Claudine and Creative Catalyst Productions on Decor8!

Holly over at Decor8 - one of my favorite blogs- wrote about Claudine Hellmuth. She includes an interview she did with Claudine and mentions CCP and Claudine's DVDs. Very neat all around!

Cupcake Cards

I love making birthday cards. I've got a whole plan for my grandmother's 85th birthday and these two are for a castmate and my director (I'm in a local play) who both had birthdays over the three day weekend. Envelopes will be made of polka dot wrapping paper.

Quick update: Nicholas Simmons made it home safe and sound. His painting turned out AMAZING!!! I didn't get to watch the filming so I can't WAIT to start editing!

Nicholas Simmons Day 1

Jim just left for the airport for Nicholas Simmons' 3:30 flight. We've been working all day getting the studio set up and there are a lot of variables for this shoot. Nicholas is painting on a 40 x 40 board so we're having to rearrange our usual set. Filming prep has everyone doing random projects in preparation. Zach and I were painting the backdrop before I did a grocery store run for Lynn. (Company lunches always have the best food when artists are here!)

Filming starts tomorrow. I finally looked at the outline he sent us on what he wants to demonstrate. I think it's going to be really great!

Friday!

The birds are so loud outside our office window! I can tell it's sort of annoying our sound editing guy, Zach. He's not anti-bird but it's hard to focus on audio while there is a shouting match of chirps not 5 feet away. Me? I find both very amusing.


I'm on my second pass through Virginia Cobb's DVD. She says such great things. Here's a quote I found today,

"Be real alert to what's going on with you and everything around you when you paint because everything is part of the painting and you are responding not just to the paint, although that's the the big thing, but also the sounds. So one day in my studio I hear birds out my window and another day the rain is pounding on my roof. Do I paint the same on those two days? If I do I'm not paying attention." -V.Cobb

After I found the quote I read it to Zach and he said that everything we do at Creative Catalyst Productions should look and feel like birds chirping. Ha!

(Images are from Virginia's video). See more of Virginia's work here!

Summer Activities

I love planning. I love preparing. The actual doing is fun but I have to say there is a thrill I get sitting down with a clean sheet of paper, a favorite pen and creating a list. My list-in-progress is my "Summer Projects" list for July 2 when I finish the community theater production I'm in. So many plans! There is baking and apartment decorating and sewing!

I told myself I wouldn't start anything new until I had my evenings free again but I caved. I couldn't pass up these two opportunities and I'm really excited about partaking. The first is a weekly crochet lesson done by the very cool women over at Craft Daisies. They polled their readers about whether they'd rather learn knitting or crocheting. I'm happy to learn either! Every Tuesday Heather will post a lesson and we'll have a week to master (ha!) the technique.

The second is another weekly workshop put on by a yahoo group I'm learning to love. I'm a member of a couple of yahoo groups but lurk more than participate. Artists of the Round Table is putting on an Artist Trading Card workshop based on Bernie Berlin's book, "Artist Trading Card Workshop." The book's author will be running the class and I'm very excited for a good introduction into what I think will be a cool chance to work on techniques I can translate into collages. (I suppose ATCs are really just mini collages you give away :)

So, perhaps my summer doesn't begin until July 2 but maybe by then I can add crocheting and ATCs to the summer fun! Either way it's always good to try new things.

Contest!!

Creative Catalyst (where I work and practically live...good thing I adore my co-workers!) has art shows about 4 times a year. Not only is it a great place to show your art and see others' work as well, but there are some fun prizes. (Can't beat fun prizes!)

This summer's theme: Telling Stories with Art. Their (our?) website says:

"The Summer Art Exhibition is about story telling. Summer is a great time to be part of stories from your travels, family outings, neighborhood get togethers. Have fun, tell a story with your art and share it in the Summer Art Show. All media are welcome."

Entries are accepted until August 30th.

I think this is sort of cool. Often Creative Catalyst contests are more media specific (watercolor for example) so I'm excited to see more mixed media in this Summer's.

The juror will be the very cool and talented collage artist Ann Baldwin. We were lucky enough to be able to meet and film Ann during one of her workshops at Art and Soul Retreats, Asilomar California.

Want more information about the show and how to enter? Go here!

Sherri Haab on Craftcast

Sherri Haab is both a talented artist and writer. She visited us last summer and did a whole lot of very very cool projects. Her first DVD came out this last spring on precious metal clay. Expect her resin DVD sometime next year.

The fine people over at Craftcast have an interview with Sherri. Check it out here: Craftcast!

Printmaking!

For more information on "Painterly Printmaking," go here.

Virginia Cobb

The May Craft Cat hit in boxes today so it's back to editing for me.


Virginia Cobb was a ton of fun when she was here and is just as much fun to watch again on camera. It's fascinating to watch her work. I feel at times you can really see which side of the brain she's working from. I'm also starting a collection of quotes. I'll share them as I go. Here Virginia discusses the importance of thinking about your work. She says, "The thinking time is every bit as important as the time you spend putting paint on paper."

Good point~

Paper Scraps!

After a paper project I find that I have a bunch of scraps left over. These pieces are too small to use in a project but I hate to throw such beautiful scraps away. Now a solution: put them through a paper shredder and use them as confetti! It works as a little surprise in an envelope or even as pretty packing material for shipping small jewelry and crafts to friends, family or ETSY customers.

Try This at Home Challenge- Traci Bautista

Why have I not been around? I'm in the middle of play rehearsals and am having time management issues!

But. Here's what I came up with for the latest TTHC for May's Craft Cat. (Hits in boxes middle of next week!) I got to explore all the fun that is Traci Bautista. What a creative woman! We filmed Traci live down at Art and Soul in Asilomar, California. She shows how to create your own papers and fabrics and then how to make a journal complete with cover and colorful inside pages. I used the paper and fabric techniques in a slightly different manner. This will be a Mother's Day table decoration or become a GIANT card!