Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Art Auction for Puerto Rico

On Wednesday, September 20, Hurricane Maria made direct landfall on Puerto Rico. Weeks later, there's still limited power and access to clean water and/or food for the 3.4 million people there. It is truly a humanitarian disaster. Artists are coming together to help by raising funds for the Hispanic Federation, which has been at the forefront of responding to this crisis.


Help save lives by bidding on artwork from October 30 to November 3 at this site.  You will find work from a group of amazing artists including Tracy Verdugo, Riikka Kovasin, Pam Carriker, Marjie Kemper, Mary Beth Shaw and many more. I have contributed Shine, in the hopes that this auction shines a little light on the importance of continuing the efforts to provide aid to Puerto Rico.


A big thank you to Jessica Sporn for putting this auction together.

Monday, October 30, 2017

Art Deck 5

Had a chance in Taos to work on a good number of pieces for my Art Deck - 52 small artworks, all under 6 x 6 inches and available at accessible prices ranging from $35-$55. These pieces, numbers 29  to 39, are now in the shop. You can see all the other work from this Art Deck here.

HAIKU (sold - thank you)

PRAIRIE NIGHT (sold - thank you)

PUEBLO (sold - thank you)

PAST (sold - thank you)

HARVEST  (sold - thank you)

MORE TIME  (sold - thank you)

VOYAGE  (sold - thank you)

ROCKY ROAD (sold - thank you)

UNDERSTAND (sold - thank you)

KINDLING (sold - thank you)

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Build Your Own


If you are like me, you have your favorite products that you find yourself going back to over and over again. This is true for me with so many things, including stamps, stencils and dies. My goal is always to make them look a but different so that my artwork don't all resemble each other. This creative challenge is one of my favorite parts of making art. Today I am sharing an example using die cuts.


I start by choosing or creating a background. For Starburst I painted black gesso on an 8.25 inch square of watercolor paper which I splattered with paint from multiple colors of paint pens. I was going for the look of a night sky. I then chose three dies, all from my newly released collection, to represent planets and stars. First up, Strands.


The dies in Strands on their own are thin and well spaced. But it is easy to build your own die cuts and layer them to create a completely different look and feel. I ran them through my Platinum Die Cutting and Embossing Machine three times using three different hand painted papers. Then all the cuts were glued and layered to the surface.


Next up was my new Starstruck die set, which being circular and containing an inner star seemed perfect for this piece.


For this element, I chose the main die from the stand ran it through the Platinum twice, each time with a different piece of hand painted paper. In this case, I chose two different pieces that had similar coloring so that the layers would blend together to look like a single die cut.


I saved Sunburst, one of my favorites from the new collection, for last. As you add layers to this die cut, it keeps getting better and better.


Three's a charm and I cut the largest die from this set three times using three different brightly colored, hand painted papers. They were then adhered on top of each other in slightly rotated layers onto the surface of this piece.


For all the die cut elements, I also added additional circles and loops from my new die collection for more interest. The die cuts were outlined, and hand made marks added using a white gel pen. Hammered Metal Embossing Powder from Emerald Creek (which will soon be carried in my online shop) was added using my Turnarounds Set 1 rubber stamp for more texture. 


As a final touch, the title was added with rub on letters and covered with soft metallic scribbles.


Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Technique Tutorial




I love handmade books. Travel journals and artist books are among my favorite. But I will put just about anything in between two book covers. Here I am sharing a manual of techniques that I created to keep track of some of my go-to approaches to mixed media.


The book was created using one of my most favorite book binding techniques. It is simple, requires no stitching, and allows you to bind single sheets of paper rather than folded book signatures. A person who has never bound a book can easily make this one happen.

Today on the Cloth Paper Scissors blog, you can see and follow a full step-by-step tutorial on how to make this book binding. You can also watch the process unfold in my video workshop The Altered Book, available on DVD or as a downloadable video.

Check out the pages from my techniques manual below...







Thursday, October 19, 2017

#ARTifacts: September 2017

Artifacts (plural noun): objects made by a human being, typically an item of cultural or historical interest.

ARTifacts (plural noun): a collaborative project for 2017 documenting adventures in art.


Every year I have so many "art memories" from my travels, my teaching, my adventures in NYC, and my studio work. I have decided that 2017 will be the year of ARTifacts where I document my adventures in art for the entire year in a physical book. 

Always wanting to be inclusive, I turned my project into a no-rules collaboration. Participants were asked to find or make some sort of artist book, planner, scrapbook, 3-ring-binder, folder, or other container to document their creative experiences, whether they be in art, craft, or anything else.  As you can see below, each and every participant put their own creative twist on this project. And it is never too late to join. Email me at shap97@gmail.com if you would like to participate.

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YOU CAN SEE ALL PREVIOUS MONTHS HERE

Monday, October 16, 2017

Spellbinders Hop and Win

BLOG HOP

I love blog hops. They are all about community and sharing the love. Today I am part of a blog hop hosted by Spellbinders. I am sharing two artworks that I created using some of my newly released dies.




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Stop by all the artists that are taking part in the hop and sharing their creations with collections from Spellbinders.

Spellbinders Paper Arts
Jennifer Mcguire
Seth Apter - you are here
Laura Bassen
Yana Smakula
Wanda Guess
Debi Adams
Kimberly Crawford
Svitlana Shayevich
Julia Stainton
Amy Kolling

GIVEAWAY
THANK YOU - THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED
Congrats to Valerija Puksic!

What is a blog hop without a giveaway? How about two giveaways?

Head to the Spellbinders blog and leave a comment by Thursday Ocotber 19th, 11:59pm EDT for your first chance to win. Five lucky winners will each get a $50 gift certificate. Winners will be announced on the Spellbinders blog the following day.

Leave a comment on this post and you will be eligible to win a $25 gift certificate to use at Spellbinders. Make sure I have a way to reach you in case your name is randomly selected.

Happy hopping.....