Digging into the Stash: Collaged Contact Cards

I like to keep a stack of cards on hand with my email and blog addresses for times when I meet someone new who might be interested in my art or my blog. 

It makes sense for those cards to reflect my aesthetic, so I tend to create mini-collages with vintage papers and a mail-art theme.

The back contains my name, email address, and blog URL.  Last time I made these, I very sensibly made them the size of Artist Trading Cards (ATCs).  This time, I made them the size of a standard business card.  I'll return to ATC size next time!

You will recognize papers from the Allentown Paper Show used in these collages.  I used the canceled checks from Farmer's National Bank as the foundation for my cards, then added postage stamps and Cavallini mail-art themed rubber stamps to embellish them.  Some of the cards also include the Grand Union Tea Company tea checks and grocery store merchandise stamps. 

And while I had all my cut-and-paste supplies out on my art table (though, really, when DON'T I have them out?!), I got started on another project. Any guesses what it might be?

I'll tell you!  I am participating in iHanna's DIY Postcard Swap, Spring 2015!  It's been a few years since I have participated, but when I signed up, I dug right in and started creating my cards.  Stay tuned, and I'll share my process and my final results SOON!

Why don't you swing by and sign up, too?!

Art Showing: Seven Stones Cafe

A busy Monday evening at Seven Stones Café in Media, PA

I am always looking for new experiences related to my art-making.  Creating this blog several years ago was one of my first leaps of faith.  From there, I have participated in online classes, swaps, and challenges, as well as attending an art retreat.  I have sold my work at art and craft shows, completed a commissioned paper crafting job, and sold my things in a local gift boutique.  I have also taught summer art classes to children. 

Each of these experiences has taken me outside of my comfort zone into new territory that challenged me both emotionally and artistically. 

Now, I have a new experience to add to the list!


My art on the wall at the café (and my mother enjoying a cup of tea at the corner table)

Last night, I set up the first public showing of my art at the Seven Stones Café in Media, Pennsylvania.  The café features the work of a different artist each month, and I have twenty-three pieces on display for the month of March. 

I have been working over the past month or so to select the pieces for the showing, creating some new works just for this opportunity, as well as framing, pricing, and planning for the arrangement of each piece.  What a treat (and a relief!) to get everything on the wall of the café last night!

My mother came with me, thank goodness, for both moral support and help in getting the frames ready for hanging.


My mother took this photo of me in the process of hanging my art.

It was an interesting challenge to get everything on the wall in the midst of their normal business hours.  The folks at the tables were deep into their conversations, and seemed to take no notice of me hammering nails above their heads!  When I worked right next to an occupied table, everyone was gracious in assuring me that I was no bother. 

The most enchanting view for me came as my mother and I were leaving the café just after 9 p.m.  As we passed the front window, full of condensation in the evening chill, I could see my artwork framed in the window panes and twinkle lights.  I left feeling delighted by this opportunity to share my artwork with a community I love.

Seven Stones Café is in the town of Media, Pennsylvania--"Everybody's Hometown"--where I go to church and teach Sunday School each week, where I enjoy Dining Under the Stars when the weather is warm, and where craft and food fairs line State Street multiple times every year.  Seven Stones has the perfect coffee shop vibe in this great town, and I am honored for my art to be a part of it all!

Around Here: Springtime Edition

What possibly could have kept me away from the blog for almost a month?

I promise I've kept busy, stayed creative, and had fun! 

For the first time ever, and with my mom's help, I've planted a little garden just outside our family room sliding doors.  It's hard to get a sense of it from the photo, but when I sit out under the patio table umbrella with my coffee in the morning, it feels a bit like a resort.  (I'm easily pleased!)

As for so many of you, the school year is drawing to a close for us.  My younger daughter "graduated" from preschool (complete with paper graduation cap!), and my older daughter has just one more week of kindergarten.  They are excited by all the possibilities of being in the same school together next year!

Feeling ambivalent about the end of the school year

Sunday school has drawn to a close, as well.  In addition to planning my final lesson, which has the fourth graders making flowing windsocks to remind them on Pentecost of the power of the Holy Spirit, I prepared sweet little gifties for my girls' teachers.  I used a Pinterest inspiration to create the packaging for some sweet springtime Skittles.

In an exciting development, I've created two series of Summer Craft Camp workshops, one for 1 to 3 year olds, and one for 4 to 7 year olds.  I advertised to my local MOMS group, as well as my women's circle at church, and have a little group coming together for each of the workshops.  All of our activities are being kid-tested and approved by my own two in-house crafting experts, and they are really helping me work out the kinks before we "go live."  I will share news of the workshops as they happen; the first two are at the end of this week!

A serious artist at work

Squoosh Art?  Rorschach Test Art?  Symmetrical Prints?  Call it whatever you like; it's fun!

I wrote my first guest blog post for a local "mommy blog" called Delaware County Moms.  I had the opportunity to attend the grand opening of a re-sale shop called Clothes Mentor, and write a review of our local store.  Now I'm pretty devoted to the idea of checking there first before I shop full-price at the mall!  Discovering that store came at a great time for me, as I'm really working on adopting a frugal lifestyle this year. 

Would you like a pair of shoes with that??

I am going to be working in the Vacation Bible School craft room at my church again this year, so our Craft Room Team held our first planning meeting.  We have some exciting ideas for the kids as they learn about Moses and the Israelites coming out of Egypt into the Promised Land.  Remember those matchbox mezuzahs from last year, and the foam sandal necklaces? To rival those, we'll be using cereal boxes and duct tape to make their own sandals; how cool is that?!

My first cereal box and duct tape prototype for VBS!

And finally, I've been positively delighted to watch the developments in a little birds' nest just beside my front door.  I saw the nest empty, then filled with four perfect blue robin's eggs, and then positively overcrowded with all the brothers and sisters vying for the worms their mommy has been faithfully bringing home for them. 

First came the beautiful blue eggs...



Then the silently squalling baby birds came on the scene!

Sadly, the nest sits about six inches from my mailbox, so the mommy robin has been quite disturbed by postal workers, as well as door and window openings throughout the day.  I almost think the babies have gotten used to my face peering down into their nest, and the flash of my camera catching their daily growth and development.  Very, very soon they will be flying away on their own, and I have to admit that I hope at least one of them will hang around and make their home in our yard for the long term!

We are doing some traveling in a couple of weeks, so my blogging consistency probably will not return until mid-July, but I promise I am not deserting the blogging world for good!

Enjoy these final weeks of springtime!

Good Crafternoon!

I first heard the term crafternoon on Julie Balzer's blog years ago, and thought, I need to have one of those myself!  As fun as it is to hole up in the art room and dabble away into the wee hours of the night, I also love the chance to get together with others who appreciate paper and punches and scissors and scraps and glue sticks and...well, you get the picture...as much as I do.

Just recently, Becky (aka, Snail Mailer) visited my art-making space for a crafternoon together.  (We met last year at the Allentown Paper Show.)  She came bearing gifts for me and for my girls, and while my husband kept my daughters mostly out of our hair, we had some paper crafting fun.

Good crafternoon, Snail Mailer!

Becky showed me how to make the amazing never-ending card that she recently featured on her blog, Leaving a Paper Trail.  It only requires four pieces of paper and some adhesive, and when you open it, there are two flaps that open again, and under there are two flaps that open again, and under there are two flaps that open again...and it goes on and on for as long as you are interested in opening flaps.  It's pretty mesmerizing, kind of like those Jacob's Ladder toys.  (Check out Becky's blog for the video on how to put it together.)

Becky also had an idea in her head for a kind of interactive maypole card, and worked out the details at my craft table.  It ended up being a pretty cute design!

Becky's maypole card

She makes a lot of cards for clients as part of her job, and showed me a nice way to make this tri-fold card.  I feel like it stands up in a kind of shrine-effect that I really like:

Here's the card when it's closed.

Here's the card when it's standing up, opened.

Here's the card with a few additional embellishments.

She brought a selection of her paper punches, and I punched out lots of shapes in different patterned paper to work with on future projects.  She used some of my collage scraps to work on a page in her new Smash book.  My daughter took our photo so we could share our day together on the blog:

We enjoyed a fun couple of hours working together, chatting, and enjoying lunch before she had to head home.  She was very productive in our time together; me, not so much!  But a happy side effect of welcoming someone into my craft room is the tidying up I do before she arrives.

Like-items together...stacked, labeled, and ready for action!

Hmmm....it's almost too neat in here...time to get started on a new project to mess things up a bit!

41 Ways to Keep It Fresh

I'm not someone who often gets bored, lacks for inspiration, or suffers from creative block.  If I get stymied, it's usually a matter of confronting too many possibilities and ideas.  But it's still fun to think of ways to keep the creative process fresh.

A couple months ago, as I was sorting through old magazines, I started jotting down a list of ideas for keeping art-making interesting and original.  The list quickly grew toward forty items, so I decided to finish at 41 and offer it as my gift to you for my 41st birthday, which is April 6. 

The ideas are presented in no particular order, along with random but relevant photos from the past.  I hope you will use it as a kind of Grab Bag of Creative Inspiration!

41 Ways to Keep It Fresh

1.  Have a supply swap.  Challenge yourself to create something using only these new materials.

 

2.  Create an inspiration board.  Change it up once in a while!  Don’t let it become old wallpaper.

3.  Keep an Idea File (sometimes known as some sort of sketchbook, art journal, or glue book).  Pick it up and look through it instead of reaching for a magazine or the remote.

 

4.  Explore an art material or supply you’ve never used, or haven’t used in a long time, preferably from your existing stash.  Make a list of items that you haven’t actually used yet, and work from that.

5.  Work in a different size than you usually do.  Do you usually make inchies, ATCs, or postcards?  Try a large canvas!  Or vice versa.  Do you usually use a small book for your art journal?  Try journaling big!

6.  Choose a central subject to keep the same across several pieces, but work in different media—collage, watercolors, acrylic, fabric, etc.  

7.  Choose a central subject to keep the same across several pieces, but work in the style of different artists.  (There was a Cloth Paper Scissors article about this kind of project back in September/October 2013.)

8.  Join a challenge or swap with artists you’ve never worked with before.

9.  Pick a book from your shelves and choose a project to complete.

10.  Choose a person or a holiday and create a piece of art with that focus in mind.  Give the completed project as a gift.

11.  Make a list of “quickie” projects that serve your need to create, keep the juices flowing in the downtime between projects, and trigger ideas for new endeavors.  I might carve a stamp, create an ATC, alter a Rolodex card, bind a simple book, or stitch a postcard.

12.  Change around your art-making space.  Try taking everything off of your work table, and then selectively return key items to new places.  Rearrange the furniture, if possible.  Change the way you organize your supplies.

13.  Create a work of art that captures your mood or your environment right now.  You’ve never been here now before, so what you come up with is bound to be fresh.

14.  Create a work of art to welcome or usher in the coming month or season. 

15.  Visit a section of a museum that you would normally never visit—modern art, arms and armor, textiles, furniture, Impressionism—it will be different for everyone.  Use your sketchbook or journal to think of ways this exhibit could influence your art.  Let it influence the next piece you create.

16.  Work in a new environment—a different room in the house with a different view, the backyard, a public place, a friend’s house, the place you work (after hours!).

17.  Go to the library and spend time in a section you would normally never consider.  Browse the books there—antique cars, medicine, self-help, dogs, architecture, bridges—it will be different for everyone.  Use your sketchbook or journal to think of ways your perusal of these books could influence your art.  Let it influence the next piece you create.

18.  Make your materials from scratch.  Take your own photographs for collages rather than using found images.  Make your own painted papers for greeting cards.  Create your own spray-able inks.  Find unique mark-making tools around the house or in the yard in place of markers or paint brushes.  Carve your own rubber stamps.

19.  Try working on a new substrate—watercolor paper, stretched canvas, bound book, matboard, clothing (jeans, shoes, etc.).

20.  Adapt the RAFT approach to art.  When I was teaching high school, RAFT was a way to differentiate instruction for students.  We created a menu of roles (R), audiences (A), formats (F), and topics (T).  These categories can be mixed and matched to create unique assignments.  I think the concept could be adapted easily to the world of art!

21.  Have a crafternoon or Craft Night to create with your friends and see what everyone is working on.

22.  Look for art tools and materials in unusual places.  Visit the hardware store, the dollar store, the bed and bath store, the grocery store, with a focus on finding usual items to use in unusual ways in your art.

23.  Work in colors or styles or techniques that do not usually attract you.  (Try doing that with your clothing, too!)

24.  Take an online class or purchase a DVD to learn a new technique relevant to your art.  (You can also do this for free by finding a book at the library or watching a video on YouTube or Vimeo.)  OR, learn something completely unrelated and new.  (Collage artist?  Try a class on drawing faces, making jewelry, or creating with polymer clay.)

25.  Respond to something going on in the news through a piece of art.

26.  Try something new online.  Start a blog, set up a Facebook page for your artist self, create some boards on Pinterest, join an online community with forums and galleries, take a class, try a challenge, join a swap, tweet, try Instagram, figure out the point of Google+, watch a tutorial on YouTube (and some favorite music from high school while you’re at it!), contact a favorite artist.  Don’t forget to tear yourself away from the computer and make art!

27.  Set up regular Artist Dates (popularized by Julia Cameron) with yourself.  Keep filling that creative well!  Take time to think about and sketch or write notes about how the excursion informs or influences your art and creativity.

28.  Make art with children, or at least with children’s art supplies.

29.  Teach something you know and love to people who are interested in you and your work.

30.  Try creating work that follows magazine themes and guidelines, and try to get published.  Don’t get discouraged by rejection.  Either try again, or go back to making art for yourself and/or the people who appreciate you!

31.  Take it public, especially if that’s outside your comfort zone.  Share your work on Facebook or on a blog.  Sell at an arts and crafts fair.  Get your work into a store.  Set up an online shop.  Create an online video.  Offer an online class.

32.  Go on an art retreat.

33.  Take a class at a local college, craft store, nature center, or arts center.

34.  Create an art partnership.  Find a like-minded individual and commit to meeting together regularly to share your art, offer encouragement, and fulfill pre-determined objectives.  (Will you critique each other?  Share supplies?  Teach each other techniques?  Swap finished art pieces?)

35.  Give your art pride of place in your home outside of your art room.  Have it framed, if applicable.  Give it proper space on a wall, a shelf, in a niche, on a bookcase or bureau, etc.

36.  Give yourself a challenge (create it yourself or find one online):  Adding something new to a canvas every day for a month or a year.  Creating a Christmas craft each month of the year.  Drawing a face every day for a month.  Creating a collage a day.  Working in an art journal every day.  Sending out a piece of mail art every day.  Practicing a new tangle every day.

37.  Purge art supplies and art room materials that no longer inspire you.  Donate them and work with only what you love, making space for anything new that comes your way.

38.  Try working on your art at different times of day to see if your productivity or quality is affected.  Challenge long-held beliefs about being a “morning person” or a “night owl,” and see if art doesn’t perk you up at times when you just thought you were at your worst.

39.  Try a new “ritual” or a change to your art-making environment.  How is your art-making affected by playing music (or turning it off)?  Wearing an apron?  Putting on a special piece of jewelry?  Burning candles?  Drinking a special tea or juice at break times?  Standing instead or sitting?  Sitting instead of standing?  Opening the windows?  Adding more light?  Opening the door (or closing it)? Letting the cat, dog, or bird in with you as you create (or making them leave)?

41.  Collaborate on a project, like a shared canvas or an art journal round robin or a collage box, or even traveling pants!

41.  Take your art on the road.  How can you bring it with you when you travel and make it part of your vacation or business trip or family obligation?

Looking over the list, I see about 12 things that I haven't yet tried for myself, and every one that I have done could easily be done many more times in new ways.  We have no excuse for getting into an artistic or creative rut when so many possibilities for keeping the process fresh abound! 

Which of these ideas is your favorite?  Do you have any new ideas to add to the list?