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Vintage Japan: Mixed Media Monday Challenge

Jan7
mixed media collage

Vintage Japan

This collage is for Mixed Media Monday’s Leftover’s Challenge, you were to use up your left-overs, and anything goes. I started with the center image which was a post card from a company that sells vintage kimonos. I then added in a colorful wrapping paper that came with a gift from a dear friend. The shiny gold paper foil with the image of holly and leaves came on our “Christmas Crackers” as did the red shiny paper foil. I added in a gold leaf trim, adorned this with hand-made holly berries and plastic green and red holly leaves. The crowning glory was the gold fan with the glass bauble attached at the bottom. Everything including the paper, cardboard, trims, leaves and fan were leftover from another project.

Thanks again for another wonderful challenge! Christen

French Lady: Art Creations Friday

Jan7
Feminine French Lady

Feminine French Lady

Over at Art Creations Friday they had an open theme, or you could use the image or background of a challenge you missed. My lady is from Challenge 43.

I re- colored the image to work with the materials for the frame. I first dyed Tymtex (which is a stiff interfacing used in baseball hats), then cut it and stitched it into a frame. The frame is embellished with hand embroidery, fabric vine and novelty yarn, velvet milliner’s leaves, and ribbon worked roses and leaves. I also added in vintage celluloid leaves, roses and buttons and a piece of a wooden fence.

So glad that I could include this in the challenge! Thank you for all of the work that you put into this site!

Christen

Cameos and Lace: MMM challenge

Nov17

cameos and lace

Cameos and Lace

The challenge this week at Mixed Media Monday was “I Am Woman” and to create something feminine.  I think that lace, cameos and Mother of Pearl buttons are very soft and feminine.

The vintage sleeve was found at an antique store, I don’t know who wore it, but she must have looked very lovely if the lace and embroidery on her sleeve are any indication.

I added in cameos because I always thought that they represented the best of a proper ladies jewelry. One set that was a brooch and a pair of earrings that had belonged to my husband’s grandmother; the other pieces are shell and resin that I gathered from here and there.

The lace around the picture was a gift from my husband’s brother’s wife’s mother’s husband (whew!), and there is a lot more where that came from and will be used in many projects to come.

The Mother of Pearl buttons are all vintage; the tiniest of them are whistle buttons, the larger have a pink and green shimmer. The glass flowers add just the right amount of color here picking up some of the rose color of the cameos. The velvet milliner’s leaves are from an old hat and the ribbon flower is of my own design.

Dream What May Come: The Three Muses Challenge

Nov11

 

color pencil and ink drawing

Dream What May Come

The Three Muses challenge this week was all about dreams. We all have them, we all have nightmares and we all have trouble at some time or other getting to, staying, and returning to sleep. This is how a night may look in my head.

 

Enjoy- Christen

Aubrianna in Fall Fashion: MMM challenge

Nov10
cloth doll

Aubrianna in Fall Fashion

The challenge this week at Mixed Media Monday was Fashion. I decided to create a doll sporting “Fall Fashion” with pumpkins and acorns adorning her skirt. I added a few of the pumpkins that I made last week, along with other fall items such as the pine cones, pheasant feather and leaves.

Enjoy- Christen

All the World is a Stage: ABAA challenge

Nov5
mixed media stage

Welcome to the International Stage

All the world is a stage, and over  Rosie and Linda’s Awfully Big Art Adventure this month proves it! There are wonderful entries of stages and masks, take a look and be amazed!

dolls

The International Troop

I have been collecting dolls for my entire life, these are few of the International dolls that I have collected. I thought that they made an interesting troupe of characters. I can’t wait to write a play or two and include these characters.

http://bigartadventure.blogspot.com/2009/10/and-your-next-challenge-is.html

old embossed letter box

The stage is an old letter box that I found at a thrift store. I decorated it with acrylic paints and metallic paints on the outside, adding a paper mask that was also painted. The inside is covered in artist’s paper and ribbon.

The actors are all International dolls, except for Ethel Merman, who is playing Carmen Miranda and the blushing fairy (perhaps Gypsy Rose Lee’s muse?).

The stage lights are old bulbs glued to bottle caps and covered in artist paper, in fact most of the dolls are stuck into bottle caps so that they could stand upright.

stage3

stage

The Thai dolls were actually pens, I removed the insides, the Indian man was an ornament; the Guatemalan family were ornaments; the Hmong lady is an ornament and is holding a Russian stacking doll family and an African lady; the Japanese couple are also ornaments.

This was a fun challenge, and I mean challenge to get the box just right and the actors to behave! Artists I tell you!

Enjoy what you do, what is the point if you don’t? Christen

CluckleHeads: TTM Challenge-Foul Play

Oct31
cloth dolls

CluckleHeads

The challenge over at The Three Muses is all about Fowl Play. Well how funny is that going to be? Take a look cause everyone creates something different!

cloth dolls

Cluckle doodle doooo!

Here I have created two sizes of chickens, CluckleHeads are what I call them. They are resting in dried rice and corn, and a few pumpkins here and there.

The standing chickens have legs made from 18 gauge florist wire covered in brown paper. The feet are made from felt covered cardboard with pine cone pieces glued to the feet.

The beaks and head feathers are made from felt, with plastic google eyes that are just tooo funny.

This was a fun project, as always when the Muses are involved.  Thank you ladies!

Enjoy- Christen

Long Ago and Faraway: The Three Muses

Oct25
Long Ago and Far Away

Long Ago and Far Away

This is my (very late) entry for The Three Muses challenge this week which was “Long Ago and Far Away”. This is a pen and ink drawing from my imagination.

I think that I ponder on the challenges that I seem to have so many ideas for. I found a picture of the  Brighton Palace at the thrift store and wanted to use this in a digital piece, but I couldn’t figure out how to use a new program that we downloaded from the internet. So I adapted the plan and drew something instead.

Please take a look at the other entries, they are always so creative, and join if you haven’t! Christen

Hank and the Moontones: MMM challenge

Oct25
Hank and the Moontones

Hank and the Moontones

Over at Mixed Media Monday this week it is all about the moustache. The bigger the better I believe. My entry includes art dolls and their instruments….

Hank was on the run, he was in hiding in fact. His wife had left him, skipped town after draining their joint bank account and running away with the teller. Before she left though, she turned states’ evidence against him and his sordid past. As a disguise, he joined a mariachi band that was looking for a lead singer, he found the ad in the PennySaver. Tijuana turned out to be a pretty good place to hole up; lots of people who had pasts themselves, a less than enthusiastic police force that could be talked into looking the other way, and a seemingly never-ending string of restaurants, birthdays, and Quinceneras to play………they’d never find him here.

art dolls

Hank in the Spotlight

Hank, in the middle, is a paper mache head that I found at the thrift store. I used to hang him in my store, as he looked remarkably like a store owner in the same building. This man would on occasion lurk around the corner and come spy in my window when I wasn’t there. The reason that I know this is because I caught him one day doing just this. So I hung the puppet head as a joke, and all of the girls that worked for me and around the building knew that it was Hank. I don’t get MAD, I get EVEN!

Hank’s body is a wooden handled melon baller; his arms are wrapped in an old tie, and his hands (not shown) are made from bone. Both of the faces of the “Moontones” are made from clay. The faces are glued to a smashed soda can, and both were painted with bronze paint. The faces are glued to a painted wooden clothes pin; their arms are wrapped in old ties and both are wearing thimbles for shoes.

The stage is a cardboard ribbon spool that I painted and adorned with trims and sequin stars. The instruments are fun too: there are two old walnut-shell and abalone pieces, one a guitar and the other a mandolin; vintage castanets; a plastic harmonica and maracas.

I say it is all about creating with fun, how about you? Christen

Blue Pockets: MMM Challenge

Oct19
Blue Pockets

Blue Pockets

This is my entry for the Mixed Media Monday challenge this week which is Mothers and Daughters. I included bits and pieces from four generations of mothers and daughters here.

This pocket was removed from a well loved, and worn-out pair of jeans that belonged to my daughter. The tatted butterfly and the crochet flowers in the top corners and the bottom edge were stitched by my mom. The ribbon flowers and leaves were made by me with various types of ribbon. The blue buttons came from a garment that my grandmother wore.

The roses, which are my daughter’s favorite flower, are made from a vintage French ombre ribbon; the sweet peas are made from 1/4″ variegated ribbon, these and the daffodils (made from a 1/4″ satin ribbon) were my grandmother’s favorite flowers; the blue posies and the buttons were added because blue is one of my mom’s favorite colors; the morning glories are made from 5/8″ silk bias ribbon and are one of my favorite flowers.

threegirls

Gwen, Me, Nanny

Here is a picture of us taken this summer at Gwen’s 27 birthday party. We love her so much, and if I do say so myself she is so pretty, and even was when she first arrived at 2 lbs. 13 oz.!

My mom will be turning 29 again this year in November, a bit of a magical numerical conundrum…. but she doesn’t like to talk about numbers relative to her age. She is though a math wiz in her own rights studying calculus for fun in her free time! Well I feel however she wants to referto her age is her prerogative and certainly she can do whatever she wishes!

Me, I’m in the middle and will celebrating #53 this year in December. I don’t think that a number defines me, and am quite glad to own up to all of the years spent on this journey called life.

This picture was taken on a great day, with great food and good company. A good time was had by all indeed. And I am sure that great-grandma was celebrating with us too, in her own special way.

Happy day to you, give your mom, great grandma, nanny, granny, grammy, or kid a hug. Perhaps the order of the day should be hugs all around! Enjoy- Christen