Welcome to the Neighborhood!

Here are three new houses to add to my growing collection! I started them all yesterday during our Creative Spirits group meeting, and then finished them today. They are so much fun, and I really enjoy making the roofs most of all.
This roof is made of some metal poetry tags I've had for many years. I think they look a bit like shingles. I was going to nail them, but the gel medium seemed to hold them well, so I just glued them. The wooden structure has lots of nice texture to it naturally. (See next post to view the rest of them.)

Individual Houses

This little house reminds me of a fairy house, with its arched door. The door is copper, with a button doorknob. I used an insulated staple (whatever THAT is!) to attach a paper charm. When I painted it, I wrote words into it.
This is my favorite roof so far, with the dangly charms hanging off the texturized copper.
The door is a mini canvas, with a nail doorknob and a charm hanging from it. The window is a piece of acetate that had various alcohol inks sprayed on. I decoupaged the wood structure with actual house plans.
The roof on this one is an antique ruler, cut in half. The "doorknob" is a drawer pull that didn't work out for its original purpose.

When I painted this, I etched in words. I made the book before, and it has a Home theme to it. The heart is cut out of felt, which is a new texture for me, and I love it.

I've really enjoyed working on these houses, but I think it's time to return to some canvases or boards now.

Inside Book

Here's the mini book. I have a ton of these little gems. I got them several years ago at a garage sale; they were all in a box, and each book was devoted to a letter of the alphabet, or a number. So they're cute, made out of that thick boardbook stuff, small, and only a few pages.
This one's a little out of focus, but I used clipart from ArtChix that has birdies on it, and glued each to a textured background, and then glued that in the book. The pages were gessoed and then I used a variety of fluid acrylics with small dabs of texture (from the gesso).
Now that I know a little more about color theory, I'm a bit bolder with contrasting colors.
I'm in love with this color: it's Golden Fluid Acrylic Vat Orange (which is really bold and bright), mixed with white. The result is this creamy coral color. Mmmmmm. Next to a little hot pink, it's delicious.
And here's the last page, with my holes punched out, ready for the charms. I was actually able to use a scrapbooking punch tool (by Making Memories) to punch these holes. It took 3-4 punches for each hole, but it worked! I've had that tool for a long time, and never really used it before. Now I have all kinds of ideas for it.

Completed Project: Peace/Hope/Love

The bookhouse is now complete (I THINK!). I'm trying to decide whether to paint the wood blocks or not.....feedback? I kinda like the rough look. But does it integrate with the whole piece? Anyway, here are the dangly charms hanging from the last page of the book: peace, hope, love. That's what it's all about.

The mini book is so little, I couldn't put much in it. Maybe that's a good thing. I'll follow up with photos of the book itself. I'm very happy with this piece. It's kind of like exploring assemblage, which I've always been interested in, and combining it with my love of books.

Book House

Here's my latest project. We are going to be working on these house shapes this Sunday in our Creative Spirits group. I had my hubby cut two more of these shapes for me so I could play before then. Here I've used MaryBeth's stencil to give some stone-like texture to the front, and painted with a wash that I mixed from Hansa Yellow Medium and Black.
As I was rummaging around my studio, looking for ideas for the roof, I rediscovered some cloth beads I had made years ago. They looked very neat as a roof, but I didn't have enough left for the entire roof. So guess who was making fabric beads at 9:30 last night?!
I finished the beads this morning with beads, wire, and/or fibers, then glued them on.
I love how much they add to the structure: color, contrast, texture, and whimsy.

And here's my mini-book that will attach to the house. I decided to attach some charms (as a result of the fabric beads' success), to the bottom of the last page, to dangle. So then I decided to elevate the book so the dangles would be more noticeable. So again, hubby helped me out by attaching these wood blocks for me. He just smiles and takes my art into the garage, and then emerges with my idea!

Will publish finished product when it's complete. One thing leads to another is my motto.

a happy day in the studio

Spent the major part of the day in the studio--YES! And completed 4 pieces. This one is a remake of a canvas that hadn't turned out well color-wise (that was BEFORE I took the color theory class). It had some great texture, so I gessoed over it and repainted with a new color palette. I like it much better now.
I don't know WHY Blogger insists on turning my photos! Lean your head to the left, and you'll see this the way it was intended. This is on a canvas board I had on hand, 6 X 8. I used one of MaryBeth Shaw's stencils and her wood icing. I used the same color palette for all these.
This one took on a life of its own. The texture in the corner is from a stencil. I dripped raw umber across it to mimic tree roots. And then I found this photo I had taken years ago that just seemed to fit. When life doesn't seem to be going well, we must trust that our roots are deeper than the current problem, and our lives will regain the needed balance.
Again, turn your head to the left. Another stencil used here with wood icing. For this board, I collaged all over the entire surface before painting. I've never done that before. And I very much liked doing it that way. When all done, I went back and brought back in some of the collage elements by sanding, tracing over, and outlining.

It was a very satisfying day. AND it was wonderful to work in my newly-cleaned studio!

Door County Trip to deliver my art

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