This week’s Mixed Media Monday was posed by moi. Using your least favorite color. My least favorite color is pink. I’m not fond of wearing it. I have never been good at using it in art. But I need to stretch. I need to own pink. I need to have fun with it.

With this in mind, I present Polly and her pink pansies.

This week’s Mixed Media Monday challenge was “Frosty.” Here in Louisville, we have almost completely avoided that concept so far this year. Frost (and the coming holiday) makes me think of snow, so I decided to cut out some snowflakes in fabric, fuse them to a blue background and free-motion quilt the entire piece. Once I finished, and looked at my snowflakes, I thought of the wonderful quiet the world takes on when snow falls and dampens all noise. Consequently, I printed the word “peace” on organza and attached it to the bottom corner. I thought this peaceful scene deserved a little sparkle, so I added some silver-tone leaf charms to fall along with the snow.

As, I am hurrying around trying to get everything done for Christmas with the in-laws this weekend and spending time with Miss College Ink since she is flying the coop and heading far up North to attend a different college in January! I thought I need a creative break! I seen Mixed Monday challenge this week is “Just Hanging Out”. So, I got busy in the shop. To do something I love that I haven’t done in ages! Collage and solder!

“snowflake dreams”

Thanks for stopping in today!

Hugs,

That’s the Mixed Media Monday theme chosen by Heather Robinson – lovely collage artist! I forgot all about this little fairy I have sent to Ria for her shop…

This little fairy hanger was made specifically in these colours, from 3 small Jenga blocks, painted and stuck together. These were then stamped with jet black archival ink and the fairy was stamped onto stiff card and cut out. The baclground is some old handmade paper from stash, and the words have been embossed.

The wire hanger at the top has tiny orange glass beads attached to it at intervals, held in place with a tiny dot of clear-drying glue. The bottom beads are threaded onto blue wire and held in place with a jump ring at either end. the entire piece measures about 5-6″ x 3″ altogether…

All stamped images are by Home Impressions (available from The Stamp Attic and Craft Addicts in the UK). Fun theme, Heather!

This week’s Mixed Media Monday challenge is “just hanging out,” and we were invited to do anything to meet that challenge, including just a piece designed to hang. I had just finished this green-on-green batik, and thought this would be a good way to show it off. So here is my first tree of life attempt, using dye-na-flo and soy wax.

Tree of Life

Well, I get to play Guest Host again today over at Mixed Media Monday… and I challenge you to create a piece of art (in any format), using “On the Wings of Love” as inspiration.

I chose this theme because it illustrates this mixed media canvas which started as a Layer Love Lesson, on canvas, and then progressed, slowly over a couple of months, becoming this canvas for DH’s birthday. Raven is his nickname and both these birdies are image transfers, using images from Ten Two Studios…

A little more detail…

Yep, that’s me on the right! The tags read, “Birds of a feather flock together, and love one another forever and ever…”

So that’s the story behind this 12″x8″ canvas! You probably recognise the handcarved stamps, and additional accents were made with Sharpie poster paint pens, bits of scrim (like string) and wool from the Scrapstore! Hope you join in with this week’s challenge – I look forward to seeing your creations!

Bedtime Stories is this week’s theme at Mixed Media Monday, and the wonderful quilter Beth, has created the most gorgeous example to inspire us – “Babes in the Woods”.

I have been practising image transfers in my altered art journal and had chosen a pic from an article about the Mayans, where a man is laying down and a lady is tending him. It reminded me of 1001 Arabian Nights’ Tales – Scheherazade… and when I was little, it was my favourite book. My Mum used to read me the stories every night at bedtime – Ali Baba & the 40 Thieves, etc. I’d be hard pushed to name them now, but I did know them off by heart!!

Anyways, here’s how the page ended up!

Knowing how much I love to recycle, it’ll come as no surprise to you that I’ve become a contributor over at Going Green Crafters and Artists blog, where I posted the scrap fabric bookmarks I’ve been making as small gifts for Christmas…

And, I’ve got all my “Darker” altered cutlery, soldered pendants and Day of the Dead jewellery in my friend’s new ‘unit’ in The Strand Shopping Gallery in Bude! Yay! Lyn Soutar’s a very talented beader and jewellery designer. She makes OOAK lampwork beads and pendants and has sold her designs in Canada and the US too! I love what she does and we’re complete opposites: Lyn = perfectionist, neat and tidy… Rosie = messy, grunge-monkey and well outside the box!! Could be why we get on so well!

Remember these?!! Yeah, baby!!

This week’s Mixed Media Monday challenge was hosted by yours truly. The theme: Bedtime Stories, asked that artists depict a favorite story of childhood or one that their own children enjoyed. I chose the poem “Babes in the Wood.” Not the happiest poem, perhaps, but one I remember my mother reciting to us when I was little. It was probably the first poem I ever memorized and recited (though I fought my mother on the pronunciation of the word “children.”

Do you remember the babes in the wood?

My piece is an applique forest that I scanned and then added the ghostly image of two children and the image of a robin. I think it fits the story well.

Gestalte eine Spielkarte, das ist die heutige Aufgabe bei Mixed Media Monday. Die Kreuz 7 war die Grundlage für ein winterliches Werk.

Create a Playing Card, that’s todays’ challenge on Mixed Media Monday.

Cameos and Lace

The challenge this week at Mixed Media Monday was “I Am Woman” and to create something feminine.  I think that lace, cameos and Mother of Pearl buttons are very soft and feminine.

The vintage sleeve was found at an antique store, I don’t know who wore it, but she must have looked very lovely if the lace and embroidery on her sleeve are any indication.

I added in cameos because I always thought that they represented the best of a proper ladies jewelry. One set that was a brooch and a pair of earrings that had belonged to my husband’s grandmother; the other pieces are shell and resin that I gathered from here and there.

The lace around the picture was a gift from my husband’s brother’s wife’s mother’s husband (whew!), and there is a lot more where that came from and will be used in many projects to come.

The Mother of Pearl buttons are all vintage; the tiniest of them are whistle buttons, the larger have a pink and green shimmer. The glass flowers add just the right amount of color here picking up some of the rose color of the cameos. The velvet milliner’s leaves are from an old hat and the ribbon flower is of my own design.

I am woman, das heutige Thema bei Mixed Media Monday hat mich erneut zu den Stempeln greifen lassen

I am woman, todays theme on Mixed Media Monday, made me taking my stamps again

Just like the Helen Reddy song, Mixed Media Monday’s theme is “I am Woman”… I had a fab time with this bold, red double page spread. I think I’m getting the hang of this art journalling thing! This made me so happy when I had finished it – the gorgeous face is from a magazine; I’ve used paints, Neocolour II crayons, white and black poster paint pens; a couple of pieces of overlays from my old scrapbook stash and a couple of other paper elements.

That’s the left-hand page…

And the right-hand page!! I love the combination of red paint and mica spray over the top. It looks so luscious in the flesh!!

Anyway, it’s really late and I have voluntary work at the Scrapstore tomorrow morning, so it’s Goodnight from me!!

This week’s Mixed Media Monday challenge was “I am Woman.”

I started with a primed canvas board, and started writing every word I could come up with that I equate with “woman”: Strong, nurture, love, laugh, cry, warm, mother, etc. Then I added a wash of blues.

Katharine Hepburn is an actor and woman whose progressive attitudes about what it means to be a woman I admire. I just happened to have a magazine image of Hepburn that I decided would be my focal point. I have always admired Hepburn’s casual elegance, the fact that she didn’t conform to what was considered fashionable, but she was always beautiful. So when I found this quote: “Dressing up is a bore. At a certain age, you decorate yourself to attract the opposite sex, and at a certain age, I did that. But I’m past that age.” I decided that it was a good one to use to flesh out the theme. So I added southern belles, a lingerie ad, a few more quotes, and then put Hepburn on top — above it all.

This week Diane set us the theme “Fashion” over at Mixed Media Monday. I’ve taken the green path with my interpretation and made this altered journal page entitled “Tis fashionable to “Grow You Own” nowadays…”

This started out really differently – I had used very muted tones and a few collage elements, experimenting for the Supernova class. I had some very dark emotions that needed to come out, so I got the words down in pen and ink scrawl and then was amazed to see them ‘break up’ as I worked a colour wash over them… very cathartic! I then added a layer of monoprinting and brayering and a squirt of golden mica spray which I use on paper towels!

There’s a bit of  Teesha Moore around the edge of the page and a whole lot of Layer Love going on here, as I doodle and paint away, searching for my own style. I’ve used very old scrapbook stash elements – seed packet pics and ’season’ – and strips of paper onto which I doodled leaves, using sharpie poster paint pens in black and white.

DH needs a scan of his left kidney and whichever you cut it, that doesn’t sound promising, so I expect the next week or two to be a stresser, till we know what we’re dealing with. I always try not to worry till I know what I have to worry about, but sometimes, you just can’t help yourself, can you?

Aubrianna in Fall Fashion

The challenge this week at Mixed Media Monday was Fashion. I decided to create a doll sporting “Fall Fashion” with pumpkins and acorns adorning her skirt. I added a few of the pumpkins that I made last week, along with other fall items such as the pine cones, pheasant feather and leaves.

Enjoy- Christen

This week’s Mixed Media Monday challenge is “Fashion.” Never being fashionable, I wasn’t certain what to do. But then I remembered one of the exercises in one of my favorite books, Mixed Mania, by Debbi Crane and Cheryl Prater. The exercise suggests using paper, fabric or other scraps to dress a paper doll.  I had avoided this one because I am not a “doll” person. However, it seemed a perfect way to meet the challenge.

I dressed my doll in paper from a Hancock’s of Paducah fabric catalog, and I placed her on a background I had been playing with. It’s a wee bit darker than I wanted, and I really wasn’t sure how to dress her feet, so she’s barefoot. but I think she looks happy in her environment, and happily proclaims, “look at me!”

CluckleHeads

The challenge over at The Three Muses is all about Fowl Play. Well how funny is that going to be? Take a look cause everyone creates something different!

Cluckle doodle doooo!

Here I have created two sizes of chickens, CluckleHeads are what I call them. They are resting in dried rice and corn, and a few pumpkins here and there.

The standing chickens have legs made from 18 gauge florist wire covered in brown paper. The feet are made from felt covered cardboard with pine cone pieces glued to the feet.

The beaks and head feathers are made from felt, with plastic google eyes that are just tooo funny.

This was a fun project, as always when the Muses are involved.  Thank you ladies!

Enjoy- Christen

Hank and the Moontones

Over at Mixed Media Monday this week it is all about the moustache. The bigger the better I believe. My entry includes art dolls and their instruments….

Hank was on the run, he was in hiding in fact. His wife had left him, skipped town after draining their joint bank account and running away with the teller. Before she left though, she turned states’ evidence against him and his sordid past. As a disguise, he joined a mariachi band that was looking for a lead singer, he found the ad in the PennySaver. Tijuana turned out to be a pretty good place to hole up; lots of people who had pasts themselves, a less than enthusiastic police force that could be talked into looking the other way, and a seemingly never-ending string of restaurants, birthdays, and Quinceneras to play………they’d never find him here.

Hank in the Spotlight

Hank, in the middle, is a paper mache head that I found at the thrift store. I used to hang him in my store, as he looked remarkably like a store owner in the same building. This man would on occasion lurk around the corner and come spy in my window when I wasn’t there. The reason that I know this is because I caught him one day doing just this. So I hung the puppet head as a joke, and all of the girls that worked for me and around the building knew that it was Hank. I don’t get MAD, I get EVEN!

Hank’s body is a wooden handled melon baller; his arms are wrapped in an old tie, and his hands (not shown) are made from bone. Both of the faces of the “Moontones” are made from clay. The faces are glued to a smashed soda can, and both were painted with bronze paint. The faces are glued to a painted wooden clothes pin; their arms are wrapped in old ties and both are wearing thimbles for shoes.

The stage is a cardboard ribbon spool that I painted and adorned with trims and sequin stars. The instruments are fun too: there are two old walnut-shell and abalone pieces, one a guitar and the other a mandolin; vintage castanets; a plastic harmonica and maracas.

I say it is all about creating with fun, how about you? Christen

Blue Pockets

This is my entry for the Mixed Media Monday challenge this week which is Mothers and Daughters. I included bits and pieces from four generations of mothers and daughters here.

This pocket was removed from a well loved, and worn-out pair of jeans that belonged to my daughter. The tatted butterfly and the crochet flowers in the top corners and the bottom edge were stitched by my mom. The ribbon flowers and leaves were made by me with various types of ribbon. The blue buttons came from a garment that my grandmother wore.

The roses, which are my daughter’s favorite flower, are made from a vintage French ombre ribbon; the sweet peas are made from 1/4″ variegated ribbon, these and the daffodils (made from a 1/4″ satin ribbon) were my grandmother’s favorite flowers; the blue posies and the buttons were added because blue is one of my mom’s favorite colors; the morning glories are made from 5/8″ silk bias ribbon and are one of my favorite flowers.

Gwen, Me, Nanny

Here is a picture of us taken this summer at Gwen’s 27 birthday party. We love her so much, and if I do say so myself she is so pretty, and even was when she first arrived at 2 lbs. 13 oz.!

My mom will be turning 29 again this year in November, a bit of a magical numerical conundrum…. but she doesn’t like to talk about numbers relative to her age. She is though a math wiz in her own rights studying calculus for fun in her free time! Well I feel however she wants to referto her age is her prerogative and certainly she can do whatever she wishes!

Me, I’m in the middle and will celebrating #53 this year in December. I don’t think that a number defines me, and am quite glad to own up to all of the years spent on this journey called life.

This picture was taken on a great day, with great food and good company. A good time was had by all indeed. And I am sure that great-grandma was celebrating with us too, in her own special way.

Happy day to you, give your mom, great grandma, nanny, granny, grammy, or kid a hug. Perhaps the order of the day should be hugs all around! Enjoy- Christen

Mixed Media Monday’s challenge this week is mothers and daughters. For this challenge, I pulled a personal-use Life magazine photo from the Google image search, gave it a sepia tone.

For some reason, the phrase “you complete me” rang in my mind when I looked at the photo, so I decided to break the photo into pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I attached the pieces to foam to give it a bit of depth (note to self: it’s hard to cut foam precisely–at least the curves.)

I added the jigsaw puzzle pieces to a brown and gold background. I added lace, penned in the phrase racing through my head, and here we have my challenge piece.

You complete me

This week the theme at Mixed Media Monday is PINK! When I think of pink,  I think of Breast Cancer Awareness Pink ribbons. Don’t forgot to get your annual girlie exam!

8 x8 panel board acrylic painting

I hope and pray they find a cure for cancer soon. Because it is on thing that I will shout from the top of my lungs that I HATE!!!!!

One more thing before I call it a night! Ohhhh RAAAATSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Thanks so much for stopping in! Your support means the world to me!

HUGS,

YOU GO GIRL

The challenge over at Mixed Media Monday is to use pink in your work, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

I am sure that all of us in one way or another has been affected by this disease, I in fact have had three people in my family that have been diagnosed with this cancer. I myselft am celebrating my eight year alive this month. My mother-in-law was diagnosed and treated several years ago, and is now healthy and happy. My aunt Ellen was not as fortunate as the two of us, and she died at the age of 63 a few weeks after her surgery.

Who lives and who dies is not something that I have answers for. I do however have a few insights…

I know that anyone and everyone who has been touched by this disease will tell you how important it is to check monthly, to have regular DR. exams and mammograms and NOT TO IGNORE something that is unusual.

I know that the most important thing that you can do for someone going through the surgery and following treatments is to LOVE unconditionally, be strong, be there, and give them that YOU GO GIRL attitude that my husband and daughter gave me everyday even though this was as hard for them to go through as it was for me.

I know how important your attitude is in getting healthy again and how it will affect your future outlook.

I have love and encouragement for those of you who are affected by a loved one’s struggle.  I have  love and encouragement for those of you that are currently going through treatment.

And I say to all of you that are wearing a wig, feeling sick to your tummy, have lost all of your hair, or just are feeling crummy: YOU GO GIRL you are alive and we are all the better for it!

Mixed Media Monday – “Pink”  Another page of art journalling in my altered book…

I used paint I had left on my palette from the canvas I’ve been working on to create this simple journal page. I think I’m getting better at letting go and going with the flow. This phrase was in my head today for a lot of reasons and as MMM’s theme is pink, it seemed quite fitting.

My lovely DH is taking me out to lunch and we have to return a George Foreman “Grill & Melt” machine which almost imploded – nearly melted itself last week whilst I was grilling bacon! I’ve had all the models of GFs since they first came out, but never one which seemed hell-bent on self-destruction, like this one. I am not going to replace it either – think I’ll buy me a good griddle pan instead…

It’s been a rough weekend – 10 hours standing in relentless rain yesterday has left me tired and aching this morning, but we had a friend in need, so… His 19 year old stepdaughter was involved in a near-fatal crash last week and is still in ICU, so we’re all a bit tense and hoping and praying she recovers, although that will be a long and tough process. There’s swelling on the brain, crushed vertebrae and more. And, she wasn’t even driving. It’s a scary world when you have teens, isn’t it?

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Mixed Media Monday’s challenge this week is to use pink in your design. I used TAP paper to transfer a black and white image onto a piece of fabric I had painted pink. I lay that on top of some cream and blue fabric with a nice repeating design.  I lay my framed pink lady on some black felt and included three repeats of the cream and blue fabric’s line design. I lay gold tulle over the the top of the entire piece and free-motion quilted the piece, using pink thread on the black. I am practicing free-motion vines, which I found quite pleasing. I hope you do too:

This week I hosted Mixed Media Monday, asking that everyone use maps (or map imagery)  in their piece.

I like using maps. I need to find ways to get more maps in fabric form. Maps suggest travel, distance, adventure, new paths and journeys, connecting, so many things! It’s no wonder I like using maps!

Books also allow me to travel, to experience adventure, to take new journeys. They have been a way to experience new places and new ideas since I was a very little girl, and I love my books.

This piece mixes the two images. I’ve created a collaged map background and added a little girl reading in the forefront.

My books can take me anywhere.