Muse Showcase: Helga Strauss of ArtChix Studio

We are delighted to welcome Helga Strauss, ArtChix Studio owner, as our fabulous February Muse! Helga has been crafting for 15 years and her art ranges from mixed media to collage art to jewelry. You'll see Helga's amazing art throughout this post and, as Helga was kind enough to provide them, personal notes about each piece!

Her artwork has been seen in such publications as Somerset Studio, The Crafter's Devotional by Barbara Call, Altered Books, Collaborative Journals, and Other Adventures in Bookmaking by Holly Harrison, Altered Art Books by Kerrie Carbary, A Somerset Wedding and The Studio Zine.

Altered Book Collage
"Helga: I made these altered book pages to celebrate ARTchix Studio's
10 year anniversary. You can see step-by-step photos on how I made
them on my blog. I also offered them as a free digital download at
the time and asked readers to make something with it. You can
see all of the super cool things they made here."

She also designs creative, unique art supplies and write tutorials and classes for her own online shop: ARTchix Studio. For several years, Helga published a zine called ARTitude Zine with a dear friend.

Now, we'll let Helga tell you a little bit about herself.

I got into paper arts about 15 years ago when my Mom took me to a rubber stamp class at Stampstruck in Medford, Oregon. It was love at first stamp! I started joining swaps online and fell in love with making and receiving beautiful art in the mail. I loved it so much that I began hosting swaps of my own.

Shrinky Dinks
"Helga:Want to shine new light on your rubber stamps? Use them to make
shrinky dink charms! I made hundreds as special gifts for my customers
and I still can't get over how fun they are to make. Some of my favorite
shrinky dinks were made with stamps from Catslife Press."

In my swap art, I couldn't resist copying old postcards from my collection (my Mom and I collected vintage postcards together for years) and adding them to my tags and ATCs.

ATC Triptych
Helga: "I'm always looking for unique ways
to display my collections. That's why I
designed these cool shrines."

Swappers started asking me where I got my images so I learned a few Photoshop basics and designed my first 2 collage sheets. I took them with me to a big rubber stamping convention in Cleveland, Ohio, and asked attendees if they would be interested in purchasing sheets like these. The response was extremely positive so with the help of my Mom, we learned how to make a website and ARTchix Studio was born. I'm proud and thankful to say that I've had my little business for over 10 years now.

Pink and Gold Grid
Helga: "I have a drawer in my art desk that's just for
paper scraps. I have a hard time throwing anything away.
What do I do with all of those tiny scraps? Why, I make
colorful grids like this!"

My favorite medium is paper collage. I love to layer colorful papers and images and make bright, uplifting art.

Wood Houses
Helga: "I can't get enough of these little wood houses!
They're so fun to collage, paint and stamp! There's a fun
tutorial on my website."

I also love to add recycled papers and packaging into my art. There's something about turning trash into treasure that really makes my heart sing.

Flags with Shrinky Dinks
Helga: "After making all of those shrinky dink charms,
I collaged these flags and sewed them on, so fun!

I have a HUGE collection of rubber stamps. But now that paper collage is my main creative outlet, I find that I only seem to use my backgrounds, alphabets, numbers and labels rubber stamps.

Rubber Stamped Earrings
Helga: "I recently designed a whole jewelry supply line for
ARTchix out of sustainable wood. Ah, how wonderful it is
to rubber stamp on wood! I made these earrings by rubber stamping
onto wood tags with Staz On ink and then painting
them with purple acrylic paint."

We'd like to thank Helga for joining us this month and sharing her fabulous art!

Eco Houses with Charms
Helga: Last Autumn, I made over 100 fun charms as special
gifts for my customers. I needed to package them
in a creaive way so I rubber stamped our
Mini Eco Houses and tied the charms to them.

To see more of Helga's art, visit her blog - My ARTistic Life or check out her YouTube Channel. To visit her store, go to ArtChix Studio.

All artwork in this post by Helga Strauss of ArtChix Studio.