The Big Day

(card by me, using doodlebug papers and cardstock embellishments, Zip EMate holly diecut, and Sugarloaf santa stamp)

My day was good...well, just okay, really. Nothing to write home about. Missy was in one of her rare Queen Bee moods, where everything her parents say is so not important or correct. I was sort of glad when she had to leave to get back to her puppy dog.

And my hip pain was so so bad today. I am beginning to suspect that in addition to the joint deterioration, I have some nerves pinched up in there, too. One of them has apparently gone rogue, because in the past several hours I've had horrid headaches, thought I was losing a tooth (both on the left side, same as my hip pain), and had horrid shoulder pain on that side. Th nerve pain is very unpredictable. I can stand up from my chair and no pain. Next time, the pain rips thru me like electricity. So I can't anticipate it. I can only move gingerly at all times. I have to be able to hold onto things just in case I step or move wrong. It just grates on me.

So much so that today I couldn't even get into creating anything. So hoping this was just an oddity, and I forced myself to at least Copic-color some metal charms to use in a card I've planned. I have so many things planned or in-process that it's a bit overwhelming.

One bright spot today was remembering the charity project I participated in a couple months ago, sending decorated lunch sacks and Beanie Babies to children in Kenya through the U.S. military's Camp Simba. I just happened to luck into being a part of this wonderful donation project, through a friend of a friend. Here are the 20 sacks I decorated:

Just look at all of the Christmas-themed scrapbooking supplies I used up! After creating a little happiness for kids halfway around the world, I think that was my second favorite thing about the whole project. :-)))

And the Beanie Babies I sent:

Art journal technique photos and mailbox goodies!

I'm taking a technique workshop using The Decorated Page (DPW) by Gwen Diehn. It's being offered at one of my yahoo groups, Artists of the Round Table. And, it's free. Furthermore, it's pretty much self-paced, so it's still not too late to join.

I'm using both a Moleskine sketchbook and a watercolor notebook, and my theme is 'DPW techniques'...so the notebook's going to be a technique journal. The watercolor sketchbook hopefully will be a catch-all for watercolored sketches and drawings, to which I will add any assignments that require me to sketch and/or watercolor.

Anyway, check out what I've done so far in my notebook journal. First, I was supposed to remove a page (I removed 2 pages):

I took my Tim Holtz acrylic ruler and tore the 2 pages from the center of the journal. Because the ruler is clear acrylic and there are measurement lines in both directions on it (length and width), it's so easy to line up a line on the ruler over the center stitched crease and tear a straight edge. I left two 1.5-inch "stubs" (on purpose, you will see why later).

Our second assignment was to add an envelope to our journal. I got a wild idea up my head to make a pocket envie out of two of the journal pages and I love how it ended up. I'm sure I'm not the first person to ever think this up, but the idea came to me like I was, and I created my instructions as I went. Here's the finished product first, so you can see and get a feel for where I'm going in my instructions:

The envie is open -- I put the pink paper in there to show it better.

To start the envie, I needed to make a half-moon oval shape on the first page, and nothing I had in my stencils was big enough. I finally got to use my flex design rule! To shape the rule, I wrapped it tight against the lip of my round laundry basket. Once you form your shape on the rule, it holds it beautifully, because it has a thick lead core surrounded by semi-hard rubber vinyl.


LOVE my flex rule. I've had it a couple of years (in fact, I have another one that is longer, too), and thanks to this workshop I now know how valuable a tool it is. I just positioned the rule on my page and tore like I did with my ruler. Viola, torn shape!:


Next, I folded the second page over the half-moon page, burnished the crease, and this is what I had after measuring the second page sections and writing them down:


I cut paper in those measurements and adhered them to the sections, then colored around the edges with markers and a little paint. I also cut paper for the half-moon page and traced the curve on the paper to cut out. Here's what it looked like after that step:


All that was left to do was put lines of red tacky tape on each edge of the half-moon page to adhere it to the second page, to form the envie pocket. You saw in the first photo what it looks like open. And here is what it looks like all closed up:


This is the back of the pocket envie. Since it is the lefthand side of a new spread, I left it alone for now, but you get more of an idea of the envie:


Okay, the next assignment was to add a page of different paper, and I glued some KMI Dirty Laundry paper to the center of my journal, in between those two page stubs from the first assignment.
Front:

Back:


Next, we were to laminate a page. Normally, this conjures up thoughts of Xyrons and clear plastic, but in the book it merely means to glue an entire page onto a journal page, lol. I went to the last page of my journal and adhered another piece of the KMA paper to that last page:


The next assignment was to add some tab dividers. I did not want to do this, because I felt it should be done at the end. All of these assignments are things the author says to do in the book, so I feel this is a fault with her. The purpose of tab dividers depends upon the reason you are using them. So, until one knows what's in the journal, how do you know how to divide it? This is why I used Redi-tab tapes made of repositionable tape. I will make nicer ones later if I use them at all, but each assignment earns a star and I wanted all my stars. ;-)


The last assignment for Lesson 1 was to trim some page edges. Since my pocket envie when closed left about 1.5" of the page behind it to show, I decided to tear a couple of those pages. They would be more easily seen that way. I chose a deckle ruler and tore:

I included the torn out page parts in this photo to show the leftovers from this entire lesson. Don't know why I did that, but whatever.

This stuff so far has been easy-peasy to do, just a little time-consuming because you know I gotta make it complicated, lol. This week we are to decorate our covers. I'll have to stress over what I want it to look like and say. I may opt out for a simple solution...one can only hope! I got other stuff to do.

OH! Guess what I got in the mail this weekend! A gorgeous gorgeous hand painted and dye silk scarf from my friend Rose! She is on my ArtShare list. The design reminds me so much of the old Peter Max designs of the 1960's, and I LOVE the purples in it, so soothing to look at. I can't wait to hang it in my new craftroom once I get all settled in there (hopefully by this fall). THANKS, Rose, it is awesome!
Here's a shot of it draped over my chair:

And a close-up of the design (it kinda shimmers):

April Showers...

~~Click on each one to make larger.~~

I've a couple of rain-themed atc's to show today. I made them for a swap called April Showers. The one on the left, Slippery When Wet, has a painted background made with my wonderful Lumiere acrylic paints. I began by stencil-brushing blue on, then green. Then I made a glaze with the blue and brushed it on all over. Very simple.

The other atc, Splash, has a background began with leftover blue paint spounced on (with a sponge foam pouncer) sparingly, then colored in with a makeup sponge and various pastel stazon inks.

Old calendar die cuts, white rub-ons, and some stickles are the other elements used. I plan to do these simple backgrounds again real soon. They are fun and give immediate satisfaction.

Finally, I'm so happy to announce that I now have 5 participants in my Art Share Blog Candy. Thanks again to those who have joined.

until next time,

sunday post

I still have one more opening for my Art Share Blog Candy project, if you are interested in joining us...


I used some bird and nesting Victorian scrap images in this collaged ATC. Lots of cutwork, which I find soothing as long as my hands or fingers don't cramp. The trick on this one, which doesn't show up in the scan, is the pink border. It's glitter. I took a xyroned card base, adhesive side up, and stuck a smaller piece of security envelope on it that I had inked and then cut out using deco scissors. I then spooned on very fine pink glitter all around the border of the base that was left exposed, delicately smooshing in the glitter as I went along. Then, I made the collage. The glitter gives the card a more vintage-y feel and is quite lovely. The hardest part for me, as usual, was getting that envie paper centered just right and thankfully I did well enough here. This went to a swap sister on one of my yahoo groups and I hope she likes it. :-)

Just on a whim I created a set on my Flickr for art available for trade and I'm overwhelmed at the interest! I need to replenish as I only have one card left in there. (I've linked you to the main site, as my set is about empty right now.)

From what I've been noticing, Flickr and Swapbot are the happenin' places to trade and swap nowadays. I've never yet ventured away from yahoo groups for that, because there is a certain amount of safety built into the groups for not getting ripped off, at least on the swaps. A central hostess collects everyone's cards and then distributes them. Yes, there have been a few hostess rip-offs in the 3 years I've hung there, but that's a tiny percentage compared to the total number of swaps that go off without a hitch.

I don't know if Swapbot has any safety built in like that, but I do know that Flickr trading carries the risk. I had to just decide to take the leap and learn from getting burned if that happens. I can see how long someone has been on there and actually how well their trades have gone sometimes, by the comments. I do plan to check Swapbot out, maybe over the summer as swaps usually cool down a bit then.

I jokingly told the Hubster that I didn't know if my blog sidebar could take anymore online affiliations, though. winkwink I do have a rather impressive links collection. Every blog I've ever had has had one, except for my antics and rantics blog, which I keep sidebar-frugal on purpose. (Well, frugal for me, anyway.)

Any way, I sent off my first batch of cards this past week (and one more tomorrow) to many different places. Hopefully, I will be bowled over by how well everyone plays by the rules and I will have found a great way to share the art!

Until next time,

takin' names and dishin' ideas

We interrupt this blog post to bring you the latest important alert:
Less than 24 hours ago, dear readers, I asked 5 of you to step up and join me in Art Share Blog Candy.

Now I need only 1 more of you to step up, because 4 gorgeous, beautiful friends have committed - Nola, Lida, Rose and Paula...you ROCK! Thank you! Think about joining, okay?

We now take you back to our regular programming....



Here's a little atc that I made for a recent spring-themed group swap at yahoo. The digital image of the stone archway was printed out in draft mode, so that I could alter it with color. I've been working on using up some collage sheet card stock images, like the flower there, that are shaped for microscope glass. I pray for getting inspiration to use these images in ways other than as the main focal element, because I've been there and done that and boriiiinnnnggg. It's more fun to think up clever ways, anyway. :-))


***

A friend asked for advice today. I started writing my thoughts and realized it wouldn't make a half-bad blog post, because I bet my friend is not alone in her concerns.

She's been having trouble finding her own art voice. It seems that she can't get an original idea to save her life, and the blog hopping and gallery visits don't help. Her worry over it has dug into her self-confidence a bit, I fear.

Adding to it is that she is classically educated in art, and she's been talking about going commercial. These factors fight each other, I believe.

Quite simply, if someone's trying to find their art voice while they sell their art commercially, how can they do both without copying to some extent? By that I mean, taking inspiration from here and there to create something versus taking inspiration from within yourself and not being influenced by anyone else's art.

My thought process is, one either sells what they uniquely create or they sell what's hot (and in a few precious situations the two are the same). I know this to be true because this is where I am in my artistic journey, but I don't sell and I think this is why.

I think my friend needs to choose one of those last factors as the most important one so she can know it, and then proceed from there. There's no shame in either one. As Albert Einstein once said, "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

I don't think Einstein really meant a literal theft of someone else's vision. I think he was more clever than that. I think he was saying that there is no real virgin birth of creativity. All artists are inspired by others and many succumb to it, either to conform in that direction or to rebel from it. Einstein's saying if you can make it look like your own, you've achieved creativity.

If one can embrace this interpretation of Einstein's quote, then maybe worrying about not having found one's voice shouldn't be important. Me, I like seeing original unique art in styles of my preference (some of it I don't like at all). And I love coming up with my own unique pieces that rock. But if I needed to earn money selling my art and there were styles that I could do well, then that's what I'd do because I had to.

I do think that there are many artists out there who barely make the effort to hide their sources nowadays and that sort of gives inspiration a bad name. I hope if I ever find myself in a similar situation, that I would do all that I could to my work to hide those loose ends. If I could accomplish that, I wouldn't worry about the rest, because in comparison that's high integrity nowadays. ;-)

Until next time,

art share blog candycalendars!

First, here's my April collaged calendar spread. I kind of abandoned the vintage theme, because of the huge amount of die cuts I had for Easter and Spring. I just loaded 'em on here, because that's what this calendar is for: a supplies dump. So, this is not my favorite page by far, but I did like how I colored it, winkwink. Now, onto the good stuff:

************************************
ART SHARE BLOG CANDY!
**UPDATE: Sign-Ups Closed**
************************************
I found this idea today on my fellow altered book group member Nola's blog . When it comes to my art, I've been exploring just going with my gut, and my gut told me to join in. I successfully did something like this on my own last year, so getting others to commit was my attraction this year.

Let's see if anyone else is like-minded. I would love to have you join me. It could be like a chain mail of art and pay-it-forward, all in one! And, it doesn't have to be any big thing that's involved, weighs or costs a lot or is hard to mail. Just a little sump-sump that shows we care enough to share!

Here's how it works:

The first 5 people to respond to this post will get something handmade by me! I will choose, but it will be made with you in mind. Could be any kind or size of card, bookmark, an altered object, but it will be something that can fit in an envelope or padded envelope for receipients in the USA, and in an envelope for those of you in foreign countries. Like I said, just a little sump-sump! :-))

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make, but I will try hard for that goal and I'll do my best work, too.

2. What I create will be made with you in mind so it will be unique.

3. It'll be done sometime this year (You old-timers know an entire year just might not be long enough, haha, but I am committing to it!).

4. I will not tell you what it's going to be. It will hopefully be a surprise.

5. The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must offer this blog candy on your blog! This is how we expand the love.

Re-post this on your blog, offer handmade creations to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog (then come here and post).

Add my name to the #1 slot on your card- I am your first participant. When you create your give away, you will become the first participant on the new list for the people who participate with you. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment here telling me they did (I will go to your blog to check that you have this posted) win a handmade gift by me.

Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

SO ...... who will be the first 5 folks????

1. Nola
2. Lida
3. Rose
4. Paula
5. Ann

Leave a comment on this post so I can add your name. First come, first serve. Hope to hear from YOU soon!

Until next time,