Bad blogger!

So sorry...I really have meant to get over here to post again before now. I have no excuse other than I'm having too much fun creating and too little time to do it in. Same as everyone else this time of year.

I think I will suspend displaying journal pages for now until after the holidays or until I get more time. I have to scan those pages in and edit them, and I'm not feeling the love for doing that right now.

So, let me catch you up on what else I've been making.

First, some cards I have made using sketches from my Stampers Corner yahoo group:

Sketch 193 - Scrapworks paper, some rub-ons (mfr unknown), Coluzzle frame template and deco scissors:

Sketch 185 - using various papers in my scraps stash, a cat face diecut, some vellum stamped on the back with background stamps, deco scissors and a border punch. I cut the text bubbles out from birthday-themed scrapbook paper. My Sharpie paint pen provided the white outlining.

Sketch 198 - K&Company Blue Awning collection papers and embellies all the way on this card. Well, except for Basic Grey "Mom" rub-on, My Mind's Eye crown rub-on (that I gel-penned to make it a matching blue shade before blinging it with Stickles), and a Technique Tuesday scallop circle chipboard piece that I inked all over with chalk inks. Heavy distressing and chalk-inking of all paper edges. The card base is bling shimmer cardstock.

Sketch 191 - Finally, Missy's Christmas card to display in her apartment. I got to use my Labels Eight Mega-Nestabilities and my QK Eliza alpha dies for the text. Card base is bling shimmer cardstock. Felt snowflake lace by Queen and Co. was added underneath paper and then cut outs from it embellish the card. SandyLion papers and Cinderella image. I used eyelet snaps on the cutout snowflakes so that prongs would not show.

Happy December!

Got your jogging suits ready to wear? It's run, not walk, from now on.

Here's the last month I'm doing in this format. There are so many ways to do calendars. I've already participated in 2 groups, so I have 2 wall calendars.

Here's my GPP Street team challenge entry for November...thank goodness for me that she made it due Dec. 1st! I got to play. The challenge was to journal about Signs you get.

I had the hardest time with this one. I've never before spoken about what I wrote because I've actually always thought I might be just imagining things. But so many people have them and share it, so I've been embraced and accepting mine more lately.

It was a really pretty page before I wrote on it. Wish now I'd typed out the words and cut strips. I have a real tough time writing on Portfolios that I layer on thickly. Way too waxy. But art wise, it's a cool effect. How to decide? ;-))

It's a Great and Grateful Day

Happy Thanksgiving to you and me, dear readers.

I am so very blessed to have you in my life...you who stop by and visit to see what's up, who have been so loyal and giving with your time in the past, the present and the future.

I saved this Harvest 4x6 card to show today because it kind of signifies my art and life. First the center image was printed when my magenta ink was too low, so I took the opportunity to color it with my markers. My life is all about making lemonade out of lemons, and my art is likewise imperfectly blessed.

The card is layered with scrapbook paper, die cuts and shaped with deco scissors, three examples of the sort-of-less-than-respectable tools in mixed media art that often are my staples. The elements are not chosen specifically for the art; rather, they are scraps that challenge me to make art out of them, something I do 90% of the time with so many leftover supplies. Finally there's a gorgeous texture (that you can see in real life if not on screen) of the cranberry doily cut-out that is distress spray-inked, that is also something I love to add to my art.

I have now been faithful in my low carb dieting for one week and have lost 8 pounds, which makes me happy and motivated to continue. My arthritis pain is still there in my hip as a constant reminder. But I've been *going rogue* with it, refusing to let it get to me and using it as a motivation to eat right and move, stretch and posturize constantly to cope with it. The flu is long gone now, praise be, and my energy levels are back to normal. I have been focussing on getting plenty of rest, fluids and non-drama daily life, not sweating the small stuff.

One important thing that's helped me do this successfully has been making my art. The other important thing has been staying in touch with my loved ones more than normal, even our Reggie dog, who has happily lapped up more attention and treats. But as for my arting, when my pain has been at its worst, I've been creating, creating, creating. It has been a wonderful therapy for me to escape into. I always say art is my therapy, and that has never been more true.

Now, on to what I promised...A Dozen Augusts. Have you ever looked through Traci Bautista's book Collage Unleashed? I highly, highly recommend it as a reference and lab experiment book in mixed media. I am in a yahoo group of the same name that I think Traci started and still ever occasionally pops in to post a message to. There are so many fun, funky and messy techniques in the book, and it naturally lends itself to loyal fans, some of whom are members of my group. (More later on about a member who makes the most gorgeous stamped and painted backgrounds on deli paper and who inspired me to buy a huge box of deli paper sheets from my local Sams Club...it's a 2010 project for sure).

Anyway, the CU group had a calendar swap I participated in. We each took a month and made 12-8"x10" calendars using one or more techniques in the book. Well, you guessed it. My month was August, hence *A Dozen Augusts*. While I printed out and adhered the same exact calendar grid on each page, I colored and collaged each page differently. I tried to use specific techniques of Traci's, and I did sometimes, but all in all I'd have to say that I turned to the book often for inspiration to go my own way a bit. You who know me know that is very normal, hehe.

So, here we go. I'm going to show you all twelve of my August pages as small images that you can click on to get a larger view. I hope you do, because I put a lot of depth and texture you won't see otherwise. I'll just show all of them and then discuss a little afterwards:

I didn't record exactly what I did on what page, but each page was started with a base color of either acrylic paint, watersoluble oil pastels or watercolor, and sometimes a combination. Then, stamping with foam and rubber/clear stamps using acrylics and/or ink. Then the final layers of collage, stencilling, illustration, or doodling. I used gel pens, markers, colored pencils, whatever I felt like.

I had a collection of ancient Urban Lilly flower embellies that I'd decided to use (because you know that my art is always defined by what supplies I've decided to try to use up), so that became my motif, but I also tried my hand at drawing one of Traci's signature Glam Girl faces (not on these, but on one of the cover pages that I also made...those I will show in a later post) and one of her doodle flowers. I'm very proud of having overcome my nervousness and inner critic to just go for it.

I also enjoyed using one of my new Coffee Brak stencils I'd ordered from Ginny's Small Studio Emporium. I'd taken the time to coat each side of the stencil with Diamond Glaze prior to using and I am so glad I did. The stencil is made of oil board and I used to have an oil board stencil years ago. It lasted a while, but eventually broke down from repeatedly soaking up paint along the inner edges, and so far I think that the Diamond Glaze will prolong the lives of my stencils. Coating both sides makes it lay flat and not warp, and the wet media does not soak in one bit. It's like it makes it waterproof, which was my objective.

So, anyway, what is your favorite page? I have to confess, I cannot answer that for myself. I have too many wonderful memories of creating each page, so they are all special to me. I'm as equally proud of my stencilling as I am of my drawing as I am of my collage layouting as I am of my stamping, etc etc etc. All I know is, getting inspiration from Traci's book and then attempting my own lab experiments was a wonderfully freeing and creative endeavor, and my only complaint was that it's so dang messy. But everything has a downside and I'm a little anal about mess, anyway. If you are looking for a book to help you break free and just be funky in your art, this book is it. I only cracked the surface of techniques offered. I could probably do 12 of each month and not do them all.

I hope everyone has a great and grateful Thanksgiving, and if you are doing the traditional Black Friday crowd crunching, please be safe and try not to spend what you don't have!   ~~ xoxo

Doing better, still creating

While I don't think that my recent increase in hip pain is going to go away, the good news is that I am learning to cope with it and am not letting it stop me from making stuff. In fact, I've been turning to my arts n crafts when the pain has been at its worst, because it's impossible to sleep or do anything else.

~~4x6 artist postcard made in October~~

I'm still finding art in my computer folders that I haven't uploaded here. This post card is one of them. I really liked how this turned out. I got to use up some brads, eyelets, ribbon, fibers, and stickers, as well as older papers. I also used my watersoluble oil pastels on the background cardstock and one of my border punches. To me, these are the colors of Autumn. Those of you who get to experience a true Autumn are lucky indeed. I have my imagination, so I put it into my art.

~~*almost daily* journal page from march 21~~

Still catching up showing you art journaling from my *almost daily* journal. A page to record the few random things going on back then when I created this.

~~*heal* atc made for a sick friend~~

This was made just with the bits n bobs on my creating table. I have to say, I'm getting better at throwing away scraps of a certain size or smaller. It feels like a victory to me, no matter how trivial.

In my next blog entry, I'm going to begin a little series tentatively titled A Dozen Augusts. Are you intrigued, curious or confused? Stay tuned...

The art must go on

Hello, dear readers. Well, I'm recovering steadily from the flu, but now have an equally miserable affliction: something is going on inside my left hip joint that has taken my body hostage. Think nerve centers and weight-bearing. It feels as if there is a catch in that joint, where bones is rubbing bone with some nerves being caught in the crossfire. Not only are jolting waves of pain greeting the area each time I step down on my left foot, there is likewise a painful feeling of *fixing to break* at the slight twist or mis-step. In other words, if I move my body wrong (and there is no chart showing me right or wrong), I get this awful pain and feeling I'm about to break something.

Tonight I felt well enough to try to post. Now, as I write, that's beginning to disappear and pain is taking its place. So, I think I will try this again tomorrow, because you know I have art to upload because I'm always behind in displaying it.

Oh, Poo! Flu Redux :-((

redux: adjective meaning "brought back, restored" (from the Latin reducere - bring back)

Sweet Mother of Mercy, have you none for moi? Yes, the flu just will not leave our house! Of course, I could have just never gotten over it the first time, but at any rate I have had a relapse. The Hubster swears he's gonna kill me if he gets hit with it again, so please pray for me cuz it doesn't look good for him, either.


Actually, I'm not dying or anything, but I thought I was going to have to spend my entire waking hours yesterday sitting in the bathroom (you get my drift, right?). And my fever won't completely go away. And did I mention that I'm reeeaaalllyyyy tired of all this? LOL, sounds like a good excuse to change the subject, so without further ado, a little art...

I made this 4x6 art card for a cigar band label swap that went up in smoke got cancelled, but it caught the eye of Jodi from The Creative Jar flickr group, and

http://www.thecreativejar.com/

By the way, I learned about it from Google Alerts. Remember when Marah Johnson saw my atc? I signed up for it once Linda explained it to me. That thing is pretty cool. Anyway, thanks again, Jodi! If you have your art on flickr, then join her group by the same name.

xxx

Here's the next page in my *Almost Daily* art journal, from March:

It has been so long since I did this one that I can't even remember what supplies I used, but I do remember that I had a lot of fun making it!

xxx

I also had lots of vintage fun creating this Christmas-themed 4x6 card:

Okay, true story: I was trying to come up with a title and text to use for this Victorian scrap Santa. I measured the space where the button letters are on the left and thought Kris Kringle would go perfectly, but I didn't know much about him except he was in Miracle on 34th Street. So I looked him up online and learned quite a lot about the different Christmas traditions in other countries.

And in some kind of synchronicity moment, I read that in the northern European countries Kris was supposed to visit homes with a tree and he climbed through an open window. And as you can see, my Kris is holding a tree! So of course, I could not name it anything else. I just love when stuff like that happens...

xxx

Finally, I want to share my progress on my Taking Flight Whispers journal.

In this photo, you can see my original sketch, and then the re-sketch onto the front of the journal. No, I did not trace it on there. I re-sketched it, so the journal face looks a bit different. I almost had a cow while doing this, for fear the journal face would suck, but I think I lucked out. Different but good as well. I am pleased with both faces.

The whiteness of the hair is a coat of gesso, and you can barely see that I've colored in her complexion with Shiva oil paint stix. Very creamy. I do not care much for working in oils, so my Shivas may not get used often. But it was an adventure and it does do a good job on skin. Let's see, that's gesso on the bottom, then re-sketched, then white Shiva, then yellow ochre and burnt sienna dotted on and blended with my finger and a small lip brush, then raw umber dotted on and blended in for shadowing. I was timid and didn't use as much as I should. Something stopped me for fear of screwing up. Or else, I saw I was on the verge of creating something lovely and was afraid I'd screw up.

I do that a lot, do you? Seriously, I do it A LOT.

No, still not finished, but you know what? It will be done when it's done. Not gonna stress. Not like I'm sitting around eating bon-bons otherwise. Oh, gawd, I WISH. Anyway, in case something falls on it and ruins it, I did want to capture the loveliness while it still exists, lolol.

Over the Flu Hump

I'm doing better, finally. Since I last posted, The Hubster came down with it, too. He even took a day off work, which is shocking in itself if you know him. I think he had perfect attendance grades 4 through 12 (grades 1-3 had a few days of absence due to mumps, measles and chicken pox, or he'd have had perfect attendance there, too). Anyway, he's back at it and recovering slowly but surely as well.

Oh, where to start catching up? Ah, oldest first. Here's my next art journal page, back in March (looks Halloween-ish, doesn't it? It's the Marah Johnson skull rub-ons):

The rest of today's photos are creations made last month. Here is a 4x6 artist postcard. I do not know what came over me to draw this...acute bravery, I guess (my courage isn't cute, just strong hehe). I guess it was time for me to play with the shabby whimsical portraits I've been learning to draw in Suziblu's class.

I call it Jane's New Dress because it looks like she's modeling it a little shyly. I used a charcoal pencil rubbed in with rubbing alcohol (it earned its name) and watersoluble oil pastels using watercolors as the wetting medium:

After it was finished, I realized I'd used Halloween colors, and she would have made a great Good Witch with the addition of a black hat or broom. Oh well, next time.

Next, how about an artist trading card?

The weekly mingle theme was purple power, so this is titled Purple Marie. I took a dusty mauve purple card base and rubbed in some w/s oil pastels. Then I stamped in purple around three corners and heat embossed in sparkly clear powder before adhering the images, from a collage sheet by Collage Visions.

Finally, a greeting card, made for another one of my nephews for his birthday:

I used sketch #160 from my yahoo group Stampers Corner and some ancient Scrapworks papers and diecut.

Moving right along...

Guess what? I have the flu! And, this is gonna sound weird, but I've lived in fear of this day, freaked up of catching the dreaded H1N1. And now that I have it (so the doctor *thinks*), I have to say I am very happy.

Say WHAT?????

Yep, you heard me. I'm happy cuz this is one light case of sick, people. Doc told me I should fare lightly, due to all of my immuno-therapy. Of course, I can still get pneumonia, and if there is a chance in hell of me doing that, I will. Maybe not. I will be running to the hospital if that happens, but as of now, I don't even have a runny nose. I've had the aches, the shivs, a manageable fever, the runs, nausea (no upchucking, thank you!), and no appetite until after about the first 24 hours, then I needed to eat and didn't care if it was shoe leather which is what it tasted like. It was rice. I ate one bowl and it liked to wear me out.

So anyway, there's very little respiratory interaction with this, except for coughing up stuff. Yep, I was worried I already had pre-pneumonia, but Doc said that's common during the virus. It's afterward to worry. I'm upping my intake of green and peppermint teas, just to be helpful. Anyway, been managing by sleeping a few hours, then up for like 4 hours, then another nap, rinse, repeat. It's a pretty good life when I can forget about the aches and when I remember I'm *out sick* and therefore not responsible for crap. Hehe.

Anyhoo...back to art. Yeah, I need to get back to uploading stuff so that I can get caught up. How about I share with you my 9x11 mixed media collage that I did for a page in my Paper Traders yahoo group 2010 calendar?

I went with one of my layered collage-and-paint backgrounds and my *signature* paper-piece entarsia, if you will. I used little square-punched papers on the watercolor canvas board, giving the sky that waffle texture. The clouds have stamped images underneath that have bled up and in the full-sized image it is a very interesting effect. Click on the image to look at it in more detail.

I kept my design pretty simple, as it was my first attempt at a large mixed media piece. I resisted the urge to draw or stamp vegetation or add any people, etc. I read where someone thought my stuff was too busy, so hey, the eyes can easily rest on this. Winkwink And do you see that the paper is some ancient Foof-A-La? It's all coordinated. I took no chances! hehe

In other news, I'm currently working on Traci Bautista-inspired stamped and painted background papers that I will adhere calendar grids on for a calendar swap in my Collage Unleased yahoo group. I'm having glorious fun with them, too. No expectations, no pressure, just one big lab experiement. Nothing goes to waste. So far I like all the ones I've done but if I end up with any I don't, I'll just keep to cut up for backgrounds on atc's or post cards and start another page. The hardest part is having to stop and clean off my stamps. Hate that. It would be so much more fun if I didn't have to do that, but oh well.

I've also made progress on my Kelly Rae Whispers journal cover. The papers are collaged on and I'm struggling with the portrait. Ugh. I could just trace one out of her book, but I'm not gonna give up yet. I can draw a perfectly good shabby petit doll, so I may just do that. Who says it has to look like Kelly Rae drew it, right? Nobody did, but I've just been trying to and it's not me. So, hopefully, I'll have that under my belt in the next few days and can move on to catching up in my Bind It All class and then catch up in my Artist Journals and Sketchbooks class. Sigh. I'm tired out from just listing it all. It's fun, though.

Oh, and no, I have not mentioned the assignment I'm having so much trouble with... ;-)

November's here...

Get ready for some turkey. You can have mine while you're at it. (I only really like white meat and in a sandwich.)

Can you believe we are only 55 days away from Santa? This just is not computing in my headtop (kinda like a desktop computer, but it's on my neck).

Well, anyway, here is my November calendar page spread (you can click on it to see it in more detail):

I really liked how everything came out on this one. I did some fab pencil coloring around the borders and the paper edges.

I was going to just plop all of the months of this calendar into a 12x12 album, but of course, I neglected to remember that this particular blank calendar from Karen Foster is 13x13. So a lot of that fancy coloring is gonna have to get whacked off if I albumize these pages. So that means I'm back to undecided about what I'm gonna do. I may even just glue on new date grids and use the whole thing again.

Note to file: Think Ahead and cut to the size of the album next time. *Think* was made popular by the head of IBM back 60 years ago, and I already do a lot of that. What I need is a motto that will help me do what I need to do more of, so *Think Ahead* might be a good catch-phrase for me in 2010. I always tried to follow that axiom in my work career and it served me well. I was sort of the go-to geek for that at the last firm I worked. I troubleshot a lot of ideas.

As I've aged along with my immune diseases, it's not as easy as it used to be to think ahead. Or even think, for that matter. Right now in one of my courses, there is an assignment that I just cannot figure how to do to save my life. And I'm too embarrassed to admit it to anyone, which is why I'm not supplying any details. I'm literally taking so many classes that it's not obvious which one I'm struggling in. Hehe. I'll figure it out, but it kinda worries me, because I have several examples from classmates to look at along with their explanations, and still I just stare at it like it's Japanese.

Makes me feel like I've had stroke damage or something from earlier on. I had that little episode several months ago and they told me there was no damage. Who knows. I've never had a sharp spatial brain cognition and that is what this assignment requires. I may break down and email a classmate. I have 3 or 4 I feel secure enough with to admit this.

See, now you'll have to keep up your visits here, because you know me, once I figure it out I'm sure I'll spill the whole story. Gotta love an honest fool like me. :-)

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe time trick or treating and partying tonight!

Here are the last of my Halloween creations this year, a couple of cards I sent to family, using Making Memories and Teresa Collins by Junkitz papers with some Quickutz, Jolees and recycled calendar diecuts:

and

Happy Hauntings, everyone! Don't forget to set back your clocks an hour to Fall Back off Daylight Savings Time if you live where that is done. Oh, to be a witch like Samantha and be able to just wrinkle up that pretty nose and do that in one fell swoop, eh? I have too many clocks! winkwink

Halloween Haunt Down: Day 2 of 3

Here are a couple of atc's I've made this Halloween season. I used rub-ons from my Marah Johnson Skull and X-bones collection, a background paper and flowers from a RAK, an Elsie label, jewel brads and a little stamped heat embossing. The red one has several layers of Diamond Glaze as a top coat and gives it its glossy grunge look :

and

Join me tomorrow for Day 3 of the Halloween HauntDown...

Halloween Haunt Down: Day 1 of 3

Geez, I'd better get started with showing you what all I've made for Halloween, since we only have 3 days to go. And if you live in Australia, the big day is tomorrow! (I can never wrap my head around that 14 hour time difference, can you? I mean, does that mean they always know stuff before we do, or does it mean they are always the last to know stuff that happens? See, just another way in which not having a good spatially developed brain hurts me...oh, the inhumanity!)

A couple of 4x6 artist postcards for ya:

and

Wow, that was scary, huh? {snort} Here's a little mild autumness to calm ya down:

Come back tomorrow for Day 2 of the Countdown...

A little Darkness never hurts

I've been up all night, creating, packaging traded mail art to new homes, working on 3 different projects an hour here, an hour there. And then it occurred to me that October was almost over and I hadn't done Michelle's GPP Street Team Challenge #34, which was to start with a black journal page.

Since I had my inks and embossing powders already out, I decided to use them. I took my Ranger Inksentials white gel pen, hurriedly wrote what was on my mind in a stream-of-consciousness way, unedited and in very sloppy handwriting, until the page was filled with white cursive. Then I rubbed in some watersoluble oil pastels, and stamped over that with pigment inks and heat embossed.

I like the results so much that I scanned it in to use in the future as a background. Click on the photo to enlarge it -- you can really see all the embossing and different colors. And if you like it, you are more than welcome to snag it for yourself. It's my Dark Side gift to you.

It seems like only yesterday it was the beginning of the month -- time is moving much faster to me than it used to -- and I had planned to do dry pastels or embossing ink and Perfect Pearls for the challenge. So much for that.

I still want to do dry chalk pastels on black paper someday soon. I recently read you can *burn them in* with rubbing alcohol so that they won't rub off. Don't know if that is true, haven't tried it yet (I did manage to have fun doing that with a charcoal pencil the other day, though, so the alcohol does do something along those lines).

Black paper definitely has possiblities I never seem to remember to utilize. I'm glad I took a few moments to *Challenge 34* myself and Come Over to the Dark Side. :-)))

U Have 2 C K U Japan...

Check out Tim Holtz's video. I think this is his first CKU in Osaka, Japan. I was struck by just how similar we craft-artists are no matter where we live, and the cameras and peace signing is an added cuteness:



The 13-hour flights, though, just make my legs hurt! :-0 I did 6 and 7 hours to Europe and back in 2004 and that about ate my lunch...

4 Days Later....

I got an award! Thanks, Linda!

You are the best!

As for some art to show you,

I've made some seasonal 4x6 post cards -- here's one of them (above).

On the journal front,

Here is my next to last February page in my *Almost Daily* journal.

And,

And here's the last February page in that journal.

xxx

I'm having 2-3 weeks where I'm just layered up with to-dos. Don't really know if I'm coming or going, but if I'm not doing some kind of art I'm dead. Suits me fine, and it will let up in another few weeks.

xxx

Been mulling over what I want to focus on in 2010...yes, it's that time again, wow! Can you believe? Seems like only yesterday it was January, geez!

Anyway, I have so enjoyed my book studies this year. I think I would like to study Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain next year and try to give that a go. I already have the book and the workbook. Everyone tells me it really helped their drawing. Sounds like I shouldn't draw another thing til I get on it, lol. Yeah, too bad, so sad, not gonna happen, but I will study the book next year. Anyone want to join me?