Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, Crafty Chica is posting tutorials for 24 creative re-use projects....one every hour. The spectacular ideas she's posted so far include these great ribbon picture frames and mixed media wind chimes.

A Flower Collage

Hope you are all having a good day. Since it's gloomy and rainy out here, I thought I'd share a few pictures I took with my camera phone a week ago, when I believed it was actually Spring.

And I thought I'd use the opportunity to point out that using Picasa, Photoshop, or some other photo editing device, you can easily and cheaply make some simple art with just a digital camera and a little cash for prints. Many photo editing programs will even make a collage (like the one above) for you with the click of a button.

Craft Fail

Craft Fail is a new blog where people can post their craft ideas gone wrong (found via Craftzine). Sounds pretty entertaining to me. Always love to see what others are doing in the craft/diy world.

Which reminds me, if any readers here have completed (or not) craft/art projects that you'd like to share, I'd love to post them on here. Also, feel free to send in sustainable design projects (ie. recycling old objects for craft, repurposing stuff that's no longer useful, or fixing up something instead of throwing it away).

You can email me at designphoenixblog at gmail dot com (see the new link on the right).

Business Card Artwork

Whether you've been laid off in this horrible recession or you just have a lot of used office supplies hanging around, here's one idea for an alternative use for business cards:  stick 'em together and make a quick and easy art project.  (If you're interested, I previously posted about using business cards to make a nice origami-style box).

All I did was put masking tape on the back, so that they formed a single sheet.  Masking tape or painter's tape works well because it comes off later.  They don't need to be perfectly aligned.

Then I made my drawing.  I used only office supplies on hand (permanent markers and highlighters).

Last step was to remove the tape.  You could keep it together for a textured look.  Or you could mount them on some other paper with space in between.  Another option would be to hang each piece on the wall separately.  Or how about using it as a simple puzzle?  Anyone have other ideas?  I haven't decided what to do with my little masterpiece yet.

Yet Another Painting

Another of my adventures with acrylics.  This one is a mandala.  I tried several things, scraped them off or painted over them and started again.  This was a very fun painting to make.

My crappy photograph makes it hard to see this, but it's sort of textured.  You'll have to come to my home exhibit to see it properly! Ha.

Junk Mail Art Tutorial

Even if you sign up for those nice services to limit the amount of junk mail you get, it's still nearly impossible to avoid getting some unwanted mail.  So I thought this art project from re-nest was a nice idea.  The post even includes a nice step-by-step tutorial in case you want to replicate it.
 

However you feel about the outcome of the election (you know how I feel), these designs from Jeff Domke are amazing.  You can download his font of 24 Obama-inspired dingbats for free! (via How About Orange)

World of Wearable Art

You guys know how much I love art involving textiles. These awesome pieces are just some of the winners of the World of Wearable Art competition. Please go look at the rest. So happy. (via Craftzine)

Borrowed Art

I am soooooo jealous.  Cal (aka UC Berkeley), my very own alma mater, has started a program that allows students to check out framed original art from the library for up to a year.  Students can now decorate their dorm rooms for free with art from a collection that includes

"more than 700 paintings, etchings, lithographs and engravings by artists including 20th century French Cubist Georges Braque, Surrealist Max Ernst, English satirist William Hogarth and contemporary local artists."

Why, oh why, didn't they have this when I was there?????