Good grief...

I thought this was an art blog!!!  For some odd reason, I seem to be making less art than ever lately.
My time seems to be split amongst school volunteering, outside winter prep, my mother's appts and the dreaded housework, as of late.

I SO need to be creative but the rest of it won't wait. I'm beginning to get the shakes....

I have been working on some Miniature Terrain, which I have moved off onto a secondary page for those curious enough to venture there. Refer to tabs under title frame if interested....

Friday Freebie

This weeks photo is very old...in fact, its a small cabinet card. 

The boy looks less than thrilled to be having his picture taken. I guess some things never change....

(click image for full size before saving)

Art Journal remake

A while back my good friend Elizabeth sent me one of her wonderful sewn art journals as a birthday gift.

You can see the first set of signatures here and the second set here.

She lamented over and over about how much she hated the cover she made for mine. She even told me that I should try and fix it.

I love the inside covers as much as she did but the covers were over-sized. We talked about how I might be able to salvage the insides while doing the remake.

Time passed...I did nothing.

But now I'm really wanting to start a journal so I figured I'd better listen to Elizabeth and refit the cover.

I carefully cut the "spine" from the rest of the cover salvaging as much as humanly possible of the gorgeous inside fabric.

Since I seem to have a thing for denim, it seemed the natural choice for a scrappy cover.

 

 As you can see I used Elizabeth fun hand-dyed fabric with pen pockets on the front inside cover.















And her even more impressive bird mono-print with pocket on the back cover.













I made a flower from the lace to cover the sewing of the closure strap and added a vintage button for interest. 

Now time to get writing...

Friday Freebie

Since it's been such a slow week in the art department...I'd like to offer you two images this week.

Both are wonderful vintage postcards that make great backgrounds or accents in your artwork.

Enjoy!

(click each image to enlarge)

Suede pouch

 I am very behind here in blogland...
 

Last Saturday evening I made this suede pouch to hang from my belt at the Renaissance Festival the next day.


I had already sewn a backpack but with the temperatures sounding on the cool side I figured I'd be wearing a shawl over my costume. If I had a backpack on I'd be sporting a "hunchback of Notre Dame" look.

So a belt pouch was in order....

I had a magnetic purse closure in my sewing basket so that worked out very well.  I used a scrap of suede to cover the ugly metal backing.


We had a good time with the kids at the festival. Such a different experience than going with another couple. 

***I once again have to apologize for the poorly lit photos. Seems every time I want to photograph something it's raining!!***

Friday Freebie

I think this photo is really neat...haven't figured out an art application for it as of yet but I like it anyway.


I call it " The Gathering Tree".


Enjoy!

Suede backpack

You may remember a while back I used a suede jacket to make a book.  I still had lots of suede left waiting for inspiration to strike.

As the old saying goes...Necessity is the mother of invention....

I needed a bag of some sort to carry at the Renaissance Festival this weekend that would look a bit more like a bag from that period.  After seeing the crazy expensive prices of the beautiful tooled leather belt pouches I knew I needed to come up with my own design.  I'd already spent too much on my new bodice... Did I mention how much we love the Renaissance Festival!! 

I must apologize for the poorly lit photos...it is a very dark and rainy day here but I just couldn't wait any longer to share...