Design Team Thursday: DIY Valentine's Pillow!

"The best thing to hold onto in life is each other."

-- Audrey Hepburn

Helloooooo & welcome to another Design Team Thursday featuring the lovely stencils & stamps by Jessica Sporn Designs.

This week, I played with Jessica's new "Seven Hearts" Valentine stencil by Stencil Girl. I love love love all the sweet little details this one has - including little scallops and swirly text - that I just had to turn it into something that I can permanently display. . . .

"Seven Hearts" Stencil

Head over to Jessica's Blog for more details, pictures and the rest of the pillow story. And! If you heart this stencil as much as I do, be sure to tune into our next Design Team Blog Hop on Tuesday, February 7th as this very stencil will be awarded to one lucky winner. 

With love,

Kristin xo

Mixed Media "Tiny Homes" with Canvas Fabric & Stamps!

“When you invite people to your home, you invite them to yourself.” 

- Oprah Winfrey

Helllllooooo & Welcome to another Creative Team Thursday!

Today I'm sharing my newest project for the Jessica Sporn Designs CT that was inspired both by Jessica's fabulous Build-a-Villa Stamps as well as some scratchy, rusted tins that I found discarded in the desert. 

I know it sounds strange, but you can pop over to Jessica's blog to make sense of it all. There you'll find details about these sparkly "Tiny Homes," as well as a process video showing how I altered them all. I hope you like it and look forward to playing again soooooon . . . 

With Colorful Kisses,

Kristin xo

Paint Party Friday: Lil' Cardboard Collages

Happy PPF!

I hope this week found you with paint under your fingernails at some point . . . Mine were definitely encrusted with acrylics, gouache, glue, gloss medium, fiber paste, varnishes and (naturally) glitter for days. It was a case of peeling fingers for sure. You know, you've been there . . . .

But I digress: this week I was influenced by the lovely (darling & delightful) Mindy Lacefield after watching several of her You Tube videos. It was this one that really got me: watching her paint several little cardboard paintings at once. So excited I was, that I cut up the next box I got my hands on and went to work. My pieces took some different turns, but I'm so grateful to have had the impetuous to try something fun and new. Thank you Love Bug, for the beautiful inspiration!

Wanna see what I came up with? Okay:

4 little cardboard collages, all lined up in a row.

(Each one measures approximately 5.5 x 11)

They were first cut, pulled to reveal texture and then gessoed

Elements such as vintage playing cards and game pieces were added

Stencils served as the base, with some molding paste mixed with paint 

to create some raised areas

This one included a face - behind chicken wire that was adhered with E600 and beeswax

And here we have a little pocket that housed vintage tickets

They are hung with decorative wire and grommets

And finished off with decorative (and painted on) trim

That's it. Thanks for letting me share and thank you to Kristin and Eva for another opportunity to play with paint.

Have a fabulous weekend,

Kristin xo

A Little Lost. . . .

"But I'm Still Here"

Altered Golden Book Cover & Canvas 

Ever been in an art funk? When your Muse not only decides to take a hike, but also seems to be giving you the Bird on the way out the door? Yep. That was Me. For what felt like an eternity . . . . So I gave it a rest. For much longer than I would like. Now, I did try to create but every time I did, well, let's just say it wasn't pretty. And yes, perfectly reasonable (and normally rational) adults can have tantrums . . . . I am living proof.

So when I read Christen Olivarez' Letter from the Editor in the latest issue of Somerset Studio, I felt as if she was talking directly to me. She discussed the idea of being paralyzed by perfection (yep) and that when we over-think things (um hum), we can stop ourselves in the process. She underlined this point with a beautiful quote from Julia Cameron: "Art is not about thinking something up. It's about getting something down." 

So I did just that. Tried to get something down. I made a little collage. And put it away. I started to scrapbook (which is another subject 'cause it's been years since I've scrapped anything for my own kid). And then threw it away. And then I eventually did what I set out to do in the first place: I played. For reals. I picked up a piece of canvas fabric ('cause it was the closest thing to me), ripped it into a small square and went to town. I didn't even seal my drawing as I normally would before painting because I couldn't be bothered . . . but in the end, I broke the curse. And my Muse is back. Although she is in trouble. Leaving me all high-and-dry like that . . . .

Okay, okay. Lesson learned. 

Have fun playing,

Kristin xo

Willowing & Friends!

"Empathy Monster"

Funky little one! One of the projects for week 3 on Willowing's course was to create an Empathy Monster using materials of our choice and a provided pattern. To be clear, I do not sew, so everything here has been done by hand (& with a little help from my friend, Fabri-tac) . . . Each of the stitches were made with various colors of thread and styles (not that I could name them), in addition to a strong belief that wonky would work well here . . .

Other variations on the doll include a stitched nose, a Swarovski crystal button for the eye on the left and a decorative button on the right. The fuzzy hair was made using a hair clip (I later removed the actual clip once the rest was sewn in place) from the feather boa section of my local craft store. It may also be interesting to note that the zipper was 4 inches long (something I learned yesterday) and that it was stuffed with two (1.5) bags of left over spider "webbing" from Halloween. . . 

Thanks for looking! If you are interested in getting the pattern for yourself, check it out Here. . . xoxo

Altered Matchbook

Painted decorative papers, died lace and "Artisans de Provence" label from a box of beautiful soaps I received as a gift

Matchbox painted in metallic acrylic, distressed with ink and highlighted with glitter

Interior holds a piece of toile fabric, Swarovski crystals and beads and a stamped and hand-written scroll on printed paper

Kristin xo

MMM: Embellish It

"Tree House"

Wallpaper Journal

Detail of ladybird

Detail of treehouse

A little later this week than usual - but I was still able to finish the first page in my new wallpaper journal for this week's Mixed Media Monday prompt, Embellish It.

The wallpaper journal was created on heavy watercolor paper with Yes! paste and several pieces of decorative wallpaper. I have around 10 pages, all of which are ready for well, something, before being stitched into book form. This particular page will be the center spread and was made using pale yellow striped and damask papers. I have been heading in a new direction since learning to draw and paint faces, and was eager to try a lady bird - this one is complete with lipstick and an apron. . . . The spread was created by first drawing (and erasing, and then drawing again) the basic forms before painting them with various brushes and acrylic. I then completed the piece with several pens, including Pitt pens, glitter gel pens and a few versions of Sharpie paint pens. The embellishments came in the form of fabric leaves (which were washed with more paint) and, not to disappoint, Swarovski crystals.

Thank you for looking! I will be catching up with the other MMM entries starting today . . .

Kristin xo

MMM: Mardi Gras

"Key To Understanding"

9 x 5 Altered Game Board

I've been so inspired with the assemblage pieces featured on Mixed Media Monday lately - including those created by our guest host (Cindy) and last week's Romance winner (Diane) - that I decided to take the colors of this week's prompt, Mardi Gras, and create something of an assemblage piece of my own.

I love the idea of creating something functional that allows me to showcase some beautiful vintage keys that were hiding in a drawer only this morning . . . I also glued (don't tell my husband!) a vintage bolt from the same stash to the top for balance.

The materials used are fabric (which has been distressed and inked), glitter, silk ribbon, a decorative button and, of course, Swarovski crystals. The backing is a piece of game board and the quote says, "It is the key to understanding."

Thank you for looking! To see more of this week's challenge, 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.