scrapologie

Joseph Cornell and some random musings...

Joseph Cornell, the Hotel Eden, c. 1945. Construction, 15 1/8 x 15 3/4 x 4 3/4 in; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Just wanted to tell you a bit about what will be coming up in a future project kit. A few months ago, I discovered the art of Joseph Cornell and was instantly enthralled with his work. Joseph Cornell was an American artist and sculptor from New York who was born near the turn of the century. He did not formally train as an artist (all the more reason I find him so compelling) and worked as a textile salesman. He cared for his widowed mother and disabled brother after the death of his father, but his spare time was spent in his basement in Queens NY. crafting amazing assemblages and works of collage. His assemblages were constructed to convey a message or an idea. The objects he used were symbolic of larger ideas. Many of his assemblages were constructed to be interactive and created with children as the viewers, in mind. If you get a chance, check out his work in this book: The Joseph Cornell Box: Found Objects, Magical Worlds at Amazon. It's a wonderful box and book that details his story. Based on his work and inspired by him, our next scrapologie project features a compartmented box from Creative Imaginations that we are going to use to explore the art of assemblage. Hope to have that one out by the end of February sometime.

I created this layout a few days back -- the photo was taken from bprm2's photostream on Flickr - (design is my own). Brushes are Jason Gaylor Foliage Brushes. I admit that there are days when I feel lost --- I have become so accustomed to doing monthly kits for so long now that I almost don't remember life before the kit club. But doing this layout helped me remember. It's a very graphic design for me, which I can't seem to get away from, no matter how much I love vintage. Part of me always goes back to simple, bold and graphic.

I think it's a curse. It's hard to develop your own stamp of creativity, your own style -- when you are torn between two styles! It must be the duality of my Gemini nature, and I might as well accept it and give into it as sitting here and pondering it never gets me far....

Flexing my photography muscles...

So I have this wonderful camera, a Canon Digital Rebel EOS which I've had for over a year now -- and I am ashamed that I still don't know all the bells and whistles on the thing. One thing I do know is that I love to compose vignettes and photograph them. I am a long time reader of  Victoria Magazine and I was nearly heartbroken when they ceased publication some years ago. I think I have every issue I have ever bought. And it's tough to even find old copies - you can sometimes get them on ebay. I owe Victoria my love affair with all things vintage and elegant. And it's also the reason why good photography meant so much to me in photographing kits and supplements. The photography in Victoria, at that time, outperformed many of the other competing publications. I was thrilled when I found out last summer about the return of Victoria -- I called Hoffmann Media and signed up for a subscription on the spot, even before the first issue appeared on my doorstep in October. I can't tell you the happiness I feel when I see Victoria in my mailbox - if you don't subscribe to it -- I highly recommend it - you won't be sorry. Long story short - we have Victoria magazine to thank for my love of inspiring photography. Way before scrapbooking as we know it today even came onto the scene, yep.

So I did my own Victoria style photo shoot today -- in honor of the mag I love. The brushes are Rhonna Farrer lovelies from the Peadom.

Oh - and can you stand one more picture of the compact?? It somehow just didn't seem finished to me -- so I added a little banner on the front, which helps to conceal the fact that it's a Stila Compact -- I like it better like this!

Stila Compact Project

So here is the Stila Compact project I promised in last night's post. It's fairly simple to do:

1) Select a compact that preferably is interesting or lovely on the outside. Clean the compact thoroughly inside and out so that no trace of the cream blush remains. If necessary, paint the compact with Krylon Fusion Spray Paint for plastic.

2) Select a flower to place behind the compact. Center the flower behind the compact so you can see what will extend over the edge and be visible to the eye when you look at it head on. Adhere the flower to the back of the compact with glue dots or red liner tape. Brush the edges of the flower that will appear to the eye with glue and then dip it in silver glass or plain silver glitter (this is a technique I first learned in Sally Jean's book, Pretty Little Things - I highly recommend this as eye candy reading if you are interested in soldering, collage or jewelry making.)

3) While the flower dries, select collage elements to go on the inside of the compact. Punch them with a circle punch (if you don't have a punch the exact size of the inside of the compact, punch it a bit larger, then push the overhanging edge into the edge and trim off the excess. Adhere your collage elements to the inside of the compact. I used a Melissa Frances glitter letter from the Vintage Holiday kit, some vintage french text, bling from Marcella by Kay and a vintage collage image. Also, the background under the letter N was a vintage postcard image that I printed out on Vintage Sheet Music. That was a fantastic idea I read about at the the Feathered Nest blog, which is a wonderful inspiring blog I just stumbled upon the other day!

4) If you wish, you can fill one or both sides of the compact with a dimensional adhesive like Diamond Glaze. I didn't have a chance to do that. Tie some seam binding through the top of the ribbon to hang it like an ornament and voila, you are all done. Oh -- the little silver charm -- I will have those in some of the valentine kits and will also be selling them in the store -- 3 for $5 - they are a deal! Should have them up in the next day or so in the store. If you make one, please post here and link me to it so I can see how it turns out!!

A gem of a sister and a lovely project using a.... compact?!

Today I was thinking about my older sister Nan. I just sort of had a flashback of our childhood together ... maybe it's because January is her birthday month. But I suddenly remembered little details that had been long forgotten ... like how she walked me home from kindergarten, how she stood up to bullies for me, how she sat with me on the bus when I had butterflies about riding the bus, for the first time. How she saved me from nearly drowning in a simulated wave pool, how she always laughed at my jokes, no matter how corny they were, (I just re-read this and it sounds like I was pretty pathetic, lol!) The conversations we had wee into the morning hours about life and philosophy and all manners of things. She paved the way with mom and dad to make it easier for the younger ones to have more liberties. And even when she was sent to India to do her schooling there - she wrote me long humorous letters - I took it as a sign that she either really missed me, or was bored to tears. She became a wonderful mother to three terrific boys, a poet and a writer and an artist and a business owner, and a teacher and so many other things. Being an Aquarian, she would drive the rest of us crazy at times -- and still does! In her earlier years, she wore a number of hats, taking on all kinds of careers, pizzamaker, waitress, and even a door to door vacuum cleaner saleswoman (she sold ONE $500 vacuum, to my poor sucker of a dad!) before she moved on quickly to another job. Eventually, she got her degree in Political Science while raising twin baby boys and an older son and settled into a career in technical education or something - I am still not sure what she did while she worked at Honeywell but I know she was happily stable, which was a relief. I remember, earlier this year, she sent me a passionate plea to donate generously to her personal fundraising campaign for her favorite political candidate; followed by another email asking me to launch my own fundraising campaign for the same candidate. I donated, of course, not so much out of a sense of civic responsibility, but because it was my sister asking! Two months later I asked her how the fundraising was going - and she nonchalantly and airily said "Oh, I'm not voting for him anymore," as if that was the most normal thing in the world -- one minute you're crazy about peanutbutter and jelly and the next minute it's anathema. That's an Aquarian for you. Ever future facing, ever believing that the ideal world exists and setting out to find it, gladly taking along anyone else they can convince on the way. Which in the end, is good. The world needs people like her.  Anyway, I laugh every time I think of these stories and my heart warms and I miss her.

If you're reading this, I love you Nan! Now's a good time to stop reading though -- because I am going to talk about your birthday present!

So-- tomorrow I will upload some pics of my sister's birthday present (and if you're still reading -- don't worry - this isn't the only thing I'm getting you!) But I wanted to show you what it's made from:

I use Stila Convertible Color Blush in Gerbera -- and though they may have changed the compact color to silver, the one I have is the same color as the cream blush inside - a lovely blush peachy color. Being the hoarder that I am, I never could throw Stila compact cases away once the blush was depleted, because the cases are so pretty! So I made a lovely little something I will share with you tomorrow -- and you can make it from any lovely compact case. If your compact is the wrong color -- you can spray paint it with Krylon's Fusion Paint made for plastic.

So don't go out and buy the Stila Compact (unless you really want to --- though I will say - I LOVE the cream blusher and it's the only one I will wear, ever!)

Incidentally, the Valentine shipment from Making Memories also arrived today -- so I am shooting to get the kits up for sale by the week of the 14th. And so, to bed...

Vintage Collage Images for Download

So while we are still waiting on the taking-too-long-supposed-to-be-here-already valentine goodies from Making Memories ... here's a little secret I've been keeping... I am planning on offering a Vintage Collage Images Download Section to the site. I hope to offer both collage sheets and single images - and you'll see us slowly build the section over time, but we are offering two goodies to start with: a vintage Santa digitally colored by me, and a lovely gal I named "Holly". These images are downloadable and printable (nothing will be mailed to you) but you can resize them for use on various projects. I am excited to be able to share these with you! Most of the images will come from vintage French postcards and will retail between $1.99 and $3.99. Make sure you select the combined shipping option to zero out shipping.

Here's the first two beauties, and you can pick them up here: