Tessandore Creative

Wedding Buttons

I spent the holiday weekend celebrating with my friends at their wedding!  The weather was perfect -a relief since the ceremony and reception were both outside.  The ceremony was beautiful, relaxed, funny in parts.  It all came together so wonderfully.  The photo above is the button bouquet she carried.  It was made by Letters4Lilly out of Perth, Western Australia.  There are quite a few folks out there making button bouquets, but this woman's work really stands out.  She has a great, creative eye and the construction is solid so there were no worries about it falling apart as the bride came down the aisle.

Since I was in the wedding party, I didn't get a photo of this - but you should have seen the ring bearer.  Their Corgi dog came trotting right down with the rings tied to a flower on her collar!  She was quite the star.

Hope you had a long, wonderful weekend too.  ♥

A New Shop

Have you heard of this?  I started hearing more and more references to Art Fire on different blogs, so I finally checked it out.  It's an online store {competing with Etsy actually}.  They're brand new - just online toward the end of 2008.  Since they're still working out the kinks it's in beta testing mode, but because of that it's kind of a fun time to join up. 

Unlike Etsy, there are no listing or percent-of-purchase fees.  You can join for totally free if you want, or pay a small monthly fee for expanded features.  Ultimately that fee will be $20, but if you sign up really soon (only about 100 spots left) you can get a $7 per-month-for-life price.

You might have noticed the new Art Fire link on the left side of my blog, so obviously ~ I joined up!  It was after I read this post on the Vol.25 blog that I went for it.

A funny thing...I found the Vol. 25 blog from a link on Gloria's site and have been really enjoying it.  What I didn't realize until yesterday was that it belongs to Jessica, who is an artist I've been admiring for quite awhile!  Here's some of my favorites from her Etsy shop:

Check her out her Art Fire store too.  

And hey...if you do sign up, there's a little space to mention the name of the person that referred you.  Please drop in my name {Karen Tessandore} if you think of it.  I'm working toward a free membership deal they've got goin'.  :)   Thanks!  ♥

Easter around the corner...

So, I probably shouldn't be allowed into Michaels within several weeks of any holiday.  Too temping!  I have no impulse control when it comes to all the goodies that accompany most holidays.  Luckily, I have several girls in my life that definitely need Easter baskets.  :) 

This tiny bird is sitting on a cute paper cupcake that opens up ~ leaving a perfect amount of room for jelly beans!
+Yellow fluff-chicks always remind me of these books, which are so clever & hilarious.

After more than an hour of blissed-out gathering at Michaels, I called the trip successful and came home to assemble all the treasures.  But ~ see that kind of blank space in the middle of the basket...?
I forgot the chocolate bunnies!   What's an Easter basket without a chocolate bunny?!   One more shopping trip to rectify that & I can wrap the baskets up to admire for awhile before they're delivered.  It's been a lot of giddy, hand-clapping fun for me.  I'm nerdy like that.  :)
Lastly, speaking of bunnies...please take a moment to check out these handmade beauties by Black Crow Primitives on Etsy.  I ordered this one for my daughter and couldn't wait for Easter, so gave it to her last week!  They're really well made.  Wonderful work, and I think very under-priced at about $30 each.  But at that price the artist is selling them, so maybe it's better to keep them affordable and have them find homes.  We're happy to have one in our home!  ♥

Bits & pieces, thoughts & things...

Look ~ Art Supplies!  :)  This is the box 'o stuff I ordered from Dick Blick in preparation for Art Nest.  Can't wait to dig in!
But instead of jumping into a painting tonight, I had an idea last night to make a Valentine ornament.  My table was all set up so I could start right in on this:
The Sculpey clay heart shape came out a little more bulky than I had intended, and also baked down a bit darker than I thought it would.  I'm still really learning how to work with this stuff.  I'm especially stymied on how to keep fingerprints out of the clay once it gets warmed up.  Any suggestions?  I tried holding it and working with sandwich bags over my hands, but that just left indents from the folds in the plastic. 

Anyway...I'm happy with the overall ornament and was glad to have a reason to use my coffee cup charm.
I'm really working on letting things be "good enough" and being able to enjoy things that aren't perfect.  I mention this because I almost didn't post photos of my ornament.  "I like it, but..." is a phrase that bumps around in my head too often.  I have a real streak of discontent in me.  Even when I was a kid, I would paint or draw or make something then destroy it because it just wasn't "right".  I'm not sure where I got the idea or feeling that art even can be right or wrong.  But there it was anyway - the deep reaction that the work could have been better.  The feeling that if it didn't come out the way I had imagined, that it had no value.  Or worse - a negative value. 

I'm glad to say that I rarely slide into this way of thinking anymore.  How exhausting that would be!  Most of them time I really enjoy seeing where the creative work goes.  It never comes out precisely how it was in my head ~ but so many times it comes out way better because it came out so different.  That's part of play.  Enjoying the happy accidents.

I wish I could find the blog post that really got me thinking of this.  I read so many good blogs that now I can't remember which wise woman was talking about it recently...I'll keep an eye out and let you know if I run across it again.  Basically though, she pointed out that some things are worth doing even if you do them badly.  Quite a notion!  It seems both right and subversive to me to embrace that idea.  Still mulling it over.

Phew!  Sorry for the tangent there.   All part of my attempt to be more authentic here and not just show everything with "cute!" and "fun!" captions. 

That said ~ I just have to show you this cute Valentine cup and tray I found at the grocery store tonight:
 As you can see, it no longer lives at the grocery store.  ♥

Fancy Flours

It's like Christmas all over again!  After a couple months of ooo-ing and aw-ing and circling things in the Fancy Flours catalog - I finally narrowed it down enough to place an order.  Look how nicely they package things:
Now that's how it should be done!  Fancy indeed. 

Here's a little peek at what came in those nice parcels:
Baking challenges ahead.  :)   It will be a couple weeks before I can show you what comes from these treasures, can you stand it? 

Wish me luck!  ♥

Inspiration

These two books have really been getting me by lately and I recommend them to anyone in need of a creative boost. 

The first:  Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts.  I don't know where to start praising this one!  In part, it's a great "how-to" book from which I learned some handy new techniques.  But more than that, it's an encouraging story of living your dream.  I lover her writing style and it led me to search out her blog, which is just as upbeat and honest and lovely as her book.

The second:  Living the Creative Life by Rice Freeman-Zachery.  For this book the author interviewed 15 artists working in all different mediums about their work and how they get it done.  I always like hearing about how people have their studios arranged, how they organize their day, where inspiration is found, etc.  Plus, one of my favorite artists - Scott Radke - was included. 

So - to elaborate a bit on the photo from yesterday's post - these are some of the new techniques/ideas I collected from the Taking Flight book.  I started with rolling out some sculpey clay and using an exacto-blade to cut out a girl:

I was particularly happy with how the little cross-hatch texture there on the skirt turned out.  Then, using the oil-paint crayon type things (new to me!) I painted her face.  Her skirt and shirt were first painted with some brown oil paint to fill in the texture, then gone over with some metallic acrylics to give 'em a sheen.  Oh, and for her hair I used this wonderful curly wool that I ordered from Woolpets on Etsy.  Laurie, the proprietor, gets the wool from her own little flock of sheep.

She's only (obviously) part way done.   I'm working on the board background.  It will be painted and have some kind of quote.  Anyway, it's fun to be working in some new mediums ~ or rather, familiar mediums but in a new way.  

Phew!  I've been kind of short-changing my blog lately, so I decided to do a full post tonight.  I think that about covers it!   But it's after 4:00 a.m. now ~ time for bed.  G'night  ♥

Do you recall?

The most famous reindeer of all? 

Ok, that's too easy.  But what about the other names? This became a topic today and we did finally remember all of them. 

Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!

Then we tried for the names of all 7 dwarves...which we couldn't quite get without the help of the internet.  I'll put them at the end of this post.  Can you get them without peeking?

But, really what I wanted to announce today is - my tote-bags finally arrived!  The fine folks at CafePress sent them out lickety-split, but the mail service took them on a little tour of Washington before getting them to my door step.


I just love that sunny girl!  She's kind of become my mascot.  I'm going to sew a lining into one of the bags and {hopefully} get it posted for sale in the shop in the next couple weeks.  Wish me luck with my sewing machine!  I used it on my bird, but other than that - no experience.

Before I get to the dwarf names, here's another list that could come in handy this time of year:

Twelve drummers drumming
Eleven pipers piping
Ten lords a-leaping
Nine ladies dancing
Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five gold rings
Four calling birds
Three French hens
Two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree

And now, without further delay:

Happy
Dopey
Grumpy
Sleepy
Sneezy
Bashful
& Doc

I never gave it much thought, but now realize that these came only from the Disney movie - in older versions of the tale, the dwarves weren't named.   According to Wikipedia, the Disney names were chosen from a pool of about fifty potentials.  Among them: Blabby, Jumpy, Shifty, Scrappy, Cranky, Dirty, Awful, Silly, Daffy, Flabby, Jaunty, Biggo Ego, Chesty, Bald, Gabby, Nifty, Sniffy, Burpy, Lazy, Puffy, Dizzy, Stuffy and Tubby.  Being Wikipedia, I'll take that list with a grain of salt.  But they're pretty funny!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to wish you a cozy Turkey day.  :o)

I've got to make some mini-pumpkin pies, but I'll be back later in the afternoon with a more complete post - including photos of what arrived in the mail yesterday. 

Postcards arrived!  I'd been sitting on a credit from the super nice & helpful folks at Modern Postcard and decided finally to make some 4x6" marketing cards:

I'm so happy with how they came out!  They look really snappy and professional.  Modern Postcard does a great job - really heavy weight paper stock, the color was just right, etc.  They ship fast too, which is good for impatient people like me (checking the mailbox every day).

Also on the photo of the bulletin board up there you'll see some leaves and "whirlygigs" that I gathered from trees this fall.  After a bit of experimenting, I found a way to keep the leaves pliable for another project I have in mind.  Dry the leaves between paper, flattened out with a big book...the usual.  But then you can paint the dry leaves with Golden Gel Medium - Soft Gel (Matte).  Hang them with a clothes pin to dry.  The next day, you'll have flat leaves that are nearly as pliable as fresh-off-the-tree leaves!  Neat.

The bookmark shown on the bulletin board is by artist, Jaime Zollars, whom I've mentioned before.  On her website she has a section aptly named "Fun" on which she offers a couple make-it-yourself projects - including 4 beautiful bookmarks.  There's also a very interesting step-by-step.  I love seeing how people get to their finished product.  It adds to the appreciation of the work to see all the problem-solving that happens behind the scenes.  And as a maker myself, there's always enjoyment in the "hmmm...how am I going to get it to look this way" part.

Lastly:
If you're a fan of the Coen brothers' movies and have a quick internet connection, you might be entertained by this.  Fair warning though...you'll be humming the dang tune all day!