Tales from Studio Mailbox

Fun with Ferns

Last fall I made a collection of Leaf Me Alones and this year I've been having fun with ferns.  The first time I tried this was years ago when I would paint orders of terra-cotta pots for greenhouses.  Spending some time in the woods inspired me to do it again.

It was the kind of crispy cold dry day where the paint dried nearly as fast as I could dispense it from the cans.  The fast results are why spray painting is so fun and what makes it so easy to keep layering colors.

It's best to press your leaves flat for a day or two but to still use them when they are green and flexible.  Dry brittle leaves move too much under the force of the spraying paint.

Ferns are just so prehistoric and cool. I like when some of the arms curl a little bit as if the plant is trying to wave at you.

Then again, it's possible that it's curling in an attempt to wave a white flag and get me to stop suffocating it in coat after coat of paint...

Arty Bicycles

Is anybody else hypnotized by department store window dressing? 

Well look at the bicycle craziness I discovered while walking the streets of London...and just when I was thinking of throwing out that giant bag of seashells sitting in the world's biggest cupboard.

And to think I dislike my mountain bike because it's orange.  Who would've thought the problem is that it just needs MORE orange!

Sorry it's too late to inspire you for your 4th of July parades...but maybe we should just go alter our bikes anyway.

Sew Through Stuff

I'm becoming braver and braver with the sewing machine, and I think you should too. I've been wildly making concentric squares, puncturing photos and just yesterday going through sequins when the glue was still wet beneath them ** gulp.**  It's amazing what a machine can take!! 

(Of course you should remove the presser foot at the end and clean off any gunked-up gluey residue, but other than that - go for it). 

Having previously sewn through plastic, I'm begining to wonder how thick you dare try.  I'll have to find my wrap-around safety glasses before broken needles start flying...

This was a postcard for Kelli who we need to keep sending postal love!

Wrapping Paper Beads

Don't you dare throw out those little skinny wrapping paper scraps...! 

I don't know about you, but I'm finding I even have some that are already triangular shaped and ready to be rolled into paper beads.  These could be another embellishing element for a future Holiday Altered Book.

While the rest of the world relaxes as the holidays unfold, may I suggest you never let your glue sticks rest?  Next year I'm making a holster so I can quick-draw mine.

"What's this in the salad?" my guests will ask. 

"Umm, oh.  That's a paper bead."  I'll answer timidly.  (It must've been stuck to my apron while I was working in the kitchen. GULP - think quickly TJ...think quickly). 

"What?  A bead made of paper?"

"Yes.  In my country we add them to holiday salads for a decorative effect.  They're full of protein."

Gift Wrap ATCs

Wouldn't it be great if we saved some samples from our favorite holiday papers every year and then created a set of sampler ATCs? 

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we really got our acts together and prepped altered books with pockets and windows for these ATCs?

Every year we could design a few spreads in the book, using that year's papers.  Imagine what our books would look like over time! 

A neighbor of mine gave me with a present wrapped in paper with a pretzel design!

I painstakingly opened it protecting each pretzel within the repeating pattern.  She looked at me like I was bonkers.  "The gift is inside the paper," her bewildered eyes said.

"Paper pretzels shall live forever," my demented mind cried.

Leaf Me Alone

It's the time of year where you can gather some of nature's most beautiful colors right off the ground you're walking on.  There are oodles of things to do with leaves.  Rubbings, skeletonizing, sewing or glueing them directly into collages. 

If you happen to own a laminator like I do... chuck one in-between your substrate and slip it through your machine.  Sprinkle in a note or glitter or anything else that won't add to the bulk and thickness of your already textured leaf.

Cut generously around the laminated shape, add a quick rivet and hang by a fishing line.  Hang a bunch of them randomly throughout your house, and if you're standing back from a distance you can pretend the leaves are actually suspended right in mid-air. 

Orange = Creation

Studio Mailbox has quite possibly stumbled onto a conspiracy!!  Countless times I've compared my experiences living between countries and suddenly something very important has occured to me.

Home Depot, Home Base, and OBI, the major home improvement stores in the USA, England, and Germany all primarily use the color orange in their marketing and corporate identities.  Come to think of it, so do Menards and Hornbach.

The color orange is associated with the second (sacral) chakra and symbolizes many things including creativity.

So isn't it interesting that all these places use this color to lure us in to purchase wares for our home  remodeling and decorating projects...?  I think I'm totally onto something big here.  I wonder what the rest of the world's home store colors are...

Random Creative Prompt

I've decided that Studio Mailbox should offer a little something now and then to it's blog readers.

Therefore, I will be offering irregular strange and random creative prompts.  They will be intended for the most desperate creatives who've pretty much hit rock bottom.  Of course everyone is welcome to use them and go wherever the prompt takes them.

Remember "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handey on SNL? 

Yeah?  Inspiring stuff.

Anyhoo.  Here's the first and perhaps the only prompt I'll be listing:

What if Bert were German?

Let me know if anybody runs with this please.  I just can't quit laughing ever since I found this doll...!  I hope he at least makes you smile.