She Art Canvas Finished!!

Well, I finally finished my "She Art" canvas that I started last fall at the Quick Quotes Private Reserve conference. I knew that I wanted to use paper rather than paint as my primary medium because that is what I am most comfortable with. I love to "manipulate" paper....scrunch it, wrinkle it, loosen the fibers with my fingernails or scissors, basically I mold it into the shape I desire. Last Christmas I used some of the Graphic 45 Santa papers and took an image with a large Santa face and played with his beard until it appeared to be 3-D. With my canvas above I played with the large rose and "poofed" it out and sharply defined the edges and then to make sure it remained "fluffed" I put tissue paper behind the rose before I adhered the paper to the canvas. I ripped and roughed up the edges around most of the paper and then inked it so that the dimension would be evident.

 In this photo you can see ridges I created along the bottom and how I also formed accordian style folds on the flower stems. I lucked into finding the Prima flowers in my stash that perfectly matched the paper, I wanted them to appear as if they just "formed" out of the paper.

Since I was a volunteer for Quick Quotes, I did not get to spend a lot of time crafting. One of my jobs was teaching newcomers how to create the paper flower that appears on my girl's head (as her hat.) The flower was actually a part of our nametags. When I was creating my girl, I remembered the nametag and deconstructed it so I could apply it to my canvas. (Yeah, I used something I made at a show!) I love using aged dictionary pages on my altered art projects, so it was an easy choice for my girl. I freehand cut my girl out of the page and was pleasantly surprised when the word 'authentic' appeared in the definition of the word that was on her face. To highlight the word, I "rouged" her cheek. For her hair I just twisted and tied a knot in a piece of black tuille.

The peacock that appears on my girl's skirt was a stamp from Hero Arts. To make the peacock look "drawn on" I took a black Sakura Gel pen and traced over the stamped image. I used another Hero Arts cling text stamp to edge my canvas.  I love the expression, "too cha cha for words," so even though I spent hours researching Pinterest for inspiration, I still ended up going with my original idea

(which is generally the right one!)

I now plan to hang my "She Art" canvas in my travel trailer (that is aptly named: "The Cha Cha Chick!") My 'glamping' club, the Getaway Gals, is meeting in about two weeks for our next adventure at Pilot Knoll Park in Highland Village, TX and I am so excited to have my canvas finished before our trip. We always have a tour day and it is so much fun going through each others trailers and seeing how everyone's personalities are expressed through their "traveling play houses!"

Here is a link to the San Antonio Express News that recently ran a story on our last camping trip

and it has several pictures of our trailers:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/life/travel/article/Get-away-Gals-and-canned-hams-3549988.php#photo-2898813

Tag Swap Group

I absolutely LOVE Character Construction stamps by Catherine Moore and recently got some new ones for my birthday. Sherry & I decided to join a Tag Swap Group with Christy Spencer (Royal Gunque Gypsy) and so for the March swap I used my new stamp (the theme was Spring Fling.) I have intended to post our tags since we started back in February, but ... life got in the way. So, today I try and make up for it!

This is a shot of mine and Sherry's tags for February (the theme was Valentine's Day.) Mine is the one with the red heart. We worked on these tags in OK with Moly in her new & improved studio!

Here is a shot from Christy's blog: royalgunquegypsy.typepad.com of all of the group's tags for February.

This is my April Tag (the theme was flowers.)

And, lastly - my May Tag (the theme was Artist's Choice.) We had a small group participating this month, so I was able to make all of my tags at Christy's National Scrapbook Day Crop Party! I used Wendy Vecchi's stamps...I love those, too!

If anyone is interested in joining our Tag Swap Group, let me know because we have room for more!

Lisa's new stamps - a giveaway!

My friends all know that I love Lisa Pace (I have both of her books) and I enjoy following her fab career. She has a new line of Antiquated Stamps coming out with Pink Persimmon and to celebrate this release they are having a giveaway! Pink Persimmon.typepad.com Take a look and enter to win.

Pop over to Lisa's blog Lisa Pace.com and take a look at some samples that various designers (like Susie, above) have created using the new stamps. You can also order Lisa's books at her site, too.

Mini Trailer

While on our Getaway Gals Event we had a "shoebox float" contest. I used this opportunity to create a mini vintage trailer with my metal art supplies. I pulled scraps from my awning and pennant to create a mini version here. We even made it over a pull toy so it could roll!

 

 

Glamping with my Cha Cha Chick

Last weekend I went camping with my Getaway Gals Club. "Glamping" is a relatively new term that means glamorous camping. Women all over the world have embraced camping, but with a twist....the twist being to glam up their camping abode, whether that be tent or trailer. My friends and I had a wonderful time on the beautiful Guadalupe River in New Braunsfels, TX. Because this trend is so popular, our host, Pam Sinclair, had reporters from both the local paper and the San Antonio paper out to take pictures and interview us for articles. The local paper published the article right away and advertised our charity tour and we had a huge turn out! Over 200 people toured our 40+ trailers and in the process we raised $600 for the Wounded Warriors. One of our sisters published a photo tour on her blog: travelinglongdogs.blogspot.com (Visit mysa.com in about a week to view the article in the San Antonio paper.)