THANK YOU!

You know who you are. All of you who have purchased Stitch Alchemy and all of you who have posted projects, reviews and comments or written to me directly. The book is ranked #1 in sewing, #1 in papercrafts and #1 in needlework on Amazon. Everyone over to my house for an icecream party!!!!! You deserve it. My heartfelt thanks for the wonderful reception. I am so honored.

Stitched Acrylic Paintings

My second round of acrylic paintings. I moved from stretched canvas to watercolor paper, which is less intimidating! When they were dry I stitched around the lines. Just for fun. I haven't really done much painting for painting's sake, so it makes a nice break.

Stitchpaper Express

I've been working with the Stitch Alchemy book study group on Mixed Media Art Friends and we're working on week 2,3,4, which is coloring our original paper/cloth or stitchpaper with inks, paints, stains and glazes. I've been so impressed with all the creativity and beautiful work everyone is doing. Here are my sheets of colored stitchpaper, ready for the next stage.

The Family That Stencils Together...

I was so impressed with these stencils my 16 year-old made--and the coolest part is that she stenciled me on her wall across from her bed. Isn't that sweet? One is me and the other is her with her sister. She made the stencils out of cardstock and the images are spray painted on black cardstock. She's one talented teen :)

The Best Part--Serendipity!

I've been making stitchpaper like mad and will be posting week 2 results for the book study. Does it sound crazy to be in a book study for the book you wrote? It's a great motivation for me to make art! Anyway, here's what's so fun about being creative. This is a sampling of the paper towels and newspapers under my work. I've ironed them out and they're ready for some other project. I especially like to wrap gifts in the inked paper towels and tie them up with lovely fibers. Both kinds of serendipity paper look nice wrapped around paper beads. Just wait til we start stamping and such!

Stitch Alchemy Book Study and a free gift!

I'm so excited that uber-artist Belinda Spiwak (aka crazyartgirl and alteredbelly) is running a book study on Stitch Alchemy, that I've decided to play along at her generous invitation. There is already a LOT of alchemy sizzling over on Mixed Media Art Friends. The group begins this week and they're creating stitchpaper like crazy. You can read Belinda's instructions or find mine on pages 14-18 of the book.

Here is the schedule for playing along:
Week of Oct. 4: Create basic fabric/paper (stitchpaper) p. 14-18
Week of Oct. 11: Inviting Juiciness p. 24-27
Week of Oct. 18 and 25: Coloring with Paints and Glazes p. 29-34
Week of Nov. 1: Metallics p. 35-38
Week of Nov. 8: Chalks and Markers p. 39, Reducing and Removing Color p. 40-41
Week of Nov. 15: Casting Chance p. 42-45
Week of Nov. 22: Texturizing p. 4-49, Masks and Resists p. 50-51
Week of Thanksgiving: art school is out for the holiday!
Week of Dec. 6: Printmaking Techniques p. 52-53
Week of Dec. 13: Effects p. 54-57
Week of Dec. 20: Crafted Whimsy p. 58-62, Journaling p. 63-64, Baubles etc. p. 64-65

I'm going to offer a gift to anyone who'd like to participate in this study. If you join the group and "add" yourself to the book study (just let the group know you're in), then post at least one picture of some stitchpaper/cloth-paper you've made or a technique you've tried from the book to the shared files, I'll mail you a little something from my studio. The enthusiasm is contagious. MMART Friends is a big Yahoo group who do all kinds of mixed media, so only those interested will be taking part in the Stitch Alchemy book study.

You can also sign up for a swap--we're trading good fortune birds, love dolls and some 6" squares of stitchpaper so far. Hosts/hostesses are welcome!

There's plenty of time to get involved. I've got some plain stitchpaper brewing up today and we'll be decorating it through the rest of the year, then trading projects at the first of the new year.

To get your giftie from me...join up and as soon as you've posted a pic of your work to the shared files, email me with your name and address at kellininaperkins on gmail. I'll be working along with the schedule and will mail out gifts as I finish them.