One of a Kind - Baskets, Bags, Bowls, Totes and Purses

Since I last wrote in April I've found myself continuing to work on textile pots, baskets and bowls; and now I've added hand and tote bags. It's become quite a passion of mine to see what I can come up with next and my little carry around 5x7 moleskine is filling up with all kinds of sketches, designs and future projects.

In May I finally gave in to my nieces wishes and became a monthly vendor at Spirt Mountain Casino. The elders of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde began the monthly Native American Market Place in January of 2009 and it's become quite popular with visitors and guests of the casino.

The first weekend in May was really slow, but since that time I have started selling my mixed media collages, baskets, jewelry, Native American polymer clay sculptures, interesting aprons and some craft items.

I've found I'm having a great time being a vendor and the money isn't too bad either. A few of the greatest rewards have been the selling of my 12x12 collages and designing and selling the textile baskets, pots, bowls and bags.

I have a long way to go in becoming my own business. Some how I have to develop more time and energy to adding items to my Etsy and ArtFire shops and I definitely have to find more time to do the one work I truly love, creating collage art.

It's a slow process, but business is picking up and people are seeking me out at the Native American Market to ask about my collage art and see what new designs I have in the way of textile work.

I hope you'll enjoy the photos I've posted below. These are the most recent items I've created with fabrics.

Enjoy,
Angelina

Batik tote bag with suede staps and binding - this bag is created to carry a heavy load of books. $55.00, measures 11.5" tall, 9.5" x 14" at top opening. Strap length at top is 14".
When this design happened I was thinking about Winnie the Poo and his honey pot and I wanted it to take on the shape of a clay pot in the process. Price: $60.00 stands 12" tall base to top of lid handle, opening 7.5", base 3". Sold

This hand bag came about at the end of an early (4:00 a.m.) walk. I simply had the idea in my head and couldn't let it go until I finally sat down at the machine and stitched the fabric together. The base is a wood oval which I glued the upper hand bag section to. It's an open top, and quite adorable. $50.00 Base 5" x7", top 3.5" x 5.5", 7.5" tall. 5" Handles, signed on bottom. Bottom is stained with golden oak.

The brown bowl which has a dark suede trim and suede handles is called a "gathering" basket; it's the one pictured at the top of this post; Price $50.00, measures 11.25 at top and stands 5" tall.

The pink and blue is shaped like the old laundry style baskets, hence it's name, the "Burden" basket; Price $50.00, measures 12.5" x 18.75" and is 7.5" tall.

And last but not least, the green is a batik fabric and is a sewing basket; Price $40.00, measures 4.5" at base, top opening 6.5", 6" tall without lid, 7.5" tall with lid.

If you are interested in making a purchase but would like to see more pictures, please contact me.

Blessings,

Angelina

Making Baskets and Bowls Equals Fun

Not long ago I was at the Finally Together Quilt Shop and bought the book, "It's a Wrap," by Susan Breier. After just one basket, I was addicted to the process...these little bowls are fun to create.

Picking out the fabrics and learning how the different prints go together has been the most interesting part of this journey. Sometimes certain fabrics turn out to be really bright baskets. I had made one from material with brightly colored hot air balloons all over it and wow, what a rainbow of busy and beautiful colors.

Following Susan's directions, I cut my fabric at 3/4" strips and wrapped it solidly around cotton cording. (Susan suggests 1/2" to 3/4" strips). The first one I created was done according to the book and it was amazing to watch the material slowly turn into the bowl pictured below. I have to say, the first basket was quite an experience in sewing and this little number has a whole bunch of mistakes. I knew one thing for sure, I had the wrong needle as it kept breaking which meant it took time to replace. As well, with the wrong needle, you also get thread breakage. I went ahead and finished up my practice basket and was pleased with how well it was shaped. But I also knew I could get a whole lot better; besides, like I said in the beginning, I was addicted to the whole creative process. So I began creating my own baskets and bowls using my own designs and ideas. That's how the Easter Baskets came about.

But before all the Easter baskets, I had created the rainbow basket which has two large handles. Then I made a large blue bowl trimmed with fibers and embellishments which looks to me like I will fill it with nice hot biscuits fresh from the oven the next time we have company over for dinner.

For more information about the baskets, please hop on over to the link for Susan Breier's site, Susan's Stitches. You will find a wonderful gallery of her baskets and purses which she has created with the cotton laundry line and fabric. As well, you can order her book , "It's a Wrap," through her store.

Happy Birthday Etsy Cottage Style Ning

Etsy Cottage Style social network is almost one year old and they're having a party starting today 8 February and it's going on until 12 February. On February 12th Etsy Cottage Style will be one year old.

During the Birthday Party there will be a lot of fun and games going on.

This is a great place to get together, share creative adventures, chat, and join in some fantastic swaps.

Stop by, or sign-up if you are not a member, and have a great time.

I Have Awards - I've Been Tagged - All In One Post. Find Out How To Receive An ATC - It's a Tagging and Award Party!

I'm finally catching up on things. The first month of the New Year brought with it a ton of challenges. I pray this is not what the rest of the year is going to be like.

Here's one of the Awards I received which is the Butterfly Award. It is for the coolest blog.


I received this from Barbara at Basia-Spirit Space. \Barbara's blogspot is a delight to read and just a good relaxing place to stop and rest awhile, enjoy her soothing words and beautiful artwork.

Here are the rules for receiving this award:
1. Put the logo on your blog
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you
3. Nominate 10 other blogs for this award
4. Add links to those blogs
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

The next award I need to get posted: The Lemonade Award. This I received from Patti at The Treasure Barn.

With this award, you pick 10 blogs that show great Attitude and/or Gratitude.

And last but not least, I have also received a TAGGING by Patti at the Treasure Barn.

This Tag is named the MEME and the Rules are as follows:

Open a document or folder.
Choose the fifth folder and then the fifth photo in that folder
do a post describing the photo
tag five friends to the "meme"

So let's see what picture I end up with.


These are a set of my handcrafted friendship cards I created which are for sale at my Esty site.

I am always greatful for such nice awards and wonderful taggings. They are certainly a surprise!

So what do I do when I received these? I have a AWARD AND TAGGING PARTY right here at my site, and I give away several ATCs instead of posting awards and tags to others sites.

This time, I will search out a few sites and list them with their link, here at my blog with some information about the site and why I enjoyed my visit there.

All you have to do is visit one of these sites, or any other site you love, then come back here and and leave a post in this comment section what you enjoyed most about your visit to the site.

I will send an ATC to the first 10 people who leave a comment with their email address so that I can reach you easily. Please put spaces in your email address so that it cannot be picked up by any spammers out in cyber world.

1. Here's one site I love to go to. Altered Expressions . At Altered Expressions you enjoy a full array of artistic expressions, beautiful art work and an fun to read blog. This is a blog I recommend.

2. Another blog I love to visit is Patti over at 7 Rose Petal Path. Her blog is a fun treat, filled with beautiful eye-candy, where mixed media collage abounds and fills your spirit with creativity.

3. Another blogger I love and apprieciate is Lisa at A Whimsical Bohemian and also the creator of One World One Heart which unfortunately, I missed getting my name on this year (I felt so sad). Oh well, there is always next year, right? Anyway, Lisa's sites are always great and her energry and devotion to One World One Heart is truly amazing and such a fun filled project.

Enjoy a few sites or find some new ones and tell me about them and I'll send you an ATC. I'd post a picture of the ATC, but I haven't created it just yet. I may get it posted, or you may just receive a surprise ATC in your mail.

Blessings and Have a Great Day,
Angelina

The Miracle of Life

Be sure to stop by my Great Christmas Giveaway

Grandbaby Number 4 - It's a Boy!

Isn't it a miracle...this little babe is just 4 months in the womb and he is so well formed and look at that, he's sucking his thumb! Isn't it amazing that the ultra sound can give us such detailed pictures?

Well, I have to tell you, his Grandma and Grandpa are really excited. This will be our fourth grandchild and with all the joy we feel, it's surprising this is not our first Grandbaby. This same wonderful, heart-full-of-love feeling came with each and every grandchild.

For me, I can't seem to pass by a baby aisle in the store without my eyes catching sight of something soft and blue; so even though our little dear isn't due until April, he will have a couple of presents under the tree, and a few more presents might just appear each month until he is born. Our daughter does not seem to mind getting the little gifts now and then...in fact, she oooohhhhs and awes at all the goodies, just like you would hear us if we were standing over a box full of tiny puppies outside of the store.

The pictures of our little miracle grandson really reminds me of what a joyous season December is, and how beautiful it is to know that we will be celebrating Christmas with nearly all our (5) grown children and their families; although our one daughter will not make it this year, we will have our computer videos running so we can all be home for Christmas in one way or another. My oldest grandson and I will decorate the tree and hopefully all will gather together to create the Gingerbread houses this year.

Oh the joy of creating a Gingerbread House. My oldest Grandson not only loved the making of these creations, but each day he would take another bite out of the house, (shhh, don't tell his mom and dad, but somedays, we would have to sneak in more than one bite, what are grandma's for if we can't do a little bit of snack sneaking).

From my home to yours, I wish each and all of you a very blessed and heart-full-of-love Christmas season.

Blessings,

Angelina

Containing My Button Collection

Do you ever tell someone you’re collecting something and then they start collecting that item for you too? You end up receiving heartfelt gifts of stuffed bears, salt and pepper shakers, a little of this and a little of that to go with your compilation. This works nicely for a while, but after a few years, your personal collection is no longer a collection, it’s a huge mess of items gathering dust and you can no longer enjoy it because now you have way too many of the once unique items and absolutely no where to store them all.

With buttons, it seems to be a different story. When I tell someone I collect buttons, I very rarely receive a button to add to my every growing assortment. As well, there all kinds of fantastic ways to keep this menagerie in some kind of beautiful order and it never seems to grow old or even unreasonable as the collection grows and grows.
Buttons are truly unique in so many ways. They are vibrant, pastel, and shiny; they come in a huge rainbow of colors, large and small sizes and every shape imaginable. Some are highly collectible and very valuable whereas others are just distinctive, hold little value and only mean something special to you. While I’d love to take the time to get into individual buttons and collectability; I’m actually writing to tell you how I “contain” my buttons and manage to keep on collecting them year after wonderful year, button after wonderful button.

For me, buttons are magical. I love the textures, the colors, the shapes, and I love the dreamy thoughts they invoke of years gone by. A vast majority of my buttons sit in vintage containers above my computer desk. It’s here where I dream, write poetry, and catch up with so many others through emails, blogs and specialty groups on the web. Having my buttons surrounding me creates a sense of uniqueness in this room. It is here where many of my collages gather on the walls and photos of long ago relatives congregate. The vintage containers which house some of my buttons come in many shapes and sizes as well.

As you can see by the photos, a large glass butter churn and a vintage gumball machine are filled with these dreamy little items, while old glass milk jugs, mayonnaise churns and canning jars create wistful images of another era. This is how I manage to keep collecting; a button comes along, and into a jar it goes.

Sometimes, I find a special button; perhaps it is made of glass or celluloid…these I put into the antique candy container because they may hold more value and they are certainly more fragile then many others. By keeping them in a separate container, I can enjoy them more and I can share these magnificent pieces with others when they are in awe over the exceptionality of my collection.

I do have one container, a large decorative box with a pull off lid which sits at the end of my hall. It’s this box that I pull from for creating ATCs, and other arts and crafts. This box is also the button box my grandson is allowed to look through. As you can see, the box is full of all shapes and sizes and it is here where I also keep the bags in which my grandson and I can separate the buttons into the same colors as well as same type of buttons. This turns out to be a lot of fun and is a great learning experience as well.
The one thing I’ve learned as a grandma is that “Every grandma needs a button box.” A button box is amazing and hours of time just pass by with games and imagination, math and matching. It’s also a bit difficult to get the legs working again when it’s time to get up off the floor so I would recommend a few stretching breaks now and then.

I’ve enjoyed sharing my collection with you. Please share your thoughts and ideas about buttons and collecting by leaving something in the comments section of this post. I’d love to hear all about them.

Gothic Arch Weekly Challenge

On Sunday of each week, the Gothic Arch ning site adds a new challenge for us. This week our hostess, Dawn Bryson came up with a great idea, to use buttons.

Buttons are the one thing I have a lot of. Vintage jars and clear vintage containers hold only a small portion of my collection. This Wednesday, when I start my weekly blog post on "Organizational Ideas," I'll give you a glimpse of my wonderful collection and show you how I've managed to keep collecting these tiny wonders without them spilling all over into the whole house.

So enough about my button collection and back to our wonderful Hostess at the "Gothic Arch" site. Dawn posted this information for us to follow along with the challenge:

"This week, I wanted to do something I thought everyone could play with.. Buttons! I love them on cards, and of course on arches. Create your arch this week using buttons, it can be holiday, vintage etc.. just as long as it has buttons on it. Yeah, more than one would be nice but one counts too!! (lol) Have fun creating! (-Dawn)"

If you'd like to take a look at Dawns creations and Gothic Arch, hop on over to her delightful site, The Chatty Stamper and take a look around.

Thanks for the challenge Dawn. I love creating the Gothic Arches and this one was especially fun.

For my arches I used three seperate papers. The bottom is a new glitter paper I found and the other two I've had in my paper stash for a while. I used "Stickles" icicle glitter glue around the edges of the top layers and the little girl is a purchase I made from Art Chix Studio. I applied Perfect Pearls (Ranger) in Pearl and Interference Blue...It was suppose to look a bit like snow (lol).

Blessings,

Angelina

Great Contest at "Angela's Heartwork"

If you are loving the idea of joining in a contest or just love entering blogs for a prize, here's a new site I just came upon today. Yep, she and I share the same name...but she is much younger than I am (lol). All you need to do is check out her Etsy shop Angela's Heartwork and find one of her prints that you like best (very difficult to do as there are so many wonderful photos), add some of her contest information to your own blog then return to her blog and add the information to her comments.

Anyway, skip on over there and see what her contest is all about. She explains it far better than I have. It's always fun to find new bloggers and see what creative people are all about.

OMG! I'm the Featured Member at ECS

I am so surprised to find out the I am the featured member at Etsy Cottage Style this week. What a great honor this is.

Thank you ECS for such a delightful surprise to start out my week. I truly am excited and just had to post to my blog so others would know to stop by ECS and discover what a great place this ning site is. Everyone at ECS are such fun, creative, and inspiring people.

Blessings,
Angelina

Stop By the Treasure Barn and Vote

Patti at the Treasure Barn has posted the ATCs for the Halloween Swap Challenge. Click on over to her site and vote for the most unusual card.

While yhou're there, also take a look at the spider webs she's photographed. They're amazing even to me and I am not a huge spider fan at all. They make me cringe just a bit, and jump on furniture if a rather large one is crossing the floor in front of me.

Read on through my blog about Cookie Sunshine's giveaway and also see that I am finally back in the swing of things and writing in my blog and listing my art as I go.

Thanks for stopping by,
Angelina

Cookie Sunshine and Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Donna "Cookie" Gotlib, at The Cookie Sheet, is having a give away at her site for one of her delightfully artistic illustrations...she writes in her blog: I haven't had a giveaway in a while so I decided that this is a good time to have one. As most of you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I've decided to give away a hand signed 8 x 10 matted and framed copy of my original illustration and rhyme "Princess Pink".

Breast cancer certainly touched our lives here at home; in 1989, my husband's mother lost her fight with breast cancer. In all these years, not a day goes by that we don't think of her. Her courage and daily "positive" outlook at life, even through her struggles, will always be my inspiration to find positives in each day.

Cancer.org says "For information about breast cancer, please visit www.cancer.org/breastcancer, or call us toll free at 1-800-ACS-2345, anytime, day or night."

Blessings,
Angelina

Halloween ATC Swap

Well, it's that time of year when many of us gather together in costume form and enjoy each others company while little trick-or-treaters come knocking at the door. It is also the time of year when we exchange Artist Trading Cards, join holiday swaps and discover new friends along the way.


I came across a such swap hosted by Patti at the Treasure Barn. She is looking for the most unusual Halloween ATC...although mine are not very unusual; I did enjoy using the glittery witch and crow which I had purchased earlier thinking there should be something I could make with them. Patti decided she'd take votes on the ATCs, and the person with the most unusual would win a prize from her. It's hard to resist the thought of winning a prize, but really, I'm just glad to meet new people by stopping by to read their blogs, and be inspired by their art and photographs.

Others involved in the swap are: Whispers of Inspiration, Out of the Mouth Your Heart Speaks, Blackberry Creek Home Arts, A Vintage Heart, and The Treasure Barn. If you get a chance, stop by their sites and see their Halloween ATCs, and read their blogs as well. There are many interesting ideas, thoughts and inspirations being shared by so many creative and wonderful people.

Enjoy,
Angelina

Time Slips Away While Painting

I've been taking some online classes by Paulette Insall. This one is called Organic Dimensions. It's been a lot of fun and I've so enjoyed the process. Paulette is a delight to follow in her lessons and she creates a fun and exciting place to learn.

These are created on 12x12 canvases. The Robin painting still needs words added to one side...thinking I'll add the latin words for "Robin," or something like that. The original image I picked up at the "Graphic Fairy" website. If you need an excellent copyright free image, she has so many there at her website to choose from; holidays, angels, fairies, cute children and delightful women...the list could go on and on. So this image I am using was a black and white image. I printed it out on a good quality paper, let it dry well, then applied it to the canvas with Goldens Gel Matte Medium. After it dried I painted it in with acrylics.

The Angel image came from a 1953 Ideals magazine. I applied Matte Medium to her in the same way as above. Once it was dry, I recolored the image with Caran D'Ache Neocolor II wax pastels (a purchase from Dick Blick). I can't tell you just how fabulous these wax sticks are; they blend like magic and are so much fun to work with. I was addicted with the first use of them and will continue to find ways to use them in more of my art in the future. I also used the wax sticks to add a layer of dimension to the background to give it the pinks and yellows that I was looking for. Her wing is from a string of butterflies I have hanging in my art space, poor little butter fly got one wing section clipped off and now he sits a bit sideways. The wings were stark, bright white so I inked over them with a bit of Tim Holtz vintage photo distressing ink.

Paulette's class has really helped me add new dimension to my backgrounds and I'm loving the whole process of painting in a new direction.