I'm Late, I'm Late, I'm Late!! Arghhhh!

I am so sorry this posting is so late…my only excuse is that Mars has been in retrograde since October and believe me…it’s been a challenge! However some super awesome events have happened to make  even the most challenging “Mars please leave me alone” day a real great experience.

I FINALLY was able to get entries to the North Carolina State Fair this year.(been meaning to for years!) I know I posted pictures last month. The results were excellent; I won two Blue Ribbons and a Red!

This is the first time since 1982 since I’ve entered a County or State Fair so I was quite flattered that they awarded my work.

Painted Wholecloth

Nuno Felt Scarf

Batik Scarf, squares, Ice Dye

Something else I’ve done is register with Wholesalecrafts.com and I’ve stated to sell my scarves wholesale. I officially registered my site Friday November 1 and I got my first order on Wednesday November 6 from a lovely gift shop located in Cincinnati Ohio. The name of the shop is “Frame House Gallery” and Kathy, the owner was kind enough to send me photos of my scarves hanging in her shop on Saturday. Kathy was also kind enough to alert me that the first one sold there yesterday, November13. (Happy Dance cha cha cha!

Scarves Hanging at the Frame House

I finally got some creative flow going in spite of Mars and I made some really neat Sun Catchers and Greeting cards using Strathmore Artist Papers On Saturday November 9, I lead a demo on how to make these at the make and take room at the Art of the Carolina’s event that Jerry’s Art o rama puts on every year at the Raleigh Hilton North. My (peeps) guild, the Carolina Mixed Media Artist Guild maintains a “make and take” room for anyone that wants to play with products being sold at the super fantastic vendor area. 

Greeting cards

The way I made these was as follows:

Take a Strathmore Artist Trading card (ATC) or a blank Strathmore Card (mixed media stock)

   1)     Apply color in some way. I used water color pencils and gave the ATC’s a wash in different colors

   2)     After card is dry, I used a die cutter and punch out a pattern. (Sign your ATC at this time)

   3)     Then I took some clear contact paper (sold anywhere where shelf paper is sold) and after pulling off the paper backing aligned it over the ATC making sure that the entire card is covered.

    4)     I arranged some pressed flowers I had collected in the die cut. (don’t go too crazy, you want to be able to “see” the flowers)

   5)     Cut another piece of contact paper and carefully line it up with the card and quickly cover the flowers. (static electricity from the new piece of contact paper will pull the flowers off the other piece if you are too slow)

6)     Trim the card and cut away any excess contact paper along the edges.

7) Punch a centered hole at the top of the card and then pull a heavy thread though with a needle.

    8)  Viola, you now have a very pretty piece of art that kids can do and looks very pretty against a window.

You don’t have to only use pressed flowers for this. I also cut out a rectangle large enough to insert some fortune cookie words of wisdom. You can also use some scrapbooking punches to add more shapes to the project to make it interesting.

I did the same thing with the greeting cards, the only word of advice I’d like to give on this is:

 *  Cut out pieces of contact paper to JUST cover your flowers, or stamps, or anything else you are going to insert into your card. (if you cut out one large piece of contact paper it will create a “glare”.

 1 **  Be careful when you apply color (I need to follow this myself!) less is best and you can always build up color value and intensity however it you have it heavy handed already, it’s extremely difficult to tone it down. Pressed flowers are delicate looking and can get easily lost if the color is dominating the eye. If you use stamps or something else you can probably get heavier handed with color.

The ATC/Greeting card would be a great project to do with kids, in fact I’m going to do this with my Grandchildren the next time they are over and Papa Wonderful can’t take them bikeriding.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

PS: I have had a devil of a time getting the directions to format correctly...If you would like the instructions to make the cutout sun catchers, please send me an e-mail and I'd be happy to send them.