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last friday the girls came over for pARTy, and we made the great pieces above by painting photos on blocks of wood. i think there was a little trepidation when i first described the project, but i couldn’t be more amazed by the final pieces!

each person picked out a few of their favorite photos (important: my friends are the original photographers of the photos — they have not stolen/borrowed anyone else’s), then i worked with them to figure out what highlights, lowlights, midtones, negative space, etc. to paint. there was also an option to add a secondary accent piece. anna has a great post with pictures that show more detail — check it out!

wanna make your own? a tutorial is after the jump, along with details of each piece! but first, check out all the cheese we sampled while creating:

ok, that’s it for me. my brain is already on vacation, so i’m taking the rest of the week off from blogging. have a great 4th of july weekend! click the link below for a painted photo tutorial.

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jacqueline of etsy shop for the record signed up for our functional felt swap, and i’ve been a fan ever since. i just love the work she does with felt and fabric applique on ipod cases and baby blankets. my sis was the lucky recipient of jacqueline’s work, and i’ve seen it in person: it’s even better than the pictures can possibly show. i really must place an order…

my last matchbox for matchbox mondays: from the brücke museum in berlin. my sis and i went there a few years ago.

while i’m not usually a big fan of art work slapped onto merchandise, i do love this kirchner, and see it in my kitchen every day. a little work of art in of itself…

lots of great matchboxes/matchbooks are up in the flickr group!

tonight i’m hosting pARTy, for the first time since february’s light pARTy. we try to do pARTy every other month, but it’s hard to schedule a night that works for all of us. we did take a field trip to birdie’s and learned how to dye wool in may, but it’s been 3 months since we’ve gathered at my house.

so we’re finally getting together tonight for cheese, wine, and art. i won’t reveal the entire project, but it involves cut boards, photos, and acrylics. i’ll post our work next week!

have a great weekend! i hope you are able to create, spend time with friends, and enjoy some wine.

my studio is my dining room. it’s where i hold the occasional pARTy, and do all of my projects. about 8 months ago i just stopped moving my supplies back to their hiding places, and let them take over. it’s the best place to work in my house: lots of natural light, big table (that i can drill holes into, paint on, and not freak out), close access to a sink, and sadly, near a tv. (i like to work with the tv on, i hope that does not make me less cool.) so this is what my studio/dining room has looked like for months:

organization was definitely in order. after seeing an ikea alex drawer unit covered with decorative paper, i knew i needed to get one for myself. once i got my economic stimulus package check, i ran to ikea and picked one up (thanks, w!).

rather than covering alex with decorative paper, i decided to use a dutch newspaper that i brought home with me from amsterdam. i used pva to glue down text columns on the cube, and picture cut-outs on the drawer fronts. i then slathered layers of gel matte medium over the newsprint. yeah, i guess you could say i découpaged my alex, but please don’t: i hate that word, along with macramé and batik. blech! i’d prefer to call it one giant assemblage.

it feels so good to have everything organized, and now i can start dragging more supplies from other rooms into my alex. and if i ever have a non-pARTy dinner event, i can just roll my alex out of the way, and reclaim my dining room.

last saturday, jenn called to tell me that she had just been to a pottery sale in her neighborhood and saw a fish dish i’d love. i couldn’t make it saturday, but headed over there first chance on sunday. i followed the signs by jenn’s house, until i came across a house with a sign in front that said pottery here.

how fun! there was work from 3-4 different potters in an amazing backyard (with a koi pond!). i love it when artists get together for little sales, but will admit i feel badly when i tromp through their homes and don’t buy a thing. luckily, jenn was right about the fish dish, which i did bring home, in addition to a little fairy house for the back yard. yeah, i’m not a big fairy girl, but the ceramic house was too cute to resist.

warm weather, short sleeves, white wine, summer dresses… april’s quietly grown necklace is perfect for this time of year. i also love her grown hooped earrings.

a new acquisition. martha recently went to new york, and visited lever house restaurant. she brought back the above matchbox, and gave it to me. i love the simplicity. if you need to kill time, check out the lever house site: the restaurant is in the historic lever house building on park avenue. the interior of the restaurant is an amazing example of modern design. i’m getting a bit of wanderlust for new york…

if you’ve got a great matchbox to share, upload it to the matchbox mondays flickr group!

my gramma & grampa’s typewriter. i’m ashamed to say i lugged it home with the intention of ripping off the keys for collaging. i’ve since come to my senses and realized that i cannot cannibalize this beautiful machine. any one know if it’s still possible to get a ribbon for it?

happy first day of summer!

if you need to kill some time while you wait for 5 o’clock to roll around, i’ve written a guest post for jenn’s blog, the write ingredients. sis and i went to a new local joint, café agri. i’m no food critic, but i do love food!

print with plants! last weekend i pulled a frond from my rogue fern, and pounded away on a hemp-cotton tote from eco-bags. now i have a great new tote for the farmers market & groceries! no paper bags for this eco-girl.

it really is that easy. i’ve applied fern prints to t-shirts and linen dish towels, too. check out the make fern prints tutorial i originally posted last fall for details.

i’ve got a fern growing smack in the middle of the entrance to my basement (which i call the “dorothy door”: it’s just like the cellar entrance in the wizard of oz). with each summer it gets bigger, but i can’t bear to pull it out!

however, i do pull fronds from time to time… a fun fern project is in the works for tomorrow’s post!

more fabulous felt… manoeuvre makes a simple, yet functional, felt sleeve for your macbook pro. gorgeous. i’m tempted…

matchbox mondays continues with a matchbox from café tabac in amsterdam. it’s one of my favorite cafes: the first time i went to amsterdam alone i spent a lot of time there for afternoon tea. the waitress looked like charlize theron, and was so sweet to me, a lone american that couldn’t speak a lick of dutch.

if you have a favorite matchbox, upload it to the matchbox mondays flickr group!

whew! i cannot top wednesday’s papier-mâché bowls post (thanks, anna, for submitting my little project to craft zine!), so i’ll just bow out gracefully for the week, leaving you with a picture for s t i l l of yesterday’s lunch at moose & sadie’s. i wish all of you a wonderful, creative weekend. new posts are in the works, i’ll be back next week!

happy weekend!

i’m obsessed with bowls right now. since the functional felt swap ended, i’ve knitted 3 bowls, and have more in the works. last week i posted the little bowl, made with paper and pva, and promised a tutorial if there was interest. and yay! you liked the bowl, so after the jump, how to make your own!

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i meant to feature etsy shop papaverert while the functional felt swap was in full swing, but it slipped my mind. patty’s work with wool roving and yarn is beautiful and inspiring. i love the multi-colored bowls, and vases, and i’ve been redesigning my living room in my head, around her wonderful pillows…

my favorite matchbox. from u maleho glena in prague, where my sis and i had black olive tapenade and pilsner urquell over 10 years ago.

paper mache bowls have been on my creative to-do list for a few months, and last weekend i finally got a chance to put one together. it’s made with pages of old books, and the circles are cut from security envelopes (inspired by this post on design*sponge).

this is to be the first of many (i hope!), but i need to perfect the technique a bit. then maybe a tutorial is in order?

happy weekend!

memory, polyurethane on birch plywood
red leaf, beaded birch branch
salt key, polyurethane on birch plywood

celebrating birch, beth stoneberg: beth studies the shapes made by the wood grain and applies multiple levels of tinted polyurethane, using negative space to create an abstract pattern. i’m a big fan! opening reception: friday, june 6, 5pm - 10pm, az gallery, lowertown st. paul. celebrating birch will be on display until june 29.

and then there were none… an homage to our planet’s rare and extinct species: featuring recent works by allen brewer. also on view: works by jan elftmann, bethany kalk, and stephanie richards. opening reception: saturday, june 7, 7pm - 10m, gallery360, 50th and xerxes. show runs thru july 13.

also, check out the summer sac swap, hosted by pixiewinkle. gather summer ephemera, create a sac (or other container) for the goodies, and send it all off! it’s a low stress swap, with a sign-up deadline of june 16, and a send out date of september 8. i love this idea — everyone will get a little package of “summer”.

a wonderful package arrived yesterday from my friend ayama-chan: belated birthday goodies!

she made me a fabulous passport holder, which i dearly need. (when i tried to leave amsterdam in april, i discovered that i had “misplaced” my passport. there was a brief panic and a trip to the us consulate. i was finally able to get into the apartment i had rented, and found it wedged into the pages of a book i had left there. but not in time to catch my plane. so i stayed an extra day!) now my passport won’t get stuck in books! the outer layer is denim, and ayama-chan embroidered the fish with her sewing machine (she calls it “thread painting”). the inside layer is a koi print fabric. love!

she also sent me a chocolate/hazelnut candy bar, which i promptly worked on. it’s my favorite combo, so much better than chocolate and peanuts or almonds…

and lastly, a small packet of buttons. yay! i’ve been using buttons in my packaging and a few book projects, and these are a wonderful addition to my growing collection.

did i mention the package came all the way from singapore? i am really feeling loved. thank you ayama-chan!