The Jar Project

Here are a couple of pics of my finished piece for Art House Co-op's Jar Project.

My piece is titled "Dreamer" and has a man laying on his back, with a book on his chest, staring up at the clouds. I made the clouds from invisible thread, cotton balls and glitter and attached them to the jar lid with a combo of glue and wax. Three of my favorite dream quotes and the label on top were made using an image transfer technique I learned at the Art & Soul retreat. The quotes were attached to the inside of the jar using an invisible glue. The miniature man is laying on real moss which was attached using a spray adhesive. I painted the lid with light blue and dabbed white clouds on with a cotton ball before attaching the titled label. It turned out just like I pictured in my head! Yay!  Next up for Art House is The Map Project and The 4x4 Self Portrait Project!

Gathering Knowledge at the Art & Soul

I just returned from a long trip to Virginia and North Carolina. Here's a tip: Don't take a late flight on the night of the time change. It's really messed with my sleep rhythms!

The purpose of the trip was to attend the 2012 Art & Soul Retreat in Virginia Beach. I went with my friend and fellow artist, Phoebe Ford Reid. We took different classes, meeting for lunch and taking peeks in on each other to see what each was learning. Since I am so far behind on my blog, I'm just posting a snippet of what I learned from two of my favorite classes.

I had so much fun in Wabi-Sabi Wax taught by Serena Barton. She was a great teacher and the class was full of really fun personalities. We learned how to paint with Encaustic medium...beeswax mixed with oil paint:

 Memoirs of Japan

Mixed media on wood

Preservation of Nature

Mixed media with natural elements on wood

Another class I enjoyed and totally fell in love with was Cathy Taylor's class "Finding Your Creative Spirits" where we learned to make our own background papers using the pages of old National Geographic magazines. Once dry, we could then paint on top of them with FW Acrylic Inks (love these inks!) or collage them onto mixed media pieces. Here are some of my results, taken into Photoshop and enhanced with additional elements:

 Forest Tree in Winter

 Left Afloat

Seabed

And a mixed media piece I did after I returned home using one of my big-eyed dolly drawings:

Promise
Mixed media on paper

Of course, there was plenty of time for Phoebe and I to enjoy photography as well! We went to Colonial Williamsburg and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I've posted all my pictures on Storie which you can see here:
 
I've come back completely exhausted but excited about having the whole Spring and Summer ahead to indulge in all my crafty and artsy pursuits! I'm ready to tackle it all: Digital Painting, Photography, Mixed Media, Watercolors, Sewing, Gardening and even getting back to working on my miniatures.  The whole world of art awaits and I've got my wings on ready to fly!

Exploration #23:How to Uncover a Mystery

Exploration #23: How to Uncover a Mystery


It's been a long time since I've done an Exploration task from my book "How to be an Explorer of the World". I've been in Virginia for the last week on an artist retreat and I worked in days when I would be able to go out and do some shooting. I've always wanted to try Geo-caching and since I was going to be walking around taking pics, I thought I would try my hand at it. I ended up loving the mystery and adventure!

How to Uncover a Mystery:
1.) Find the general location of your cache and using your GPS follow the trail, snapping pics of landmarks and interesting things along the way.

Statue at the Chrysler Museum of Art

2.) Find the street the cache is on:

Grace & Yarmouth

3.) Meet interesting people along the way:

Gentleman Reading the Morning Paper in Ghent

4.) Find the location of the cache:

The Tree Marks the Spot

5.) Find the hiding spot:

Beneath the Rock

6.) And finally, find the cache, remove, sign the log and replace for the next adventurer to find!

Aragona Project & Log Scroll

What did I learn from this Exploration task? That I ♥ Geo-caching and can't wait to do it again! :)

A Mad Hatter Tea Party, Part 1

Me, as the Mad Hatter

Pic by Lita

"We're all mad here" ~Cheshire Cat
My Mad Hatter Tea Party Bunco party was a success! For 16 months I had gathered bits and pieces of things that I could possibly use to decorate my theme. For the last three weeks leading up to the party, I worked on those decorations from dusk to dawn, putting together tables, testing teas, baking goods, even making my own sugar cubes! I'll include some "how to's" in these posts and to recoup some of the costs, I'll have a few of the items you see here in my Etsy store for sale next month. I hope you enjoy my take on the Mad Hatter Tea Party and perhaps it will give you all some ideas to throw your very own Mad Hatter themed party! I have a lot to share from this party! Be forewarned...it's quite long! I had no time to pull out the big camera and take pro shots so hope the iPhone images will suffice!

The overall look for my tea party was a mix of bright colors and vintage items. The menu was based on a British High Tea experience with champagne, high quality loose teas, delicious tea sandwiches, scones and bite-sized desserts. Of course, since the Mad Hatter was hosting it, there would be a bit of madness here and there such as vintage mismatched teacups and a variety of interesting teapots.

A variety of vintage teacups

Wedgewood and a delicate teacup make a perfect combo

The tea table featured seven different loose teas, each in a different pot. Each teapot sat on a lace doily and had a delicate silver tea strainer. Vintage teacups for the guests usage were placed on and around the table. This gave everyone an opportunity to pick a cup that suited their aesthetic and a tea that suited their palate, which helped to give each party goer a unique experience. To add a little whimsy and history to the table setting, small clippings from the chapter on the Mad Hatter tea party from the Alice in Wonderland book were placed under the clear table covering, along with a vintage instruction sheet on brewing the perfect cup of tea. 

 After pouring their teas, the guests could then move to the side tea table which was filled with additions for a perfect cup of tea such as honey and lemon flavoring spoons, fresh sliced lemon, organic mint leaves and even decorative sugar cubes I made myself!

To easily decorate sugar cubes, place a handful of white melting candies in a Ziploc bag and melt in microwave for 10secs at a time, kneading to smooth out after each time until just melted. Snip a 1/8" corner from the bag and put a small dab on top of a sugar cube. Press a edible Royal Icing flower on top and let set before serving. Voila! Pretty cubes that are super easy to create! Use natural rock cubes to give a whimsical look to them.

The table with the tea additions was decorated with a variety of items related to the book...a white rabbit, a top hat made out of a $3.00 foam hat picked up from Michaels, book clippings, a dormouse in a teacup, large brass key, pocket watches and finally, a vintage looking glass highlighting a page in the Alice in Wonderland book. It's the small details that make the party interesting and fun!

Next up I'll share how the big food table was decorated and what was on the menu so stay tuned...

Nature's Beauty

Thought I would share a couple of pictures of Nature's Beauty taken yesterday with my new camera, the Nikon D7000! I really love it so far. It has a quiet mode shutter speed which allowed me to get really close to the hummingbird without scaring him off. I've had the camera for over a week but just yesterday finally broke it out of it's box and headed outdoors with it. Nichole and I have decided to take a break from our iPhone missions since we are at a good stopping place of 25 completed. We will do the next 25 over the summer. I think the iPhone mission has made me a bit lazy with my blog. I miss making things, painting and inspiring you all with my artsy adventures. I'm recommitting to more artful posts this Spring! I've been trying to find the time to blog about the Mad Hatter Tea Party but it's taking some time to get all the details written out. I want you all to feel like you were there! So, here are a couple of pics to tie you over until I finish that blog post. :)

First Blush

 Little Hummingbird

Captured Blooms

iPhoneography Mission #25

iPhoneography Mission #25: 
Call out to your pet and record the moment of connection.


I do not have the most cooperative cats when it comes to photography. Somehow they always know when a camera is in my hand. Even with the iPhone camera, and bird calls coming from my lips, I am still thwarted by closed eyes or a turn of the head. So I only have a few images to share with you for this mission as pictures were just blurs of fur as the little buggers ran off to hide from my lens. :)

Mom, you are disturbing my bird watching!

The ears back mean Back Off!

 Rawrrrr!

 Calm (but one more snap and her mood could change!)

The life of a pampered cat is soooo very tiring!

And, since these pets weren't cooperating, I called out to my other "pet":

Now, I can give my cats (and hubby!) a break from having a camera in their face and move on to the next mission...

iPhoneography Mission #26: Make water stains.

Ohhh...sounds like an opportunity to get very creative!

iPhoneography Mission #24

iPhoneography Mission #24: Seek Color


I got lucky this week for Mission #24 as I had to run to the antique store for a last minute purchase for my upcoming Mad Hatter Tea Party. After I had made my purchase, I took a quick run through the store, snapping away at colorful things that caught my eye.

 Blue Dog

 Blue Swirls

 Fiery Feathers

 Fanned Out

 Colors of the Kimono

 Pretty Plumes

 Of course it buys happiness!

 Sequins

 Xylophone

 Colors in Abstract

Beady

And here is the next mission!:

iPhoneography Mission #25: Call out to your pet and record the moment of connection.