Iron Craft Week Thirteen

This week's challenge was titled "Best in Show" and featured crafts based on animals (roundup1 and roundup2). I love animals and wish that I wasn't so busy so I could have a pet at home. I'm allergic to cats (but love them) and I am very partial to dogs--of all sizes. In terms of favorite animals--one would have to be elephants. I was very lucky to have a friend that worked at an elephant pen at a local zoo. I actually got to pet, feed and oil the elephants. When elephant's skin starts to dry out, you have to spray oil on them to keep them moisturized. You get this big tank and a spray nozzle (like those spray wax machines for your cars) and stray them with oil. My favorite time was when I got to play with twin baby elephants. A baby elephant reminds me of a balloon with ears. My second favorite animal is the panda. I have been infatuated with pandas since I was little. I decided to do this cutout because I think it's cool to see a parent with their child (rather it is in the animal or human world). I was really please with the way that this turned out and will be more pleased when I do it in a larger format. This is a hand painted watercolor background and measures 5.5" by 6.25" and appears in my art journal.

Iron Craft Week Twelve

This week's challenge was devoted to "Luck." I was truly inspired by some of the terrariums that were built for last week's "Green" challenge. As I was walking to the local bodega to get a Coke Zero, I rounded the corner and saw this vendor that was selling bamboo stalks. In NYC, we call it Lucky Bamboo and you must buy three stalks for it to be lucky--actually, I think the vendors make that up in order to sell more bamboo. I bought the bamboo for $2. I already had the river rocks from another project and I retrieved the vase from the trash as it was being thrown away by one of the actors at the theater. Even though I spent money, I think that it is a good project (roundup1 and roundup2).

Iron Craft Week Eleven

This week's challenged was based on the color "green" in honor of St. Patty's Day. I have to say that I had to revert to my old craft days and design some cards because I really don't "do" green. I hate green--I always have. I don't have very many green clothes. I really don't have green anything--especially in craft supplies.

We were instructed not to do any "Green" as in recycling, etc. We had to use the color "green." This placed me in a very difficult situation because--I didn't even have any green card stock to do a cutout. Other crafters didn't have as many problems as I did (roundup1 and roundup2).

I started searching my stash of supplies and found some old pressed leaves and flowers that I had used in a previous project. I decided to mount them in my oval designed tri-fold cards. One was in a pale green/yellow card stock and the other was a desert colored brown card stock. The papers used were petal infused handmade paper from Kate's Paperie that I had on hand. Overall, I was pleased with how they turned out.

Iron Craft Week Ten

This week's challenge was called "Fat Tuesday in the Quarter." I had no idea what the challenge was going to be. We were required to make something out of a "fat quarter" of fabric. First of all, I had no idea what a fat quarter was. More importantly, I had no idea if I had any fabric hanging around the apartment or studio.

It was explained to me that a quarter yard of fabric is usually 9" by 44" when cut off the bolt. A fat quarter is cut differently and measures 18" by 22" which gives you more options on how to use the material. A general guideline is the shape and size of a bandanna. I was amazed at the projects that were created with such a small piece of fabric (roundup1 and roundup2).

I was really stumped on this challenge because I had vowed not to spend any money on these projects. I was looking for old T-shirts or old shirts that I could use. I had a couple of options in clothing. I was also looking at old bedding that could be used and had a couple of options there as well. I decided to look in my sewing storage container and found this beautiful piece of fabric that I had used several years ago. The fabric was left over from a bulletin board project that I had made for a friend of mine. It featured large poppy flowers in oranges, yellows and browns.

I decided to make a large storage box with brown book cloth and used a piece of the fabric as the inset in the top of the box. I had to back the fabric with paper so that the glue wouldn't seep through the fabric. I used a heat bond adhesive and backed the fabric with Japanese tissue.

Iron Craft Week Nine

This week's challenge was called "And the Oscar Goes to . . ." and we were supposed to a project inspired by the movies (roundup1 and roundup2). This was an easy challenge for me as I already had a project planned but I never got around to actually completing it.

I had found a book called "100 Faces of Hollywood" at an old bookstore. Many of the pages were damaged and waterlogged but there were many good pages that could be used for something. I had already separated the pages for using in a project but just hadn't pull the trigger to make it happen. I decided to make envelopes out of the pictures.

The envelopes are A6 sized which fits a 4" by 6" card. Each of the envelopes featured an Oscar award winning actor/actress/director. The envelopes are lined on the inside for added strength. The liners are made from Abercrombie and Fitch catalog pages.

Iron Craft Week Eight

For this week of Iron Craft, we were challenged to craft something dedicated to our hometown (roundup1 and roundup2). I was on the fence about what I wanted to do. I could have done my hometown of Houston, Texas which would have been easy. I could have done West Lafayette, Indiana which was were I went to school. Or, I could do my current hometown of New York City. While I have only lived in NYC since 2002, I believe that NYC really is my hometown because I truly believe that it the place that I was meant to live.

I was walking down Broadway on my way to the theater, and I was overwhelemed by the street vendors handing out brochures for theater ticket discounts. At that moment, I realized that I wanted to do an homage to Broadway theater. I designed a two page spread in my art journal. The paper is Arches cold pressed watercolor paper. On one page, I used my handmade alcohol inks to lay down a background and did the paper cutout of the Statue of Liberty. The other pages uses a NYC subway map printed paper on which I cutout images from some of my favorite Broadway shows--Mary Poppins, West Side Story and the Lion King.