An Artsy Paper Doll

I'm in an art paper doll swap over at Flickr in the MAD MAMMA group. They are a crazy bunch of fun gals! I was inspired by vintage Pierrot photos and postcards over at Debra's website, Hop Hop Jingle Boo. Her name is Bebe Paisley Pierrot. She is a departure from the classic Pierrot as she doesn't have the big ruffled collar and a more stylish frock and hat!

This is the art tag that goes with the doll.........

To me clowns are creepy but Pierrots are kind of cute. Here is the story of the Pierrot:
Pierrot is a character of mine and Commedia dell'Arte, a French variant of the Italian Pedrolino. His character is that of the sad clown, pining for love of Columbine, who inevitably breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. He is usually depicted wearing a loose, white tunic. The noticeable feature of Pierrot's behaviour is his naïveté, he is seen as a fool, always the butt of pranks, yet nonetheless trusting. Pierrot is also portrayed as moonstruck, distant and oblivious to reality.

She's a tall drink of water, about 14 inches high.........

Blue Skies, Cold Temp and Chocolate Covered Strawberries....

I have but one word for you today.............. "BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Today Gary and I took advantage of the bright sunshine and took a ride to Pymatuning Lake. I was a cold (30 degrees) but the sunny made it so much more tolerable. I think there is a simple, desolate beauty to a large body of frozen water. What looks to be a gray trail in the ice is really a pattern in the ice. This where the channel is and it melted and then refroze causing what looks to be like a trail.

The bottom part of this picture is where the ice melted, the wind blew the chunks of it toward the shore then they refroze causing it to be bumpy. In the sunlight it sparkled like a million diamonds but you can't see it in the photo.

Here's my honey in front of a little house by the dam wall. It was built in the 1930s as part of the WPA Project. Maybe that's what we need again. There is a very long stone wall that's amazing. Gary's grandfather worked on it. He said that if you were Italian then they made you cut stone even if you had never cut stone before in your life!

Hmmmm......what could be behind this door?????

This is the "Spillway" at Linesville. In the summertime there are huge carp fish that people feed. There are so many that the ducks walk on the backs of the fish. Today they must have been way under the water trying to stay warm and conserve energy!

I thought this was a cool picture of the frozen froth at the spillway.

Gary looks cold..........

So we came home and I made white chicken chili and chipotle cornbread and chocolate covered frozen strawberries for an afterdinner treat!

I hope you had a good Saturday!

Mini Valentine Journal and WIP.....

Well, in the first and second day of the new year I've been creating and cleaning.....actually I cleaned first because my studio was so cluttered that I couldn't find anything! After I cleaned I made this small Valentine Journal. The inside pages have small stamped Valentine and Paris images. There are 16 pages and 3 mini envelopes. It's in the Very Vintage Valentines Shop right now.

Now on to WIPs (Works in Progress). No this is not a butt! Ha! It's the beginning of a Valentine man sculpture.

This is another Valentine man I'm working on. I still have to do the body but you can see his legs beside him.....he's going to be tall!

Now for the before and after pictures of the studio. Pretty messy, eh?

Ah, much better! How long do you think it will stay clean?

I even got the top of my paper cabinet cleaned! Gary made me it last summer and I love it! This summer he's going to make another smaller bank of cabinets to set on top of it.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year to all of my friends out there in Blogland! Thanks to all of you who have stopped by my blog this year and left your wonderful comments. I really have appreciated each and every one of them! I've also enjoyed visiting your blogs!

My 9 wishes for you this year:
1. Good joint health......you never know how important your knees, hips, shoulders and elbows are until you have trouble with them! Treat them well!

2. At least 10 minutes a day to enjoy nature and think about what makes it so great or who created it's greatness.

3. Free time to do things that are free (remember, some good things in life really are free).

4. Close family.

5. Good friends to laugh with.

6. A short memory to forget all the rat bastards who did you wrong (life is too short to dwell on the "rat bastards" of this world.....don't try to understand their motives.....you never will and that's why they are "rat bastards").

7. Moderation in everything......eating, exercising, spending....you get the picture.

8. Patience and tolerance.

9. Finding a new thing that you really like to do that you've never done before.

Hey, how about those resolutions?!?!?!?!?!?

Here are mine in no particular order and I'm not actually calling them "resolutions" but rather "things I'd like to do this year".

This year I'd like to learn either how to play the piano or sit on a piano. I'm thinking the latter will be a better bet than the former because I have excellent ballance!

I'd like to remember to wear a hat out on the boat this summer to protect me from sun damage.......maybe not this hat........it might freak out the people in the water!I'm thinking more like this cool Australian Bush hat. I think I wouldn't look quite as ridiculous in this hat as the shark hat (I'd hope!).

Oh yah! How about that exercise thing???? You know everybody makes that commitment to exercise more in 2009 including me. I joined the gym 3 days ago and could barely raise my right arm this morning to brush my teeth or pick up a glass to drink out of because my muscles hurt! I think I need to buy a box of straws and Crest White Strips until I strengthen my noodle arms.
I'd like to do something kind of daring in 2009.......... not swallowing knives, I'm kind of attached to my uvula......but something daring. I'll have to think about this one. Any suggestions?(no knives, needles or any other sharp objects, please).

I'm going to try to have 3 pieces of my art published in magazines this year.

I'd like to go for a ride on a train in 2009, I've never been on a train. I've always thought there is something terribly romantic about train travel. I hope it doesn't make me motion sick and I barf....that's not romantic!

Lastly, I'd love to go Marlin fishing in Florida. This most likely won't happen but it's nice to dream!Well, it's now 12:05, I've watched 'the Ball' drop on T.V., kissed my wonderful husband and now I'm off to get some shut eye! Do you have any resolutions for 2009? If so leave a comment, I'd love to know what others are planning to do in 2009!

New Valentine Shop......Very Vintage Valentines!

It's never to early to start thinking about Valentine's Day! It's just 46 days away!

I've started a new Valentine shop called Very Vintage Valentines. Here you will find a variety of vintage inspired Valentine art, handmade journals of all sizes and jewelry. Check in often as I will be adding goodies on a daily basis.

Here's a sneak peek........ to see more pop on over to Very Vintage Valentines!

Happy Birthday Jim and Melissa!

Happy Birthday to my Dad and Happy Birthday to me too! He's 78 years young and I'm 42 years young! I've decided that after the age of 40, you no longer say "old"..... instead you say "young"! After all, age is just a number and more of a state of mind. I had a great birthday!!! Gary suprised me with a beautiful jacket and and took me out for lunch and dinner. I suprised Dad and Mom with chocolate creme pie tonight complete with a birthday candle!

Here's my Dad from this summer doing what he loves to do best..........work on and run heavy equipment. This is a little bulldozer he uses on the farm. My dad is 78 years young and still goes to work at the gravel plant every day. He loves what he does!

Since I was born on my dad's birthday he always says, "She was the best birthday present I ever got, but certainly has been the most expensive!" LOL! My mom said that December 29, 1966 was a very icy night and Dad fell 3 times trying to make it around the car to open the door to get her in to got to the hospital. When they got there and he took off his winter coat he had on a stripped shirt, plaid pants and 2 different colored socks! The funny part was that my mom had his clothes all layed out for him in case they had to got to the hospital in the middle of the night but he was so nervous and forget about them and just grabbed whatever he could find to wear. I bet he was a sight to see!

The End of the ATC Adventure

Well, I've come to the end of my year long adventure of creating an Artist Trading Card a Day for the entire year of 2008. An Artist Trading Card is a small work of art always measuring 2.5 by 3.5 inches and can be created with just about any type of medium. I just posted the last 5 ATCs ahead of time on Flickr. As I look back at all 365 ATCs, I reminisced about what was happening in my life on the day that I made specific ATCs.

The first ATC I made on January 1, 2008

The last ATC......December 31, 2008

This year wasn't all that hot for me, I had a lot of stress which caused some health problems however creating my ATC and gave me something to focus on and brought me through some tough times. Art is like that, it's therapeutic it's cathartic and it's healing. I've often said about creating art....."when I'm sad I create art and it makes me feel happy and when I'm happy and create art it makes me feel even better". Art has always been there for me whether it's using a stick to draw a picture in the sand or creating a mixed media project with 6 different meduims. There is a quote from aritst Hans Hoffman, which to me sums it all up, "A work of art is a world in itself reflecting senses and emotions of the artist's world." I look back at the 365 ATCs and I can tell you what was happening in my world when I was creating each and every one of them.

Ok, enough serious stuff! Now you ask what does it take to create 365 ATCs? Here are some statistics:
3193.75 square inches of cardstock for the backing, which is 266.145 square feet of cardstock

4 medium sized jars of Liquitex Gel Medium

3 paint brushes to apply the glue

1 computer printer cartridge

$85 (estimated) in stamps to mail the ATCs all over the world

2 nail brushes (to get the dried gel meduim off my fingers)

Interesting people I've met, traded with and even became friends with...... priceless!

If you'd like to see all 365 Artist Trading Cards click here! I still have many available and if you see one you like, email me with the date and title of it and I'll send it to you if it hasn't been mailed off already. It was great fun and I'm happy I stuck to it. Hmmmmm, I'm wondering what I should do for 2009?!?!? Any suggestions?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my blogland friends! Wishing you and yours a wonderful day full of family, friends, food, fun and love!

Elf!

Oh boy! Oh boy! I just turned on the T.V. and guess what's on???? That's right......Elf! It's become one of my favorite Christmas shows. Will Farrel is hilarious! I crack up when he goes up the escalator for the first time. Time to make a cup of hot chocolate and watch it!

When I was little I was obsessed with elves, especially their shoes. I wanted a pair of the curly toed shoes. My mom and aunt would hunt year after year for a pair of them but to no avail, I never got a pair. :-( I still would like a pair of them and I still have an obsession for shoes.....all kinds of shoes! Speaking of elves......here's an elf ornament I made with a copy of a vintage photo from around 1920. It's made on a piece of foam core board and measures 3 inches by 3 inches.

Still on the elf theme........here is a chair cover I made a few years ago from a piece of red wool and green felt, pom-poms and snowflake sequins. The top of the elf boot is open so you can tuck a piece of greenery or maybe even a few candy canes in it.

Check out this adorable elf cookie! Recipe below.......Ingredients:
1/2 tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough, softened
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, divided
3 tablespoons milk, divided
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract, divided
6 drops red food coloring, divided
140 milk chocolate M&M's (about 2/3 cup)
56 almond slices (about 4 teaspoons)
56 brown M&M's miniature baking bits (about 1 tablespoon)
28 red M&M's miniature baking bits (about 1-1/2 teaspoons)

Directions: In a small bowl, beat cookie dough and flour until combined. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 1-3/4-in. x 3-1/4-in. diamond cookie cutter. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 7-9 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

For one batch of glaze, in a small bowl, combine 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, 4-1/2 teaspoons milk and 1/4 teaspoon extract. Remove 1 tablespoon glaze to another bowl. Tint remaining glaze with 3 drops food coloring. Working with one cookie at a time, spread red glaze over top half of cookie.

Place one M&M at top for tassel and four M&M's across edge of glaze for hat brim. For ears, place two almonds above M&M's on each end. Dip baking bits in plain glaze; place brown bits on cookie for eyes and a red bit for nose. Repeat with 13 more cookies. Make second batch of glaze with remaining confectioners' sugar, milk, extract and food coloring. Decorate remaining cookies as above. Yield: 28 cookies.

Ok, Christmas break starts officially on Monday for me and this is one of my projects I'd like to get to over break.......I got my bench block (piece of metal to pound the wire on), (my daddy found it for me) and the black annealed wire (my hubby found it for me). This magazine is the Winter addition of Somerset Studio Belle Armoire Jewelry. There are a lot of cool projects in this magazine. If my project turns out, I might be having a giveaway of one of the pieces. He,he,he!

And the Winner Is..............

The randomly picked winner of the the cards and Christmas tunes is...........insert drum roll here........... Sherry over at http://www.gotart4u.blogspot.com/
Congrats Sherry! Please send me an email with your address.
Thanks to all who entered!
Melissa

Card and Christmas Tunes Giveaway!

I'm giving away a set of 4 of my handmade Christmas cards and a copy of my Jingle Bell Jam 2008 Favorite Holiday Tunes! Just leave a comment and picture/link on your blog and you'll be entered. I'll draw the name randomly on Wednesday and send them right out! They are 5 inches by 4 inches and the inside reads "Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!"