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My ARTistic Life
Creativity and Sharing from Helga at
ARTchix Studio
Issue #8, January - March 2008
Click images to enlarge
| About
My ARTistic Life (Our New Newsletter) |
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Sorry, this
issue is no longer available. But luckily you can read it here (see
below). |
| About
the Cover Art |
Itty Bittys by Helga
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I had so much fun making these Itty Bittys
(3” square collages) for our
Itty Bitty Swap! Check out below to get a peak at more fun
goodies I made for this swap.
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Letter from Helga |
The fabulous peeps behind ARTchix Studio! From left to right, back
row: Kathy, Cynthia, Prince (Jackie’s adorable son), Lareena
(Jackie’s beautiful daughter), Jackie, Cindy. Front row, left to
right: Lori, Emily, Carly, Helga and Alwen. James is missing because
someone had to take the photo. Tee hee! |
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Dear Art Friend,
Hope all is warm and happy in your world. Here in ARTchix-land, we’ve
been busy!
For Christmas, we had a cookie party at my house! It was soo much fun!
Get a taste of what we made below. And see all of our sweet smiling
faces here. A big thanks to all of our wonderful helpers here at
ARTchix, we sooo appreciate all that you do.
A few days after Christmas, James and I got woken up by our smoke alarm.
We had a fire! It was sooo scary! My
heat gun (similar to a
mini hair dryer...I use it to dry my collages) decided to mysteriously
go on in the middle of the night and it started a big fire in my art
studio. While James tried to put out the fire, I tried to call “911” but
our phones were dead. The fire had taken out our phone line! Luckily,
James was able to put out the fire and we’re all okay. No one was hurt.
Phew! My hero!
You wanna know the weird thing? The fire burnt down my “inspiration”
bookcase (books, cards, music, products...everything that I’ve collected
over the years that inspires me) + my huge inspiration bulletin board.
Think the universe is trying to tell me something? I’ve pondered this a
lot. So, my new theme for this year is “Use it or lose it!” I was
collecting and hoarding all of this inspiration but I wasn’t using it.
It just sat on my bookcase untouched. Now, instead, I’m looking for
inspiration all around me and actually using it! I made my swap artwork
(below) soon after the fire using the few supplies I could grab. It was
so therapeutic!
Use it or lose it!...and remember to keep your art tools unplugged,
Helga
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| Our
Fabulous Cookie Party |
| We had an awesome
Christmas cookie party here in ARTchix-land! We made delicious treats
along with decorated recipe cards. I’m happy to share a few with you
below. |
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Pretty
Packages of Cookies
They’re almost too pretty to open up and eat! |
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Recipe
Card by Alwen Rambo
Don’t ya just LOVE this recipe card? Alwen is amazing! Her cookies
were extra tasty too! |
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Recipe
Cards by Helga
I made classic, yummy chocolate chip cookies. Mmm, I’m drooling just
thinking about all of these treats! Maybe you could host a cookie
party with your friends?
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Recipe
Card by Jackie McColl
Jackie’s Chocolate Crunch is dee-lish (and apparently super easy to
make)! |
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| Gallery:
Turquoise Scrap ATCs |
| Wow,
aren’t these Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) just spectacular?! They all
have pieces of our
German
Turquoise Scrap incorporated into them. Be sure to see these
online in brilliant color, they’re fabulous! |
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ATC by Connie
Senyitko
Love seeing this fairy popping out of the egg, looks so neat! |
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ATC by Carol
Stocker
The peacock is raised from the background which looks so cool! |
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ATC by
Frieda Oxenham
I’m in love with this toile
background! |
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ATC by
Judy Robinson
This archway made out of turquoise scrap looks stunning!
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| Gallery:
Matchbox Ornaments |
| I was
totally blown away by these gorgeous ornaments that were all made
out of matchboxes. Who knew that matchboxes could be altered and
transformed into magical ornaments in so many unique ways?! |
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Ornament by Janet
Heritage
2 matchboxes are taped together and filled with tiny bottles! |
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Ornament by Jean
Melom
This archway was cut into the matchbox lid to reveal the inside! |
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Ornament by LeAnne Miller
This matchbox lid is used to frame a beautiful piece of
Fairy Post! |
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Ornament by Kim Smith
Pull the star charm on the bottom to see what’s inside this
matchbox! |
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Favorite Products for Our Next Swap |
| I hope
you will join us in our
next
art swap: inchies! Here are some of our fabulous products you
will want to order and play with! They’re exquisite! |
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1” Watercolor Paper Squares
Hate to measure and want to jump straight into art playtime like me?
You need these! |
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Birdsong Collage Sheet
The bird silhouettes and extra doodads on this sheet are absolutely
heavenly! |
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Victorian Birds and Nests
I love these colorful birds and nests! Their sizes are excellent for
inchies! |
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Tiny Pink Dot Borders
These tiny borders are perfect for inchies! See Cindy McMath's
inchie here, fab!
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| My Swap Art: Itty
Bittys |
| Our swap
for January was to make
Itty
Bittys (3” x 3” square collages) with our
faux postage. I
thought it would be fun to share what I made with you. It was so
much fun! |
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Itty
Bitty by Helga (front)
I made this fun collage by gluing down assorted papers from my scrap
bin. Then I added the
faux postage. Next, I glued on “celebrate a nice bright day” after
finding the words in an old book. Watercolor crayons and paint pens
were used to further embellish. And then when packaging it up, I
added the butterfly. |
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Itty
Bitty by Helga (back)
It’s important to include your name and email address on the back of
all of your swap artwork. You’re welcome to do this simply or feel
free to get creative. When I was making my collages, I found myself
wrapping papers around to the back side. So, that’s how this little
collage on the back came together. |
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Itty Bitty all packaged up
I recently purchased heart and
butterfly punches from Martha Stewart. They’re so fun! I love
punching them out of decorative papers and then adding them to my
collages (like the butterfly above). So, I grabbed my scrap bin and
punched out colorful hearts and butterflies to add to my swap
packages as little gifts. I love including small, inexpensive gifts
with my swap art. It’s really fun and such a nice thing to do.
Certainly not required but if you want to share, I think it’s great! |
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