It's My Birthday, Too!

Time to party! It's my birthday! Best of all, I get to share my birthday with my beloved twin sister! Neat fact: I was born first so I'm four minutes older.

She and I are pretty much inseparable. We have the best friendship. No one knows me like she does. No one. Mr. M and I bought a house exactly 7 blocks away from her so we could be close by. She has the two best kids ever. I'm very blessed.

I must show you this card my 5 year old niece made for me. It's delightful! 

That's a picture of the two of us making art - with my gelli printing plate! She absolutely loved seeing a video of the gelli plate in process and begged me to help her make prints.

The text reads: "You are the best becase you let me bo progex."

becase = because

bo = do

progex = projects 

How cute! 

It took me a few long moments to figure out that last word! My niece reported it was too hard to make a "j" so she went with the "g". I'm actually a big fan of creative spelling for kids her age because they can still learn neat things about letters and words even with mistakes.

I hope your day is filled with magic, too! 

- Vickie

Paper Roses Have No Thorns

My mom's birthday was last week. I always like to decorate her gifts so she knows how special she is to me. Plus she then gets some of my art! 

I made these roses out of plain copy paper soaked liberally with spray inks - I haven't figured out these spray inks yet. The edges of the roses have a little glitter on them. The color from the spray inks lifted when I put the wet glitter glue on, which resulted in the glitter colors matching exactly to the rose colors. Happy accident!

I added some loose fake leaves I had around, twisted them together in the back, and made curly-Qs with the stem ends. A little sparkly, sheer ribbon added a nice touch and allowed for tying the decoration to the gift.

To be honest, I was not expecting the reaction I got from my mother and twin sister about these roses. They LOVED them! The two of them immediately imagined many uses for them - from hair clips to wreaths. How lucky am I that I have the two best cheerleaders ever in my family for my work?!

(We were all gathered for The December Birthday Bash where we celebrate mom's birthday as well as my and my twin sister's birthday at one party. December just gets too busy with that many birthdays to party for.)

Mom has asked me to sew a little felt piece and a pin back to her gift decoration so she can wear it as a brooch!

Then my nieces (5 & 8) wanted some! They insisted on coloring their own if I would cut the roses and roll them. How could I say no - even though it was about 10 minutes to bedtime? 

The roses below were made by my youngest niece. The yellow yarn was her idea as she wanted to wear the roses in her hair. A heavier cardstock was used for these roses and you can see they end up a bit larger and fuller. 

The roses are rather fun to make, and I imagine I will be developing a line of art to use them on. Maybe even some hair accessories and what-not. I'm intrigued by where these will take me!

- Vickie

In Which I Am Mentioned! Honorably, Even!

I failed to post about Artist Row 2012? How did that happen?! Oh, yeah. That busy thing called LIFE. 

Artist Row 2012 was great. Tons of people showed up to look and shop. The Rochester Public Market is a fabulous venue in our city. It always draws the crowds! 

This was the first year I did this show even though this was the eighth (or ninth?) annual show. I didn't even know they gave awards until I saw several judges hanging around my booth. 

Then they walked over and gave me an "Honorable Mention" award! Can you believe it?! I still cannot believe it. 

This show is filled with the best artists in town - names that are well known in the big art circles - artists who show in the galleries - artists whose work I adore. And I am not in their league - no way, no how. 

Yet, they gave me an award. One of only 10 for the whole big show. How cool is that?! The award came with free booth fee to next year's show! Yay!

These are new BINGO marker pendants, very vintage Anagram game pendants (these are from the 1940's), and a few mahjong tile pendants. 

This is half my booth set-up with my domino pendants up front. That's me in the back, with my certificate. My mom made me pose for a bunch of photos with the thing. Way to make me feel like an elementary school girl - kind of fun, though! Thanks, Mom! 

It was nice to do an outdoor show for once. The Public Market has wonderful covered space, and I didn't have to fuss with a real show tent. A friend helped me put up a small canopy just to keep the late day sun off my work.

I'm so looking forward to next year at Artist Row 2013! What a delight to feel I really earned my spot!  

- Vickie