I am almost back to normal from my trip to Venice, Italy. Midge and I went for about a week and it was just incredible. Every where we looked or traveled was filled with awe inspiring age and beauty. It was so magical it gave you a feeling of Disney but the good news was it was all very real.

We were lucky to find an apartment to rent from HomeAway.com, so we had our very own Venice studio. It was in a perfect neighborhood with a canal and bridge just outside our window.

 The studio was in the Dorsoduro section, away from 

the hustle and bustle of tourists and it was just a short block 

from a sunset walk along the Zaterre.

It was dreamy.

Our little studio had a full kitchen so we shopped at the local market and cooked at home while we watched the world go by on our bridge.

The city is all about water. 

There are no cars.

Everything is delivered by boat through the canals. Police, ambulance, UPS, postmen and even some markets moved and did all their business on the canals. 

 

We spent hours walking from place to place, enjoying being lost and then finding our way. It seemed that every turn held some new, but incredibly old site to take in. We went from museum to museum trying to take it all in so we would remember it all when we were back home. It was a biennial year so there was modern art everywhere. The contemporary art displayed through the old city was quite wonderfully paradoxical. 

It was a fantastic trip of a life time and I can't wait to do another one!

October 7th I took off with my car filled with Artgirlz goodies and headed for Cromwell, CT and a weekend of learning, sharing and fun at Art Is...You. We weren't officially on the teaching list because we thought that we would at this years Quilt Market...but we weren't and off I went to assist our Linda Willis with her classes, make new friends, sell a few Artgirlz goodies and to take a wet felting class with the amazing Nicole Chazaud Telaar. Her blog is filled with more wonderful color and delicious visuals!!

Linda's Classes went very well...folks were excited, doing great work, and most importantly pleased with themselves. We had a lot of laughs, shared stories, met new best friends and urged people to trust their visions!

I was very excited about taking a one day felt flower making class. The morning of the class I had the privilege of talking with Nicole at breakfast. We shared biz stories and experiences and hope to do some skill sharing sometime soon! The class was set up by the hotel pool and under the glass dome, giving the feeling of a tropical location. The first task was to make a long thin snake shape with little flower buds at the end.

Once that was done, we went on to the bigger flower project. The pictures above show set up for the flowers. It was then combos of water, soap, rubbing, rolling, shaping, oohing and aahing.

We each made flower components and were "supposed" to put it together and bead them in the afternoon. I don't know what I was doing...making more doodles or something...the leaves were made the next day as I peeked in on the Wool Felt Bag Class.

I was very grateful to be taking a class and learning something new. Thanks to all that made it possible!! There are more pictures on Nicole's blog!!!!

My sister Beth visited Sue and me last week...here in the lower 48 to visit family. Her youngest son Ben will be going into the US Navy next month. We were charged with the task of making him a necklace. So, we pulled out beads, Artgirlz charms, findings and a long piece of ball chain and proceeded to put a piece together for him.

I wish him the best. To be safe, brave, open, kind.

I spent the weekend in my studio challenging myself to make a mini quilt to match a paper project we had done for Ranger. I used the same stamps for both project. I was curious about what I could come up with. The paper project was stamped directly on to painted chip board. But for the cloth project I filled a 9.5" X 11" sheet of paper with Artgirlz inchie stamps and then I copied that onto fabric using my ink jet printer. To truly make your own fabric, you can add paint to the cloth it at this point. I use plain old watered down acrylic paint. It gives a nice water colored effect.

You can stamp directly onto fabric but it is really difficult to get a clear clean image. The fabric I used in my inkjet was a heavier weight and so it absorbed a lot of ink giving the stamps a greyer look. So I would suggest using a finer, lighter weight fabric to get a real dark, clear stamp and it will also go through your printer easier. I backed my stamped fabric with a fusible web. I cut them into tiny squares and ironed them onto larger squares that were also backed with fusible web and then ironed them onto a piece of Patchy fabric. I added a backing, did some simple quilting and attached a binding using my Bernina aurora 440.

To add the finishing touches I ironed a little Artgirl on to the front and added her arms and legs and of course a sparkly petticoat. You can add color to our metal charms with a good gel pen. I used Sakura.
Voila, my mini quilt was done!

Well Baby Beth is visiting Tracy in RI. I wish I was there. But Midge and I are packed and ready to head off to Venice on Thursday. That's not too tough to take.


What are you up to?

Some things just don't change. Here I am 45 years later still
braiding my baby sister Beth's hair. She has been visiting from Alaska.
Being the baby, Bethie spent a lot of time saying "wait for me!".
Beth is a chatty whirlwind and she teaches me patience
and compassion.
It was very nice to see her.

This year seems to be slipping by. Perhaps it only seems that way
because we are so busy. When our good friend Linda was visiting,
we took a trip to St Petersburg on the west coast of Florida.


St Pete was a beautiful city. Everywhere we went we met
friendly, like-minded people.

I had my heart set on an outsider art festival there sponsored
by Creative Clay. What a fantastic organization. It is a cultural art
center that makes art accessible for everyone no matter their
age, gender,ability or race. Having worked with people with
disabilities years ago I have a special place in my heart for them and
was blown away at what an empowering special space they
had created. There should be one in every town and city across
the country. It was an idea conceived by one person and is
a testimonial to how one person can make such a difference.

The art show was great too! Full of colorful, quirky works of art.
My favorite was Theresa Disney.
Check it out. Not only is her work fabulous she is a wonderful spirit.

We spent the rest of the day searching out and enjoying art.
One of our stops was the Dali Museum. Midge and Linda had
trouble drinking coffee with their mustaches.

We ended our trip with a stop at Fort DeSoto Park.
It is the most beautiful place I have seen in Florida.
A dip in the warm gulf at such a exquisite spot was
a perfect ending to our west coast trip.

Chilly here in little rhody this morning. We have been working on a sign for our driveway. To get to us, one has to drive down a driveway from the main road and then at the fork, take the right hand choice..."B". "C" will take you to our lovely neighbor Bill's front door. We made a sign to direct new friends, oil delivery people, UPS, Publishers Clearing House Prize Delivery People, to the correct door. We can check that project off of the list and get on with the next thing!

I just pulled out the acrylic paints, black markers and poly sealer. Checked a few details on the computer to see just how far away we are from our loved ones. Brickley's is our favorite ice cream destination!! Chocolate Malt is amazing!!! George set us up with cedar posts and we were good to go! Thanks George!!

Getting ready for Art Is. Linda and I will be heading out next week. If you are free next weekend and looking for a relaxing, creative situation, check it out!!!

Friday Morning...the sprinkler is doing it's thing on our very dry gardens...the Florida Girlz with our visiting Linda are on their way to an Outsider Art Festival in St. Pete...and I want to share pictures of my latest project. The great thing from this end, is that I actually spent a bit of time in the studio with fabric, glue gun, needle and thread!
Somewhere and time this summer I picked up an old sewing basket with the intention of doing a make over. I finally took out the dirty scary insides and did my thing. It was one of those "make it up as you go along" projects that we do best!

The main technical detail that I fail to consider was the closure loop that is right underneath the front felt triangle (you can see it in the pic below)...but I'm sure that I can come up with something! It would make a great pocketbook too. I think the next one will have more little pockets and slots for holding the essentials!


Yesterday I put some Felty Surprize Packs together, and they would be perfect for embellishing this and countless other projects. Next step, get them up on the website!! Have a great weekend!

LOOKING FORWARD TO WITCHES AND GOBLINS!

We have been conjuring up goodies within the walls of Artgirlz World Headquarters! Felt, net, beads, papers, spiders, witches and scary types running around, flipping things in the air and coming up with ideas and packets of materials to bring you slowly into the spirit of fall!!!

We've come up with a way to make this little green bag perfect for carrying around plenty of candy corn!
More things going on sale tomorrow...09/15 around lunch time...
Enjoying the weather and trying to stay focused!!

ARTGIRLZ THANK YOU!!!

Thanks for all of your support and Have a Great Weekend!!!!

We are grateful and feeling good!!!
More things coming your way!!!
Enjoy the weekend!
xxoo

Marcella Welch

Sue and I had the privilege of attending a surprise 60th birthday party for Marcella Welch in Atlanta, Georgia. Marcella is an amazing artist that we met many years ago at a doll conference in California. I'm not exactly sure what it was that brought us together in the back row of conference gatherings...observing, commenting and weaving a friendship. We only saw each other at these events, took part in a couple of collaborative projects, met up in DC when we both had a doll on Bill and Hillary's Christmas Tree.

I emailed her a couple of years ago to see how things were going and she let me know that she had just been diagnosed with brain cancer. After a couple of weeks she said that she wouldn't be able to communicate for a while because she was going in for treatment. I didn't hear anything after that. As time went by, I kept wondering if she was okay...I rehearsed a phone conversation a million times but never made it...

An email arrived this spring from Marcella's daughter LaShawnda inviting us to Marcella's Surprise 60th Birthday Party!!! Yea, she lived!!! So, Atlanta in August no problem!! We went, we surprised her very much, met her beautiful mother Hellon, other family and friends. We cruised around Marietta, GA on a lovely Saturday morning...the farmers market, had an amazing breakfast, had eyeball popping fun wandering through Fit for a Queen and found Artgirlz product at Rubber Stamp Fantasy, 115 Church Street ...The Party was beautiful, and we were thrilled to be there!!!!

Due to the weather we missed our flight home and ended up staying with Marcella, husband Curtis, mom Hellon for another bonus day!! Fresh carrot juice, a beautiful home and art and art supplies were everywhere. Projects and piles of supplies were spread throughout the home...paints, dyes, cotton, wool, clay, yarns, beads, sewing machines...flowing over and under tables...

It was very inspiring to see her work, works in progress, piles of materials, hearing what she had been through, seeing how the family supports her, and knowing that she is back at her work and wants to continue to teach, and work her magic.
We will be selling her rubber stamps very soon! Look for them!

We are back to our home in Florida and to enjoying our life at the "resort".
I am not sure if it is the abundant sunshine,
the warm temps or our turquoise pool that makes me feel like this way
but I am trying to practice living in the moment so that I can really relish this resort living.

This weekend, when we weren't riding to the beach to check the big surf,
I was working on a new bracelet.
It is made on simple elastic thread and "e" beads
and strung with little felt beads.

Be sure to check the website for the pattern which should be available soon.

After making my bracelet
this is how my studio table looked on Sunday night.
Are Tracy and I the only ones who can fill up a large horizontal space in a matter of minutes?

We would like to thank all of the people that responded to our last blog,
with either an order or a few kind words.
Your support was very uplifting
and it helps us to continue doing all of the things we need to get done everyday.
Thanks for being a part of Artgirlz Nation!

We couldn't do it with out you.

Midge and I arrived in RI about 5 days ago. It has been heart warming to see all of our friends and family. We must be getting to be more Floridian than we think because we are looking at the New England country side like it is the hills of Worcestershire. We keep comparing the temperature to Florida and all of our friends add to this by asking us "is it this hot in Florida?"

It is good to be back at Artgirlz World Headquarters, around all of the creative energy that Tracy and Linda have been cooking up. The bad news is our business has been slowing over the past year and now it is getting so slow that we are constantly fighting off stress, worry and big questions about what the future holds.

"OH NO"

We have worked so hard over the past five years to build Artgirlz Nation and it is hard to think of letting it go. We have built our little company from our little investment in our basement. We learned all aspects of business as we went along, from how to design a fabulous trade show booth on a shoe string, to how to get, organize and print UPC codes. It has sometimes been stressful but often fun, invigorating and worthwhile. It has given us the opportunity to travel and meet new people from around the world. The greatest gift through all this has been the loving encouragement we have received from our customers.

I keep trying to find a space of comfort. I find myself worrying all of the time. I try to be grateful and know that there are others that have it so much harder than I do and be open to the idea that all is well in my happy little life. My self-will can't fix it but Powerball is $217,000,000 and I have a ticket.

While the wonders of Powerball and the quirky ups and downs of the universe do their thing, we are having a great sale...as we carve out some breathing room, ideas are still floating, diving, whirling around just waiting to come into being!

Any tips?

PaperArtsy Stamps are in the House!

We have had the pleasure of meeting Mark and Leandra about 5 years ago and have loved every minute that we've been able to spend with them on both sides of the pond. Picture above was in England in '07 I believe. We visited their lovely home in the middle of a field with 4 children and and their rubber stamp studio/production area! To watch Leandra work is most amazing. She is fast and produces wonderful mixes of materials. Mark's brain is filled with wonderful and abundant amounts of information about all of the techie things I always want to know about. They both make a mean rubber stamp from beginning to end. Sadly we haven't seen each other in a while but they are still rockin'!!!!

We finally put our collection of PaperArtsy Stamps (p. 3) up on the website. Rosie and Linda put some great PaperArtsy/Artgirlz Bundles together that will give you lots of creative options! They include two random mini stamps with lots of other materials for making ATC's, Inchies and a blank Book.
Because this stamp makes a great background visual texture we used it on all of these samples!
These surfaces were colored with Ranger Distress Ink sponged onto the paper.
PaperArtsy bubble stamp with Ranger Distress Ink
Random application of gesso with credit card
OR
"Splodger" as it is called in PaperArtsy world.

Simply add Artgirlz Charms to make one of a kind jewelry pieces!
Check out their website to see the whole collection of stamps and other goodies.
The PaperArtsy Blog is filled with visuals and great ideas!

ATC layered with inchie, Artgirlz and PaperArtsy Stamps

Check out their website to see the whole collection of stamps and other goodies.
The PaperArtsy Blog is filled with visuals and great ideas!

OK, now there are no excuses.
The boxes are empty and all of the important tools are unpacked
and in place (if I could only remember where).
So it is time to get to work.

I thought I would share with you a couple essential tools
that Tracy and I find helpful in our studio.

The first is a black board.
This is where we keep an on going list of all the current things needing attention.
If our schedule is crazy, it can be quite full.
We use it to keep our focus.
It helps us to stay on task
because we are constantly being drawn to some new creative idea
or off to something that needs to be taken care of at Artgirlz.


We even use them through out our homes.
Tracy has one in her kitchen that always has a loving reminder to focus on.
As you can see I have been worrying to much.

To make your own,
all you need is a wall and some black board paint.
You can find the paint in any hard ware store.
We like to use chalk pastels to write with because they offer such yummy colors.


The next tool is a felt wall.
I just installed mine last week.
I couldn't find old fashion paper gypsum board so I used ceiling tiles.
They were easier to install because they were smaller.
It is simple to do.
I just use dry wall screws and an electric drill to attach it to the studio wall.
I make sure I hit an occassional stud to give it strength and then
it is off to the fabric store to find felt to cover it. Look for felt that is 72" wide.


We use this felt wall to create on.
It is perfect for fabric projects because the fabric naturally sticks to the felt.
So you can put up different colors and textures
and stand back to get a better perspective.
Or paper projects
because it is now a giant bulletin board.
You can use pins to fill it full of things to inspire you.



Mine is filling up with a project I am doing for Bernina with my
aurora 440.

ARTGIRLZ CROWN KIT!
Royal Greetings from Artgirlz Nation!
We wanted to share the photos of these crowns made by Susan Kennedy from one of our Crown Kits! She made one for a friend that was turning 65 years old,
and who doesn't want a birthday crown at any age...
so, she made another one for the Birthday Girl's 4 year old Birthday grand daughter!!!
Nice work Susan! and Thanks for sending the pics!
I think that we have three kits left and they include beautiful hand painted paper!!
Midge and Al are heading for CHA tomorrow to see what's happening in the wholesale craft world...
Sue and I are heading for Atlanta early early...

Summer is full on here in Rhode Island...well, it has been very very rainy and it was 52 degrees this morning when I got up, but the tourists are here full on and the gardens are a bit out of control! I have actually gotten my butt up and into my sneakers every day this week. This lovely salt pond is at the end of our street and on the walking route! The Atlantic Ocean is just over the dunes in the distance! I don't think my iphone photo translates all of the beauty, but you can get an idea. Not a bad view to help the exercise program along!!

Sue and I decided to paint our room and move back into it after the Midge and Al left for Florida!
We went from School Bus Yellow to Pink. After spending 5 minutes looking at wall paper books, I thought I would just paint something. I started out with white on the pink, but it only showed up about 15 minutes a day if you happened to be in there at that special time. Then I went at it with color and I grew to hate it even more....so it took me more time to cover up my over sized flower garden than it did to do it in the first place! Some of the best ideas.....
Lots of weeding and pruning to take care of!