The Hubs and I went away for the weekend recently, to celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary. My primary requisite for any trip is that we be somewhere near a large body of water, so South Haven, Michigan was our destination of choice to meet that criteria this year. Lake Michigan is beautiful! I snapped a couple of pics that I thought were worth posting here. I so love a good sunset, so I hope you enjoy!
As a Michael Jackson fan, and as an artist, I find myself constantly wanting to use MJ as my inspiration for artwork. If he’s not filling up ideas in my head for new projects, his music is filling up my studio (and I love that!). I had a concert photo of Michael in his trademark fedora and sparkly jacket–the outfit he wore all those years ago on the Motown 25th Anniversary special, when he Moonwalked into history. That photo served as the starting point for this mixed media collage. And since I’m using this for a Gingersnaps Creations color challenge, the requirement for that was Shades of Blue.
The canvas is painted with acrylics. I had planned to add some texture with a rubber stamp of sheet music, but forgot. I hate when that happens! But oh well…I added the photo and added some chipboard photo corners, which I embossed with silver to give them some depth. I distressed a hangtag and added a clock stamp to it, and added clock elements elsewhere as well. I added a calendar sticker, with “King of Pop” spelled out on top of it. The “o” in “Pop” is actually a heart sticker, which is difficult to see in this photo; and the point of the heart is actually pointing to MJ’s birth date: August 29th. I added some rhinestones here and there for sparkle (MJ would love it, no?), a butterfly sticker (I love butterflies), some music notes, other little touches, and of course, a crown.
I really love how this turned out, but I’m still itching to do another MJ painting…so as soon as I find my inspiration photograph for that, I’ll be getting that started.
Since this is an MJ-related art proejct, I think it’s worth posting the link to MJ’s historical performance at Motown, which inspired my creativity today. Click the link below to watch a video of the King of Pop with his debut of the Moonwalk!
MJ Moonwalks at the Motown 2th Anniversary
Also, if you’re interested, be sure to visit my other blog for my remembrances of the King of Pop.
Remembering Michael One Year Later
Don’t Judge: A Poem for Michael’s Passing
I’m working on several projects that I’m creating for some special gals at the A Primitive Journey Community. This August, a group of those gals will be going to Berlin, Ohio for a “Girlfriends Gathering.” They’ll be shopping for prims, sightseeing, and just having a wonderful all girls weekend. I offered to donate some goodies for the goody bags that will be given away to the girls that weekend. So below are some of the projects I’m working on for them. (Note: if you’re one of the APJ gals who is going on this trip, I’d suggest you stop reading now so that you won’t ruin the surprise!)
First up is the envelope that all my little goodies will go in. I wanted to make several small gifts for each gal, so I decided to make this envelope to put all the items inside. It’s a brown Kraft envelope, stamped with script text, the word, Simplify, and a primitive crow, and then I added a rusty star as an accent.
I made some bottle cap magnets too. I kept these very simple: just a punched circle of scrapbook paper that resembles ticking fabric, topped with a silver heart brad. If I had some UTEE, I would have used that on these too. But I didn’t have any, naturally. I still think they are cute though.
I also wanted to include some paper goodies that could actually be used. So first I made these paper flower gift tags. I used some cardstock that resembles a gingham fabric and punched out a floral shape. Then I added a white, embossed paper flower and a black brad to each tag. I topped them with some coordinating black ribbon. So they can use these as a gift tag for someone’s gift if they’d like to.
I also created some hangtags. I started with a plain hangtag, which I stamped with a faux wood texture. Then I added a butterfly stamp, and I also stamped the word, believe. I finished them off by distressing all the edges with Tim Holz Distress Ink, to give them that primitive grungy hangtag look.
I love how all these goodies turned out! I think I’m going to make one more little something for each envelope. Not sure what yet, but I’ll come up with something. I sure hope that the ladies at the Girlfriends Gathering will like these goodies as much as I enjoyed making them! Making things for others is really like giving a gift to yourself, because it just makes you feel good to do it!
If you’re like me, whether you have your own art studio or a craft room or space in your home, one of your biggest challenges is storage and organization. When I used to primarily just do oil painting in my studio, the space and storage was more than adequate, and I have loved it for years. And considering that my husband built my studio for me himself, I love it even more for that reason. But sadly, with all the new types of altered art and mixed media projects I’ve been doing, I have simply outgrown my studio. I need more storage, and more space, so that I can get organized and have plenty of room to do what I love to do: create!
I am in the process of designing a new studio, which we’ll be creating in some unused/unfinished attic space we have in our home. So I’m in full design and planning mode. I’ve been buying books about studio design, and looking online for any photos I can use for inspiration. I have some really wonderful ideas and it’s helping me as I plan my new creative space.
Just this evening I happened upon a great blog…you know how it is when you go blog hopping: one thing leads to another and you’ve visited a ton of blogs. It can be quite fun! It can also be so wonderful when you find one that will help you with something like planning for your crafty storage and organization. The blog I found is called simply, Crafty Storage. And that’s exactly what it’s all about.
No matter what size of space you have to work with, you are sure to find some great storage ideas on the Crafty Storage Blog. I’ve found so many great ideas there already, I just know I’m going to incorporate many of them into my new studio. So I really just wanted to share that link with you, in case you are looking for some crafty storage ideas as well.
Enjoy!
I found a great blog while reading another great blog this morning (Altered by Me ) and I wanted to share it with you. The blog is perfect for anyone searching for monthly creative challenges to help get them motivated or inspired to try new things. It’s the Green Pepper Press Street Team’s blog, created my Michelle Ward. Michelle is a rubber stamp designer, working artist, and is an Editorial Advisory member at Somerset Studio.
Michelle’s monthly challenges on her blog are called creativity crusades. She provides a different challenge each month all based on a theme and/or technique. And she offers lots of wonderful examples of the crusade. I’ve been looking through her archives and her work and ideas are truly inspiring.
These crusades are open to anyone, so you can jump in at any time. To participate, you simply create your crusade project and post about it on your blog or website, and then go back to GPP and post a comment under the current crusade post with a link back to your site. Michelle will add all the links under each specified crusade on the left side of the blog. So you can check out all the entries from the current (and past) crusade any time you’d like.
I subscribed to the GPP blog so that I can participate in future creativity crusades. It’s always nice to have a little prompt or inspiration, whether you’re suffering some creative block or not. And I thought that some of you might be interested in Michelle’s challenges as well. I also love that she calls her challenges, Creativity Crusades! How cool is that? I hope you’ll find the challenges as inspiring as I have.
Take care.
On a recent outing to Grand Rapids, Ohio, the Hubs and I did a little exploring on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Here are a couple of photos I took of a train trestle that runs over the Maumee River in Grand Rapids. (Click to Enlarge)
We’ve visited Grand Rapids many times since we’ve lived in Northwest Ohio. It’s a great little historic town, with lots of little shoppes and things to do and see. Worth a trip if you’re ever in this part of the world.
Have a great weekend!
These photographs are of some beautiful red lilies that I planted at my daughter’s house late last summer. They are opening up and looking so beautiful for the first time this season, I just had to snap some photos of them.
There’s something so beautiful about a lily…especially one this color. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed photographing it. And gosh, I think I need to plant some of these in my own yard!
The holiday weekend was a wonderful chance to get out and enjoy some sunshine and a bit of nature as well. So I grabbed my camera to get some photos at the same time.
3 White Peonies
Peony Close Up
Pink Peony
2 Pink Peonies
Peonies are some of my absolute favorite flowers. They are so beautiful, and their scent is just heavenly! We bring some of these in each Spring and put them in a vase, and their scent fills the room for days on end. I just love them. Hope you enjoy the photographs.
