Update!

We know it's been a while since we last posted.
There are a lot of things stirring in the air, here at MoonFlower Art!
Pretty soon we will have some news to announce!

In the meanwhile, all of our store items on etsy have been removed so they may be sold at Stacie's Jewelry Spring Show and Next week's FINRA event!

Once those sales are over we will reopen the etsy store and it will include some new merchandise as well!

Thanks for your patience as we "remodel"!
-Allison and Stacie!

A little dormouse...

Here's another new pincushion...
cute little mouse.
Measures about 3.5" tall.Such a lovable fella!

Pretty Pretty Pincushions

Long time no see, huh?
I have been up to my ears and now I am finally easing back into creating new projects!
From now til the end of April all Moonflower items I make will be for the FINRA show on April 28th and 29th.
Today I made a old fashioned pin cushion with a very old mother of pearl button. I wish I hadd little dangle things around the edge. I may add that!
That's where I'm at today. I will be in pincushion world for the rest of the week. All different colors and themes. Do you have a favorite pincushion???
have a great week!
-Allison

Seva...selfless service

The practice of Seva is love in action, selfless service with no expectations. I made this collage at the request of my wonderful yoga teacher Rose. Rose teaches classes in the Center of Four Winds studio in Frederick, Maryland.

In the studio is a book of Seva that has information gathered from the community about organizations and opportunities to serve others.

Seva is from the Sanskirt root, sev meaning to serve; wait or attend upon; honour; or worship. I loved all the different parts of the collage and how it all came together. Parts of it were given to me by Rose because they were treasures of her's from cards or gifts.

Around the outside of the collage is the following poem about Seva...

Seva

The practice of Seva is love in action, selfless service, with no expectations. Offering Seva is uplifting to your self and our community. Seva carries the power to awaken us to the greater truth of our own beingness.

I hope that today you have the chance to practice Seva in your daily life.

Stacie

Custom Face Plate Covers!

Today I worked on a custom order for faceplate covers. The theme is WINE! So I collaged several covers and I think they are going to be just perfect for the kitchen!~
I especially love the personal touch - the deLorimier (wine label) double pull cover -the last name of the person I made these for!

Complete with painted screws (brown)... I can't wait to deliver them!
Hope you had a creative day!
-Allison

Happy Spring...well almost!!

Good morning! OK, I'm really wishing for spring now!!! We had a snow storm on Monday & I'm hoping that is the last one of the season. I love winter...knitting...reading by the fire, but I'm all done & ready to move on!

Allison and I are getting ready for our spring shows. Here is our schedule so far:

Friday, April 24th

Spring Show at Stacie's

7:00-10:00 pm

New Market, MD

This show will have Stacie jewelry, Moonflower Art & Allison's papercrafts. We'll have food and drinks, so it should be fun. We'll be donating 20% of all sales to the Double Harvest organization for the Benevolent Housing Project in Haiti. Allison is doing a year long service project in 2009 to raise the $3,000 that it takes to build a house for a single mother or widow in Haiti. It's a great project. She has started a website selling other artist's creations and donating 100% of the profit for this project. I am really proud of her! Check out her website on etsy:

http://www.BuildingDreams.etsy.com

Next show on the books:

Saturday, May 2nd

Trunk Show at the Muse

10:00- 9:00 pm

19 N. Market Street

Frederick, MD

I will be there for a showing of my jewelry. We also have a selection of moonflower art products & Allison's cards at the Muse.

Next....

Saturday, May 16th

The Potomac Strawberry Festival

Potomac United Methodist Church

9908 South Glen Road

Potomac, MD 20854

10:00 am - 4:00 pm

We hope to see you at one of the Spring shows. Have a wonderful day & think Spring!!!!!

Cable Knit Scarf

The past few days I've been knitting a cableknit scarf. It took me a few tries to get it right, but I think I'm on the right track now...
Right now I'm working on a dusty rose color and a periwinkle/gray color.Along each side there are big open holes and the cabling is in the center and edges.
I want to try to finish it today... as the kids are home for a snow day! I think this is the first real snow day of this winter for us!
Hope you enjoy your day and see you back soon!
-Allison

Demin Cases

Hi everyone!

I feel like I haven't logged on for a while! Thanks to Allison for keeping things fresh and new on the Moonflower Art blog!

This has been a busy time for me with my jewelry business...Valentine's day. I had a lot of fun creating heart and love themed jewelry.

I also decided that I wanted to sell the barrettes that I make for Moonflower Art at The Muse. To do this, I thought that I needed some unique packaging that would also work as a display for the barrettes. So, I got out the sewing machine, a pair of scissors and my son's old jeans. I made a case for the barrette out of the old demin and a button cover with a photo transfer image that coordinates with the barrette.

Here is how they turned out:






Above, are photo's of the case & matching barrette, the back of the case and another case with the photo transfer button cover.

I am really excited about how they turned out and plan to make more hair barrette's with the demin cases for Moonflower Art on etsy.

I hope you all have a wonderfully creative day!

Stacie

Pincushions

For a while now I've been playing around with felt. You may remember sushi pieces earlier... that never actually came to fruition. So this morning I gave it a new try.
This time - MUSHROOMS!So here we are. I am going over to etsy to list this now! I plan on making several more this weekend. Mushrooms and other styles as well!
See you Soon!
-Allison

New Book Baubles!

Yesterday I said I wanted to make silver heart beaded bookmarks... baubles.
Well... I looked thru my stash and couldn't find any sterling silver hearts! Go figure...
Despite the minor setback, I made a few baubles...
the first reminds me of beach/pool reading. It is made with handmade paper beads (set in epoxy resin so they are glass like). Don't you just love how you can see the print?

and the second is romantic...
and motherly... (does that make sense?) I was thinking Mother's Day. beautiful glass beads and a fine braided cord make this one perfectly soft.

these will be on etsy as soon as I get finished here!
I think I am really looking forward to warmer spring weather. everything I am thinking of and making revolves around new growth! I can't wait to be able to spend some quiet moments outside breathing the NEW air in!

I hope you are having a great week. See you next week!
-Allison

Where has the time gone?

Wow... after a few snow delay days and "almost snow" snow days... it seems like forever since we got one solid day of crafting! And we are nearly done the first week of february. (and where is all the snow anyway? Certainly not in New Market, MD).
Tomorrow I will be concentrating on making LOVELY gifts. I'd love to put together several silver heart themed beaded book marks (baubles).
I will try to post a picture then!

Hope you are having a great week...
-Allison

Still Knitting!

OK guys...I can't seem to stop myself from knitting!! Must be the cold weather. I finished my linen colored icicle scarf & posted it on Moonflower Art last weekend. Here are some photo's of the finished product:

I loved how the fringe turned out. I used almost 200 Czech glass beads to add fun to the fringe. The weight of the bamboo and beaded fringe is great.

I discovered some really great books on knitting at the Frederick library. Everytime I go I seem to find more books! Here are a few that I particularly like if you're looking for some good knitting books:

Knit Scarves! by Candi Jensen

The Knitting Answer Book by Margaret Radcliffe

Knitting Beyond Scarves by Melissa Leapman's

Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson

Hope you find some of these books fun to look at. Here's a sneak peak at the Angel Hair scarf I'm working on now. I'm going to do a beaded fringe on this one too. I think that the beads really add a lot to the scarves. This scarf was worked in the seed stitch which really shows off the color.

Well, hope you all have a great day! Talk to you soon!

Stacie

I just love how Stacie's cozy Book Scarves came out. when she said book scarf... I wasn't sure what to expect. What a warm concept! I can just imagine the feel of it! She really does have some unique ideas...

As for me this week... mmmmm.... Just finishing up some vintage bottlecap magnets and scrabble pendants. And maybe dabbling in some more beaded bookmarks. I would love to make some keychains using the same concept. And more felted bookmarks. I love handmaking felt beads. (Once the beads are made, you can embellish them with tons of seed beads!)


It's snowing today... and there's no school! I love late mornings with the kids! I hear them rustling around now... so I better run!
have a great day!
-Allison

Book Scarfs are here!

I finished the book scarfs and I love them! Not only were they a blast to make they turned out great! What a great way to keep your book warm and cozy in between readings!

Look for the book scarfs on Moonflower Art! I should have them posted no later than Saturday. I made three with the journey charm to post on etsy.

Happy reading & knitting!

Stacie

New Felt Beaded Bookmarks

So I have been really into felting lately. Knitting and then felting, roving felt and even felt beads!
I really love the way it feels and the MANY things you can make. I love making maki sushi rolls (to eat of course) and so I thought I could use the same concept into making FELT MAKI SUSHI BEADS. Here's the bookmark I made this am. It's just a prototype. I am going to tweak it so it is perfectly FABULOUS!

I am taking Stacie's advice on stopping work 15 minutes before I have to. I think it really would relieve a lot of stress and force me to not rush the end of my projects. She mentioned to me, "how much more can you really get done in 15min?" I think she's right. So I, a true person who can not just sit with nothing moving in my hands, will give it a go!
By the way, last week Stacie had me and a couple friends over for a fun knitting day. It was LOADS of non-stress fun! A true playdate! Thank you ~ I can't wait til we do it again!

Can't wait to show you more beads soon... right now they are still sitting safely on my mind!
-Allison

Wrapped in Yarn

Good Morning!

I have been wrapped in yarn working on several projects. With the cold weather and early evenings it is just a perfect time for knitting.

I'm working on a beautiful white scarf that I'm knitting in a lace pattern. When I have completed the scarf, I'm going to add beaded fringe. The scarf should be complete by next week, so look for it on Moonflower Art.

Another project I'm working on are book scarfs! Use you're imagination!! You'll have to wait and see.

This year I'm determined not to rush around...so I've come up with a new rule for myself...always stop what I'm working on 15 minutes before I need to. I can't tell you what a difference it's made! Instead of working until the last second and feeling frazzled, I feel complete and relaxed. Give it a try and let me know if it works for you.

Enjoy your day!

Stacie

Some prelim views...

Here are some pics of preliminary steps when I make bottlecap art!
I start with clean, uncrimped bottlecaps. When they arrive they all have this rubber seal. That need to be removed!

This is what it looks like when it is removed.
Then it needs to be cleaned!
Here it is cleaned and pounded so the edges are turned inside out! A smooth finish!

Then comes the fun part! You cut out your image, seal both sides 3 or 4 times... (no air allowed!!!)
You paste your image in and then seal again!
Some of our caps are left at this stage because adding resin would change the look... too polished!

I made quite a few of these caps ready for sale soon!
There are several vintage ads...
and a few I collaged onto the ads!

Another project I have been working on...
scrabble resin pendants!

Now I just have to add the silver bails to the backs and they are ready to go!

Do you have any new projects you are working on?
-Allison

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope that everyone enjoyed their holiday break. I finally had the time to go through my studio and get rid of the old and organize the new!

Here are some photos of my new creative space!
This is my main work area. With the table moved this way, I have way more table space to work on. Also, I have room for other fellow artist's to come and share my work space.

This is my more industrial table space. I have my kiln here for firing PMC as well as some other electrical appliances I use to create my work.
This used to be a closed in closet. Now I have much more space for books, yarns, and paper's.




I also love to display other artist's work to inspire me. The first photo is a piece that Allison made me for Christmas. The inspirational sayings are great motivation for me!
The second is a piece created by my friend Hillary Banachowski. Check out the article about her in The Next 72 hours weekend section of the Frederick News Post today, Thursday, January 8, 2009. Hillary's new work is called "For the Fun of It" and is on display at the Muse in Frederick until January 31st. For more info check out The Muse's website The Muse.



I am excited to work on new jewelry projects and fun new pieces for Moonflower Art in my updated studio. I always feel more creative when I can work in a postive artistic work area.
Talk to you soon!
Stacie

Happy New Year 2009!!!

Happy January
and
Happy NEW YEAR!

After the nice long break... I'm so glad to be getting back into the groove again!
This week I've decided to focus on bottlecap collage pendants. Above just sealing images in, I want to add my own touches to each picture! I think I will experiment with microbeads, alternate colors and other mixed media!
I hope the end results have more of a touch of me in each one!

I will add posts along the way!

so this is it... the kids are back in school. Hubby is back at work and we are back in business!
Come visit us soon on etsy... new items posting weekly!

Merry Christmas!

Things I plan to do over the Holiday break...
- Organize my studio. Clean out the closet and inventory everything I have!
- Knit with the kids in front of the fire.
- Learn more about Adobe Photoshop. (so far I only know how to open it!)
- Spend tons of time with my sister and brother.
- and take time to GO & Dream about the New Year, make Wishes for my kids, and Adore everyone and everything around me.

Whatever you may celebrate, no matter how...
we wish you a very HAPPY HOLIDAY.
A sincere greeting to all of our friends, both old and new,
our families and customers (who we consider our friends!).

Hope your days are filled with great fun and laughter and
maybe a little glitter and glue!


SEE YOU IN 2009!

-Allison