A local group of altered artists got together to make and trade art tags this past Friday night. It was a lot of fun but I think I’m all tagged out for the year,lol. I won’t bother you with an ingredient list but I do want to point out the tag in the top middle with the number “6″ in blue. It’s made from those plastic flip-numbers they used in the old fashioned gas stations… kept the wire ring at the bottom just because it looked different. This was a fun project but now it’s time to get back to mixed media collage… going to buy a board to work on instead of using canvas… the canvas is too flexible and drives me crazy.

Click for larger preview

Tried my hand with the sewing machine (yeah, I know… lol) and so far I’ve been able to do a few things I can share with you. I’ve also joined two fabric art groups that exchange fabric postcards through the mail.. hoping to get past the “I think I can” stage… it’s great fun! I’m also working on a set of “captured fairy” bottles for an upcoming craft fair to benefit my woman’s group. If you’d like to trade fabric art with me (4×4 or 5×5 inch, mixed media) I’d love to hear from you… just click “contact” button and send a note. Cheers and happy altered art-ing  :)

(That green sleeve you see there is called a coffee cozy, it’s used as a sleeve for Starbucks coffee cups instead of the usual paper ones. Less for the landfills and much cuter, too)

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Old frame from thrift store, page from the fishing supply section of a 1900′s Sears catalog, word rolls created from a book of poems by Robert Frost (my fave), turn-key spring from a rusted sardine can that Carol found out in the desert (thank you!), wooden girl holding seashell figurine from a local thrift store, red wooden disk from a vintage stacking bottlecap game I found at the antique store. Lots of glue.

I’ve added a vintage photograph below my preview that you can download. You can use it in your art but not to be added to any collection of photos for sale or sold online as I have the original. Have fun, let me know what you create I’d love to see it!

Click for full-size image

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/12/non-trashy-recycled-and-trash-art/

On the back, there’s a quote that says “they always seemed to wear painted on smiles”

(Click for full size view)

On the 27th I’ll be going to the crafter’s guild to see about becoming a member. To do that I’ll need to bring in samples of my altered art. Since I’ve spent the past year learning techniques and also trying to get a community started for altered artists in Las Vegas, I haven’t made too much to show off. I have an idea of what to bring… and yesterday I created one additional piece that they can look at so they can see what direction I want to lean toward in the future. I love creating collage in 3d bases such as frames, shrines, wooden blocks, boxes… etc. Anyway this is my latest creation… just coming out of a two month hiatus and glad to be creating again.

I think the inside composition (made with polymer clay!) and the wire thing across the middle looks way better than the frame… I’ve really got to think of something that looks more polished.

Altered Art Collage - "You Become Me" by Robin Schar

Altered Art - "You Become Me" (closeup) by Robin Schar

This is after “squishing” in my hands, before baking them

This is after baking and a little smidgin’ of acrylic in burnt umber

Old wood frame, Baby board book, Sewing pattern, Vintage image, Faux pearl beads, Images from old catalog, Old necklace clasp, Vintage key, Woven cotton fabric, Grandfather clock piece, Glass beads, Wire and Acrylic paints.

On Sunday the family was bored so I decided I’d pay the 16 year old $20 to help me move out of my office/art room… then move me back in after I’d cleaned things up a bit. We didn’t finish until.. well most of it is finished.. just a few straggling boxes left in the living room… holy sheesh if I never have to organize more altered art supplies I’ll forever be grateful. The new setup has my work desk with computer at one side of the room (yay! no art stuff to distract me) and a dedicated art area to the other side that isn’t strewn about with work folders. This is truly a winning combination!

Last that happened was on… I think Monday… I contracted a virus from a program I downloaded online. Ick it was a nasty one… two anti-virus programs couldn’t lick it so today I had to wipe the drive and begin again new. Thank God for my portable drive, I remember when having more than one hard drive was unheard of but now I have five! Watch out for any… never mind if you have this virus you know it… but here’s the name: PAV or, Personal Anti Virus. It’s horrid.

Here’s some photos of the shrine… ready to take a trip to the Las Vegas Altered Art group on Saturday. I’ll be making a paper one then… looking forward to that too!

(Click on photo for close up)

Cheers!

Here’s the flourishes I made for the sides (funny THEY didn’t turn brown and were baked on the wood itself while everything else did turn brown that I had on the parchent paper, hmmm) a neat leaf and a few round doo-dads I can use on other future projects.

I saw the cutest buttons on another blog website this morning… so wish I had pretty vintage buttons and not all the ugly, plain ones in my collection. So polymer to the rescue… they still have to be painted but with some pearlescent and metallic paints they’ll be a knockout.

I ran some polymer through my paper crinkle hand tool thing and it made some neat textures! The polymer stuck to it like white rice on paper but the effect’s pretty cool. I think I’ll save these for a mixed media canvas I’m thinking about.

I’ve been dying to make atc’s out of polymer so I made a base sized at 2.5 x 3.5 inches. What I do with it I have no idea, but that’s for another day. I also made a few small square pieces to use on other projects and too neat… I ran my sheet of prepared polymer into a “stamp” shape punch-stamp and it worked! The impression came out beautifully. The second one didn’t align to the edges correctly and I only got 1/2 a stamp out of it, but it looks old and torn which is more than perfect.

That’s it for my polymer creations…. have to get back to my Altered Shrine and see what to do next!