Cigar boxes 2012

Laughing At Jan's Till We Cry...

Pictures:

#1 Jan's hand made raven stamp. (we are hoping to do a workshop on these)

#2 April's hand made gift box

#3 Left...Pinky Center...Cathy Right...Karen

#4...Mary's Answered Prayer Box (used old wooden thread spools for the legs & antler button)

#5...Jan's Vintage Family Portrait Box (used old family portraits for top, inside, and front)

#6...April's Box (used bronze wood beads for legs, elegant papers, and ribbons)

#7...Pinky's Stash Box (used letter beads, wooden bead legs, hand made papers)

#8...Karen's Raven Box (used a card sister, Lyla, made for the top, unique papers, and cut out ravens for decoration)




Today was one of those days. One thing led to another and we were laughing big time and so much that tears appear...the best medicine a doctor can recommend.

Thank you, Jan, for such a nice day. The muffins were wonderful, the coffee yummy, and the friendship amazing...

We all brought our cigar box challenges to share. Pinky gave us all small cigar boxes to alter. It was so much fun to see what each one did with theirs. I know that three of them had crows/ravens on them. I thought that was interesting... Take a look at the pictures to see what each of us did with our individual boxes...very fun.

We had special guests today. Cathy Otto was with us and so was Gwen Jarvela. It was just fun to visit with them both and do some catching up. Cathy was working on a hat for herself and Gwen brought a sketch pad and sketched most of the time she was with us.

Jan gave us each some wooden beads to use as legs on this cigar project or ,maybe, a future one. Thanks, Jan!

Jan was working on a special project, making little booklets...April was making hand made boxes out of scrapbooking papers...Pinky was working on a crocheted rug...Karen was working on cards, and Mary was working on Valentines. We all were on a roll...

See you next week at Pinky's on the Long Beach Peninsula!

We're All Here!

Tuesday was another great day with the five of us physically, and Lyla...our co-partner in crime...long distance. We are so happy Karen is joining us again and feeling better each day.

Jan did the hostessing and served us her wonderful muffins to get us off to a good start. She also showed us two or three different online demonstrations of using different inks and making your own stamps. All of it inspired us to have a workday next Tues., here at my house, working with new paints and stamps, embossing, and heat guns. We are excited!

Pinky brought us all little cigar boxes...here we go again. It is to be a challenge, but we have awhile to work on them...no rules :>)) Make something from the cigar box...that is it! It needs to be done by Nov. 22. The last one like this was sooo fun and all were so different. That is what is fun about putting 6 different personalities together making art...super!

The pictures are top left...Jan showing us her latest project...a fantastic quilt using a method of doing one 12" square at a time, sandwiching them, and finally...putting it all together. It is just beautiful. Double click on it to see the detail.

Top right is Karen working on some cards and writing notes with them.

Next is April's Alaska journal she is working on. It will be a keepsake for her to look back on for many years. I know Amber will enjoy reading through it when she gets home at Christmas.

Mary and Pinky were working on crochet. Pinky worked on her rag rug in greens, beiges, browns and Mary was working on some wash cloths.

All in all...it was another too fast day and it was time to head home. The time always goes too fast for all of us! We did solve some problems of the world while we were together :>))

Terrific Tuesday

Yes, it was another terrific Tuesday.  We met at April's and had as our guest Cathy again, she comes clear from Portland.  I took only one photo of her and it didn't turn out so I won't post it here.  I did send it to her so she could see how I made her look rather like a zombie.  Not for showing to the world;-)

Pinky brought her altered cigar box and we all agreed it turned out great!  I love the color.  She used paper and additionally added some gold pen markings on it.  The top element is a smashed bottle cap with a cute bird on it.  The whole box is so spare and elegant, just lovely.  Well done, Pinky!

April worked on hers some more, she wasn't satisfied with it last week.  She sanded it down, added more papers and shaped elements.  I love the tiny perfume bottle that she is using as a knob for the lid.  She still intends to do further work on it.  And artists work is never done!

 Karen was creating cards.  She makes great unusual cards.

Mary was creating Christmas cards.  Here is one example.  Wouldn't you love to receive one of these hand made cards?  Jan was working on a needle felted piece, doing some hand embroidery on it.

Cathy brought these scrumptious shortbread cookies.  Heavenly!  Thanks Cathy!  April had put out plenty of snacks too so we all left a pound or two heavier, but with light hearts. 

 

Pinky's Birthday celebration and cigar boxes

(Jan posting)  We were celebrating Pinky's birthday today, she will be 60 something on the 5th.  Happy Birthday Pinky!  We sure are glad you joined our group, you bring lots of laughter to our meetings as well as your unique creativity.  

Joan had picked up a Red Velvet cake for our dessert, it looks like Pink is enjoying it.  Joan also laid out a delicious lunch for us all even though she was feeling extremely poorly.  Thanks Joan, sorry you were feeling so bad.

Everyone was enjoying it!

We also were revealing our altered cigar boxes. Mary gave us all cigar boxes a few weeks ago and challenged us to alter them.  Today was the big reveal.  Above you can see Karen's.  She collaged lots of different papers on hers including pictures of her grandkids, pieces of wood and a rusty piece of metal for the handle to open it with. She didn't have screws so she used cup hooks to attach the handle, then just cut the hook part off. Very cool.  Below you can see that she also decorated the insides of the box.  Karen has the most unique papers and art work!

Next you can see April's.  She wasn't thrilled with her results, the glue she used to collage tissue paper and leaves left a very rough texture which was not what she wanted.  I think she is going to continue to work on her box, maybe sanding it down and adding more to it.  I really like the grape leaves she used on it.

Below you see Mary's.  She loves cowboy/girl images and chose to use them for her box. I love how she decorated between the images too.

She had a nice metal closure for her box, shown below. You can also see how she has decorated the sides with border paper with additional coloring by hand.

On the inside is Mary's secret heart throb.  Her boy Roy.  Karen almost stole Mary's box when she saw who was inside.  Those two!  You'd think they had never seen Johnny Depp! 

Don't they know he's the man?

Oh yeah! (these hunky photos of Roy and Johnny ought to bring us some new followers! heheh!)

Maybe I should put Johnny inside of my box, which is shown next.  I made several painted polymer clay mosaic tiles to glue onto mine, after collaging tissue paper and painting.

I didn't have a cool clasp like Mary did so improvised a wire and glass bead handle to open it with.

Pinky somehow forgot to bring her box so we won't get to see it until next week.  It was a busy meeting.  We also did our first trade on our round robin calendars. Below you see Pinky showing off a page from her calendar that Karen created.

Then you see Karen with the cover of hers that I believe Mary created. She looks pretty pleased with how hers is shaping up.  Everyone did a great job on the calenders, now we traded and have a couple of weeks to work on them before we trade again.

Finally here is a picture of our mascot, Rocky. Joan has a little Manchester Terrier and Rocky tried to fit his big bu...I mean his tush into her bed.  Not quite, Rocky boy!

It was a great celebration, marred only by poor Joan not doing well.   I'm glad everyone was able to make it and that so much fun art was shared.  There was also a lot of present unwrapping going on by our Pinky.  Maybe Mary has more photos she will be able to share.  Pinky received some very cool gifts!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed sharing a bit of our celebration!