Wreath ATC's

Isn't it awesome how a walk around a craft store can be so very inspiring? I find my city rather lacking when it comes to craft stores. However, we do have a large Michael's, and they may be overpriced but they usually end up having the basics that i need. Maybe this lack of adequate craft stores is why i am a mixed media artist who uses odd materials from all over the place? That or maybe i just can't commit to anything hahaha.

Well tried out another new media for my atc's this week. Wreath making! I was out for a wander through my local Michael's, and i espied these totally awesome stick wreaths in the floral aisle. Unfortunately they were slightly too big for atc's (maybe 5 inches diameter?) They looked really neat... all naturalistic and such. I looked at them and thought 'i could do something like that'.



So i wandered through my local park and grabbed some dry twigs (not that hard to find in the dead of a prarie, snowy winter). Weaved together with wire, decorated with natural papers, twine and lace, with little paper roses... I am truly quite pleased with the result :)

Michael's may not be the best craft store there is out there, but it certainly has no lack of inspiration. I love wandering down every aisle of the store, never skipping a one. (Ok, i cheated and skipped the knitting aisles. You caught me.) And i secretly bring my camera with me and take pictures of the really inspirational things. Those 'I could totally do that myself' things that are so cool. My favorite two from that trip were the wreath and some awesomely coloured sea shells. I have a couple handfulls from trips to Mexico, so i totally tried it out. While mine did not turn out as cool as theirs did, it sure was fun to try :) Same with the wreath. If i was looking for a cleaner, more pro looking project, i'd just buy it. But that's totally not what i am looking for, and i think it kind of defeats the purpose of this completely. Really, if i had simply bought the wreath, and then glued two things to it and wired it to a card.... is that really art? Could i actually take credit for that? I think not. It would be like sticking a bunch of pre-done stickers on a card and calling it 'art'. Not in my books :)