Mixed Media House Projects

I made these houses a few months ago, but have been keeping them private until RedLead published them first. They showed them in their newsletter this past weekend.

RedLead sent me some wooden house shape pieces a few months ago. They sell a variety of shapes and sizes, and the houses are approximately 8" x 5". You get all the parts to the house: the frames, the cut-outs and the base.

I covered the house shape in a variety of background papers...

 

Then I gave the house base a color wash on top of the background paper with Caran d'Ache Neocolor II wax pastels.

I painted some of the house frames and others I covered in dictionary paper.

 

Then using some of the ancestor and bird college sheets from RedLead, I filled the windows.

I had so much fun working on these houses. Thanks Chris and Sharon from RedLead for allowing me to be a guest artist!

I'm going to hold a small workshop to make 3 to 4 of these houses - June 28th 1-5pm. $45. Email me if you're interested in signing up!

Birthday Dress Tags

This week I made a few more projects with RedLead's adorable chipboard dresses. I call these my birthday dress tags.

It starts with these chipboard shapes...

I covered the dresses with RedLead's beautiful artisan collage sheet...

The faces came from some of their ancestor collage sheets.

I used RedLead's alteration tags as the background. For the dress stand, I twisted some wire and pounded it flat.

Afterwards, I ended up coloring the tags with acrylic paint...

Then I sewed some random stitching with my sewing machine on the left side of the tags.

Next, I taped the dress form stands onto the tags and added the embellished dress on top...

 Then finally, I packaged them up and sent them off to Stampington!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and Easter Sunday!

New Holiday Dolls & More

Last week I got an email from the editor of the Somerset Holiday magazine asking if I had any items to submit for this years issue, so I've been busy creating some holiday items. It's so odd to bring out Christmas and Valentine supplies out during the Spring! I made two new Valentine's Day themed dolls just this weekend, thanks to my sister Frances for helping me. Below are my three dolls that I will be submitting for the Holiday issue of Somerset.

Below are a few pictures of our work in progress this weekend...

Frances helped me cut, sew and stuff the dolls...a huge help - thank you!

It's fun adding the face and seeing the dolls come to life.

Here's some close up shots...

I also made some Christmas dress ornaments...

I love the dress chip board shapes from RedLead and have been having so much fun embellishing them. Hopefully you'll see them at some point in this year's Somerset Holiday issue. Below is a picture of other projects I've been creating for RedLead with their adorable dress chipboards...

Have a great week...Happy Spring! Coming soon, more Artful Play dolls using Tim Holtz fabulous fabrics.

Weekend Full Of Classes

It just so happened that I scheduled three classes to attend this weekend - what was I thinking? Saturday, I went to Scrapbook Island in San Jose and took two great classes from Paula Cheney, the Creative Director for Tim Holtz. Below is the picture of my project from the first class.

The name of the class was Vintage Mini Configurations Book. Paula did a great job in teaching us this project and Scrapbook Island is a wonderful scrapbook store full of a wide assortment of goodies.

I was also happy to meet Richele Christensen, another designer for Tim Holtz - she makes fabulous pieces! Richele made the following burlap collage...

My sister Frances and Ruby on the left side. Paula and Richele standing in front.

Below is a group shot of everyone who took the morning class.

The afternoon class was called Distress Mini Workshop. We made a really unique book. Here's some pictures of my finished project.

Saturday was a long day, but so much fun! Paula was extremely generous in her supplies, knowledge, and helpfulness!

My sister Maryl, Paula and me.

I look forward to taking any class from Paula again!

Sunday, I went down to A Work Of Heart in San Jose (again) and took a class from Lorri Scott. The class was called Reconstructed, Up-Cycled & Wearable Clothes. Lorris was a great instructor, so helpful and generous with her knowledge and supplies.
We cut sleeves off of men's shirts and created a new top from them. Below are pictures of her samples...

If you look closely, you'll notice in the picture above, the collar is made from a shirt cuff. The pocket is made from a shirt sleeve.

Below is a picture of how my shirt started...

A simple beige linen top and assorted lace is what I started with. Then I transformed it into the top below...

 I sewed 8 sleeves on the bottom portion of the top. I kept the color scheme all white and neutral.

 I added an assortment of mixed buttons and lace to the top.

Below is a picture of the back. I added some black silk ribbon to tie the back.

I really enjoyed this class, a very relaxing day creating. Andrea, the owner of A Work Of Heart was the perfect hostess and has such an inspiring workshop. I love taking classes at her place!

Wow, what a fun-filled weekend of creating - it was great! My neck is a bit sore from looking down so intensely all weekend, but I had such a great time both days, it was well worth the pain!