pamgarrison

home for one post

Ah...home again. Hello there. Artfiberfest was a whirlwind of fun. I'll try to give you a good sampling of the experience here, but I find that I am always forgetting to take photos while on these trips. Next time I will take more photos! These three photos are of the project I made in D.J. Pettit's class. It was fun to play with new mediums. D.J. is very inventive and generous and sweet. I would recommend her class to anyone. This is the front, spine, and back cover of my book. I'll show you more when I finish making inside pages.

Here's a photo I took  from the car window while driving into Seattle. I get excited everytime I am on this stretch of the trip.

I had to stop and see this store after Teesha posted a similar photo on her blog.

The store did not disappoint, but I escaped with buying only one item, a vintage French dishtowel.

Once at fiberfest, it was both relaxing (we were there to craft, afterall) and tiring at the same time. It was a hoot to see people in small groups crafting into the wee hours. There was inspiration to be found everywhere. I loved my classes, such a great group of artists. Here is what they made:

Heather Simpson-Bluhm made this bloom banner.

Tammy Gilley made this wish banner.

Lisa Call made this hope banner.

Jann Sage made this wish pocket banner.

Susan Bezek made this fly banner.

Stephanie Avildson made this Mama banner.

Erika Alexander made this banner which spells her nickname, Schmerika.

Sally Jean Alexander made this Sally banner.

Sherry Laatsch thought outside the box and made this washable banner.

Phebe Hill-Blundred made this nest banner (two pieces were put away by photo time).

I had another great group of artists on the day I taught the house project, here's their work:

This is Deb Weller's work.

This is Syd McCutcheon's work.

This is Pat Hanson's house.

And this is Denise Marie Warner's work.
Isn't it fun to see how each artist interprets the same project in such different ways? I love that. So fun to be around such creative people.

I've got more to share from fiberfest, here are some gifts I was given:

Laurie Giberson gave me the giant package of goodies at the top. Heather gave me the adorable button pins with birds and nests on them. Lisa Call gave me the beautiful P charm that she made. Sally Jean gave me the wish necklace. Stephanie gave me the ephemera package. Edina Tien gave me the polkadot pincushion. I know I am forgetting some, please forgive me if I do...I have to learn to write these things down. I love everything that I was given and regret not having anything to give in return. I really appreciate the thoughtfullness. I also loved meeting people that read the blog. It was pretty fun to meet other bloggers too and put a face and person with their blog.

Here's a photo of what I bought at vendor night.  Color sheets of birds and doll clothes from Syd, old ledger paper from Tracy, old stamps from Lisa, a set of stamps and bird stencils from Teesha, little button and polaroid transfers on fabric from Carol. 

I also bought velvet from Teesha, hand-dyed velvet and velvet ribbons from Denise Marie, vintage millinery flowers, seam binding, lace, and button cards from creativediner .com, old store stock of velvet leaves, trim, and bullion leaves from Kate, and a sweet little girl pin painting from Carla.

 

But, of all the photos I've shared, this next one is my absolute favorite and pretty much sums up why Syd and Mary had me cracking up till the wee hours of the morning. One of these days I'm going to take the road-trip up with you!

And this adorable coloring book arrived from vegasandvenice, my favorite shopping supporter. I love this and am going to enjoy every minute of coloring with my kiddies.

And with that my friends, I must again say goodbye. We are going on a family vacation. I haven't even  been able to read my emails and favorite blogs! I will be back on the 5th...have a happy fourth!

bu-bye

Flying off (ha ha, get it?) to Seattle to teach and take at artFIBERfest. I am teaching Flights of Fancy (the banners), and House of Love and Laughter (below). Have a great few days. Hopefully, the new little camera I bought yesterday will take great photos for me to share with you...I just couldn't carry on my sewing machine and my SLR...I will miss you. xo p

why you shouldn't hire gardeners and not be home when they come

Ok, so as I've said before, our garden was wonderful once many years ago, but is sadly neglected. We spent Memorial Weekend working on the side yard, but the back yard is really out of control with weeds and overgrown plants. For a Father's Day gift for my husband (ok, it was a great excuse), I hired my neighbors gardener to do a one-time clean-up. They were supposed to come on Friday  but didn't. This morning I had to run to a specialty art supply store to pick up needed supplies for the one class I'm taking at artfiberfest, and when I got home, gasp, they had come and well...the flowers here are what I found on the ground, wilting in the hot sun. !!! I guess flowers are dime a dozen to gardeners doing a major clean-up, but you know I don't feel that way. Quickly I ran into the garage and grabbed this empty paint can that I couldn't bring myself to toss (my class kit from Ramona Ashman's class was what it once held...I was thinking of Goodwilling it, but I'm sure they'd just toss it...so it sat in the garage as one of those "someone could really do something with this" items-I know you know what I'm talking about). Anyway, all these flowers...trash? No way. I know the guys were thinking I'm a freak (just like my daughter does, ha ha) running around picking through the piles of cuttings, but I knew you'd understand.

And just for fun...some new to me blogs you might like:
creativeswoon.blogspot.com and michellecaplan.blogspot.com (same person)
haeshu.blogspot.com
twostraightlines.typepad.com
matirose.blogspot.com
heatherbailey.typepad.com

dad's day 2006

Hope a Happy Father's Day was had by all. Here's what we did.

 

An afternoon at the beach and off to an early dinner. Loving summer.

color day 4-blue

Ah...blue. You've seen this cabinet many times before, but I just love it so and it is such a pretty shade of blue. I don't think you've ever seen the super cute legs.

I can't resist, I'm going to cheat and show more than one, because I have a few blue things that I love. Here's a little table that serves as a make-shift island. I bought it from a friend of a friend. I think she bought it at Indigo Seas in L.A., which I haven't been to since college (yes, I was into home stores even then). I bought the green towel bar at a flea market for $3.00. Love it when things work out so well.

And then, one of my all time favorite blue items...this coffee table. I paid waaayyyy too much for it at an incredible store called Bountiful. (yes, the Bountiful that you've seen in many magazines). I was with one of my best friends from childhood. She has a much bigger budget than I do and is very good at insisting I indulge myself occasionally on her grand scale. It is a wonderful reminder of her in my home. I still love it and don't regret it one bit (phew!) The rug is from T.J.Maxx.

color day 3- gray/black

Stepping away from the china cabinet today to bring you this chalkboard for gray/black day. Love that I found something with both gray and black. This hangs in our downstairs hallway. My son drew (and colored?) the heart one day. No, I didn't turn this frame into a chalkboard, I bought it this way.

color day 2, brown

Today's color is brown. I like brown a lot too. Maybe I'm a neutral kind-a gal...never thought about it. Here's another slice from the china cabinet. I used to have this brown transferware hanging around a mirror and some sconces...can you still see the hooks for hanging them? Sheesh, guess it's time to take those off, just wasn't sure if they were going to go back up somewhere. I especially love the little butter dishes on the top of the pile. The tarnished star is from Wendy Addison's Theater of Dreams. Thanks again to Stephanie and Mav for the fun blogging game.

week of color, day 1

Playing along with littlebirds and port2port's week of color. Today's color is white. I love white, and cream, and creamy white? Heaven.  (This is a slice of the bottom shelf of our china cabinet.)

keeping a record

So, as I am getting ready to send off a few things, I thought I'd show you how I try to organize and keep track of things I've made and passed on. When I participate in a collaborative and create something that I know I most likely will never see again, I try to either photograph it or color copy it. Anything that's not 3D I take to Staples and have them make a copy on their glossy paper. I love the feel of their glossy paper, it's not shiny at all, just feels smooth.  I can't tell you how often I've looked at one of these copies and been totally surprised by it, not remembering something I've made in part or whole. I certainly see the changes in me and my style of creating over  time as well. And yes, there are times I cringe, but there are also times I'm pleased with what I see. Anyway, back to the Staples copies. When I get the copies made they always give me one of these large envelopes. Ugly, but good for storing large sheets of paper.

So I decided to add some paper to them to make them more sturdy and more appealing.

One envelope per collaborative, for example, here's inside the self portrait envelope.

I just thought I'd encourage you to take the time to make a copy or photograph of the things you make and send out into the world.

As I said, I'm getting ready to send some things off. Here's what I did for Nina's sign in page...again, she's so clever and creative that it's not a traditional sign in, but a big piece of cloth. I loved having your book in my house Nina. Syd, it's on it's way!

beautiful sadness

A sixteen year old in our community died last year in a car accident. I did not know her, or her family, but I think of her, her mother, and the rest of their family often. Recently, a bench was placed on a lovely spot that overlooks a little lake on the golf course. It is her birthday. This is what I saw on my way to the bus stop. Makes me sad and happy at the same time. Such love. I thought you'd like to see it.

spoiled again

The mailman was good to me again. Well, not really him, but he was the barer of fun things for me. The above is a bunch of goodies I received from Anahata. Look at all the Papayaliciousness...yummy. And below is a bunch of treasures from Delila. I've written about both of these girls before, but if you somehow missed them, you must check them out. You spoiled me girls, and it feels great. Thank you, thank you!

hi, my name's pam and i'm addicted to crafting

So, like it seems everyone else is these days, I am crazy busy. Disorganized busy, owe my friends things in the mail/emails/phone calls busy, running to the post office in a sweat just before closing to overnight my teaching applications busy, the kind of busy where I feel out of control and self critical because I know it's all my fault anyway, we all have the exact same 24 hours, it's just how we plan them, use them, choose what we do. So anyway, what do I do today? I'll tell ya... I dropped my daughter off at the bus stop and saw these boxes by a dumpster at a house where they were clearly moving. I waited until my daughter rounded the corner with her friends, got out and asked the man if I can have them. Of course I can. (His wife had been using them for planters.) When I picked my daughter up after school and she saw them drying on the driveway she asked, "Were those from the bus stop? How did you get those?" I told her that I asked the man for them. She replied; "Did he say, sure freaky lady?"...Ha! She has no idea how freaky I am! Yep, a craft addicted freak. I think they turned out pretty cute, and am just bettin' that you think they're cute too...does that mean you're a freak also? I'm going to use them to store stuff I have in the garage in a prettier fashion, and  I'm going to smile every time I see them, busy or not.

looking for a good read?

Well, more like good visual stimulation. I haven't read it yet, just flipped through it and am so excited to be freshly  showered and in my jammies ready to hop into bed and read away. I finally received my free copy of Blueprint magazine. You can get a free copy too. The link isn't working for me here, but you can google Blueprint magazine and it will come up. I highly recommend it just from first flip through. I know other people have mentioned it, I think the first I heard sing it's praises was over at the super cool ohjoy! blog. Here's some of what I'm loving inside:

and it's FREE, can't beat that.

can you really ever have too much of a good thing?

Paper pack 3 is over at pamg.etsy.com .  I know, for some (okaaayyy, all of us), yes, you can have too much, but for those that are like me (addicted to paper) and those that missed out on the first packs, Kathy and I put together some new packs. These are all different vintage papers than the first two packs.Now you don't have to be afraid to use up the other ones. Go ahead, use them in your artwork, there will always be more! (Remember what  L.K. taught me in her class: use your special stuff, your creations will be all the more special to you because of it.)

If you're really addicted, Joleen has some  packs of made of new papers, Delila has some vintage ephemera packs, and  Sofia has some French wallpaper packs too.

Hope you enjoy!

think you might want one of these

I am so excited about a new sewing machine. Jenny Doh (who is super cool and creative and into people submitting-so go submit already), the editor of Sommerset Studios, first showed me this little beauty and told me that Stampington is going to start carrying them. I have been waiting and waiting and checking their site, but I don't think they carry them yet. I am going to be teaching at artfiberfest and will be bringing my traveling Janome Gem Gold that I bought for such things last year (you can get them for under $200.00), but want to bring an extra for students...so I had to find it somewhere else for now...you can probably get them (along with other creative goodies) at Stampington soon. This is the perfect tag along sewing machine for me to bring for students. (and perfect for my daughter, and perfect for my journal, and perfect for non sewers)...without further ado...the Janome Sew Mini...(does the cuteness and colors remind anyone else of Alicia?)

it's only $54.99 (!!!!!) plus tax, no shipping from of all places...Home Depot. Who would'a thunk it? I'm telling you, it's great...5 lbs. (!!) and it does a few different straight and zigzag stitches and backstitches. To make sure it works, I tried it out on one of my little banners.

It worked great. Of course, it's not meant to replace your real sewing machine, if you really sew things like clothes or quilts, but if you want to craft with it, it's great. I'm imagining scrapbook stores everywhere humming with the sound of these.

Speaking of scrapbook stores, someone asked me if I use new scrapbook paper as well as vintage, and the answer is yes, I do. For some projects I use vintage only, but for some, a mix of old and new works well to me. Using new products is less expensive than just vintage, and easier to come by.  While I was at vendor night at artfest, a totally adorable gal came up and introduced herself and bought a few things. She said she designed some vintage style paper and saw that I liked that. The week after artfest, this arrived at my door. Um, wow. Thank you Carolyn! She works for Melissa Frances.

So,in answer to the email I received, I thought I'd show the banner in stages. Here's the banner with only new products, specifically the paper above and the wrappers from the file folders that Debbie gave me (see a few posts ago).

and here, after I've added vintage papers and do dads.

I think for Meg (the little cutie from a few posts again as well), using both old and new is perfect, but  that's just me, you may like to use only new or strictly vintage yourself, in my book it's all ok, just go get one of those machines is all I'll say.