Card Mobiles

The traditional first year wedding anniversary gift is paper. So, on my first wedding anniversary I went looking for all of the cards we had been given for our wedding that I had put in a box somewhere. I decided to make a paper mobile to give to my husband as a gift for our anniversary. I did google image searches of paper mobiles until I had come up with the perfect solution, taking ideas from here and there. I cut almost all of the cards into cloud like shapes. The cards that were full of writing, I left alone. I tried to cut the cards in a way that kept all the important and meaningful tidbits in tact. Little notes and x's and o's, drawings and the beautiful images on the front of the cards. The result was easy to rest flat in a box as a gift and was lifted up into a beautiful, hanging, turning piece of art to hang in our room, to see and to enjoy all the time.

There are 4 hanging columns of cut-out shapes. They hang from a metal hoop. The cut shapes are held in place by knots in the string.
When my son Desmond was born, again I looked for a way to make a mobile to display all of the sweet cards he had been given. I found some inspiring images again on line. And came up with a mobile constructed from bits of his cards, straw cut into bead-like separators, string, wooden embroidery hoops and tissue paper flowers. It makes me think of candy for some reason. The sweetest solution!

More recently, I made a smaller version for my nephew for his first birthday....

Valentine's Day

  In Martha Stewart's LIVING magazine for February there was a photograph of a collection of beautifully engraved lockets. For some reason it made me want to make a "locket" out of fabric and embroider an "engraving" on it's front. I even thought I would embroider hinges and a clasp of some kind. This is my first attempt at a fabric locket. No hinges or clasp on this one. It seems to be finished as it is. A thin ribbon would be just right for hanging it around your neck.

I want to try this again maybe with different stitches and thinner thread to get even more detail. But I think this one is lovely and would make a sweet Valentine for someone you love. Just like a real locket.

Babengo Club - Take 1

This is the painting that I used for my heading. It's called Babengo Club. I got the images of the people from a book of old photographs of, you guessed it, the Babengo Club. For the background, I used photographs I took one Halloween of houses at night. It is a long painting so I photographed it in halves. I bet there is a better way but this was the best I could do for the moment. I love this painting. It's on a wooden board. The background is painted with waterbased oil paints, which are pretty interesting. The figures are watercolor painted on top of an acrylic water absorbent ground.  I love to paint on wood and I love to paint with watercolor. Imagine my delight in finding a way to combine the two! Huzzah! I painted the letters with enamel because you can get such a fine line. Man, I love painting when it goes well.