returning from the art nest

i am home from such a fabulous weekend at the art nest!! i had an amazing time. i loved the classes, all the snow, everyone i met, and the food was over the top delish. . . here are the darling stockings for each of us filled with vintage goodies and chocolate and all the cool artists that attended (except jayne, so sorry sweetey you were sick that night)



my first class was with anahata katkin, symbolic icons. i had no idea what to bring for this class but just threw in some paper ephemera and copied faces. it was down right incredible to watch anahata work! she works quickly and intuitively with lots of color, pattern, and movement. to give you an idea of the artistic abandon going on she rolled right through her sample piece with ink on a pizza cutter!!
i had such a great time watching her doodle all over her pieces with white and black pens. i was blown away by how cool it all looked together.
here is my first piece in progress. i am actually so glad i took this photo, look at the difference. check out how bad the vintage ledger paper bubbled when i used gel medium. regular old glue stick actually worked better to stick the paper down, then i used gel mediuim over the top.



this is 'the snail cart' completed.

my second piece started out like such a dud. i tried to sew on the page and then add dribbled ink. total disaster, so i turned the paper over quick before anahata could see it and began again.
here is 'miss western hemisphere'. i really like all the black and white doodling! i brought pitt pens and five new micron pens and they didn't really work. the magic is the uni-ball pen. it wrote all over everything!! plus my all time favorite white gel pen uni-ball signo.


here is anahata at the end of the day at our show and tell with her piece. each of us showed the pieces we created in her class and talked about what we did. it was amazing the work that everyone created that day with anahata's suggestions. if you ever have the opportunity to take a class from her, totally go for it!!
the sun is just streaming through the cabin windows around anahata like a halo. what a lovely day. . .

anahata's very cool kit filled with her collage bits and pieces




anahata and jen working on jen's very cool and colorful symbolic icon.

after the class i wanted to try working on a smaller piece and made this collage 'flower face' i just feel more comfortable working small. i made myself do the big collage on canvas with the class and was surprised how much i really liked it!

tickled pink!

this is the big smile that was on my face when i opened my mailbox and found a big padded envelope from stampington & co with this inside!


such a fun surprise before christmas when staci dumoski emailed me about featuring my blog in the next issue of artful blogging! ( it was a heart attack enough just seeing her name in my email inbox! )
i had a hard time waiting for my copy to arrive. i started seeing little peeks around blogland. i was ready to go buy a copy because i am so impatient, but my barnes and noble sold out in one day! lucky for me it arrived this week. ( i had plans to drive to the next barnes and noble 60 miles away :)
for the past two days i have been enthralled with the photos and text from all the inspiring blogs featured. right on the cover is a beautiful silver glitter star surrounded by roses by my art friend marilyn! her blog outside the lines is featured as well and shows such a lovely collection of her amazing photographs.



there is pink everywhere i look today! here is a stack of flocked hankies just waiting to be remade into some new project. the little heart is made from some vintage fabric i found at quilt market last spring and the tiny pearl beads are from a broken vintage necklace.



even more pink, here is the little card i made to go inside my art nest trades. i am having such a hard time printing off copies.
how do you do it??
i have tried scanning and printing, copying at the copy store, having the copy store scan and adjust the image and every time it comes out blurry because of the depth of the items i glued on. i dropped it off at the photo shop to have a digital image taken in a photo box but isn't there an easier way to get a nice image reproduced?
please share your tips. . .



then with all the pink happiness i've had this week the valentine fairy (my daughter hannah) stopped by and left this for me. she is sweet- the fairy and my hannah.
xo julie

looking forward to summer art nest!

tomorrow is the big day, registration for the june art nest opens and i am so excited!


stephanie lee has a new book coming out, semi-precious salvage and the cover alone has me counting down the days to its release. i took a class from stephanie last fall making chain and soldered bezels. it was really amazing. she will be teaching a new class 'junk drawer metalsmithing' where she will be showing how to cast 3d objects and fabricate metal boxes and shrines that can be filled with plaster or resin.



i have always adored carla sonheims work. i am so drawn to the innocent and whimsical figures. in carla's workshop we will be completing dozens of drawings using a variety of media including pencil, charcoal, ink, and crayon focusing on creating pieces that are fanciful, silly, odd, and fun!



alma stoller is a mixed media artist that makes the coolest, funky fabric baubles and a collection of fabric oddities. she will be teaching altered fabric techniques and dimensional appliques that are combined with embroiderey in her class 'tapestry art quilt'.



the summer art nest it is going to be a wonderful weekend spent in Park City, Utah creating art and enjoying the beautiful mountain wildflowers. washington school inn. it is the most lovely old school house turned bed and breakfast. we will have the whole inn to ourselves for four days. here is candice outside the inn, can you even believe how much snow we have right now?


the art classes will be a few steps down the street in the studio space at the cool kimball art center. they just finished hosting a huge exhibit for the sundance film festival and we got to see some of the art as they were changing the show.



one of our favorite places to go in park city is bistro 412. we are reserving the whole restaurant for our catered french dinner. the waiter posed a little too happily for this photo and spouted french to us as we sampled a few of the items on the menu. we tasted the baked brie, sauteed shitake musrooms, creamy scalloped potatoes baked with bread crumbs, and cinnamon raisin bread pudding with rum sauce. yum! hope you can join us. xo julie

love letters . . .

the love letter valentine kit is a treasure tin 5" X 3" filled with vintage treats for you to make your own valentines.
please click on image for a larger view.

contents: cupid the postman ( with a conveniently placed box of chocolates ) is a german scrap image from the 1920's, two sizes of german paper lace originally used to line candy boxes, vintage ledger paper that folds into a tiny envelope, dennison red bordered labels size 201 and 205 ( i do not recommend licking them after all these years ), a bundle of vintage string resting on a length of pink polka dot bias trim, wound around a vintage playing card is some red and pink lace that may have been on your mothers housecoat in 1950, a spray of red lily of the valley, tiny pink flocked daisies, several red velvette hearts and a cream applique, hand sewn crepe paper ruffle 1/2" wide, and finally several seals punched from vintage wallpaper, ledger paper and crepe paper.



from my studio these valentines made with elements from the love letters kit



velvette daisies, ledger paper and vintage rhinestones. stickles glitter glue in platinum by ranger.





wool felt heart stitched to water color paper with a silk blossom from a vintage hat.





dennison red bordered label with ruffled crepe paper. sewn with metalic silver thread on vintage wallpaper.



vintage velvet pillow used to make the stuffed heart sewn on paper with red lily of the valley flower buds with pearl centers.
small vintage pearl earing surrounded by a piece of tatting from an old collar. titled- love life



for your purchase there are 10 love letter valentine kits available for $24.95, shipping and handling to the US will be $4.95.
please email me at juliecollings2003@hotmail.com to order your own valentine.

xo julie

holiday favorites

i have already gathered a pile of red, pink, and cream colored treasures on my desk to start working on valentine's day projects but i have to post my christmas favorites before i begin the next holiday!

this is my old blue planter i fill with favorite vintage things and set out on my desk right at hand for decorating packages and gifts. the tiny bottle brush trees are only 1 1/2 inches tall and they have been so fun to use to dress up my tiny paper houses from japan.


i remember my mom staying up late on christmas eve making doll clothes for me and my sisters. it seems i inherited this tradition. i wanted to finish olivia's stocking for her as a surprise on christmas morning so i was up past midnight stitching away. when we finally began filling the stockings and setting out gifts the snow was falling thick out in front of the house and we saw a fox scurry past in the snow and head up the mountain. a little magic!

i still use this stocking i got when i was six, so many memories attached to this funny thing. it has a bit of a chunky shape, but i like being able to tuck in an orange and some small wrapped gifts. i traced the shape for olivia's stocking and used some of the same designs for decorating.


when i was a girl we used santa mugs like these on christmas morning for our hot cocoa and blueberry muffins. i was so excited to find a set of six with a matching pitcher for my own family to use this year. then just a couple weeks later i came across a set of tiny santa mugs only 2 inches tall.


my friend candice put together this gorgeous present for me! it is an old bread tin with the most wonderful vintage images on it.
tucked inside was a collection of vintage holiday gifts. this bottle brush tree and wrapped tape measure.


and then these beautiful ric rac earings. martha steward did a feature on vintage ricrac a couple of years ago and showed how to make these flowers. really lovely with the pearl centers.




kari surprised me with this stocking at silver bella! she used vintage wallpapers and trims to decorate the stocking in such a funky style.


then i got this big box from cassondra. she mailed me a fantastic wall pocket to hang all my christmas cards. perfect colors don't you think?



our family exchanged small gifts this year. we could make them or buy them but the rule was only spend $4.00 on each person. the kids came up with the best things. hannah wrote and illustrated a children's book for me called 'henry the ugly christmas tree'. it is so fantastic, we couldn't believe it. marina made everyone a little painting and used the free downloadable tags from the small object and decorated each one.







this is one of the star ornaments i made to give away this year packaged up with a tag made from a page copied out of my nostalgic book of days. i shrunk the original page so i could print 8 to a page then cut out each one and added glass glittere where it was on the original image.



i am glad we are knee deep in snow as i want to hold on to these holiday memories for a while and the blanket of white makes me think christmas will be here again soon.

julie

december again . . .

i look so forward to december every year. christmas has to be one of my favorite holidays. i love the vintage holiday ornaments and christmas lights covered in snow. it seems we are always baking something together and my studio becomes littered with scaps of wrapping. there are secrets in the air and the tree smells so good. we make hot cocoa and sit by the tree waiting for that special night. now that i won't spoil the surprise here is what we sent my sister kris in florida.




the santa cup is only 2 inches tall and says 10 cents made in japan. tapegirl painted the merry monster and the snow bunny in the top photo. she has a new blog up--i know i'm going to love it!
i made the vintage stars for the ornament i gave away this year.
tomorrow i am taking down the tree and all the decorations. i guess i will pack away the tinsel and garland. school starts already on wednesday.
looking forward to december next year this is my calendar page for december 2008.
our art group is putting together a calendar with each of us taking a month. here is marilyn's february calendar to get you excited about valentines day.
i'll link up the other months as the gals post them. we get to see the whole thing at our January art group. cant wait!


and here are a couple more pages that i made for my nostalgic book of days.





time to say goodbye to the chex mix and dark chocolate orange sticks, sleeping in and staying up way too late! we are planning on making tempura veggies tomorrow night to welcome the new year. i hope you are planning some wonderful festivities for tomorrow.

happy, happy, julie