a halloween wish. . .

last year on this post i made a halloween wish. . .

i wished for an art group. i wanted to be part of a family of artists that would meet together for a whole evening of art. a show and tell of the amazing things we were all working on, great things we had found, little trades for everyone, tasty things to eat. . .of course dark chocolate, and the time to talk about everything with each other. I wanted to stay up late into the night creating, laughing, and then finally packing up and driving home feeling alive again.

the wonderful thing about wishes that you set free is they start to come true.

right after that i went to art and soul in portland and met several amazing women that live right here in utah. we got together for our first ever art group at my house a few weeks later. there were five of us that first night.
since then we have been looking for others that might have the same wish. we looked at workshops and retreats, online and on blogs, we even had the idea to put little post-it personal ads in the issues of Somerset Studio and Cloth Paper Scissors at our local Barnes and Noble inviting artists to join us. someone was buying up those magazines!

a year later and there are now 14 members in our art group! we come from such different backgrounds, each in different stages of our lives, facing our own struggles, with different areas of experience, but we all have one thing in common--the need to make art.


i look so forward to art night. what a blast we have together. i can't even describe how important these women have become to me. dear friends my art family.

so maybe you have a wish. . . send it my way. i have my lucky jeans on today, you never know what might happen.
xo julie


here is the goody bag sherri and i put together for our art group this month and my boo box.



we were making halloween shadowboxes like these amazing ones in Somerset Studio September/October 2207 below by Kerry Howard-Schmidt.



creepy cute stuff:
the owl egg at the top is made out of paper clay, incredible detail. i bought it at vendors night art and soul portland this month from Sue Hadden. (Thanks LK for your help with the artists name!) i'll let you know if i find a website or any other info for her. she made really creepy cool dolls also.

sherri bought this cat from the halloween and vine show in california. she is made out of a black nylon stocking. couldn't love the face and necklace any more! let me know if you recognize this artist as well.

in my studio and our birthday boy. . .

the sparrows post is up and running! exciting news for those of us waiting for candice to finally start a blog. this week she is having people give a link to their blog and post about what is in their studio.
for me my studio was burried with the start of teaching again this fall, every little detail to finish before the first day.
then i have been working madly towards a book deadline this week. all the gorgeous colors of wool roving from ornamentea are everywhere, the beads are piling up in these vintage childrens bread pans and my desk has many layers of beads, strings, baubles, fabrics, glitter, pliers, glue, pins, notes, designs, (not even the whole list) i barely have room to move.
then this week we are celebrating the 11th birthday for my favorite (and only) son!! happy birthday burke.
i took this series of pictures of him when we went to goblin valley this summer. southern utah has the most amazing red rocks in the world. goblin valley is a huge valley of red rock sculptures that have eroded away into the weirdest formations called hoodoos.
this is his amazing jump. . .




you can get an idea how huge the hoodoos are when you see how small burke is in this picture.
we picked blackberries and raspberries at the farm today for his birthday cheesecake. i suggested to the farmer he should round the amount on the scale up a bit as i admitted we ate quite a few while picking and the darling old man said 'good, i would have wondered if you hadn't'

i love people like that.

birthday wishes

happy birthday brushes to my wonderful friend candice! the felt rolls up and ties with a big vintage velvet ribbon. this old hat flower is sewn over the ribbon.


we had lunch at trio, stopped for chocolates at xocolate, went to libery heights for fresh flowers, the olive bar, and our favorite cheese prima donna. then stopped at a funky store emiliejayne where i found these gorgeous beads and vintage lace pieces. the tiny tatted edging is my favorite!

sewing on paper--an artful blogger tutorial

how wonderful to join kari at ArtsyMama today for her artful blogger party! congratulations kari on your wonderful article and such a lovely post today.

to celebrate with everyone in blogland today i am posting a tutorial on sewing on paper. i started out as a young girl sewing with fabric and as i moved more to creating with paper and all things mixed media i continued sewing. . . .
i use sewing instead of glue to attach papers, fabrics, flowers, buttons, beads, photos, and anything else i want to hold in place. the stitches become decorative as well as functional in each piece of art. i will show you step by step sewing on paper by hand and with a sewing machine, give some of my best tips, and then show some examples of how sewing can be incorporated as a design element. i loaded all the pictures really big so you can click on them for a close-up view!

when sewing by hand first mark your holes with a pencil for placement.

place your artwork over a piece of cardboard box to support it then with a large head pin poke through each hole. thread a large eyed needle with some embroidery floss or vintage string. tie a knot at the end and begin stitching by poking the needle up through the first hole in the back then down through the next hole. continue stitching to the last hole then tie off the thread on the back.


if you don't want a large knot in the back (especially if you are using heavy string) cut a small rectangle of book paper and with a glue stick glue the paper in place over the thread to hold it down.


when sewing by machine decide where you want your stitches to begin and insert your needle there. leave a long tail of thread so you can tie a knot at the back. stitch around your design.

i leave the needle down in the paper then lift up the presser foot to turn corners. when you are at the end of your stitching back stitch two or three stitches to hold in place or leave strings to tie in back. here is the back of the heart after stitching with both the top-red and bottom-blue threads pulled to the back.


tip* i use double-stick tape to hold papers in place for stitching or a paper clip on the edge.

here i have used red thread on top and blue thread in my bobbin to add contrast. lots of times i force myself to use whatever thread is already in my machine just to keep the colors interesting.



any kind of embroidery stitch can be worked on paper, like this daisy chain i used to outline a flower. notice a zig zag stitch and a straight stitch are used in the same photo with different colored threads. i look for a tall not wide eyed embroidery needle that is not too fat. that way the holes from the needle are not larger than the thread you are using. Piecemakers size 8 is a good in-between needle for floss.


a crossed stitch with beads.



here the stitching outlines the cut out stencil number and holds the photo in place.


i was so happy with the stitching around this photo! the trick is just keep going back and forth around the photo. like a one line drawing that is made without lifting your pencil.


large striped string holds down this button and crepe paper flower.


and sometimes the stitching is just for decoration.


have fun stitching on all your creations and send any sewing questions my way!
back to the party, xo julie

Holiday Art Nest goes live today!

for everyone that has been waiting for us to post the teachers and classes for the Holiday Art Nest it is up on the website today! you can view the classes and check out the teacher links then registration will open august 6th at 12:00 noon MST.

i am so excited to gather for a whole weekend in a wintery cabin and create these gorgeous vintage gifts with friends. i am imagining a lovely tree, the fireplace glowing, bowls of homemade holiday treats, fresh warm bread, piles of snow, baskets filled with slippers and mittens, and laughter. oh i just can't wait!!

i am teaching a vintage glitter village class where we will be taking an old cardboard house and redecorating it. the before and after shots are hilarious. it is so fun to take an old rumpled house with broken cellophane windows and sorely sagging decorations and spruce it up all sparkling for the holidays! my tiny person keeps arranging the houses in a little village and playing christmas with them.


candice elton has planned a class called the nostalgic book of days. a wonderous paper and paint project that combines vintage holiday images and a well worn book to record your thoughts of your traditions and wonderful memories of the holidays. i felt a little breathless after looking through her book last week and i just can't wait to start my own in a tall red book i found called the story of the other wise man, c1896.



sherri haab is teaching a fabulous class from one of her best selling books making silver metal clay charms with stones. she has a great collection of vintage buttons and molds that we will use to make the charms, then we will be firing the silver and sherri will teach us how to finish the charms and add them to a necklace or bracelet.

cerri campbell from tennesee is coming out to teach her holiday bird nest and christmas under glass. she will be bringing a collection of wonderful vintage things from her etsy store to sell at our holiday shop, can you just imagine?
i hope you can join me at our holiday nest this november, julie

pages for kari, and home again

my spring secrets book is home again! this has been my first round robin and what a great experience.
it was small only five of us and we only sent books around for a little over two months so over before i knew it.
it is so amazing to have these lovely pieces of art from friends in my book. such talented artists, i can't wait to meet them all someday. . .



these are the pages i sent of for kari's book and then the ones that came home in my book.
the little garden of flowers is adorable.

by kari
by lilia
by melissa
by cassondra

check these blogs and sites for more photos of this cool project. melissa, melissa's little yellow book for cassondra, kari, lilia, cassondra hasn't posted her photos yet but check out her latest two books!
we are announcing the november Artnest retreat in a week so i am taking photos today for our website and getting all the details together. it looks like christmas again in my studio!

21 years later. . .

i have had the most wonderful month.
the artnest was absolutely amazing, we spent the most beautiful day of my life together as a family in salt lake where this picture was taken. then we celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary and went on our second honeymoon to the incredible island of Kauai for a week.

we scuba dived for a day, went to a luau, walked the beaches and swam in the waves, ate the best mango of my life, took a boat tour along the napali coast and snorkeled on a coral reef, slept in as late as we wanted, ate dinner whenever we were hungry, and swam with sea turtles.

it was heaven! huge thanks to both sisters and my mom for the wonderful gift of a whole week for just the two of us.

a day with Kristin

Saturday at the Artnest was spent with Kristin Steiner creating fabric books on the theme 'I am a Woman Who'.
Here is the lovely packet that awaited each of us as we came to class. The lovely display of Kristin's work.



close-up of the flower kristin was wearing. we got the pattern in our class kits.


I have followed Kristin's artwork in many books and magazines, but I was so completely unprepared for how lovely her work would be in person. Even more amazing is meeting Kristin and taking a class from her! She had so many great techniques for combining paint, dyes, stencils, transfers, and ink to fabric. Really opened my world.
What was the most wonderful part of her class though was watching her teach. She has a real gift for expressing so honestly her heart. She invited close inspection of ourselves and what we most wanted to say with our art. She was completely open and encouraging.



rebecca, amanda, and angel with their fabric book projects.
I have taught classes before but have always held back that most personal part of myself and my connection to the art I create. I guess the distilled atmosphere I usually have while teaching helps me feel safer. After being in Kristin's class and being part of what was felt there with her I will never hide who I am again.


i love this picture of misty and kristin. they posed for a picture and then the click of shutters was like a press conference or something. they both disolved into laughter. such remarkable women with such beautiful hearts. J.