the creative pot is boiling

hi fellow gypsies,

after my flurry of kick-off postings it's time to clear the decks and create MORE. and to start figuring out what techniques i do that would be worth sharing...

look for upcoming projects-in-process: "Book of Life", "Skeleton Closet", and "I am the sum of my parts". and look for new (hopefully new to you) techniques for distressing photos - yes you can distress and ink your photos without losing their beauty.

but what about you, fellow gypsies? what do you see out in the world that you would want to be able to do yourselves? a special technique? a project that makes you say "i wish i could make that"? post your desires and see what the suburbngypsy can provide...

Upcycling Signage

A couple of years ago a local Safeway store closed. Walking by one night I spied a shopping cart filled to over-flowing with wooden letters from the store. Who could resist a huge pile of typography? Not me. My family helped me load everything into the back of the Jeep and off we went.

Over the next few months the letters sat in the garage while I worked on other things. Then finally last summer I pulled everything out into the backyard and starting laying out an abstract typography study. As I arranged the letters into a random collection of letters, I hid words in the piece as well. Tucked away are "grass", "frogs", and "USA". The whole piece was screwed together with wood screws and painted black. Then we mounted it to the wall in our backyard. It makes a fabulous and whimsical focal piece while we lounge and play.

Unbroken Chain

I wanted to make something really special for my mom for Mother's Day. My mom is totally into genealogy and has pictures of our family dating back to my great-great-great-grandparents. Since this was a Mother's Day gift, I decided to focus on the chain of mothers and daughters in our family.

This piece is built from chipboard panels covered in cardstock that was distressed and inked. Accents include micro beads, scraps of lace and buttons. I used a fern leaf and gold paint to make the gold prints, and then added the leaf itself to the cover. Repeated on each panel is "mother" and "daughter" because each woman in the piece has been both, except for my daughter at the very end. But of course she will be a mother one day too.

Random Elements

I love using random little things, and turning them into something special. Today's project started as a plain little birdhouse from Michael's that cost a whole dollar. Add a paper scrap left over from a minibook class, some bits of greenery left over from a school project, some pebbles stolen from the neighbor's yard (shhh don't tell), a twig and some Ranger Walnut Stain, and we have a fabulous tiny house. It could be for a fairy, a pixie, a teeny weeny house sprite - who knows

Inaugural Blog

For my very first blog I wanted to make sure I had something really special. Here's my newest project - my "Wickedly Minibook". Inspired by Wicked, both the musical and the novel, it features a lot of techniques. Metal embossing, alcohol inks, stamping, distressing, all combine to represent the Witch's life of random bits and scraps of life. The minibook tucks into the Witch's boot - a tranformed paper mache boot I've had for years but have never known what to make of it.