Rock, Paper, Scissors

My first public showing! Thought I'd post a few pictures, mainly to display my beautiful daughters. Mara,  (who looks like Zooey Deschanel, I swear) was there to handle every transaction since I was so nervous I could hardly tie a bow. Hannah Stephenson, my older daughter, had organized the event held in downtown Columbus at the Ohio State University Urban Art Space (oh, excuse me, I meant The Ohio State University Art Space!), located in what used to be the Lazarus department store. It sits  across from a new urban park called Columbus Commons which used to house the Columbus City Center Mall (the only mall I ever liked).

Our display was just a simple table provided by the venue, adorned by tablecloths over boxes to achieve different levels, glittery snowflakes, and of course a glass bowl of chocolate kisses.  Some traffic, some purchases, and some of Mara's retail skills, made it really enjoyable and broke the ice for me. Although I wouldn't let her leave my side.

Our packaging was simple silver ribbon tagged with a business card.

A happy holiday season to all!

New venture

My goals for 2011 regarding cardcrafting were to open an etsy store, host my own blog, get a vendor's license, and a domain name. I did get a domain name, but there it sits, idle, useless, and untended.  The etsy store is empty, and my blog is going nowhere.

I have my first event at which I will be selling my cards, at the Ohio State University Urban Arts Space, located in what used to be the downtown Lazarus department store. My daughter has organized an event on Friday, Dec. 2, from 2-8 p.m., where different artists have a free venue to display and sell their art.

You are invited to come, and if you do, stop by my table to chat and take a look at what I've come up with so far.  I'd really appreciate some feedback. Also, if you blog, I'd like to learn from you--just a smidgen of what you've found helpful, and not so much.

Blessings to you all.

Summer ends, fall begins

Falling . . .

It happens to a lot of us: the onset of sadness at the end of summer. Not that I didn't complain about the heat, or the humidity, or the rain (and lack thereof).  As I pulled up to my house last evening, I noticed our flower garden against the new colors of our house and was surprised by a pang of sorrow, knowing that death was imminent for the alyssum which continue to seed themselves every hear and spill over onto the sidewalk up to our door, giving it the appearance of a country path. And the perennials, so obviously  transformed from youth to maturity to senescence, are so poignant.

This autumn I will not try to talk myself out of the sadness. I will not remind myself that spring comes again, and the sweet movie-set of my front yard will return for another show.

This autumn I will accept the sadness as grief, experience it, and let it pass, as I know it will. 

Meanwhile, I'll share some early-fall creations. Hope you enjoy them.

new discovery

About five years ago, a patient of mine gifted me with a collection of her beautiful, stamped cards. I never used them, preferring to hoard them, looking through them from time to time in admiration and gratitude. Came across them while tidying up my studio (I use the expression "tidying up" loosely, as anyone who knows me would understand, much to their chagrin at times!) a couple of weeks ago and one particularly caught my attention.  She had used what I thought was a mesh ribbon as an embellishment and I frantically went online searching for such a product.  I found some, called Magic Mesh, but my order wouldn't go through. Then I saw a posting about using drywall mesh tape, which I had never heard of. Lo and behold we had a big fat roll of it and I started experimenting. It is sticky and repositionable until it dries, it doesn't fray, easy to cut. I suppose it can be dyed with stamping ink, and I'm going to play around with silver and gold spray paint for the holidays.

So here are my first two experimental offerings.

I also found a product online called FlowerSoft. I hope I'll be showing some cards on here soon with some good results.

This hot weather has been oppressive, hasn't it? I find myself looking forward to fall. Of course I'll be singing a different tune come February. I think that's how it's supposed to be.

Inspiration does not come "on demand."

Yesterday I spent about six hours in the studio with only three cards to show for it.  I just couldn't get inspired. It is not on my brain channel 1, like Movies on Demand. I had to surf my brain by straightening up, going through my paper stash and discarding what I know I will never use, and throwing in the "to be given away to a kindergarten teacher" or "what was I thinking when I bought these?" piles. Things bought when I was just getting started, thinking that surely I would need thousands of sequins, brads in the shape of dog bones, and stickers of all kinds.

Some stickers I kept: vellum butterflies, gold, silver, and copper filigree sayings from a store a stone's throw from my daughter's apartment near Granville Island in Vancouver. I use them sparingly because once they're gone, they're gone. They remind me of precious time we spent together.

I didn't know who I was artistically four years ago. I have since found that I have certain fallback designs like a signature scent. I've learned that I don't like to design for men or boys and rarely even new baby boys. I like tone-on-tone, color-blocking, flowers (obviously), rhinestones. I love squares.

And I want a Cricut after all.

When the creative well is dry, I punch flowers. I glue layers together. I put centers on them. Punch, glue, punch, glue.  I look through card stock. I look at photos of old cards. I surf the net.

And then something comes. What came to me yesterday:  flowerpots. And I know I'll design cards with flowerpots until I'm done.

The previous post shows phase one of my idea, and one photo shows three of the framed pots, to be used for birthday or thank you or just to say hi cards.

Making the flowers takes hours, but it is a satisfying task:  cultivate the soil + enrich it + plant seeds + water seedlings = flowers.  Boom.  In one afternoon and evening.

Inspiration on demand . . .

I love white-on-white. Flowers for summer weddings, and there will be snowflakes for the holidays. Having a problem with photographing them. How do I capture the layering?

Since I've already exercised, showered, visited my daughter Mara at work, grocery-shopped, stopped in at the library, and harvested and washed fresh basil for tonight's pesto, I feel free to enter my studio and see what I can come up with.

Butterfly kisses

My husband Chuck called me outside yesterday to see a beautiful butterfly on one of our bushes. I'd never seen one like that before; I looked online and found it: a Meadow Fritillary. That seems to be one of the great things about Chuck--he is always able to point out the beauty to be found in the things close at hand. Driving to Wisconsin he points out beautiful scenery--bucolic farm scenes, the Chicago skyline, the cloud formations above Lake Michigan.

So I decided to design a card around butterflies just for him.

Chuck, you still make my heart flutter.

Last night I watched a PBS documentary (thank you, Netflix and iPad!) called Between the Folds. It was about origami as an art form, mathematical challenge, and passion, and (most impressively) its passionate artists. If you have a chance, you should see it.

I was most inspired by the artists themselves: from a simple square of paper, out pops a sculpture: a samurai, a grasshopper, a fish, a free-form sculpture of pure design that "just happened" when the artist began folding paper. "Just start," I heard. Looking for inspiration? Just let your mind rest a while and an idea WILL emerge.

I'm trusting that they are right.

This is a gloomy, rainy day in central Ohio, apparently one of many more to come, much to the chagrin of my husband and his garden. All vines and no tomatoes. Shy flowers, yellowing leaves from too much rain.

Lessons to be learned: timing is important; there is such a thing as too much of a good thing; right place, right time; and it is, after all, what it is.

My studio in the basement is all but devoid of natural light but my bright worklight and all of the colored papers are cheerful. No such thing as overwatering MY flowers! Mine bloom when I tell them to, as if by magic. And with the help of craft punches, glue, rhinestones, brads, and scads of Scotch double-sided tape, they bloom where they are planted and never need weeding.

Till next time.

I need some inspiration! Where is it going to come from? Should I let it be for a while or just do what I love to do: browse the internet and look at all the creative designs other card-makers have come up with.

Maybe I'll experiment with stamping . . .

My daughter, Hannah Stephenson (TheStorialist.com; check it out) writes a poem every weekday. She finds images on the internet that speak to her and out comes a poem. I am amazed by her discipline. It's as if she knows and trusts that the inspiration will comes from somewhere and just looks and looks.

So, Google, Twitter, Facebook here I come. Inspiration, I will find you!

Still inspired by zinnias (perhaps overwhelmed by the vast quantities of them that I punched out of card stock and glued together). Also, square cards! Found envelopes and clear bags at a great site called (as you might imagine) clearbags.com. They had every size imaginable of plastic enclosures for anything, and envelopes galore. Wholesale pricing available. 1,000 A2 bags with self-seal flap for $39.00.

Still liking Mad Men and Damages to have on while I create (I still have to remind myself that it's real art, as one kind card-maker commented).

Finishing setting up my Etsy store this weekend. It's not easy for this gray head to always click in the right place (metaphorically as well). I'm also going to be in my "studio," and I promise that someday I will remove the quotation marks.

Thanks for taking a look!

Zinnias for summer

While I was lunching with my wonderful daughter Mara yesterday (I had two days off this week! Yay for vacation days!), I asked her which of the cards I've made she liked best. Without missing a beat, she said "The vases of flowers. It's like sending someone a bouquet." I took her preference to heart (they were mine too, though lots of work) and spent some hours punching and glueing layers of petals together.

For the paper I used one of my favorite resources: Target. They have a box of 200 plain notecards with 200 envelopes to match. I think the price went up from $10 to $12 or $13, it's worth it for the envelopes alone. They come in pastel, bright, and harvest color palettes.

The vases are circles cut from paint chips (thank you, Home Depot and Lowe's). This one has a sandy texture and some sparkle, which my camera did not pick up.

I hope you like this one, because I'll be at it all afternoon, making more! (Netflix is slower than I am in watching so went to the library and took out seasons 1 and 2 of Damages. Very good. I still miss Lost, though.)

The Midwest Craft Caucus has changed me. I am aware of the existence of a "Handmade Community" and I actually feel part of it. Honored to be part of it. More self-confident in calling myself both a crafter and an artist whose work has value. I stopped judging myself. If you'd like to see some handmade products that ARE art, please check out some of these online: The Candle Lab; Little Alouette; etsy.com; Wholly Craft (a shop right here in Clintonville); Poshta Designs;

TsuruBride; Stinkybomb Soap; Made by AmyD; and ManMadeDIY, a crafting site for guys!

Last weekend I attended the Midwest Craft Caucus. It was inspiring, informative, and fun getting to know fellow crafters and bloggers and tweeters. At the end of each day I itched so bad to create that I stayed up way too late each night in what I now proudly but still a little tentatively call my studio! So here is a sampling of what I did. Since Father's Day is coming up I thought I'd try to make some non-boring Y-chromosome cards, though I must say it is infinitely more satisfying to make flowers and shapes in pretty pastel colors than rectangles in black-plus-a-few-other-colors.

Inspired by the royal wedding. . .

Yesterday's royal wedding sparked my enthusiasm for wedding cards (not for outlandish hats out of Dr. Seuss!). Pale gray and ivory themes with a touch of sparkle. Will also try some pearl-embellished ones, perhaps white-on-white or white-on-pale gray with a touch of pale green leaves. I seem to have an inexhaustible supply of daisies that need to be put away for a while.

I was inspired by a fellow card-making blogger who used dotted swiss-embossed cardstock squares and took them to one of my own favorite basic designs: squares on squares on squares with a sentiment mounted on the same cardstock and embellished with pearls. For me, a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Hope you like them. (I'm finally get the hang of iPhoto and uploading to blogger.)

Cards with an eye toward upcoming occasions.