Marie Antoinette has been a popular character in the stamping industry for a long time now. Five other artists and myself thought it would be fun to do a journal swap with the theme being her. I decided to be the host and did invitations and a schedule for the traveling journals. I also wanted us to make some extra props to go along with our journals. So we each had to create a cake, shoe, bodice and crown too. You were to interpret the extra pieces however you choose and we had some very creative minds at work! The journals could be hand made, altered books or whatever you wanted to work with. Everyone's work was beautifully done.
We started in May of this year and just finished a few weeks ago. In conclusion we had a soiree at my home on Nov. 1st. November 2nd is Marie's birthday. We had lunch and then looked at all our fabulous creations. What is a Marie party without cake? You know she really didn't say "Let them eat cake." but it's fun to say she did. My wonderful friend Mary made these cupcakes
and the cute stamped and colored Marie picks. She also made some great candy coated pretzels that are to die for! Plus a crown shaped cake! She is wonderful and helped me make the soiree run smoothly.
This is April's bodice. We each bought a wire bodice from Stampington and Company but she cut hers up and attached it to a tomatoe cage. What an out of the box idea that was! Her shoe, cake and crown are below. Speaking of out of the box...look at her crown. Base is made from wire then wrapped with fabric. Wire was them spireled on one end and a beaded charm added. Then stuck into the base. Very different but ingenious.
Below is Mary's contributions. Love her crown and the head it's displayed on! Her cake was a masterpiece. Three tiers of paper and glitter topped with a shoe! Her bodice was covered with stamped and collaged tags. She spent a lot of time on it. Lovely little shoe made of paper.
Pink was Melody's color choice for her pieces. Her crown is a metal one covered with fibers then topped with a flower. Fibers were included on all her pieces and it helped tie her pieces together. Her cake is topped with a bird on a nest of fibers! Very cute! She also was generous with her time in making things
run smoothly at the party.
Anne's pieces are very elegant. Her bodice is drapped with marbeld paper that looks like fabric. Very nice! Her crown is made from metal mesh and embellished with flowers and feathers. The shoe is created with paper and her cake is topped with feathers and Marie. Just a note...I think she had trouble keeping her cats from playing with all the feathers. Everyone knows cats love feathers! LOL
Here are my pieces. My bodice was covered with tied on strips of fabric, soldered charms and there is a bird inside the hoop skirt to be like a cage. I think Marie was sorta like a caged bird not getting to fly and be set free to have fun without being critazized. The cake is covered with paper, curled pipe cleaners, glitter and a copy of Kirsten Dunst as Marie from the Sophia Coppella movie. My shoe was paper and the crown was a tiera embellished with pipe cleaners and leaves.
Here you can see the bird inside the cage.
These are all the journals. All done in lucious colors and fabrics.
These are favors for three guests we had come and I made digital collages for the fronts of the bags. I received some wonderful gifts for favors as host and each of us made some type of favor for each other. There were rhinestone frames with a Marie collage inside, faux postage of Marie, ceramic shoes and several other great ones.
I made a fabric wall hanging as a door prize. I forgot to photograph it by itself and only got a photo of April who won, holding it. I need to ask her permission to put the photo on here so you will have to wait to see it later. It turned out great though.
It was a fun day and good to see what everyone had done in each other's journals. Swaps make you stretch your creativity and go outside the box so to speak. I highly encourage people to do them but they are a lot of work.
We will be displaying our works of art at Stamp Asylum in December. The date is the 5th from 2:00pm - 4:00pm. So if you are in the area please come by for some refreshments and enjoy feeling and looking at all of our creations in person. It will be well worth your time.
I had time to add two new items in my Etsy shop http://www.donnagoss.etsy.com today. It took me awhile to finish this scarf. I do not like to knit when it's warm and it has not been cold (until today LOL) so it took longer than usual for this one. it's great to wear casual or dressy.
