And She's Off!

Hi Everyone,
I am heading to Hampton, VA tomorrow for Art and Soul and I'll be there through Sunday. I'm very excited! I'll be taking classes with Sally Jean Alexander, Jane Wynn, Michael de Meng, Claudine Hellmuth and Lisa Kaus. It just doesn't get any better than that!

I'll also be selling at Vendor Night this Saturday evening. We'll have plenty the porcelain glove form hands that sold out so quickly last year, cigar boxes, scrabble tiles, vintage cake decorations, sewing pattern paper, ephemera jars and bottles and bottles of buttons. And, I have designed four brand new collage sheets as well. It's all packed up and ready to go! And I promise as soon as I get home I'll get those items up on etsy as well.

In the meantime, I've joined a group of artists called The Mixed Media Experience and we're having our first gallery show as a group. The opening is this Friday night at Studio a in Fredericksburg, and the show will remain until the end of May. If you're local, I hope you get a chance to come by and see it.

If you are in Northern Virginia, my Crystal Cupcakes line of jewelry is available at the Chick's Picks event this weekend. For more information go to: http://www.chickspicksbyhillary.com/.

I'm off!

Crazy Busy and Loving It!

This time next week I'll be enjoying my classes at Art and Soul in Hampton. I'm taking classes and vending on vendor night, so I am crazy busy trying to get things priced, packed, and organized. I also need to make sure that my graphic design clients are taken care of before I leave. That way I can really relax and concentrate on my art.

Unfortunately, this means I'll have to miss the annual Friends of Wilderness Battlefield Dinner and Silent Auction. Last year FoWB auctioned off a History Mystery Dinner. The dinner , hosted by Zann Miner, was absolutely amazing. The History Mystery package is being offered at auction again this year. The lucky winners are in for such a treat!

I got to design the table decoration and it was so much fun. Here is a look at the place settings before the guests arrived.

The annual dinner this year will have a similar theme for its tables, but on a grander scale. We've had a dedicated group working on the decor for this year. I'm sure someone will take photos for me, so I can share them with you.

I'm hoping my next post will be all about the goodies that I'm offering at Art and Soul. Finger crossed that I can fit everything in!

It's About Time

I got the good news that two of my pieces will be in the Food for Thought show at LibertyTown Arts. Very exciting! I'll put photos of those pieces in a later post. If you live in Fredericksburg and you haven't been to LibertyTown you are really missing out. I know its sacreligous to say this, but I think I like going to LibertyTown as much as I like going to Carl's for ice cream!

In the meantime, I'll show you this piece. I did this for the Cloth Paper Scissors calendar challenge. The theme is Life is Like a Box of... I decided that the answer was clocks and watches. This is the finished piece. Unfortunately it didn't get chosen for the calendar. It looks really nice in my family room, though.

Memory Doll

In January I always challenge myself to try something new. I'd been thinking about doing a memory jug for awhile, and then I happened upon Laurie Zuckerman's blog where she has a memory jug cd available.

In the meantime, I got a great deal on some wreath holders, and decided to make a piece with that. Eventually, the doll's head, the wreath holder and the bird cage came together, and so instead of making a memory jug I made a memory doll. Or memory cage or...well you get the idea. The doll's upper body had a large crack that had been repaired. The glue left a long brown streak along the repair line. I decided to cover that line with some pieces of costume jewelry. This gave me the neckline for her dress. Then I found a small pink vase to serve as her torso. I cut up two necklaces, and put a pin on the back to complete her upper body.

On the skirt, I added some vintage christmas light reflectors. I covered the empty holes with some costume jewelry pearls. The peplum on her dress is made of old book hinges which I wired with pearls.

The pin on the very front of her dress says "Sweetheart" and has a relief of the capitol building on it.

Finally, one day I found the little pink bird in the thrift shop. It matched the vase, so I knew it had to go inside the cage. Getting it in there was a little tricky, but I figured it out eventually.

I am constantly collecting little bits and bobs of things, so this was a perfect project for me. I have several bins started of items that have something in common, and hope to do another one soon.

Little Friends Easter Parade

This is the other collage that I did for the "pastels" challenge with the group that I belong to.

My friend Janet and I were junking when she discovered an old story book that I'd loved as a child. It was called "Little Friends Kittens, Puppies, Bunnies" and it was published by Rand McNally in the 50's. It had photos of animals dressed up in clothes, and I know my father must've read it to me 100 times.

Janet was kind enough to let me have it, and I was really excited to take it home and show it to my children. They did not like this book at all. They thought the photos were "creepy". So, I decided to make a collage. I cut up a few of my favorite photos and decided that it looked like an Easter Parade.

Here are some of the details. Peter Rabbit is hiding eggs in the background. I punched tiny blossoms out of book paper with a hole punch and then added them to a Halloween tree stamp that I have. After that I stippled on some green dots.

These birds came from the fly sheet of another old book that I had. I colored them and decided that they were the spectators for the parade. The cobblestones were done with book paper, and layed with tissue on top. Then I added a coat of clear gesso so that I could use watercolor pencils on top to add depth.

I proudly hung the collage in the front hall until my daughter asked me to please remove it before anyone came to visit!

Oh well, you can't please everyone.

Seventh Folder, Seventh Photo

I discovered this on Patti Szymkowicz's blog, and had to try it.

Go to your computer photo album
Go to the seventh folder
Go to the seventh image
Upload to your blog and tell what it is

(By the way, I am a huge fan of Patty's.)

This is a photo that I took several years ago at Elkwood Crossing Gift and Garden Center in Elkwood, Virginia. Laura at Elkwood creates beautiful little vignettes to find as you're wandering through the greenhouses and gift shop. She also has a very elaborate fairy garden complete with live plants to scale with the fairies. I'll have to post pictures of it in the spring.

I designed the logo for Elkwood when they first opened. I think that photo was taken when I was working on a brochure for them. Here is the logo:

The Elkwood photo is in sharp contrast to the weather that we are having today. Snow, snow everywhere. School is cancelled today and tomorrow. The kids are thrilled, and I have to say I'm enjoying it, too. This little snow family was left as a surprise on my doorstep on a snowy day last winter. Aren't they adorable?

Think Spring!

I belong to a group of artists who meet at Handcraft House in Madison, Virginia. Our challenge for this month was "pastels". We could use actual oil pastels, pastel colors, or anything else that came to mind associated with the word pastel.We've had a few unseasonably warm days and that is all it took to make me think spring.

I've been reading Kelly Rae Roberts' book "Taking Flight" and decided that there had to be a female form in the collage. Then I remembered that I can't draw faces -- no way, no how. So I decided to work around that by using a color copy of an old letter that I had.

I also knew that I wanted to use this fabric for the skirt. It was on sale at the fabric store, with a two-yard minimum, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the other yard and three quarters!

The background is some green tissue that I had. I put the circles down first, and then did an overlay with another layer of tissue.

While you're online, check out the great giveaway at http://www.elizabethcreates.blogspot.com/. She is another artist from the 'burg. I haven't met her yet, but we seem to be kindred spirits, so I'm hoping we can hook up one of these days for a play day.