Fa La La La, Fruitcake, and All The Good Fabrics + my first Book Giveaway!!!

First things first- I'm having a book giveaway this week over on the Handmade MN blog. Even if you've already pre-ordered the book it's a great way to get 2 so please hop on over and leave a comment to win!
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Now- back to our regularly scheduled post. :)


So I'm in love with Fruitcake. Not actual fruitcake- but the Fruitcake fabric by Moda. I keep buying it when I see it. It's turned into rather a compulsive habit. Fa la la la... I'm browsing the stacks at the fabric store, then BAM- I found fruitcake and there I go. I was feeling rather detached until then. Really it happens with most things Moda. I'm just really partial to the deep reds, and snowflake blues of the fruitcake collection. AND the fact that the collection includes more of their solids line of grunge fabrics just takes the (fruit)cake in my opinion. You have to see these fabrics. They are just brilliant. And they coordinate perfectly with Basic Grey's last Christmas collection for moda- figgy pudding. Which I also bought compulsively.

I think what made these fabrics swoon-worthy was that originally I was attracted to them but couldn't really picture them made into something. Then, I was making Christmas ornaments and pulled this fabric and LOVE love LOVE the results I got with this collection. Those ornaments are actually in my book and I hope to give you a sneak peek of them in another week. So SO cute- really.

Pulling out my Christmas fabrics really helped put me in the mood for making ornaments. I have to admit I've been dragging my heels on this task just because I don't want to think Christmas yet. But man, do I love these fabrics and sitting here, putting them together in different combination's really has made the experience fun for me. October or no. :)

Art Quote Collage- Inspired by Play

Yesterday I was looking for some inspiration. I was feeling like the thing I was working on wasn't coming together; so frustrated, I moved on to something else. One down. I got a little crazy with that next work, realized the smear of paint was not going to work. Sigh. Two down. I'm sure later I'll come back to it and figure out a new direction to take it, but yesterday, it felt RUINED.

Now desperate for something, anything to actually work out for me, I decided to calm down and just play a little. So I grabbed a little canvas I'd started to paint and collage a while back but set aside when I just wasn't feeling it, and I started to play on that. I got out all the yummy yummy art materials I've collected lately and haven't tried yet and started to piece them all out on this canvas. It got a little busy looking for my taste but it was fun and I couldn't, wouldn't stop. It felt like a luxury to be able to use all of these beautiful art materials and in the process of playing I let myself unwind and enjoy.

The quote came at the end- the very last thing I found and added. It makes me smile to realize that the words of Matisse were just the words I needed to hear when I began this piece. Don't wait for inspiration, don't worry about a lack of it, just go make stuff. You'll find that when you play, the inspiration comes through that very act of letting go and enjoying yourself and your materials. Matisse said it shorter but this is what I heard in his words. :)

Some of the fun materials I used:
An old carpenter's ruler
Melody Ross Artsy Urban line of chipboard stickers
A piece of a birds on a wire decal from Single Stone Studios
Fabric from my Basic Grey for Moda charm packs
Some lovely and fun Rub-on's from Jenni Bowlin studio
Some torn pieces of text from an old swedish poetry book
My fave crackle paint- Broken China from Ranger
Some scraps of Basic Grey's Urban Prarie scrapbooking paper
A couple of old buttons
Quote hand stamped on fabric and then stitched around edge
A wire heart- of course!