Catching Up

I've worn pants for a full week-Fall is here!!!!! My sandals and slip on shoes officially were put away in the closet until Spring.
Being an addition, the Arizona Room/Studio doesn't have the same insulation as the rest of the house. In the summer I fry with the western exposure. In the winter it's cooler than the rest of the house. The space heater has emerged... I admit it, I am a wimp.
I was lurking the blogs a few weeks ago. One led to another and then another which led me to a Flikr site with image after image of security envelopes. I've noticed the envelopes before. Maybe even set one or two aside but then I thought that I already had enough crap and sent them off in the recycling bin. The Flikr site had my mouth watering and I made a bee line to my pile of bills.
EUREKA!!! I still had some security envelopes set aside and bunch more. Amazing, what cheap thrills......
One evening and having listened to a lot of political talk on TV, I had these two collages made from a variety of envelopes. Some of the patterns are recognizable. I thought "discover" was a good art word to use. The blue wavey pattern is from the City of Phoenix water bill and the ying/yang looking design is from Desert Schools Credit Union.

Both pieces will go on the covers of a compostion book I'm altering for an exchange. This is only the first layer with much color to follow. I made photocopies of both designs to use for the inside covers.
It's been a few weeks but The Chicklet and I had a blast at Rosie Posie's Button class at Frenzy Stamper. I had a double dose of buttons to make since I'd signed up for a previous class and then couldn't make it. After helping The Chicklet with her pieces, she was a great help getting mine done on the machines. I never got a chance to learn how to used them because I was frantic with the collages. There's something to be said for keeping things simple.

About half of my buttons are pinned to my apron. (Some of you might recognize the Michael DeMeng design on the apron. It's been one of my favorite purchases from Art Unraveled 2007). Not pictured are the compacts The Chicklet and I made in the class. They are fun, gorgeous and totally unique. I'm taking the class again as soon as it's offered!

My Internet has been down at home and I've been having to blog after work hours. It leaves too little time to surf the net, Etsy, blogs, etc. Everything will be back up on Sat. The Chicklet will be thrilled to have cable back.

Marissa