Marie Antoinette Mail Art Group 4x4 Book Swap

I hosted a 4x4 book swap with the Marie Antoinette Mail Art Group. It was a huge success and I couldn't be happier. Every single page of this book was made from the heart. It is amazing and I am really looking forward to the Halloween/Masquerade themed book I am hosting for the month of October. I am sure I will once again be blown away with the talent of this group. A huge thank you to all that participated in the making of this book. Enjoy!

Is A Lovely Specimen

Here is my latest piece of art work. (If you click on the image, it will enlarge so you can see it with greater detail). I am really happy with how this turned out. I have been wanting to use a frozen Charlotte doll in my work for some time now. I have also had other found items that I wanted to incorporate into some work as well. For this piece, I knew that I wanted to use one of my dolls and this broken frame that I had found. I just didn't know how I was going to work it in all together.

When I was accepted to be part of Cassandra's design team, using her amazing digital collage pages, I was thrilled. I had already purchased several at her shop Cassi's Creations and this just helped to give me the push to do some of my own art. I love being part of a group with deadlines and challenges. It helps me to focus and have a direction to create. But when I am on my own, it's not as easy. With this design team, I was able to explore Cassandra's art and think of how I would incorporate it into my own.

Once I saw the word "Specimen" on her Custom Romantic Backgrounds sheet, my mind finally got it's wheels rolling.

The wings on my little creature are from her sheet Rusty Dreams. Once I saw them, I knew they belonged on my creature and that it would be somehow attached within the frame. I used several of these wings and cut them apart, adhering them to create a 3d layered effect. I then added a few mica flakes. I also attached this golden crown charm.

This gentleman is from the collage sheet Steampunk. There are two small specimen jars that I found at a favorite shop and I have filled them with more mica flakes, as if taken from my creatures wings.

This is an old pair of glasses that I picked up for next to nothing. For those of you that know me, I love vintage playing cards and have several listed in my own shop, RhondaMum. I usually use the front image on the card, but for this one I wanted to have the Joker because he can also be considered a fool.

Which brings me to the piece of artwork itself. When I showed it to my husband, he thought I had done a great job. But when I asked him to dissect it, to really look at each little part to find the meaning in the work, he was completely CLUELESS! Made me wonder if my "theme" was all in my head. I would love to hear your thoughts on what you think it all means.

Here is another vintage find, an old keyhole. I have old keys attached to the "specimen" as well. What do you use keys for?

This image of a camera also came from Cassandra's sheet Steampunk.

All of these words came from the sheet Custom Romantic Backgrounds, and it was this sheet that helped me to know what I wanted to create with all of my wonderful goodies. All I did was crop the sheet to show just the words, and then printed it. This made the words larger. Each word was then torn out and aged with some acid free ink. I always ink my edges. Guess it's a pet peeve of mine.

Another old find. I added this vintage clip and number. What does it mean? Don't ask my husband because he didn't know, lol.

The background is a vintage ledger page. I sell these in my shop as well.
While sorting through some of my collection, I found the perfect name. One that belonged to a doctor, hint, hint.

This background image is from a vintage check. I didn't have the heart to use the actual check, like I did the ledger page. So I made a copy of it. Some things are just too old and precious to me to use the real copy. But, it is also another hint....

So now it is your turn. Tell me what you think. I am really happy with how this turned out and am excited to continue with my adventures with my own work. A big thanks to Cassandra for continually helping me to grow as an artist and to you for taking the time to learn about my art.

May your day be joyous and creative! Be sure to visit again soon for my next creation! If you sign up to follow me you will automatically see when I've posted again so please consider doing so. Thanks!

A New Challenge

I've said it before and I will say it again. I love the Marie Antoinette Mail Art Group. I am amazed with the types of projects I have taken on since joining. My newest is a round robin charm bracelet swap. There are two groups and nine participants in my group. I adore charm bracelets and to take on the art of creating my own is fantastic.

I am really nervous about doing a good job, but I am proud of what I have done so far. I went shopping for parts and went crazy. I even stopped by my local library and checked out some great books. I love that I can look up books online and then the library will gather them all up for me and all I have to do is go in and swipe my card.

Below is my starter bracelet. I used two lengths of chain and attached them to the clasp so that everyone would have lots of room to add as many charms as they wanted. You can never have too many in my opinion. Behind my bracelet is the inspiration picture. Everyone has the color of bracelet they want (silver, gold, bronze, etc.) but we keep our charms in the same color scheme.



I never knew how complicated it could be to thread beads on a pin and wrap the wire around to form a loop. I am anal about the appearance of my charms and it has to be just so or I have an OCD fit (and I'm not joking either). But the more I practice, the better. And hopefully everyone will love what I add on to their bracelets.



I also made this tag "book" so that contributors could add their personal info and info about the charms that they added. I am really excited about how it turns out and my oldest is excited about me making more bracelets for her.



Here are some previous posts that I have done about my charm bracelets. Below is a link to my post on my French charm bracelets which has actually grown since I wrote it:

http://rhondamum.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post.html

A post about the bracelet I made in honor of my Gma Betty, whom I was very close to is here:

http://rhondamum.blogspot.com/2007/11/in-honor-of-g-ma.html

And one of my first blog posts ever is here:

http://rhondamum.blogspot.com/2007/11/tradition-of-charm-bracelets.html\


Today is the official last day of summer for me. My oldest goes back to school on Monday. Where did the summer go? I am a little sad, but also excited because I will have more "me" time and will be able to get back into my art more as well as blog more and visit my blogging friends. I still feel way behind.

Enjoy the last days of summer and feel free to leave me your comments and constructive criticisms!

Where I Create Part III - A Great Idea For Those With Lots of Stamps

After I started taking pictures for this fabulous event, (thank you to all of those who commented on my studio and decided to follow me. So nice to have you!) I have been sorting and cleaning and rearranging. Here are a couple of the things that I have done.

All of my 12 x 12 papers are now in the same spot. I cleaned the tubs out of the linen closet (that was not being used for that purpose) which is outside the master bath. My studio is now in the master bedroom. I then placed this old shelf in it and placed all of my papers on it. I think I need to go to the store and buy some more, don't you? Hahaha, actually I need to rid myself of many of these. It is amazing how my taste and artistic desires change and then I am left with lots of stuff I don't use. Lucky for me, our local scrap book store has a garage sale twice a year. I made about $400 at the last one, store credit, that I spent in one shopping spree. I'm blessed with an awesome local store.


I love having this space set up for a better use. Being able to see ALL of my papers together can help my projects go much faster at times.



You might remember from my last post, the miscommunication between my husband and I which led to me having two fantastic shelves that give me lots of extra storage and display space. Well, we tried the communicating again, this time I had an example, and this is what he made for me. It is behind the door that leads into my studio.



He purchased these wood, uh, whatchamacallits, dirt cheap, cut them to fit and screwed them into the wall. They are very sturdy. He even let my four year old crawl up it (supervised of course). Now I have the space I wanted to display my wood mounted stamps so that I can see what I have. He is going to add a couple of more boards so I can finish adding (I know, I have too many stamps as well, if that is actually possible). I think it is fantastic!



So there you go. A very easy way to get some shelves back and display your stamps for use. I hope one of you loves this idea and gets to apply it to your own space. If so, please let me know it worked for you too.

I'm heading out of town for the weekend but will be back soon. The girls are getting ready to go back to school which means I will have more time to blog. Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!