Art Calendar Journal - April

No foolin'...my
Art Calendar Journal for

APRIL 2013

is ready for marking what's fun in each day. 

 

I'm glad I made the decision to switch from traditional monthly themes to FUN monthly themes. (This isn't really a theme is it?  But it was fun!)  This was even more fun than the first 3 months. 

 

I love this little bad girl.  I see her as me...not at her age...I was 23 before I became her.

 



And these are the wannabe bad girls...

 

I'm so excited to fill in these blocks.  I do hope some worthy fun happens! 

 

March started as a bit of a struggle to squeeze fun into a few of the days.  Those are the days I practiced making inchies.  And some days had a bit too much fun packed in.

 

 

May there be many FUN days in April!

xxx

Annie









Altered Dictionary - P

This fortnight's dictionary letter is P

 

I really wanted to choose postage, but since I just did mail, I kinda wanted to take a little different direction.

I chose...

 

........... Perch ...........

I love birds too.

 

 

 

It took me a few days to decide on how I wanted to illustrate this word.  This game is getting tougher for me.  If I were doing this project on my own, I would most likely choose a word based on some inspiration.  However, being told which letter to work with is not so easy.  I suppose that's why it's called a "challenge"!  LOL

I found this fun striped pencil in a magazine and it just had to be included in my altered dictionary.

 

 Simple but fun.
 

xxx

Annie

Envelope Art

Decorated Envelopes

are just the best mail one can receive.

 

Well, that's as far as I'm concerned it is.  My postcard mail art has led me to wanting to play with arty names and addresses.  After posting a couple of first envelopes on flickr...

 

 

... Carol found and led me to the blog of Jean Wilson, pushing the envelopes  Jean's envelope art is phenomenal and the ultimate inspiration.  Jean has the talent to design an envelope based on the design of the postage stamp.  I couldn't even begin to do that!  I just add the postage stamp as added envelope decoration.

 

 

 

 

It was Jean's blog where I was shocked to learn that you could place a postage stamp almost anywhere on the envelope!  Can you believe it?  I always thought they HAD to be in the upper right corner.  Carol's envelope was my very first moving of the postage!  FUN FUN FUN!  And scary too.  There was a brief visual of the post office slapping a big ole red inked stamp "undeliverable as stamped!"

 

 

And I dared to do it again! 

 

It's kind of a bummer blocking out names and addresses to protect the innocent.  That takes away from the effect as a whole, but, it can't be helped.

AND THEN!

SO AWESOME! 

Carol oh, sweet Carol, sent ME an arty envelope!

 

 

And that's how I know this is the best mail to receive!

Thanks so much, Carol!  That was an AWESOME Mail Day!

 

Wishing everyone a Good Mail Day!

Annie



It's Tags Now

 

I just love tags!  But I always struggle with making them.  However, I think I lucked out this time.  Lucky for me, other people create wonderful art.  And then they produce it for retail sale so that I can purchase the use of it.  I still struggle with putting it together, it's a process of one step at a time over a few days.  Just to make one tag!

Life Is Good

7gypsies paper, Tim Holtz stamps, unknown stamps.

 

Beautiful

7gypsies paper, woman image from a stamping magazine, Hampton Art alphabet stamps, various other unknown stamps.

 

Back of Beautiful

7gypsies paper, Tim Holtz rubber stamps and other unknown stamps.

 

Dance

7gypsies paper, Tim Holtz Stamp, unknown stamps.

 

And then they came to a screeching halt!  I continued to have some starter ideas, but further inspiration for those eludes me.  They now sit aside waiting for what comes next with them.  It will come...eventually.

 

 xxx

Annie

 

 

 

Cancelled Postage

They aren't just for collecting!

 

Cancelled Postage Stamps

are for art too! 

 

I love postage stamps and mail art.  Some family members collected postage stamps in a previous life, so there are lots of cancelled postage stamps nearby that I've been rather afraid to touch.  But, amazing what you're willing to do while wearing brave girl panties.

 

I wanted to first make a red bird postcard with red stamps.  I am shocked at the minimal number of red stamps I could dig up.  Well, I didn't want the first project to wreck up the only red postage I could find.  And there were plenty of blue stamps, so I made a blue trial bird first.

 

 

Oh boy, was that fun!  So on to the red bird.  I found the pinkish purple Happy Birthday stamp for the wing because I was going to send him as a birthday wish to Carol.

 

 

Oh, but I love him so!  And with only two more red stamps found so far, I could not let him go.

 

Then there came the butterfly.

 

 

And then came some postage people.

 

 

For me, these represent the child in all of us, no matter our age. 

 

 

This idea came from another artist.  I struggled to figure out how to blend the stamp with the body, and shear determination got me to where I wanted to be.  The other artist did not seem to be willing to share her secret, so I worked out what works for me...finally.

 

The technique needs some practice, but it's been great fun adding adult heads to children's bodies by way of postage stamps.   And some famous heads at that! 

 

Gosh, I sure hope I don't glue, chop, color or sew a rare $100,000. valued postage stamp.....yikes!

 

 May today be a Good Mail Day!
Annie

Altered Dictionary - M

This fortnight the letter is M for The Craft Barn's Alpha Challenge.  But there's a twist this time.  Our word must be chosen from only words beginning

 

Ma-Me

 

You know I had to choose Mail don't you.  I like to search out less common words, but my love for mail art and Good Mail Days wouldn't let me get past the word.

 

 

"Private Mailing Card" rubber stamp and colored pencil, "Cancelled Post Mark" rubber stamp, Zip Code postal stamp, Par Avion Letecky stamp, typewriter image and my Dear Friend letter is hand written on tracing paper.

 

It was challenging though.  This junior dictionary is so full of illustrations and sometimes they get in the way of art.  LOL  I had to camouflage a man wearing chain mail (armor) and hide a large ear of corn (food mainstay).

 

 

 

Have a Good Mail Day!

Annie

 

 

Art Calendar Journal - March

My art calendar journal for

 

--- March ---

 

is ready for me to document the pleasantries of my days.  And no unpleasantries if I can help it.

 

 

I originally planned for this first year, to go with all the traditional colors and holiday themes for the months.  But I struggled with March so much, that I have completely switched horses for most of the rest of the year.  Because this project needs to be enjoyable.

 

 

Needless to say, I will be happy to move on from these traditional designs.  But I still LOVE this project!

 

February is all filled in.  It was a month that was surprisingly overfull of fun crafting for so many days of the month.  That did not make me unhappy at all! 

 

 

 I could stand a bit more variety of fun, but this satisfied me well enough for now.  I decided to write in the blocks with "mostly" only red, pink and violet pens.

 

Have a lucky March!

Annie

Altered Dictionary - H

This time for the Altered Dictionary Alpha Challenge at The Craft Barn the letter is H. 

 

I have chosen the word

Haberdashery

 

I have been worried what I would do when a letter gave me no clue to what word I could choose to depict art-wise.  That's what happened this time.  I looked through a lot of H words the first couple of days.  A week ago my father asked me to get him a pair of suspenders the next time I was near the haberdashery.  Although I knew a haberdashery meant retail, I did not know to what extent. 

 

My 1935 dictionary says it's men's wear.

 

 

However, a modern Internet search reveals haberdashery to be practically anything sold retail.

 

The word Haberdashery is from a clip art advertisement.  I tinted the white printer paper with chalk.  The line of men are a scrap of fabric printed to paper and also tinted with chalk.  The portrait is printed from an Internet search and the umbrella man is a Tim Holtz rubber stamp.

 

I like this word; haberdashery is fun to say.  But I struggled to figure out how to illustrate it.  In the end I think I found a fun way to depict my word and alter my dictionary page.

 

xxx

Annie

 

 



SPA - Key to my Heart

This week on Sunday Postcard Art, the theme is

Key To My Heart.

 

but mine had to be

KeyS to my Heart

 

 

I can't figure out things like photoshop or digital collage or anything to do with techy computerized creations.  So I'm really happy that I can buy cool scrapbook papers to use as backgrounds for cut and paste and stamping to create my postcards.  Although I think the digitally created works are fabulous looking, I really love the hands on creating.  I think my style is rather basic tho.  Kind of like less is more I guess.  The important part is that it's just plain fun to play!

 

xxx

Annie

Pillow #8

Moda Candy Bar

Pillow

 

 

 

A very sweet online friend, Rachel, was overly thankful and sent me some awesome Moda Candy Bar packs as well as a few fat quarters.  I finally decided to break into the Breakfast at Tiffany's pack for a pillow.

These candy bar pieces are half the size of a charm square.  I have struggled with a design and an Internet search did not help.  So I just made it up and added some white.

 

It definitely needed some added interest, so I decided to begin the quilting with a glitzy metallic thread.  Too heavy for the machine needle, so it would have to be done as bobbin work.

 

 

I pin basted from the back side of the pillow top, did my best to find the center and marked it.

 

 

I set my circular guide attachment on my machine, starting with the smallest available circle point...

 

 

 

...poked my circular guide nail through my center marking...

 

 

...placed the little protective rubber thingy over the very sharp nail...

 

 

 

...and began sewing the circles.

 

 

I think it still needed more quilting, so I began a continuous spiral with regular thread from the top side.

 

 

And that is how pillow #8 rolled.

 

 

I ended up a tad large for the pillow, so I lost the narrow teal strips at the far edges.  I'm ok with that...sorta.

Rachel, THANK YOU!

 

xxx

Annie