May 5th 2011

I was so happy to discover that I get to talk about this particular card today. These are zippers for anyone who cant quite see it of different hues of pink rose and wine. I had discovered these years ago in a discount store and had been holding on to them for this very card ( I just didn't know it at the time) I had seen a pamphlet at the hobby lobby the week before talking about all the wondrous things you can do with zippers and I thought I would just have to spend one of my days giving it a shot. May I note its only been 3 days and dots have made an appearance twice already! I cut, rolled and stitched the zippers into swirls and spirals and loops until I was fully satisfied with myself and adhered them to a card stock card with hot glue.

This card as well as several others took on such dimensionality that they had to be creatively stored so as to not smoosh or crunch other more delicate creations. I particularly love this viewpoint because it shows off the wonderful dips and curves that get lost in the straight on photo. My love for zippers had definitely grown since this particular project.

May 4th 2011

I have an ongoing love affair with dots and circles. It was my second day of making cards and my inspiration was sparked by a baggie of colored scrapbook papers that I had bought months before to use as tags and labels for things I was selling. I cut each of the circles by hand (I didn't want them to be perfect) and just used some elmers to put it all together. This card was not as inspired as the first and it was a little bit of a disappointment that just the day before I had such an involved and interesting piece. This card kind of told me that not every day is going to be a great one and just like in real life I will have to like it for what it is.

No worries readers if you too like dots this theme will appear again and again and again.

May 3rd 2011 The Begining of my Art journey

    I started my journey May 3rd 2011, after becoming inspired by a friends similar interest in a year long project. In the past I had participated in the Artist trading card meetings and swaps where I fell in love with the simplicity of the 3 1/2 in x 2 1/2in size. So I set out, spur of the moment, on a Tuesday night and made the first of my 366 cards (this was a leap year). It seemed like a mountainous task at the time. During my year I've learned a few things about myself and have lived a lot of life. I started this project 4 years after the failure of my first attempt of opening my own artist boutique. I will always be an artist and though hurt by the loss, knew that I couldn't deny my artist drive. Not all cards are great and some are down right bad but I didnt edit or throw them out because they each taught me something about my process or showed me a little of myself and where I was at the time.
     When I started I was working downtown in Kansas City as a shoe shine. Over the year and during a recession I had two other jobs as well as a major breakup from my eight year relationship and many financial hardships along the way. It would have been excruciatingly easy to give up and let my cards lapse into oblivion but I didn't. During my darkest times having the simple task set before me kept me sane and I was so grateful for the distraction.
    I do have my bachelors degree in fine arts and my original thought was to have an art show to display what a year of my life looks like. Maybe someday this blog will afford me my wish. I hope you enjoy reading and viewing my year as much as I loved making it.

May 3rd 2011

My first card was thrown together excitedly, standing up, or hovering over my craft table scrounging through all my scraps and bits. I was so inspired I couldn't work quickly enough. I incorporated paper and ribbon, hand stitching, stamping, and great plastic. I am and always will be in love with this card.  
                 

My latest projects

As some of you may know I've taken on refurbishing older furniture pieces. Above is a photo take from my new location at the Mission Road Antique mall in Leawood Kansas. When I was just first delving into re purposing reusing and refinishing furniture I was just finishing a year long project that I'm very excited to be adding to my blog here. Its been about 4 months since I finished a series of small (atc, or baseball card sized) art pieces. I created one each day for the duration of a year (leap year in fact) for a total of 366 cards. As it stands I have no means to get a book published but I thought I would share my journey a card or two at a time over the next year.

My latest knitting project

I've been working on a knitted top (pictured) that I will (hopefully) wear over items much like a short sleeved sweater. Just like any other pattern I have found my issues and problems with the way the it was written. Its understandable that writing patterns can be very difficult but sometimes I think some companies really just don't put forth the effort to edit their patterns. Whenever I get theses nightmare patterns I start questioning my own abilities as a knitter. There was a certain book that I felt was slapped together so poorly that I went to the extra effort to point out that people will be frustrated and put off by their writing style. Oh well... just be aware that knitting is, in a lot of ways frustrating and that most of the time is isn't you.
If your interested this wonderful pattern is a Plymouth yarn pattern # s301

My Mother

A quick note on my way out the door. My mother just won a contest where an image of her artwork will be placed on an outdoor banner. Im very excited for her. This is the image they chose.

Trunk Shows

I just participated in my third trunk show of the year and so far its been rather slow. We haven't really sold anything successfully in a long time but I still feel hopeful because of how encouraging people have been towards our work and us in general. Each show has benefited me in one way or another, be it kind words, inspiring work of others, or just exercise its hard to haul stuff around :-).
Being an artist is extremely hard, but I'm just not ready to give up just yet!