BIRDS!

Sunday was the first really warm and nice day in my area. After a blustery Saturday, in brought relief from the wind and lots of warm sunshine. Activity picked up in the neighborhood with people washing cars on their driveways, kids riding bikes, and the first sounds of the lawnmowers.

We decided to celebrate the day by celebrating nature. With our toddler in tow, we took a leisurely walk around the Cherry River Fishing Access area, near Bozeman, Montana. The area is flat and full of ponds, forming natural wetlands. Some birds, mostly mallard ducks, stayed there over winter, but with the ponds covered in ice there was little activity.

What a difference do 2 weeks make! With snow and ice gone, first green shoots add their juicy color to the browns and grays of early thaw. And the air is full of twitter and flutter! It’s courtship time for most birds. And birds we did see!

Being European, I can’t always recognize individual local species right away. It’s good I had the help of the Audubon field guide. Waterfowl included at least 2 kinds of ducks, Canada geese, and even a few pelicans. The reeds were full of red-winged blackbirds: I counted at east 4 pairs! The males have pitch back coats and distinct red patches on their shoulders: they were an inspiration for one of my mirrors. The females are brownish and unassuming. One pair of yellow headed blackbirds were the only competition to the noise the red-winged ones made.

Our son behaved like an experienced naturalist: he didn’t yell or run around. When he wanted to approach a bird, he crept slowly, stopping, even crouching to appear small. He managed to get within a few steps of a robin. We didn’t teach him that. Can it be instinctive?

I just downloaded the pictures I took. I know they are not top notch, taken in maximum zoom, but they’re mine. Hope you enjoy them with me. View them in the slideshow on the right.

never too many TREASURIES

They are fun to make and even more fun to be featured in!

I made a treasury featuring circles and rounds by my fellow METSY team members.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=41009

And here's the screenshot:

I am featured in these two treasuries.

The first one, by TinyArt features a beautiful orange glow with delicious brown undertones. My "Chocolates and Lemon Meringue" frame is included in the center. Here's the link and the screenshot:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=41132

I love the treasury by ForeverClassique, with all it's fresh forest greens and fairytale reds. Gorgeous colors and lovely items! My Ladybugs frame is proud of its company. Take a look:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=8131

I caught the ACEO bug!

I have been making my collage frames for a while, and browsing through ETSy encouraged me to try making ACEOs or ATCs (these are original cards, not print). The small size allows only so much room, and I love mini art forms! These two were a lot of fun to make.

I was browsing through my photo collection and found a lot of art-worthy photos from my 2005 vacation in Poland. The all-wood log home photographed in the mountainous Tatra area has the most beautiful little Madonna shrine on the wall. The hollyhock, an ultimate rural garden flower, came from a different photo. They made the basis for the RUSTIC card.

Don't you love having your tea in peace and quiet? I had a scrap of the blue polka dot paper left from making my baby boy nursery frame. It made a perfect background to this tea-inspired and woman-empowering card. Her look seems to be saying: don't bug me! You're not good enough! The two guys climbing the ladder can be shaken off like pesky flies.

I have a ton of ideas for more ACEOs in my own style. Keep checking out this blog and my ETSY shop for more!

METSY color challenge WIP

Mixed Media ETSY Team (METSY)'s first challenge since the team's setup about a month ago is a spring-themed color challenge utilizing a palette of pinkish purples and greens. The palette was approved on March 31st, and on April 1st I performed my ritual of turning the pages of all 3 calendars in the house to the next month.

My favorite calendar, featuring botanical prints, is hanging right next to my computer desk and I can't help smiling when looking at it. When I turned the page the newly approved palette was right in front of me, in the form of a gorgeous, rich illustration of a lilac in full bloom, with lifelike dew drops hanging on to the leaves. Perfect!

I laid out my materials. I try to use whatever supplies I already have in the house, and the beveled wood plaque had been primed a long time ago, just waiting for the right project. The paper in 4 shades of green was part of my considerable stash, too. The straight lines on the paper gave me another idea: I though of a Roman Temple of Flora, with its columns shooting for the sky like blades of grass. It's spring and plants in my area are just starting to set out those few vertical shoots, up to sunlight. I thought of depicting this verticality.

When I cut the lilac print into strips and laid them out on the green paper, another element of the work became apparent: the single, lighter green horizontal stripe dissecting the background tricks the eye to see it prolonged on the lilac print.

With everything planned and assembled, the actual gluing and painting are more of a crafting than an artistic process. I love combining them. Superior craftsmanship is to me a part of the soul of each piece I make.

Welcome, Spring, with its Geometry in Nature.

good things come in twos

Getting into Treasury West was no problem: it was down the entire weekend and I was lucky to read an announcement that's it was back up early enough to find only 82 treasuries there.

I have ideas and links to items stored in Favorites and the BLUE ROSES theme has been on my mind for a while. It's a popular and classic motif, and yet artists have such different renditions of it. Take a look at the treasury while it's still up:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=7161

The other one is my true baby. I was stalking the main treasury for a while as the numbers were going down. I managed to click everything right and at the right time, then "create" and.... nothing! It took me to the list of all treasuries that was already up to more than 500. I was so disappointed! I left the computer and went to bathe my son, steaming mad (me, not the kid). After an hour, when he was already in bed, I checked on ETSY forums and somebody was describing a story identical to my treasury pursuit. Then, another Etsian mentioned: Go check it out; I had it happen to me and I had no idea my treasury did go through. It was sitting empty for an hour. Following the advice, I checked Treasury and there it was, sitting empty all that time! As another Etsian sarcastically said: What an emotional rollercoaster. :)

I chose my favorite medieval theme and managed to find gorgeous and fitting work. Take a look at the Tudor bobby pins by wychbury and how they visually match The Queen's Garden by MerryMusings. I included the Byzantine necklace by Kotomi who is a fellow fan of all things Medieval, and a rosette pillow by BeritNewYork.

Take a look, click, comment, ENJOY:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=39382

crafts from Poland

Having the advantage of knowing the language, I learned a lot from Polish crafters, especially the users of this forum: http://fotoforum.gazeta.pl/71,1,1111.html

Today I'm featuring 4 crafters whose main interest is paper; mainly decoupage and scrapbooking.

The knife and fork earrings were made by ka2m in decoupage technique. What a simple, creative idea! Great for an avid cook or a connoisseur of cuisines.

jucca1313, the author of the vintage car wood "piggybank" is known on the forum for her delicate designs, including fitting text fragments in every piece, and gorgeous blending (painting around the decoupaged image to blend it with the background).

waga30 made the narcissus box. She's a painter: the sky and grass background of the design as well as portions of the floral motif are done in acrylic paint while some of the flowers are decoupaged.

lady_finnabar is a fine scrapbooker. Featured is her multifold album in red.

Visit the forum to view the work of other artists and explore the differences between your local and Polish aesthetic and trends in crafts.

The forum is in Polish but click on photos or thread titles: each thread contains more than one photo, including closeups. Enjoy! Here's the link again:

http://fotoforum.gazeta.pl/71,1,1111.html

mini facelift on my shop

It's bright an sunny; it snowed last night and the light is perfect for taking pictures. So I thought I'd use my son's nap time to do some revamping. First, some of my photos seemed too dull and no amount of Photoshoping could help them (Photoshopping???). Then, I figured, some buyers may need to see what my frames could be used for. Kind of like selling a house: it shows much better with furniture still in it, since buyers can visualize their own stuff there. So I gave a few items a visual facelift.

Introducing, just relisted, revamped, my famous BLUE ROSES frame!!! :D

Birds in my backyard!

Well, not literally in mine, but the red winged blackbird is a local bird. And spring is here, finally! I sowed some wildflowers yesterday on half of the flowerbed. The other half, that gets more shade, is still covered with snow a bit. But it's April and high time for some color outside. Can't wait for the emerging seedlings!

The mirror is decoupaged. I included a peekaboo surprise! You'd have to look in the mirror, though :)

My first treasury!

A treasury of tiny little precious things by Mixed Media Etsy Team (METSY):
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=6208

SOLD!

And my happy frame below just sold! Thank you collagecreations, my fellow Metsy member! View her shop here:
http://collagecreations.etsy.com

Feeling Happy

I just posted this frame: a happy frame.

So I did blog today!

Prompted by an ETSY forum thread, here I am! Just commented on some other people's posts, and found great stuff! What a fun way to discover!
Here are some blogs I'd like to return to:
http://papercloth.blogspot.com/
http://akeepersjackpot.blogspot.com/
http://purseonalitybags.blogspot.com/

So I found Durwin Rice only yesterday...

Heard about him before, visited his main page, but here's his blog with YouTube clips of his techniques. I looked at the one where he puts a napkin on a wicker surface. Hmmm, I know you have to be speedy on TV but to me the result would be a mess. The technique works, though. And no, NO wrinkles on the napkin allowed for me.
Here's the blog:
http://newdecoupage.blogspot.com/

A New Thing

It was frames so far. How about a leash hanger?