And…?

This blog hasn’t been living up to its name lately, has it?  It’s been lacking a whole lotta everything, particularly in the the artsy department, and I can’t change the name to “Fartsy” because then it becomes a whole different blog altogether.  So let’s bring back the art, shall we?

I’d like to share with you a project I started last November.  It involved a salvaged piece of Gator board (fancy foam core), a little leftover paint, and about 5 jillion clear push pins.  (Actually, it was just under 4,000, but it felt like 5 jillion.)

I watched a documentary called Art & Copy about the world of advertising (it was fascinating!) and during the film, I saw this amazing wall at the agency Wieden + Kennedy, covered in clear pushpins, spelling out “Fail Harder” in fancy script.  It was awesome and I wanted one of my own.

I found this great, big piece of Gator in the trash at work so I took it home and gave it a coat of flat blue paint.  Then I decided on a fancy ampersand as my symbol and sketched it lightly on the board with chalk.  Then I went to every dollar store in the greater Manchester area and bought them out of clear push pins.  I started with 1,000 because I was in denial and didn’t really think I’d need THAT many.  I was trying to complete the project on the cheap so I resisted going to Staples which was almost twice as much as the local Dollar Tree stores, which means that I spent most of November and half of December hunting down cheap, clear pushpins.  I could write a guidebook of all the local Dollar Tree stores (Vernon is good, but the Manchester Parkade store is better) but I finally bought enough and managed to finish my project by Christmas.

Here it is nearly finished.  I thought I had a shot of the final, hanging on the wall but I can’t seem to locate it.  And speaking of hanging on the wall, you know what I didn’t think about?  4,000 pushpins are HEAVY.  Also pointy and sharp where they stick out the back.  Luke is a saint for hanging it up for me.  So anyhow, for a total investment of about $40, several many hours of obsessive pinning, a few bruised fingernails and a touch of carpal tunnel later, I have this awesome, sparkly, one of a kind piece of artwork hanging on my wall.  And…I love it.

What’s New?

Seventeen days from now–exactly to the minute–I will be sitting in the Jet Blue terminal at JFK, waiting to board a plane to St. Martin.  I am over-the-moon excited about this trip and it’s getting annoying for those around me who aren’t also going on this trip.  I’m sorry.  So other than talking about the trip or buying more bikinis (I’m up to six now) and sun dresses (I have, oh, about fourteen) what have I been up to?  Frankly, not much.  But I do have something exciting that I can finally share with you.

Ta-da!  My awesome friend Leeland and her business partner Jen have a brilliant New York city-based business called Northward Hound.  As their website describes,

“Northward Hound offers exclusive weekend excursions to New Hampshire for your four-legged friend.”

Basically, Leeland and Jen will pick up your city dog and bring him/her to the country to frolic on a farm or run on the beach for the weekend.  You pup will come home tired and clean (after a complimentary bath and blow-dry) and delivered right to your door.  How brilliant is that?

So anyhow, Leeland and Jen recently launched a full line of Northward Hound products, many designed and created in New Hampshire (Leeland and Jen’s home state). One of the new items features screenprinted illustrations designed by yours truly.  Leeland approached me over the summer and asked if I would create a logo for their new “Hound Meets World” line (pictured above) as well as a series of activities that would be typical of a Northward Hound adventure.  There is a mountain vista:

A seascape:

A dock jump:

And a ball to chase:

These designs were printed on the front of a new line of hooded sweatshirts so the dog would appear to be leaping after the activity.  It was a fun experience, designing for these wonderful ladies, and I was so excited to see the line complete.  The official launch was the last week in September and unfortunately I wasn’t able to go to New York to celebrate with Leeland and Jen, but I did get to see the pictures.  A peek at the full line of goods can be seen on the Northward Hound Facebook page, right here, and everything will be available for purchase in their online store very soon.  Go check it out.  And once again, congratulations Leeland and Jen!

Now back to daydreaming…seventeen days…

My New Etsy Art

Remember this print? One of the two gorgeous prints I won from the Roosevelvet Etsy shop? I wanted to show it to you in its new natural habitat. I framed it in dark maple and hung it on my new grass green walls and yes, it is hanging in my bathroom, but I heard that it was a compliment to hang someone’s art in the bathroom because of all the time we spend in that particular room. Not me, of course, just the collective “we,” anyhow, moving on…

Look at this new beauty that arrived from Crankbunny’s Etsy shop this week.  You need to go visit this shop right now. I bought her Secret Decoder Card for Cameron for Christmas and was blown away when it arrived by the quality and by how lush it was. It was amazing. I happened to see the Lady Fish Paper Puppet when I was browsing around the shop the other day and knew I had to have her.

I had a couple of lovely shadow box frames hanging around, waiting for the perfect inspiration and the Lady Fish was just what I didn’t realize I was looking for.  First off, it’s just a gorgeous piece of artwork. Second, it’s huge – about 15-inches the way I have her in the frame. And third, she came wrapped in purple ribbons in a box with purple duct tape. Everything was just perfect.

I cut some squares of illustration board to use to prop her up from the background, I positioned her perfectly and glued her in place.  Now she’s hanging next to my front door in place of the $2.50 Salvation Army Bob Dillon painting that Luke hated. A welcome change, I would have to say.

Silhouette Ornaments

I had seen some beautiful silhouette ornaments in early December on someone’s website who linked to someone else’s website…  I really should keep better track.  Either way, those ornaments and the beautiful silhouettes on Nie Nie Dialogues tempted me to finally try making my own.  Only I cheated.  There will be no fussy paper cutting for me.  I’m a trace and paint kind of girl.

I either set up shots like this one (nice hair) to capture everyone’s profiles, or I went through my Flickr stash and tried to find profiles of everyone in the family.  I sized them appropriately to fit on the wooden discs I bought, traced the profile outline from the photos, transferred the outlines to the painted discs, and painted in the shape.  Voila!

I am truly amazed at how each person’s (or dog’s) profile really looks like them and also how incredibly different my sister’s profile is from mine.  Although I think we look alike, we could be strangers based on our profiles.  So interesting!  Can you tell who’s who?

After the paint was dry, I glued that fancy black and white paper to the back side of the discs and hung each ornament from black and white ribbon.  These were a gift for my mom, whose profile shot I didn’t have so I’ll have to add her to next year’s set.  I’m really pleased with how these turned out and I’m thinking of making another set for my Christmas tree.

Tomorrow’s Christmas craft: embroidered iPod cozy

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Coming Soon

Never fail, the Friday after Thanksgiving, my aunt’s Christmas card arrives in the mailbox.  I don’t know how she does it, how she plans ahead and times it perfectly.  This year I was actually prepared and could have possibly gotten my Christmas cards out early, too, but I’ve decided to hang onto them just a little longer.

It’s kind of embarrassing how much I love to look at this year’s Christmas cards.  I drew the designs, scanned them and played with them in Photoshop, then sent them to Moo.com to have them printed.  My favorite is the Christmas cardinal, but I know that not all of my card recipients celebrate Christmas, so I also designed the peace bird (sort of a mockingbird hybrid).  They even look nice in my Christmas tree, that’s not making it any easier to send them off to everyone.

I stopped at the post office this morning to ask about postage, since they’re postcards without envelopes.  Our local mail lady told me that they would just need postcard stamps and here they are: Tropical Fruit.  Really?  Because nothing says Merry Christmas like a star fruit and a papaya.  Oh well.  Hopefully this week I’ll decide it’s time to part with my beloved post cards and they’ll be out in the mail to everyone soon!

Blocks and Dots

I knocked another item off of my to-do list from earlier this summer.  You may remember the floorcloth I painted for my sister last Christmas. When I bought the canvas for that project, I ended up  with enough to make three of the size I made Andrea’s.  I figured that I’d do something with the extra eventually, but I haven’t touched it since last December.  A few weeks ago I decided to stop procrastinating and start working on a welcome mat-sized floorcloth for myself.

Jessica from How About Orange had just announced some new, beautiful fabric designs at the time I was staring at newly bound and primed floorcloth waiting for inspiration to strike.  If you can’t tell, I loved the rectangle and dot pattern of her “Boardwalk” print, so I set out to create my own design inspired by her fabulous fabric.

After painting a couple of these now, I can see why people can charge so much for them.  A quick ebay search had them priced anywhere from $50 to over $800.  I’ve seen small welcome mats in shops for over $100.  If I were to sell this one, which measures about 22″ wide by 46″ long, and charge for my time, I’d have to sell it for a million dollars.

One night I spent several hours measuring, cutting, ironing, and binding it.  The next night I spent about three hours priming it with four coats of paint.  The next night I laid out the design which took another couple of hours.  Then a week of painting every night, six coats of polyurethane, and you’ve got yourself a serious labor of love.

I do love the way it came out, and once Luke will allow himself to actually step on it, I think it’ll make a great welcome mat.  I was considering making a couple more of these small rugs for Christmas presents, I guess I better get a move on.

10 Things On My To-Do List

There must be something about the hot July air that makes everyone less bloggy. There’s been a drought of blog posts all over, and I haven’t been able to come up with a thing to write about since last week. Several other blogs I read have been posting their “Ten Things” lists lately, which I think is a great idea. A perfect way to get out of actually writing something. So here goes, ten things on my to-do list right now:

1. Make this skirt. (I love the disclaimer at the bottom referring to how the time it takes to make the skirt is directly affected by whether you own a Serger, and how sober you are.)

2. Paint one of these for my hallway. (2b. Finish painting my hallway.)

3. Make some pretty clothespins, like these, to hang my purses from the clothesline so I can take photos of them for my shop.

4. Make some of these Scrabble tile pendants. Christmas is coming…

5. Make a lampshade like this one. (I saw a lamp at TJ Maxx last night with this shade on it, and I fell in love, but not totally in love because the lamp was $70 and, wow, that’s a lot for a lamp, no matter how cool.)

6. Make some more large tote bags and small everyday bags for my shop.

7. Buy this book and make everything in it. (This really should be numbers 7-10 since I totally love that bureau, the printed lampshade, and the printed sheets, which is something I’ve been wanting to do with some new, boring sheets I bought.)

8. Find something to do with the giant, 8ft piece of oak laminate I rescued from the dumpster at work, but which has been living in my living room for the past several weeks. Maybe I could make these vases?

9. Paint a funky floor cloth for my living room. It’s about time I made one for myself!

10. Sew some more produce bags. You can never have enough produce bags.

So there it is, my to-do list. Let’s see what I actually accomplish since in addition to not blogging, I’ve also been not sewing, not painting, and not crafting. I have been quite busy lately watching the butterflies, reading magazines on the deck, drinking lemonade, and swimming in the river, but not the productive stuff. Maybe next month…

Chalky

Sometimes I feel like I’m pulling one over on everyone. Like when people pay me to paint them pictures or make them jewelry. They’re paying me real money to do something fun? I kind of feel a little guilty. I especially feel guilty when someone pays me to draw with chalk all day.

For years now, I’ve been the chalkboard lady for Max Downtown in Hartford. Usually I update their wine boards in the bar and their gigantic menu board in the dining room. All of the boards are at least eight feet in the air and the dining room board is about twelve feet long.

Of course I enjoy getting paid to write with chalk, but writing the names of various steaks and wines over the years has gotten a little boring. Yesterday I went to overhaul the big dining room board and was excited when they said they had a new idea to list the names of the local farms they buy their produce and shellfish from, plus “a little drawing” they found that they liked. “Little drawing”… HA! That’s funny.

Ten and a half hours later…

Yes, that would be almost 12 feet long, by five feet high. I was in the restaurant from 10:30 in the morning until 9:00 last night. When I left, my shoulder hurt so bad I could barely reach for my seatbelt when I got to my car, and my hand was so achy, I had to wrap it in ice when I got home. But it was so worth it. It’s hard to make out the details since I took this shot at 9:00 last night, just before I left.

Here’s a close-up of the farmer lady:

And this is what it looked like in the afternoon yesterday:

See that orange thing at the bottom of the picture? That’s my new laser level, excuse me for a minute, I have to go kiss it again. Holy cow, that little thing saved my life yesterday. I used to have to measure and eyeball and go up and down the ladder to make sure it was still straight. Not anymore! What a magnificent tool.

So my hand still hurts, it’s hard to raise my arm over my head, and I don’t know how to wrap up everything I’m trying to say. How about this? Max Downtown reopens tonight at 4pm after their annual summer break. I think you should go and check out the beauty of the boards in person. And have a lemonade, they have the best lemonade. I’m going to go take some more Advil.

DIY Project – Framed Artwork

I recently started to repaint my living room/dining room area.  A few years of woodsmoke had done a number on the walls, and a couple of cracks from the house settling needed to be fixed, so we decided to repaint.  Or rather, we decided that I would repaint.  I started on Sunday and it’s looking great, but as with any other time I take everything off the walls to repaint, I want to buy all new things to hang back on the freshly painted walls.  Rather than buy new artwork, I decided to create some out of cheap stuff I found at the Salvation Army and a little junk mail.

Here’s a piece of art I found at the Salvation Army for $4.99.  It’s square, which I like, and it has a mat.  Two good things.  Also it was only $4.99, three good things.  The picture inside was a bit lame, (although love really IS all we need), and it looked like someone’s dog had been chewing on the frame.  Minor issues.  This frame and mat had a bigger destiny to fulfill.

Here’s a postcard I got in the mail at work.  Isn’t it lovely?  It’s announcing the opening of a show at the Danese Gallery of works by  Julian Stanczak.  We get mail every day from galleries announcing shows and they’re usually put right in the garbage, but this one I liked.  I thought I might be able to make something of it.  Amazingly, I measured the postcard and I measured the opening of the mat I bought at the Salvation Army and they matched perfectly!  The DIY gods were smiling down on me.

So let’s begin turning a trite piece of beat-up art from the thrift store, and a destined-for-the-trash piece of junk mail into a work of art, shall we?

First I had to cut the paper off the back of the frame (and think Happy Thoughts).  Depending on the frame you find, you may or may not have to do this.

Then pry up the staples all around so you can remove the mat and the glass inside.

Sand down the scratches and tooth marks (geeze, my hand looks enormous from this angle).

And then give it a few good coats of spray paint.  I used a white gloss enamel.  I like white frames with white mats.  It looks very clean, I think.

Now at this point, while the paint dries, I should be showing you a photo of me putting the postcard into the mat.  Unfortunately, I’m not very good at this step-by-step thing, and I completely forgot to take pictures.  It turned out that the heart picture was fused with the mat and I couldn’t remove it without ruining the mat.  Disappointing, but not the end of the world.  Instead of attaching the postcard to the back of the mat like I wanted to, I cut he postcard to size and attached it to the front of the heart picture just inside the opening of the mat.  No one will ever know the difference.  Except for you. but you won’t give away my secrets, right?

Next I gave the glass a good scrub, buffed the frame with some steel wool to remove a little of the gloss, (it was a bit too shiny for me), put the matted postcard in and sealed it back up.  And ta-da!  Fancy artwork for $4.99.

And yes, if you noticed, the postcard I framed isn’t the view you saw at the top of this post.  The card was two-sided and I ended up liking this side better.  Maybe I’ll go back to the Salvation Army and get another one of these frames and frame the other side.  Now everyone, go forth and make recycled art!