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Objet de curiosité : Object of Curiosity or a curious object.

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Who, in our tight knit group of mixed media artists, does not love the sound of those words: ‘a curious object’?  I dare you to tell me your curiosity isn’t piqued by them.

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I’ve always been intrigued by the ancient Wunderkammers – ‘wonder rooms’ also known as Cabinets of Curiosities.  There is a vast and interesting history surrounding these cabinets that were built to store and display amazing and wondrous finds for the advancement of knowledge.  Mind you, this was eons before the internet and the plethora of books that we now have at our fingertips, so these Cabinets were a way for explorers and scientists to display these finds and study them, and for the public (if the explorers were generous) to view them.

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A couple of terrific books if you’re intrigued and wish to do more study (and enjoy the photos of Cabinets of Curiosities from around the world) are the two, below.  I own copies of both so I can attest to their coolness:

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Cabinets of Curiosities

Cabinets of Wonder

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ANYWAY, that is the back story – why I have this love of things that are a bit surreal, a bit weird, a bit curious.  I’ll spend another post sharing a time when I actually got to walk through what I would call ‘Wonder Rooms’ on a trip to England.  What an eye-boggler that was!

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Present day: Theresa Martin had just posted her amazing project ::Emerge Santos Cage Doll:: (click here to see her post), and she used a rust finish on her piece that is utterly wonderful.  Come on, what mixed media artist doesn’t adore rust?  Theresa had used this finish on a previous Inspire piece, a Love Token, and it was when I saw that first project (click here to see it) that I shot her an email and asked what product she used.  I’d been doing a bit of research previously but had never tried to achieve a rust finish in any kind of a serious manner.  Theresa shared with me her ‘secret’.  (Clicking on the pics below will take you to Amazon and their great prices.  I purchased my paints and activator from them.  You may also be able to purchase at your local paint store.)

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Modern Masters Iron Paint

Modern Masters Rust Activator

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It works!  Seriously!  Which leads me to why I started this post in the first place (finally).

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My Curious Object adventure started with rusting some of the fab laser cut pieces now available at PaperWhimsy (exclusively, I might add).  :)

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I have a big box filled with oddments, bits I’ve cut for prototypes, and etcetera, and I started in that box picking out a few pieces to rust up.  And then I moved over to my shelves to grab a few more because I was starting to get this weird little vision.  I was going to make this relic, this artifact, this whatever-you-wanna-call-it – YES… an Objet de curiosité.

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et Voila! 

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Materials:

PaperWhimsy Laser-cut Fancy Shapes
Liquid Pearls
Gold Leaf
Adhesive Size
Distress Inks – Walnut Stain
Aleene’s Tacky Glue
Rusty Wire
Modern Masters Iron Paint
Modern Masters Rust Activator

Click HERE to see the items available at PaperWhimsy
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Method:

1) I grabbed one of the Love Tokens, the small wings from the Wing Trio, a small wings from the Fiery Wings, the medium tree from the Fancy Trees.

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2) I rusted them up real good.  Follow the package directions – it’s a two-step process but fairly straightforward.  My spin: I daubed the paint onto the bits so that it was not a uniform coat.  You’re going to get more rusting on the thick areas.    And after the two coats of paint dried thoroughly I used the activator as directed.  However, if there were areas that didn’t rust to my liking I added a bit more of the reactor.  I also wasn’t averse to re-daubing a bit more of the iron paint in areas that didn’t rust completely and then following up with the activator after the paint had thoroughly dried.

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3) I sprayed the Fiery Wings with Krylon gold paint, let dry thoroughly and then adding gold leaf.  After adding the gold leaf I scraped it a bit with the edge of fine grit sandpaper to make it look aged.  (I didn’t do this but it’s probably best – spray the wings lightly with a finish spray.)

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4) I antiqued, lightly, the edges of the leafed Fiery Wings with Distress Ink Walnut Stain.

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5) For the Love Token frame – I used one of my other new favorites: Liquid Pearls Platinum.  Dang that stuff is the bomb.  it truly looks like soldering.  I covered the frame with a nice generous coat of the Liquid Pearls and after that dried I added dots of the Liquid Pearls around the frame.  Good stuff.

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6) I cut an eye from Sheet 314.

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7) I cut out a bit of mica to cover the eye.  I applied the mica using adhesive size.

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8) I glued all the pieces together, once they were all thoroughly dried.  I used my favorite adhesive: Aleene’s Tacky Glue.  That stuff works a trick.

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9) The last step was to add the rusty wire.  Now, the cool thing is that the Fiery Wings have a keyhole opening in the back so you don’t need to hang your piece from the rusty wire.  The rusty wire is just decorative.

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Curious objects before assembling

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After all was said and done, when all the dust had settled, I had a brain fart.  For a limited time (or for forever or until something better strikes my fancy) I thought ‘why not make this easy as well as fun?’  I decided to assemble the laser cut pieces I used into a nice neat little kit.  Of course you can purchase all the items separately because they are all very cool and you may decide that you want to create even bigger Objets de curiosité.  But for starters – to get you going – how about this:

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Curious Object No.1 at PaperWhimsy

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Stay tuned because I’m now thinking about Curious Object No.2.  :)

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TTFN!  gb xo

Several weeks ago I was thrilled to announce that mixed media artist Theresa Martin was joining the PaperWhimsy Inspire Team as a permanent designer; Theresa had been visiting us as a guest designer for some months and to have her join my senior designer Jill McCall  on the ‘team’ permanently was such a coup!  Both Theresa and Jill have shared with us their talents and ideas through their amazing projects using PaperWhimsy images and laser cut goodies.  Jill has been sharing her talents with us for almost a year and a half now!

You can see all Jill’s and Theresa’s projects on the Inspire Blog by clicking on Inspire under Blogs in the website header, above.  Believe me, Jill and Theresa have been creating in overdrive and I am so thrilled to have them working with me.

Well, today, I am delighted to announce that yet another very talented mixed media artist is now joining our ranks on the PaperWhimsy Inspire Team.  Meet Cat Kerr!  Woot!  Woot!  To have three such talented artists working with me to present project ideas using PaperWhimsy exclusive images and laser cut alterables is, well, it’s actually kind of humbling.  I feel very blessed.

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Cat Kerr, mixed media and jewelry artist

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A bit about Cat Kerr:

Cat Kerr is a Mixed Media artist that lives in Central Florida with her husband, two children. She has been creating all of her life and is especially influenced by both past and present fashion designers like Valentina (who pioneered red carpet Glamour), Barbara Hulanicki (for her glamorous and rock and roll style) and Sonia Rykiel (the queen of knits). Cat enjoys combining multiple mediums in her projects especially a few favorites which include resin, wood, metal, and fiber. Her projects of choice include small assemblages and jewelry. Her work has been featured in multiple publications such as Cloth Paper Scissors, Belle Armoire Jewelry, Somerset Sew, Somerset Studio and more. She currently teaches onlinevand at the national retreat Art is You. To see her work, shops, and teaching schedule be sure to check out Cat’s blog at www.inthelightofthemoon.blogspot.com.

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Expect good things to continue on the design front at PaperWhimsy with these talented artists leading the way!

Oh, the adventures they’re going to take us on!

Jill McCall’s projects.

Theresa Martin’s projects.

Cat Kerr’s projects.

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Past designers:

Nancy Maxwell James’s projects.

Julie Loeschke’s projects.

The Archives which include projects by Rande Hanson.

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Yes… I do believe that Spring has finally sprung here in central Indiana.  So, with all this ‘spring spirit’ bubbling away in my head I commenced to dabble a bit with the new bird images recently listed in the “shoppe” (double-P-E, if you please).  And that project started a whole other project because I happened to glance at a wonderful and antique French script document sitting on my messy wee desk.

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‘The New Birds’

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le document français

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(P.S. I snapped a shot of the French document not on my messy wee desk because I didn’t want you to see how messy my wee desk is.)

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After several hours of playing with le document français (though I am not anal about my wee desk, I am very precise and anal about my art… alas, often to my detriment) and the addition of some pretty elements to include with ‘ze backgrounds’, et voila!

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Francais Suite III

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However… something was missing and I knew what it was.  It is Spring, my friends!  Where are the beautiful blooms?

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Ahhhh… here they are (another several hours later because the color needed to be parfait et magnifique, oui?).

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The perfect blooms

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‘The Collage’

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The “Oh!  Hello” spring collage, above,  is done in Photoshop.  All the images, backgrounds and elements can be used for digital art as well as paper art.  (Hence the whole ‘Hybrid’ thing – use them either/or/both because the images are filled with all those juicy pixels that make them so gorgeous when printed).

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Ooooo… lah… lahhhhh…

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Now I’m finishing up the paper version which is actually how it all began – when I cut out a wee bird and envisioned it on that wonderful antique French document.

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paper, scissors, glue version

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Goodies I used:

Spring Birds
Francais Suite III
Botanique 24
Elegant Floral Suite I (Elegant Floral Suite II would work well, too)
Martha Stewart edge punches (your choice – they’re all terrific)

Happy Spring!

~g~    TTFN

I’m seriously having a ball with the laser cutter, my friends. Draw and I have been designing away like mad little fiends – me with pen in hand scratching out primitive drawings and he trying to decipher my scratches and translate them into patterns to cut on the laser. Cool goodies for artists to decorate and embellish and bring to life.
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One of our most recent ideas came about while leafing through an old book of architectural renderings from centuries ago. Out popped a vision that had me scratching on graph paper and Draw bringing it home: l’ Abbaye Un (abbey number one).
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And something that doesn’t happen often enough began to occur – me creating art.  We’ve been working with such enthusiasm getting new products designed and listed that I’ve not had an opportunity to sit down and create some goodies of my own.

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Method:

1.  I printed the new l’ Abbaye Un Slip designed especially for this wonderful Abbey.  You can purchase the Slip or you can trace the various parts of the Abbey on papers of your choice.  Cut out the shapes.  Be sure to cut within the lines for the best fit.  The paper pieces can also be trimmed after you affix them to the wood pieces that build the Abbey.

2.  Affix the paper slips to the Abbey pieces.  Use your favorite paper glue, I used Tombow glue stick.  The order in which I glued the slips to the Abbey pieces (this is prior to assembling the Abbey):

• Side panels w/windows
• Back interior
• Shelves interior
• Sides interior
• Center front

3.  I found it easiest to assemble the center ‘house shape’ – sides and front – before attaching it to the base.  (All this will make sense when you have the pieces in front of you).  I used tiny dabs of Aleene’s Tacky Glue to glue all the wood pieces together.

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4.  After attaching the center ‘house shape’ to the base, I then affixed, with my glue stick, the paper slips to the outside sides and roof of the center ‘house shape’.

5.  Once these pieces were dry I used a fine sandpaper (150 grit) to sand all the edges which trimmed the papers and gave the edges a distressed look.   I used Distress Ink in Tea Dye to antique the edges.

6.  I cut the flower and stem from the new Botanique 23 sheet – I printed the PNG file with no resizing.  I cut the stem in two pieces and inserted the pieces into the bottom and middle windows.  (Hint: I did very little trimming of the cut stems because I wanted them to bow out a bit once I put them into the windows.)  I glued the leaves to the sides of the center ‘house shape’ to hold the stems in place.

7.  I cut the girl from Sheet 213 (I used the top center image).  I attached the girl image at the back of the window using two layers of 3-D Dots.

8.  I used one of the Embellishment Scrolls01 to embellish the top of the Abbey.  I first sprayed the embellishment with Krylon Gold Spray Paint (picked up at my local Walmart) and then added a bit of gold Gilt and some Metallic Rub-on Wax.

et Voila!

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Of course, now I’m thinking how cool it would have been to add some bird images or butterflies.  And how cool would this be if you added a bit of Hallowe’en to it?  Or Fiery Wings all gilded and distressed so you could hang your Abbey on the wall? (Which I hope to do later on).

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Assorted goods I used with the new l’ Abbaye Un Reliquary:

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TTMDF!  :)

Gale xo

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It’s finally back!  Session III of the Lover-Lees Mixed Media Art Dolls online class presented by Laura Robberts is revving it’s engines and getting ready to take you on a wonderful adventure if you’re up for it!

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You’ve seen these dollies popping up on facebook, in Etsy shops and on blogs from coast to coast (and some of those coasts are across the big pond).  Now is your chance to take this wonderful class from the originator and creator of these charming dolls, Laura Robberts, and start making oodles of dollies of your very own.

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Class details can be found HERE or click on Classes, up above.  Early registration starts Jan 19 with a pretty sweet deal – save $10.00 off the registration fee until Jan 31!  Not too shabby.

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And while you’re at it – feel free to grab a class banner over there to the right (we even give you tips on how to add that banner to your blog so it works).  It’s so darned sweet – it’ll look nice on your pretty blog… and we’ll love you for it!

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Hope you’ll join us in February!

Laura Robberts & Gale Blair

About two years ago I snagged a set of ‘encyclopaedias’ from 1869 detailing the domestic & decorative pursuits expected to be of great interest to all genteel Victorian ladies.  What a treasure!  I love reading these old tomes.  This excerpt on how to get rid of household pests, namely mice:

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“The common mouse – this destructive little animal has been described as possessing ‘mild and gentle manners’ and as being ‘exceedingly timid’ but this description will be better appreciated by the over-sensitive philozoical mind of the naturalist than by that of the household economist”.

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Mice were a lot nicer in days of yore, eh?  Plus, do you not just love the word ‘philozoical’?

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Inside these wonderful books are myriad engravings that have caused several hours of sighing and drooling on my part.  One of my resolutions this year is to make a concerted effort to get these engravings scanned and listed so you can drool and sigh and create with them.

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My most recent reading had me skipping to my computer.

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I immediately envisioned unique and wonderful works of art displayed around one’s home.  “Smalls” that one could tuck next to “bigs” that would add interest to one’s decorating and cause one’s friends and relations to ‘ooo’ and ‘ahhh’ at the sheer talent of the artist!

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What a cool idea to use for Valentine’s ‘cards’ that will be hung and enjoyed long after the day?  I have some ideas percolating for these Fancy Banners – using a coordinated (and uncoordinated) palette of patterns just like the Victorians did – and I think an elephant figures into the mix.    Doesn’t that simply sing of Victoriana?

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TTFN!

g xo

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I’ve had a vision for quite a while and found myself quite stymied as to how exactly I was going to transfer this vision from my head to my laser.  With the help of my main man, a stand-up guy, affectionately called Draw Drawbridge aka my DH, I was finally able to make it REAL.  It’s funky looking… but man, oh man – you start stickin’ paper and a face on it – well, all the cards fall into place.  Know what I mean?

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{THE AUTOMATON}

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“The” Automaton

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And with glue, paper, Stickles and a feather it turned into this:

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The Queen of Hearts

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Method:

1) I started with the Automaton Reliquary and papered it with backgrounds from the Ivory & Black Suite (I did resize the background in photoshop but you can also resize your papers in your print window or in Word if you choose to make the pattern/s smaller).  I used glue stick for affixing paper to board because it’s quick and easy and does stick if you use the permanent stuff.  I used Tombow Color Glue Stick.  I applied the paper to the body of the Automaton before I glued it to the box.

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2) The papers on the inside (old book pages) and exterior of the box (bits snipped from the Ancien Papiers)  I cut and glued into place after the box was assembled.  To assemble the box and stick the body and arms into place I used Aleene’s Tacky Glue which is what I use to assemble all my houses and reliquaries.

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~one of the Ancien Papiers

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3) I covered the arms with paper before I glued them onto the body, as well.  I used Ancien Papiers for the arms – I thought the calligraphy looked a bit like tattoos.  Cool.  (Expect some tattoos somewhere down the road – I’m thinking about them, now.)

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4) For the face, I used one (bottom left) from Sheet 315 which I’ve just listed (put together as a result of this adventure).  Whoop!

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{Brand New} Sheet 315

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5) Also added to the head/face are a couple of the Love Tokens… because I was thinking of them and they just popped from my hand onto the Queen and made her look very… well, regal.  The pieces I used are both from Love Tokens 01 but dare I say that any of the Love Tokens and/or (especially) Crown Tokens would look sublime?

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I used the crown token (center) on the back of the Queen’s head and the egg-shaped token frame (right) to frame the face.

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6) I forgot to mention that I sprayed the Token pieces with Krylon gold spray paint.  After the paint dried I lightly sanded the edges  of the two pieces and antiqued them with Tea Dye Distress Ink.

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7) For the niche I used a few PaperWhimsy bits (see below).  The scene in the niche I sized (in Photoshop) so that it was slightly larger than the niche, horizontally, so I could bend it a little to add a bit of dimension.  I think a snippet from an antique postcard, maybe of a castle, would also be smashing.  The frame image I used in the niche was also sized in Photoshop to accommodate the dimensions of the opening.

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et Voila!  My Queen of Hearts.  She is, in honor of Valentine’s Day, a beneficent Queen of Hearts.  Not chopping off anybody’s head, but filling their hearts with LOVE.

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Okay, I don’t want to make your brains explode but I just wanted to take a sec to share what popped out of my head and into my laser and onto my work table the other day …  I really want to do another post about these but I’m very excited so I’ll leave you with a few more pics just in case you haven’t been tantalized enough <grin>.  xxx

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~NEW~ Chandelier Scrolls

~NEW~ Fancy Wings

TTFN, MA!

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Duh!  The heart!  It’s from the Heart-in-Hand.  I will be adding a little set of these within the next day or so.

I’m still hot and heavy over Lover’s Eyes Token – I’ve created some crowned tokens to the delight of myself (and hopefully of you). 

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Click on pic to see the tokens

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And like an enamored lover in the first blush of lover’s bliss, I’m still searching for more information about these wonderful tokens from eons ago.  In one of my searches I discovered this!

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Written by Graham Boettcher, this is the compendium to compliment a past exhibit at the Birmingham Museum of Art of Lover’s Eyes Tokens.  In particular this book covers the vast Skier collection around which the exhibit revolves.  (If interested snatch the book while you still can.)

WON.DER.FUL!

If you’re interested in more reading and the perusing of lots of lovely photos of these dear trinkets, then click on the pic, above, or on the sidebar to the right.  I recently purchased my copy at Amazon (always at a savings on the cover price)… and I’ve been enraptured!

Recently, I’ve become obsessed with Lover’s Tokens.  These were á la mode, fashionable and popular, during the Georgian period… beautiful bejeweled pendants, brooches or rings, framing an adored love’s eye (sometimes a secret love).  The eyes were usually hand-painted on ivory.

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From the Victoria and Albert Museum

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From the Georgia Museum of Art

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From the Georgia Museum of Art

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Oh, the romance of it all!  These tokens set my head and heart to spinning and my legs hopping and skipping to my computer to design my own interpretation of these gorgeous gewgaws.

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Lover’s Tokens from PaperWhimsy

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Ready for your artistic touch, to bejewel and alter, to frame a lover’s eye or face or some beloved trinket.  Perfect for a brooch or pendant or to add to your art. Imagine them adorned with faux pearls and paste jewels, gilded and glittered.

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I continue to sit at my computer, overcome by the raptures of the history of these beautiful tokens, designing tokens that would perfectly frame your favorite loves’ eyes.  And the whimsical eyes of beauties from centuries ago.  (Expect an eyeball sheet very soon!) 

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From the Georgia Museum of Art

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‘Til we meet again, mon amis!

g xo

O’, the joys of creating fancy!

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We’re at the tale end of a fanciful project over at the PaperWhimsy art group – creating holiday balloons to spread the merrie.  Fa-la-la-lahhhh!  I was in the Steampunk group.  You know, lots of gears and funkiness.

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The added joy in spending time creating art, for me, apart from the creating is coming up with ideas for new bits for the PaperWhimsy shoppe.  Today’s brainstorm was, of course, inspired by the balloon project.

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~New~ Fancy Balloons

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I used one of the papers from my new suite – Antique & Ivory Damask Suite – for the background of the balloon, as well as a few bits from the Ancien Papiers (I love those cool bits – they always come in handy).

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Antique Ivory & Black Damask

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The Small Fancy Ornaments were perfect as a focal point on the balloon, and I just had to pop an elephant in the basket (from Mammalia 04) because if you’re doing Steampunk you have to toss in something a bit unexpected.

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Mammalia 04

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And, of course some Fancy Wheels and gears, a dose of Stickles and a Whimsy face.  et Voila!

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‘Tis the season to make a bit of Merrie!

g xo