Archives

Chinese Take-out?: Collage Obsession challenge

Feb22

Chinese Take-out?Chinese take-out tonight dear? The prompt over at Collage Obsession was the word Chinese, with a lovely photo two young ladies. My printer needed ink so I couldn’t use them… hmm what to do? I didn’t want to cook tonight so I chose to go a different way with the prompt, and make a take-out box and some fortune cookies, hint hint.

The box is made from a machine stitched paper bag from Cost Plus World Market. I had a template for the take-out box that I bought at Quilter’s Resource.  I saw this article on making your own felt fortune cookies on CraftyStylish, and thought that it would be fun to make a few for my box. I re-covered the chopsticks with a box that our Chinese calendar from last year came in. I added in some old and reproduction Chinese coins, a couple of buttons and a few painted wooden beads. The figure is actually a Japanese immortal (sorry for mixing my countries), but he looked lonely in the stash box, so he came along for the ride.

I have kept our Chinese fortunes for so long, now I finally have a place to put them in! Happy Year of the Tiger to you from someone who was born in the year of the Monkey!

enjoy- Christen

Summer Sweet Scents: TTM Nature Challenge

Feb18
Summer Sweet Scents

Summer Sweet Scents

This is my entry for The Three Muses challenge this week: Nature. I chose a sweet little girl holding her puppy, and placed her in a field of butterflies, paper roses, shell buttons, and other treasures.

Great prompt, thanks again ladies for all the work that you do to keep these challenges, challenging!

Enjoy- Christen

Longing for Spring: Collage Obsession # 4

Feb10

mixed media

Longing for Spring

This is my entry for Collage Obsession #4: Longing… the image is of Marceline Day. I have used art paper, colored pencils, ink pen, novelty yarns, vintage lace, paper leaves and flowers, vintage millinery flowers and of course Marceline.

Enjoy what you do, Christen

Romance: MMM challenge

Feb8

mixed media heart

Romance

Maria had just left the fortune teller’s shop when a dashing young man stopped her on the street.
With the words of Madame Travina ringing in her ears”Romance and passion are waiting for you just outside the door!”, Maria boldly grabbed the stranger and kissed him. As he grabbed her waist, and kissed her back she thought Madame Travina was right, she was romantically swept off her feet with passion!
Originally Joseph (the dashing young stranger) had stopped Maria just to ask her for directions, oddly enough to Madame Travina’s shop. As he found himself kissing Maria, he thought he wasn’t in that much of a hurry, and kissing was always a good thing!

This is my entry for Mixed Media Monday’s “Romance” challenge. This is a collage of greeting cards, art paper, painted paper, gold and black ink pen, vintage velvet flowers, vintage lace, vintage beaded strands and tin hearts.

What was she thinking? MMM

Feb1
art doll

Rose Marie

This is my entry for Mixed Media Monday’s challenge, “What was he or she thinking?”

Frumpinstell’s Knick Knack and Curio Emporium specialized in unique and unusual hand-made gift items. One evening when Mrs. Frimpinstell was working on the text for the monthly catalog, she mixed herself a drink of coffee and Irish Whiskey. Instead of adding their motto “Well Stocked and Tightly Packaged” to Rose Marie’s description, she typed in “Well Stacked and Nicely Packed”! Mrs. Frimpenstell did not notice the mistake at first, but when she did find it she felt that Rose Marie was these things, and more, so she left the description as is. What was she thinking? Everyone knows that you don’t mix coffee and Irish Whiskey, the coffee could have impaired her judgement!

This is another art doll that I have made using a paint brush, this one was actually our basting brush in the kitchen. I soaked it too long in the dish pan and all the bristles came out, “What was I thinking?”

Enjoy what you do, with or without a little Irish Whiskey! Christen

Angel of My Heart: The Three Muses Challenge

Jan7
mixed media collage

Angel of my Heart

Over at The Three Muses the challenge this week was to use an angel in your art. Here is my entry with a lovely little angel that I found at the thrift store. The true Angel of my heart is Gwen our daughter, who by the way gave me all the cards that I have used here in this collage.

Thanks for the great challenge ladies! Christen

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

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.

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

Friday’s Favorites: Junkity Junk Junk Junk

Oct2

I love bits of rusted, peeled, broken, miss-matched stuff. Not sure why, but I love a garage full of smelly gadgets, love baby food jars full of nuts and bolts, love coffee cans full of nails. My grandmother was an executive secretary for a hardware manufacturing firm, and we occasionally worked “Re-con” and visited hardware stores to see what was what.

Most of the junk that I have I find while on a walk, or in a parking lot. This last week I put together a few JunkMen to accompany the guy I made in honor of my husband, who normally has to carry all of these tattered, rusty, dirty bits of treasure in his pocket.

Here are my guys and a pin full of pile o junk… (click on the images for a larger view)

Enjoy whatever it is that gives you the most pleasure! Christen