the teacup incident

Happy Birthday Sandra!

This post is a special greeting to my sister who's birthday is today.  May you be surrounded by friends and flowers, with music in the air! 

 

xoxo, love Feydeaux  

Inspiring Yourself With Novelty

 

In her wonderful book The Artist's Way creativity expert Julia Cameron suggests we take ourselves on "artist's dates" to spark new ideas for creative play. Once a week she recommends going out for a couple of hours and exploring something that interests just you. These dates can take many forms but they are most effective if they include a little mystery and magic.  

Seek out the uncommon, the curious and the unique. You might choose to photograph vegetables at the farmer's market, attend the museum's 'found objects' class, sketch vintage purses at a historic society exhibit, explore a different aisle in the bookstore or use new search terms on Etsy.com.

   

Here are some of my favorite sources for inspiration:

• Thrift store or flea market
• Craft or art store
• Bookstore or library
• Anthropologie and Target
• Flickr.com and Etsy.com
• Children's section of a bookstore or department store - all those yummy colors!
• Bakery or coffee shop
• Nature walk or puttering in the garden
• Creative blogs and their blogrolls where surfing is a year-round sport
• Antique stores and shows
• Travel, even if its just visiting the next town on the map

Where do you find inspiration?  

Vintage goods at the Sweet William Market. Papers and Hero Arts acrylic stamps from Archivers.

Small Pleasure No. 6

   

A pile of ribbons in summery colors.

Happy weekend, everyone!

 

Paper Applique

 

I love sewing on paper!  The stitches give a handmade feeling to my artwork and add touchable texture.  I use a 1970’s Singer sewing machine nicknamed “Frances” after my grandma who taught me to sew on this same machine.  Frances doesn’t do fancy stitches but she’s sturdy and reminds me of good times.

Today we’ll create a paper appliqué project using strips of paper sewn to a base sheet.  If you don’t have access to a sewing machine you can get a similar effect by drawing the stitches on your project with a fine line marker.

 

For this project you’ll need assorted patterned papers, cardstock in contrasting colors, glue, scissors, a butterfly punch and a sewing machine or a contrasting color fine line marker. 

Cut the patterned paper into strips, either 1/4 inch by 11 inches or 1/2 inch by 11 inches.  You can also cut some in both widths and mix them up.  I used between eighteen and twenty strips per base sheet.

Lay the strips down on a piece of 8.5 x 11 contrasting cardstock, leaving about 1/8 inch space between each strip.  I like alternating two patterns with the cardstock acting as a third strip but you can use any number of patterns you like. 

 

Once you’ve laid out a pleasing pattern, glue all the strips onto the base cardstock page. 

Next sew a line of stitching across all the strips in contrasting colored thread.  Add additional stitched lines every inch across the page.  This anchors all the strips and makes it easy to cut out shapes.  If you drew your stitches instead of sewing you may have to use some extra glue to anchor the edges once you cut out your shapes.

 

Now comes the fun part: cut your stitched paper into shapes!  These can be simple squares, punched shapes, rectangles edged with decorative scissors or a shape cut with a template.  Have some fun with this and try out all your tools.

 

We’re going to use a teacup template to make our card (Download TeacupTemplate).  Print and cut out the teacup template.  Lay it down on the backside of your stitched page and trace around it.  Cut out teacup including space inside handle using a sharp scissors or exacto knife. Punch a butterfly shape out of your appliqué paper.

Cut out foam, napkin and saucer shapes from the template and trace them onto your papers.  I used white cardstock for the foam, pink cardstock for the saucer and patterned paper for the napkin.  Pounce ink on the foam shape to give it softness.  You could also add glitter ‘sprinkles’.

Assemble your card. Fold an 8.5 x 5.5” piece of cardstock into a 4.25 x 5.5" card.  Glue the napkin shape to the bottom of the card and stitch down.  Glue saucer, cup and foam to your card.  Glue butterfly on the edge of the foam.  Add a sentiment such as “I like you a latte” and your card is done!  Alternately you could stamp flowers above the teacup’s rim instead of adding the foam shape (stamp first and then glue cup and butterfly over stamped image).

The stitched paper can be used for additional projects such as a mat for photos or even as placemats when covered in clear contact paper.  

I hope you enjoy this process.  Let me know how your projects turn out! 

Pearl Street's West End

Saturday morning I decided to practice my photography skills on Pearl Street’s West End where some of my favorite shops are located.  Between the antique store, a specialty paper purveyor, a boutique garden shop and a seriously good bakery, there is a lot of happy experiences to be had in a few short blocks.  Even better, the shopkeepers are friendly and allow one to browse at leisure.

First stop was Two Hands Paperie where there’s always something colorful to look at.   With loads of letterpress cards, exotic papers, rubber stamps, art books, ink pens and bottles to choose from you’ll go home with lots of creative tools to play with.

  

Next I headed to the West End Gardener, a sweet smelling shop filled with garden paraphernalia and plants.  Here the charm comes from vintage accessories such as old iron arbors, trellis and pots.  Mix in art, soaps, sculptures and topiary plants and you’ve got a place all your senses will enjoy.

   

Across the street is the West End Antique shop which has a bit of everything.  From vintage to true antique the wares in this eclectic shop inspire the thrill of the hunt and there are lots of nooks and crannies to discover.  

What did I end up taking home (besides photos)?  A vintage milk glass vase, perfect for posies and a black-bottom cupcake that disappeared before I could take its photo :)  If you look here: allrecipes.com you can see why this cupcake rarely makes it home in one piece. 

 

First Day of Summer!

photo credits via flickr  

Small Pleasure No. 5

Feeling in the pink with vintage treasures found over the weekend. Antique shop vase, thrift store platter, garage sale threads and crepe paper (backdrop).

 

Happy weekend, everyone!

 
 Peonies and vintage tins.

Painterly Card Set

If you're like me you've got a stack of pretty papers from old projects that you'd like to use in a new way.  Turn those single-sided papers into envelopes!  Add small embellishments and a coordinating postcard and you've got a card set that's ready for any occasion.  

Supplies

For this project you'll need:

Single-sided patterned paper, at least 10 x 7.5 inches
Envelope template (or unfold an envelope to use as template)
Card stock, 5.5 x 4 inches, in complimentary colors
Paper punches: butterfly, small flowers and corner rounder
Acrylic paint, brush
Paper towel
Ink, rubber stamps
Glue stick, scissors
Stickles glitter glue, gold
Gold pen (optional, for edging)

How To:

Trace template onto single-sided paper and cut out envelope shape.  Patterned side will be envelope interior.  Cut a rectangle out of cardstock and use punch to round corners. 

On blank side of envelope dry brush paint or stipple ink on right side, creating a free-form band. (Dry brushing means dipping your brush in paint and swiping it several times on scrap paper before applying what’s left to your envelope.) Wipe paint with paper towel to smudge and dry paint.  It should look like the paint spilled on the page. (Or you could stipple ink on side of page with child’s paintbrush.  This creates a softer look.)  Use the same technique on both sides of your cardstock square.

Once the paint is dry, stamp a background stamp over it in a coordinating color.  Punch out butterfly and flowers from scraps of your envelope paper.  Glue randomly onto the painted strips.  Add a dot of glitter glue to the center of each flower. Allow glue to dry.

 

Stamp airy flowers in gold on envelope and cardstock.  Edge cardstock with gold pen.  Fold in edges of envelope and glue down.  Voila!  You’ve got a pretty card set to use for any occasion.

Flower stamp by Stampendous.  Flower and butterfly punches by Martha Stewart.  Printed paper by K and Company and card stock both available at Michaels.