Rain, Rain, Gone Away

This picture pretty much sums up how I feel now that the sun is out and the rain has stopped. Here's hoping it will be a long running weather trend, like for the rest of what is left of summer!

However, rainy days serve their purpose, and when it poured this past weekend I took the opportunity to clean house and sew, neither of which I confess I am inclined to do too often. However, these little fabric postcards were such fun I may be at my sewing machine awhile yet.

Three events facilitated the making of these little art cards. First, a good friend had recently donated a couple of boxes of upholstery samples to me and I have been looking for a way to use them since. Second, I received the new issue of Cloth, Paper and Scissors, a mixed media magazine full of fun and inpiration. It was all about fabric and sewing, with a couple of cool projects I want to try. And thirdly, a discussion arose with another friend on printing photos onto fabric. I have been wanting to try a few products and methods for this because I was always dissatisfied with the iron on transfers of old.

Put all this together and you have a recipe for fabric postcards.

Fabric postcards were begun by quilters as small mini-quilt projects. They are fun to make and, yes, they are mailable. You can find detailed directions and techniques here. The minimum card and letter size for US Postal Service mailings is 3-1/2" x 5". Most fabric postcards made measure 4" x 6" and can be mailed using one self-adhesive first class stamp. Keep fabric postcards 1/8" or less thick to stay within weight limits; cards over 1/4" thick require an extra fee for their depth and will weigh more. You can make cards that are larger and heavier, but postage will be higher.

Depending on the fabric and the backing used you may need a filler layer for sturdiness. One of the reasons I love using the upholstery samples is that they are thick and sturdy in and of themselves. I cut them out as 4"x6" rectangles, sew on collaged layers of fabrics and ribbons, sew on a picture printed or stamped on fabric, and tightly zig zag the whole piece to a Tyvek backing. Tyvek is strong, can be altered by painting or drawing, is easily written or printed onto, and is sewable.You can find templates for postcard backs or real vintage postcard back images free on the internet.
You are only limited in your creativity by your craft stash and your imagination!

Red Lead Cottage Swap

One of my favorite websites is Red Lead Paperworks. They do a lot of altered art, have a great selection of vintage stamps and papers, and a yahoo group in which different artists participate in swapping their art. Their latest swap was to create a collage art piece using a set of three cute chipboard cottages. (Click on pictures to enlarge). 
In looking through my collection of old photos I noticed how many pictures were taken on front porches. It seemed so appropriate to use them on the litte cottages. I chose one picture of my Dad as a little boy playing happily on his front stoop with a new toy, one picture of family ancestors sitting on their porch with a picket fence in the foreground, and one picture of an old friend playing his banjo in the doorway of an old house. I can remember taking family pictures on our own porch when we lived at the beach, and while I do have a porch on my house here in Minnesota, it is enclosed and does not have the same feel as an open one or serve as a family gathering place. I miss that. So these little cottages are my homage to friendly front porches perfect for pickin', playin' and sittin'.

Progress

I sat down this morning to post the picture of the next Make and Take project and realized this would be my 15th post this year. That was the same number of posts I had last year total. So... progress!

Make and Take this month is Monday, March 21st from 6 to 9 p.m. The project for this month is charmed ball-chain necklaces. We will be making a photo charm using either flattened bottled caps (as pictured) or a 1x1 memory frame. Add some beads, metal word tags, and any other found objects such as keys, old hardware, buttons, old earrrings or jewelry parts and you have an eclectic necklace which matches your personality. Use your own photos printed very small, or assorted vintage images from here at the shop. Make additional charms from paper tags (as pictured) or beads. Materials fee: $10. Hope to see you there.

Visual Journal Class Week 3

Looking back I see it has been almost a month since I worked on my visual journaling page. In week three we were to add additional elements into the collage by stamping with paint using found objects, sponges, paint daubers, stamps. Then some additional shading and color. You can see if you look back to the first week that the collage has changed significantly. There is a lot more depth and layering. I think it has gotten a little dark but it is starting to be cohesive. Onward to week four.  I'll finish up this work in the next couple of days and upload the final result.

A new class is starting this month on strathmoreartist.com. It is entitled "Start Where You Are" and might be a great class for beginners in collage art. I'll keep you posted.

Free Classes in Visual Journaling

Last year one of my goals as an artist was to try to advance my own creativity in the areas of drawing, collage, and mixed media. I  joined swap groups and created collaged ATC's, Chunky Book Pages, and Tip-In pages. Still trying to find my own voice I am venturing into the area of visual journaling. I think keeping an visual journal can make your art more personal, helping you to develop your own style. It can document your life, your travels, your artistic growth. As with any journal or diary it can be a daunting process as well.  Somehow staring down a white page has never been a very comfortable experience for me. Many artist begin with "toning" or adding a wash of color onto the page before beginning, or choosing paper which already has a tone of color on it. It can still be a very large, blank page and while I have found working on a very small scale can be less intimidating it is also somewhat confining. So when I saw that Strathmore was offering free classes online in Visual Journaling I was excited! I signed up and began a type of "pages in stages" workshop using copies of my own previous artwork and a few other simple techniques. At any rate it is all about having fun and being free. So jump in at http://www.strathmoreartist.com/. Here is my page after Week 1:

Freebies

One of my favorite artists is Lisa Vollrath of Ten Two Studios. She is an amazingly prolific artist with a million fun ideas, tutorials on how to accomplish them, and digital products to use to produce them. She has another website entitled Go Make Something, her own blog and also a facebook site. This month for Christmas she is giving away a series of digital images everyday. You can find them at this link on the Ten Two Studios site. http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/ They are well worth it.

There are many free or low cost digital images out there for use in your own private artwork. Some are available for use only in your own personal art and some available for use in art for sale. Be sure to investigate each individuals terms of use policies before you use anyone's artwork so you don't infringe on their copyright. There are also many sites out there which have copyright free images available for use. Many of these sites may be found by following the links on the side bar of this blog.

Happy hunting!