looking ahead . . .

I am busy organizing a new creative swap on little books but wanted to say: I hope that it warms up for you soon if you are still getting snow (?) and live where it is not quite spring yet! Here in Florida, spring has already sprung. Look forward to scenes like this before too long . . . NOTE: These really are summer-like scenes, aren't they?!! Here's wishing it is warm, or will be soon, wherever you live.
I must remind myself, I now live in the "Sunshine State".

-hang on, it won't be too long!
Thinking of you, lenna

mail art!

As if Jewels beautiful envelope yesterday was not enough, I received even more mail art today! Do you think the word is out that this is something I really enjoy receiving?? ; ^  ) Earlier this year Last year (!) I hosted a mail art swap - so much fun! One of the wonderful things that came out of the swap is that Sue Emmerson, one of the swap participants from Australia, decided to continue the mail art fun! She asked a few people from the swap if they would like to exchange mail art every other month and organized themes & mailing dates. To keep the amount of work reasonable she limited the group to 1/2 dozen participants. Today, I received mail art from Linda Freeman in Washington. WOW! Our theme for this mailing is: Where I live.

Linda created her envelope out of a manila folder -so cool! 

back of her envelope

the envelope and the contents! 

Earlier this month, as our sending dates are staggered - I received this wonderful envelope from Sue, our hostess -all the way from Australia. I am very happy!   

Inside, Sue enclosed some goodies too. In fact, now I have an Aboriginal Magnet from Sue, and a Washington State magnet from Linda! 

My mailing date is April 20th, so it will be a few weeks till you see what I do for Where I live -it will be great fun. I am sure glad Sue asked me if I might have time to exchange mail Art! The others in our group are: Joanna Urbani, Laura Hummel, and Yvette Snowden. See you in the mail! 

another version -This too shall pass

This is the Rube Goldberg version of This Too Shall pass by OK Go, a band I love for their talent and uber creativity. Earlier this week I shared a Notre Dame marching band version of this same song! This video is well worth watching just to see the "machine" they created for it. There are even 4 short videos describing their process making the set -you'll find them as related videos when this one is done -click on YouTube at the bottom to see them. I hope you enjoy!!

lenna 

my exchange with jewels!

Back in November, yup - 4 months ago, Julie Oman (Jewels) and I exchanged some vintage postcard images via email . . . I think we were both in one of Mary Green's classes then. I tracked down our messages to see just how this exchange started! Jewels wrote to me: "Lenna – I think it is a lovely idea to do an exchange with 'Whistle While You Work' (though I have no idea how she would get ANY sewing done with that dang bird on her hand LOL). No hurry which is fine with me – maybe something to start 2011 just right?"
We each pledged to create something with the image above and then trade with each other! I sent my package off to Jewels last Friday and she received it on Monday. I received her wonderful package today!! For the gift I made for her I took the image above that she had sent me - and copied it onto fabric:

I had found some embroidered cloth napkins at the Thrift shop . . . . 

I sewed the image on to one and then sewed some more! 

{Click on any image for more detail}

I spritzed on color and even embroidered a bit . . . 

To spritz color on I used watered down acrylic paint in a spray bottle. The paint & water separate when it sits, so I simply shook it up, made sure the nozzle was not blocked and practiced first! I covered my images with a piece of scrap paper and sprayed the background of the napkin quite lightly, adding more as needed. I used 2 colors -pink and light brown. I wanted the pink to resonate with our chosen image and the light brown to tone it down and age it. Then I added more images and made Jewels a pillow!

the front

the back

To make sure the cloth napkins would fit around the pillow form, I used a wide open-weave piece of trim from my stash. I sewed it directly to the edges of the cloth napkins so the orange trim on  them would still be visible. I think it actually added a lot to the look of the pillow, even though it was not a planned element.

small details

Now can you believe that when Jewels received it, she wrote me & told me that she laughed when she opened my package because . . .  she has the same napkins (and a tablecloth) to match -amazing! And I thought I was being so clever!!! Now today I was honored with Jewels' first piece of mail art ever. I would not have guessed this if she did not tell me! 

Inside was a beautifully wrapped package & a card with detailed notes on how she made her piece -wow!

Isn't this just gorgeous!

 oh my! 

(details )

love the image & the stitching

My studio wall is getting deliciously filled up!

Jewels piece is top left.

This mini quilt is just so perfect! 

Thank you so much, jewels!
You have really done an incredible job.

There are a few more photos of both of our work in a set on my flickr account if you'd like to take a look. You'll find the 'art exchanges with Jewels' set inside my Fabric Art folder -EnJoY!! This was such a great thing to do and lucky me for receiving such a gorgeous piece of fabric art. I am looking forward to exchanging with Jewels again soon! You can visit her at her blog: http://justtickety-boo.blogspot.com/ : ) And there is now a wonderful post written by Jewels about our exchange, here. Enjoy, she is a wonderful writer!

let it go, this too shall pass . . .

good advice from a very creative band, ok go - that I really love. This is filmed live, featuring the Notre Dame marching band!

Chloe and the 100 photo 'blips'

Chloe, originally uploaded by creativelenna.

Sunday, March 20th, 2011 was the day I hit 100 days of photo uploads and journaling on Blipfoto, wow! They make a celebration out of it on the site, announcing your 'blipday' and even giving you a balloon! I would say most members there try to do a special photo for that day. As one person remarked when I said my 100th blip was near, "oh, the pressure is on!" ; ^ )

For my special "Blipday" journal entry, I did not use the photo of our sweet Chloe above, even though she is so cute. Nor did I use this one I worked on in Photoshop, even though it was interesting . . .

I did not use either of these two  . . . 

Asia, me & Chloe,  in my parent's side yard

Playing with Photoshop and a picture of Asia . . .
The rose is from my mother's garden and appears again here!

And I did not use this one . . . . 

or this one!

But I used a similar one and started playing a bit more in Photoshop. I combined photos I took of my mother's beautiful roses with the photos Steven had taken of me & the dogs. It started like this -

And after a few different tries I came up with something i liked . . . please view my finished journal photo here on blipfoto. It took some time to create, but it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed celebrating my milestone of 100 photos. I began Blipfoto in early December at my good friend Frieda's suggestion, but reached 100 blip entries pretty fast because I have uploaded a photo on a daily basis since December 18th. If you have read my writing about this before, you'll know that blipfoto is not something I set out to do, but checked out because of Frieda and then fell into it! It has been a great learning experience for me. On Blip, it's easy to see photos of and read about places all over the world. For example, I know a lot more about Frieda & Scotland now - I love it!

I have noticed though, that a lot of my creative energy is going into photography now so I may consider not uploading on a daily basis. At blipfoto you can upload ONE photo per day, but there are no roles saying you must! I could upload every other day, or 2 in a row and then none for a week. I simply got into the rhythm of taking photos every day and choosing one to share. I have been doing a few other creative things though, so I'll be back! Thank you for visiting, it is much appreciated. xo lenna 

swap little books -sign up in a few weeks!

Just to keep you in the loop, in a couple of weeks I will be announcing a new creative swap. This new swap will be all about making and exchanging little books! Here are a few small books I've made, please click on the photo for more detail . . .

I run my creative art swaps through a separate blog and anyone is welcome to join, even beginners. There is a registration fee for the swaps that runs between $10-$15. It always includes a lesson. Well really, it's a mini workshop written by me for you to help you jump into the swap! The registration fee also includes return postage for your swap pieces to anywhere in the world. Most anyone will tell you that my swaps are well worth the registration fee!!

I hope you will join us sometime soon. These swaps are a great way to learn new things and exchange art, plus make new friends! If you would like to keep up with any of my blog posts via email, you can sign up here. There are 3 email "newsletters" you can sign up for: creative lenna -all the posts I write here, delivered to you as email. creative swaps -all the posts I write on creative swaps delivered as email. The Swap participants newsletter, the last choice on the list, is different. This is simply an email announcing a new art swap with one follow up reminder and that's it! No posts.

I hope this is all helpful to you!! creatively yours, lenna

Chihuly in St. Petersburg

I was reading a blog post by Nancy Roberts, a swap participant and student of mine, where she talked about exploring the wonders of Florida and an exhibit she saw of a collection of Dale Chihuly's in St. Petersburg. I really love Chihuly and have followed his art for quite a while. His glass pieces are so organic and appealing to me. Steven and I were taking my sister to the Tampa Airport last week, so we thought it would be perfect to swing by St. Petersburg and see the collection on the way home. St. Petersburg itself, is so lovely . . .

I'm playing with photoshop elements . .. .
we had lunch here on Beach Dr - overlooking the waterfront park.

Belgium Ale (with orange slice) and ice tea! 

This was in the gift shop - we could not take photos in the exhibit.

His glass sculpture is near the entrance 

Part of this sculpture was viewed on the inside! 

in the gift shop

Chihuly will paint first - then create his glass pieces.

A couple of years ago I went with my son Dallas, to the New Britain Museum of American Art  in Connecticut where I saw this amazing piece Chihuly did, below -the blue squiggly one.

There was a very similar one I saw in the St. Petersburg Collection. You might want to take a look at the Chihuly Collection website to see more of this collection, or take a look at Dale Chihuly's website. WOW. I could spend a long time on this site if I am not careful!! I have a few additional photos up in a set on my flickr account too.

Enjoy and be inspired! 

Quilts & Boats

"The Fisherman" -It won 1st Place!!
A collaborative quilt by Cass Bowen, Joy Abbott, Chris Keys,
Helen Lucas, Linda Kerby, Lynne Minguez, and Cathy Washburn (pictured below).

I've uploaded the photos I took last weekend from the Quilt show I attended put on by The Friendship Knot Quilter's Guild here in Sarasota, Florida - as well as my personal tour of the Dave Lucas Boatworks & Happy Hour Club on the Braden River! My husband Steven knows Dave through boat building and Dave's wife Helen is a member of the Friendship Knot Guild. She had a quilt entered in the show -I just found out it won First place! (see the quilt above). It's quite appropriate that Dave builds boats, and Helen's quilt has a boat in it don't you think? This quilt is actually a historical piece about the Fishing Rancheros in the 1700's. Dave asked Steven if he could help him to dismantle the Quilt show when it was over and I happily volunteered too! I had already heard about it from a student. If you follow this link you can view a wonderful slide show of some of the amazing quilts I saw and get a peek at Lucas Boatworks  a beautiful little boat building spot in the woods.

The Tiki Hut at Dave Lucas Boatworks

enjoy, and have a creative weekend!
many thanks to Nancy Roberts for telling me about this show as well as the Chihuly exhibit!!!