The Owl Eyes Have Spotted Me!

A few days ago I was contacted by a very nice student from the University at St. Andrews in Scotland asking if they could use a photo of my "Road Trip" Domino Keychain for an article about a trip through the southwest of the United States. 

Of course, I was thrilled to be asked, especially after looking through their wonderful online magazine called Owl Eyes. The writing is excellent, and it is a fascinating look into life at "uni" in Europe. 

St Andrews is Scotland's first university and the third oldest in the English-speaking world, founded in 1413. They celebrate their 600th anniversary this year! 600?! Wow!

"Road Trip" Domino Key Chain
Mixed media and paper collage on a domino
© 2013 Victoria Porter

I highly recommend reading some of the articles to get a feel for the life there. The Big Top Ball is a good read and shows how different US and European colleges are in relation to student activities (and drinking on campus).

Reading through the article That Time I Went to A 65th Birthday Party In Spremberg had me laughing! How I would love to hitchhike in an event sponsored for charity! That doesn't happen here in the States. 

It makes me want to go to University at St. Andrews! Or at least visit Scotland - that is on my bucket list. I'll need an amphibious car to make it a road trip, though! 

- Vickie

With Love From Friends! 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

For the past three years I have been delighted to volunteer for With Love From Friends (WLFF) by making Valentine's Day cards for people who are without family or friends to remember them. 

The fabulous Eve Elzenga developed and coordinates this project. WLFF is such a wonderful program. I adore Eve and her work. I'm not alone... Eve was the recipient of a Jefferson Award in 2011 for her public service for WLFF! 

Eve strives to have high quality cards made with great materials and by artists in our community. She really wants the cards to be well made as the people who get them really do cherish them and deserve nice cards created by adults for adults. In years passed she opened her home for all of January so people could come over and make cards. Her collection of high quality supplies, papers  embellishments, ribbons, and little gorgeous what-nots were made available to artists to pick up and use this year. She collects Valentine art supplies all year round. 

As someone who has been lucky enough to spend a lot of time with my grandparents and great grandparents, I appreciate and value my elders. Now that they are gone, as well as my beloved father - who will always be my first Valentine - I felt like their memory needed to be honored, especially on a day all about love. So in memory of my loved ones passed, I made ten cards for With Love From Friends. 

"You Are Loved"
acrylic monoprint, paper, mixed media
4.25" x 5.5"
© 2013 Victoria Porter

My cards started as Artist Trading Card sized (2.5" x 3.5") original monoprints made on my Gelli Plate. I added red and pink cardstock mats behind and stitched them together. The heart is crumbled red cardstock inked to add some dimension. Don't you love the tiny staples?! Everything but the straight lines on the mats behind the monoprint are all hand cut by me. The words are all hand stamped. The wings are my design and took a long time to cut out. (I do not even own a die cutting machine. I do it old school!)

Each card I made is a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork as all of the monoprinted backgrounds are different. 

Every card donated to WLFF is stamped with "With Love From Friends" on the inside. Did someone say 1500 cards need to be stamped?!?!?! I am so on that. My mother and I spent many hours stamping the inside of cards last week. We had a ball hanging out with Eve and her partner! 

This year WLFF is in need of a Sizzix Big Shot Die Cutting Machine, Valentine themed cutting dies, and cash gifts so they can update their website. Supporting Eve in her efforts pays off in ways you can't even imagine. Hop on over to WLFF and see how you can help for next year! 

- Vickie