Wednesday, December 30, 2009

New Year, New... Table!

A big dream of mine has just come true! Here it is, THE table.


My amazingly talented husband made this for me as a Christmas gift, with specific size requirements from me, and it turned out perfect. Soon it will have wheels on the bottom of the legs, so I can wheel it around the room. Here are a couple pics of me and my sis working on it this week. We had so much fun!



Have a wonderful New Year's celebration! See you in 2010!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas!

Today is Christmas Eve, and as promised, here are more details about the Christmas cards I made this year.

It all started with two huge pieces of construction paper, one about 3x4 feet and one about 1x2 feet in size. I learned about this paper from Lynne Perrella, who I took that fateful workshop with in August 08. You can buy this in large rolls for about $8 at places like Home Depot. I guess it's meant to cover floors on construction sites. Ha! That's why we call it construction paper!

I treated each of my two pieces a little differently, but the end result was the same: cover each one completely! The big piece was covered in sheet music (Christmas songs) first, then painted over in red and dotted all over with different colors of paint. The second was covered in various small green polygons. Good thing there was some good music on, as this was a somewhat not-so-exciting job which took 2 hours!




After brushing over them both with gloss medium (that's the "varnish"), I cut each piece into several little pieces. The red was cut into 45+ rectangles and the green was cut into the same number of triangles. Glue the green onto the red, sew the rectangles onto 45 blank notecards I bought at a garage sale last summer, write in them, stamp and seal, and voila! You're looking at the final product there in your own hands!


(Remember, you can click on the image to get a closer view. There in the background, you can see some of my other works in progress too...)


I was talking to my friend Diana, who graciously shared that she's kept all the Christmas cards I've ever given her (they're the only ones that get packed in the Christmas box and unpacked every year to sit on the shelf!). We got to talking about the technique and the high number of cards it makes, and then I thought, I could teach a class about this! So I am going to look into that for late summer or fall. It wouldn't have to be for Christmas cards, but for any type of card. Those of you who received our card last year can see how anything goes with this idea!

Today, I'll be working a little on another art piece, cleaning the house, cooking part of tomorrow's dinner, baking walnut rum cookies, and preparing our guest room for our first ever guest! My sister will join us just in time for Christmas dinner tomorrow evening. Tomorrow, a few presents, a hike (or snowshoe, as we just yesterday got a foot of snow), and some good eats!

I'll be back one more time before the New Year, so please come again sometime in the next week. Meanwhile, Merry Christmas to you!

With love,
HLM

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

No Spoiling the Surprise!

I've been doing some pretty fun art stuff lately, including making our Christmas cards, always a big creative undertaking! Well, I've finished them and started sending them out, and I'd rather you receive yours in the mail (if you're one of the lucky ones) before I show them here. Please do come back December 24th and I'll post everything about them.

Meanwhile, my friend Amb received the birthday card I sent her, so here's a (somewhat sorry) photo of that. I was trying to get to the PO before it closed so I wasn't spending a ton of time on making a good picture of it for my archives. It was a lot of fun to use this bright pink paint and beaded fringe!!!! I got the fringe on sale at Joann's a long time ago, and it served well as inspiration for this card. The base is corrugated cardboard, to make it sturdy (and able to hold the heavy fringe), and in the end I punched a hold in it for hanging, if so desired. The card without the fringe measures about 7x5".

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Two small paintings

Before Thanksgiving week, I had the pleasure of making these two pieces, both gifts for people, so there was a deadline motivator! I love this first one, made for a German friend who took me on a delightful hike to an old haunt when I was in Hameln this summer. The words, in order are: bees, truth, food, trees, apfelschorle (drink with apple juice and sparkling water), movement, beauty, and friendship. It measures about 10x6 inches.


This second one totally copies the idea of some of Kelly Rae Roberts' work (see what I mean here). It is a fantastic way to use up small paper scraps, and this technique has given me inspiration for my Christmas cards this year! So cool. I made this for my cousin in Cali, who turned 16 last week. The background is from an old copy of The Book of Lists, from the 1970s. It measures about 7x5 inches.


This week I've been pretty sick (laryngitis, bad cough), but I hope to feel better enough tomorrow that I can make (or at least work on) something. Happy December!