Altered By Me

If you saw my last blog post and didn't pay attention to the title you probably looked at the picture and thought what the heck? Here is the picture again. From this recycled spaghetti sauce jar, some water and a handful of brown and dry oak leaves I got that pretty bundle of naturally dyed fabrics you see above. I don't know about you but that makes me want to jump up and down and yell woo hoo. I do have to restrain myself a lot around the family. They already think I am an odd duck as it is. If you are interested in experimenting with natural dyes yourself I will tell you the simple method that I used. You don't need any special equipment or supplies. You probably have everything you need on hand. One thing I want to point out is that my fabric has been treated with a mordant. I am not going to go into a long explanation about mordanting your dye fabrics today. Here are a couple of links on mordants The Joy of Hand Spinning and Fibercrafts you can read abo...

So I missed wordless Wednesday yesterday. I have been having some computer issues this week. I am not sure if I have the problem fixed or the computer gods are playing a cruel trick on me. After many hours of trying to figure the problem out I started uninstalling some new programs. I'm not sure if that fixed the problem or not but my computer is running at the moment and since I don't want to jinx myself I will move on to another subject. The picture above is what the corner of my kitchen table looks like at the moment. I am working with fabric as you can see. Many moons before I started playing with paper and mixed media I did fabric crafts. I've made quilts and cute little sachets and cute little fabric ornaments. I made whatever I felt like in other words. I have always collected fabric and sewing things.  I have boxes and boxes of lace trims, seam bindings, thread, and sewing notions. Most of the time I can't find half of it because it is put away. So I am wo...

Happy New Year! What goals do you have for this new year? Do you make New Years resolutions? I prefer to set goals for the year instead of falling into the old resolution game. My art goals for 2009 were to get published in a magazine. I am happy to report that I not only had a piece of my art published in a magazine but a piece of my fabric art was published in a book. Here is my 5 x 7 canvas board piece this is in the Winter issue of Somerset Gallery. It is the piece in the upper right hand corner. My other piece is a fabric piece that you can see in the new book Exploring the Latest Trends in Mixed Media Art, Vol 2- Recycled, Reinspired, Reinvented The book is now available here https://createspace.com/3363714 It is also available on Amazon.com  I want to take this time to thank all of my readers. Thank you very much! For those of you who have taken the time to leave a comment thank you. It's great to get feedback. Have a Safe and Happy New Year! S...

  Art work shown by KC Willis   http://www.kcwillis.blogspot.com/ Have you ever seen such beautiful fabric collages in your life? Check out KC Willis's blog for all the info on taking one of her online Workshops. Collage Camp was the first online workshop she offered. I was lucky enough to get in and let me tell you I was not dissapointed. After her Collage Camp workshop there's Mixed Media Mania where you take and use what you learned at Collage Camp in the workshops she teaches Altars and Shrines, Altered Books and Works on Paper.  www.mixedmediamania.ning.com.   Next she came up with her Marketing & Mindset workshop for those of us who are already making art and want to learn how you can take it to the next level and get yourself a regional or national audience http://www.marketingmindset.ning.com/   And now she is offering workshops in her beautiful Victorian studio house in Longmont Colorado. Check out this link KC Willis Studio Retreats

    I would like to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas.  Have a safe and happy holiday!

Occasionally I get a chance to play in the Rangerinklink yahoo group monthly challenge. This month the challenge is to use one of Tim Holtz's techniques from his 12 Days of Tags. If you haven't seen Tim's blog you just don't know what you are missing. Check it out. This years Tag's are coming to a close but there is a link for the 2007 + 2008 tags on his side bar. I made this 4 x 4 piece using Ranger & Paper Imagery Designs products. All of the purple elements and background are from Ranger products. The image, clock transparency and watch elements are from Paper Imagery Designs . It is one of my favorites and is relatively new so if you haven't checked out the website lately go check it out again. There is also some great Christmas images sheets available. To see some artwork made by the Design Team using Paper Imagery Designs images check out the Paper Imagery Designs blog Thanks for stopping by! Arlene