Wednesday, September 3, 2008

"Why Larry... That is art."

Ok, I usually don't cut and past my posts to the Paper Imagery Designs Yahoo list that I am a member of. I try to spare y'all the insanity that I subject them to. After all, they know and love me ... many of you have yet to acquire the same type of tolerance for my ramblings that they have. However, I just can't pass up sharing a "Here's your sign" moment I had today. :-) Larry, darling, if you're secretly a member of the ATCing, mixed media, altered art community... take this in the good spirit with which it is written... we love ya baby! lol

I sat at the computer last night watching the list mail, putting old Somerset magazines for sale on Ebay, and designing the envelope I was mailing my bookmark (that should have been an ATC) in to Kim. (I do so love run-on sentences... this is what speaking foreign languages does for you... I know better but if the Germans and the Russians can do it ... lands of castles and enchantment... well then... count me in!)

Anywho ... I have this absolutely fantabulous envelope. It's backstamped with French sayings, there is a quite large PID image of some brat with wings that I hand colored with some new things that Melissa insisted I needed from Michaels. The brat with wings got a dunce hat cut from some French ephemera I had on hand which I glued a contrasting typewriter key ampersand on just for kicks. Then to top it all off, I cut Kim's name and address out in typewriter key alphabet letters and numbers one at a time and glued them to the envelope. With me so far?

Absolutely smashing -I was proud of myself and thought she would be surprised and enjoy getting it as well as the bookmark. I put it in the mail at the office this morning. Larry, our farmer who pretends he's a mailman (remember we have no uniforms or cute mail trucks) comes in this morning, picks up the mail and shouts at the top of his lungs "What is this?" I walk up front and said (using my best Brenda from The Closer voice ... because this is how I deal with all Okie "Here's Your Sign" intelligence these days) "Why Larry ... it's an envelope."

Larry looked at me, blinked, and said "I've never seen anything like this." I looked back at him and said, "Why Larry ...can't you read it?" [Referring, to the typewriter key lettering - not his education.] I politely ask, in my best affected southern drawl, "Will the Post Office not mail it?" Pointing to the envelope I say, "Right there it says Gettysburg." He stared back at me and said "Well ... I guess so ... it has a zip code on it ... I've just never seen anything like it." He turned it over about three times gaping at it.

I just smiled at poor confuzzled Larry and said "Well Larry ...it's art. If you have any problems over at the post office you just let me know, ok?", batted my eyes, and returned to my desk in the back.

Kim may not be getting her envelope.

I hope everyone is having a great day.
::: In my best Brenda from The Closer voice::: Thank you! Thank y'all! Come again!
~ Misti

Sunday, August 31, 2008

My Haul at Michael's and The True Treasure of The Day

Melissa, Creative Genius and Fairy Godmother of Coupons at Paper Imagery Designs, recently posted a coupon that saved everyone 40% off every item purchased at Michael's. Braving a nearly 200 mile round trip to Oklahoma City and severe weather, I stocked up on the following:

1. 10 Rolls of Pink Ribbon - I wrap everything I mail, sell, send, gift, etc., in white paper and pink ribbon. :) It's my Misti Rose signature.
2. 2 cans of "Ballet Slipper" Pink Satin Indoor/Outdoor Krylon Spray Paint and 2 Cans of Folk Art Pearl Glaze Spray Paint. I'm making a very special chandelier ... out of one I bought at a junk store. I'll post pictures to my blog when I finish it. I promise it will be over the top tacky when I'm done! lol
3. The "Old World" Stack of Papers ... I have no papers - I hand paint everything or use backgrounds from rugs out of my antique magazines.
4. The K & Company "Margo" Stack of Papers.
5. Glitter Glue in Black, Silver, Light Pink, Lighter Pink, Fuschia, Copper, Gold, Green and Red (I know how to use this... yay!)
6. 9mm jump rings, 7mm jump rings, crimp beads, crimp covers, Sterling lever back earring findings, split rings (yes I NEED to start making jewelry :::makes gagging noise at the thought of WORKING:::).
7. A BIG BITE Crop A Dile ... no idea how to use this but Elena said I needed one so VOILA I got one!
8. 23 loose sheets of the most beautiful papers... some from velvet, some that are stitched, some from handmade paper, some are vellum... all are very cool. I can't imagine ever cutting them but they are inspirational! :)
9. These cute little glass jars that say Got Flowers? by Fabric Fancies. Yes, I have flowers! I have Black flowers, I have Red flowers, I have Teal flowers, I have Silver flowers and I have ... yes ... PINK flowers! No IDEA what to do with them but they're really super cute so I will just start gluing them to everything... can't go wrong!
10. I now own SOBO glue - which I have been assured by Melissa, Melanie, AND Melinda is the very best ever. ;)
11. I have a Carte Postale rubber stamp and a little tiny alphabet by Image Tree stamps. I think I prefer the see-through acrylic stamps... since I believe I'd like to be able to see what I'm doing; however, these rubber stamps were lovely and I couldn't resist.
12. Brads... Brads with crystals (sparklies... yay!), Brads with snowflakes (Christmas... yay!), and Brads that look like old rusty stuff (antiques... yay!). No idea what to do with it. Blaming this on Elena as well... thought I needed something to stick in the holes the Crop O Dile made. Besides, if you're a member of PID you know EVERYTHING IS ELENA'S FAULT. ;)
13. Tim Holtz stuff: Adirondack Alcohol Blending Solution. Alcohol Ink Applicator. Alcohol Ink Applicator Felt (2 Packages). Alcohol Ink Packages: Cottage Path, Gold & Silver, Farmers Market, Pearl & Copper, and Cabin Cupboard. I also bought the following Distress Inks: Walnut Stain, Antique Linen, Tea Dye, Fired Brick, and Weathered Wood. I have no idea how to use any of that! The good news is I went to Amazon.Com last night and ordered both of his DVDs. lol
14. Staedtler Water Color Crayons.
15. InkaDinkaDoo Blending Chalks.
16. A bunch of beads for... jewelry making. :P
17. Somehow I got an embossing pad and inker... lol and no embossing powders. Oh well I'd been there about 5 hours at that point!

Ok so that's all cool and great but the ultra uber cool thing I got was this amazing to DIE FOR chandelier I found at this antique store after we got done at Michaels ... we had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory ... OH MY GAWD ... two glasses of wine (for me... Bobby drinks sweet iced tea like any good southwestern Oklahoman), steak Diane, CHEESE CAKE, a trip through Macy's.

THEN we went antiquing ... three stores in to it and all I'm seeing is stores with junk and reproductions mixed in. I can't tell you how furious this makes me as a girl who knows her antiques and refuses to pay book (another gripe of mine... this ain't New York sweetheart... we do NOT pay BOOK for our antiques... what ARE these people thinking! They want to sell me reproductions, act like they're antiques, and then try to charge me book on top of it? Not on their sweet little ol' life!) Anyway, I ramble!

We get to store number three, my darling husband does not complain... ever... even this late in the day. This store is so big it has got to cover at least 1/4 of a city block. Back in the depths of the store I see this chandelier covered with AB prisms and the tackiest... erm... most beautiful fretwork and I am in love. IN LOVE. My exhorbitant but oh so delightful 100 mile trip to Michael's is forgotten. The chandelier is hanging on a chain from the top of a 20' ceiling, it is unlit, and you can not see the price tag.

I beg Bobby to climb up there and check it out to see how much it is because on a BIG PINK STICKY (Angie, darling, I thought of you!) it says 50% off! Bobby refuses because he will not climb on someone's dining room set they have for sale to see how much that chandelier is. Well of course, I have no such qualms. I just march my delicate flower self over to the neighboring booth and grab that chair from the 70s they're trying to sell for the same price as something from France in the 1800s and climb right on up there and see that the chandelier is marked down from $500 to $250.

Well then, of course, I need that chandelier plugged in to see if it will work! Bobby absolutely refuses! I swear! Is he not a firefighter with 20 years of practice climbing up and down 120' ladders on the swaying bouncing back of a bucket truck?! Yes he is! I plant my hands on my hips and inform him he needs to get up there and plug that chandelier in to that extension cord so that I can see it lit up in all of its glory. He will not do it... it does not belong to him and he is not climbing on someone else's stuff without asking. Gosh I hate people with principles! They're such a pain in the butt sometimes!! I had to actually go find the lady who was working at the store and ask her to come and get an extension chord and a ladder and plug in the chandelier. Absolutely a hoot because she looks at Bobby and says "Well I just got new bi-focals yesterday and I can't climb up there... can you do it?" lol

When I get my new treasure all cleaned up I will post a picture of it on my blog! When it is plugged in the AB crystals cast the prettiest shade of pink. I have a beautiful chandelier over my bed that I thought would be hard to beat but this one is destined to be hung in my office over my desk and I think it is going to top them all!

Best Wishes to Everyone ... Please be Surviving the Weather,
~Misti

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Bribery... is it Ethical?

I have decided that the blogs I am immediately drawn to are the ones filled with beautiful pictures. (This of course does not include the blogs belonging to people I know... I'm drawn to those because of the bits and pieces of what is important to them are posted - beautiful word images of their lives even if there isn't a single photo posted.) SO I digress... we all know this if you read my blog. When I have the time to randomly search the blog world for people who create altered art, those blogs that I immediately stop and OOOH and AAAHHH over like a small child at the Fourth of July show put on by the largest Army post you've ever come across, would be the ones in which the photo images seem to have been taken by the folks at Somerset.

Now, I can write a story with the best of them. I can tell you tales of pirates meeting beneath the seas and having a mermaid ball. I can describe the feel of antique silk taken from the hem of the ball gown worn by a French maiden during the 1800s ... explaining to my reader that the only reason I have it is because it snagged on my great great grandmother's iron staircase as said maiden fled down the steps to escape the revolution because her Great Aunt was Mme. Marie (yes that Marie!) and my GG Grandmother ran to retrieve said scrap of silk just before her Chateau was burned to the ground by the revolutionaries! (Those bastar... erm... jerks!!)

What I can NOT seem to do is take a decent photograph to SAVE MY LIFE. Not from the pirates and not from those chateau burning, silk gown snagging, head lopping, cake eating revolutionaries!

So, do you think it would be ethical of me to say ... send my artwork to someone to have it photographed if I would just be willing to give it to them so that I could have beautiful photographs too? Would that be bribery? (Am I starting to sound like I'm whining? Because let me tell ya... I'm whining!!!) My mother always said fair exchange is no robbery! I really have to get this whole photo thing figured out. I'm trying to balance this against the fact that the holiday season is coming up and I really REALLY need to be making jewelry to sell instead of playing with paper. :S

I hope everyone is really looking forward to fall. Summer is almost over in Oklahoma and that means it's almost time for me to get to go back outside. I can't wait!

Best wishes,
Misti

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Artwork and Horrific Pictures


I've been merrily "art working" my way along with the ladies at the PID group (Paper Imagery Designs is having a great sale, by the way). Each week I try to take beautiful photos to post to the image database... and each week I fail miserably. There is glare from the flash, the photos are fuzzy, I can't get close enough for the details to show up, I'm too close... you get the idea.


Imagine my surprise as I'm reading along through the digest of daily group posts and I see someone refer to SCANNING their artwork. :::thud!::: You can scan paper?! Who would have guessed! lol Consider me knowledge enhanced. I swore that next week I would scan my challenge piece and have something lovely to post to the photo database... Consider my dismay when someone came up with the great idea of having an inchies cube swap. Another masterful plan down the tubes. Granted, this is not the challenge of the week but I'm now sitting here trying to figure out exactly how I'm going to fit my inchies cube in to the scanner. It doesn't look good...


Anyway, I'm posting a photo of one of my Misti Rose original bracelets today. Unique bracelets are always available for sale at www.MistiRose.com and custom orders are welcome.
I hope everyone is surviving the heat, rain and hurricanes!

~Misti

Saturday, August 2, 2008

The Mermaid Tiara, The Weekly Challenge, and The Ladies on the Paper Imagery Designs Yahoo Blog List


If you are an altered artist, someone who does assemblage art, or a person who stamps, draws, paints, colors, scribbles, or just likes to visit... I would invite you to meet the friendliest, most supportive group of women I have ever met on the internet via the blog list at Paper Imagery Designs (You can locate them via link to the right). Not only are they talented, they're cheerful! I guarantee they will give you the "warm fuzzies" AND cheerfully share their vast knowledge of the "how to's" of altered art.


Soooo here's this week's story...

Each week, Paper Imagery Designs (PID) hosts a challenge for members of their blog. This week, the challenge was "Atop the Head." Since I missed last week's challenge, I rushed around and gathered up all the things I needed to create the lovely mermaid tiara I envisioned for this project. Working feverishly (well ok, not feverishly but for a couple of hours after work every day this week), I finished my mermaid tiara up on Thursday.


I snap a hundred pictures of said mermaid tiara to get one that is somewhat tolerable and post her image to the photo area of the PID bulletin board. I should point out that all week members of PID have been posting photos of their challenge entries... and I have been restraining myself and not looking at their art. My genius thought is that I will post my project and have one great big reveal after mine is up! Sound enough in theory... So, I post the chosen photo of said mermaid tiara.


I open the folder... all of these gorgeous ATCs have been posted to the challenge folder. Are you with me here? For those of you not familiar with the "lingo" ... Artist Trading Cards! The PID ladies have created all of these beautiful ATCs featuring things on or about someone's head for the "Atop the Head" challenge and somehow... in my fervor... I have... A MERMAID TIARA! Ugh!!! So much for the big reveal! *Insert photo of me banging my head on my desk* I have revealed that I'm an idiot and can't read the instructions. lol There are now a dozen lovely ATCs and one giant mermaid tiara sitting in the weekly challenge folder at Paper Imagery Designs.


I hope everyone is surviving the heat!


Best wishes,

Misti Rose

Sunday, July 20, 2008

My first ATC :-)


It's been a long day of website editing... and the last day that I could enter in to this weeks Paper Imagery Designs (PID) challenge. I nearly allowed myself to pass - after all I have spent all day at the computer and surely listing sparklies until a girl's eyes cross allows her to put off creating an ATC at least one more week, oui?

However, I promised myself that when I joined the Paper Imagery Designs list that I would PARTICIPATE. :) I would CREATE. That I would allow the weekly challenges that this very friendly group of ladies put forth to be a catalyst for me to make things that put a smile on my face. Rather than allow myself to slide, I sat down at the last minute and created my first ever ATC. I have to admit that I now sit at my desk smiling at my little PID Elizabeth and feeling quite smug. She makes me happy... and that's really all that counts, isn't it? :)

I hope this finds everyone creating at least one thing this week that makes them happy... because... THAT'S REALLY ALL THAT COUNTS.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

I'm Supposed to Blog Beautiful Images and Art

Ok, it's been pointed out to me that I'm supposed to be blogging about beautiful images and art. No one really wants to hear about deep questions, website challenges, and copyright images. (Who knew!) And so, before I jet off to one of my real jobs this morning... a quick blip with a beautiful image and a bit of my altered art. Two birds with one stone, as they say. Well except ... since birds are such popular altered art images... scratch that. We'll just ... be expedient and post a beautiful image with one of my altered art projects in it! Voila! ;-) Au'voir for now... ~Misti Rose




Saturday, July 12, 2008

Beautiful Disaster

I am so inspired by Marilyn Monroe ... perhaps inspired by her is not quite the word to use. I'm definitely drawn to her. Most of the world saw her beauty, her grace, and the smiling personae she developed and honed until she perfected what she needed to be in order to achieve what she wanted. Isn't that what we all do to some degree or another? The catch was that on the inside, even after she had "everything," Marilyn was still agonizingly unhappy within herself. Why is it that we, as people, will go to such great lengths to make ourselves beautiful on the outside and yet be so achingly alone on the inside? Even more importantly, why is it that society judges us on our blonde bombshell attributes and not at all on the artist within?

Astonishingly beautiful, America's sweetheart, married to Joe DiMaggio and, after her divorce, linked to some of this country's most powerful men, it seemed as though Marilyn had it all.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Is Imitation Really the Sincerest Form of Flattery?

When I browse through the piles and piles of magazines that I have, I will suddenly come across something that deeply moves me. I immediately think "ohhh I want to make one of those!" Of course, I then think ... "but if I make my variation of those and put them on my website (www.MistiRose.com) for sale am I somehow stealing from the original artist?" "If I make that treasure is it really 'my' art?" "Do I forfeit my right to consider myself an artist?" These questions plague me.

While I bounce thousands of thoughts 'round and 'round in my head about this ethical dilemma I have, I remind myself that all of the great masters (painters) started out as pupils of someone. Perhaps when I see someone elses creation that puts happiness in my heart, and I learn from that style and create my own images or projects in that style or form, I am simply a pupil of the original artist. Or perhaps I am trying to justify my desire to make beautiful things that someone else has already created. I wonder if there are any artists out there who would care to comment?

(Please note that I fully understand and respect copyright and trademark laws. I KNOW how frustrating it is to have your ideas swiped from your pages, copied down to the letter, and then re-sold. That is certainly not art, nor is it the type of work I am discussing.)

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Great news from Sandra Evertson!

Ramblings for today... Still battling with installing "official" blog software. WordPress has an Install4Free team that is assisting me and even they are baffled. In some way that means I'm vindicated doesn't it? If even the experts are perplexed that suddenly makes me a bit less of an "un-expert." :) (Hey, you have to take it where you can get it these days!) But the grrrreat news of the day... Sandra wrote and my Birdcage Couture Doll will be done soon!!! And!!! She said I could post the pictures she's been sending via email to my website!! (Picture me talking faster and faster here, hopping up and down... which I assure you is about excited as I get because I'm a rather serious person who sometimes needs to be reminded to lighten up.) [Huge run-on sentence, I know... if the Germans can do it so can I.] Anywho....... Pictures of my doll!!! I'll try to spare everyone the download time and compress them and downsize them and all of that...




WYSIWYG Girl... Is Microsoft Kidding Me?? 08/07/08

July 7th, 2008

Still trying to conquer Expression Web. Aspx pages will load but nothing appears... *sigh.* Microsoft's community web forums are available for assistance... I prevailed myself upon them. Alas, they are not for girls who believe in WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web design. They wholeheartedly embrace those of us who *program* our html code. Ha! I'm a DESIGNER not a programmer! They need to come and visit... if they could only see the stacks of magazines I have perhaps then they would understand!! :-)

Was it liberating or ... entrapment? :)

July 4th, 2008 Liberating, that today of all days I finally decide to tackle my website. I've worked on the graphics on and off since January of this year. For some reason, I just couldn't "get married" to it. My husband is pulling a 48 hour shift at the Fire Department, my son (who is home from college) has gone to meet his girlfriend for the weekend, and I am alone for two whole days. I decided I needed to finally face the learning curve of Expression Web (I could just murder Microsoft for cancelling Frontpage but that's another discussion... a serious one!) For a very long time I have lurked around the edges of the type of art that touches me, enjoying it through blogs, web pages, and magazines. I'm such a serious person, with a series of focused jobs in which I am responsible for other people's livelihoods... I decorate with expensive antiques, screech at my family when they don't use coasters, and refuse to use the very expensive hand gilded china made in occupied Japan that was lovingly gifted to me by my mother. (I treasure my china but can't bear the thought of knife marks on my plates... Is it really worth having if you never ever use it? I'm not sure... it is lovely in the hutch.) Overcome by my own seriousness, I've always kept to myself that the art I love is imbued with sparkling tiaras, dusty chandeliers, dragonfly wings, and vintage ribbon mixed in with bits of robins' eggs, mermaids' tails, and a mad dash of German glitter. I think, perhaps, it's time to focus on the sparklies in life... and with that in mind, I have designed this site. I will share my art with you, my thoughts, and sometimes the seriousness that I know I will never escape.