Melanie Testa's Blog, page 22

Head out on the highway...

So we packed our bags and hit the road. New Jersey just wants to turn you around and get you lost, Pennsylvania is very big, Ohio may or may not be in the central time zone, the guy behind the counter never figured it out, Indiana zips right by but when you stop at a rest stop there are world war 2 vets who like to gather young women to him with stories and laughter, Illinois is as urban as I am now used to.

At the same rest stop as the WW2 vet we smushed a Chicago penny, That is Pat in Penny ...

Old new and new, new.

The old part: my camera of the last 6 years is on the kaputt. Poor old pal, I have blogged a long while with it. See those bright lines at the bottom of the photo? hm. Good thing I bought a beautiful new camera last year.

Whenever I teach, and especially in the summer, I want new clothing. A few weeks back I posted about embellishing newly bought t-shirts, here is t-shirt #2. It is photographed on top of a new skirt, ripped off (I copied the pattern of a skirt I currently own and love)...

Still love me?

I know. I went quiet. I am sorry! I am teaching, returning from teaching, preparing to teach and organizing a vacation for my Man and I. Fun, tiring, exciting, and wonderful, all at once. Last week, when we got back from teaching at Art Unraveled and then visiting our house in Flagstaff, I was beat. and I played all week long. But now I have to prepare and pack for Create Retreat, in Chicago.

I will have my laptop and plan to blog as I go. Pat and I will be road tripping. I will make sure to g...

Review: Stitch Alchemy

Stitch Alchemy, Combining Fabric and Paper for Mixed-Media Art by Kelli Perkins is a treasure box of inspiration. Just opening the book at random will help you along your own creative journey! I swear. I opened to page 51, to the section called Clear Resist Embossing. Without reading the text, just looking at the image, an idea sparked within my mind and this is just how this book goes along. Page after page of eye-candy and creative juice stirrers.

Kelli's writing style is permissive, her...

Art Unraveled! Good times.

Carole is a Phoenix native and she brought cookies....which went straight to my heart. Carole will forever remain a Most Cherished Student because of it . No! no! I mean she will forever remain a Most Cherished Student because she went home after the Stamping in Depth class and continued making stamps into the wee hours of the night. The stamp pox hit Art Unraveled pretty hard.

Soy Wax Batik with Paint remains my most sought after class and I totally understand that! It is so addictive and...

I tried.

I created this post a few days ago and am just now uploading it.

Sort of.

I didn't want to be creative. I wanted to lounge, read, laze. August is going to be a busy month for me. But I got it into my head that I needed to embellish some t-shirts for my upcoming teaching gigs. I mean, you know?

So I hopped on the train, went shopping. (It is harder than you might think to find t-shirts. They are either sheer, deep necked, inappropriate to the task or they have polyester in them-which I get too...

Create Retreat and Giveaway

I am going to be Road Tripping to Chicago in a few short weeks to teach at the Create Retreat and I would love for you to join in one of my classes. My Soy Wax Batik class is just about full (Thursday August 26 from 9 to 4, samples here), so I am going to highlight these two classes:

In this class we will make freezer paper stencils, mix and use color to create our own unique painted cloth. If you would like to see a few more samples of this technique, click here. This class will be offered...

Check her out! Kelli Nina Perkins

Kelli Perkins is a fun, fabulously, inspired mixed media artist, whose book Stitch Alchemy, Combining Fabric and Paper for Mixed Media Art is a treasure trove of technique, approach and creative exuberance. I have had the pleasure of meeting Kelli and know that you will love her art and her personality as much as I do. Kelli is a working mother, in a great and loving relationship, which might suggest that she has her hands full. But it seems she makes time to glue, paint and stitch papers to ...

Stamp Pox Outbreak as Students Learn

I have been wanting to do a mass open of Mail Art for a couple of weeks and now is the time. Follows are a bunch of student works driven by my recent Let's Exchange Some Art class through Joggles. We made papers, ATC's and Tags and then made envelopes out of our papers and mailed them off to one another. It was great fun.

Here is some of my mailed artistic wealth!

Lisa sent me some work by her 13 year old daughter too! Get 'em young!Debra tells me this class did wonders to encourage her as an ...

Yes.

Today is my birthday, I am now 41-a marvelous decade. I am tired and sated, yesterday we went to the Bronx Zoo and out to dinner. We saw lions, tigers, birds, butterflies, giraffe and, well, a wild black squirrel, my first. Many of these animals were 'firsts' for me, the black squirrel is the first local siting and I do have a thing for local plants, animals and birds.

Today, a movie and a nap!

Last week I mentioned going to the museum with my journaling pals (Did I? Maybe not.) Maybe I did on ...