Friday, October 30, 2015

Spooky Halloween!

We're having a full moon for Halloween trick or treating!

Here's a digital hybrid tag.  After layering and shadowing, I printed out the basic tag and then added ribbon and the witches graphic (after I distressed with scissors and inked up the edges.



Materials
Gecko Galz digital Freak Show Papers and Jeepers Creepers digital collage sheet (girl)
I flipped the paper so that the lighter areas looked like they were being illuminated by the moon.  I added a shadow to the girl for the same moonglow effect.
Luna Girl:   You can find the witches in the Witch Photos digital collage sheet
the Graphics Fairy: moon with witch and bat
computer generated text

Going to post this at Tag Tuesday where this week's theme is Spooky.  I haven't had a chance to play there in awhile.

Entering these challenges:

LunaGirl Moonbeams:  Gothic  x

Crafts for Eternity Challenge R250 Black, Orange and Purple--sadly this is the last challenge for this site. winner announced Nov 6   I made the Top 3


Pile It On:  #92 Cute and/or Spooky I'm #116  x

Gecko Galz FaceBook Papercrafting Group:  Moonlight Serenade--something featuring Gecko Galz products and the moon  x

Fripperies and Butterflies Monthly Challenge: October Color Challenge  due November 14
must use at least 2 colors from mood board
must post entry on FaceBook site: https://www.facebook.com/fripperiesandbutterflies?ref=hl

Monday, October 19, 2015

Party On

In the midnight hour----my quick and cathartic coloring.  I discovered the Vera Lane Studio party last week but first I had to finish a design team project, which was squeezed in between an out-of-town wedding and spending the day with the grandkids. But I never pass up a chance to party....so here is my post card celebrating Vera Lane Studio.  I think I understand why coloring books for adults are so popular.  After a full day, it was great to get lost in this coloring project.



I'm sharing this on here on my blog, my closed Facebook group, and on Pinterest.  As well as on the Vera Lane Studio Facebook Page.

Here is something I made last year with Janet's images.




Thursday, October 15, 2015

In the Spotlight

While away at a most fabulous wedding, I was featured in an article at Unruly PaperArts blogozine.  Here is the link to the article:  http://www.unrulypaperarts.com/2015/10/creative-contributor-spotlight-helene.html

The article includes a bio (oops--I thought I updated those design teams), pics of some of my fave works, and an on-line question and answer segment.

Please do pop by....

I haven't had much time to craft and need to devote the next few days to some Unruly design team projects.

So not much autumn art going on, even though I love to craft Halloween.  I even have bottle labels printed out, ready to glue on.  Hopefully I can get to it before the weekend.  In the meantime, here's a blast from the past:


Saturday, October 3, 2015

UPA Column Babcia's House

This month at Unruly PaperArts blogozine, the creative contributors were given free reign with an Anything Goes theme.  My article was posted on October 3, 2015 HERE

For my anything goes project, I chose to alter a Prima shadow box house into my grandmother's house.  She was Polish so we called her by the Polish diminuative for babunia which is Babcia. What you will see in this house is a representation in miniature of the many items that were part of life inside her Milwaukee home.  Many of these items currently have found a loving place in my home. This article contains my musings of an era gone by.

Here is the article, along with photos of the actual items represented in miniature in the shadow box.

Let's start with the Prima house itself.  I wanted the alteration to reflect a turn-of-the-century home. The "wallpaper" is from the Authentique Classique:Beauty collection.   I chose it because of it's gold and black patterns, common in early 1900's decor. (These items were purchased at my lls, the Paper Boutique.)  I purchased many Prima resin furnishings for it as they reflected the furniture I remembered seeing in Babcia's front room.    Does anyone else remember furniture covered with heavy see-through plastic? Some of the miniatures to fill the rooms were acquired from Alpha Stamps, an on-line store.  The chipboards are Kaiser Craft.


After having gone through the Great Depression and World War II rationing, some items may have been purchased during the boom after the war.  However, with the time frame now being mid-century, it still makes them antiques.  That part of history has been lost.  But I can tell you what I do know.

At the turn of the century my grandfather and his father came to America and worked in a (pressed) glass factory in Tarentum, Pennsylvania.  I have a carafe made in that factory which I was able to find in miniature. Pictured next to the carafe are two glasses handpainted by my babcia.






With a wife and 3 children, my grandfather moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1909 where they remained. After a work related injury in the steel mill put my grandfather on the sidelines, my grandmother found a job as a seamtress.  

The sewing related miniatures are a reminder of her amazing talent. My mother said she and her sisters could ask her to duplicate any dress they found in a window display. (Pictured are my mother and Babcia --a scrappy page I made in 2010.)






She made my sister and me wool robes and pleated skirts. Here's an old photo of us wearing those skirts!




Babcia and her four daughters also were excellent in the art of crocheting. I have many of those doilies, tablecloths, and bedspreads. I put a couple of snippets of the crocheting on the shelves.

My aunt Phyllis, as an adult, continued to live with my Babcia.  As a young child, I was struck by her grace and poise and what she found important to "a working girl".  I remember her collection of perfume bottles, the telephone table, and (most vividly) the attic full of racks of clothing with matching hats and shoes.  The little magnifying glass in the attic is actually hers.





















Somehow I ended up with one of her vintage style umbrellas.  I also am the depository for Babcia's fine china, represented by the coffee cup.

I wanted to include a telephone because both my mother and my aunt worked for the phone company. Here is another old scrappy page.



Babcia had a water pitcher and bowl.  My aunt loved pink and filled it with her style of flowers which remain in the pitcher to this day.

























Babcia was a typical European cook who didn't measure anything.  No one could duplicate her delicious babka (Polish Easter cake).  However, the Boston Cooking School Cook Book aka the Fanny Farmer Cookbook somehow turned up as the "go to" family cookbook.  Pictured is my mother's well-worn edition.  I also got a copy when I married in 1970-- it is getting close to being an antique as well.  Everyone had a wood rolling pin.  I still can picture Babcia making us perogi in her kitchen--just a quick lunchtime meal.  It takes me two days to make a batch!



Finally, I wanted to include books for these avid readers and a newspaper since my uncle-in-law, who lived in the flat above, was a newspaper publisher and cartoonist. The photo in the frame is of Uncle Joe.  The bit of doily is one actually crocheted by the family.



Here is a picture of me (and my siblings) in front of Babcia's house.  Thanks for stopping by and reliving with me my memories of Babcia's house.



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