Evidence of Love: Artist Trading Card

I made this a few months ago and it got buried in the mess on my desk. Eeek!

It measures 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches. The ruler on the bottom is actually a vintage piece of measuring tape from one of those spools you have to crank back in manually. The spiral clip is an Italian paper clip. The woman image is a rubber stamp. I cut the paper for her to look like a Polaroid picture. The faux manila folder closures are just paper punch circles and eyelets. I used my sewing machine to sew around the edges in an uneven way. (Really, I *can* sew in a straight line!) The card is made on a piece of watercolor paper that I added some gel medium to so it looked like stucco.

I'm thinking I might put this up for sale in my Etsy shop for Valentine's Day. What do you think?

I hope you have a Happy New Year's Eve and a safe night!! Cheers!

Birthday Flowers Never Die

Eleven days later (!!), the flowers Erik gave me for my birthday still live and are flourishing! I've been carefully maintaining the water. The lilies were closed when he gave them to me and the show as they unfolded and opened has been amazing. Now the whole house smells like flowers!

Chippy the Hamster

Meet Chippy the Hamster whom I took care of the week before Christmas before she was gifted to my nieces. Isn't she cute? How could I not miss her? I come downstairs in the morning now and I think, "Oooh, man! Chippy isn't here and I'm lonely." Insert sad face.

I think I might have to get my own hamster now! But I know Erik won't really go for that at all. He kept calling Chippy a "rodent" in a disgusted voice. Scrooge.

It sort of did me good that week to have something tiny and cute to take care of and love. I know I can always pop in to my sister's and visit Chippy since she's only seven blocks away. Maybe it's time to revisit the pet ideas with Erik. He wants a dog really bad and so do I, but it's snowy now. Will a puppy go potty out in the snow to housetrain it? I'm doubting the ease of those training sessions. Plus there's a ton of stuff in the studio that a puppy would rip to shreds in a heartbeat. It would be nice to have some company in the studio though. I am torn on this topic. Lately my brain has refused to be decisive so this may be on hold for a while longer.

Merry Christmas!

I got this as a gift when I was born from a grandparent... not sure which one. My twin sister has one just like it with her name on it. This is one of my most treasured belongings. So that makes it about 35 years old! Yikes!

I nearly died last night when it wasn't in the ornament box as we decorated our tree (rather late, I might add). The box it was in somehow got separated from the Christmas boxes in the basement and it was well hidden in a seat bench. I couldn't find my ornament for about an hour. It was a horrible feeling, but I'm happy now that it is safely on the tree! When my nieces were born I made sure to get one for each of them. It made my sister cry.

These are what I've been working on today and this week.

This one is inspired by Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas 2009: Day 5. These little plastic charms are a product in his line. The images are glued to the backs with Glossy Accents. You can see these pictures bigger at flickr by clicking on them.

I made this tag this morning to give to my mom for Christmas. I really like gold embossing powder! And I cannot let a tag be with just one ribbon. It has to have lots of foofiness!

This tag is for my mom as a gift. She's a big fan of my work! Ha! Anyway, what says "I love you" better than handmade?

I hope you are having a very merry Christmas, if it's your thing! xoxo

Oh, What A Mess!

Click to see it bigger with notes over at flickr

OK. I’ll be the first to admit I am a total slob in my studio. I do not have a “neat gene” at all. I like all my tools to be within arms reach. So it piles up around me. Not too good at putting things away when I’m done with them! I might need it again in another minute! It displeases me to have to get up from what I’m doing to get something for my current project. It’s disruptive. So I have this eternal mess.

It’s an inspiring mess, though. I love to sit and look at the little bits of paper left behind and how they mix with other paper around them. This is a source of design inspiration for me. It keeps my eyes busy and my brain going. I simply cannot work with a clean and organized work table. I’ve tried. It totally freaks me out.

My hunny calls the studio “The Fire Hazard”. I’m too embarrassed to show you the rest of it, to be honest. It’s really just more of the same from the work table, just spread out over a 10’ x 15’ room. Ugh. I cringe when people say, “Hey, can I stop by the studio and see your work?” Sure thing… if you can even walk into it! Welcome to the mess!

Not helping is the fact that I am a paper freak and collect it like it is gold. I have lofty plans to use it in collage work. But working on the size canvases I do (on small dominoes) not much of this paper collection gets used up. A domino maybe uses up 1.5 square inches of paper.

I would love it if you shared a photo of your studio. I like to see how other artists work. It’s very interesting to me. So please share!