Welcome!

Thank you for visiting artful embellishments. This is the third year for this blog and I am so happy to keep publishing. I started in 2011 and began with a quilt of the week, this lead to the leaf of the week for my newly designed paper tree that is located on the wall of my garage in 2012.......2013 is going to bring a lot of excitement and positive change. As a personal challenge for 2013, I plan on designing a artist trading card each week to be featured on the blog.
With so many interests, there will be quilting, art quilting, leaves (and more leaves), as well as experiments in thermofax screen printing, fabric dying, and tons of DIY recycle projects. I may even enter that altered fashion scene. To a happy and healthy 2013, may we all find happiness in those things we create....thank you for stoping by artful embellishments.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Scallop Garland Swap

ArtChix sponsored a scallop garland swap. I couldn't resist the opportunity to work with glue and glitter again! So I started making the scallops. I ran into a small problem which will be featured in the next blog post. SHHHH don't tell anyone I did them upside down. So I have some extra's for my design board in my studio.

I did enjoy making these. The theme was "The Sea". I must say I just love the mermaids! The Swap is September 12 and I will feature those I receive sometime in late September!

Monday, August 26, 2013

Art Cards 5 X 7

A while back I had made some substrates on diet coke cardboard. Here are some of the pieces of art that I have done over the past few weeks. I decided to work a little bigger in a 5" X 7" format since I tend do a lot of ATC's. I have always had trouble going outside of the lines. So my plan is to do a lot of work prior to "cutting" the shape of my art. It makes going outside of the lines a lot easier!
After building up the layers I have added images, stamps, and 3D embellishments. These are very fun and fast to do. I like the sense of completing some pieces of art as some of my quilts take months to finish.



Sunday, August 25, 2013

ArtChix Garden Swap Part 2

 So this time I decided to swap double. I made 12 and received 12 ATC cards for the ArtChix Garden Swap.  Such delightful surprises.  Here 7 thru 12 of the cards I received.


ATC 7 was done by Mimi Dzyacky.  She lives in Germany an what an honor it has been to receive her card twice!!!! I received one of hers in the ATC Nest Swap!!!

I love her ability to layer and to use unique elements. I will cherish this one!


ATC 8 Sure to Grow was done by Melanni Partridge. I like this one because it has that whimsical look. I am not able to achieve this fun loving, easy going style.















ATC 9 Find Places to Grow was done by Kelly Barrow. I absolutely adore the hand holding the flowers!
ATC 10 was done by Ruth Setzer. I just love this romantic dress!
 ATC 11 Beauty was done by Nancy Pyter. This fabric floral is right up my alley and sparked a ton of creative ideas.  I love her ability to make embellishments out of fabric.
ATC 12 Done by Bonnie Ashurst was so unique. I love the monochromatic color choice and the use of the number 9.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

ATC ArtChix Garden Swap

 Well I received my ATC cards from the Garden ArtChix Swap! What a pleasant surprise! The ATC had to contain one element from ArtChix and the theme was garden!!!! So hear comes the creativity..........



The first card "Beauty" is by Peggy Stork.
ATC 2 This card is by ArtChix creator Helga Strauss. She is a ATC girl's dream. If you haven't checked out her website, please do, it is like revisiting your best arts and crafts memory!
ATC 3 is Miranda Bantly. Her style is probably the closest to mine. I love the 3D embellished flowers and heart!
 ATC 4 Sue Harmon created this floral wonder!
















ATC 5 was done by Christina Newman-Aumiller.
Her's was so original as it was on canvas and painted. Truly unique!

ATC 6 This card was done by Susan Shockley. I absolutely love the red background, and poppies are my all time favorite flower.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Quilting Arts Friends and Devotion Challenge


Quilting Arts Magazine's latest challenge is titled friends and devotion! I have had this photograph of three of my golden's for a few years now.  They were lined up to get peanut butter with their vitamins!  They were the best of buds! Their friendship was so amazing. I have always loved Andy Warhol, so I thought I would try to mimic his technique in an art quilt!

Monday, August 12, 2013

Leaves 251-265 and The Tree!

 Well I hate making promises that I don't keep. So I finally got the tree together this weekend. I added leaves 251-265. Hard to believe I have been able to make that many leaves in 1.5 years.   They are usually made from recycled materials and other projects that didn't turn out so hot.  It looks like I had a lot of fun failures!


The tree is such a treat. It is in my garage so I get to see it every day.  It stands just over 6 feet tall, so I do need the step stool.  The leaves were falling all over the place since the two sided tape was not working out in the summer heat and humidity.  I took the time this weekend to stitch all the leaves together, making big clumps.  This seems to be working wonderfully and in case I move it will be easy to disassemble!

A toast to turning frustration and mishaps in a colorful work of art!

Sunday, August 11, 2013

ATC 115-120

 ATC 115 Breathe
I just love these colors. I don't use them very often in my art work, so I love when I can put them together.  I love the word breathe.  Sometimes when things get stressful that is all it takes to get back to center.














ATC 116 Alphabet
This was a bit serendipitous.
I had made this fabric paper and the letters came out as you see them. All I did was add a few 3D elements and I loved it just the way it is.
ATC 117 Be Free
I loved this balloon. Again it was in the fabric paper I made, so I added the little girl and the words.  Who hasn't lost a balloon before?  I don't know, but it seems like as I get older is so much easier to let go.....
ATC 118 Aloha
I had this image of this hawaiian woman. I couldn't resist putting the larger than life flowers in her hair.
 ATC 119 Circus Maximus
Ok I am a big sap. I don't like the circus. I think it is cruel to the animals.  However this elephant seemed pretty happy so I decided to use one of my favorite backgrounds for him.
ATC 120 Journey
This was a tough one. I wanted to call it "lost without directions".  Can't help but tease men about asking for directions......However journey seemed to fit!  These two guys were smart enough to cab it!

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Leaves 221-250

I haven't put any leaves up in a while so I thought I would throw them into the mix. My tree was wilting in the summer heat! It did so well over the winter. I adhered the leaves with pins to the cardboard tree trunk.  Well some of the leaves I adhered to other leaves using two sided tape. When the July heat wave hit, that didn't work out so well. The last few days I have actually been sewing the leaves together. So I should have a picture of the new and improved tree here shortly.






These leaves are made from various substrates including painted paper, scrap book paper, water color paper towel, and other scraps. I enjoy this tree so much and since it is in my garage it is still a conversation piece with neighbors! Here are leaves 221-250 and suffice it to say the tree still is looking bare!


Thursday, August 1, 2013

ATC 111-114

 As you can see the addiction hasn't subsided.  I am still making ATC cards. I am however, trying something different by painting a large canvas. More of that to come.


ATC 111 You! I love this little card. It is a mixed of all types of media. I am not sure where my love of birds comes from, but I do love them. This card just fell together and I love the bright colors. Not my normal palette.

ATC 115 Floral sat around for a while. It took me a while to find all my cool doo dads. I did end up liking this card even though it has a more earth tone appeal.



ATC 113 Sentimental was done using an image from an old book. I enjoyed this background also as it was by complete accident the periwinkle and the orange came together.




ATC 114 Explore was a fun one. It incorporated my love of maps. They add such a great amount of color. There are also those fabulous rub ons by 7 gypsies.  Finally the Tim Holtz clock face. Too much fun with the dimension.