Shrine to the Goddess Indigo - for Finnabair Inspired by Denim challenge

A Shrine for the Goddess Indigo

goddess of the warp and the weave

of the living and the dyeing

protector of blue jean babies and L A ladies

I had so much fun (and anguish) creating this little shrine

I was inspired by Finnabair's challenge

Inspired by denim

It's hard to see but the background is a piece of denim cloth

that I stamped with a Finnabair stamp

and then painted with rust paste and acrylic paint

I added lots of metal including 

a Finnabair mechanical heart

and layered on the top 

one of my favorite treasures

"The Face" by Diana Briegleb

lots of gel medium

and then beads

the frame is actually 2 small frames

that were given to me - no glass - just the frame

I hot glued them together

sanded them and added daubs of 

rust paste and acrylic paint

Hope you like it

ttfn

May your Thanksgiving be filled with good food and good company

"This morning I ask only
the blessing of the crayfish,
the beatitude of the birds;
to wear the skin of the bear
in my songs;
to work like a man with my hands."

- Joseph Bruchac

 

and in my own words:

This morning I ask only

the blessing of the food before us,

the company of those I love,

to wear the pigments of the earth and the sky

in my paintings ;

to work like an artist with my hands.

May your day be blessed with abundance!

Chris

Hitchcock Halloween

Some months ago Somerset Studio put out a call for Hitchcock Halloween based projects

(the winners are in the current issue)

I began this project at that time but with so many personal issues, did not finish it until this past month

I altered a 7gypsies portfolio creating a Maison du Hitchcock portfolio and then added some mood boards for specific movies. The outside cover is covered with 7gypsies paper that was Glimmer misted over a Prima mask and gaffer tape along all edges. The center image is a Gecko Galz Masquerade ephemera and I added real scissors and a feather.

I filled the inside pages with actual ads from vintage magazines, Gecko Galz ephemera (Haute Couture pages 1 and 2), and actual items - snaps, buttons, fabrics, safety pins, and clothing tags.

Dial M for Murder

Gecko Galz paper and images with October Afternoon "M" stickers, fabric and lace, and a key

Marnie

horse picture from a child's reader, a photo of mine, Gecko Galz ephemera (bump in the night) on an actual employee personnel folder

Vertigo

Gecko Galz paper and ephemera (Marie Antoinette and Bump in the Night) along with actual vintage images from ads and a photo of mine

The Birds

Stampington paper, Gecko Galz ephemera (Little Birdy, bump in the night, and Haute Couture) along with K&co vellum bird, decoupage birds, and feathers

This was a very fun project - almost too many ideas!!!

thanks for looking,

Chris

Happy Mabon!

I saw Rebecca Sower's mood board for fall on her blog and decided to make one for myself. I used a frame (bought for a dollar at a garage sale a long time ago), cut foam board to fit, and covered the board with white burlap. I hung it at the end of my long/narrow kitchen and figured that I can change it out season to season.
 For autumn, I went with vintage Halloween postcards and book markers (from my collections) buttons, feathers, brooches, a necklace, ribbons, fibers, a chocolate wrapper from my vacation to Seattle, a card about the upcoming Andrew Wyeth exhibit at our art museum, and whatever else just seemed to fit.

What a fun project! and I am already thinking of a few changes for Thanksgiving, and then a whole new look for Solstice and Christmas!

Have a great weekend!
Chris

Revisitng the Classics

One of my favorite "first liners"

is the opening sentence of George Eliot's Middlemarch

handmade flowers of vintage laces, silk dupioni, and hand-dyed muslin

with centers of vintage buttons and a vintage cuff link

I created the figure by cutting out sequential cardboard figures,

layering them, and then pasting over with papermache

finally covering with vintage pattern paper, and painting with acrylic paint

The bustle was constructed from hand-sewn silk dupioni and vintage lace

the picture was copied in reverse from Dover's Women, a pictorial archive of 19th century images, 

(all copyright free)

and then image transferred to the gessoed and painted canvas.

I added the typography (computer) and the Prima rub ons.

I actually made this piece back in the winter and submitted it to Somerset Studio 

for their Classics issue - but they did not use it so I am posting it now.

Hope you like it!

Chris

Ooh la la!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Prima Style

 

I created a little shadow box using the Prima Back Stage papers (formerly Moulin Rouge), flowers, and laces. I glued one of the papers into the box (found in my craft closet) and added lace to the dresses, crumpled tissue paper to adorn the dancers' hats, and a funky chandelier found a while back at the dollar store. I added a vintage crystal cuff link to the chandelier.

I cut out a dancer from another paper and added trim for a necklace, crumpled tissue paper for her bodice, and cut apart a Prima flower to get the small flower at her breast.

I gave her a skirt of a silk scrap and mounted her inside the box

and added lace to the background and to the outside of the box

I finished with more Prima flowers, some vintage velvet flowrs, some Prima bling, and a tassel.

What a fun, totally frivolous project!
Chris

My chartreuse muse - lots of photos

This little book is what the collage artitst Mary Delany would call "promiscuous assemblage". It started with a challenge to create something using the color chartreuse and then took on a life of its own. I played with words rhyming with chartreuse, beginning with French words and then quickly degenerating into English. I made little rhymes and came up with pages that sort of illustrated the rhymes.

I used ephemera from Gecko Galz and Stampinton Art-to-Borrow. I hand painted the flowers, fabrics, and seam binding. The metal clasp on the cover is from Gecko Galz and the chipboard butterflies are old K&Co. The laces are Prima. I cut the book pages from a faux Victorian photo album (I did a previous Gratitude book from this same album) and sprayed them with lettuce Adirondack color wash.

 Sweet Julie T-W sent me the most wonderful treasure jar of scrapping and gaming toys, and I used some of them here on the back cover. Thank you Julie - I am so happy to have you as a friend and boss!!!!!

Thanks for looking and hope you like my creation. If you have any questions about how I did any of it, please leave a comment and I will respond.

Have a great week!
Chris

Paperissues blog hop!!!!!!!

Welcome to my blog, and if you are here because of the http://paperissues.blogspot.com/ blog hop, a second welcome and hope you like what you see.  Our theme was favorites - so here is an altered frame project that is full of my favorites - the background is a watercolor painting of azaleas that I painted; the photo is of azaleas in my yard (so love them and this year the bushes were super abundant with blossoms - such a fantastic display of color!); the flowers are Prima (a favorite mfg), and piling on embellishments is one of my favorite methods of creation for layouts, altered items, and cards.

This project was actually done on the inside/backside of a prestretched canvas (I had used the other/right side for another project a while back and when I was looking through my storage cabinet for a frame, decided to take it apart and use it for this project. The painting was done on watercolor paper, glued to the canvas and then I added all of the "stuff". Finally I painted the canvas frame with pink and green acrylic paints and added the butterflies (some old but cherished K&co chipboard butterflies).


Hope you like this. The next blog on the blog hop is http://gretchenmac.blogspot.com/2011/03/hoppity-hop.html .  Be sure to check out all of the DT blogs and the main Paperissues blog - many of the DT members will be giving away RAKs and a
Paper Issues Store RAK

will be sent to randomly picked hopper who follows the http://paperissues.blogspot.com/ blog so check it out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I know that lots of the other bloggers are offering RAKS on their individual blogs. You have until April 2 to hippity hop!!!!!

Cheesecake Factory sent me a $10 gift card because we ate at one when we were on a trip and since we don't have one here, I will RAK it off - just mention that you would like it or put CF or something like that in your comment.

AND I just received the Spring 2011 issue of Somerset Memories, in which I have 2 layouts, on pages 32 and page 55. They also show one of my handmade flowers on page 146. I am so so so excited and thrilled!!!!
ttfn
Chris