Muse Showcase: Laura Carson

We are pleased to have Laura Carson as our March Muse! Laura is a fabulous mixed media artist and we look forward to her Muse posts. She presently teaches altered and collage art and is on Alpha Stamps' design team.

Normally, I would "formally" introduce our muse to you, but Laura has done such a great job of introducing herself, I am going to let her take it from here! You're going to love all her great art!

"I spent most of my career designing, building, and marketing computer software. After retiring, I needed a creative outlet. A few years ago I discovered mixed media collage and it’s been a love affair ever since.

I’ve taught classes in altered books, handmade books, collage art and mixed media art. I’ve designed in the past for Grafix and I am currently on the Alpha Stamps design team. I specialize in very intricate multi-layered and textured art; which I’ve christened as “organized clutter”.

To further continue my artistic journey I launched Artfully Musing, a blog where I share my art and the products and techniques I use. I also offer free images for download, loads of tutorials, and a monthly giveaway of my art.


Behind the Garden Wall

After a few years of making ATCs I decided to create slightly larger pieces. Now I let the image that inspires me dictate the size of the piece I create. Inspiration can come from any direction. One of the things I love using in my art are images of vintage jewelry.

Behind the Garden Wall

High Flyers – Altered Altoid’s Tin

Who can resist the circus? This was my first altered Altoid’s tin. I so enjoy working in 3 dimensions. With an Altoid’s tin there are so many surfaces and that adds to the fun.

Front View

Back View

High Flyers

Marie Antoinette Inspired Domino Book

One of the things I have recently fallen in love with is accordion folded domino books. There are just so many possibilities and they are such cute little things. To see a tutorial on how to make these and other accordion folded books checkout my blog.

Marie Antoinette Domino Book

Ship Ahoy

Many times I approach the design of a piece by “setting a scene”. I like to make you feel like you are there by adding dimension and movement. The inspiration for this piece was a vintage German scrap sailor. To give the feeling of a ship I create just the mast using a wooden skewer, toothpicks, string and jewelry clasps. The knots tied in the string are actual sailor’s knots. I added the flags to give the piece a sense of movement.

Ship Ahoy

Voyages Extraodinaires – Steampunk

Sometimes I feel like I create too many “pretty” pieces so I try to challenging myself to create something completely different. The inspiration for the piece started with the boy which was a free image from the Land of Nod Studios. I decided to send him on a trip and this steampunk piece is the end result.

Voyages Extraordinaires

Mermaid Garden

Mermaids are one of my favorite themes. To create the garden, I used images of vintage jewelry, seashells on wire, paper flowers and metal findings.

Mermaid Garden

Enchanted Witches Apothecary

Halloween art is so much fun. This is one of my very favorite pieces. The apothecary measures 15” wide x 13 ½” tall and is built out of foam core board. The feet are metal spiders. The black frame is an image of a picture frame. I had so much fun decorating each of the bottles. For stoppers I used sculls, marbles with eyes, pumpkins, drawer knobs, beads and charms.

Enchanted Witches Apothecary

Victorian Christmas Toy Shop

This was one of those projects that started small and just grew and grew and grew. I kept thinking “oh wouldn’t that look cool” or “I wonder if I could make that”. On my blog I share many of the techniques and products I used to create the toy shop.

Outside View

Inside View

Victorian Christmas Toy Shop

Altered Bottle

Altering bottles is one of my newest passions (or maybe my newest addiction). I’m not sure where passion ends and addiction begins. This is another one of those forms of art with endless possibilities.

Altered Bottle

Hopefully you can see from my art that I love dabbling in all sorts of mediums using a variety of materials. I figure if you can imagine it you can create it. I’m so excited to be the March Muse and I hope you will enjoy the tutorials I have planned for you."

We'd like to thank Laura for sharing her art with us today! To see more of her fabulous art, check out her blog - Artfully Musing. We look forward to being inspired by Laura this month! I know I already am!