Category Archives: Soft Sculpture

Altered State: A Round Up of Altered Books

06 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in Art and Crafting, Collage, DIY & Crafting, Mini Album, Mixed Media, Paper Sculpture, Papercrafting, Soft Sculpture, Textiles, Vintage

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ScarletCalliope 4 up altered books

 

Altered Books, Art Journals, whatever you like to call it I call them amazing!  You can take any book, paint it, collage it, fold it or tear it and make it yours. Add some swatches of fabric, paint chips, some vintage ephemera and you have a great piece of art to enjoy that you personalized and created on your own.  Here’s a round up of interesting, eclectic and artistic altered books for you to enjoy.

At the end I’ve posted the name of the winner from my last post! Maybe it’s you!

 

 

1.  This is a pretty incredible example of an altered book way before Altered Books became cool.

 

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This great blog post is brought to us by CappuccinoAndArtJournal and you’ll want to check out the other pages that she has posted from this antique journal, great stuff!

 

2. How incredible is this?

Altered Books

 

This book was taught at the MacLean County Arts Center in Bloomington, IL a year ago. How amazing is this?  I would love to take this class!  “Bring in some of your old books and turn them into art by cutting, drawing, gluing, collage, and just about anything you might think of to alter the state of an almost forgotten form of literature.”  WOW!

 

3.  I love the whimsy of this incredible book by Raidersofthelostart.

 

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It’s available for purchase in their Etsy Shop.

 

4. Setting Them Free Altered Book by Sharen Chatterton

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This is a stunning example of objects bursting out of the page, so lovely! The contrast between the plain images in the book and the colorful dimensional butterflies is wonderful.

 

5. One of my favorite artists is Ingrid Dijikers. I feel very fortunate to have taken a class with her at Art & Soul in Portland, OR several years ago. We created the beginnings of a book in her class “Through the Rabbit Hole”.

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All of her work is so incredibly artistic and even her doodles are perfectly placed. Check out her blog to see more of her amazing work!

 

6.  This is super cute!

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I found it on Tumblr so I’m not sure who to give the credit to. If anyone knows, let me know and I’ll update this!

 

7.  This gorgeous altered book was created by tarnishedandtattered

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SWOON!

 

 

8.  Tarnished and Tattered also created this gorgeous Wedding Book as a present for her cousin.

 

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Unbelievably gorgeous!

 

 

9.  I am also loving this travel book by Melissa Thiese.

 

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I’m planning on borrowing some design elements, (like the folded over page to create a pocket!) from it to document my last couple vacations when I finally get around to creating books about them!

 

 

10.  And this heart shaped book is stunning. I believe it was created by FlyinPurpleMunkiez.

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I love how it has hidden spaces to keep treasured items!

 

Thanks for joining me on this journey through altered books!

Have a wonderfully creative week!

xo,

Christine Barker

 

PS:  The winner from my last post is number 8, which is Patty Antle!!!  Congrats Patty!  Please visit my Etsy shop and choose one of the Pin Cushions priced at $15 and email me at kryztyne @ gmail.com (remove spaces) to let me know which one you’ve chosen. Thank you to everyone who left a comment, I appreciate you playing along!

Field Trip: Glitterfest 2014

16 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Art and Crafting, DIY & Crafting, Field Trip, Glitter, Mixed Media, Paper Sculpture, Papercrafting, Soft Sculpture, Textiles, Vintage

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Glitterfest 2014

This weekend was the much anticipated Glitterfest in Anaheim, CA hosted by Sheryl Simpson and Dianne White of Whimzy in Tustin, CA. They also have a show in the fall and I look forward to both every year. I have some good friends who bring their art and treasures here and each time I go I make new friends!

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This year the Expo Center was decorated with a sweet candy theme and I just adore the sweet colors!

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One of the vendors is my friend, Michelle Hurtt, selling some beautiful and truly authentic vintage millinery flowers and blooms. These flowers are from the 1930’s through the 1950’s and are virtually impossible to find anymore. The collection that she has is in amazing condition and what an extensive and beautiful collection she has!  For this Glitterfest, Michelle wanted to share some of her treasures with the Glitterfest attendees and introduce everyone to her new business. Last week we chose the flowers from her warehouse and I put them together into color collections. I’m so proud of my friend for going out on a limb and pursuing her passion and I’m excited for her new business venture. I can’t wait to see what direction she takes with her incredible stash of goodies. Michelle is known for her exquisite attention to detail and her beautiful design sense and I know that everything that comes out of her studio will be stunning!

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Here I am with sweet Lisa Loria in the photo booth!

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Lisa is known for her whimsical designs and is going back to her artistic roots and spending more time painting. I am loving the direction she is headed in!

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More of Lisa’s adorable work!

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Have you ever seen a cuter necklace?  These are made by Tara Wilson of Lulu Max Jewelry.

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Tara specializes in mixing vintage pieces of jewelry with modern pieces and creates truly one-of-a-kind wearable art.

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These gorgeous pastries are from Kristy Lynn of Sweet Insanity Bake Shop.

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Here’s my favorite son, Trevor, trying on some spectacles in the Little White Farmhouse booth. Since he was with me and being so patient I tried to hurry through the show and didn’t get to spend as much time looking, chatting and taking pictures as I usually do. But, he was such a good sport and even carried a really heavy cement head to the car for me without me even asking!

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Little White Farmhouse always has a wonderful collection of vintage items that I just love!

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And then I saw two of my friends, Dotti Cordell and Jo Lynch!  I was introduced to these girls through a swap hosted by one of my BFF’s, Julie Weller, and met them in person for the first time at Glitterfest a year ago. We keep in touch via Facebook and I just love them!

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While walking through the aisles this table caught my eye. I saw some very familiar art work and did a double take. I had no idea that Julie Haymaker Thompson would be at Glitterfest!

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I’ve always loved her art and can I just tell you how thrilled I was to finally meet her in person? Her art is cute, fun and whimsical and she is one of the most down to earth people I’ve ever met. I think I’ve convinced her that she has to come out to Orange County again in the very near future to teach a class. (I’m not above begging if I have to!)

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I just love her style, the colors she uses and her paper clay dolls are just so fun and unique.

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One of her dolls is holding a cat and since I have 5 cats and may have been nicknamed “Crazy Cat Lady” by my niece, Noel, I just knew Julie’s doll was destined to come home with me. This picture shows my kitties, Mr Darcy and KirJava, checking out the adorable doll.

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One of my favorite booths is Tiki Ranch and they never disappoint with an extensive selection of findings, bits, bobs and doo dads.

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Victorian Scrap?  Tiki Ranch has it covered!

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I found some fun treasures in the booth of Leticia Fernandez of JLF Design Studio. From Charlotte heads to paper clay creations she had a fun mix of goodies to peruse.

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I found a bevy of beautiful jewelry in this booth from Susan of Susan’s Charming Trinkets.

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Do you love miniature animals like I do?  This booth from Meyer Imports had wonderful reproduction mushrooms, mini plastic animals just like you used to get in the cracker jack box and every color of German glass glitter that you can imagine!

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my review of Glitterfest 2014.  Have a wonderfully creative weekend!

xo,

Christine Barker

Swap: Queen of Hearts Valentine Swap

13 Thursday Feb 2014

Posted by in Art and Crafting, Christmas and Holidays, DIY & Crafting, Lovebug Creations, Mixed Media, Sewing, Soft Sculpture, Swap, Textiles, Vintage

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ScarletCalliope Valentine Swap 1

“Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile.” -Hippocrates

This can be translated into: “Life is short, the art long, opportunity fleeting, experiment treacherous, judgement difficult.”

I’m further going to translate this into my new personal motto of: “Life is short, practice art.”

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know how much i love to join swaps and practice making art. This Valentine’s season was no different. I joined 3 different swaps. One, hosted by my friend, Julie Weller, one was hosted by me, and the third was hosted by my friend, Andrea Villareal. I’ll be posting pics of my swap and Andrea’s swap later this week.

Today I want to show you the beautiful Valentine’s I received from Julie’s “Queen of Hearts Swap”. The rules were to create thirteen 4″ hearts out of any medium and we could pick the colors. We then mailed them to Julie and she then mailed them back out. For some of us, we are lucky to live near each other so we took a field trip to Downtown Fullerton, CA to spend a day shopping together and exchange our hearts with each other.

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I experimented with some new techniques, second, third and fourth guessed myself and came up with this heart and I’m so happy with the way it turned out. I’m not giving away any secrets about how I created this but I will say that I experimented quite a bit before I was excited with the end result.

The beautiful ribbon is from Lovebug Creations. The color used on this heart is “Panther Pink“.

The quote “You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you”, was said by Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and is from one of my favorite romantic scenes ever!

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Packaging up our swaps is always part of the fun and this is the lovely variety of homemade packaging that I received. I love all of it so much that I’m going to be putting it into an art journal.

The key to swap packaging is to make it pretty but to also keep in mind that it needs to be small since it’s going to be put into a box and shipped to the girls who live far away. I always struggle with this, since I want to make a big, grandiose presentation!

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Here’s how the Valentine’s all look together. The ones near the top are from this year and the ones near the bottom are from the swap that Julie hosted last year. I love how they are all so different but really show the heart and soul of each artist who made them.

These are the sweet girls who made these beautiful hearts:

Julie Weller (Hostess with the Mostess)

Jeanine Stowe Weiss

Tanya Peacock

Lori Dams

Michelle Duke

Tashia Jacques

Teah Barrow

Candice Carpenter

Mary Hansen

Teresa Cook

Kathie LePage

Margie Rowles

Taffi Graham

Thank you, ladies, from the bottom of my heart for these beautiful Valentines. I adore each and every one of these and appreciate the time you took to create these gorgeous little works of art!

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Thank you so much for stopping by!  I’ll be posting pictures from my “Soldered Vintage Valentine Swap” and Andrea’s “Precious Heart Swap” later this week.

xo,

Christine Barker

Mixed-Media: Oh Deer!

29 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by in Art and Crafting, DIY & Crafting, Lovebug Creations, Mixed Media, Papercrafting, Soft Sculpture, Textiles

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I recently spent a creative weekend with my friends, Pam Munns and Michelle Hurtt. Both Michelle and Pam are really talented and inspire me to no end. After spending two days shopping with them and discovering creative nirvana, I realized I needed to up my game if I’m to grow as an artist and a crafter. With that thought in mind, I decided to follow my heart and work on a project I’ve had in my head for some time.

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A mounted deer head, with nectarine blossoms for antlers, and a wreath made out of vintage sheet music.

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This fancy, luxe bow is created from a brand new color of Rumple Ribbon from Lovebug Creations called HUGS!  It was just released in a Valentine Blog Hop over the weekend, along with some other amazing colors and a brand new product called Beautiful Blooms.

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I created the wreath using vintage sheet music, silk flowers, spun cotton mini mushrooms, and a technique I borrowed from a friend to make beautiful paper flowers. I’m not going to reveal the technique, since it was created by Michelle Hurtt. You’ll have to take a class from her to learn all about it!

Thank you so much for stopping by. Did you know that every time I get a new comment I squeal with joy?  Yes, it’s true!  So, if you want to help spread happiness, just leave a little comment letting me know what you think!

xo,

Christine Barker

Inspiration: The Fairytale World of Mister Finch

14 Friday Jun 2013

Posted by in Art and Crafting, DIY & Crafting, Mixed Media, Soft Sculpture, Textiles

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Textile Moths

One of the really wonderful things about Pinterest is that I come across images pinned by other people that speak deeply to my heart and soul. I found this incredible soft sculpture moth on a mixed-media board and learned that it was created by a fantastically creative artist who lives in Leeds, Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, who goes by the name of Mister Finch.

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Mister Finch

Mister Finch is described like this: “Scraps of thread, fabric and paper are stitched and pulled into fairytale creatures looking for new owners and worlds to inhabit. They hide in the woods, behind masks, some have died along the way and are buried under spoon lockets. Finch works alone and makes everything himself by hand in a studio full of books, glass jars and naughty cats.”

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Textile Bees Made From Fake Fur

Mister Finch explains the source of his creativity: “My main inspirations come from nature and often I return to certain ideas again and again. Flowers, insects and birds really fascinate me with their amazing life cycles and extraordinary nests and behaviour.
British folklore is also so beautifully rich in fabulous stories and warnings and never ceases to be at the heart of what I make. Shape shifting witches, moon gazing hares and a smartly dressed devil ready to invite you to stray from the path. Humanising animals with shoes and clothes is something Ive always done and I imagine them to come alive at night. Getting dressed and helping an elderly shoemaker or the tired housewife.”

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Fabric Mushrooms

Mister Finch describes his creative process: “Making things has always been incredibly important to me and is often an amazing release to get it out of my system. Its a joy to hunt for things for my work…the lost, found and forgotten all have places in what I make. Most of my pieces use recycled materials, not only as an ethical statement, but I believe they add more authenticity and charm. A story sewn in, woven in. Velvet curtains from an old hotel, a threadbare wedding dress and a vintage apron become birds and beasts, looking for new owners and adventures to have. Storytelling creatures for people who are also a little lost, found and forgotten…”

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Large Textile Swan

I relate to Mister Finch because I share some of these same feelings with him. I often feel a little lost, found and forgotten and viewing Mister Finch’s creations evokes in me a desire to be in the English countryside, traipsing along a lonely country lane, discovering hidden nests, finding a clutch of small eggs and perhaps seeing a spot of parkland that has been forgotten.

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Textile Owl

To learn more about Mister Finch, you can find him on Facebook, Pinterest and his Etsy Shop.

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Soft Sculpture Fox Heads

Have a lovely weekend being creative, getting lost and found and perhaps escaping, with the mundane details of your life to be forgotten if only for a little while.

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Moth and Coach

xo,

Christine Barker

Sewing: Easter Bunny featuring Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon

25 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by in Art and Crafting, Christmas and Holidays, DIY & Crafting, Lovebug Creations, Sewing, Soft Sculpture, Textiles

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Scarlet Calliope Easter Bunny 2

Hello Crafters!

I have to tell you about one of my favorite magazines. Mollie Makes is one of my most adored resources because it’s filled with wonderful and inspiring pictures of people and projects from the worlds of making, thrifting, collecting and crafting.

Mollie Makes Issue 25

All of my dearest pastimes are together in one beautiful publication from the UK!

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The most recent issue, No 25, of Mollie Makes has an adorable and easy pattern to make plushie bunnies. My poor sewing machine has been sitting on the craft table, lonely and neglected, so I made this cute Easter Bunny and gave my sewing machine some love.

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I embroidered her sweet face and gave her a heart shaped nose. Bunny needed a quick and easy basket to sit in, so I stitched one up for her out of felt.

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It’s just not Easter without an alluring Easter bonnet, so I used some pretty Rumple Ribbon from Lovebug Creations. This color is called “Oh Darling” and isn’t that the perfect name? It gives my whimsical lil bunny a wisp of shabby chic style. I added a foof of tulle, a rhinestone and a ring of pearls to a paper flower from Prima and she’s all ready for the Easter Parade!

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I adore fuzzy yellow chicks so they had to find a place nuzzled in with my sweet Easter bunny. The eggs in the white basket remind me of one of my favorite candies, Cadbury Mini Eggs. I’ve been able to get through Easter season (so far) without eating more than one lil bag of these delicious chocolates and I’m patting myself on the back for that!

Ribbon:            Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon
Floral Fabric:   “Paris Flea Market” by 3 Sisters for Moda
Brown Felt:      JoAnn Fabrics
Paper Flower:  Prima
Yellow Chickies and Basket with eggs:  Michaels

Thank you for joining me here on Scarlet Calliope and please leave some love in the comments!  Come back for my next update to read all about my adventures at Glitterfest. My niece and nephew were visiting from Prescott, AZ, so I’m a little behind in my blogging, but they were soooo worth it!

xo,

Christine Barker