Peggy — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:58:28 +0000

I just returned late Monday night from a 3-day studio seminar with Arleta Pech in Colorado. It was the BEST! She’s started doing these classes in her home studio for a maximum of 5 students, an incredible opportunity.

Making cards from my paintings

Peggy — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 23:50:53 +0000

Still making cards! These are made with downloadable digital “frames” from Ann-Marie Vaux at CraftsUPrint (click the banner on the right). She has scads of beautiful frames and I’ve used some to frame photo vignettes of some of my paintings. I generally print two copies of the frame, mount the first (the base image) onto a blank card with double-stick tape, then cut the center oval out of the second copy. Sometimes, the second copy was cut along an outer line also if there was a design line that made that feasible.

Layer the second image onto the first dimensionally with clear silicone gel or double-stick dimensional foam pads. It’s hard for me to leave well enough alone, so most of the cards have additional embellishments–ribbon, crystals, glitter, etc. You can do the same with your own paintings and make a wonderful card/gift for someone special! You can see more of these cards here.

Making Cards from Antique Postcards

Peggy — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:51:02 +0000

It took a while, but I’m back with pictures of some of the cards I’ve made from antique postcards. The cards are a card and a gift, all in one. As a decorative artist, I find this to be such fun–a chance to work with color, texture, design and all sorts of embellishments (like microbeads, tinsel glitter, crystals, ribbon, beautiful papers, etc., etc.)–and with relatively fast results, which is more than I can say for my painting . I maintain the integrity of the postcards by mounting them with photo corners that I sometimes dress up with microbeads or glitter. Here is a link to the photos.

Creating With Postcards

Peggy — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 21:33:33 +0000

I’d like to share some things I’ve been doing with vintage postcards to create one-of-a-kind cards and display pieces. Most of them don’t involve painting, but what artist can resist working with these wonderful turn-of-the-century bits of art and the amazing array of papers and embellishments available today. Color, texture, glitter and glitz!

For this first piece, I covered the top of an unfinished frame with torn pieces of postcards that were either too damaged, or just too ugly , to use in any other way. I painted a violet on the upper left corner, mounted the postcards on pretty paper with transparent photo corners, added a gold sticker embellishment and distressed everything with a spritz of walnut ink.

I made this little display piece by mounting a card onto a pre-cut photo mat covered with scrapbook paper. I cut an opening in the paper so the writing on the back of the postcard would show, and embellished with paper roses that I made, beads, charms, stamps and stickers.

And here’s another one:

In my next post, I’ll show you some of the greeting cards I’ve made. They’re wonderful for any occasion, and the card isn’t just a greeting, but a gift as well.

By the way, the little display easels may be purchased here.