The Keys 4 Art - Day 1

Now that I have the photos (thanks to Elena who overnighted me a disc), I can get into a day by day, project by project, and eating adventure by eating adventure description of five of the best days of my life!
I arrived in Miami about an hour late, thanks to a passenger on the previous flight trying to flush a bottle down the airplane's toilet.  Enough said about that.   Was greeted at the airport by Elena, Jen, Sue, Val, and Nicole.  Jumping and hugging ensued, and then we drove to South Beach for what we were told would be the best Cuban food in Miami.   Sounded good to me.  We'd be met there by those who'd arrived earlier in the day, and were staying with Jacquie....Gina, Marita, Lil, and Juliet.
The restaurant is Versailles (crazy name for a Cuban place, huh?), and the food (and fabulous sangria) just kept coming.   All thanks to Jacquie.  The owner happens to be one of her clients (like Elena, Jacquie is a lawyer), and we were treated royally.

Elena, me in the middle, and Marita

Nicole, Gina, and Sue

Juliet and Jacquie

Elena and me again

and again

Val (who clearly is having a great time)

Gina, Sue, and Jen seranaded by the Cuban equivalent of mariachis

After we were totally stuffed we piled into cars for the 1 1/2 hour trip to Elena's home in Key Largo.  We got a quick tour of her large and warm and welcoming house, discussed who'd be sleeping where, and then took our first look at our studio for the week.  A living/dining room transformed into an artist's paradise.

It wouldn't look like that for long.  You know how your workspace looks in mid-project?  Multiply that by 12 and you can imagine.  

We tore into our gift bags (see the previous post), exchanged more gifts, talked and talked, then eventually found our way to our respective beds and rested up for Day 2....our first full day together, and one that would be packed with creative energy.  We'd also get to meet the rest of our group, two of Elena's local friends, Linda and Patty, who'd been unable to meet us at the restaurant.

Tune in tomorrow (or later today if I can manage it) for our fabulous second day at The Keys 4 Art, 2010.

Back from Key Largo and......

........overwhelmed by all I experienced.  Is it possible that I only just met these remarkable women for the first time?  It was like being with old and valued friends.  The power of art!

I'll get into the day by day, project by project, meal by meal, mojito by mojito rundown in a future blog.  Alas, my memory card had issues with Elena's MAC, and all the photos I took are KAPUT!  But, no worries...we all took tons and I'll have them soon enough.   Today, I'll show you some of the things I received and did....photos I just took this morning.  Above.....a wonderful personalized tote bag.  We each received one (thanks, Elena!).  The living room was set up with four large work tables, and we found our bags waiting for us at our seats.  What was inside?

Where did all this Tim Holtz fabulousness come from?  Well, Tim Holtz himself!  Elena, who seems to know everyone in the world, had mentioned to Mario that we were having this retreat, and he sent her Tim's new book (personalized and autographed for each of us!), the apron, a package of grungeboard, and some idea-ology.  Are those guys awesome, or what?  Of course, I already own the book and apron, so I think a giveaway may be coming.  But that's for another day. ***(I'm going to be editing this forever...I keep hearing about the boo-boos I've made.  That's what you get for blogging on no sleep!  The books and aprons were sent by Tim, yes, but those were purchased for us by Elena.  Yea, Elena....the best host anyone could want!)***

We never discussed in advance making gifts for everyone, but you know what they say about great minds thinking alike.  Every day was like your birthday and Christmas rolled into one.

We all received t-shirts and flip flops (well, we were in the Florida Keys, so what else would we need?), and each was a different color.  We wore them out to a waterfront bar one night, and looked appropriately tropical.  (Thanks, Jacquie!)

I made everyone a little charm to commemorate this special event.  I thought they could be worn or attached to a journal.  Marie Antoinette on one side, and our logo on the other:

Sue, who came all the way from Illinois, gave us all this gorgeous polymer clay tile:

Lillian, who came all the way from northern Ontario (she had to drive over 7 hours just to get to an airport!) decorated these wonderful art shirts:

From Jen, our California friend:

Inside the little fabric sack, an altered tin:

And inside the tin, goodies for our art....ribbon, fiber, charms, ephemera....

Now, someone PLEASE tell me who provided us with the naked rabbits, ready to be dressed up!!! ***(It was Val!  We didn't have time to "dress" them, but you should see the gorgeous dressed up bunny Val made for Elena.  I don't have a photo, but go to Val's blog and see for yourself.)***  Too cute:

 Juliet (from W. Virginia) crocheted wire necklaces for us all!  We could even choose the colors we wanted.  This is the one I picked:

And then, there were the pillow fairies.  Each night when we finally left our studio to go to sleep, there was a package on our pillows with a note saying, "sweet dreams, the pillow fairies."   We didn't discover til the very end, that it was our Oregon art friends, Gina and Marita, who gifted us each night.  First night, fabric fortune cookies and ear plugs (which I understand were useful in SOME rooms):

Here's what the fortunes said:

Another night we found:

a personalized luggage tag and these hilarious index cards:

And I LOVE this printed packing tape!

The final night, the identity of our generous and witty pillow fairies was revealed, as they left us these gorgeous ATCs:

(Gina's)

(Marita's)

I received a few other goodies as well.  Marita saw these sunglasses and of course thought of me:

Too funny, right?  I'll be sure to wear them when I board the ship for the next Tim Holtz cruise.  They were a special (and totally unnecessary) thank you for the collage technique I taught.  Gina also gave me an extra something as a thank you.  Those Oregon folks sure are a generous bunch!  A deck of ArtChix cards.  How cool is that?

(Of course, the card package had to have a beautiful tag on it)

Jen gave me a chipboard book set:

As did Elena, just because I said I liked it! (I have a good friend with a Scottie):

As soon as I get the photos from our art sessions (and our many many eating/drinking adventures) I'll be back with more Keys4Art blogging.  I'll just end with this one of Elena and me....I think it kind of sums up the mood of art and fun and friendship:

My Bags Are Packed, I'm.....

.......Ready to go!    This is it for a few days.  I leave tomorrow for my art retreat in Key Largo.  Have a great week everyone!

Oh...one more thing.  My good friend Pat sent me a "bon voyage" postcard, which arrived today, and it just tickles me so, I had to share it:

Do I not have the greatest friends?

Another Tag

First of all THANK YOU for the great comments both here and on FB about the bird tag.  I almost never actually go to FB, but really do appreciate your taking the time to leave a note.  I'm not ignoring anyone, but if I start hanging out there I'll never get anything done!

I got into another tag today, in between trips to the laundry room.  I HATE doing laundry.  Well, you probably don't need to know that, or come here to learn such things.

I recently bought a gorgeous new color (peacock) of Ten Seconds Studio metal, and covered the whole tag with it.  Look how yummy it is.

The metal was embossed with one of their plates (don't know the name, but it is a new one and full of clocks).  I have all the tools, but don't do the embossing manually, as I lack that kind of patience.  I just fiddled around with my Big Kick until I found the right sandwich to do it with the machine.  The embossed areas were lightly sanded and I went over the entire thing with some Stazon black ink (inked and rubbed off with a paper towel immediately) to tone the color down just a little.  It is VERY bright.

The clocks of course made me think of The Mad Hatter, and dug up an Alice in Wonderland sheet I'd bought (and never used) back in November at the stamp expo I attended.  It's from The Stamping Ground, and included this great image of the crazed rabbit.  I stamped it with black pigment ink and embossed it with black EP.  The coloring was done with plain old water based markers.  The large pocket watch he's holding is also a stamp from that company, and I covered it with Glossy Accents.  I blasted it a bit with my heat gun to make the GA bubble up a little, thinking (hoping) it would make it look more like older glass.

The other clock I added (on the top of the tag) is a Heidi Swapp ghost, and on top of it are some Tim Holtz sprockets and a spinner.

Bird Tag

I spent the better part of the day working on this tag.  It started out as a simple quick project, but you know how that goes....one technique leads to another!

The herringbone background is a Wendy Vecchi stamp, which I embossed with my new favorite embossing powder, Ranger's verdigris from their antiquities line.  I added the crow/grass image on the bottom (from I Brake For Stamps), which was stamped with black pigment ink and embossed with black powder.  After all that embossing, I added some color (the new bundled sage distress ink) with a blending tool.

The bird cage is a Tim Holtz stamp, on a piece of grungeboard, which was then inked with stormy sky and chipped sapphire (also new distress ink colors).   I used a craft knife to open the cage.  What's behind it?  I couldn't take a good picture.  Since the birds are outside the cage, there are some butterflies inside.  Why not?

The bird perched on top of the cage is a Stampin' Up punch, cut from some core'dinations paper (that cool cardstock with one color on the outside and another in the core....get it?  core'dinations).  This one is black on the outside and green inside, and after running it through an embossing folder and lightly sanding it, you get that textured, two-tone look.   I gave my free little birdie a necklace made from one of those resistors I have so many of.

Instead of ribbon, I topped the tag off with a bit of chain.  It's some real cheapo cheesy craft store chain, but I gave it a little bath in black and brown alcohol ink, so it looks a little more high end.  I think.

Don't know how this became such a detailed project, but it kept me busy (and happy) all morning.

The Keys 4 Art

The countdown has begun.....well, actually, I've been counting days for a while now, but since it is less than a week away, I'm really excited.  What am I talking about?  A fantastic loooong weekend in Key Largo with some of the best friends I've never met!

You know from my blog posts that I'm in several collaborative art journal groups, and our ringleader, Elena, lives in Key Largo, has a large home, owns every art supply ever invented, and somehow made  a random remark turn into reality.

A year or so back, when the first journal got underway, and I was so thrilled with the art being done in them, I commented how great it would be if we could actually get together and have some quality art time as a group.  Sounded like a nice fantasy, but Elena is a very determined woman, and she is making it happen!  I leave for Florida next Wednesday and don't return until Sunday night.  How cool is that!   Elena has lots planned, and several of us will be sharing techniques.  We also expect that some of our sisters-in-art who cannot be with us physically will join us on Skype!

I've been busy gathering together things to take, mostly art-related, but I will bring some clothes too, and finalizing my plans for what I'll be teaching.   I also made a little commemorative somethin' somethin' for everyone.....all 12 of us!

You can be sure that once I get back I'll have LOTS to share here.  Key Largo, look out!

Oh, and the very impressive logo above,  is courtesy of one of the women who is coming....the very talented and generous Valerie.

Cards and Jewelry and.....

Oops!  Has it really been 5 days since I've posted anything?  I've been trying to reorganize and destash, and that just sucks up all of my time.  Well, maybe not all of it; I have managed to create a thing or two.

On Friday I had my usual wonderful time at the monthly shoebox swap at my friend Heidi's place.  This time there were four of us, and we each brought two projects for everyone else to make.  These are mine:

This little 4x4 wall hanging was totally inspired by one of my new Wendy Vecchi stamp sets.  Just love that little blouse!  It's hanging on a tiny wire hanger (apologies to Joan Crawford, LOL), which is looped over measuring tape which is actually a stamp.  The sentiments are Wendy's, and the pen nibs on the bottom are from a new Tim Holtz set.  The background paper is a Jenni Bowlin mini.

Graphic 45 paper was the impetus behind this greeting card.  Plus, I just had to use one of my new Tim Holtz On The Edge dies for that scallop touch on the side.  

Heidi's two projects involved birds.  OK by me; I love bird images.

We layered two different patterned papers, added a pop of sparkly ribbon, then placed a doily (previously sprayed with glimmer mist) in the corner.  The flower was also sprayed (it started out white), and the bird is a punch, also done with two different papers.

This one was inspired by a steal Heidi found on a recent trip to Pennsylvania.  The bird is from a Martha Stewart set, which she found for UNDER ONE DOLLAR!  In fact, she gifted each of us with a set.  It was stamped on patterned paper and then glitzed up a bit with stickles. The gorgeous frame is a transparency.

Rocker Jen had two awesome cards for us to do as well.

The tiny trees are part of a Stampin' Up set, and we formed the hills with a large oval punch.  Brilliant idea! I love the colors on this one.

Jen's second card started with cardstock that was embossed with dots.  The flowers were punched from patterned paper, grunged up a bit with ink and layered, held together with brads. The stems were just cut free hand, the leafy branches are from a die, and the larger leaves by the bow are actually bird wings,that I think look like leaves.

Pat's projects are gorgeous, though I managed to screw up the first, and not take a great photo of the second. Trust me, both were mega fabulous in person,

This one was shimmery, yummy looking loveliness, but I put the flowers on the wrong side of the folded paper.  The scallop edge was supposed to pop out from the edge.  Oh, who cares?  It's still a delicious looking card.

I really hope you can see the detail on the right side of this black and white beauty.  The black cardstock was embossed, then sprayed with glimmer mist.  Then a sanding block went over top, and removed the layer of mist from the embossed areas.  It feels like flocking!  Another brilliant idea from Pat, and I'm just sorry you can't see it and touch it.

And now for something completely different.  Over at the ArtHaven group, we have a monthly lottery, and the theme this month is water....think ocean, beach, lake, whatever.  When I think of water I think of blues and greens, my favorite colors.  I did a necklace using those colors, and just to reinforce the theme a bit, added a few shell and fish charms.  At the end of April, someone will win it, along with all the other lottery submissions.

Back to my organizing project.  Sigh.......