Terrific Thursday.... Collage/Altered Art & Tag Tuesday

I know its Thursday but I decided today to join Tag Tuesday and this weeks challenge is to use crowns so here is my tag for the week.
Drop by Kard Krazyand sign up to join us. It looks like lots of fun.Collage/Altered Art, I like it. Yet, another type of papercrafting. I altered this little notebook, doesnt it look cute. It was one of the mini black and white composition notebooks.

I am going to learn to take a picture of before and after. I never remember until after. (Graphics Images courteous of Graphics Fairy)
This is a practice atc card called

Time Flies. Doesnt it?
Well, tomorrow I am going to share with you another hobby I enjoy....Sewing.
Heres a little peak:
I usually leave you with a short verse but today I want to leave you with this...Hopefully it will touch someone or it is what someone needs to hear today.
Psalm 25 (New King James Version)
Psalm 25
A Psalm of David.
1 To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, I trust in You;
Let me not be ashamed;
Let not my enemies triumph over me.
3 Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;
Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.

4 Show me Your ways, O LORD;
Teach me Your paths.
5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.

6 Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses,
For they are from of old.
7 Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;
According to Your mercy remember me,
For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.

8 Good and upright is the LORD;
Therefore He teaches sinners in the way.
9 The humble He guides in justice,
And the humble He teaches His way.
10 All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth,
To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.
11 For Your name’s sake, O LORD,
Pardon my iniquity, for it is great.

12 Who is the man that fears the LORD?
Him shall He[a] teach in the way He[b] chooses.
13 He himself shall dwell in prosperity,
And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
14 The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him,
And He will show them His covenant.
15 My eyes are ever toward the LORD,
For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.

16 Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me,
For I am desolate and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart have enlarged;
Bring me out of my distresses!
18 Look on my affliction and my pain,
And forgive all my sins.
19 Consider my enemies, for they are many;
And they hate me with cruel hatred.
20 Keep my soul, and deliver me;
Let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You.
21 Let integrity and uprightness preserve me,
For I wait for You.
22 Redeem Israel, O God,
Out of all their troubles!

Living in God's Graces,
Kim

Color and Simplicity

I think over the last 3 days, the sun only came out for approximately 20 minutes. The rest of the time was cold dark and gray, with lots of rain. This, coupled with recent life events, left me craving two things... color and simplicity.


As I considered how to channel this craving into some new stitched work, my mind kept wandering back to a recent visit to a Free People clothing store. The clothes there are great, although out of my humble price range. But the thing that always catches my eye in this particular store, even more so then the clothing, is the beautiful stitched Indian patchwork which is used as upholstery on the chairs and couches as well as for the curtains on the dressing rooms. Bright patches of fabric with colorful, alternating rows of hand embroidery. The stitching creates a secondary woven-like overlay pattern on top of the richly patterned patchwork. Below is an example of a similar piece of upholstered furniture, an adario patchwork ottoman from Arhaus...


Inspired, I decided to start exploring some simple constructed patchwork, in brightly colored patterned fabrics. However, having done lots, and lots of hand embroidered art quilts this past year, I decided to take a break on the hand stitching, and subsitute machine stitching.



I quilted the entire surface in horizontal and vertical rows of stiching spaced just a smidge over 1/8" apart.

The colors cheered me, and the piecing and stitching soothed me.


I'm happy with how this first piece came out, and am now working on my next piece. This time I am paying a bit more attention to stitching more deliberate and defined rows of alternating colored threads. My goal is to create a more definite overlay pattern, not as random as in this first piece. (I'll post the results as soon as I finish.)

Also, I was tagged by the lovely Victoria, (hey, there's a nice name!) from A Mile A Minute. Thanks Victoria! Now, as soon as I can think of 7 semi interesting things about myself to share I will play along, but right now I feel about as interesting as a slice of melba toast!

2009 Collage Calendar Giveaway!

Happy October 1st Everyone!
Great to be back after my mini blog break! Hope you all have been well, and your money is tucked safe and sound under your mattresses! But we won't get into politics right now, as I would much rather focus on happier things, such as sharing with you the new 2009 Collage calendar from Amber Lotus Publishing, which I am thrilled to be a part of, and to offer one lucky winner a free copy in my GIVEAWAY! Yay!


Above is the cover for COLLAGE: Artplay for your Creative Spirit. The cover artwork was done by Karyn Gartel, and the inside is graced by an amazing line up of artistic talent! I am so tickled and honored to be included, as I greatly admire all of the artists in this calendar!

So how did I happen to wind up here? Well, last year I was contacted by Lunaea Weatherstone who was the force behind gathering all of the artists for this project and who also wrote words of inspiration to go along with each months artwork, helping to inspire and spark the viewers own creativity. She asked me if I would be interested in being one of the collage artists featured in this 2009 calendar, (um....YES!) My job in this was made easy as pumpkin pie, as Lunaea already knew what piece of mine she would like to use, having seen it earlier in Somerset Studio. So off my piece flew for the second time to California, for another photo shoot. (I think I have said this before, but I will say it again, my artwork leads a much more exciting life then I do!)


This is my piece above, (I am the month of March, which is great since that's my birth month!) It's titled "Best Wishes for Planet Earth". I made it the day after I watched Al Gore's "An Inconvient Truth", (which I hope you all have seen!) I needed a place to channel some of my emotions, and this was the result.


I made the frame from foam core, tissue paper, and paint. Vintage ephemera, lace, buttons, plus seed pods and sticks collected from my garden were used to compose the piece, and communicate my feelings of fear, and love and hope for our dear and fragile earth.

Below are little snippets taken from each of the 12 art pieces featured in the calender, beginning with January's. The artists, (and links to them) are credited below each piece:


DJ Pettitt


Sarah Fishburn


Victoria Gertenbach, (Yours truly!)


Teesha Moore


Jenny Doh


Beth Moran


Karyn Gartel


Paula Dion


Angela Cartwright


Tiffini Elektra X


Christi Hydeck


Elise Peeples

I am delighted that this is an Amber Lotus publication. Amber Lotus is a very environmentally conscious company. They are a member of the Green Press Initiative, and in addition to printing calendars on 100% recycled paper with soy-based ink, they also were responsible for having 33,000 trees planted in 2007!

If you would like a chance to win a brand new copy of this beautiful calendar, just leave a comment below and just for fun tell me what your favorite year(s) have been... I liked 1967 because I was 4 years old, and 4 is a pretty fun age in my opinion. I also liked 1986, as I graduated from art school and got married that year. 1989, and 1994 because that is when my daughters were born, and 2005, (October 1st to be exact) because that is when I FINALLY got to see my beloved Rolling Stones in concert, something I had been trying to do since the age of 12!

By the way, only one comment per person please, and make sure that I have a way to contact you should you win! Should you not be the winner, but know a good thing when you see it, and simply must have a copy, fear not for I am currently also offering a few copies of the calendar for sale in both my BooDilly's shop and in my Silly BooDilly shop. I only have a few, so if you are interested grab one now! (Of course you can also order one here from Amber Lotus!)

I will be randomly picking a winner next Tuesday evening and posting the winner on Wednesday October 8th. Good luck everyone!

The Redwork of Bascom Hogue

The first time I ever saw the redwork embroidery of Bascom Hogue on Flicker, I was truly blown away. I still am with each new piece that Bascom posts, and I am betting that you will be blown away, too.


His work has both a strength and a delicacy to it.



It is as if he is deftly sketching the images as opposed to stitching them by hand.


The subject matter is untypical and intriguing. Whole stories could be imagined and written based on any one of his pieces!


To see more of Bascoms works, please visit his flicker site here. Bascom has also recently started a blog that you can visit, the Cottonwood Diner. Please stop by, say "Hi" and welcome him to blogland!

Dog Days Of Summer

Seeing as we are now in the "Dog Days of August" I thought it would be fitting to do a post celebrating Dog inspired art, found on Etsy!


Mildred Takes a Moment photograph from Jill Heupel Photography


Hand Painted Dog Bull Terrier Handmade Art Decor Mug from Boo Dog Mugs.


Letterpressed 5 Whippet Notecards from Rigel Stuhmiller.


Dachshund Dog Art The Bone Thieves from Brian Rubenacker

And here's a shameless plug for my own work, (my apologies to all who have already seen it!) ...


Gramps and Junior Embroidered Mini Art Quilt