Cards As Art
Argenta's Third Friday Art Walk
I live in an Historic Neighborhood (we're on the National Historic Register and everything!) called Argenta. Argenta used to be the name of the city, well, it's actually a long confusing tale but when we eventually emancipated ourselves from the City of Little Rock, we kept our Ward name of Argenta (because evidently there were silver mines somewhere north of us?). Then the city decided that calling ourselves North Little Rock was better "advertising" so we changed our name. Years passed, crime came to downtown, the few remaining residents in the neighborhoods near downtown decided to take back their neighborhood. By having the neighborhood declared an historic district they could get funding to tear down the totally decrepit houses and rebuild to historic guidelines the fixable ones. Gentrification happened...fast forward 15 years and there's now a third Friday Art Walk in Argenta...an area where 20 years ago people wouldn't have walked on the street let alone opened their doors to people to just wander in to look at art!
There is an Innovation Hub in the commercial part of the neighborhood that now hosts people who have art to sell but not permanent store fronts. These people used to sit at tables along the sidewalk, but on rainy, hot, or cold evenings that had a difficult time getting anyone to stop by; this is Arkansas so we have a lot of all of those evenings! So now the Innovation Hub hosts them and they ALWAYS have good weather!
Anyway...enter Spread Joy Stamping stage right. We had an initial meeting to form a merchants committee of the Downtown Council. They kindly included everyone who wanted to be included, down to small business owners like me! The meeting was at the Innovation Hub. We introduced ourselves and told about our business, what we did, and what we could or wanted to offer. After the meeting one of the women who runs the Innovation Hub asked me to have a table at Art Walk! When I found out that they had all of the tables inside (no cards blowing around and down the street!) I said yes! I consider my cards art; I hope other people do too! And I hope I find some like minded people who want to come stamp with me!
I have spent the last week and a half getting ready. I am only taking spectacular cards with me. I'd rather have a few amazing cards that a whole bunch of average cards! I would love to find people who want me to teach them what I do. People who want to spend a little time at the beginning learning to think like I do when I'm designing a card, but then they're set free to design and create on their own!
So here are a few of the things I am taking with me.
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| The Beautiful Friendship Set is one of my new favorites! I'm pretty sure that you can't mess up with this set. |
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| I decided to teach a fancy "cut" card at my card class this month. I liked the way it turned out so much that I made a few more! |
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| This card was made for a challenge group. I was CASEing a gift bag and turning it into a card. I embossed the dandelions with silver stampin' emboss powder, only it wasn't JUST silver. At some point it seems that gold was added to it, so now it looks kind of like Mercury Gass. |
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| I actually borrowed this Pretty Pavilion Stamp Set and Dies from one of my customers. She ordered it at my June Card Class and has picked it up yet, so I told her that as rent I was going to use it! She didn't mind (I actually asked permission!) I think the little birds of happiness carrying the banner are just too cute! |
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| The Perennial Essence Suite is the first thing I picked out from the Annual Catalog and it is still one of my favorites! The Designer Series Paper is gorgeous and all of the stamps are so pretty and useful. |
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| I just realized that EVERY stamp set is my favorite because this one, Winds of Change, is also my favorite! I love these tulips! And the sentiments in the set coordinate perfectly with the stamps! |
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| This card was fun! I cut out a bunch of the magnolia outline die cuts and glued them on a piece of whisper white card stock to make the background. Then I used Gold Stampin' Emboss powder to emboss the small magnolia flower from the Magnolia Blooms Stamp Set and the Wedding Sentiment from the Woven Heirlooms stamp set. I colored the magnolia with touches of Stampin' Blends, added everything to the card, and then added a bow from the Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon. |
Joyful Stamping,
Elizabeth
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