BAREFOOT DREAMS ART CHALLENGE LINK PARTY...

 Welcome to the Dare to Dream Different Art Challenge!

I am so glad you could join me.  To get into the spirit of the challenge, if you have not done so before, you might want to visit THIS POST to see where the inspiration for the challenge came from.  Participation is super simple, using one or more or a part of one the provided images from the above mentioned post create a piece of art including the word "DREAM" in your creation.

There is no sign up, just show up and link to your creation allowing others to visit, view, and comment on your art.  I will be choosing a winner from those featuring their artwork for this challenge and offering my creation as a gift plus a packet of supplies from my studio.  You can link up Monday or Tuesday, Jan. 30-31, 2012 and a winner will be announced on Wednesday, February 1, 2012.

Here is my offering for the challenge entitled:  Harness Your Dreams...

I fell in love with this little barefoot lass and crowned crane.  She was wrapping a ribbon around its neck in the original photo.   I used two sizes of images to create my art piece so that the crane would be bigger than the little girl, a representation of our dreams often seeming to be bigger than we are but they are not impossible to harness...

I used a palette of  grey, white, and aqua...

A torn fabric ribbon is inscribed with handwritten dreams is interwoven with various fibers and studded with clusters of pearls...

I used a faux plaster technique to create my main background and the large floral embellishment on the upper corner tinting them with acrylics and dusting the floral embellishment with a fine crystal glitter...

The images are done as packing tape transfers...

Vintage velvet ribbon, and old metal buckle, and crochet lace embellish the bottom of the collage...

A ribbon wrapped wire hanger sparkles with a faux crystal and glimmering beads...

The collage measures 21 1/2 inches long from the top of the wire hanger to the tip of the lace bottom edge and is 8 1/2 inches wide. 

LINKING INSTRUCTIONS:

 Please read carefully in order for the link to show up properly.

 1.  Art Challenge projects only, pretty please.

2. Please link back to the party (text or button) within your post. See BUTTONS on my right sidebar.

3. By linking up here, you are granting me permission to feature you or your art work pertaining to this post on the blog or Pinterest with no additional permission required.

To link up you will sign in with Mr. Linky below. You will need to link to a specific post.   To do this open two windows on your computer, one open to my blog page and one open to your blog page.

Click on your post title and that will open a new window with only that specific post on it.  Right click on the post address at the top of the page, this will highlight it in blue, then click copy.

Paste that address in the linky box where indicated and follow the rest of Mr Linky's instructions.
 This will make it easier to go directly to the post and not have to scroll to find it.

Thank You!

Now that all the linky blah blah blah is out of the way, let the art party begin!

Mister Linky's Magical Widgets -- Thumb-Linky widget will appear right here!
This preview will disappear when the widget is displayed on your site.
For best results, use HTML mode to edit this section of the post.

Blessings,

Sandy

ART CHALLENGE REMINDER...

 I just wanted to remind any of you who might be joining me in the Art Challenge that the linky party will be held this coming Monday, Jan. 30, 2012.  There is no sign up just check out the rules for playing along and come and join us by linking up and showing off your creation.

Challenge Rules:

*Using one or more or even a part of one of the images in this post create any type of artwork you desire, (a tag, a card, a collage, a canvas, anything goes!) expressing the freedom to dream.  

*Include the word "DREAM" in your creation.
*Let's meet back here on Monday, Jan. 30, 2012 for a little linky party to share our creations.

To read the full post that inspired the challenge you can find it HERE.

 I will be holding a give away for those who participate by offering my creation for the challenge and a packet of supplies from my studio as gifts.

  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and hope to see some of you here on Monday!

A COMPLETED PIECE OF STUDIO STORAGE...

 It has turned out to be a very happy marriage of a tiny child sized chest of drawers, tiered table, and button cubby for new studio storage.  It was a tight squeeze but there is just enough room for the door to open and close.

  Before...

 

During...

  

After...

 

I love the new chubby knobs I found on sale at Hobby Lobby...

Care for a peek into the drawers?  Old tattered linens for projects...

 
Embroidered linens, handkerchiefs, and colorful crochet...

 This drawer has some temporary bagged things that are waiting for their new home, once they are removed it will be room for supply growth...

Current sewing projects: pillows, purses, a window treatment, and a skirt...

The shelves provide a place to stack lots of pretty boxes to hold supplies...

 Topping off the trio is my button cubby full of little glass jars of assorted colorful buttons...
 
I made little lid covers to coordinate with the button collections inside.  I grouped these in like color families, wood, metal, and glass... 
 



This little jar is one of my favorites.  These are buttons from my mother's button box that I played with as a child.  I have marked them as keepsakes, fun to take out and look at but I will probably never use these on a project...
 
On top I stored some spools of fibers and an adorable pin cushion doll...

One tiny artsy project is displayed here, a fiber and paper cup and saucer that I made...

 

The final finishing touch will be to add some hooks the top sides of the button cubby box for hanging supplies on. 

With limited space think going vertical, floor to ceiling like with this project.  I waffled about adding the cubby on top because it took up the snippet of wall space but in the end this was the best place for it in the room.  I am tackling the behind the door storage and the final piece of furniture this weekend, I have been waiting on some things I ordered to come in to finish these projects and they arrived yesterday.

I hope your day is being filled with beautiful things!

Blessings,

Sandy

A LITTLE SUITCASE LOVE...

 (Mini suitcase collage by me)

This week every spare second has been spent in the studio culling through everything in there, getting rid of what I absolutely do not love, and trying to figure out a new system of organization for some of my supplies.  All this is being done in preparation for the last new piece of studio furniture to be brought in.  Hopefully I can get the rest of the supplies needed to finish it this weekend.  I sort of ran out of steam and needed a little inspiration so I headed over to Pinterest to see if I could find something that sparked some ideas.

What I found was a little suitcase love.  In a perfect creative world I would have a much larger studio space with skylights and plenty of wall and storage space.  In a perfect world I would collect old suitcases and have Handy Hubby build me shelves like these to house them...

 (Image found on Pinterest)

This wall is just visually delicious to me and can you even imagine all the supplies those babies would hold?

In a perfect creative world I would have a well lit gallery wall of suitcase shelves like these...

 (Image found on Pinterest)

I could just imagine artwork displayed on these, love this idea!!!

In a perfect creative world I would love to have towers of these to stash creative supplies of fabrics, laces, trims, and vintage linens in...

(Image found on Pinterest)

In a perfect creative world perhaps I would have a pair of these to lounge in...

(Image found on Pinterest) 

 These are fabulously cool!

While I adore all those ideas, in my creative space those just won't work, but, I did find this idea of a traveling studio that is a possibility...

(Image found on Pinterest)

 I love how this one has been altered...

(Image found on Pinterest)

This would be great for traveling back and forth to the farm.

I found myself in a little suitcase love!  Suitcase dreams aside, I will dream my little space into the creative haven I desire it to be.  Oh, but it is so fun to image and dream!  I must put hands and feet to my dream and  hopefully I will have a big reveal to show you next week!

Do you have any savvy supply storage ideas?  I'd love to hear your favorite!

Enjoy your weekend!

WINTER'S CRAYON BOX...

The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination.  

-Terri Guillemets-

 We spent a glorious weekend at the farm. 

The weather was unseasonably warm with brilliant clear blue skies...

As soon as we were settled in I did what I always do, headed outside for a look around.  Not the kind of look around to see if things are as they should be but the kind of looking around that quenches the thirst of the eye from a sight not seen in far too many sun settings and moon risings.  A tour of the farm yard is always first.  A sweet companion perched in the peach tree pointing out the fine workmanship of he and his fellow feathered friends...

A brilliantly built nest in the top of the apple tree...

A woven wonder nestled in the center of the lilac bush...

And a sweet swirl of grasses gathered under the rose bush...

He pointed out pine cones...

Fuzzy soft weeds gone to seed...

And perfect places to perch...

All  manner of things of interest to him.  As I lifted the latch on the old garden gate he gave a quick chirp while spreading his wings and lifting himself high up into the sky.  His sudden departure startled my little sidekick, Sophie, causing her to ruffled her fur...

I sat obscured in the golden hay field silently observing the world around me...

 

 Sophie snuffling around beside me...

I noticed  how winter's crayon box had tipped itself over spilling out a limited palette of sky blue, buttery goldenrod, timberwolf grey, and bittersweet rust brilliantly coloring the landscape before me...
 
Both pond and sky had received firm pressure when filled in to achieve that deep rich vibrancy of blue...

The goldenrod was stroked on with a wispy light hand fanning and feathering the waving windswept grasses...

The rusty bittersweet was sketched in as rusted roof tin and strings of barbed wire on aged cedar fence posts...

And used in the detail designs of rusty nails...

Time worn latches, hinges, and bent wiggly wire...

 
Timberwolf grey was liberally used to texture the trunks of the Silver Leaf Maples...  
 
To swirl in the rings of the old hand hewn log barn...
 
And to give depth and character to bent old barn wood...
 

 I lingered looking long looks at winter's amazing color palette...

Quietly sitting in awe of the hand that wrought it all, bird, nest, pine cone, and tree... a sea of golden hay, an azure sky, the weathered grey of wood, and speckle spotted rust.  I took in the intricate detail of the hand of the ultimate artist and sighed a deep sigh of gratitude and appreciation.
 The shadows began to grow long...
 
And while my little sidekick Sophie and I had enjoyed our time in the sun...

It was time to point ourselves toward the farmhouse...
 
We strolled side by side while casting last admiring glances at winter's crayon box.

What colors in winter's crayon box are shading your world?