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.

a little bit of magic

thank you diana for this wonderful picture of you, misty, and sally jean taken at dear lizzies friday night at the trunk show.
everything looks like it is dusted with a little bit of magic.
friday began with sally jean's class the gothic pendant. here is laurie set up with her gorgeous soldering tray. it looks like she might be ready to take a bite. i got to sit by laurie each day. it was so wonderful to see the art just spill out of her. you have such a kind and beautiful heart. i think we were the only ones to stay out in the hot tub and watch the stars.



soldering was a challenge the first time around.
sally jean makes it look so easy. . .



the first half of the day we worked on our collage papers. sally jean brought her collage book that she works in, so unbelievable. i loved looking through her pages.
i walked around the class several times just to see what everyone was making. each person was adding bits of their own lives to their necklaces. i added a little piece of an old map of the irish sea. it is a dream of mine to go there and see where my great grandfather, a priest, met his sweet heart an irish gypsy and fell in love.





this is a bracelet sally jean brought to show us some soldering examples. check out the marble!
i stayed up friday night until 3:30am with deb and amanda trying to figure out how to solder on the jump rings. everything was quiet and peaceful. such a wonderful moment. deb held the jump ring to my gothic window glass so i could drop a bead of solder on. i was determined to put my necklace together since i don't have any soldering tools at home.
the week before the artnest i bid on a hand carved mother of pearl rosary on ebay and it came the day before i left! i had pictured in my mind how my necklace would be put together and it was wonderful to lay my finished necklace out at my place when it was all finished then drop into bed so happy.
we were all touched with a little bit of magic that day.