home sweet home

I've posted some individual house collages in my etsy shop!

the tough get crafting

I've been out of touch for awhile. I have some hard things going on in my personal life that are, well, I'll just say, those big life things that are really hard. One of them is needing to find a place to live and move there as soon as possible. Another is the worry about having the money for a place that feels safe and has enough space to create. I might only be able to afford a tiny place, but I have to remember that it's not just one of my reasons for living and my joy, I'm trying hard to make it my livelihood.

In the midst of all the life stuff, I decided to go ahead and apply to the Blue Genie Art Bazaar, despite the bad timing and short amount time to get my application materials together. I love Blue Genie, and if I was accepted it could really help my income at a time when I really need the help. I got my application in about 30 minutes before the deadline, but it's in! I don't find out until October 3. Once I got that done and did a bunch of apartment hunting, I decided to take a little time just for me and make this post.

I wanted to share with you some of the pieces I made as samples to apply to Blue Genie.
I will probably start posting some of the houses for sale on etsy soon, but if you're interested in any of the pieces, please get in touch. If I can't give you the particular one, I'd love to make something just for you!
As always, I would love to hear your comments and feedback as I continue with my creative journey (a little corny, but I think that's what it is).
thanks for being here - I take so much solace in my lovely crafty friends!!

I love how the houses look on the painted plaques!

One of my favorite of the houses (although I love how they look all clumped together on the wall!) Click here to see more of the houses on flickr



bird house from the art show at the Morgan Lane Gallery, Oct. 2007
(now lives with Johanna)



mixed media collage


mixed media collage

art show

I've been meaning to post about the art show currently on view at the starbucks where I work. Because almost half of the staff are crafters and artists or people who like to make stuff, my manager had the idea to do an art show of just work by employees, instead of all work by one artist and I agreed to coordinate it.

We had an opening reception a couple weeks ago, and I finally got around to taking some pictures of the art when there weren't people around and the light was ok. To see more photos of the opening reception and bigger versions of the photos below, visit my flickr

from left to right: 1. Liz's installation/sculpture 2. Kirsten's aprons 3. my mixed media/quilted piece 4. Kirsten's drawing 5. my mixed media houses 6. Chandra's two paintings

what the heck is the Lovely Letterbox?

I've mentioned the Lovely Letterbox here and there in a few places and wanted to let you all know exactly what it is, especially because it is one of my very favorite projects!

The Lovely Letterbox is basically a subscription service. I adore subscriptions, because I love mail, and love knowing I'm going to be getting mail. The idea of being able to send a package out each month containing whatever I was inspired to create or share that month really appealed to me. There are 11 participants in the first round who receive something in the mail at least once a month for 6 months. When I started it, I only knew that participants would receive original zines, zines from my personal collection (which is kind of monstrous and I'm trying to cut it down), crafts made by me, samples from new things I'm trying out, and craft/mail/ephemera supplies from my always growing collection of supplies.

We are two months in and even after two installments, I still can't say what all the future ones will include. I can share with you what I've done so far. I wanted to make this a special exclusive opportunity for the people who signed up, so I'm creating zines especially for it that won't be available until after their subscription is over, possibly offered in a pack or something like that.

I already know I'm going to continue this project when this round is finished because it has been a great success, which to me means that the participants have given me lots of positive feedback about being part of it. So if you would like to be on a waiting list for the next round, e-mail me and I'll get in touch a month or two before this round ends and the new one begins and give you the chance to sign up before I post about it here and open it up to first come first serve sign ups.

Three of my lovely participants have great craft blogs and have each done posts about Lovely Letterbox and you should check out their wonderful blogs anyway:
Average Jane Crafter, Craftypod, and PonyBoy Press

July was the first month and I made quilted fabric postcards for the very first piece of mail. I was already working on the goodies for the packages and carved stamps for everyone in the shape of the state they live in with a little envelope in the middle. I stamped this on each of their postcards as a little intrigue.

For the first package, I made a stencil and spray painted it onto their envelopes. In the package was: the hand carved stamps, a few zines each from my collection, a full color collage zine that I made at the Austin Book Workers book fair, some note paper that I stamped with various other stamps I've carved, some cute japanese note papers, and little punched out shapes I punched from patterned paper with a postage stamp shape punch and a scalloped circle punch.

For the August installment, I was really into the idea of a kit of some kind. I made kits for little plush teeth (my favorite plushy to make) with a tiny how-to zine in it, copies of the zine I made for the 24 Hour Zine challenge, pieces of this great screen normally used for screen doors/window screens that I used to make a mixed media collage piece in an art show, a letter about what inspired me in this installment and things going on in my life, some cool fibers, little sewn collage houses from the previously mentioned art show, and sets of sew on buttons.