Wednesday, November 20, 2013

November Full Moon #7

Hi Peg!
As you know my camera passed away, but I was able to give Lynn H. her 'Little Alter' at our monthly guild meeting.
The November entry is made with wool felt and is a peace sign with teeny flowers surrounding it. National Peace Day and the November full moon coincided on the same day....how serendipitous is that?

Lynn said she'd take a photo and send it to you.

Love Lou

Thanks Lynn Hranac for the photo.

November Full Moon #6

This little Phoenix rising is for Gwen. I love the idea of starting anew, and thought this beautiful bird standing on the key to happiness was perfect for Gwen! I cut the bird out of an old calendar and added flames made from pipe cleaners. The flower button I got from Kathy D years ago and I thought it sort of looked like an Asian stamp.
I hope it brings happiness to it's new home...

Hugs, Beth 

November Full Moon #5


Is “stumped” a new word for uninspired?
 



Or is stumped the way you feel when you think you can “will” inspiration?  Is it stubborn determination that you can MAKE yourself come up with a good idea?  I don’t know.  But I was not taken with any really magical idea or inspiration for this month’s Little Altars spot – for the entire month!

However, I am pretty happy with my result!  I’ve been surrounded by fallen leaves.  I especially like the fallen leaves of the red maples.  At an office building I frequent, there are literally dozens of these trees surrounding the building. Every year I get suckered in by the their colors and take multiple photographs of the leaves.  Whether there are just a few on the ground, or sheets of them, they thrill me!  I also live with two maple trees at my house: a Norway maple and a silver maple.  Leaves, leaves, leaves.

I’ve also been surrounding myself, a little bit, with copper.

Put all that together, and, in the end, I was equally inspired by some leaves that my husband sawed out of copper during a beginning jewelry class we took in the mid-1990’s.  We never finished the class (it was an evening class – yikes – and that didn’t work for us.)  But in  the intervening years, I’m the one who got into copper, and chasing and repousse, etc. Since I’ve so enjoyed David’s leaves on the mantle for all these years, I figured Lynn might appreciate one as well.

This leaf has been patterned with a dried leaf in the rolling mill, sawed, chased, formed by hand, and heat treated.  It’s not sealed, so the colors will change over time.  So that it can be cleaned in the future, if desired (ours never are), it’s removable. Not meant to be worn; the edges are sharp!  It’s a simple inspiration, but I think that sometimes those are the best.

 Nancy

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

November Full Moon #4

For Beth
 As November winds down the year it is a time of rest for the garden and the gardener. I was sneaking up upon a butterfly to photograph and look what I found…






 A wee garden shed with tools and wellies all cleaned up and put away till next the garden chores call.

























 Background Created from Fabric I created with felt, quilting fabrics, sparkle, glitter, chiffon, paint and rubber stamps. Boots decorated with gel pens, tiny bucket and tools wrapped with a leaf vine I created from beads and wire
Cheers Peg

November Full Moon #3



  As soon as the first frost leaves the forest looking as though diamonds have been scattered about a wreath appears on the door of the lucky mushroom house. it's the home of Karl Kringle, second cousin once removed of Kris Kringle and master carver of snowflakes(oops the secret is out.....snowflake prototypes are created by gnome master carvers for Jack Frost)and Karl's are some of the most intricate. If you haven't guessed Christmas is in Karl's blood, he loves everything about the holidays. The stars he carves for the tops of Christmas are delightful all with its own touch of whimsy. If he had his way the holiday season would last year round with an endless supply of steaming hot cocoa and his most favorite cookie, spritz with red sugar sprinkles!
  But alas the season passes, the holiday decorations will be put away only to wait for the most wonderful time of the year to return. And don't be surprised if come spring you see some very famous reindeer grazing in the meadow behind Karl's house or a exhausted elf napping in the hammock.


   Kimberly, I hope you enjoy this wee peek into my imagination and the world of the wee folk. I've added some glitter to the polymer clay I've become friends with again.



  Here's wishing you all a magical, delightful, wonderful holiday season! Full of laughter and cookies!!



Cheers,

Cyn......the tall elf


November Full Moon #2

Hello Ladies,

I was thinking throughout the month about now excited I am for Thanksgiving….we are always in Dallas with my elderly in-laws, 92 & 87.  They are healthy, happy, and love our visits.  We love them too.  So, you would think that I would automatically be thinking about making a Thanksgiving themed altar project.  However, I have the Christmas bug!!!!!  I usually have all of my shopping done before Thanksgiving and this year is no different.  That allows me to really enjoy December and all of the parties, cooking, and visiting that goes on between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

I decided to utilize a cute little angel that I had.  It needed to be painted which was very challenging for me as I am not trained by or related to either Hummel or LLadro!!!!  I know he is a little rustic and sports a very nice tan but what would you expect of a heavenly being?  They are always in the sunshine!  Of course, his wings are iridescent.  I found a beautiful card with dimensional pointsettias and included with the card was a cute little pin which I have included as part of your altar package.  I hope that you like it and that it helps you focus on Christmas and all of the things you have to be Thankful for during this holiday season.


I am thankful for all of you and the opportunity to work together on this amazing project.

Warm Regards and Blessings!!!!

Lynn V


November Full Moon #1

November Altar Project
My November Altar project goes to Nancy!
While working on cleaning out the Bellevue house I found lots of little “treasures”….. or at least I thought they were at some point in time.  Opening containers I found old letters, beads, and others were little bits off stuff.  It made me start to think of time capsules and messages in bottles.  I thought it would be fun to start a project were we all sent a message out in a bottle to see where it ended up – anyone interested??





So my project for this month, simple as it is, was to send Nancy a message in a bottle.  The message is a take-off on a poem that I have always loved called “How to be an Artist”.  I added a few things to the poem and changed it around a little but I still think it is a good message…basically – try something new!  But one of the thoughts was especially appropriate…Take a bath in the moonlight!  So as our full moon for November is upon us…maybe you will be taking a bath in the moonlight tonight!!









A Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!

Kathy

Monday, November 18, 2013

Howling winds and Full Moon Of November

It's a good time to be inside, curled up with a warm blanket and a good book. As I write the rain is falling dancing from bare branch to bare branch. slithering among the fallen leaves and mud.

This is a bittersweet time for me as we come to the end of our Little Altars project. Only one more to go and we have completed each spot in our printer's Drawer that is serving as home for each tiny altar.
 This has been an interesting  and challenging experience. Following the full Moon cycles seem to make the months fly by. But a the same time it was very interesting to see how my inspirations turned up at the different times of each cycle. I loved the freedom of exploring different mediums each month and having to keep things small enough to fit in each different space. As well as consider how well each little altar would travel and then be placed in it's new home once it arrived.
I always likes USPS's Priority mail but after this project I simply adore it. Not only do they provide such sturdy shipping boxes but I could track exactly when each box arrived at no extra charge. (No I do not work @ the post office but there is my shameless promotion today.)

 After all the little Altar offerings for November's Full Moon we will be taking a break during December and finishing our last altar in January.
 Keep checking back as I will be adding more posts for the enitre year as life prevented a few altars from being created until now.
 It is very  fun to receive your comments and inspires each artist to create  more wonder and beauty  as the months progress. I will also be posting completed altar photos for each Artist who participated in the project as well as each piece they created during the project so you can see " the whole Picture"



October Full Moon #11

 October Altar piece for Marilyn
Dearest Marilyn and other members of our Altar group….. I apologize for not getting my piece turned in on time last month but at least it is as it is for the full moon this month!  The move from Bellevue ended up being so much more than we anticipated and it was totally consuming and exhausting but alas it is over!
Knowing that Marilyn was a quilter I had this brainy idea to do a quilt block for her – with real blocks.  The intent was to cover all 6 sides of a cube with different pictures so she would be able to move them around and make different “quilt blocks” with them.  A fun idea!  But the paper would not adhere to the wood blocks and trying to get them all even was a nightmare. I worked on it for a few days, would set it aside, and then work on it again.  I finally decided that covering 4 of the sides was enough to give the idea.  I would like to revisit the idea in the future and perhaps it will give all of you an idea to try a different type of “quilt block”.
Then I had to set out to figure out a way to keep the square of smaller squares in the altar section.  So I came up with a box with a window covering that will open.
I hope you enjoy the idea…and who knows maybe you too will make a contemporary wood quilter’s block!!
Kathy



Monday, November 11, 2013

October Full Moon #10: Gwen's Silly Skeleton Watercolor

Skeletons, skeletons, skeletons!  I love to draw cartoon skeletons doing funny things!!  Are you inspired by day of the dead? By Halloween? And by silly skeletons?  Ooo, ooo, I am!   And that’s just what I ended up making this moon for the Little Alters project. 
Kimberly Kostal is the recipient and I know how much she loves skeletons.  In fact, last moon, she tried to make one for the alter for me, but got stuck. So, I was excited when inspiration began to strike. Little did I know, I’d hit some rough patches that would hold me back and delay my progress.

Below is the quick sketch I did of the skeleton I planned to create.  I thought I'd be making a bah relief (think embossed or carved effect with paper clay on canvas). But, my body and the universe had other plans and my idea totally changed.  Or so I thought.
Do you find that when Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos time comes, you feel like the world has slowed to a near halt?  This year I feel more in tune with the natural world. This means that my life is naturally turning introspective, the same way the earth is quieting for winter, and creating art is not as easy as other times of the year.  

To read the rest of this post and see final photos, please visit Gwen's blog: 

Tuesday, November 05, 2013

October Full Moon #9






This little altar piece goes to Peg, who loves Halloween just like I do! I wanted to include as many things as possible that would say "Spooky". I've been gathering Halloween papers, stickers and trinkets for the last year to make an altered book, so I had lots to chose from! I just wish the space was bigger so I could use more stuff...have a Spooktacular Halloween!!  Beth