Tending to the Pilot Light: Home Made Stationery!

Right before Thanksgiving, waaaaaay back in November, we had a couple of evenings of home made stationery making.  Here are some pictures of the creative sets we made.  Most participants made kits for gifts and a few individual masterpieces were completed as well!

Working with stamps, stencils, ribbon, jewels, embossing templates and a manual die cutting machine, we created beautiful collections for the (almost) lost art of letter writing.

We constructed the envelopes out of heavy duty craft paper, musical scores, maps, and newspaper and then laid a strip of double sided tape on the sealing flap.  The tape comes off the roll with a paper protective sheet on one side, keeping the strip fresh and sticky until it is time to  seal the envelope.

We used stamps and inks, grommets, brads, burned edges, vintage copper edge 3 hole protectors, you name it... beautiful ephemera.

I apologize for not posting more regularly.... I say this even though typing here in this blog is like throwing love notes out the window while speeding through a dark tunnel.  'Never sure whether this gets read or looked at... I blather-on here to my phantom readers (if they exist) as if there was some kind of conversation happening. Strange medium this is.

I've been extremely busy.... filled orders for over 350 handmade cards at two retail stores and have been prepping for my big three arts and crafts shows at the end of the year. Bizarre Bazaar, Holiday Art Fair, and LOLA Giant.  Anyway, here's a few pictures of my space from the last show (Yesterday's Holiday Art Fair).

I wish I had pics from the show Thanksgiving weekend (Biz Baz) ... I was running around in fish net stockings, semi high heels, a polka-dot dress and wearing my fascinators all day - (see pink mini top hat below)

We had really compressed spaces in the Lawrence Arts Center for the Art Guild Show - measured to maximize the number of artists on the lobby level.  I borrowed my BFF's grid panel system and was able to squeeze my wares into the prerequisite space while still providing access to the LAC reception desk on both sides of my display (see lighted area behind grid system below).

If you're in Lawrence, be sure to check out the little desk you can see on the right in the picture.  It is a custom built art-class sign-up kiosk, built with keyboard keys embedded under glass on the surface and surrounded by hand cut wood blocks created by the talented Nicolette Ross who was our Artist in Residence last year and sadly (for us) has now moved on to Chicago-land.

One more show to go this season... LOLA Giant, being held this weekend (Dec. 10 and 11) at the Van Go Arts Building across Seventh Street from the Train Station.  This will be one of the last chances (this year) to buy creative arts, crafts and goods made by local artists!

On another note,

I've noticed that no one has submitted a dress for November... sadly following my lead at being late in my own submissions.  I even bought a cheap copy of Pride and Prejudice to cut up for my Neo-classic dress! Just haven't gotten around to the actual project.

Tending to the Pilot Light will continue with Christmas cards this week and next week will be making mini plushies for stocking toppers, key chains, or just for fun!

Take care,

Liza