Paint and Paper Dolls!

I have always loved paper dolls, and dolls in general of course. But their is just something beautiful about paper dolls with their fragile accessories and fold up houses. I am equally in love with Faeries and have decided to combine both of those passions into one, and create some Faerie Paper Dolls. In order to do this well, I have to get into the mood, and to get into the mood I basically started painting. I thought I would begin with some girly girl pitures based on my daughter Molly (who is so NOT a girly girl) But since I wanted the color pallet to include more than black, and I am not adept at gothic style drawing yet, she is currently depicted in pastel laden hues with all the frills....oh, and I am including her dog Karma in many of the art pieces as well. So this first painting is an 8 x 8 acrylic on card stock that has been prepped with gesso. I love gesso. Basically anything can be transformed into the perfect canvas with a simple coat of gesso. I call this "Molly Dolly and Karma"

After this first one a million ideas started pouring thru my mind, my 2nd painting is called "Tea Time" and is primarily in Pink (Which is my favorite color).I am in the process of completing a 3rd one that is yet to be named depicting a princess and a frog ( who is wearing a crown and obviously a prince under a spell) It is a much larger piece and I will have to take a picture of it and upload it since it is too big to scan.

At this very moment I am getting ready to clean up my art supplies and haul the table I have been using out into the yard where we are setting up for tomorrow's yard sale. My mother has decided to embrace a minimalist lifestyle, but only as it pertains to furniture. We are keeping all the other stuff:-)

Felted Purses

Well, I have finally completed a few of my felted purses. My mother got me hooked on a simple pattern and I went crazy crocheting 6 purses and 6 change purses. I have 3 of each completed. It took me a week to crochet all of them, I only crocheted in the evening before bed or early in the morning while watching the news.

Once they were felted I hand stitched each purse into shape, including the lining , zippers and any other embellishments. I am going to put them up for sale at the craft show my Mother is in this weekend and see how they do. If they do well, I think I will make some more to sell in my Etsy store.

The purses are just big enough to fit a lipstick or lip gloss, sunglasses, cell phone and a few more small things (like Debit/Credit cards or cash, small bottle of lotion, lavender mist, sheer neck scarf, some Goody clear bands for your hair.....or whatever else you might want to carry:-). I use mine in place of a wallet when I just want to carry something small and light. They fit neatly on your wrist with the small strap and are comfortable to carry around while shopping allowing you to use both hands to look at items.

Crazy for Crafting!

I am taking a break from Normal life and spending the summer at my Mother's house in South Carolina. The only thing I brought with me was jeep load full of crafting supplies, 2 duffel bags of clothes, 2 small dogs and 1 cat. Since my arrival my Mother and I have been digging into each other's craft supplies and going nuts with ideas.

My latest project was using my mothers Rollabind to make myself a binder which I will fill up with my artwork, ideas, articles and any old scrap of paper, note, or information that I find useful or inspiring. I also made 3 tabbed dividers and an expandable file folder to help organize the items I will be putting inside the binder. I will post additional pictures of the internal elements later.

For now I am returning to the crafting table. After seeing the finished project, my Mother has asked me to make her a new binder as well.