friday five round-up

Aimee: Greeting Card

Andrew: Origami USA's Gift to Japanese Visitors, Origami ATCs, and Origami by Children

Kelli: Am I Dancing?

Penny: Inchies!

Wendy: Summer is Here

Dorothy in the land of disfunction

The Wizard of Oz has long been my favorite movie. So it is no surprise that I often think in "Oz" terms. I will make a real bone-head mistake and think "If I only had a brain." I will get totally lost and lament "Where is that yellow brick road when I need it?"

My fascination with all things Oz has also led me to examine some of the finer points of the characters more closely. I have always loved Professor Marvel's term of "care worn" when reffering to Auntie Em's face. What a great term! I'm not wrinkly - I'm care worn!

Additonally, it occurred to me a while back that Glinda, the Good Witch was quite passive-agressive. Think about it. She antagonizes the Wicked Witch endlessly - she is already majorly peeved at the poor girl when Glinda "reminds" her of the ruby slippers. Then, while she goes to get them, Glinda magically places them on Dorothy's feet and tells her "Tough cookies, sweetie. You can't have them, unless you kill her." Did Dorothy ask for the shoes? NO! Can't she see how scared Dorothy is of the Wicked Witch? So Glinda's response is to make the poor girl wear these damn shoes she didn't want, dooming her to be endlessly chased by the homicidal hag. Her final indignity is to say "Oh by the way, Dorothy, you can't stay in Munchkin land. You know the place where you'd be safe?!!" So off Dorothy must go with a powerful and unstable witch after her. Such nice hospitality. Why does everyone think the chick in pink is so great?!!

Anyway, that is the way my brain works. It is little wonder I made the journal shown above. I mean, shoudn't the kid get something for all the crud she put up with?

Kathleen

Little bit more on Bird House....

My thumbs are sore! I thought that the colored thumb tacks would be a cute finish on the edges. They remind me of m&m's. Still thinking about what to do on the front. I also picked up a cute little bird I want to attach to the little perch.

friday five

People are posting on their personal blogs again, so I'm resurrecting the Friday Five Round-Up. As long as there are posts, there will be this weekly feature.

Amy: Should or Want

Beth: Quilt Surface Design Symposium: Day 1, 2, 3

Kathleen: To blog or not to blog?

Maralena: Watercolour ATCs

Spike: Artist's Statement???

hey now

Ptichka and I have been reading the same procrastination book lately. The whole premise is that people need stretches of time during which they should engage in guilt-free play. It's a lovely idea and I'm working on working more efficiently so that I can do the fun things in life.

So even though I'm still revising as my hard and fast deadline approaches, I've been taking more evenings off to do exciting things like see Ocean's Thirteen, paint the bedroom, go grocery shopping, and hang. Last night, Ptichka and I went to a stitch in bitch. Three people knitted, one just hung out, one drew plans for a cloth book, and two of us (Ptichka and I) cut paper.

Below is a scan of the first ATC I've made in Winnipeg.



acrylics, scrapbooking paper, Indian paper, Japanese paper, gold leafing pen

What is Wendy Into Right Now?

What am I into right now???
Summer art classes for kids ALL AGES.
papier mache.... to tie dye..... to gyotaku (fish printing) and pirate ships, treasure maps, and more!
Here are a few images of my last week of summer art making with kids....

HaPpY sUmMeR!!!! hApPy ArT mAkInG!

Altered Birdhouse Progress - Part Two

Working a little more on the base of my birdhouse. I am going with a game board theme. I am going to add quite a bit more layer wise and of course my embellishments. But per request - here is Step Two.

Altered Birdhouse - Embellished Circus Exchange

I hemmed and hawed for a bit before deciding to go ahead and commit to this project. We are to buy a small bird house and alter it for an exchange. I picked up these two yesterday at JoAnn's Fabrics and painted the roofs this morning. I have a few ideas in mind for this project... but they are in the early stages. Process thus far:

Watercolor ATCs

No Pictures This Week . . .

But 500 words of fiction on Madwoman's Lunchbox, my personal blog.

Blame this one on Li'l Brah, who wrote a great "This I Believe" essay from the point of view of a G.I. Joe villian. This has been brewing in my mind for a while--what if Lovecraft's Great Old Ones really do walk among us, but have the smarts not to scare the sheep?

Heh.

Spike

"Out of the Blue" Mail Art Party Challenge

I feel so lucky! Artist Pattie Mosca invited me to play a fun art game, started by Deb Silva...

Pattie is creating 3 small works of art. She will send one to the person who invited her to play, and one to the two people she invited to join...myself and another artist.
I in turn (as will each player) will create 3 works of art. I will send one back to Pattie, who invited me, and one on to each of the two artists I invited to play along.

Next, they pick two art friends to invite to play; make 3 art pieces, send one to me and one on to each friend with instructions as to the nature of the game.

Did that make any sense? You can read more about it here,on Deb's Blog.

Well here is what I crafted for Pattie; a little funky handbag using papers, pearlex, embossing powders and acrylics, with a finishing flourish of fancy fibers!

vinyl 4x6 postcard

this vinyl postcard is an entry in the Cloth Paper Scissors magazine reader recipe card swap. i'm mailing it in today! this was a really fun project, and if you wanna see the back side of this, just visit my LJ: nicci.livejournal.com.

also there are finished images of my bird book pages, which are also going out today. i am not posting them here in case anyone wants to be surprised when the book is finished! so. many. hours. whew. worked on those suckers for daaaays. (all of my online non-artist-friends have been asking for updates haha).

i am loving seeing everyone else's works in progress on this bird book project here in the journal! xox ~nicci