Jen Bowles Design

Monday Mosaic

I think I may be ready for spring...

1. GROW, 2. vintage kitchen things, 3. Untitled, 4. paintbox, 5. Egg Love, 6. Beach chair= Strandkorb, 7. Little House By The Water, 8. A spring gathering, 9. Jump....., 10. Hello Weekend!, 11. scalloped fabric garland, 12. English Rose Bouquet; Vintage Chair, 13. o´happy birthday to me!, 14. Green Fabric Inchies, 15. DSC_5208

{Happy} ♥ Friday!

I wanted to make special Valentine cards for several of my special friends.  Unfortunately, I only got as far as making two of these fabric prize brooches.

Using instructions found on Banana Frog as a guide, I gathered a few fabrics, some interfacing and my sewing machine.  After assembling the brooch, I used a vintage letter stamp inked with craft paint to make the monogram letter.  I then glued on the ribbon tails and secured the pinback. Obviously this didn't take long enough, so I got out a thrifted book and started cutting out letters ;-).  I attached the letters and the chipboard heart with Claudine Hellmuth multi-media.  Finally I made a quick card with a thrifted book page and heart stamp and attached the brooch.  After loading the cards into small padded envelopes, they were ready to spread the love up and down the East Coast. 

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Handmade for Me (!)

Leave it to my mom to make me a beautiful gift for Valentine's Day~handcrafted right in her little studio room.  Actually, I'm pretty sure it was handcrafted in her comfy leopard print television watching chair.  She's not into being idle ;-).

She made me a lovely mixed-media soft heart banner in my favorite blue & green color palette.  She used many of her {tres} dear goodies to embellish the hearts including velvet leaves, lovely fibers, vintage buttons, and beautiful flowers.  Each heart also has an inspirational word sewed on, I love the frayed edge on these.   My mom is so good with the tiny detail work--talk about patience!   

I think the 'love' heart is my favorite.  Or maybe it's the 'be happy' heart.   Who am I kidding, I love them all!

My new banner looks great in my {dining room} studio space~fits right in with the color scheme.

I just love my new heart banner, and I just love my mom :-)

Valentine Tuesday

Though Valentine's Day may be over, does the season of love really ever end?

I made a quick 'hugs & kisses' banner to decorate my new studio space for Valentine's Day. 

It came together fairly quickly, aside from an incident with the glue pad.  Let's just say I learned that sometimes it takes a bit more work to make things right.  I used a leftover piece of scrapbook paper, old book pages and sheet music along with some doilies from the dollar store.  The hearts are from a K&Co. Valentine themed chipbox I picked up at AC Moore last year. 

{note how the glitter is looking a little sketchy on the 'o', that's where I used the glue pad}  

While I've been enjoying this banner for the past few weeks, I may have to put 'make spring banner for studio' on my to do list for this week :-)

Mosaic Monday

Happy President's Day!

{not that my latest flickr faves have anything to do with today's holiday ;-) }

1. Floating Starfish Shop - Nassau, Bahamas, 2. 016, 3. home sweet home..., 4. my village, 5. vintage, 6. Swine judging pennant 1957, 7. papier mâché, 8. Well loved Pink & Aqua Bunny, 9. Let's be love birds on Valentine's Day

Special Delivery ~ Valentine collage

Inspired by a combination of Sarah Ahearn, Teesha Moore and Sarah Lugg, I've been exploring the art of collage.

On this Valentine themed collage, I used scrapbook paper scraps, found paper, vintage sheet music, letters cut from thrifted books, paint, a white Signo pen, a black Pitt pen and a shaped by me paperclay heart.  Oh, and a doily and a vintage button card.

Phew.

The overall size is 5x7.  I'm tempted to go even smaller for my next project, I bought some 4x4 and 5x5 canvases on sale last week.  I find it very relaxing and satisfying to cut out strips of paper and fit them onto the canvas like a puzzle.  I have an extraordinary (for me) amount of patience when it comes to searching through old books looking for just the right letter or word.  Of course I lose my {extraordinary} patience when a teeny tiny letter gets lost on my work table...

I love how you can use even the smallest scrap when working on a collage--good and bad when you like to save virtually every piece of interesting paper that crosses your path ;-). 

Looking forward to creating and sharing many more collage projects.

Because, I'm pretty sure, I'm never going to run out of supplies to make 'em!

Oh Babycakes!

On my last trip to NYC, I wasn't able to visit Babycakes.  Ever since reading Erin's cookbook and making a few of the recipes, it's totally been on my list.  Maybe next visit...

In the meantime, we have a Babycakes (no affiliation) here on the South Shore.  It's not vegan or gluten-free, but it is a cupcake bakery.  And it was on my way home from a recent trip into Boston.   I felt it was my duty to stop in and support the local economy.

I'm civic minded like that.

The shop is cute from the street, love the colors and the babycakes logo.  Inside the shop is cozy with a bakery case, small counter & cash register, a few tables, a bookcase with cupcake inspired gift items and a chalkboard with the day's menu written on it.  The front of the shop is open to the small kitchen in the rear.  The owner (I believe) was there baking up more cupcakes while one very friendly employee was holding down the fort in the retail area.

Unable to decide on just one flavor, I took home a trio of treats: Everyday Vanilla, Peanut Butter Cup and Red Velvet.  I took my box and headed home to induce a sugar coma. 

They sure did look pretty, my collection of Babycakes.

First, I sampled the vanilla. Then the peanut butter cup. Finally, the red velvet.

My verdict:  they looked better than they tasted.

Overall, the cake on each of the flavors was moist and flavorful.  Except the red velvet.  It was moist, but flavor-wise, it fell kind of flat. I guess my issue was with the frosting.  Don't get me wrong, typically, I am a fan of frosting.  However, I found the frosting on these cupcakes to be a bit overpowering--the vanilla was too vanilla, the cream cheese icing tasted heavy--very cream cheesy.  The peanut butter frosting was, you guessed it, too peanut buttery for my taste.  I didn't find the frosting and the cupcakes to be in flavor harmony--if that makes any sense. 

Overall, the cupcakes were fine but I ended up giving half of the vanilla to Ebby and throwing a large portion of the red velvet and the peanut butter cup into the trash.  Perhaps my decision to try 3 cupcakes all at once would've been better served if the bakery sold baby-sized (i.e. bite sized) cakes instead ;-). 

Or maybe I should've eaten lunch first... 

At any rate, my quest for delicious cupcakes will continue.  After all, they're so darn cute--and photogenic.  In fact, I think I have my next target lined up.  I read yesterday that Todd English and his daughter are opening a cupcake bakery this spring on Beacon Hill in Boston.

CurlyCakes, here I come!

Mosaic Monday

Love the flowers, love the colors, love the vintage...

Love the flickr :-) 

1. Winged Heart Clock 1, 2. Tulips from my garden, 3. 171. Red Bistro Table and Chair, 4. .dotty double. {explored}, 5. Untitled, 6. little friends, 7. flea market office, 8. Vintage Trophy Cup, 9. old verson of my "squirrel butts don't glow" illustration, 10. Bilingual Valentine Romantic Nickname, 11. TEXTURE CP 0231, 12. Lovely cupcakes, 13. .green wicker chair., 14. letter holder, 15. Vintage Mini Bowling Pin

Love & the winged heart

Love involves a peculiar unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.

                                        ~Diane Arbus

Inspired by Chrissie Grace and her winged heart tutorial, I made this Valentine decoration for my studio.  I didn't have a paper mache heart, so I made one using tin foil and paperclay.  I took a large sheet of foil and shaped it into (more or less) a heart shape.  I then rolled out a hunk of paperclay and laid it over the tin foil.  Not so attractive from the back, but I decided that's ok.

After my heart dried, I painted it red and added some freehand white polka dots.  I covered the polka dots with glue and then sprinkled them with German glass glitter for some sparkle. 

I had the wings on-hand, I made them a while back using a process outlined in Kelly Rae Roberts' book, Taking Flight (awesome book, btw).  I just attached the wings, along with a loop of ribbon for hanging, with a glue gun. 

Because I can't seem to make anything lately without cutting out letters from old books, I cut out the letters for 'love' and glued them on for a finishing touch. 

Wishing you a {love}ly weekend!

WIP Update: By the Sea Gridlocked piece

I'm still moving items up from the basement into the dining room art space, but I finally glued a whole bunch of stuff down on my Lisa Kaus inspired Gridlocked piece.  A few pictures of how I started are in this post.

I just have a few more pieces of sheet music to glue along the edges, then I'll be ready for beeswax--the final step (!)

  The last square I had to fill in was right above the center square.  I tried a bunch of different items there.  I thought I had decided on a shell with stamped words 'Sun & Sand'.  But I wasn't 100% convinced.  I was going through a pack of vintage Spanish flashcards  for another project, when I happened upon the fish card.  I loved the image but wasn't crazy about the Spanish word for fish (pez).  However, I knew Ebby had the same package of cards, only in French.  After some hard negotiating, she gave me the French fish card :-).  I was also in the mode of cutting letters out of books (I have a new stash from EXCL last week) and so I reworked the 'sun & sand' phrase as well.

It's been a long process, but finally I'm happy with all my squares.  You could say that my patience paid off.     Or you could say it took my waaaaay too long to make a decision.  Either way, on to beeswax!