Ribbon Inspriation Board Tutorial

This silver painted frame has been kicking around my basement for a while now. I have been wanting to make a vision/inspiration ribbon board for my studio, but I didn't want to go out and buy more "stuff". So this frame got a good scrubbing and about six coats of a creamy white milk paint that I had left over from another project. 

I cut a piece of foam core board to fit the inside of the frame and a
piece of quilt batting to measure just about 1/2" smaller than that
and a piece of a vintage wool blanket to measure 4" larger than the board.
You don't want the batting to overlap the board or else it won't fit
the frame.

Next I pulled in the corners and held them down with tape.

I then folded in the sides and I stiched up that mitered fold. You could glue it
but I didn't want too much glue on the back since I wanted to poke the needle through
to hold the buttons.

I did hot glue the ribbon, but only because I was not going to have enough to be
too generous with it. I bleached some vintage seam binding to get the color I wanted.

I then carefully poked holes in with this vintage hat pin.
EEEK! CAUTION: be mindful of where your hands are when poking.
I almost got a poke right thru my hand!

I placed a 1/2" button on the front..

and a 1/4" button on the back.

then tied a tight couple or knots on the front button.
I like to see the cut thread ends.

I am so happy with this...

I absolutely love all the textures going on here.

The finished project!

As you can see it will not take me long to fill this board with inspirations!

Happy Valentine's Day!

A peek at the Valentines Day decorations that I placed around the house.
The mantle in my living room decorated with some heart shapes and a vintage card.

I loved these two snowy owls at Christmas time and just couldn't put them away.

Owl always love this little twig tree!!

Another vintage card with some of my art.

Hope you have a lovely day!

Studio in January

Ahhhhh….

January is the month to reorganize my studio space. I will not share photos of the mess that started back in September, but after the holiday craft fair flurry my studio needed a major cleaning!

 I took these photos back in January, but I was having issues with Picasa and couldn't figure out how to

 download them to this blog. However all is good now, I finally 'got it'!

 It feels so good to have every thing all organized and dusted of and ready for the New Year.

Mixed Media Paintings That Are in the Show at Cornell Street Gallery

I entitled this one "Umbrella Love" for the show but I really wanted to call it
"The Early Promise". That's what I will call it after the show.

"Love is Color Blind"

"I Love You From Afar"

Three new mixed media paintings thatare currently showing at Cornell Street Gallery's "Art and Music Show". The opening is this weekend, February 11th. The musician David Temple will be there for the opening festivities. If you are in the Kinston, NY area it promises to be a lovely evening.
I will have prints posted on my etsy site sometime this week.

Lilies

Lilies are such a beautiful flower. The shape of the petals and the way they curl is just so graceful. I did this painting last year and relisted it on ETSY this week. It has reminded me that I need to explore this flower some more.

Gingerbread Houses

My good old Kitchen Aid mixer getting ready for our yearly batch of gingerbread.

Goodies of all kinds waiting to decorate our houses.

A few busy elves.

My sisters and nieces and dare I say it great-nieces!

For the past three or four years we, my sisters and nieces and I (and when I can convince them... a few very special people) get together and make gingerbread houses.

Will we win any prizes? We think so and each year we have been getting better at it.

But the main thing is having fun and sharing memories during this very busy season.

Cyber Monday Listings

I should have posted these last night to be ready for early morning shoppers, but yard work was screaming out to me and my husband yesterday. I had purchased some bushes that really needed to be planted and I was busy digging twelve holes (yes twelve)! My knees were killing me last night. We also need to get the leaves up from the front yard at least so the house dosen't look so awful. I think that we have the most leaves in the whole neighborhood!

Anyway these sweet birdies can be yours on esty today.

I have made them out of painted muslin with fabric wrapped wire legs.