It's Been a Long Row to Hoe.

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I haven't posted in a long time, not because I haven't had anything to post but, on the contrary, because I've had too much going on. Unfortunately, not all of it has been good. In the past six months there have been at least five funerals, three of which were family or friends close enough to be family. I kept up with my senior crafting class during that time to keep myself from dwelling on sad memories, knowing that the sadness would pass and life would go on.


I am happy to report that this time of reflection coincided with some of the best crafting projects we've ever done at the senior citizens center. The class has grown and I have a absolutely wonderful group of people to work with. Here are some of the creations we have made since my last entry.

There are many more photos on my Facebook page  as well as on my Pinterest board, Crafting with Senior Citizens. Why don't you check them out and make a comment or two? It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

The Brakes On This Train Ain't Working

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Since my last post, there hasn't been whole lot of crafting going on. That's because I was away for three weeks tending to my daughter who was recuperating from major surgery, and caring for her two young sons. Those boys very nearly put me in traction, they are so rambunctious, but I managed to hold my own and tame them somewhat.

Before I left and since my return, the paper crafting focus at the senior center has been on creating flowers. Six years ago I created a faux window box for the center that was filled with flowers made by the seniors in my classes. In the years since, the flowers in the window box have become a little worse for the wear and it was time to replace them. That was a perfect segue to some classes on making paper flowers. My ladies created beautiful colorful blooms which were promptly placed in the window box. Now that the old planter has been rejuvenated with fresh blooms, it is ready for the next few years of beautifying the center.

We continued the floral theme with a cute little hydrangea gift box perfect for filling with sweet treats or a small gift. The box was topped with a beautiful paper hydrangea painstakingly created by pinning one floret at a time onto a styrofoam hemisphere. Once again my crafters met the challenge head on and were rewarded with a unique gift.

By using leftovers of the hydrangea box project, I made a springtime wreath featuring hydrangea balls, a variety of stylized leaves and a large decorative bow embellished with flowers, ribbons and leaves. Every so often I'll do something like this, just for the hell of it and because I find it personally satisfying and relaxing. Then I give it away. This wreath is going to the senior center to become part of the ever expanding seasonal decorating I do for them every year.

I've been on a whirlwind the past six weeks that is showing no signs of slowing down, like a train with no brakes. The next week or so will be dominated with the Easter and Passover holidays so I am taking advantage of the down time to do a little something for myself. This Easter weekend I'm going up to my mountain house with my husband and his mother to open the house for the season. I'm so looking forward to seeing the sunshine on the pond, the green landscape and the blue sky above. My back is already aching from all the work I'll be doing there but no matter. I'll just look to the green, the blue and the water and smile.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Creativity can be messy

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There's an old saying: "In order to make an omelette, you have to break some eggs." It essentially means that to reach your goal, things may get messy along the way. The important thing is to keep your eyes on the prize. These photos illustrate that premise rather well. I recently made some floral wreaths to decorate the offices of the director and staff of the  #DorchesterSeniorCitizensCenter. Frankly, it was a mess. Flowers, ribbon, hot glue, straight pins, yada yada yada...all over the place. Finally, from the chaos came the beauty of the finished wreaths. These were so much fun to make. All materials received from #MaterialsForTheArts.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva




#DSCC, #MFTA, #ArtIsLife, #GitanaTheCreativeDiva, #BrooklynNY #SummerDecor, #Flowers, #Wreaths

The Method to My Madness

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The ladies of the Dorchester Senior Citizens Center and I have been busy crafting away our Tuesday afternoons for the past several weeks, creating the prettiest things. We've made cards and created wall flowers for decorating the senior center. This week's embellished gift bag was a big hit. Creating, cutting and packaging a new project every week requires hours in front of a computer creating graphic cutting files, cutting them with a digital cutter and packing everything into individual bags is a lot of work but I do enjoy guiding the ladies through the assembly process and they seem to enjoy it as well. Just take a look at these smiling faces.
 I just never get tired of them.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Spring crafting continues...

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 Anyone who knows me knows I am a gardener. I love flowers and all manner of plants and this invariably shows up in my work at this time of year. In addition to craft classes, I decorate the center to reflect the season so, of course, flowers play a major role in the decor.

In February, I decided to remake some decorative floral panels I had made for the Dorchester Senior Citizens Center in 2011 and I promised to show photos of the installation once it was in place. That took place last week and I have to say the effect is wonderful. Here you see it paired with a Spring sign I had originally made in 2012 to go over the entry door of the main activity room (as seen in the original post from 2012). That sign still looks as good as it did when I first made it and it blends seamlessly with the new floral panels. All the pieces were tacked onto a canvas covered frame in the office area and is a very eye catching display as people walk into the center.

 There are also decorations in other parts of the main room. Here are panorama photos of two large wall displays. The butterfly swarm is a crowd pleaser as they appear to chase each other down one panel, across a cork strip and up another panel, essentially taking up the entire wall with color. On another wall, there is a row of flowers gently rippling up and down across it.

There's more to come in the spring decor but I have to take a break to prepare for the next crafting project. It is a lovely card featuring flowers and butterflies on a high contrast background of black, white and a third color. It is a layout that looks as well in either landscape or portrait orientation. The ladies will have the opportunity to emboss the design of their choice on the base panel, assemble the flowers and butterflies and manipulate the paper so the various elements pop up away from the card, giving them a three dimensional look. This card has already generated some interest so I'm hoping for a full house at the next crafting session. I'll let you know how that goes.

Until then, keep crafting!


Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Back in the Crafting Saddle

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Sunburst Card

As I mentioned in my last post, I have returned to conducting craft classes at the Dorchester Senior Citizens Center. This time around I have a new crop of crafters so I'm hoping to try out some new techniques and projects with them. The first two projects were simple greeting cards assembled from kits I designed and created. Simple projects give me an idea what the participants are capable of and what they like to do.

This week I tried something a little different and had them create three dimensional dahlias that will be used as decorations. The project itself was really very simple...roll and glue square pieces of paper into cones to form the petals, then hot glue them onto paper circles to form the flower. Here's what I learned from this exercise: a) rolling 41 squares of paper into cones takes time, b) not everyone can easily roll a paper cone and glue it into shape, c) not everyone knows what a glue gun is, let alone know how to use one, and finally d) when Access-A-Ride shows up, I lose my class as they run out to catch their ride. As a result, most of my ladies did not complete their flowers but they promised to return next week to finish it up. Nevertheless, a couple of diehard crafters who did not depend on outside transportation stayed and completed the project. They are shown here with their completed flowers.

3-D Dahlias on Display @ DSCC

The prototypes that I completed prior to the class for demonstration purposes as well as those completed by my class were tacked to a fabric covered panel on the wall of the room and are now part of the center's spring decor which I am currently in the process of mounting. In the next post I will have photos of some of the spring decorations that I have put up, some of which I have created specially for Dorchester Center. Until then...


Ballo ergo sum - Gitana, the Creative Diva

Revisiting Spring - Update

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Original panels 2011

New panel 2016

Filigree butterflies adorn each corner.

One of several whimsical ladybugs.

About five years ago I created some simple floral panels as part of the spring decor for the Dorchester Senior Citizens Center. After years of use they were in need of some refurbishing so I decided to spruce them up. As usual, what started out as one thing turned into another and I didn't refurbish them at all. I decided to remake them. I kept all the same elements of the original panels -- a winding vine with flowers attached and butterflies flitting about -- but decided to make them really pop with color and texture. The updated version has larger flowers in clusters and leaves in vibrant colors. The butterflies are really fancy and are suspended off the face of the panel so they appear to be floating over it. I reused some of the flowers from the original panels and I even added little ladybugs for a touch of whimsy. I folded and manipulated the paper so the various elements had three dimensional depth and didn't lay flat against the background paper.
At 28 inches, the new panels are about two inches longer than the originals. This first prototype panel took me a long time to decide what I wanted to do. Now that it's completed, the other three should come together a lot more quickly.

As the days grow longer and the weather is turning slightly warmer, it won't be long before spring erupts in its annual display of color and sound. This year the Dorchester Senior Citizen Center will be ready to welcome her in style.


UPDATE (2.26.16)

Four Completed Panels

The new spring panels are complete! As you can see, they are much livelier than the original panels they were based on. It won't be long before they're mounted on the wall at the senior center. Spring soon come. Bring it!

Ballo ergo sum 
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Another Year Gone By.

The past two months are a blur. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Eve have come and gone and we're already past the middle of January 2016. Why does it seem that time is moving more and more swiftly as I get older?

Some of the highlights of the past couple of months include gardening. Yes, gardening. In December. In New York City. Early winter 2015 boasted some of the warmest weather in recorded history with temperature hitting 70 degrees two days before Christmas. As a result, my garden was in quite a confused state. My front yard hoop house, which had been winterized with a plastic covering, was now as warm as a spring day and producing a bumper crop of cilantro and some red leaf lettuce. The lettuce was sufficient for a small side salad (yum) and I am still harvesting cilantro for cooking. I find this winter cilantro to be even more fragrant than the warm weather variety.


The holidays would not be complete without some Christmas-related crafting. Although I was busy with many things, I made time for some last minute card and tag making. The tags came from my RTU (Ready To Use) stash of leftovers and I embellished them a bit with gold edging and text cut from gold card stock. For the cards. I decided to go simple. Instead of designing something from scratch, I chose a free ornament cutting file from birdscards.com, mounted the finished ornament on cardstock squares that I had in my RTU stash, and used one of my favorite card styles: the matchbook. The cardstock I used for the card was double-sided so the inside was a coordinating print to the outside. A bit of ribbon, a small ornament and a bow round it out. I printed out my own greeting on my computer, slapped in inside the completed card and, voila!, a finished card. You can find the free cutting files on Birdscards.com's website HERE .

I also made time to create an winter themed over-the-door sign for the Dorchester Senior Citizens Center. A couple of years ago I made a spring themed door sign and I thought it was time for another season to be represented. Again, I used cutting files from www.birdscards.com for the corners and some of the snowflakes. The plan is to eventually create signs for every season so they can be changed every three months.

Valentine's Day is around the corner and I haven't done a thing to prepare, craftwise. I better get moving. Looks like the next few months will be a blur also.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Garden Update, Take 2

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For the past couple of weeks I have been on a steady diet of weed. Weeding the garden, that is. We've been experiencing quite a bit of rain which has created an explosion of plant and flower growth but, alas, the weeds also benefit from Nature's largesse. Particularly bothersome are the morning glories. Last year's beautiful abundance of blooms resulted in hundreds upon HUNDREDS of seeds, all of which appear to be germinating simultaneously. Without any exaggeration, I can easily say I have pulled out several hundred seedlings in the past few days alone, only to have a new crop appear again in the same place the very next day. This is in addition to purslane, dandelion, bedstraw, chickweed and all the other usual characters found in the weed pantheon. Nevertheless, I press on, determined to pluck every last one lest they compete with my plants for nutrients.

Speaking of my plants, they are doing quite well although some of them are taking a very long time to germinate. I have quite a collection of flowers growing.

Here are some lovely four foot tall orange daylilies. They sit front and center in my front garden, greeting all passersby. They are so prolific that I've given most of them away and spread them through the garden and I still have a lot.  They tower over their pretty yellow cousins, the Stella D'Oro daylilies. They, too, are quite prolific and would easily take over the garden if given the chance.

 Here are a couple of snap dragons that popped up spontaneously without my help. (
There's a lot of that going on the garden this year.) These two are actually growing under the large leaves of two other plants that have mysteriously sprouted in my garden. You can see them below left, flanked by lavender in the raised bed. I have no idea what they are but they appear to be sunflowers on steroids. The leaves and flower buds are similar but there are differences in the growth habit. They are so thick and stocky, I'm almost afraid I'm cultivating another Audrey 2 (from Little Shop of Horrors fame). The raised bed is surrounded by sweet alyssum that self seeded from last year. They are already releasing their beautifully delicate fragrance and sweetening the air.

In the vegetable department, I've got some bush beans growing in plastic pails along the front of the house, They are joined by the yellow flowers of the cucumbers climbing through my old azalea and some bush variety cherry tomatoes blooming profusely in another pail. My onions, not to be outdone, are also in bloom. If  you've never seen an onion blossom, it looks like a fuzzy ping pong ball at the end of a stick. I'll soon  cut off the blooms and use the stems as scallions for cooking.

For a touch of whimsy I set up my tipsy pot of flowers. Every year it is in a different spot and sports different flowers. This year I decided severely limit my garden expenditures and chose to use whatever was already growing in my garden to fill the tipsy pots. This year it is filled with alyssum and creeping Jenny (moneywort) trailing over its side.

There is so much more going on in the garden but too much for now. Fodder for another post. Until then...


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva