pamgarrison

enchanted forest paper mache collection at etsy now

The paper mache creatures you see above, Gus, Annabelle, Anita, Hannah, Moonbeam, Oscar, Gretta, Fanciful, and Lola are available over at my etsy shop now. If you aren't interested in paper mache items, I've got more artwork coming to my etsy shop soon too. Thanks for all your support and encouragement to make things. These paper mache items have been a real flight of fancy for me, and I hope to make another collection soon! 

the last thing i need to be doing...

is stitching. I have so much to do, and yet, I really want to sit and stitch. I was inspired by my friend Mary's recent stitching here, which is different than what I usually do, even though she said my samplers were partial motivation for hers. Mary also speaks of  being very inspired by Jude Hill, and so off I went to see Jude Hill's spiritcloth blog. Of course, I was immediately inspired and spent over an hour pouring through her archives. Her art is so soulful and filled with deep meaning. You know me well enough by now to know what comes next... I had to try playing their way. Although I have guests coming the next few days (in other words, I should be non-stop cleaning!), and an etsy post to get up as well as items to finish for that, I just had to allow myself a little time to get lost in the antique fabric and different stitches than I was used to. I've set it down for now, but it's calling my name, that's for sure!

As a background, I grabbed a piece of an old tea towel. I knew I was saving that for something special. I've no idea where this is going, I'm not sure if I'll add embroidery stitching and my usual buttons or beads, but as always, I'll share the journey here as it continues. Back to what I "should" be doing for now!

 

creatures from an enchanted forest

Some paper mache creations that will be in my etsy shop soon. I'm going to list all the things I'm making at once (hopefully Friday), but just wanted to give a sneak peek. And here is a close up of one of the paintings I'm listing too...I think the creatures above live in a place like this!

been playing

...with some new art supplies. Funny to see what new-to-me colors are calling me to play.  I'm working on a wide variety of new art for my etsy shop; some journals, some paintings, some garlands, some paper mache etc. A little bit of lots of things. Hopefully I'll have it ready by the end of next week, I'll let you know of course!

art from scrap

On our way home from camping I was so excited to stop at Art From Scrap. I had heard about this store from friends Syd and Mary, and remembered being tortured by their tales of crepe paper piles. Art From Scrap Reuse store is such a great concept: a place where people can donate all their unused art supplies, then the non-profit store sorts, stores, and sells it,  providing the community with an education center and an Arts Center with the profits, among other things. I filled a big bag full of various things from paper and fabric and lots more, including the wooden beads above and the millinery fruit below, all for $25.00. (No, there wasn't any crepe paper.)

What I'd like to know is; is there a place like this in L.A. or Orange County? A place for odd art supplies? Random things, little things, things that just the right person would love, but even Goodwill might pitch. Things that if  donated to a school they'd be a pain for them to sort through, store, or use because they are specific to one certain type of art. Scraps.  Stuff that otherwise would end up in a landfill. It's like the art asylum that Teesha used to have at all her events; a place to donate all your craft oddities so that someone else can make art from them, but this is instead at a permanent location. Anyone know of a more places like that? Feel free to mention them in the comments- even if they are in a different state, I'm sure readers would want to know about shops like this wherever they are. As it says on the Art From Scrap website:
"Everything is connected, everything ends up somewhere, we have options and we make choices. Art From Scrap. Encouraging creative expression in the arts and promoting a greater understanding of environmental issues." Cool.

last artfiberfest recap

         

Here above you see the front (left) and back (right) of my home- made journal that I took to artfest. I made it from a Smith & Hawken furniture guide that looks like this one on the right. I recently found out that Smith & Hawken is closing it doors. Even though I only went there every few years, I was disappointed with the news that it won't be there any longer, so popped in for one last time. On the visit where I picked up this catalog, I bought these lights (below) for our outdoor dining area. Cool, huh? Ya, but also ridiculously expensive (on sale for $159.00 a strand). I love the way they look, so unique and industrial, and I justified the expense because a. we eat outside all the time and b.  they will stand the test of time outdoors much better than the cheaper, green plastic light strands (supposedly).  (The big light is from Pottery Barn. It was an exterior light on sale, so I don't know if they have it any more, I'd check online if interested.)

 

Anyway, back to the journal. The catalog is almost 7" wide by 13 1/2" tall and folds out accordion style with 5 sections in all front and back. Like this:

 

I found it to be just the right size for a little weekend or specific event journal. I just cut and glued and painted and sewed enough to cover up what it was originally. Here's how it looked when I left:

The top photo is one side opened up (the inside)

and this photo below is the outside opened up:

Here are all the pages now, after using it over the weekend:

above, the first two folds, below, the 3rd fold and the inside of the back cover. I couldn't resist using my sons's drawing.

I just used it for class notes or directions or phone numbers or anything else that weekend where I needed to grab a piece of paper and make a quick note. It worked out great. It's large size made it findable on a moment's notice, and the amount of pages were perfect too; I really wasn't in need of a lot of open writing space obviously. I also like knowing that any information from the weekend I might want will be easily found, as opposed to searching through one of my other journals, now that I'm back home.

Just thought I'd share in case you want to get your hands on some of the catalogs now that they are probably going to end up in the trash!

 

gone camping

We're back now, actually, and we all had a great time. I just had to share with you my newly made camping tablecloth because I know you are some of the only people that will "get" it like I do. A huge motivator for me in making things, is not for my family's understanding or appreciation (that's where you, and this posting on my craft blog come in!-more on that later), but in the hopes that, after using it year after year, someday, my children will see/use the tablecloth themselves and say, "Remember this? This is the tablecloth mom made when we were young and went camping..." and the memories will all be tied in and come flooding back. The tablecloth will represent happy family times and love. That's a huge desire of mine; to make crafts that will be nostalgic for my children in the future. A living family tradition in the making.   Am I even making sense? Hopefully, you know what I mean, even though my words are a bit clunky today.

Anyway, the photo that got me moving on this project was right here. Isn't it amazing that just seeing a photo can inspire you for days? That an idea captured beautifully can be so energizing?... I just couldn't stop thinking about her dreamy canopy. I have seen Alicia use vintage sheets beautifully many times before, but was afraid to use them myself because I thought they would be too thin. It wasn't until I saw Amanda Mello's (I don't know Amanda, or if that's her real name or flickr name, but I am ever grateful for the inspiration and want to give credit where due!) canopy on her friend's flickr page that I saw the thin-ness of the sheets as a positive. Of course, the way I used them (unless one day I hang the tablecloth as a canopy in a tent, over a hammock, etc.) doesn't show the ethereal quality of the sheets, but it made me love them all the same. There is nothing original or amazing or unique about my use of the sheets as tablecloth, I know that. I'm just sharing because I finally did it and used it and am happy with the results, and like I was saying earlier; you're that neighbor friend that I can show what I'm working on lately that will usually want to see and understand why I would spend my time doing it. For that, I can not thank you enough. To be understood is a beautiful and encouraging thing. So thank you, always. And thank you to the creative world out there, all the people like Amanda, that I don't know except from craft photos shared; thank you for constantly sharing creations just because.

            

Speaking of which, here's more beautiful creations I recently was wowed by. How great are these?!?! I wish I knew how to crochet all these beautiful stitches. And I certainly hope to be lucky enough to purchase one of these before they sell out some day. Until then, I used them as inspiration while we were camping. We needed something to hold down the tablecloth, so we brought some rocks back from the beach and I covered them roughly with fabric scraps and found crochet pieces. Nothing like  "knitalatte's" ! Hers  are pure magic. I put the Knitalatte's name in quotes, because I can find her real name anywhere. Anyone know it? Or maybe she prefers to be private. Here's her blog: resurrection fern. Oh! I just was checking the link and see a new post...is that a hanging lamp with a shade made out of vintage linens? Oh, that would be beautiful! Not sure what's in the top right corner, but it looks lovely. You see, endless inspiration out there by people just sharing their corner of the world.  Thank you for stopping by and letting me share my corner with you. Happy creating!

 

                

guest artist today

                           

I'm the guest artist today over at my friend Teresa's ezine, A Journal of Interest. Above is one of my pages that I take the participants through the creation of step by step. There is another spread too, with some tricks for getting you started marking up those pages with no end result in mind. Thanks for letting me play along T, it was fun. Hope your participants like the how-to and I hope to see lots of new journal pages!

more pretty photos from flickr

1. more essential packing..., 2. Untitled, 3. Untitled, 4. apricots, 5. Solitude, 6. summer kitchen, 7. Tres..., 8. When your dreams get blurred, 9. Untitled, 10. Untitled, 11. Trio, 12. Untitled, 13. poppies and parasols!, 14. delicate newspaper bunting, 15. Untitled, 16. Untitled, 17. Untitled, 18. diana balloons lens flare, 19. WASH, 20. flowers and grannies..., 21. Bark cloth catch-all, 22. Untitled, 23. save ferris, 24. Harpel's typograph, 25. vintage strawberry pincushion, 26. Calocybe gambosa (St George's Mushroom) 9430, 27. Baby Nectarines, 28. Untitled, 29. 4/365: <3, 30. Untitled, 31. allyouneed, 32. whiteballoonsandalightswitch, 33. the red canoes, 34. Happy Friday, 35. ID, 36. collection of useless things

(some flickr photos didn't show up, so just click on the mosaic above to see what's missing)

Couldn't resist sharing more flickr photos now that Mary Ann was kind enough to tell me how to get them bigger on my blog( thank you Mary Ann!)  Here's how- just save them to your computer, then blog as usual vs. blogging via flickr or sending to flickr via big huge labs. 

I have fallen head over heels for flickr again. :) So much inspiration, so much beauty lives there. Have a happy Sunday!

more fiberfest projects

As always, when I get home from retreats I have the best of intentions to 1. finish up all my projects and 2. blog about them. Unfortunately, what I end up doing is sometimes neither of the above. To avoid the above no.2 at least, I'm going to do a quick post now. The house above was made in my dear friend Charlotte's felt cottage class. Charlotte is one of a kind; funny, smart, clever and endlessly creative, especially when it comes to reusing and making do with supplies saved. I love her little cottages and am hoping that she'll do a small collection for her etsy shop. They earned ohhhs and ahhhs when seen in person. Here are some more shots of my project:

I do love the mushroom made using vintage sequins, nothing like age on vintage sequins and beads!
                   

 

                                  

Thanks for the great class Charlotte and thank you to Cindy, (YoYo Girl) for letting me be her "princess" for the day. It was a hoot!

Here's a little gift for my dorm mate Charlotte...I'm sure I'll get it in the mail to you one of these days. Uh huh... it will sit on the dining room table with all the other "to be mailed" boxes. Why do I dread that task so much?

                

Here's something I forgot to show you from Mary's class: she taught me how to crochet, so I made a little necklace. I love it and even bought a crochet hook to make more.

 

And for my final Fiberfest project, I took the incomparable Tracie Lampie's Plastic Fabric class. Tracie has a book coming out soon on the technique and I can't wait to get it. Start saving your plastic bags now people! I have to say, Tracie wins the award for best recycler ever. She had us in stitches telling us stories of how she digs in the trash after her kids and her worries about what treasures might be thrown away while she's away. You should have see the cute rain hat she had, and stuffed animals, and on and on. You can see some on her etsy site. I choose to make a beach bag. Charlotte shared a Gap bag with me so I had the PG, and I thought a This Little Piggy bag was a perfect addition. :) Of course, you can recognize Target bags, right?

                        

 

Thanks to Tracie, I'll never look at plastic bags the same way again. Great, just what I needed; more craft materials to gather! I can hear my family groaning already... 

                              
recent faves

Well, I don't know how to make the picture bigger or borderless, but if you click on "recent faves", you'll see the photos larger in flickr. What am I doing wrong? Blogged it from flickr, is that the problem?

I had so much fun stitching away in Mary Stanley's "charm school" class. Mary had a number of samples and uses for the charms we made. I made a mobile out of the charms because her mobile sample was so cute. Above is a little flower made using one of the buttons I bought on Sunday. Here are a couple other "charms" :

How cute is that acorn charm she taught us to make? she gave us each a pre-drilled acorn top she had collected along the way. Here's a photo of the whole mobile so you get the idea:

        

 

a close-up of the embroidery hoop top:

Charlotte suggested I add a house:

There's always got to be a bird these days, right? And a heart and flower too:

can't have too many flowers:

           As always Mary, I love spending time with you! Mary is just about the sweetest, most soft-hearted soul I know. Genuine through and through and quietly playful to boot. Her classes are always fun and this one was no exception. Thanks Mary for the great class, ideas, and supplies too. xo