Challenges!

It looks like everyone wants to challenge me!! Linda Has challenged me to show my 'Creating Space', and Cathy has challenged me to tell several things about myself. I WILL do both those things.... But NOT today. ;0)

Today I am answering a different challenge.

A challenge by Wednesdays Stamper to create something that has to do with games, using stamping somewhere on it.

This is my first time participating in one of Wednesdays Stampers Challenges. And this is what I'v created.

Its an ATC. I made this ATC by heat embossing the Image onto a playing card. The Stamped image is by Hampton Art Stamps. Unexpectedly the playing card shrunk under the heat (I guess there must have been some plastic in the playing card). In the space that was created by the card shrinking I strung beads along the top of the card. Its a bit warped and altered looking, but I think its neat.

Mail Art

This is a decorated Mail art envelope that I made for a swap Im in. When I was a teenager I used to make envelopes out of magazine adds, and that was as close to creative envelopes that I got. This is my first real try at Envelope mail art. It was fun, and Im quite pleased with how it turned out. My mother-in-law saw me making it, and imeadiatly recruited me to decorate 20 envelopes for my father-in-laws birthday party invitations. What have I got myself into?!

Bye Bye Artists Block

Wow!! I cant believe its been nearly a month since my last post. Im sure that anyone who used to visit my blog has given up all hope of me ever posting again by now.

Well, here I am to say that my nearly month long artist block is finally over! Now my creative juices are flowing once again, and I could create night and day if I had the time and didnt require sleep.

The picture above is my first set of "inchies". The latest mail art craze to hit my radar. Would you believe that each one of those squares is only 1 inch X 1 inch?! That is an imposibly small size on which to work. But I did it!! I did those inchies for a 9/9 Spring inchie swap that I am in. I think now that Ive actually finished them, the size wasn't too bad at all. You just have to look at your supplies and art from a completely different angle.

I found a great blog by someone who does a lot of inchies. Her blog completely inspired me, and gave me the push I needed to get working on these for the swap I am in. Here is her blog address, check it out if you like: http://www.artjunk.typepad.com/ Im sure you will find it interesting... I know I did!!

Hey, if your still checking my blog give a shout out so I know your here.

A bit about Decos

Here is a picture of the cover of one of my decos. This is the deco that I mentioned was being displayed this week on the home page of one of the Yahoo! deco groups that I belong to. The theme for this deco is 'Vintage Automobiles' This deco has been floating around in the art community for a few months now. I have no idea how long it will take for this deco to be completed and come home to me, or even if it ever will. Hopefully one day it will come home full of wonderful art. It will be so neat to see how it turned out!

So, finally, as promised, here is a bit of an explanation of what decos are:

-A deco is a bit like a circle journal, small art book, or as some call them 'friendship books'

-Topics for Decos usually focus more around art then journalling

-When creating a deco you basically create a small, flat and light book (so that mailing is easy and not too expensive).

-You create the book with a binding method of your choice...(anything from stab binding, to pamphlet binding, to coil bound,jump rings, or just plain ribbon, pretty much the sky is the limit.)

-In your deco you will have several pages for various artists to sign. Decos usually are made of at least 2 pages (which usuallygives 5-6 blank sides giving oportunity for 5-6 artists to work in the deco). You can make your deco with as many pages as you like, But keep in mind, that the deco needs to be light, and that the more pages that it has in it, the longer it will take for the deco to be filled up and returned home to you. I have not often seen a deco with more then 6 pages (14 sides). Most decos I see have room for between 5-9 artists to work in them.

-So, once the deco is made. The creator picks a theme for the deco. Themes can be anything from 'Monkys' to 'Encouragment and Inspiration' or anything else you can imagine. The most popular themes seem to be themes that involve vintage art/photography.

-Once a theme has been chosen, the creator decorates the front page of their deco acordingly.

-Ocassionally the creator will put instructions for how they would like their deco decorated inside the front cover of the deco. Other times the creator will leave the deco without directions, allowing each artist to interpret the theme as they wish.

-Once the creator has decorated the cover of the deco and the first page in the deco. They will put their address on the deco. This can either be on the inside front cover, or on the inside or outside of the back cover of the deco. Putting your address somewhere on thedeco is VERY important so that people know where to send the deco home to after it is full of art.

-Now that the deco is made, decorated and addressed the creating artist will send it to another artist to work in. This next artist may be a friend, a pen pal, someone from a RR, someone from a local Deco swap group, or someone they signed up for a blind swap with on a deco internet group.

-I usually do the later. In which case, when that artist is done working in my deco they will send it on to another artist and so on, so that one day when I recieve my completed deco home it is full of art from a variety of artists from around the world. Some whos art I may be familure with, and others whos art I may not know.

I have been making and working in artistic decos now for a little over a year, and I have already had several completed decos come home to me. My completed decos have turned out beautifully! They are quite a treasure to me!

Today is a GREAT day!

Today Is a FANTASTIC, WONDERFUL, GREAT day!

This morning my preschool age daughter woke up and went downstairs all by herself to practice her letters. Im so proud of her!

Then when I logged in to check my Yahoo groups I had a wonderful surprise. My art work had been chosen and was being displayed on the homepages of not one, but TWO of the deco groups that I belong to!! (I know, I know, I still havn't explained what a deco is.... I will try to post about that this weekend). But really, what an honor to have my art work chosen to be displayed! The scan above is a deco entry that I created for a 'Cowboy' themed art deco. This is the entry of mine that was being displayed at one of the yahoo deco groups I belong to.

And to make today even better, tonight Im hosting a 'Stampin' Up!' party at my home! More fun to be had!

WOW!! What a fantastic day! A day like this only comes along once in a while. So I had better make the most of it. I absolutly MUST take advantage of my 'good luck' and find some time to create something today.

Well, off to clean my house and bake cookies (with my daughter) for the party!

'Swap-a-holic'

Hi, My name is Rebecca and Im a 'Swap-a-holic'.

I know, it sounds absurd, but it's true. I'm addicted to art swaps. Whether it be swapping Art Decos, ATC's or other types of art. I LOVE to swap.

Do I like to create art? Yes

Do I mind trading it away? No

Do I like owning other peoples art? Forsure

But do you want to know the real reason I'm a 'Swapaholic'?

I'm addicted to swapping because I like getting fun mail. Thats right.... no more going to the mailbox day after day to find nothing but bills and advertisments. Now when I go to the mailbox who knows what treasures I may find! Now thats a GREAT reason to check the mail everyday!

Today was a FANTASTIC mail day for me!! I recieved a set of 11 Valentine ATC's from a swap that I had participated in. As well, I recieved ATC's from a couple of artists for some swaps that I am hosting.

And I recieved envelopes full of Decos. Lots and lots of Decos! Whats a Deco you wonder? Well, I will save that explanation for another day. Perhapse tomorow. Afterall, I need to find time to work in them first, so that I have something to post along with the explanation. ;0)

Photo: 'Gorilla' ATC from the 'Natural Africa' Series. By: Rebecca vdW (me).

Artist Trading Cards

Artist Trading Cards are by far one of my favorite things to create.

"What are Artist Trading Cards?" you may ask.

Well, Artist Trading Cards, also known as ATC's are tiney works of art that an artist creates to trade with other artists. The purpose of this is to encourage artists to share tips and techniques and thus learn from one another. And besides that, how cool is it to have your very own miniuture art collection!

There are a few rules when it comes to ATC's. The 2 most important rules are that 1. The ATC's must be 2.5" X 3.5" and that 2. the cards must be sturdy enough to survive mailing, and of reasonable thickness. Aside from these two rules, pretty much anything goes. I have seen ATC's that have been created with all sorts of themes and techniques ranging from painting or drawing to sewing and needlepoint right through to paper piecing and collage. I of course tend to create mine mainly using papercraft techniques. Most ATC's are also given a title and have been signed and dated by the artist who created them.

I got into ATC's about a year and a half ago, and I have collected over 200 ATC's since then. I really do love them. I love everything about ATC's from making them, to collecting them and meeting new artists along the way.

The picture at the begining of this post shows the most recent ATC I have made. It is called 'Stand Guard Over My Heart'. Its from a series called 'Open The Door To My Heart'. You can see in the first image, the door closed, and the second image shows the ATC with the door open. I'm very pleased with how this ATC turned out. I think that next year I will make all my Valentines ATC's!

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

Here are some pages that I made for a swap that I am in. The swap is for 4 Gothic Arch pages. The term 'Gothic Arch' refers to the shape of the page.

I am very pleased with how these turned out. I made the backgrounds myself by stamping and heat embossing with clear embossing powder, then spraying walnut ink over the pages, and finally ironing them to remove the embossing powder, and flatten each page.

After putting the vintage photos and embellishments on each page, I asked my husband for his opinion. I felt one of the pages needed something, and I wanted to know if he felt the same way. So I asked him which page he thought was a little lacking. Well, it turned out that the page he thought was lacking was my favorite page, and the one that I thought was lacking was his favorite page! I guess that it just goes to show that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So I ended up leaving all 4 pages just as they were.

Lets Begin Now

Here it is... the begining of my blog.

My husband asked why would I want a blog. Three reasons came to my mind.
1. To express myself.
2. To keep in touch with those I care about.
3. To share my art with others.

The first and the third reason, are infact how I came up with the title for my blog.... Artistic Expressions.

Lets Begin Now.