The work continues...

I have been in a whirlwind of activity lately, so much so that I haven't had a minute to craft a card in well over a month. I'm beginning to go into withdrawal but I think there may be a lull soon that will allow me a moment to unwind and craft. My latest project was to recreate a monitoring testing vest for use in an ongoing research project at the local senior college. I'm happy to say that I completed the vest and will be delivering it to the client tomorrow. The vest, which is covered in panels of Velcro-like hook and loop fabric, proved to be quite a bit more challenging than I anticipated because it kept sticking to itself. Also the panels created extra bulk in the seams, preventing them from lying flat. There was a bit of a learning curve involved here but I managed to come out at the other end alright. Now I'm hoping the client doesn't mind some of the imperfections this learning curve caused. We shall see. In the meantime I have to catch up on some of the other work that fell to the wayside while I was working on the vest like mending, ironing, cleaning, and best of all, CRAFTING! I can't wait to reclaim my crafts table so I can mess it up again.

Ballo ergo sum- Gitana, the Creative Diva

So Much to Tell...

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Where do I start? There is so much to say.

First let me say that I completed the six large paper flower arrangements for my daughter's high school graduation and they looked magnificent. Here's a picture of how they looked across the front of the auditorium stage. They are approximately three feet from top to bottom and two and a half feet across.

While I was in the midst of paper flower frenzy, I received a call to create another project of a totally different sort, one that requires my skills as a seamstress. I'll be recreating a monitoring vest used in the medical field for an Alzheimer's research project. I haven't even begun that project yet and I'm being contracted by yet another client who needs invitations designed for her annual client appreciation event. I had hoped to dedicate my summer to doing business research and creating a business plan but it appears I'll be too busy being in business to do any research about being in business. Not a bad problem to have.

In addition, I have been asked to become a design team member for About Art Accents, the rubber stamp company that sponsors Oriental Stamp Art, the Yahoo group I belong to. I accepted and have received my first set of rubber stamps with which to create cards and other works of art.

As if all this isn't enough, there is more. I have just received notification from my favorite crafts supply store, A. C. Moore, that I have won their sweepstakes for a trip for two to the biggest crafts show in the country, the Craft and Hobby Association Supershow in Rosemont, Illinois taking place during the last weekend in July. I am waiting to hear from a sweepstakes official so I can satisfy myself that this is not a hoax. Then I'm going to start packing my bags.

In the middle of all of this activity on my part, I've had to deal with:
- my youngest daughter's graduation and all the attendant social engagements that go along with it,
- hosting my oldest daughter and family who came up from North Carolina for the graduation
- Father's Day
- my husband's birthday
- doctor and dentist appointments
- preparing my new graduate to move to North Carolina with her sister to attend college.

Brother, I think I need a rest.


Ballo ergo sum,
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Brand New Look

Blogger recently introduced new templates for its blogs so I thought this was a good time to give The Creative Diva a fresh new look. I hope you like it and will continue to visit. Thanks.

Ballo ergo sum- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Paper Flowers for a Green School Graduation

This June marks a couple of milestones. First, my youngest daughter is graduating from high school and going off to college. Second, she is a member of the very first graduating class for The Green School, An Academy for Environmental Careers, a new high school here in Brooklyn that first opened its doors to students in September 2007. As its name implies, The Green School's focus is environmental responsibility and sustainability so, of course, its graduation exercises has to promote that mission. Also of concern is the budget so the event must be organized on a shoestring. To that end, I volunteered to create large floral arrangements with which to decorate the auditorium during the ceremony. The paper for these flowers was salvaged surplus that was previously printed with school notices, flyers, etc. and was designated for the recycling bin. Never mind that I have no floral experience and have never done anything like this before. I just jumped in, learned what I could as I went long and whatever I didn't learn, I made up on the fly.

The photos here were taken at the school one day when one of the art teachers volunteered all his art classes one day solely for the purpose of helping me cut the massive amounts of paper petals and leaves required for this project. In addition, the students also pre-assembled many of the flowers and the paper bows. Here is also a photo of three completed arrangements. All told, there will be a total of six arrangements that will be placed side by side across the front of the auditorium stage. I have already completed four of them. Two more and I am done. Phew! I had no idea how large a project this would be but I'm so glad I took the chance and did it. It has been a great learning experience and has yielded a very satisfying result.

Next time perhaps I'll actually get some floral training so I'll know what I'm doing.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

An Incredible Mail Day

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In March, I wrote about several art competitions that I was entering and how busy I was preparing for them (click here to read that post). What I didn't tell you was what eventually happened. My submission didn't make it in the FEGS art competition so that was one out of three contests out of the way. The entries I submitted to the contest sponsored by the rubber stamp company (Blockhead Stamps) were a hit and I won a prize. That's two out of three contests out of the way. The competition sponsored by my husband's local union...to tell the truth, after the exhibit was over and I picked up my entries, I put the whole thing out of my mind. I never heard from anyone regarding the winners of the contest so I assumed I didn't win and promptly forgot about it. Three out of three contests out of the way. Well...not quite.

I received a large envelope from the division of the union that runs the art show a few days ago. My husband assumed it was a certificate of appreciation for participating in the show so that is what I had in mind when I opened it. Was I ever surprised to find a letter congratulating me for winning first prize in the digital art category! A certificate and a blue ribbon accompanied the letter. As if that wasn't good enough, there was another letter congratulating me on winning a prize. And another letter. And yet another letter. That's right. Out of six entries that I submitted to the art show, four of them won prizes: two first prizes and two second prizes. In fact, I took both first AND second prize in the digital art category. I was so flabbergasted I started shaking.

Such a bonanza was totally unthinkable. No, the prizes weren't the bonanza. (I never entered the contest for the prizes which were miniscule at best.) The bonanza was that this particular art show is big, with well over two hundred entries in a few dozen categories. My first time entering the contest I win four times!! How amazing is that? Here you can see all my winning entries from the past couple of months. The Inspire Daisy is the winner for the Blockhead Stamps contest and the other four are the winning entries for the Local 3 contest.

Unfortunately I have no time to rest on my laurels. I'm under a deadline crunch. I have yet to complete the paper flower arrangements for my daughter's high school graduation ceremony at the end of this month. I'll post more information and pictures about that project soon. Busy, busy.

Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

The crafts classes continue...

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Between the volunteering I do for the senior center and a decorating project I'm working on for my daughter's high school, I've been too frantically busy to write about what I'm doing. I'm going to try and condense things here in an effort to catch up.

For a change of pace, we switched from card making and began making other things from paper. Thanks to a very successful visit to Material for the Arts as well as some generous donations of craft materials from private donors, I had lots of new materials to work with. Here you'll see a pretty pink and black memo holder complete with cards for writing little notes. These have small round magnets on the backs that allow them to stick to a refrigerator or filing cabinet.

Then there are two different styles of gift bags. The one pictured here is in a blue floral pattern but the seniors were able to choose from a variety of floral colors including chartreuse, peach and gold. This bag came with a coordinating gift tag and a matching little gift holder crafted to look like a matchbook and perfectly sized to hold a single square of Ghirardelli chocolate.

The other gift bag was made to look like a pale green mini tote bag and features a matching gift tag and a velcro closure. Class participants even got some coordinating tissue paper to place in the bag so they could be ready to wrap that perfect little gift.

The card you see here will be this week's project, a generic birthday card that is suitable for both men and women. It's generally more difficult to choose colors and themes that are suitable for men so this is a welcome change. This will be my final project for this season until I return in September to continue the craft classes. I must dedicate myself to completing the project for the high school in time for the graduation ceremony at the end of June, then spend time preparing my graduating daughter for her transition to college. So many things to do, so few days in which to do them.

Oh yes, the remaining photo. The senior center will be conducting it's own version of American Idol called "Dorchester Senior Idol". The photo represents the scoring paddles the judges will be using to score the participants on a scale from one to four. I created the paddles from some old hand fans with wooden handles by removing the original cardboard fan and replacing it with one that I designed. I just thought I'd throw them into the mix here as well since I had some fun making them. Oh yes, one more thing. I not only got to make the paddles, I'll get to use them. I've been asked to be one of the judges for the talent contest. This should be fun!!

Okay, no more time for chatter. I'm off again to put nose firmly to grindstone. I've got flowers to create and floral arrangements to make and a prom to prepare for and a graduation coming up and...

Boy, I need a vacation.


Ballo ergo sum- Gitana, the Creative Diva

My Thursday Tip

Oriental Stamp Arts, the Yahoo group to which I belong, solicits tips and tricks from its members every Thursday. One tip is selected from among the entries for a weekly prize. One recent tip that I submitted was seen by Nancie Waterman, the editor of Vamp Stamps News (http://www.vampstampnews.com) who contacted me for permission to publish my tip in the June 2010 issue which I granted. I never thought my little tip, discovered quite by chance, would garner so much attention. Read it below.

When using acrylic stamps, I have found that when I'm stamping a verse or image that is long and thin, it is difficult to get the stamp to cling in a straight line. It always seems to curve ever so slightly up or down when I try to lay it on the mount. By chance I discovered that if I lay the stamp face down on my cutting mat, the grid lines help me align the stamp properly. Then all I have to do is lower the stamp mount onto the stamp and, presto, it's straight.

I hope you find it helpful. Thanks for stopping by.

Ballo ergo sum- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Cut and Color

One of the members in the Oriental Stamp Arts group I belong to recommended this blog post as a source of inspiration for our own work. How right she was. I've linked to it here so you can enjoy it also. Just click on the title below and it will take you to the post.

Cut and Color

Ballo ergo sum- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Taking things up a notch

The ladies of the senior center and I have been busy assembling cards and this has been keeping me very busy. Here you see the cards we have assembled in the past two weeks. The green tree is specially made to commemorate Earth Day which this year falls on April 21, 2010.

Because many of them have physical limitations that prevent them from completing many of the tasks required to create a card from scratch, I create card kits at home that do not require anything more difficult than gluing down the card elements or removing the protective liner from double sided tape. Essentially I'm doing all the work that I would normally have more able bodied individuals do themselves and leaving them to put together the pieces. However I have overdone it a bit with these last two cards. Because I am doing so much work assembling the card kits, I tend to forget that the seniors themselves are left with very little to do. These two cards were so simple for them to assemble that they were done in under 15 minutes. The younger seniors in the group were done in 10 minutes. Worse than that, they were left wanting more of a challenge. One thing about seniors...they let you know what's on their mind. It's a good thing because it's just what I needed to step up my game. I promised them that this week they would have something a little meatier to sink their teeth into and I think this little gift/favor bag should do the trick.

I had found the tutorial for this favor/gift bag, created by Diana Gibbs for the Splitcoast Stampers website last summer and knew immediately that I had to make it at some point. I finally got my chance this week and on Thursday I'll be leading a group of seniors in assembling the bags for themselves. The front of the bag has a medallion and I added a coordinated gift tag on the back. Inside the bag there is a little candyholder/card (not shown) sized perfectly to hold one square of Ghirardelli chocolate or some folded currency. This project was designed by Theresa Momber for Splitcoast Stampers and I thought it would be a great add-on to the gift bag. (Go here to see that tutorial.) I haven't created the kits for those yet but I'm hoping to complete them before Thursday. The seniors should find these two projects enough to keep them interested.

Now what do I do next week? If you've got an idea, throw it my way. Just leave me a comment below. Thank you.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva

More than Just a Card

If you follow this blog, you know that I am volunteering at a local senior citizen's center. Once a week for an hour, I lead a group of seniors in assembling a card kit that I create at home. Many times I will build in an element of choice so that they don't feel that their cards look exactly alike. Just before Easter, I created a card that featured a verse on the front that said "Easter Greetings" but knowing that not everyone there celebrates Easter, I created alternate greetings that could easily be substituted instead. Those greetings were "Hope You're Feeling Better" and "Where Flowers Bloom, There is Hope".

My story today is about Yolanda, the beautiful lady you see in this picture. She is holding the card she made in my crafts class. Yolanda chose the "There is Hope" greeting for her card and set about to putting the pieces together. As she was crafting, she began to think about who she would send this card to and her thoughts turned to a dear friend of hers who had just undergone a very serious operation and for whom she was concerned. It was only then that she really noticed the verse she had chosen for her card and how appropriate it was for this particular situation. When she spoke about her friend and how perfectly the card would suit her, she became emotional and had to fight back the tears. If she seems a little misty-eyed in the photo, she was. To paraphrase her words, "I didn't even think about what I was choosing when I picked the verse, but I chose the perfect words for her. There is hope."

I highlight Yolanda because this experience is not all that uncommon. For the most part, when one is crafting as part of a group effort, attention is usually paid first to the instructor and then to the task at hand, but if you allow yourself NOT to think, NOT to get hung up on the details and just let your mind relax, a whole new realm of insight is possible. This is what Yolanda felt when she realized what she was actually doing. She wasn't just crafting a card, she was sending a message of hope, and the realization of that brought her to tears.

I regularly inhabit the world of alternate insight and my vehicle is my art. That someone else has been able to visit that world due to my influence is an awesome and humbling realization.


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva