Storing Artwork (what do you plan for it series)

I've written a variety of posts about what I do with my art, including selling it, displaying it, submitting it and gifting it.  But, sometimes, there's nothing to do with it except store it for a while.  So, here's what I do.  I have a largish (16x12x6) sterlite container in which I put completed canvases and canvases in progress. It's on the left above, and looks like this from the top:

You can see that I wrap them up in nonstick paper and tend to pad with bubblewrap.  I also have two smaller sterlite containers.  Once contains small canvases and one contains minialbums.  Here are the top views:

Most of these pieces are available for sale, and I store them packaged for sale, with a price tag already on them.  I keep small pieces of completed art that I don't plan to sell in a different box:

How do you store your completed works of art?

Feedback Friday: altered books, collage sheets & art journals

A couple of posts lately have generated a few questions, so here are the answers!

Many of you commented on my heritage photos and use of photos in my art in general. I do not use original photos in any of my collages. I do use original photography in my other types of art work, which I posted about here, and in photo greeting cards, which I posted about here. Instead, I have created a whole bunch of collage sheets using original photos.  I make them in a very old fashioned way.  I arrange them onto a 8.5x11 sheet of paper, adhere with repositionable adhesive, and then take them to a copy store and have them color copied using a toner process to make multiple copies.  I know I should just learn how to scan and print at home, or at least scan and manipulate at home, but I don't know how and it's just not a big priority for me right now. So, I go old school.  I have three types of collage sheets:  those created with heritage photos (the two in the upper left of the photo above); those created with current photos (see the travel ones in the bottom row); and those created with ephemera (the two sheets on the right).  I sell the sheets at craft fairs and would sell them online, if I ever got my act together to open an etsy store. I love using my own images in my art because it makes it feel like the art is more of my own total creation. Although I use rubber stamps and other clip art/collage sheets sometimes, those pieces don't feel as totally my own as when I use my own collage/photography.  Using my own collage sheets also makes  my art more original because these images aren't generally available.  Finally, by repeatedly using certain images, I continue to create my own style and look. 


Deb asked about my art journal pages and where I store them.  Basically, I create them in bound journals and they just stay there.  My every-day art diary pages are done in these small (6x9) journals:

The page on the left is about how dd Clara leaves all her hair supplies, make up and clothes all over the house  (LOL!).  The page on the right is a completed background.  I usually have a bunch of completed backgrounds in my art journals, to jump start a journaling session. I also find creating backgrounds to be a relaxing and satisfying bit of creative time.
When I feel like using a big format, I used these spiral bound watercolor paper pads:

Finally, many of you asked about the girls altering book groups, which I posted about here.  The group is a local group - most of us met through our membership in Club Scrap.  As we completed our pages, we sent them to our Queen Bee.  Once we are done with all our pages (next month), we will all get together and people will get to choose one page from each theme.  You can then bind them yourself.  Each page has been punched with three aligned holes, so I'm just going to create a cover and bind them with a big d-ring.
Coming tomorrow - more feedback; this time on storage!

A Tribute to Mom (Art Journal Page)

I did this on Mother's Day.  It's a response to the Creative Therapy Prompt "Honor a Family Member."  The idea for the structure came from an article in the March/April 2010 Cloth Paper Scissors magazine called "Graffiti paper quilts" by Catherine Nicholls.  It didn't turn quite how I had envisioned it, but I think there's still potential in the idea of using a collage of pictures as a background.  I think I'll keep working with it and next time not be so afraid about covering up the background images.  As it is, I do like the sentiment and the tribute to my mom who has been gone for over five years and was truly an amazing woman who taught me so much.

Let's Talk Kit Clubs (Swatch Books)

For the last nine years, I've been a member of Club Scrap, one of (if not the) original scrapbook kit clubs.  Besides having original, very high quality paper and designs, they are always a little ahead of the curve on techniques.  From the beginning, they offered stamps and stencils are part of their kits. Their customer service is amazing, and the owners (Tricia and Dinah) make you feel like they know you, even if they have thousands of members all around the world. They offer a variety of different levels and kits, and I've tried lots of different variations over the last decade.  But I've never seriously considered dropping my subscription.  I'm a very happy customer!

Club Scrap often includes little projects and minialbums in their kits. Sometimes I put them together right away, but sometimes I put them into a hatbox for later. Well, my unfinished projects hatbox is currently overflowing, so I pulled out a few projects to work on this week.  I made these two little swatch  books this afternoon, and it was such a nice feeling of accomplishment.  Not sure what I'll do with the top one (decorated with the Club Scrap Gratitude collection), but I'm going to use the second one (decorated with the Club Scrap Memoirs collection) to keep a list of art ideas!

Are you a member of any kit clubs?  What has been your experience with them?  I'd love to hear.

Happy Birthday SCD!

One of my favorite challenge sites, "Something Completely Different" is having a birthday this month with lots of prizes!  They select one topic each month and then each week have a different theme.  This month's topic is "Twinchies" (2x2 inch square creations), and the first week's theme is butterflies.  So, here's my butterfly twinchie!  Its base is plaster spritzed with Color Wash.  I added clipart, tiny flower brads and some matting (still just 2x2)!  
I love a good challenge site, sites with prizes and prizes full of information.  Check out the cricut giveaway and coupons at Obsessed with Scrapping. I am also loving a photography site called Digital Photography School because of the amount of information it has.
Do you have any favorite challenge sites or information sites to share?

4 People 12 Times (plus lots of other pre-class photos)

Photographer Tara Whitney has challenged her family (and others) to pose for a family snapshot/portrait once each month for a year.  You can read about it and see her pictures here.  I've been wanting to join in, and Mother's Day seemed like the perfect day to start since each Mother's Day all I ask for from the kids is to let me take a good portrait of them and for them to wash/detail my car.  This year, I added participating in the "4 people 12 times" project.  It's hard for them to refuse me on Mother's Day.  So, here we are, in our living room on May 9, 2010.  Henry is 15; Clara (almost 12) insisted on holding her cat J.J.; Paul had to sit to fit in the frame; and I managed to get in the shot, courtesy of the self-timer.  I just used auto mode.
It was also a good to do it because I'm knee deep in pre-work for the Get Out of Auto Mode class I'm taking at Big Picture Scrapbooks. We are to take ten photos of specific things, and I thought my blog was a good place to store them.  The first assignment is a group portrait (above, auto mode, with timer).
Second picture is someone you love.  Here's two pictures of my son Henry (each taken in auto and one changed to black and white. I tried to take them in programmed mode to reset the white balance, but I had trouble getting the lighting right and he started to get impatient). The first one will be my Mother's Day Portrait of him from this year:

 Two people you love (DH Paul and DD Clara, shot in auto; note I made Paul change his shirt before I took the group portrait because the stripes were all wonky):

A flower in your yard (I shot some lavender in portrait mode):

A candid photo (the fans at Friday's baseball game, taken in sports mode):

Your favorite food (I took a picture of sushi on auto mode):

A self-portrait (taken in auto mode):

A favorite object in your home ( I chose my jewelery and had to work with my camera to get a decent shot. I put it in program mode to set the white balance to"flash"; I chose ISO 400 and the camera set 1/60th and F/4.8):

A person in action (Henry, shot in sports mode):

a landscape picture (taken in programmed mode, with WB set to bright sun and ISO to 800; camera set 1/640 and f/13).

Oh, and just for kicks, here's the portrait I took of Clara for Mother's Day:

Thanks for looking!

What makes you a thoroughly modern woman?

Mel is organizing blog friends to complete the free BPS class "All About Me" as a group, and I've joined the fun!  Here's the lid of the box which will house my accordion album.  The box is chipboard, painted antique white and embellished with ribbon and paper from the Studio 45 Domestic Goddess line. 
My album is all about me as a throughly modern woman.  I want to focus on ideas of femininity and what in means to be a woman in today's world. 
What pictures would you take to focus on what it means to be a throughly modern woman?  All thoughts and ideas welcome!