Giveaway on Monday!

I have decided on a "giveaway" and will tell you about it on Monday! The art community has been so generous to me, it is time to give back. Check back for the details. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Vintage 1929 Sun Bather with Hat

Yesterday, I told you about a project I had started. Well, here it is. I was inspired by an old photo of a lovely model from 1929, with a very large hat. It was such fun to work on. I sketched an outline of the photo and scanned it into my computer. I adjusted the size in Photoshop and lightened the lines quite an bit. It was then printed onto computer printer fabric and fused to the background. The ticking stripe reminded me of a cabana and I had some left over from Isabella's doll bed mattress. It was the first time I had tried this method and it gave me a very nice "underpainting" to work from. I sandwiched the top with thin cotton batting and more ticking for the back. It was small enough to just pin instead of baste, and I stitched all together around the fused portion several times with heavy black thread. Now I was ready to do the same for a horizon line. Finally, I free motion stitched around the under painted lines. The painting was done with watercolor pencils and watered down acrylics. I heat set it with an iron when it was dry. I used a black micron pen, which is permanent for face details. The hat was crocheted using some hand spun linen/flax I picked up on Ebay a while back. It was tacked in place. I love the dimension the hat adds. The piece was trimmed and bound with a purchased bias tape, again I just happened to have the red in my stash. To hang it, I sewed an ironed flat piece of bias tape across the top back. I slipped in some doweling and added a simple crocheted chain from the linen. Done.

The back door is stylin' now. Welcome summer, bring it on!
P.S. Don't you love it when that "middle of the night idea",  actually turns out the way you wanted it to?

A Summer Welcome

Hi, I am just popping in to say I will share my new project soon. I was inspired by this picture of Dorothy Sebastian and one of my Mom taken in 1962. Please don't ask me to explain how I get these things into my head. I just know that when I do...I must create?

Whacko.

My back door entrance needed a little love. The new door has been awaiting paint for quite a while now. Does anyone one else just need to be in the mood to paint? The door is a nice satin black, inside and out. I also painted the door jams and molding on the garage side black as well. It draws the eye to the entrance and not the recycling, bicycle, sports equipment, worktable mess. Sort of.

In my opinion it needed a piece of art, too. Since it is almost summer, the pool is open...and we use this door most of the time, I thought a bathing beauty, circa 1929 done in quilting, free motion stitch, paint and crochet would be a pretty welcome. Have I piqued your interest? I promise to post a picture tomorrow of the finished piece! I'll try and dig up that picture of my "hot" Mom at the beach also! Sweet dreams...

Mr B.'s new toy!

My husband's birthday was a couple of days ago and among his "loot" was a new Flip Video Camera. This camera is amazing. It is the high definition version and it will shoot about sixty minutes of video and it is really small. It has a built-in flip out dongle (the little doohicky thing that you plug into the fire wire slot) to instantly download, the battery recharges as you do and it will fit onto a tripod just like our NikonD80. Apparently, this is a pretty "hot" item. You can check out this site for all the other techno geek stuff. I just think it is very cool and very small, you can take it anywhere. I hope he lets me borrow it for future live action tutorials! (Now you are in for it!)

If you decide to get a Flip camera, make one of these...just in case you have some great action to shoot and do not have a tripod with you. Heck, make one for everyone you know who likes to take photos. I always feel awkward and shy about bringing a tripod with me. Yet, it is so important for good photos, and video. This little gizmo (another high tech term) is brilliant. 

$1 Image Stabilizer For Any Camera - Lose The Tripod - Watch more funny videos here

New Light Box

Yesterday Mr. B. made a light box for me! We used this tutorial from Drawings in Motion.  I still have to work out a few things, but this box makes a great difference. In under an hour I was photographing. This is a very inexpensive project with great results. Visit Amy's site for lots of inspiration! The Mother's Day card from yesterday was one of my first attempts...just couldn't resist playing with the Photoshop filters. The best part is when you are finished for the day it comes apart easily to be stored, brilliant!

Happy Mother's Day