My first link Party...

Its always nice to connect and see what other crafters are up to and find inspiration in most unlikely places.  I often do driveby's on other people's blogs.  I don't necessarily sign up for a blog but tap in every now and again.  Here is one that I have actually signed up for and am on the emailing list of.  Today is the first day I being in the right frame of mind decided to join what is called a "link party".
Here is her link if you want to check it out.
http://www.everythingetsy.com/2013/06/crafty-girl-linky-party-crafty-tote-bag-giveaway/?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=A%20New%20Linky%20Party%20for%20Crafty%20Bloggers%20at%20EverythingEtsy_com&utm_campaign=20130621_m116415345_Crafty%20Girl%20Linky%20Party%20Announcement&utm_term=Here%20is%20the%20link

Stockholm, Sweden image transfer

A couple of years ago, my husband won a trip to Stockholm, Sweden and Finland to visit a manufacturer of a product line he sold a lot of.  I was ecstatic to visit a part of the world that I had such positive connections with in my early twenties.  I had known and became very friendly with a group of women from Finland back in my days of being a nanny in New York and to see the country in which they came from was so exciting for me.  I even managed to meet up with one of my au pair friends in the city of Helsinki, Finland. We had a cup of coffee in a store cafe as if twenty years had not passed us by, a sign of true friendship.  It was a trip of a life time and I found the countries just as friendly and beautiful as the young women I once knew on a daily basis.

Yesterday I managed to finish a piece from a series of photos I had to montage together in Photoshop to create the panoramic I used for my piece.  This was taken in Stockholm, Sweden the view we could see from our hotel.  It was however, not one entire photo but several fused together to create the panoramic I desired.   To take this series we were actually on the water in a ferry going from one side of the canal to the other.  I simply took a photo every so often, keeping my hands still and focused on the horizon with the intention of blending it together.  A tripod would have been ideal but I was able to cut off the  uneven bits in Photoshop as well.

As for the background in which I transferred the photo to, I had used a cupboard face off of a piece of furniture that was an old cupboard.  It had some water damage to the bottom and would have been fit for the trash, however I salvaged a good portion of it.  The drawers house some of crafting supplies and the cabinet door face that was perfect piece for my panoramic.

Summer image transfers on Repurposed wood

Today was a productive day.  Over the weekend I was at a softball tournament for my daughter but I took with me several unfinished pieces to do in-between games.  As it turned out we had a break after one of the games from 10:00 a.m. until the next game which wasn't until 6 p.m. in the evening.  That gave me plenty of time to work on my image transfers.  Today I was able to do the fine tuning and finish some summer pieces.  These images are from Hermosa Beach, CA and the Dominican Republic.

Here is my show n tell.  I have posted one on Etsy and the others will find their home in The Knot Too Shabby Store.

#football #image transfer # Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

So every now and again Michele Rivard of Knot Too Shabby www.knottooshabbyfurnishings.com and I combine our talents and do a project together.  This time she had acquired a metal cabinet and wanted a masculine image on it.  I thought of immediately these great images I had of vintage football players and went to work.
First Michele painted the cabinet with Annie Sloan Chalk paint in Aubusson Blue with a Dark Wax finish.

Here it is prepped and ready for me to tackle

Here are the images I am trimming down to adhere to the surface.

Michele photo bombing the layout of the images 

Its looking good!

A fantastic metal cabinet that any one would love!  A total original!!

the inside.

Its on sale right now at the store.  It won't last long though, the last one we did sold within a few days.

Grandma Anita

We never realize the effect we have on another person, how lasting a memory can be or the impact we can have on one another simply by participating in each other's lives.  Its one of the reasons that death is such a powerful tool in life, it forces us to reflect upon the imprint we place upon each other's souls while we are living.

For me my greatest influence was my Grandmother.  I recently wrote about her in an article that is to be published this September in Somerset's Holidays and Celebrations magazine.  She was my creative touchstone.

One of my first collages I did I did while thinking of her.  In my early twenties I was rather nomadic.  I worked and traveled and then worked again to pay for my next traveling adventure.  I traveled across the United States by plane, by a crazy hippie bus and by car. I also spent a year and a half in the North Island of New Zealand.  I would write home often and in between adventures I would make sure I stopped into see my "Grandmo" and fill her in on my experiences and what I had learned.

She was the one that I had promised to visit a museum in every major city and because of that promise I have seen exquisite art all over the world.  After my grandfather passed she continued to live in her home for a few years and I would continue stop in and visit whenever I was in Oregon.  I would more than likely find her sitting in her favorite rose colored plush chair in the living room, listening to an opera or  classical music on public radio.  I would then come and sit on the couch next to her and tell her the tales of my travels.  As she put it, she was now "an armchair traveler" but travelled now through my adventures.  When I was done she would then pull out her latest poetry or any saved articles she had cut out for me.  It was our routine.

This photo was taken in her dining room on one such visit.  She had just finished a collection of essays I had inspired her to write, including the title, Forget Me Nots for My Granddaughters.  As she sat in dining room, the same one I had known my entire life and celebrated countless occasions in, I had that photographer's instinct to capture the moment I was in.  Using only natural light that streamed in through the windows, I pulled out my Pentex K100 camera with a few shots left on the roll of film and took this photo.  This would be the last time I would sit with her at her dining room table.

My love for Packaging...

So those who know me, know that I love PACKAGING.  Not the kind you can get at the local party store with the printed celophane bags but the creative kind.  The ones that have thought and inspiration combined no matter what the contents.  Something that simply makes you smile and want to pick it up because it is so clever.  With the onset of Pinterest I now have a place to collect visual examples and Pin them to my Packaging Board.  After scouring through hundreds of blogs and sites, the next logical step was to start incorporating them into my life.  Being a creative person I rarely copy what I pin, however I am inspired by what I see and create my own versions, sometimes looking nothing like the original inspiration behind it.

Truth is I've always been drawn to packaging.  As a consumer I've been pulled into buying a product simply because of how it was presented.  Cute packaging can go a long way.  The same goes to unnecessary and unattractive packaging.  Manufacturers take note!

When I was an assistant for a very popular local portrait photographer I saw how she presented the reprints to her clients. It wasn't an elaborate presentation, she simply put them in a water color type sleeve and with an organza ribbon wrapped around it tied in a bow.   Although simplistic, it was an elegant way to present her product to her clients.  Her feelings behind the presentation were that her work was a gift and she wanted them to unwrap it as such.  That has stayed with me throughout the years.

These days however, I like using repurposed items combined with new, to make something look beautiful.  This incorporates my love for ephemera and my new obsession with washi tape and baker's twine.  I find too many times we endorse newly manufactured items, when a repurposed one is not only just as beautiful, but also a step in the right direction when it comes to the environment.  Take these maps for instance.   I took them home from my Aunt's house while cleaning out my grandfather's office.  My grandmother had kept every map National Geographic put out and road maps from various road trips.  Although my Aunt would have put them in the recycle bin, I wanted them for something...wasn't sure what, until now.  I had just gotten an order on my Etsy site for one of my small typewriter pieces.  It was going to a very sweet woman in Florida, that I had reached out to with some photography tips.  This is how I wrapped it before I sent it out.

So this post is to tell you how much I love going into these stores.  I start to salivate seriously.  The things I could make, restore or find a place for.  I love metal file cabinets and old window panes, my doors for image transfers, you name it they have it.  There stock is rotating constantly with new donations every week.  I am grateful that this place exists, that there are those who know to donate their used household items there and that my dear friend Paula took me on an errand there a few years back!  I've been hooked ever since.  What's a twofer for me is that it is recycling at its finest and the money goes to building homes for the less fortunate.  

I've been meaning to post this for a while.  So the next time you are going to scout the local Hardware Super stores, look up instead the nearest Habitat for Humanity.  It may not be so close, but you just very well may be surprised that one is.  And once you find one, keep it in mind that whenever you finish your home improvement projects and have left over supplies donate them here.