ArtiphyTheHeart

Button Doll #3

What a filled weekend, but worth every minute spent!  The annual sewing and craft expo was here Thurs. through Sat. - - picked up a lot of little goodies there.  Also this weekend was Comic-con.

For those who don't know, and therefore probably don't care, Comic-con is an international convention of comic book artists, publishers, graphic designers, graphic novelists, Manga artists and more.  This feeds my daughter's graphic design leanings, my son's Manga and sci-fi hobby and my husband's love of old, classic comic books.  I tag along because it's fun, and to see if there are any unusual finds I can use in my art.  BINGO!  I hit the jackpot at Comic-con.  The face in my little ATC button doll #3 is a resin-encased sticker.  Her name is Nana Osaki and she is from the Manga series, "Nana", by Ai Yazawa. She and about 50 other characters suitable for button dolls were my treasure find at Comic-con, so look for a lot of variations on this theme, because I bought stickers galore!

Today's TMTA theme is "geometry".  The geometric background design is a snippet of commercial paper and the substrate is red handmade Lokta paper.  The rest is self-explanatory:  Beads, buttons, wire and a gagillion types of adhesives. 

Now off to take a peek at everyone else's beautiful work!

Winter. . .

Since the contrast was not great when photographed against a plain white background, I photographed my ATC for TMTA against a background of patterned blue paper. 

I took a vintage image from Memories of a Lifetime Animals, printed it and hand-stitched a layer of clear plastic film over the top.  Then I beaded the buttons on the child's coat, stitched a snippet of cranberry velvet ribbon to the bottom and sewed on the buttons with clear thread.  I made a thinned mixture of white glue and water, and brushed this over the top, avoiding the beads and the buttons.  Next, I dipped the ATC in a bowl of crystal glitter and shook off the excess.  After letting it dry a few minutes, I brushed off the glitter from the child's face and from the dog so that those images would be more exposed, much like using a history brush in Photoshop, only doing it "really" instead of "virtually".   I then let it dry overnight, placed it on patterned paper and photographed it.

Going Postal. . .

This week's TMTA theme is "Postage Stamps".  It is of course, about postage stamps, but for me, it has a lot to do with shopping.  Bear with me.  Sooner or later, this will make sense. 

I am not a shopper.  I don't like to try on clothes.  I don't like stores, shopping malls and crowds of people.  But there are three exceptions to this:  Books, music, and art supplies!  I LOVE, love, LOVE, supplies!

I rarely shop  for a particular project, unless it's a big one.  Usually I just shop for whatever I like.  So when I have the time and the inclination, I grab the $$ that I can afford and take to the shops!  Specialty papers, silks and trims, stamps, brads, ephemera, glitter, glues, rub-ons, stickers. . .there isn't enough room to list them all.  I LOVE them all!  And I buy the ones that catch my eye and speak to me.  Usually, I have no idea what I'll use them for, but I know that for each of them, their day will come. 

I used to have a plan which now I never, ever, follow!  I call it the "school supply method of shopping", and it is anathema!  Verboten!   I run the other direction when I think of it!  Very simply, it's the old elementary school rule:  "Finish what you have before you buy something new".  That rule has a corollary which is equally repugnant:  "Finish what you've started before you start something new", but that's another subject.  Fortunately, I've recovered from the illness of the "school supply" rule, and it has set me free! 

Now, when I begin a project, I have a variety of what I like, as opposed to boring shelves of  mere requirements on hand to work with.  The end result is, "art I like" instead of "art I need". 

As any gourmet cook knows, terrific ingredients are paramount, but there had better be eggs, milk and flour in the pantry as well.  Fortunately, eggs, milk and flour don't bore me.  I get just as excited picking up a few yards of white 200ct. cotton, wool batting, inkjet printer paper, white watercolor paper and black sharpies as I do when I find cute little glass bottles with corks in them, vintage glass glitter and gorgeous hand-made paper and silks to die (or dye) for.  So I end up with lots of unrelated things on hand, except that they're not unrelated.  They are perfectly related.  They are all my relatives bound together in kinship because I LOVE them.  And when you buy this way, I've found that what you have on hand ends up harmonizing in the most pleasing ways.

We have a supply pool at our house.  There are a few things that are tagged "mine", or "Amy's", but for the most part, the rule is "ask the other person if it can be used and if the answer is "yes", then take it!  It's great, because this adds former school crayons, pencils, erasers, stencils, craft felt, stickers, and everything else kids' have purchased for school projects to the mix.  Recently, Amy has been designing and making her own "stuffies".  They are terrific, and if you're interested in taking a peek, you can see them here.  Amy tells me that a lot of her creative energy comes from the fact that whenever she wants to make something, all she has to do is shop the shelves at home.  Shopping trips to the stores are reserved for replenishing supplies or to feed our fancies, instead of a necessary left-brain distraction interrupting a burst of creativity.

Well enough of that and finally, back to the ATC.  I bought the postage stamps used for this ATC at Art Unraveled last August.  I bought them because I liked them, but I had no idea how I would use them.  I really don't do much mail art.  I've crowned Nick Bantock "king", and I really hadn't tried to approach his royal wonders.  But I loved those postage stamps at AU, and  I found them on my shelf when this theme presented itself.  It helps.  Lots.  If I had to shop for them, I might have skipped the project and missed out on the fun. 

Also used in this ATC are rub-ons by K&Company, stamps by Inkadinkado and Limited Edition, brass tag from Making Memories, a piece of  brown Bazzil Bling and cutting of my hand-made paper, topped with an over-stamped transparency sheet and machine stitched together.

And one last-but-CERTAINLY-not-least closing note:  I've been tagged by sweet Paula of The Beauty of Life for the Make My Day award.  I now need to come up with 10 blogs that make my day, and post them.  Wow.  Finding only 10?  It's going to be tough to narrow it down.  I *heart* so very many.  So I'm going to need a day or two to give this some thought. . .and I think I'll probably just put the names of all my favorites in a hat and have my son Andrew (the trustworthy) pick ten.  More later. . .

. . .In the meantime, Happy Creating!