One of the art groups I belong to... The Latest Trends in Mixed Media Art... has a monthly art challenge sponsored by a member of our group, Inka of Inkastamps. The first ten people to sign up receive a stamp, embellishment and a piece of cardstock from her in the mail. Our challenge is to create a card that incorporates the stamp and the embellishment. As you can imagine, you have to act fast once the challenge is announced. I was quick as a wink that morning and got my name on the list just in time!
FAST FORWARD....
The package from Inka arrived one sunny morning and when I opened it, out tumbled a pretty little flower embellishment, a cute little angel stamp, a piece of folded cardstock and a packet square of chocolate. I set it on my art table and that evening I made a remark to my husband about receiving the package and in particular about the square of chocolate. After all it was Giradelli which I love and is hard to get in Canada... I buy Giradelli chocolate chips every time I go to the U.S... and the look at on the custom guy's face when he asks what I have purchased is quite amusing.
Now this being my first time in this challenge, I thought the chocolate was an embellishment I was to use in or on my card. It seemed rather unusual, but hey we mixed media types use all types of crazy stuff in our art. My husband, who is rather used to "weird" stuff in my art and who is not as big a chocolate lover as I am, looked up from his book in which his nose was buried and mumbled something like... "Oh, that's nice dear." -- GIGGLE, GIGGLE --
Well sometime after I had called it a day and gone to bed, Mr., who likes to read until his eyes pop out, scarfed the chocolate (midnight munchies??? perhaps). Of course I didn't discover that it was missing until the next morning when I went looking for it! I knew I hadn't moved it or eaten it the night before, so before he went to work that day, I casually asked him if he had seen it. He gave me this totally sheepish look and said, "I ate it last night after you went to bed." The first words that shot out of my mouth were: "Oh my God, you ate my embellishment!"
Needless to say, the look on his face was priceless! He started apologizing every which way from Sunday. Now being a "fixer" (as most men are wont to be), he immediately started throwing out ideas about how he could replace the chocolate ... even making the offer to place an order with Giradelli on the web.
It was pretty funny... I let him swing in the wind for about 10 minutes and then told him that I would just have to do the card without it! Ah, but nice man, he was going to make good on this one. That evening he arrived home with chocolate from Roger's Chocolate in downtown Victoria. Now if you have never had Rogers Chocolate, I can tell you it is to die for... it melts in your mouth and is famous in Canada as the BEST.
Aided by Rogers chocolate, that evening I finished ten little art quote cards with the stamp and made a two tiered folder to hold them. All the while of course... I hoped no one would notice that chocolate wasn't included! It was only later, when the other ladies in the challenge began posting their creations and I didn't see any chocolate on their cards that I realized it was a goodie for me! WHEW!!!
I won the art partner challenge that month. My reward was a number of new stamps, some optical lenses to add to my stash of "stuff" and Inka published a photo of it on her site
For your viewing pleasure...here is a photo of one of the cards, followed by the quotes and below the quotes the cardholder:
"Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what you don't know." Rembrandt
"In our life there is a single colour which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the colour of love." Chagall
"The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery." Francis Bacon
"A work of art that did not begin in the emotion is not art." Cezanne
"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." Edgar Degas
"A line is a dot that went for a walk." Paul Klee
"Great art picks up where nature ends." Chagall
"Have no fear of perfection. You'll never reach it." Dali
"Creativity takes courage" - Matisse
"Impressionism is the newspaper of the soul" - Matisse
"Colour is my day long obsession, joy and torment." Monet
"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art." da Vinci
Have a delightful day... and think chocolate!
Sharon