Yo YO yo?

So here we are again back at Graffiti Chic. These are the same pieces as in an earlier post buy now with more layers on top. I was supposed to do a bunch of stencils and graffiti letters. Well. I sorta did. I put on letters. One of these even has a prayer of sorts written on it. It was the words on my mind. I have a lot of stuff on my mind about work, so I just threw that on there. One has several rows of alphabet. And since I am more about flowers that "YO, yo what up" lettering and stuff, I just did it my way. I mean no disrespect. I just don't feel the pressure to conform or copy exactly what someone else does, class or not. I knew I was signing up for a graffiti class, but I just made what I thought I could make into something else later. I hope my teacher will like it anyway. I think a good teacher can teach people how to copy, but a great teacher inspires individuals to take off and do something unique and wonderful. Thanks, Alisa for the inspiration. I'm happy and ready to start sewing on all this canvas, even though that isn't in the class, not yet anyway.

The Challenge

I feel like an art machine. I have been cranking out so much stuff it is just crazy. I am trying to get my too many swaps I have signed up for done so I can start working on some things I want to do that don't have a deadline. I want to get way ahead, not a few days or a month, like 6 months. I actually did it once and then way too many enticing offers came along, and now I need a snow plow to get out. Good thing I'm having fun plowing. In the midst of the swaps came a challenge from Kellie in one of my groups. She sent all of us pretty much the same stuff, bits and pieces of paper mostly, things like tickets, ads, cigar bands, a note, a napkin, etc. She wanted to see what different things we would all come up with. I admit I stashed the napkin. Too bad because what I did not see that someone else did was that I could have folded that puppy into a Kimono for a doll. Oh well. Here is what I actually did do. I cut up all the pieces into smaller pieces, arranged them on a piece of upholstery fabric (OH, big, big surprise!) and sewed them down. Then I added funky stitches, stamps, found objects, and other good old stuff. I covered all the squares with clear plastic and sewed that on top of the squares, adding an index tab. I hope the next step will be to make it into a tote bag, but I may change my mind before the wind blows. For now, here it is. Excuse the bad photography. For anyone as new as me at at this, if you click once on the picture, it should pop up bigger on your screen so you can see it better.

Graffiti Chic

One of my favorite lines is, "I was just sitting there minding my own business." And that is what Jeane and I were sort of doing last summer when we stumbled across a copy of Canvas Remix, written by Alisa Burke. We were on a trip to visit my art daughter, aka Jeane's art sister, Kelly. And there it was. Jeane called it first, so she brought it home. I have since bought and paid for my own copy, one thing has led to another, and now Jeane and I are taking a class called Graffiti Chic online with Alisa. I am pretty sure that I am old enough to be Alisa's mom or at least her aunt, so I hope I can get away with saying that everything about her is just stinkin' cute, and her artwork, well that is amazing and other words Webster hasn't had time to come up with yet. Anyway, it is a five week class which you could still join, too, and these are my results so far for week one/backgrounds, even though we are now on week two/stencils. I am running a bit behind due to Miss O. and Miss Q. (See photo below.), and I couldn't be happier to use that "being a Nona" excuse. Staying up until almost 2am helped me catch up most of the way on week one, and I hope to do more on week two soon. Until then, these photos show how far I have gotten.

A Picture Is Worth A Million Words

Here she is, my very new granddaughter with her big sister. I haven't put much on my blog lately because I've been busy getting "a million" things done and out the door without photographing them first, so I would have plenty of time to spend with these two. Can you blame me?

Thanks, Teesha, and Hello, Art Fiber Fest!

What is there that you have wanted to do for a long time but somehow never made it happen? For me it was AnythingFest. You know ArtFest, JournalFest ArtFiberFest, any or all those things that come under the umbrella of Teesha and Tracy Moore. I first met them years ago when they did a workshop locally on Evidence Journaling. It changed my life. Literally. I got Teesha to sign a print I bought from her once and she wrote me a little note on it. It hangs in my fabric studio and gives me inspiration. I've been keeping my eye on them ever since. No stalking, just a part of the fan club. Well this year, the stars lined up and my crazy art sister, Penney and I are venturing to Art Fiber Fest, with bells on. I hope we don't get kicked out of the airport for screaming when our planes touch down. She will be living in Virginia by then, so it will be like a little reunion on top of everything else. Sorry, Dave (and the pitbulls!), that's just how it's gonna be for a couple days. Try not to miss your girl. Well, anyway to make a long story short, Teesha put my envelope that Penney and I mailed our registrations in, right on her blog. I am so honored. I am counting the days 'til takeoff.