I love doing these altered dolls. Too cute and pretty easy. This doll is going to my friend "Lovely Linda" for her birthday, a little late, but you know the old saying, "better late that than never".(Shhhhhh don't tell her its coming.) There are so many things that you can add to the body,which is just a clunky block of wood. That makes these dolls so exciting and fun to make. This one is in the celestial theme.
Hope you like this and thanks for stopping by. See you next time.
Barbara
Altered States of Mind is a club that meets at the store once a month for about 2 hours. A few months ago we all decided to have a retreat and hold it at the store and be together from 9:00 a.m. til 5:00 p.m.The date agreed upon was Saturday Oct. 17. Carla offered to teach us a few things and we took her up on her offer. It was decided that we would make altered dolls, a water color transfer, and wire beads. So we all brought in the raft of things needed for each of our "classes" and so began our altered day of fun.
Below are the photos of my dolls. I will post more later on the watercolor transfer and the wire beads.
ALTERED DOLLS
We all started out with wood blocks. I brought in about a dozen that were about 2.5"X3.5" and about 1.5" thick. Another size which was more square and larger was also made available to anyone. I made 2 dolls and used the size mentioned above. We then took porceline dolls purchased at the dollar store, and totally disassembled them and used the limbs and the heads.(To me this seemed so sacrilegious at first, as a child I would never do this to my dolls.) But the end result is so cool. After some paint, doll parts and ribbon and effemera, here are the end results of my creations.
Its amazing how doll parts and various other items can really transform a block of wood. The altered doll on the left still needs a few more things before she is complete and the angel on the right still needs a halo, but this gives you an idea as to what I was up to on Saturday.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you again soon,
Well it's been eons since I posted. Sorry about that. Last saturday I took a drive to Columbus Ohio with my friend Barb B. to take a class from one of my favorite instructors, Amy Flowers. She teaches classes in the altered arts theme. I had received a postcard from Amy outlining some of her upcoming classes and I called and signed up for 2 classes. Heavy Metal Book and She's Come Undone. Believe me when I say I really wanted to take these classes because the 1st class started @9:00 am so I had to leave here at 6:30. I hate getting up early. I would rather take late classes and stay up half the night. Oh well, the drive was 2 hours and Barb & I caught up on things and in no time we were at Amy's studio.There were 5 or 6 of us in the class and three of us were named Barb. When Amy mentioned the name Barb we all answered.It was to funny.
Amy gave us canvas & cloth and stamps & inks and and we did a wee bit of sewing, and below is the end result. (Make sure to click on the individual pic's for a much better view.)
Well this was so much fun and I had no theme in mind but used a slew of stamps in my stash. Quite a few of the stamps are from Innovative Stamp Creations. I really love their stamp line. As soon as I finish the other book I will post it for your viewing pleasure.
Hope you enjoy viewing this little book as much as I did making it, thanks for stoping by and I will see you soon.
Barbara
I know it's been a while since I've posted anything but I have been really behind and I've been trying to get caught up. Here is the latest:
I had an opportunity to attend a class taught by Tim Holtz at Stamplistic, a rubber stamp store in Amherst Ohio. I received an invitation from Jennifer, the owner of Stamplistic, to come up.So I signed up for a class and went up for the weekend.
Day One
I left Ft. Mitchell, Friday morning and arrived at Stamplistic later that afternoon. Tim and his assistant, Mario, were already at the store for a meet & greet from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. What a great event that was. The ladies came in and sat down right next to him while he demo'd some distress techniques. These ladies were thrilled. After the meet & greet, we all headed to Jennifer's lake house for a grill out. It was great. We all got to get to know Tim and Mario better and we sat outside around a firepit to keep warm. It was a tad cool up on the lake.
Day Two
Saturday was Sweetest Day and neither Tim nor Mario was not familiar with that holiday. Tim thought Jennifer made that one up, but he researched info online, he read the story, and gave us the background on this day of celebration. So for rest of the afternoon Tim kept calling it SWEETNESS DAY and we kept correcting him, too funny. For those of you not familiar with this day of celebration, click here to read the story of the origin of the holiday.
Saturday was also the first day of classes. I got to work the 1st class. Let me explain how that works, all the students are given a paddle with a number on it, similar to one used by bidders at an auction. Then, as Tim explains a product, if the student wants to purchase the item, they raise their paddle and I write down their number next to the product name on a sheet of paper. We take the info to the front and start to bag up their requests and by the end of the class their bags are full of their goodies. Pretty cool. Everyone loved the ease at which this worked. In the second class I was actually a student and it was a great class. We made Raku and fragments from clay and used a host of other items that Ranger makes and Tim explained a lot of the properties of the various items. The class was 3 hours and that went by fast. We had plenty of time for the class though, it's nice not being rushed. Another nice thing,you do not need to bring anything to his classes (not even adhesive - a little private joke on this one). After class I went to the front counter and assisted Mara, Stacy, Jennifer and Bev getting everyone checked out and helped in getting the next group of class participants checked in. It was so busy.It was fun and the time flew. After the last class I went to Jennifer's house and crashed.
Day Three:
Day Three was a repeat of day two, with some students returning for more classes and some students taking their first class from Tim at the store. My plan was to leave at noon however that didn't happen. The store was slammed with one class leaving and another class getting set up. I also had to say my goodbye's to everyone.
So after helping everyone I left at 1:30. What a great weekend.
See you next time and thanks for stopping by,
Barbara
If you live in the Greater Cincinnati, Ohio area, you are probably aware of the wind that blew through here yesterday. I was in my basement working on rearranging my stamping area while the worst of the weather was going on. I had just reconnected the TV and cable by my work area, when the electric died for good. There are so many areas without power they are estimating 4-5 days without power. Lovely!! On a good note, the power in the store is on and we are open for business. I have spoke to a few people today and everyone is ok but the cleanup will take a while.
Take care and thanks for stopping by
See you soon
Barbara
Some of you may know that an altered arts group (Altered States of Mind also known as ASOM) meets here at the store once a month. One of the members of the altered arts group owns an art gallery in Bellevue Kentucky called Crone Cottage. She has invited the ASOM members to submit artwork for display at her gallery. The gallery has a monthly event on the first Friday of the month in the evening. So on Friday September 5 the ASOM members will have some of their artwork on display at Crone Cottage.The event will be from 6 p.m. - 10 p.m..
On behalf of Beth, the owner of Crone Cottage, and the Altered States of Mind members, you are invited to attend a fun event on Friday September 5 from 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. We look forward to seeing you.
Here are the pieces that I have made and am submitting.
Well that is it for now. Thanks for stopping by.
See you next time.
Barbara
I just haven't had time since getting back from CHA to play or do anything. The other day I was browsing the blogs that I normally review and I saw the cutest Cinderella carriage. And for the life of me I cannot find where I saw it. So I put on my thinking cap and tried to recreate what I saw.
If you like the flourish stamps then you will be able to do this with little problem. The top card was my first venture into this. I stamped flouishes to resemble the base of the carriage and next I used the Nestabilities to cut the scalloped oval. As I positioned the oval my minds eye saw a baby carriage ,so I cut the oval to make the carriage look like the top was up.
Next I wanted to make the "Cinderella Carriage" I used the flourishes stamps and built the base. Next I cut a circle and an oval using the Nestabilities. Then using a glue pen I traced all the stamped flourishes and added glitter. I added the glitter to the carriage part and wella!!!.....Cinderella's Carriage.
Hope you like these and thanks for stopping in.
See you next time
Barbara
Joyce D. stopped in the store with the latest cards she has made. She and I had been talking about the wallpaper that you can paint and she went to Lowe's and bought a roll of the paintable border. This wallpaper works well on cards. You can use acrylic paints, inks or even alcohol inks. This wallpaper has a coating on it so the alcohol ink technique will work exceptionally well.
Joyce used her wallpaper to make the most unique and pretty cards. I hope you agree. You see, we stampers will use anything to make cards, won't we.
Well hope you enjoy these and hope they inspire you. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.
Barbara
My mother made some of the most beautiful quilts and I made this with her in mind. Paper weaving and Fiskars border punch (lace) some clear stamps that have stitching designs and a few feathers and here is a card that any seamstress would love to get.
I used the sea grasses stamp from June Great Impresions June board and did a little direct to paper inking on the cardstock and here is another quick card
This card has a few steps and uses circles to mask off the areas. But all in all this was fun and not too complicated. I love leaves. Maybe because I really love trees. You know, the kind that grow in your yard, not just the stamped kind.
Here is that sea grasses stamp again. The dandilion is a Cuttlebug die and I used a paint chip for the paper. To mask the white line on the paint chip I used inks and copic markers to try to get rid of the white line.
This is my favorite. I masked the center and added ink, DTP for the border in the center. I removed the mask and added stamped images then took a larger piece of cardstock and did DTP again stamped some words and adhered the center image to the larger one and that finished this one.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great day,
Barbara
Sorry I haven't posted in a while.My best friend, Helen, passed away June 20 after a long (8 years) and courageous battle with cancer. She was off from work, taking a deserved rest on disability , and she got sick on June 6, her mother took her to the hospital and she never came home. She was a trooper from the word, go. She hardly ever complained and if you saw her you would never know she had cancer.
Ann, Helen's mother, is 85 and lived next to Helen, so they could take care of each other. Helen's wish always was to live 1 day longer than her mother so her mother would not have to endure the pain of losing Helen. Unfortunately that was not to be. I miss my good friend already, as I had not spoken to her since right before she went to the hospital. Helen is in a better place and I can hear her saying "simply amazing". And she was just that. Yesterday I read a poem by Linda Ellis. This poem sounds as if it were written just for Helen. Please go to http://www.lindaellisonline.com/ to read this wonderful poem called The Dash.I do hope you enjoy the poem. The picture below was taken the day we went to see "Bodies, the Exhibit". We both loved that show and we had a great time. That was the last time I saw Helen. That was early May.We spoke every week and the last time I spoke to her was right before she went to the hospital.
Helen's visitation and burial was Monday June 23.
This is a Thomas Kincade stamp and I thought this was very fitting. So here is the card I made for Ann.
Helen will be missed by many, as she had so many friends.
Thanks for stopping by,
Barbara
