Paper weights revisited: more to show

Here are several more paper weights that I made recently. The rubber stamp (hands folding the paper crane) is from a series I drew several years ago. This weight also has little velvet leaves in the collage.
Amazing Midori ribbon, an antique Chinese coin and a lovely sticker of a Mary Cassat painting ended up in this paper weight. I love this format - the collages are easy to create and can be made with bits and pieces of stuff I have saved over the years.
A slice of an old playing card, velvet leaves (I use them a lot and a snippet of a photo from a catalog along with dots of glitter glue (another favorite supply) make up this collage. I could make these forever . . . the possibilities are endless.

Back on track - time to post!

Well I've certainly taken my sweet time to get back to writting! It's been a busy summer here at Good Taste. We've had corporate events and a bunch of beautiful weddings - three more coming up and then a short breather. Coupled with the incredible weather here in Seattle - great but very hot - we gals have "glowed" a lot (according to my Southern grandmother, "Men perspire, horses sweat, women glow!").

These paperweights are a continuing DIY project - given to our favorite vendors and wonderful clients. Each collage is created from bits of paper, found objects and other ephemera and is inserted under the glass. I use a velvet pad to keep them from scratching the table. They are fun to make and we've gotten an amazing response.

Creating spiritual survival kits/Prayer flags

Two weekends ago I taught classes at LOJ (Letters of Joy). For six hours I assited artists in creating their own "spiritual survival kits". Above is a sample I created for the class, using calligraphy scraps from my friend LeeAnn's trash (she was writing the word 'anniversary'). All the artists produced wonderful sets of flags, and had a great time messing around with handmade papers, ribbons, grommets and more.

Set of flags in process.

Anne with her finished set of flags.

DIY Favors - girls are so handy!

Lots of DIY fun happened at our Edmonds studio this past Tuesday evening. Jody and I ("the Good Taste Gals") are teaching a wedding planning class through Everett Community College and Tuesday night we had an invite and favor extravaganza. The students are now walking 'invite encyclopedias' - they learned everything from informal to formal wording and what should and should not (where the couple is registered for wedding gifts!!!!) go into a wedding invitation package.

The girls created lovely favors (full of chocolates, of course), in our DIYTM studio. Here they are with their pretty creations.

Cherry blossoms take my breath away

Spring is erupting big time in Seattle. Last week I went walking around the neighborhood with my good friend Daphne Hougard, an amazing photographer visiting from California. Cherry trees line the sidewalk at a park near my house. We couldn't resist taking many photos. Today it's rainy and gray and the wind has wrecked havoc on the blossoms. Oh well . . . .

Delicious Foods call for Beautiful Menus

I recently had the opportunity to create menus for one of our favorite clients ~ for her wedding in Quebec. She wanted the menu be presented in both English and French, so I silk-screen printed the menus in dark blue ink on Fabriano cotton paper (my favorite) and sandwiched red card stock between them. 

Just typesetting her menu made my mouth water - such amazing foods. I'm going to make menus for my next dinner party. Even tho' the food won't be quite as jazzy, adding a pretty menu will make the occasion more festive and special. Just another way to show family and friends how special they are to me!  

Pencil Pocket Shrines, honoring loved ones

I recently took a wonderful class from Lisa Engelbrecht, an amazing artist and calligrapher. In the class we made personal pocket shrines out of plastic pencil cases. The shrines fold up and you can take them with you. Collaging bits of paper, photos, fabric and more was great fun. Lisa also taught us some simple pointed pen calligraphy. My little shrine celebrates my sweet daughter (Angel Hattie), my dear friend Anne (St. Anne of the Open Heart) and Frida Kahlo. It's not quite finished yet - I'll re-photograph it when the rest of the embellishments are added.  

Here's a detail of a shrine done by one of my classmates, Susan (from Louisville, Kentucky), who had an amazing collection of religious icons. The shrine below was done by her daughter. The Beatles would be pleased, I'm sure.