Altered Barbies

About 20 years ago when I was collecting Barbie dolls (yes I have the #1 Barbie that came out in 1959 in the black and white bathing suit) I remember going to a Barbie convention and seeing a few "altered Barbies".  At that point I was teaching myself how to reroot hair on old Barbies and that's when the two ideas merged: reroot non traditional hair and design a non traditional outfit.  That weekend I tried to create my first altered Barbie and let me tell you that my vision was a lot more polished than what actually happened!  I will try anything once and I tried it but decided it wasn't for me... until last year.  I tried it again and this time I loved my results!

My forest Barbie was one of my first ones:

This was one of my favorite ones because of her wire skirt:

Zentangle inspired:

This one was inspired by the button on her back that, when pushed, lights up her torso and legs.  I'm not sure if I'm finished with this one yet.  I would like to paint more designs on her chest and maybe put some braids in her hair.  In the last picture you can see that her belly is lit up blue and one of her legs is lit up red, this is more more vibrant in person.

I also create one of a kind art dolls and in my mind these two go hand-in-hand, art dolls and altered dolls.

Flashback

About a year ago I was asked to paint something for a silent auction for my parent's church.  I have a certain style that some may like and some may not but I love bright colors and whimsical designs so this is what I did:

Before (child's little hutch):

After (with my creative touch):

The back was not neglected either:

With the cabinet doors open:

Stay tuned to see my latest painted creations!

Big huge announcement!

Wait for it...

I will now be selling my stuff on Etsy!  I have been working diligently to create my whimsical and fun shop called October Cat Studios.  I will be selling unique, one of a kind gift items for almost anyone. I will focus on my fabric bowls, art quilts (mini framed and larger wall hangings), art dolls, traditional quilts and one of a kind painted button pendants.

In addition to selling my art on Etsy I will also have a Facebook page called October Cat Studios.  Please be sure to follow/like/join, it is open to everyone!  On this page I will be posting a lot of my previous artistic endeavors as well as new ones.  I will be sharing links to other artists I like and you can also travel along with me when I go to quilt shows and the like.  

Thanks for your support and please tell all of your friends about October Cat Studios.

Frustrating

I am trying to change the look of my blog so if you are a frequent reader you may see a lot of changes over the next few days but rest assured I will always be KIMagination!

Stay tuned...

for some exciting news coming in the next few weeks!! (No I am not pregnant) I've given myself till April 1st and that's when I'll make the big reveal so please come back!

Jewels for the Wall

For Christmas I received a subscription to Quilting Arts Magazine.  I love this magazine because it combines quilting with other mediums (right up my alley!).  I started making art quilts about 1-2 years ago, embellishing with found objects and beads.  This magazine shows me how to create my own fabrics with dyes, stamps and silk screening.  An article in the December2014/January2015 issue entitled Jewels for the Wall by Natalya Aikens inspired my next creations.  She made mini art quilts, framed them and then painted the frames to match the colors in the quilts.  Mine, of course, looks nothing like hers but that's the beauty of art!  Every artist has their own talents and interpretations of their world.

This was my very first one:
I only used fabric, beads and paint.

And because I love owls this was my second one:
For this creation I used fabric (the owl), upholstery (the gray background and the blue branch) and puffy paint (little designs coming off the branches).  There are also beads sewn on the eyes.

My third one is my absolute favorite because it's not as tight or structured as the last two.  I call it Steampunk and Butterflies.
(again I used fabric, upholstery, beads, clock parts and other hardware)

(top part):

(bottom part):

This is the start of two new creations.  I will be embellishing with seashells, sea grass and of course more beadwork.  The horizontal frame will be the seashore and the vertical frame will have lighthouse fabric in it.

These and many more creations will be for sale in my booth at the Newport News Fall Festival of Folk Life first weekend in October, please come out and see me!

Wreck This Journal

I have seen this book in stores but instead of buying it I went home and put it on my Amazon Wish List and forgot about it.  Well this past Christmas my mom got it for me and it has been so much fun "wrecking" it!!  It is definitely for anyone that wants to be creative but doesn't know where to start.

Here is an example of what one of the pages looks like (not done yet):

So you kind of get the idea right?  Keri Smith wants you to experiment, be creative, use any tools necessary to create something unique and one of a kind.  The title page was boring until my pink and orange markers attacked it:

A few years ago I challenged myself to learn at least the first 25 digits in the number Pi. (You know 3.14159)  So when I read the page that asked me to "add your own page numbers" the one word that jumped out at me was numbers.  I immediately wanted to write as many digits of Pi that I could fit on the page:

This was one of the first pages I did "Draw fat lines then thin":

I wonder why I haven't done this page yet? I love to sew, maybe I'll do something with this tonight:

Another example of one of my finished pages:

This page says "Tear out. Crumple."  I wanted to experiment with wet watercolors, to "crumple" it up before the watercolors dried to see if I could get a cracked effect.  It didn't turn out quite how I expected but I taped the page back in to show the shrinkage of the page:

And I saved my favorite page for last.  It's called a "Stain log".  I've seen this done with lipsticks but I have a slight obsession with nail polish (and these aren't even all of my colors!) so I decided to log some of my colors:

My absolute favorite, that I wear on my toenails all the time, is the Petites Sapphire, third row first one.

I have a board on Pinterest called Wreck This Journal where you can see other peoples creativity (and I've added my pictures as well).

Photography

My very first hobby was photography.  I still really like to take pictures but I also like to sew, knit, quilt, paint, etc.  This year I've decided to get back into photography.  There are thousands of prompts on Pinterest to get me started but I found one that very much appealed to me and had her website printed on one of the lists.  Her name is Chantelle and she lives in Australia.  Her website is Fat Mum Slim if you'd like to check it out.
This is what the first week's list looked like:

This was the second week's list:

And my photos for these prompts:

This is week 3:

And my photos for these prompts (not in order of the list):

I am a little behind on the fourth week but I'll catch up tomorrow.  This has been so much fun.  I hope that I can keep up with it all year.  It is allowing me to be creative in my picture taking and not be focused on one thing.  It is challenging me to look more closely at things and what is my interpretation of certain words like "bright".