Creativity from the UK!

 Hello all--
I'm getting back in the swing of things after my move and have a little backlog of posts for you! So check back, I think I may surprise you with some of the stuff that I have planned!

So about a month ago I received a lovely email from a volunteer helper at the Hexham East First School in Northumberland. He explained that the class 1 (5-6 year olds) and class 2 (6-7 year olds) students had created some art works using some inspiration art. And, it seems, that that inspiration art was some of mine that they had found on the internet at my main art website! What an honor! I sent them a supportive letter (and would have sent them some fabric or some such but the time was short until their Art Focus Day.

Here are the main pieces of mine that they viewed:

Studies in Orange and Blue: Triptych
8” x 10.75 “ (each)
July, 2005
Private collection of Charles and Jackie Hicks

Fabric of Space-Time: #1
16" x 13.5" 
November, 2007

Currently on display at the University of Central Florida

The Transit of Venus31” x 47”
July, 2004
Private collection of Susan Riley

And here are the wonderful pieces of textile art that they created for Art Focus Day:

Didn't they do a great job? I was very impressed. I so wished I could have attended the Art Focus Day and seen all of these lovely pieces of art in person and met all of the children.
Thank you, Mr. Messer (volunteer helper) for contacting me and Ms. Noon (teacher) for sending the pictures for me to share.

And, of course, the very biggest of thanks to the very talented artists who created these amazing artworks!

Boring announcements

Hello friends. I'm still recovering from moving and so I have no new creations to blog about. :(

I'm almost done unpacking, though, and I have a bunch of great ideas I'm just dieing to implement so stay tuned. It will be soon, I promise.

In the meantime, I am deactivating the comment option on my posts. I've been getting daily weirdo spam comments that are hijacking my site for their own nefarious purposes. I'll leave it off for a while and reactivate in a month or so. Sorry for any inconvenience!

Cork trivet. and a question

Here's my last catchup craft: another nice cork trivet. I have a goodly supply of corks (some that I have generated, many that came from a supportive restaurant) and I'm always looking for a new craft to use these babies. [You should have seen the castle we built for my daughter's 3rd grade project! sorry, no pix]
Ah well, this trivet is not nearly as exciting as that castle was, but I came across a spare vent clamp and I had sold my other two cork trivets so here was a quick and easy creation.

So I made this little cutie and it was the first thing I uploaded in my slew of items onto my etsy site. That process always takes a little while to write out the product description, tag it etc. Well, I had no sooner finished with this item and started to upload the next item when I got a little ding from my Paypal app indicating a sale. Yes, indeed, my little trivet had sold within the first 15 minutes! Woohoo!

Now here's my next little dilemma: I've been making several trivets out of these natural corks, and I even have a couple of future projects in mind. But what do I make with those artificial corks? I have a bunch of those, too. But they just don't have the same vibe, ya know? So..... something funky and kitschy? But what?

Hmmmmm

Floral Coasters

Moving got started and its just as fun as I remember. not! So no new creating but I remembered I did have a have a little bit of a backlog so I'll just get caught up on that, shall I?

I finished this project up last weekend too, and it was a quickie. I had bought some cork coasters recently on one of my many supply expeditions to Michael's thinking that I'd Mod Podge something to them at some point. So when that old floral art calendar turned up I knew just what to do.

I thought that the circle of art looked a little unfinished when I held it up to the coaster so I got out my trusty gold marker and rimmed a gold edging all the way around on all 4. That served to really finish each individual circle and helped to tie them all together as a set as well. For a brief moment I stressed because the edging was uneven but then I decided I liked that look. It was more organic, much like the subject matter of the art itself.

So now, after this successful Mod Podge project, I'm kind of eyeing all of the furniture in the house and wondering to myself: "Hmmm, wouldn't that look better if it had some art on it?" or "That really is crying out for a butterfly" or even "This could be completely papered in a vintage map". Stay tuned!

Domino Pendents with Dangling Bits

Over the weekend I completed some more domino pendents. I has rediscovered an old floral art calendar that I just couldn't bear to throw away when the year was over. Some of those calendars have very high quality reproductions so I alway keep them. Same for those little postcard books too. I also thought that I would add some more embellishments in the form of some extra dangling beads. Here are a some of my favorites.

This time I used Diamond Glaze on top of the adhered image and I think I like that product just a little bit better than the dimensional Mod Podge that I used in the last go round. It seemed to dry clearer and more glass-like.

I will be moving this coming weekend and the next so I'll be taking a break from crafting. :(
But after that I'll be in my grand new place and happy to get going on several planned projects. :)