Handmade Envelopes

I started making envelopes to send to my partners in this swap. I've been able to use lots of cool good quality printed papers for the envelopes combined with some nice solid colored flaps and inner lining to make these.my first five out of eight I need to make for the swap.

music

I decided to mix up the orientation a bit on the middle one.

You can see more here.

A break from crafting for some traveling

Something clicked in me last week that I found it absolutely necessary to get out of town for the weekend, I believe the term is stir-crazy. Anyhow Saturday morning we found ourselves cruising above the clouds covering New Mexico towards an even cloudier destination. In the distance are the Sandias in New Mexico. As soon as we got above the clouds it was a really nice sunny day.
First of all, What the Hell!! that's a lake?!? Secondly, sadly, I think Chicago is the biggest city I've seen in the U.S. I was impressed. I feel like such a small-town girl.
Yaay! It's taller than two stories and it's not made of mud. Seriously I haven't left the southwest in ages, I forget that not every building is adobe.
and once again, what the hell, that's a lake?! There was no end to Lake Michigan, there was also no end to the winter in Milwaukee so I am really appreciating the 50 degree plus weather in New Mexico.

All in all getting out of town for the weekend (even if it was Milwaukee in February) helped provide some much needed fresh perspectives.

Vintage Family Photos

My Grandma Smith sent me these amazing photos of our family. I had a real hard time not including all of them. Each has so much information in them when studied closely. I'm fascinated by them... This is my great grandmother Minerva May Tutt. I have searched these photos over and over for resemblances to me and my family now. I can't say I've found many but there are several photos that resemble my Aunt Julie and cousins Erica and Christina.

I have no idea who this is but the series is so awesome. The look on the boy's face in each frame seems to be so telling of his character.

and another one I don't know who it is but I can see some similarities between my dad and this guy. Also, the reflection of the boat is lovely.

The rest of the photos and some of a very young "Smith Family" (circa 1983-1985) can be seen on my flickr page.

Sad Day...

1993-2008. Bully, we already miss you and your sweetness.

Almost Finished...

I don't know what I was complaining about in the last post. I got a serious bout of motivation and made 12 of the 13 cards on Sunday and Monday. Here are a few and as always check out my flickr page for more. Swap-bot Serial Collage 3 of 5

Swap-bot Serial Collage 4 of 5

Valentines Postcards

Here are a few more cards. Frustratingly I have slowed down quite a bit when it comes to making collages. I am feeling a little distracted by other things. Not a good thing being that I have to produce and send out 13 more cards in short order. I don't want to jeapordize quality for quantity... Luckily I have been leaning towards making less cluttered/more design oriented collages with more cohesive compositions lately which generally equates to less time.

I am pretty fond of these two valentines...Head over heels

Lookin' Good

Looking back on my last valentines post, I am not liking the ATC's I made... oh well that is a byproduct of the creative process is it not? I feel like they are a little too informed by what I think other people will like. When I make stuff with those parameters in mind I usually find it to be cheesier (for lack of a better description) than I prefer.

Accounting Cards

Mig has been sick and asleep most of the weekend (only the Packer's have roused him) and so I have used some of the quiet time to make more cards.You can see the others over on my flickr page.

Valentines- Just the Beginning

I've begun making valentines, I believe these ones are just warm-ups... we'll see in the days to come.

Looking back, it was this time three years ago, while making valentines, that my collaging ventures got seriously started. The pictorial chronology can be found on my flickr site.

Gratuitous Pet Shot

aerogarden update....

Day 12all but cilantro has sprouted...

Valentines Crafting

As one season segues into the next in stores and ads you'll find me equally propelled by the calendar in my craft-making. This week during one of my once-every-three-or-four day trips to (insert your favorite crafts supplier here) I found lots of christmas makin' supplies that work perfectly for valentines cards, for a fraction of the price. Hot Damn! Here is my spread for this weekend's upcoming card-making binge:

And a close-upThe little black and white bag in the background is the "embelishment poncho" I found during my last thrift store visit, it's supposed to be for makeup but it holds pinking shears all the same...

Yay Christmas: aerogarden

So this christmas my mom got each my sister and I an aerogarden. I "planted" mine last sunday and I am already getting some pretty impressive results.

Day 3

Day 6

Day 7

These are the chives... the basil (both purple and straight-up green) have sprouted too and are about an inch tall. The mint has barely started and it's little leaves are really efin' cute. I hope to harvest the fields in less than a month, if so... this thing kicks ass!!

2008 ATC Calendar

Due to a flaky swapper I have made a couple more ATC Calendar's to send to one of the participants in my swap who didn't receive one. Though I wasn't planing to, I am pretty happy that I had to re-visit the project because I came up with a couple of new designs.

This one has collage images from a Sears and Roebuck catalog dated 1900. It's a little crazy to think about how consumerism has evolved since that time.

Heres the full length of the calendar.

This design is a tryptic that's connected on the back by the months of the year. You may have noted in this photo a lovely new (old) tray. I went to the thrift store under the pretext of donating clothes and books... and you know, since I'm here.... 1 tray, an "embelishment poncho", a 999 piece + 1 missing puzzle later I have fulfilled my shopping desires for the weekend. Here is the collage before I took the exacto to it. A tray samwiched in... and the backside of the calendar.

Happy New Year

Trays

I am finding that I have an obsession for trays, I find myself collecting and making them. They are extremely handy so the obsession is easy to justify. I have been experimenting with making trays out of the little bill/credit card holders one usually sees in restaurants. I collage an image on the bottom and then cover it with resin. The resin part has been the hardest process, how to get smooth unbubbly results and not ruin the sometimes thin and penatrable paper it's protecting? Trial and error, just like any craft... the last series of three turned out not so bad, here is one of them:There are two slots for credit cards on either end of these trays which make them perfect for inserting and displaying ATC's. I found an order of twelve trays through an online bar supplier and the resin at Michael's. I will post more soon...

Ideas for Serial Collage swap

This is the first in a series of postcards I will be sending for the Serial Collages swap
As most creators and swappers know, this project could morph into something else entirely so I don't feel like I am giving away any suprises yet. Luckily there is enoughtime to experiment and come up with lots of good material in between now and swap date.

Planet Earth

I got the BBC series Planet Earth as a birthday/Christmas gift too. We have spent many hours since then watching all it has to offer.
The technology used, combined with the dedication of the film crew, and the budget available puts this series at the top. The shots are pure eye-candy and the commentary can be eye-opening.

One of the first ones we watched about caves featured a part of New Mexico that I never knew existed and I wasn't alone in my ignorance until recently. I was blown away when I saw the footage of La Lechugilla Cave that is part of the cave system in Carlsbad, NM. The cave was completely unexplored until 1986.
You can read more about it and see more amazing pictures at wikipedia.org

Thrift Store Love 2

Hello and welcome back, to me... I haven't blogged for about half a month now. I am not sure why I chose today to begin again considering my brain is barely limping along after many days of celebrating, appropriately capped off with a booze-filled night ringing in the new year... *groan*

I am going to try and attempt to catch you up to speed because while taking a hiatus from the computer I haven't been from my craft and design world.

For my birthday earlier in December I received some $$ with strict instructions from my Grandma S. to spend it on something fun and for me... I took the instructions very seriously and here is what I found:


This tray is silver and highly reflective, almost like a mirror. Perfect for my table with all my girly-girl things for my hair, skin, nails, etc. The tea cup has the best color combination with a sweet soft minty green lined with gold. The detail inside is such a lovely touch, I'm a sucker for cute designs. I was told at the thrift store that the cup was an antique that belonged to a famous Santa Fe woman Concha Ortiz y Pino whose family has been in Santa Fe since about the late 1600's. I'm psyhed, especially since I have begun to read Blood and Thunder which is mainly the story of Kit Carson but inevitably includes New Mexico and Santa Fe history. I'm feeling like a nerd by being so excited about New Mexico history...

2008 ATC Calendar Swap- Sent and Received

Here are two of the four 2008 Calendar ATC 's that I made for my partner. I will be sticking them in the mail tomorrow. Winter 2008

Spring 2008

you can see the rest in this Flickr collection (m.gold of Spit and Image hooked me up with the Pro subscription on Flickr!!)

and finally here is the ATC set that I received for the swap. It's a great, usable design. You can find more at Liregudesign's etsy shop.

Rachel VonGarnier Fine Art

My good friend, Rachel, recently sent me over some of her latest paintings. They are incredible!I really get a sense of her appreciation for nature and can truly feel the dream-like spaces, invoking the feeling of being or having been there, in this one.

This is dream-like too in the sense that the bird seems to be dissipating into a storm. Unfortunately I don’t have the ability to write so eloquently about art to give these the justice they deserve.

Here are two more of my favorite paintings of hers. I love how diverse her portfolio is.

You can explore her gallery of paintings here. Enjoy!!

Weekend Getaway

Mig and I headed to the mountains over the weekend so we could take the Durango Silverton Train ride. This is something I have been wanting to do for at least two years now so I finally bit the bullet and bought the tix (not so cheap).
We left on Friday and it rained pretty much the whole drive up to Pagosa Springs, CO. When we got there all of the power was out, every single traffic light was out! Yet still, the local grocer managed to have their holiday music playing through the dimly lit aisles.
When we got to my mom's cabin the power was out there too. Have you any idea how hard it is to entertain yourself when there is no light to read, craft, or otherwise by and especially no music to fill our heads? Mig and I were blurting out one liners of horrible music, you know, the kind of crap that only gets recognition because it so easily sticks in your head... here's a sample, "Turn around, every now and then I fall apart, and I" .... anyway you get the idea and I have to say that was a low point, low enough that we just went to bed at 7:30. Can't say I would have minded the extra sleep but I some how convinced myself we were getting Carbon Monoxide poisening and therefore even had trouble breathing in my dreams.
The next morning we spent half an hour traveling the 20 feet it takes to get out of the driveway, rain and then snow equals LOTS of mud and a huge slick mess. We barely made it to the train on time. Anyhow, we made it and had quite the enjoyable time. Here are some pics from it.
And lastly, a picture of the Abiquiu area, which also got some snow. All in all the trip turned out to be visually gratifying only making my appreciation grow larger for the southwest.