Let's Make Some Folded Cards!!!!

The August Enrichment was all about Sally showing us how to make painted folded cards. And—it was so much fun! Check the enrichment section for examples and ideas.

Calendar

The September 13th Phoebe meeting will be at Marcella's. 

The drop-in social and lunch is from 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M.  Please bring your own lunch or maybe something to share.

 Betts story board challenge continues. It is all about gathering together items and ideas that will be a part of an artistic creation. Sometimes it is called auditioning, and we can take the time to gather multiple groups of materials, which are then boxed or bagged for future use. When you feel that urge to create, it is convenient to just grab a container and jump right into your project!

Please bring your newly completed folded cards, story boards, and any other recent projects for us to see next month.

Jennifer and Caroline will be leading Enrichment in September, and at the moment the topic is undecided. Watch your emails for more information. 

Enrichment

Sally's enrichment session for August was exceptional. All of us were engrossed, inspired, and having a lot of fun. It was exciting to learn how to make a folded card with 8 printed pages from a single piece of paper and how decorate it in various ways. Most of us were not able to finish our cards completely but were anxious to finish them when we got home.

Sally brought a lot of materials for us to use, such as colored ink pads, paints, stamps, stencils, pens, large pieces of paper, and a ton of wonderful graphics that she handed out and shared. She was so generous to let us take so many items home. 

She also brought some of her printed and painted cards as samples, like the following six photos. The joy comes from not pre-planning the design but following where the art takes you. Sally, thank you so much!

Bonnie lives close to Sally and they often get together to create. They share techniques and make cards and especially books. These are pages from the "Therapy Scrapbook" Bonnie is working on.

Dress a Girl Around the World

 Rosie, our Phoebe who lives in La Quinta, sent us some recent photos and a thank you for fabrics and trims that the Phoebes often donate. Her sewing group, "Dress a Girl Around the World." continues to assemble the dresses that have pockets and include a doll they also make. 

Since last September they have sewn and sent out 1,250 dresses, most recently to the Philippines and Compeche Mexico.

They have often sent the dresses to parts of Africa, South America, and many other places. Some of the girls have never had a dress of their own before.

Show and Tell

Anne had found that one of her ceramic pots had broken when she was making them for her recent (and very successful) art show. She salvaged these pieces and formed them into little wall hangers, and she is successfully selling them.    

They are adorable!

These are her "Little People" that she modeled from clay scraps and also sells.

Anne also showed us this colorful cloth she slow-stitched some time ago--a great example of embroidery.

Elaine completed her slow stitched project, which features not only cute people, but very cute cats!

Sue recently completed this lovely garden fairy that now has a special place in her yard. But that's not all! Below are photos of a variety of her recent projects.

Sue is a master at photoshopping photos by replacing faces with photos of family member, as seen above. She also has a photo of the top of her decorated box, a male figure she is sculpting, a corset she has assembled, and various Alice in Wonderland figures she has created. All of her family members are very creative people!

Marcella completed her decorated cigar box. She lined the inside with fabric and also used fabrics to cover the top. Very attractive.

Daisy's favorite subjects are animals and birds. This month she brought three examples we have not seen before. This one is "A bird with cute shoes."

This one is her "Dancing Crane."

And this one that looks like a rooster must be the "Early Bird." So clever and cute!

Betts brought 4 more of her story boards. Each, on their own, is actually work of art.

Bonnie has made and embellished her Scottish medallions with her favorite types of hand-made decorations. Lovely color palettes and as always, so creative.

I think Bonnie also made this shoe.

Bett's suggested we could bring dolls we have received from other artists. Here are some examples. For sure, Bonnie made the doll and gave it to Betts. 

Crafting with Tubes

 

The highlight of the July meeting was the enrichment session led by Shawn. She brought colorful plastic tubes of all sizes and displayed some of her personal decorations. 

Calendar

The August 9th Phoebe meeting will be at Marcella's. 

The drop-in social and lunch is from 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M.  Please bring your own lunch or maybe something to share.

 Betts' August challenge will be to make a story board. Gather together some items that will tell a story or are related in some way. There are examples that Barbara brought to this month's meeting and are posted in this month's blog in show and tell.

The August enrichment session will be presented by Sally, who will demonstrate painting techniques and how to create a folded book.

Enrichment

Shawn brought tubes made from several types of materials, but the favorites were the multicolored plastic straws of various dimensions, shown below.

This is an example of a necklace Shawn created. Please remember to bring your creations in August for show and tell.

The July Challenge

The July challenge was to make a Mermaid, and Betts handed out a drawing of her flat doll "Perlette the Mermaid" we might want to use. Some Phoebes brought mermaids they had previously made. 

The mermaid on the left was made by Sue and the one on the right was made by Geri. They were modeled using polymer clay and adorned with tiny starfish, pearls, and shells. 

Barbara displayed her amazing seashell shaped cloth book of many pages. Each one is teeming with shells, star fish, jewels, and beautiful baubles any mermaid would love. 

Here is the beautiful cloth sculpted mermaid she also made.

This is Daisy's very cute paper doll.

The biggest surprise was the fabric mermaid Geri's grandson made. He made it when he was 8 years old, using painted silk. He has her talent!

This photo is of a cloth mermaid Donna made shortly after she joined Phoebes about 20 years ago. It was the beginning of her doll-making, and her husband said, "when are you going to make one with a pretty face." Luckily the faces got better over time. 

Show and Tell

These three photos are examples Barbara brought to give us some ideas for Betts' challenge to make a story board. 

It was an ideal way to audition the materials that make up the collage of colors, shapes and ephemera. 

They became works of art.

Daisy exhibited the wonderful cloth birds she made using Japanese fabrics.

She also made this cute fur-baby using opossum fur she found on a trip to Australia. At that time there was a bounty on them because they were overpopulated, and their fur was readily available.

Geri is on a roll making bookmarks and tags, like this lovely Japanese design. It is contagious, because Rosie is now really into making bookmarks to give to friends when she gives them books that she has salvaged from the library where she volunteers. 

Geri has such a talent to collage bits and pieces of ephemera, like the one above and the two below.

The Phoebes welcomed a visitor, Lois Peacock. Lois is Caroline's friend, and Caroline made this peacock doll to give to Lois, who was surprised and extremely happy to receive it!