new cards

gosh ... i'm on a roll. two posts in one day.  wowee.

thought i'd just upload some cards i made yesterday that i'll have available for sale at my future markets. the backgrounds are cropped parts of some mixed media paintings that i've done.

  

amusingly odd find

i am a regular visitor to charity and thrift shops. i love them. i love that when you walk into them you just don't know what you will find.

i usually visit them looking for unusual pieces of furniture and weird stuff i can use in art.  and occasionally, just occasionally i come across the funniest things .... like this book.

well last week i came across some vintage sheet music ... below .... song number 3. what the ........  ?  really.

you mightn't be able to read it but is says "a particularly beautiful ballad".  really?

just googled it an apparently duke ellington and kd lang have sung it.  the kd lang bit makes it even more amusing don't you think?  i am sure it is on youtube somewhere, i must look.

the lyrics are a bit of a hoot ....

Love is like a cigarette
You know you held my heart aglow
Between your finger tips
And just like a cigarette
I never knew the thrill of life until I touched your lips
Then just like a cigarette
Love seemed to fade away and leave behind ashes of regret
Then with a flip of your fingertip
It was easy for you to forget
Oh! Love is like a cigarette 

not sure there is anything more to say really. 

quick & quirky quote no. 6

artwork

had a great afternoon today just playing around with some new artwork.  

really love the colours in both of them.

recycled furniture obsession update

Yay, have finished my latest recycled furniture project and am quite thrilled with the outcome. i had a bit of an obsession with it for awhile (it being painting furniture).  here's a few of the pieces i've painted in the past. 

now, i can't take credit for this idea even though i would REALLY like to. the idea came  from this wonderful woman/artist's blog that I follow, you can see it here. and I think her's looks better than mine.  i think it is the paler coloured papers that she has used, and i kinda wished i'd used paler colours.  anyway am still very happy with my unique piece of furniture. 

this is the ugliness of how the cupboard started out ...

then I  used ESP on it and then painted it a cream colour ....

 cut up a heap of scrapbooking paper and glued them on using Mod Podge Hard Coat ...

 ... and here it is again in all its gloriousness

 and a bit of a close up ...

it really is an easy project, and surprising quick to do.  give it a go.  you'll enjoy the process and the blissful outcome. really.

more more and more paper

as i constantly mention,  i love colour and i love paper.
i recently acquired some wallpaper samples in the most amazing colours and designs.

they are the most fabulous papers that, although i want to use them in artwork, i can't bear to cut them up as they are so special and delicious.  is anyone else like that?

a little aside story .......

before i started selling my own cards i always had a huge stash of cards in an attractive box so i always had an appropriate card to hand for whenever i needed one.  my challenge with having this stash of cards was that when i needed to choose one i would question whether the recipient was worthy of the card.  seriously.  mostly i would say - no - i don't think they are worthy and that divine card would be sent back to the stash.   so, now that i am selling my cards and prints of my designs i get a lot of comments from people saying that they like to keep a stash of special cards so, like me, they always have cards to hand.  well i told a customer one day of my feelings that my recipients were often not worthy, and this person said they were exactly the same in parting with their card stash. yay.  i now mention it alot and guess what ......there are lots of card crazies out there that hate parting with their fantastic cards.  lots. love it.  although not good for business if you sell cards like me is it.


anyway, back to wallpaper ....... here is a selection of some of the samples i obtained from this most fantastic wallpaper outlet.

paper paper and more more paper

this may seem a bit odd to those that love art, craft and colour (as I do), but my first visit to a scrapbooking shop was just a year ago.

when i entered i had such an overwhelming feeling of bliss that i thought was going to hyperventilate.  it was the papers. the designs on the papers.  the colours on the papers. the papers. all i could think of was how long have these shops been around and why didn't i know about them sooner (still don't know the answers) it was a revelation to me.   i had been into paper shops that sold A4 sheets for invitations and those beautiful japanese papers, but never anything with such an array of colour and design.  I now am obsessed and have a stash of hundreds of sheets.

having such beautiful papers also causes a challenge when I go to use some in my art.  i worry that if i use up the sheet and can't replace it then what will i do as i so love every (well almost every) sheet.  i am the same with cards.  i go through my stash of cards in search of the right one for the right person, then ponder as to whether the intended recipient is worthy of the card.  Usually the answer is no, so the card is replaced and my stash of exceptional cards remains intact.  honestly, i can't believe i do that. i really must get over myself.

here are some that i bought recently.  the papers in the last photo below were from a stall at The Olive Tree Market, the lovely stallholder imports beautiful wrapping papers from india.  i don't think she had a card so i can't tell you who she is, but i will ask her for one at the next market and update this post with her details.

just remembered that i also recently bought a heap of wallpaper samples. amazing.  i will get them out and photograph them.  they are too stunning for words, and will cause a huge dilema for me when i go to use them. if i ever use them.