the Art Blog of Sharon Kennick

Bound and Lettered and More Mail Art Mania

  Our first issue of Bound and Lettered, the magazine  I mentioned a few posts back, has arrived, and it is every bit as awesome as I'd hoped it would be! It contains a couple of very cool how-tos with clear instructions and good illustrations, and is plumb full of well illustrated, interesting articles on bookbinding and hand lettering. I'm almost glad I was still sick when it arrived because that meant I could sit and read it guiltlessly, cover to cover - several times! I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in either calligraphy or bookbinding.

  My obsession with all things mail art continues, so, despite being sick, I've been noodling around at both the computer and at my worktable, designing envelopes, developing digital stamps, and answering mail art calls. For stamps, I was mostly  playing with the "Pioneer Heritage" series, using a few of the vintage family photos Princess Christmas Joy sent me a few months back.

              

  These are front and back views of an envelope made from advertisements in a vintage magazine. The scrumbly, pixellated effect is a "moire" artifact generated by scanning an old "half-tone" image. It's beautiful in person, but I could only correct it so far...

 

   This envelope is from the same Christmas issue of the magazine, using the cover. I love the way it came out!

   The envelope below is made from candy wrappers, glue-sticked together, with a pink liner. Fun!

 

 

   And some more artistamps, using my slot canyon photography. I think that maybe I'm having a little too much fun...

   I answered my first mail art call this week. A lady in California sent out a call for art themed "Note to Self." What a great theme, I thought, then put together this VERY spontaneous piece to send her:

   Opening the envelope completely reveals the art...

   Breathe Easy is a tea I drink anytime I've caught a respiratory bug, so I just happened to have an empty wrapper lying on the counter. And who hasn't written "notes to self" on a sticky? Then too, "breathe easy" seems like a good thing for anyone to remember these days. A tag with detailed instructions (it says "exhale" on the back) and a little tape to balance out the colors, and wahla! Hope she likes it! Goes in the mail as soon as I'm okay to go out. Which should be Friday if I avoid secondary infections. Fingers crossed!

I think I may have turned a corner today. Woke up feeling better, changed out of my jammies and actually felt like cooking breakfast for the first time in over a week. I'm coughing less, fever's gone, and I'm hardly snuffling at all. This would be day 11, so the timing's about right. Yay! On the mend...Stay well, yourself!

Thanks for visiting; come again soon!

Recycled Art Show, IUOMA, and More Fun with Faux Real Stamps

  Hello again, blog friends! I got a phone call last night from a lady named Colleen, on behalf of the Flagstaff Recycled Art Exhibition. I'm sure I wasn't very coherent, because I've come down with whatever respiratory bug Mom had while we were visiting, but I do remember that she confirmed the date and time for my demo - I'll be showing people how to make those folded German Star ornaments. It should be fun! I'm looking forward to it!

  The Recycled Art Exhibition is an annual event sponsored jointly by Flagstaff Cultural Partners and the Flagstaff Artist's Coalition. Open entry, with a limit of two pieces, the main requirement is that each piece be at least 80% recycled material. It's an amazing show! There are hundreds of entries, an opening reception, and weekend artists' demonstrations. This year, I've entered two new pieces, "Karmalia" and "The Secret Life of Brushes." I thought seriously about entering an assemblage piece I'm working on, "Lord of the Dance," an anthropomorphic assembly of
dead computer parts and, well, lots of other stuff. Kris suggested that I save it for next year, instead of pushing and rushing myself to finish it. I'm sure she's right...Anyhow, there's loads of publicity and several different awards given, including a People's Choice award, but I tend to not pay much attention to that aspect of the show. I attend to see the cool work people are doing; and there's plenty of that! The Exhibition runs from April 3rd through May 15th, and I hope to see you there! My demo is on the afternoon of the 8th, if you'd like to swing through. Love to see you!

  While checking out the links in the book from my last post, "Good Mail Day," I stumbled onto the website of the International Union of Mail Artists (IUOMA). Holy Smoke! Hundreds of mail art freaks from all over the world, dozens of special interest groups, including an artistamp group (which I intend to join...), calls for entries, a forum, and pages on pages of mail art. So I applied for membership late last night, and by 7 a.m. Arizona time, five people (two from the U.S., one from Italy, one from Greece, and one from, I think, Chile) had dropped by my IUOMA page to leave a welcome, and most of them came by the blog, as well. I feel truly welcomed. Next task, flesh out my IUOMA home page...and start sending out art!

  I'm having way too much fun, still, with the faux postage stamps, and am working at them obsessively. I forget to eat, and have to be reminded to take my nutriceuticals, cook, feed Kris, feed the dogs...I've got the mail art bug BAD. Not complaining...here are three of the designs I came up with yesterday, before I got sick enough that I had to curl up on the couch with hot rice socks.

  All three of these faux stamps are 100% digital. The first is a "Pioneer Heritage" commemorative stamp for the Fauxreal Republic. It uses an
image of my maternal grandmother, Virginia Grace, when she was still in school. The second is one I made for Kris (she may be a rocket scientist, but doesn't do digital graphics, and doesn't particularly want to...) and her "Big Sky Republic." "Yote" (short for "coyote") is her nickname, and she wanted a stamp with that on it. It's a commemorative stamp of the poster for an exhibit at the "Tycho Brahe Museum of Art." Tycho Brahe is not just a person, it's a big crater on the moon...which is where the museum is...The third is another exhibition poster, this one from the Capitol Museum of Modern Art's "Digital Expo ~ 2009," with the motto of the Fauxreal Republic up the left side, "Believing is seeing." 

  What's a hot rice sock? It's our version of a moist heat pack. You take a clean dead tube sock without any holes in it, pour about a pound of rice (any grain will do) into the toe, then tie it off with a rubber band. To use it, simply microwave it on high for 2 minutes or so. Pull it out and put it where it'll do the most good. It's a little piece of heaven on earth. I will occasionally warm my cold bed with them in the wintertime. 

  You know, that sounds pretty good right about now...I think I feel a nap coming on.

  Thanks for visiting. Come again soon!

Dodging Tornadoes, Going Postal in the Fauxreal Republic, and Art Journaling in Arkansas

we're home again after a fun and interesting trip to arkansas, visiting and playing with mom, the siblings, and the kids, dodging a couple of tornadoes along the way and oooh-aaahing at the beautiful countryside. the first day out saw scattered thunderstorms in the distance all across new mexico and into amarillo (a town that continues to surprise me!), dark clouds throwing rainbows straight down at the ground, as many as four at a time. beautiful sight! since the camera was tucked away in the back of the car i didn't get a photo, but i'll remember the magical, mythical, archetypal look of it forever. day two, in driving rain and severely limited visibility, with tractor trailers lying like dead dinosaurs helter-skelter alongside the road, we managed to stay in front of the tornadoes all the way across oklahoma. it was more than a little hairy and scarey, and i hope the truck drivers are all safe. any day you can stay ahead of the tornadoes is o.k...

kris took along a new book,
"good mail day: a primer for making eye-popping postal art," written by jennie hinchcliff/carolee gilligan wheeler. it arrived just before we left and we couldn't stand the thought of having to wait a week before going through it, so kris brought it along and read it out loud while i was driving. (isn't that sweet of her?) these two gals are SERIOUS mail artists!

the book can be a little repetetive in some places, but then some things need to be said over and over...i love the "whatever works, just do it, and play around" philosophy it presents and there are alot of cool looking links i want to check out. i've already bookmarked carolee wheeler's blog, and  if you're at all interested in mail art, i think you'll enjoy it. there are prompts, and a great section on documentation, but i think my favorite part is where they talk about mail artists creating a signature artistamp, or an imaginary country with its own history and art and - postage stamps! is that a fun idea or what?

so, of course, i spent all day yesterday hunkered down in the studio, designing both a personal stamp and postage stamps for my imaginary country, "the fauxreal republic." here are a few of my favorites...the first image is my signature stamp. the flamingo-serifed "s" was done by hand with pen and ink, then scanned into a digital imaging program on the computer, and compiled with a bunch of other digital images i already had. i'd really like to rework this one in color, but thinking to turn the image into an acrylic stamp, kept it in black and white for now. the second and third images are (first issue! tongue in cheek here) postage stamps from the fauxreal republic. "cattails," like the flamingo "s," is a scanned image, a student watercolor exercise in wet-on-wet techniques, digitally combined with text and symbols on the computer. "quatres soeurs" is 
an old photo of my maternal grandmother and her sisters, manipulated in the same way. i SO enjoy digital imaging, and this is such an awesome excuse to sit down at the keyboard and play! what fun! i'm in love with designing stamps for the fauxreal republic, and look forward to inventing stories for commemorative stamps, a made-up art museum, historical events...this is WAY too much fun.

are you interested in participating in a mail art exchange? drop me an email. i'm also starting to ponder another chunkybook exchange. what do you think? maybe on the theme "my cup runneth over."

anyhow...that's the goings on since we got home Sunday. stamps and mail art, bread baking, sausage making, restocking perishables, yogurt making, unpacking, laundry, playing with the dogs. it's a good life.

now for the rest of the story...do you remember that i took along supplies for teaching the nephew and nieces how to make those german, finnish and art deco star ornaments? well, things didn't quite work out as planned. kris and i had taken along the art journals we made in kelly kilmer's "spirit journal" class in february, just in case we wanted to do some impromptu art journaling, say, about tornadoes or something (which we actually began referring to as "tomatoes"). as soon as the kids saw them they got all excited and wild, hollering, "we want to make THAT, aunt sharon! please? show us how to do THAT! that's amazing!" so much for MY plan! i had brought supplies, but for a different class...

with apologies to kelly for teaching her class (i DID give her credit and do so again here and now), next morning found us in the parking lot waiting for hobby lobby to open, hoping they'd have what we needed - or a close substitution...and about an hour and a half (and mucho dinero) later, we arrived at toad suck laden with goodies and ready to play! toad suck? yes, there really is a toad suck, arkansas. and my mother lives there. so does princess christmas joy...

here are the photos! a grand time was had by all!

 making covers clockwise from the left are mary, patrick, princess, my buddy kris, and katie (i'm the one behind the camera...):

princess christmas joy painting her cover with with stencils: katie, our other autistic artist, with granny looking on. isn't it really clever of her to wear one of her dad's old shirts backwards? and latex gloves? i'm going to try that at home...

all the finished covers set to dry in the sun...

but one...

 i didn't take photos while the pages were being made because the kids were using spritzers, and i was concerned about getting dye on the lens. here are some of the finished pages:

15 year old patrick, diligently and meticulously cleaning off one of my stamps...

smiling, happy people! katie and kris; kris decorated the pages and gave hers to mom...

mary and patrick... princess christmas joy and mary...

  my finished demo-journal. i snagged the rusty bell off a wind chime on the porch. don't tell...

and the aftermath. not too bad for a whole day of play with the nieces and nephew! how we kept spritzed dye off the concrete, i don't know...

with newsprint laid down, cleanup was easy. princess christmas joy is catching on to this altered/mixed media thing. "hey," she says, as we start to take up the paper, "we should just save this newspaper and use it to make art!" with another convert, i knew my work here was done!

kelly is still offering this class, and you'll find it listed on her blog. take it! you'll love it! and come away with a really cool art journal!

thanks for visiting. come again soon!

Once More, With Feeling...

as many of you will remember, kris and i tried to visit the family in central arkansas over the holidays. tried was the operative...we stayed in amarillo for two and a half days hoping in vain that the highway across oklahoma would open. surrendering to the inevitable, we spent a couple of days exploring santa fe on our roundabout way home (i'm still editing and sorting the photos - there are so many cool things to tell you about santa fe and our excellent adventure!).

we're trying again early tomorrow morning, laden with christmas presents and craft supplies and tamale fixin's. i suspect that maybe we have more presents, food, and crafty stuff than luggage! we'll spend some time with mom down by the river, play with princess christmas joy's kids - the fun we're going to have! i can hardly wait! i'll be teaching the kids how to make those cool german stars,  the finnish stars,  that neat art deco star, and tamales for the annual "alvie l. haste memorial tamale fest."

my father, the aforementioned al haste, loved tamales better than anything except for maybe popcorn, and when i was a kid, he'd buy those awful jarred and canned tamales (finding fresh tamales in ohio and maryland in the sixties just wasn't happening...). he'd eat them ever so slowly...it was a religious experience for him, i think. that's how much he loved them. and if we were v-e-r-y lucky, he'd let us have a bite. dad passed away in 1998, long before i moved to arizona and learned how to make real tamales, and the fact that i never got to cook tamales for my dad is one of the things i most regret in life, truly.

so, every year when we visit the family in arkansas, i make a mountain of tamales. we gather everyone together, and hold the annual memorial tamale fest. we tell bad jokes and play balderdash; we do the zorba dance and share the family stories, just like when dad was still here. and sometimes it seems like he really is right there with us, smelling those wonderful little corn husk pouches and smiling a benediction on the gather. tamales are sacred. food of the gods.

before leaving i'd like to share a very cool new book with you, titled, "green guide for artists: non toxic recipes, green art ideas and resources for the eco-conscious artist," by karen michel. it is awesome, with formulas for making your own eco-friendly paints, inks, glues and more. how neat is that? there are several cool projects in it, too (i had quite forgotten paper-mache -doh). my copy arrived a couple of days ago, and i almost can't wait to get home to try making some supplies!

i've also just learned about the magazine, bound and lettered. it's full of bookbinding stuff and calligraphy, and sounds like something i'll get alot of inspiration and practical application from. they also have a catalogue worth slobbering over...

well, i'm off! thanks for visiting! come again soon.

Woosh!

woosh!...wuzzat?! d'you hear that?...woosh! there it is again! is that...no...is that...february?

how-in-ever did it get to be march, already?! yes, february is a short month, but it seems like ground hog day was only yesterday...

well, alot has been happenning! the second weekend in february (super bowl weekend, incidentally) kris and i decided to kick the mid-winter blahs by heading what we call "down the hill" to phoenix for a four day weekend in the warm and away from the 10 and 1/2 feet of snow  piled up around the house. and what fun we had! friday, saturday and sunday (before the big game, let us be clear) we spent taking classes with one of my very favorite teachers, kelly kilmer , who was teaching at a fabulous little shop we had heard of but never been to before, frenzy stamper . what a treat! kelly's classes are always fun and playful, and she challenges students to just put down some paint, have a good time, and make art without agonizing over every little detail. and as one who easily bogs down in the little details, i totally appreciate that.

so, what did we learn about? well. this was so awesome! on friday, she had us painting and stamping and writing on - get this - deli paper! you know, the stuff they wrap your sandwiwch in? lighter than waxed paper, and unwaxed, it becomes translucent under the paint.

we made several of these friday evening. and kelly's always SO generaous with materials; she gave us all loads of deli paper to play with at home! we also did some painting on cardstock friday, playing with stencils and things...

we definitely stepped outside our box and had some fun! i like not having to think about what i'm doing. alot.

then...on saturday we took "everything you ever wanted to know about pens." we started out by prepping several sheets of paper with acrylic paint, then kelly pulled out all the stops. i must have tried out 50 different pens that day! kris was very organized about it, writing the name of the pen with the pen, and noting whether she liked it or not. me...well, i just dove in and started drawing with them all haphazard-like, making a mental note to go back to my handout at some point and...well, you get the idea.

there were brush pens and paint pens and gel pens and sharpies and pouffy pens and glue pens and glitter pens, and a great little handout for keeping track of them all.

we learned SO MUCH about what we do and do not like in a pen, what we want in a pen, what the qualities of the different types of pens are. and we had fun doing it! won't that save us a bundle of money? i have bought so many pens that turned out to run. or fade. or blend in with the paint. or wouldn't write at all on acrylic. what a deal!

sunday's class was titled "spirit journal," and what a glorious, messy, fun time it was! we made a canvas covered art journal in class! with pages that we already made backgrounds on! using an easy pamphlet stitch binding, and with enough pages to get you through a month of art journaling before you have to make another one. here's my cover:

it's acrylic paint on primed canvas, with stenciled images. we set the covers aside to dry, then started playing with spritzers, paint, stencils and stamps on a base of 80lb. wasau cardstock. i would never have thought to use anything lighter than watercolor paper - but that's what i love about classes! s-t-r-e-t-c-h those limits and try something new! here are a few of my pages...after i'd gotten home and started journaling on them.

and then there's this page, before journaling:

i really enjoy this kind of journaling. it's very much outside my typical style. with the prepared background in front of me, i randomly choose a focal image, maybe some collage papers, and just glue everything down where it seems to fit. then the magic happens...i get to make something up about the pictures, maybe, or write about something i saw that day. and it all works!

kelly will be back at frenzy stamper (awesome little shop, folks) in april, and at art unraveled in august. take classes with her anytime you have the chance! kelly's not just great, classes with her will make you feel great, too!

we bought alot of cool new toys and tools at frenzy stamper; pens, stamps, punches. my favorite new toy is a postage stamp template. it's a big acrylic stencil with squares cut in it, for making faux postage. i've played with it alot since we got back and had alot of fun. you can use all sorts of media with it - spritzers, ink, pens, stamps, paint - whatever, with layer upon layer of color. this is too much fun not to share, so this may just turn into a class!

alot of other things have been happening. my email account got hacked, and i've started receiving spam from myself, which sucks. worse, though, is that my email program got very s-l-o-w, and then crashed. outlook contacts went down first, which is where everyone's address was stored from the holiday giveaway...then my mouse driver went south! we gave up trying to fix the wireless mouse and just went back to an old fashioned, wired mouse. which feels pretty weird after using a cordless laser mouse all this time...but it works!

the studio had become totally chaotic, and although the muse likes things a little bit messy, it had got to where we could no longer work in it, much less find anything. so i spent about a week completely reorganizing it. and i love the new setup! there are storage bins where there once were piles. things are shelved or put away in drawers, and i swear it will never get that out of hand again! lol!

i've been playing with knitting design some, too. mostly a fun hat design and reworking a vintage shrug pattern to make it seamless. started a knitting blog called the purl onion.

the best news, however, is that once we got my email program up, and the studio straightened out, and i was able to retrieve everyone's address, we could finally box up everyone's holiday giveaway presents! they went into the mail on monday, 3 day priority, and should be arriving, well tomorrow! i so apologize for the delay, and by way of trying to make up for it, tucked in a few extra goodies for you kind, patient and supportive people. enjoy!

well, that's all for tonight. thanks for visiting. come again soon!

January

January. What is it about the month of January that immobilizes me so? Seriously. For a whole month it's all I can do to sit by the fire and knit. I love to cook, but can barely do even that in January. It seems that, on some deep soul level I experience this cosmic state of hibernation, barely functional, unable to get much of anything done. I WANT to do other things but I just...can't.

I wrestle with it every year, and try to understand it. I'm not depressed, and I don't have SAD, nor does it seem to be what you'd call a "post-holiday slump." I can smile and enjoy myself...as long as I don't even THINK about trying to get anything done. January is full of sad anniversaries, true, but by the time you get to be my age the yearly calendar has more anniversaries than you can shake a stick at. It's not like I'm in a bad mood.  I can name all the things it's not, but I have no idea what it is.

Every year it's the same, and every year I carry a huge burden of guilt over all the things I honestly cannot make myself do. And there are so many things to do! Blog posts to write, art to be made, late presents to be made and mailed, bread to be baked, holiday photos to be edited, housekeeping to be kept up...all the things I love doing. Yet I simply can't make myself to do any of it. 

I think that maybe it's time to recognize that this is how I experience January, and to honor whatever need it is I have to pull in my fences and give myself permission to do nothing but sit by the fire and knit for a month. Maybe there's some kind of wisdom waiting to happen in this hibernation. I'll never know until I quit guilting myself over the doldrums of January. Next year.

So, that's where I've been. In hibernation. And that's why all you wonderful ladies haven't received Christmas presents yet. I have been wrestling with January.

Meanwhile, it's FEBRUARY! Let the good times roll!

Happy New Year!

I'd like to take just a minute to wish all of you a happy and very blessed 2010, full of love and learning and joyous artful living. For me, the New Year is also a time to reflect on the year past, the lessons, the milestones, the achievements, the joys and sorrows, the ways I've grown (or not),  how I've loved and been loved, the service I've given and received, and the many varied elements of experience in Life on Playground Earth. And, without making hard and fast resolutions, to consider the direction of this new year, what I'd like to achieve, what do I want, and how will I give back.

2009 was a year of tremendous growth on so many levels, as an artist, as a teacher, as a student. I've made so many new friends, and come to treasure old friends even more dearly. There were challenges to overcome (with a lot of help from my friends), joys and sorrows to be experienced. Rites of passage...I have had a most blessed year, and approach the coming year with gratitude and excitement.

Gentle reminder - If you left a comment during the holiday giveaway and have not already done so, please drop me a line with your mailing address so I can send out your gifts. With a field of 15 comments, drawing 12 random names seemed a little silly, so I decided to send something to everyone who participated...

Speaking of gifts...here's what Kris gave me for Solstice. It's one of those "air gardens!" A high tech NASA geek indoor garden. I've been drooling over them since they first came out, and just itching to give them a try. This one came with a set of culinary herbs, and you can also order lettuces or tomatoes or bell pepper seed. Although our outdoor gardens are 100% organic, I've always been fascinated with hydroponics, and now I get to give it a whirl. Is that an awesome gift for a garden geek, or what? Since it does require a little maintainence, I had to delay setting it up until we got home from our excellent Christmas adventure. Can you guess what I'll be doing this afternoon? LOL! That Kris...

The class schedule should be going up on Monday, and I can't wait to tell you all about our Most Excellent Christmas Adventure. Santa Fe was awesome, and we even had a great time being stuck in Amarillo on Christmas Day! Will post it all (with some fun links) as soon as I'm done editing the pictures. Sooo...

Happy New Year! Bless us every one! Thanks for visiting; come again soon.

Everybody Wins!

Good morning blog friends! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas Day among people you love. Due to highway closures Kris and I didn't make it across Oklahoma and on to Central Arkansas after all, but did manage to have a wonderful Christmas Day in Amarillo, Texas. More on that when we get home...

Since several people have already checked in with the blog to see if they won the drawing, I'll get on to that without delay! In short, EVERYBODY wins! With fifteen comments, a random drawing of twelve names would just be too disappointing to the three who aren't selected (IMHO), and I've decided to select everybody! So...to everyone who participated by posting a comment to the holiday giveaway post, just click on the "email me" link above my photo in the right sidebar. Send me your mailing address, and I'll drop your presents in the mail as soon as I get home.

Which may be sooner than we thought! Between highway conditions across Oklahoma and the weather that's moving in early this week, we've made the decision to turn around and head for home, via Santa Fe. It's been a hard choice, and a huge disappointment to not see the family this year...but safety outweighs every other consideration. And the highways between here and GiGi's place will be unsafe for several days. Even the truckers agree!

So, we're packing up and heading out for Santa Fe and the Georgia O'Keefe museum today. I can't wait to tell you all about what we've come to call "Kris and Sharon's Excellent Christmas Adventure!"

Congratulations everybody! Thanks for playing! Send me a mailing address!

Thanks for visiting, have a safe and happy holiday. Come again soon!

 

Holiday Giveaway

In the spirit of Hanukkah-Solstice-Christmas-Kwanzaa I wanted to give back to all you wonderful folk who've given me so much support this year. I can't say how grateful I am to all of you who've come out to the shows, visited with me here on the blog, stood in my booth and loved my work, left comments here. And what better way to say thank you than have a giveaway?

Sooo...All you have to do is leave a comment at the bottom of this post by Dec. 25th at midnight. On the 26th, twelve comments will be selected at random and posted on the blog. If your name and comment is posted on the 26th, drop me an email with your mailing address by clicking the "email me" link above my photo (above at the right). Presents will be mailed out the first week of the New Year, as soon as I get back from visiting Princess Christmas Joy. Is that easy, or what?

Here's just some of what you could receive: a beautiful beaded hand-bound journal; a journal of balances (like the one I made for my daughter in the "What Goes Up" post); a hand-made Christmas themed accordion photo album, a set of folded German Star ornaments; a free half-day class; a set of my palindromic photo art greeting cards and more! I'm having SO MUCH fun going through my stuff looking for things to give away! In fact, it's so much fun I may start doing this on a regular basis!

Thanks so much for all your care and support this year. Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah! A Blessed Solstice! Joyful Kwanzaa! And whatever holiday you celebrate, blessed be. Thanks for visiting. Leave a comment! Come again soon!

Edited on Dec. 24th, 7am: Kris and I are leaving for the family homestead in Central Arkansas this morning, planning to arrive on Christmas night. Which means we'll be on travel for the next two days, and won't have internet access until we roll into our hotel each evening. Sooooo...If your comment doesn't appear right away, not to worry. All it means is that I haven't been able to get online yet to publish it (we're not wireless - YET). So thanks for visiting! Leave a comment. Come again soon!

Preparing for the Journey Home

The annual holiday journey home to Central Arkansas is the highlight of every holiday season for us. Since the flight would be long and convoluted with three layovers: Phoenix, Houston and then Memphis,  we opt to travel in comfort by car, leisurely making our way halfway across the country, taking time to enjoy the Christmas scenery, stop at all the interesting little waysides, and rehearse Christmas roundelays. A family favorite is Christine Lavin's "Heigh-Ho Cry Santa's Elves," with "Tacobel Cannon" a close second. (To listen to "Tacobel Canon" click here: Lavin Link, then click on Tacobel Canon in the playlist. It's  side-splitting hilarious!) We take two days to make the trip, stopping overnight in Amarillo at a favorite and familiar hotel. Swimming pool for exercise, chilling out in the hot tub, a home cooked meal from the cooler to reheat in the room...up early to grab fruit and peanut butter from the breakfast bar and we're away in the morning, refreshed and relaxed. A blissful way to travel. This year, weather permitting, we're detouring up to Santa Fe on the way home, to check out the Georgia O'Keefe museum. How exciting is that?

The trip entails alot of preparation; I make our meals and travel snacks ahead of time so we have yummy healthy eats along the way. Granola bars, jerky, crudites, tamari almonds,veggie wraps, homemade sausages, soups and stews. Yum...Can you tell I love to cook? LOL!

It's also a part of the tradition that I arrive in Arkansas with fun crafty things to do with Princess Christmas Joy's children, and this year it will be paper stars made (mostly) from advertising inserts. Aunt Sharon cannot arrive empty handed...so I've spent a couple of days in the studio playing with things to do with the kids, and here's what I've come up with:

This first photo is a folded German Star made of paper strips cut from sales flyers. If you'd like to try making a few of your own, here's a link to an excellent video tutorial: German Paper Stars. Once you get the hang of them they go together quick and easy, and since I use sales flyers instead of color coordinated papers each one is delightfully different from the others. They're such fun to make. I love watching each one take shape, step by step, fold by fold. Once I start making these it's very hard to stop...

This next piece is called a Finnish Star. Sweet and simple, and oh-so-elegant, it's made of 18 half inch strips of paper which are woven together, twisted, and then glued. This one is made from art paper scraps from my scrap bin...Isn't it beautiful? I think the kids will like this one best. Here's a link to a good tutorial: Finnish Star. I was having so much fun making the German Stars that I ran out of sales flyers and haven't had a chance to try these ala upcycle...art paper scraps count, don't they?

These last two are from the coffee club I attended on Tuesday at About Memories and More, our local scrapbook store, and Kirsten didn't really
give us a name for it, so I'll call it the Art Star. The first one measures about 16" from tip to tip and uses two sheets of double sided paper. The second measures about 10" across, and used just one sheet. I suspect that paper from the sales flyers will not have enough body to support the weight of these, but as soon as the Sunday paper replenishes

my stock of advertising inserts, I'll give it whirl, but on a smaller scale, say with 3" square base units.These look complicated, but they're deceptively simple. Here's a link: Art Stars. The larger of the two pictured is constructed of 6" square double sided art paper made with 7 half inch wide cuts in the base triangle for a total of eight segments (a deviation from the pattern link...), and the smaller is of 4" squares. They're so elegant and easy-to-make we just might run out of space to hang them! I SO look forward to making these decorations with my nieces and nephews! And I know the Princess will have fun too, playing along with the rest of us kids...AND do we know what will be dangling from every square inch of her ceiling next year? And Granny's ceiling, too? :)

If you have a fun holiday paper craft you'd like to share, I'd LOVE to post a link to it on the blog. just drop me an email, or leave a comment, and I'll pass it on...

I'm off to find places to hang these beauties! Thanks for visiting, come again soon.