What's new at The Loft - Episode 116

MY LIFE IS A CREATIVE WORK IN PROGRESS

I have many times in the past looked over how my focus has shifted from one hobby to another, and wondered what my friends and family must think of me.  I think my husband and kids find me insane at how my creative focus keeps shifting from one pursuit to another.  In moments of self reflection I have discovered a lot of things about myself and why I am the way I am, and why I can't seem to focus on any one creative pursuit.  Instead of relating this always changing focus to some sort of attention disorder, I have begun to realize that it stems from a desire to learn. 

I've never been one for school but I was always most happiest in school in my classes that dealt more with a creative nature than traditional subjects and book reading.  These many  "hobbies" (my latest passion is mini art quilts) I've pursued over the years come from my own endless need for creative learning.  More over they are an integral part of who I am, even in those times in my life when they could only be seen in the smallest measure.  I love to create, and it's a passion that burns inside me brightly and at times is so strong that I find it difficult to focus on other things.  On days when I'm so tired and stressed from my "day" job that all I want to do is pop in a movie and relax I still find myself planning out my next project, looking for inspiration, or just trying to work out problems with projects I've put temporarily on hold.  I also often find that some of my best ideas or problem resolution comes when I'm trying to drift off to sleep, which is why I have gotten into the habit of leaving a note pad and pen on my nightstand.

The downside of course is that there always comes a stumping point of for me in the creative process.  In my own desire to be more artistically creative, I find that original thought becomes more and more of an obstacle.  I want to do something creative but I confound myself with too much thinking about originality, instead of more creative "play".  But inspiration sometimes is just a matter of how you look and interpret things, or perhaps just a matter of recycling what you have already done.

 For those of you who have read my blog for a while, you are probably already familiar with my 2010 ATC 3.6.5 challenge, where each day I made one ATC per day for the whole year.  Two years later staring at 150 of those cards which now sit at a giant piece of wall art in my living room, (photo of canvas) it hit me that I had 365 days of inspiration and original thought so why not just change the medium and turn some of these into mini art quilts.

One of my favorite ATC's I created during the challenge was an original piece called "The Tree of Four Seasons".  I selected this one because it was colorful and the design could be replicated simply.

Here is the fabric version, what do you think?

The muslin base was divided into quadrants for one color to represent each season and then I began layering the specific colors to their quadrant.I used a free motion stitch to hold all in place once I had the background looking the way I wanted to. 

I used embroidery floss and more free motion stitching to embellish the circles.

 

 

This was a fun project and really helped jump start more creative ideas I have for additional mini art quilts which I will share with you in the future.


MORE RICHARD ARMITAGE

Further to my June 12th post which had a small segment at the bottom called "My Mother's Day breakfast with Richard Armitage" I was so excited to learn that Mr. Armitage would in fact be attending the San Diego Comic-Con 2012 in July to promote The Hobbit.  My hubby attended Comic-Con again this year but unfortunately he did not win the lottery for a spot in the autograph signing line, however I was more than thrilled when he sent me a few photos back. 

Here's a poster of Mr. Armitage in costume as Thorin

They also had a life sized replica of Mr. Amitage's character from The Hobbit on display.

Of course here is what he normally looks like without the beard

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'm working on a few new concepts and look forward to sharing more of my work in the future.  As always comments are welcome so feel free to send me a note and let me know what you think. 

Bye for now

What's new at The Loft - Episode 46

Happy New Year from The Loft!!!!!

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I can't believe I did it but I finished my last card on New Year's Eve.  It's hard to believe that I have made 365 cards this year.  I started out with this challenge in mind, not sure if I could do it or if I would have the patience and resolve to keep it up for an entire year, but I did it!  

It all began with my first card of a Dalek, because I had been watching a Doctor Who marathon on New Year's Day 2010.  And now that I am up to the final day in the challenge how do I end such a challenge.

I suppose I could have gone for some outrageous, over the top card, but when I sat and thought about what I wanted my last card to be, it just came naturally that I needed to end the challenge where it started, with Doctor Who .  So here it is my final ATC 3.6.5. Challenge card for 2010.   Happy Who Year!!!

I am so proud of myself for setting this personal goal and keeping to it.  And while it hasn't been easy, it has been a learning and growing experience.  I was able to look at things in a whole new way.  I have been able to use supplies and materials in new ways and to see things around me as inspiration for cards.  What I didn't count on with this experience though, was the effect it would have on those around me.  I received not only encouragement from friends and family but materials for inspiration and to create them.  My strongest supporter through this challenge has been my husband who continually encouraged me to keep looking at this as a learning process and to not give up.  And while I acquired the knowledge to see inspiration in new things and materials, it has been a lot of fun watching him acquire a really great eye for potential card supplies and inspiration sources as well.  It has been a great year and but where do we go from here.     

GOODBYE ATC 3.6.5 HELLO MACRO 3.6.5. CHALLENGE

Ok, so I have decided that my 2011,  3.6.5. Challenge will be to take a macro photograph every day.  I chose to do a macro photography challenge this year because I saved for a long time and about 6 months ago I was finally able to purchase a 100 mm Macro lens for my camera.  I have been playing with the lens a little since I got it but I had not been able to achieve some of the things I would like to do with it, and what better way to learn then by doing.  I am hoping to not only learn more about my camera and how to use this lens, but to see things with a new eye not only for composition but for detail as well.  So let's get the challenge started.

1/1/11 - Cat's Eye - courtesy of my cat Nigel.

  I have always loved my cat's eyes but never really looked so closely at them that I could see all the different colors in them.  A macro shot really showed me the wonderful greens, yellows, golds and browns that mix together to make up his beautiful eyes. 

Exposure ISO 400, f 2.8, 1/60 second, focal length 100 mm

I hope you enjoy the new challenge. Encouragement, ideas, inspiration and comments are always welcome so please drop me a line and tell me what's on your mind. 

What's new at The Loft - Episode 45

ATC 3.6.5. Challenge
12/5 - "Queen" - The photo was taken from a magazine and embellished with red and green stickles, and then added black on clear alpha stickers.

12/6 - "Create Everyday" - Background taken from a magazine, with mini alpha stickers for the title.

12/7 - "Rustic Chicken" - Background papers and stamps from Tweety Jill, chicken photo taken from a magazine.

12/8 - "I Wonder Why it Won't Fire" - Black and white image found on the Internet, and colored using pastel chalk.  Title printed on my computer.

12/9 - "Ribbon Flowers" - Background is cream colored linen, that has been colored blue with watercolor crayon.  I then painted the stems with light green and kelly green acrylic paint.  Using a large eye beading needle I threaded pink and white ribbons into the linen, leaving knots and loops visible on the outside that look like hyacinth flowers.

12/10 - "Ski Bunny" - Background is of snowy paper from open stock paper found at my local craft store.  The trees and the image of the girl was taken from a pin up girl book my husband got me for my birthday (Which happened to be today!)  I gave the trees a little bling with stardust, white lace and rock candy stickles.

12/11 - "The Showgirl" - Background is cut from black cardstock stamped with white flower images and embellished with chalk markers, stickles and gel pens.  Image was taken from the pin up girl book my husband got me for my birthday and embellished with gold and copper stickles, rhinestone bling and red fibers.  I wish I could have found him something as cool as this book for his birthday today, but all I could do was honor him by making a card that has become one of my favorites in the whole challenge.

12/12 - "Fallen Angel" - The background is a plain white card that has been lightly inked with a light blue stamp pad.  The image of the girl was taken from my pin up girl book, and her top wings were embellished with flocking.

12/13 - "Rushing for the Phone" - Background was of black paper stamped in white with various stamps from a Tattered Angels texture stamp set.  Image taken from pin up girl book.

12/14 - "Lady From Shanghai" - Background paper was from Kaiser, image taken from pin up girl book and embellished with rhinestones.

12/15 - "Be Daring" - Background taken from my daily scrapbooking calendar, image of Betty Page from my pin up girl book, title from a poster catalog.

12/16 - "Santa" - Background paper was of open stock script paper from my local craft store.  I stamped the Santa on and embellished him in green and red stickles.  I added ribbon and some Tim Holtz baubles.

12/17 - "What do you Wear to Bed" - Background taken from DCWV summer collection pack.  Image taken from my pin up girl book (Can you tell yet that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS BOOK!) and embellished with perfume bottle button (shank removed).  Title is hand written in marker.

12/18 - "A Girl Worth Fighting For" - Black and white image of Yvonne De Carlo taken from my pin up girl book, and colorized with pastel chalks.  Title cut from Mulan CD liner notes.

12/19 - "Be Original" - Background and image taken from a magazine, title taken from poster catalog.

12/20 "Dare to Be" - Background and image cut from Graphic 45 papers, title cut from open stock paper from my local craft store.

12/21 - "Adorable" - Background, image of girl and hat all taken from CD liner notes, title cut from poster catalog.

12/22 - "Christmas Past" - Background taken from open stock Christmas paper found at my local craft store.  Image and stars from Graphic 45.

12/23 - "Be A Star" - My family and I went away to the beach for Christmas this year, so this card was made from items found in brochure in our hotel room, and mini alpha stickers I brought with me.

12/24 - "O' Christmas Tree" - Background paper was a tray liner from our room service tray in our hotel room.  I drew the tree image with Green gel pens and embellished with red and clear star Gelly roll gel pens.

12/25 - "Merry Christmas" - Sheet music background paper from Jenni Bowlin, plaid paper from open stock, and image of dog from brochure in our hotel room.

12/26 - "Sail Away" - Image taken from hotel room brochure to which I added mini alpha stickers I brought from home.

12/27 - "What's Cooking" - Background taken from open stock paper found at my local craft store, image taken from magazine.  Title stamped with mini alpha stamps.

12/28 - "Happy New Year" - Background, hat and title taken from daily scrapbooking calendar.  Image taken from a magazine.

12/29 - "Courage" - Image taken from magazine, with title taken from open stock paper from my local craft store.

12/30 - "Major Lifesaver" - Background colored with Zig markers.  I used blue cardstock and a white gel pen to make the stars.  The image was cut from my pin up girl catalog.

Well that's all I'm posting right now.  Look for my next post to see what my final card in my ATC 3.6.5 Challenge is and find out what my 3.6.5. Challenge will be for 2011.  As always comments are appreciated so feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.

Almost there!  I almost have you caught up on all the cards.  This one is a long post but I wanted to get you caught up to New Year's Eve with this one so my next post will be my last card in this year's 3.6.5. Challenge and introduce my 3.6.5. Challenge for 2011.  So here we go (sorry for the slow loading).

What's new at The Loft - Episode 44

ATC 3.6.5 Challenge

ONLY ONE CARD LEFT!!!!! 

11/23 - "Waiting For a New Day" - images taken from a magazine and stamped with mini alpha stamps.













11/24 - "What's up Doc" - Card made from images cut from a magazine and mini alpha stickers

11/25 -"Gondola" - This card was made while my family and are were on a short vacation over Thanksgiving.  The background was taken from an ATC collage pack.  The other images and ephemera were taken from a childrens' coloring sheet given out at a cafe in our hotel and colored with watercolor pencils.

11/26 - "Buena Sera" - Another vacation made ATC using a brochure for our hotel and some mini alpha stickers.

11/27 - "Heaven" - I bought this postcard of George Burns and Gracie Allen from a stand at Universal Studios and thought it would make a cute card

 

11/28 - "Service with a Smile" - Background was cut from a scrapbooking daily calendar.  Images and titles were taken from some Graphic 45 paper.

11/29 - "Birthday Girl" - Digital card made with photo of my youngest daughter Cassidy in honor of her 8th birthday today.

11/30 - "Superstar" - Background was cut from a scrapbooking daily calendar.  The image of the girl was taken from a magazine, the star punched from yellow paper and outlined in red marker.

12/1 -  "It's All About the Dress" - Image taken from a magazine, title was from a sticker sheet given to me by a friend.

12/2 - "Hug Someone Today" - Image taken from our monthly Disney newsletter, with a title printed on my computer.

12/3 - "Stopping to Smell the Flowers" - Image cut from magazine, with handwritten title.

12/4 - Take Time to Appreciate the Little Things" - Background is made from white cardstock, stamped in green with a foliage stamp.  Image taken from a magazine.  Titles were printed on my computer and each word cut and glued down separately.

Well, I'm still behind in sharing my ATC's with all of you, but at least we are in December.  As always your comments are appreciated so feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.