arrows are craft store lollipop sticks covered in acrylic and glitter. The gold heart and key are from my stash of collectibles. The heart was dusted with glitter. The wings were made by creating a template out of cardstock which was then covered in individually placed feathers in both white and pink. Touches of glitter and Swarovski crystals were added for oomph. The plate on the bottom was covered in glitter and used to house a sentiment, "love," which was taken from a fabric picture from Crafty Sentiments. The mirror was an old Christmas ornament that was distressed, painted and glittered (white rub-ons created the etched effect for "lover") and and the fairy dust bottle was created using some tubing, glue, crystals (as the stopper) and filled with iridescent glitter. The wings are from another ornament. Finally, the arrow tips were made from picture corners which were painted and glittered, and the Thinking of You tag (Anna Griffin) was aged and placed along side a pink feather. The entire outsides were covered in flocked pink and red paper and the inside was covered in batting and bright pink satin fabric. Lastly (I mean it this time) the frame was created using several Anna Griffin die cut flowers that were whitewashed and (surprise) detailed with glitter. The final touch as another fabric picture from Crafty Sentiments, this time of a Cupid Doll herself. . .

You still with me? I know; it took for-ev-er to make too: thanks for hanging with me! To see more pieces on Wings, please check out all the talent on http://www.mixedmediamonday.wordpress.com/.

MMM: Try Something New

"Dumb Birds"

5 X 7 Canvas Board

Loving this week's Mixed Media Monday prompt: try something new. I had some new products that I wanted to experiment with (Tim Holtz Distress crackle paint and my new - oh so pretty - box of Martha Steward glitters to name two) and this seemed the perfect excuse. In addition to the new products, I also wanted to try my hand at some new techniques. With that in mind, I played around with the idea of paper piecing with fabric. I have long admired birds (in artwork and in general) but I just can't seem to get the look I want with pens. When playing around with the idea of creating what I wanted via fabric, a whole new world was opened up to me. I love the concept, and when I found vintage text to support the theme (from the 1957 Learning to Read picture book that was still lying around from last week's piece), it all came together.

This piece was made using a canvas board (crushing on these lately), acrylic, the new crackle paints (in broken china and picket fence) both under and over glitter, fabric and Swarovski crystals. The shoes were made from fabric backed with cardstock so that I could cut them out easily. The sentiment, "dumb birds" came from the chick herself: why should one fly when there are so many beautiful shoes to choose from?

Thank you for looking! To see more pieces on Something New, please check out www.MixedMediaMonday.wordpress.com.

Journal Backgrounds

Leaf mask on top of layered acrylic

Coffee grounds, glue, acrylic, glitter and cinnamon

I have the new Art Journaling by Somerset Studio in my hot little hands and could not wait to try out some new techniques this week. I am so inspired by looking at examples of art journals; it is a practice that I would love to commit myself to. Having said that, although I have completed a couple of pages in the past, that is about the extent of it. But, with inspiration in hand, and with a further prompt to use things like cinnamon in my art (thanks to Aino's new blog), I have made a start. Now I think I will start a new book; this time using watercolor as a backdrop as - let's face it - I can't imagine how I will actually get a pen to work on some of the heavily textured pages above. Either way, I will let you know what happens. . . .

Resolution Rebel

The new year is here and unlike most Januaries where I have a plan to start fresh - focusing on what I want to accomplish or resolve - this year I have been dragging my feet. Not that I don't want to loose a few lbs., or make my way to the gym more often (I would benefit from both of those), but I guess I just want to do it on my own terms for once. I suppose that this year, I am a Resolution Rebel. So, instead of focusing on my outward appearance or trying to make some lofty goal that I may just squash a few weeks in, for 2010, I have decided to take it one day at a time. My only focus will be to look for the beauty in everyday things. Look for the beauty in art, look for the beauty in nature, look for the beauty of words, thoughts and small moments that I don't want to take for granted. Yesterday Kendra and I actually made lemonade. We cut roses from our garden, placed flowers all over the house, and then took some lemons off our tree and made the most of them. The lemons were so sweet and the smell was beautiful. And see, it worked. Looking for the beauty in everyday things. Sometimes it's the simple things that make the most difference. . . .

MMM: Leftovers

"The Red Dress"

5 X 7 Canvas Board

This week's Mixed Media Monday challenge was to create a piece of art representing (or using) leftovers. It was such an interesting prompt as it could go in so many ways: should I do a piece of art on holiday leftovers or should I use leftover supplies to create a piece of art? While I choose to use leftover supplies, I also wanted to incorporate something that I have never used or thought of before as a way to really challenge myself. I looked at everything this week with new eyes, and when I came across a piece of broken glass under our Christmas tree, I knew I had found what I was looking for. The turquoise ornament glistened in the light of the holiday hurricane (that is, on the floor under all the hastily opened presents) and I knew that I had found yet another way to create sparkle on a piece. . .

The Red Dress was created using a Canvas Board, vintage text, crayons and a ton of beeswax. Not only was the beeswax used for texture and depth, but it was also used as the glue for the entire project. After priming the board with hot pink acrylic, I scribbled with yellow and orange crayons before applying the beeswax. I loved how the clear(ish) wax blended with the wax colors to create a pool of warm soft color. After applying text (in the rough shape of a tree) I added more color and wax, this time in green. The ATC size vintage paper dolls (Hannah Grey) were applied with more wax to create a clothes line. The vintage text was from a 1957 Learning To Read picture book (note the odd grammar) and the "mirror" was from an old Anna Griffin kit that I painted and distressed. Finally, the found ornament was glued on top to create a dreamy sky and a soft pink glass ball (okay, so I broke that one on purpose) was placed on the bottom of the piece, dripped in more wax. Also used were fibers, fabric and Swarovski crystals.

Whew! So there it is: my little piece of leftovers. To see more pieces on Leftovers, please check out www.MixedMediaMonday.Wordpress. com.

Happy New Year. Happy New Art. Kristin xox