More Spooky Fun!

Just a head's up to head over to Shelley's blog for some more spooky fun. She's got pumpkins and crows and my personal fave- a papier mache skull covered with a baroque pattern. Ooooh! Just lovin' it! She got creative and used the same pumpkin piece in both her harvest and halloween pieces which is just so clever! So click here for the details!You'll boo amazed!

Starbuck's Inspiration

Here it is! More Harvest Decor that's quick and easy to make and add's a really nice personal element to your home. Here's the inspiration behind this project:

At the end of August I was looking forward to a couple of things happening in September. One was Jasper's first day of school and the other was the reintroduction of Starbuck's seasonal latte, the Pumpkin Spice. I've never been big into the coffee drinks, but one day as I was sitting with a friend over coffee the server came around with samples. In our memories it's strange what we can recall clearly and what seems fuzzy. The birth of my son- fuzzy. The first time I tasted a Pumpkin Spice Latte- I have complete recall of it. So yummy! So last year and now this year I've added it to my list of seasonal treats along with pumpkin bread and apple muffins.

When I started to create this little quilt I hand cut the pumpkin shape first with all of it's elements and stitched that on before I could think of what to add to the space above it. I thought of "Autumn", or "Harvest-y goodness", or just something about Fall. Nothing really worked. But then it came to me. "Pumpkin Spice is Nice." Now you may be thinking you would have chosen something else but this was personal art and I made the personal connection and now I smile when I see it. What simple pleasure could you make art of? Is there a Harvest osmell or activity you particularly look forward to each year? Something you'd like to share?

How To:
1) Creating a mini art quilt is fabulously easy (which I love), and you get great results (which I love even more)! To sketch out some ideas, then choose one and select some fabrics to work with. Working with different patterns and colors is really enjoyable to me so I sometimes start here and then figure out what to make of them.
2) Cut out a background piece- Here I chose black. Then, cut out your major design elements, I have the pumpkin, the leaves, etc. They cling really well to the background fabric once you set them on, so I use this opportunity to do some collage like playing around with the piece to further develop the design.
3) Once you have want you like laid out on the background piece, start to stitch them into place. Sometimes, just for ease, I'll glue on the smaller fabrics with a dab of the glue stick. Then using the embroidery floss of your choice start to straight stitch the pieces together. I love this step because the stitches add a drawing element that really adds to the collage feel of this process.
4) After I stitched down everything I usually step back to look at the overall design. This is where I decided on the "pumpkin spice" theme. I hand cut the letters and then glue sticked them down. I do need to go back over with some stitching to hold but it's good for now. Or I might pull them off and adhere them to a piece of that iron on interfacing. Then cut them and place them as desired. Easy!
5) Embellishment time! Now is the time to take a look at your design again and see if there's anything you can add to give it that extra punch. I chose to add the green backing fabric and some buttons. I have half a mind to go back in and add some salvage items I have, like an old roller skate key, but we'll see.
6) To finish I cut little strips from scraps of the orange fabric for ties. Bend the piece in half and then stitch to the top of your quilt. It can then hang from anything you'd like. I might switch this one over to an old ruler yet. Or a rusty old hanger. We'll see.... FUN!

Tutorial: How to Spell "BOO"!

Inspired by the season, Shelley of Singlestone Studios and I have put together a couple of projects to share with you this week. So swing on over to her blog after this for some more harvest inspirations! Here's my first contribution, a quick little project I created this weekend just for you bloggers! It's a little "Boo" sign that is both simple and cheap to create. I estimate that the entire thing cost less than $5. I did it myself but you could easily involve your kids in this one too!

What you need:
Materials
3 little unpainted wooden plaques (JoAnn)
19 gauge steel wire (hardware store)
4 odd cream buttons
chalkboard paint, black
paper towels
1/4 yd. approx. orange and black fabric (JoAnn)
glue stick

Tools
Craft drill
sandpaper
scissors
wire cutter
needle nose pliers

The HOW-TO Part:
Step One: Glob on some of the chalkboard paint to the top of each plaque and rub it in with a paper towel. We're going for a glazed look so if you get too much in areas- wipe it off. I put just enough on to cover the wood completely, but still see the grain. Let dry.
Step Two: I used my craft drill and put holes in the top corners and bottom corners on 2 of the plaques but on the third only drill 2 at the top corners.
Step Three: Sand your edges to get a nice worn and spooky look.
Step Four: Cut out a "B", and 2 "O's" from the orange fabric. I handcut mine but you can blow up the letters in your word processor and then print them out for insta-templates. Just hold the paper and fabric together and cut around your shape. It's an easy way to get a certain font. I think hand cut works pretty well for this project however. Rough looks nice here.
Step Five: Cut about 12" of the wire and thread one end each through the top two holes of one of the 4 hole plaques. This will be the hanger, so leave a little slack and then wrap the ends around the wire and then trim excess. If desired you can make a little loop in the center where it will hang.
Step Six: Cut 4 lengths of wire approx. 6" in length. Thread through holes from back and connect the plaques one below the other and so on. I spaced the plaques as I wanted and then twisted the wire. Then wrap one end around the other and then clip the excess. The second end gets trimmed to about a 1/2" length and then you insert it through a button. Wrap the wire over into the second button hole and then under for security and then trim any leftover wire. Do this 4 times to finish.

So there you go 6 easy steps and you have a stylish and spooky bit of home decor you created yourself! This same project could be altered so that the plaques are side by side and say trick or treat or use a harvest theme such as Be Thankful. Instead of text you could also get creative and do a trio of bats or pumpkins. If you go harvesty painting the plaques a pumpkin or deep red tone and then accenting with a bit of gold paint would be very pretty. You could also use these to go 3-d. Simply drill through the plaque where you would like to add your skeleton keys or sticks or whatever and then wrap the item with wire and twist behind to secure. I think using old wallpaper on these would be fun too. SO a simple shape but lots and lots of places to go with it. I could see a triptych created from these as well.

The Thing with Feathers....

There is a piece of a poem that has been circulating through my mind for some time now and because of that I wanted to use it in one of my creations. The poem goes like this....

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all....
By Emily Dickenson

Maybe it's the bird connection, maybe it's just the magnificence of Emily's poetry... I don't know why this poem has become a jingle that lingers and pesters and sings to me at times but it has. Because I love this poem and because it has been right at the surface for so long now I've been wanting to explore it and own it by using it in my art. But like the thing with feathers it's been ever present but illusive and I've not found the right place for it. Last week it became the text of a mixed media piece I've been working on.

The art work itself has been lingering for quite a while as well. I did the background months ago during one of those slop it on paint sessions and the stitching followed about a week later. The wire nest was next and although I knew I wanted a bird for the piece I was stalled out for a while trying to imagine the right medium to use for that bird. I wanted the look of an old illustration but didn't want to draw or paint it myself. So a photocopy seemed the best answer but I didn't fancy the look of a piece of paper glued on. It seemed too one dimensional in comparison to all the 3d work that I had wired or glued on. But I didn't want another sculptural element either. It would upset the balance between 2d and 3d to add another 3d piece. SO I let the entire work alone for a couple of weeks and let my subconscious work on the solution without me. :) Finally I decided to print out the image on fabric and then stitch it on.

After that I added the text. I wrote it on with a watersoluble pencil and then added a bit of water. Unfortunately or fortunately it blurred my lettering. So I have to address that yet. Do I want it legible? Or is it fine if only I know what it says and the text becomes a blurry design element? What do you think? Leave it or make it readable? I could do another print out of the poem and stitch that over the handwritten text..... that would accentuate the contrast between the printed and the painted elements of the piece further...... I also want to add some eggs to the nest. I'm thinking paper mache but maybe clay....Maybe I should make some feathers and add those to the nest instead of the eggs. I've too many ideas! HELP ME PLEASE!!!! Maybe one of you wants to just tell me what to do....;)

More Wire Words: Glued, Stitched, and Tied On

Today I worked on a couple of projects using my new Wire Word Embellishments. The idea is to have some basic examples of how they can be used to show with the individual words when I list them on Etsy.

The tag was my first idea. I thought it might look kind of cool to use a wire word as a package add-on. All I did was cut out the tag shape from a piece of scrapbooking paper, roughed it up a bit, and then added a bit of page I'd torn out of a book. Then I tied the tag and the word together with the purple ribbon.

The next project is an example of a 8" x 8" scrapbook page embellished with the wire word "sweet". I thought it turned out rather sweet as well. Here I attatched the word with glue dots. It's going under a page protector so I know it will be supported and protected when I'm flipping through the scrapbook.

The last example is a picture frame. The idea of the altered book base I found in Kelly Rae Roberts book, Taking Flight. It's been a while since I saw it so I don't know how much mine resembled hers, but the basic cut-out was something I found in her oh so fabulous book. So first thing I did was draw out my box. Then using a metal straight edge and a sheetrock knife I made repeated cuts through the cover. I actually kept cutting through the paper until I had a 1/4" depth to my square. I wanted a different text than was actually in the book so I tore out a page from my french-english dictionary. I circled the word famille and then I used a glue stick to adhere the page down. Next, I drilled my holes. I used a hand drill and actually Jasper helped with this part. One hole in each corner going all the way through the book, and then three more holes through the cover only, to attach the wire word below the frame. To determine the placement of these holes I laid the "sweet" where I wanted it and then marked the spots where I planned on stitching the word down. After the drilling I went ahead and stitched the word down with embroidery floss. To reinforce the stitching I taped over the knots on the backside of the cover. I added the stitched ribbon around the frame next, and then did a little doodle and added some bling to the bottom of the cover. To finish, I threaded wire through the top holes and created a simple hanger. This also secured the book together so it can't be opened. This was VERY fun to make. I want to make lots and lots more! Tomorrow I'll add a photo of Jasper looking oh so cute and give it to my grandmother for a birthday gift!