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

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. :-)

Truly a work in progress...

So, I had to make dividers for my altered tin that I made in my class, and then I decided I really didn't need dividers for this tin. So, what to do with them?

Make a mini wall calendar for 2010 - which I soon found out is a lot like making a mini album. And maybe it's just me, but it seems like one either needs to have a mini album planned down to the inch OR just add stuff as you go and pray it looks good and take forever and a day.

Strangely enough, I've chosen the latter method and I am enjoying it but I have even more of a respect for a good mini album creator's skills and talent. My calendar is still in process, but I thought I would share a few photos with you because I think it will be fun to compare these with the finished project. Plus, I have an ulterior motive -- I would love to get advice or suggests from you about what more I can add or what process you follow.

Here's what I have so far. I am showing the closed cover of the calendar next to the tin it will go into (part of a package I'm making for a family Christmas present), so you can see the coordinated papers. I've got all 7 4x6 chipboard pages covered with paper. I have my edges cornered-rounded and I've got my Bind-It-All holes punched. I'm holding it together temporarily with ribbon so that I keep my page orders and will bind the coil on last.

I've also got a few of the page elements adhered. Remember, I have no master plan, other than every page has a calendar month on it, and printed out paper strips of family birthdays (haven't printed those yet). So, I'm basically cutting elements out of the papers and / or using scrap bits that look like they go well. The border-punched vellum on the left side of the Feb. page (above) was a scrap laying in my box, so I had to use it. Then I used the rest of the sheet it was attached to as a base for a few of the monthly calendar sheets that I found on the internet and printed out.

Here's a pristinely blank page spread with nothing on it yet, just to show the pretty paper, lol.

And the last two pages for November and December that I have started on. I'm doing a little something different on each page and trying to use up my paper scraps, too. I think I may pull out the old blue Quickutz tool and dies and punch out some little doodads and flourishes and whatnot.

I'm not concentrating on how bad this looks, because there are many flaws if you look carefully. Instead, I am focussing on how good it looks without me having a design gameplan and it being my very first mini in a long while. (I did make my Focus mini-album a couple of years ago that was for a round robin, but I only made a few pages in it myself and they were carefully planned out.)

I think that once I get to feeling like I'm about finished decorating the pages, I will look at distressing it a bit by sanding down all the page edges and adding a little paint with a dry brush. I may or may not, depending on how it looks at that point. All I know is, you gotta be prepared, organized and ready to work on one of these babies in order to finish one relatively quickly. The process is rewarding, though, whether ya go fast or slow. I'm having a blast!

It's BOO Month!

It never fails. When I have a calendar collage ready to show on the first of the month, I forget! So it is here, but I'm grateful I remembered on October 2nd. This month, I practice my colored wax pencil layering. All the orange bordering you see is really a few different colors and about 6 layers.

Did you know that when you color with pencils, you should lay down multiples so lightly and thin that you can barely see the first one? (I'm talking the regular pencils, not watercolor, although I'm guessing it wouldn't hurt to layer those either.) If you use good waxy ones like Prismacolors, the wax will move the color around the paper, and on each subsequent layer the wax will help the color to fill in where it skipped on the prior layer. I learned this back in the stone age when I was taking art classes as a college undergraduate. My instructor would say, "A light hand lets the wax work."

It's true. Most people apply too much pressure on the first layer and/or give up way too soon when coloring. The first layer of color should be hard to see, in fact. Although this is tres difficult for me to do as well, I've had my best luck doing it by pretending to be testing the color to see if I like it and that helps me apply it lightly. Something else I do is to wipe each layer with a tissue occasionally in between layers. Some people do not do that. They like to keep the bits of color dust on the surface. It all depends on personal preference.

Anyway, we shade and color our dolls with Prismacolors in Suziblu's class, so that means this is another technique I need to do decently. Practice makes perfect, ya know! LOL

My collage for this month's calendar page was simply done, as the Karen Foster paper is very busy on its own. The skull is a rub-on from Marah Johnson's Skull & X-bone Designs booklet, and the pumpkins and witch are from my stash. I made the calendar grid masthead with a strip of scrapbook paper (Theresa Collins for Junkitz) and various stash alphabet stickers which I then outlined with black gel pen. I added a digital frame around the photo in my PSP Pro Photo X2 software.

Back to making greeting cards! Happy World Card-Making Day, by the way. Today is also the start of my second workshop class over at A.R.T. (a study of techniques in Lynne Perella's awesome book, Artists Journals & Sketchbooks (we use the acronym AJS). I will be having a crafty weekend and hope you will, too.

Back to School Sept. calendar

Lordy, finally finished September's collage! As I mentioned yesterday, I used quite a few collage images of Crowabout's . I also have some of my own stash on it too.

This is a scan of it, which means the edges are not in the photo since it is a 12x12 and I have a regular-sized scanner bed. That nasty vertical line trying to disect the graduate man is annoying, but not so much for me to re-scan with a towel over it all to try to stop the shadow. 

I snapped a couple of photos of it hanging on the wall and one of them actually turned out pretty well, so I think I may submit it instead:

I was just making all this up as I went along...no sketch, so I suppose I should be proud it turned out this good. But I really wish I'd moved the Make It Happen rectangle to be centered over the Edumacation part below it. And a couple of other little things. Oh well. I needed a page altered on my calendar and this helped get it done.

Why this theme (other than it is the month for Back to School)? It happens to be the theme for GPP Street Team's Crusade #33, that's why! I am only too happy to oblige and indulge for Michelle. I even plan to do another post on it later. But, I do believe that a good calendar page on the subject can provide motivation during the critical first month of commiting oneself to *Edumacation*, so there be my humble offering to that.

Along the feeder road of this, call it Self-Improvement Row: if I could cure myself of one artistic disease, it would either be my stubborn affliction for not seeing correctable crap until it's too late, or it would be to not give a crap about that crap and just create. It's just that I spend so much time on things and there's always some art pimple glaring at me.

Now would be a good time to remember that art quote, something about art is knowing which mistakes to keep. Yep, that would have my name on it! LOL

{Trying to act nonchalant for about twenty seconds, then giving up and screaming ARGH#@$^@$%&%*$^(&(&.}

Until next time,

more calendars

Hi. How are you? I'm crappy but not when I'm creating, so I've been immersing myself as much as possible. How about I catch up on showing you more calendar pages?



First up from where we last visited my altered calendar: June. This is probably my favorite one so far and the colors are 90% of it. Something about blue and green (and a purpley blue at that).



I decided to leave the book die blank as to text and just drew in the shape details. I used some KI Memories tags because they looked like beach towels.



Next up: July's page. I am at the point of mixing rubons and sticker numbers just to use them up.



I made a central cluster out of the elements I stash-bashed.



Yep, still doing that...until the day I die and I still won't be out of stuff. Sigh.



And finally, August. I liked how the line of swimming kids turned out.



This is as far as I have gotten.



I hope to find more time soon to work further on the remaining months of 2009.


Until next time,

May calendar collage

I am constantly challenged by this monthly project. This is a total supply dump. A stash bash. And a lot of my stuff is downright cheesy by now because it's so old and it went unused.



Sometimes I miss the mark, but sometimes I can actually use the stuff in an updated way, and that's become a closet challenge that has kept me interested enough to keep on creating these calendar pages.



Of course, it helps to excuse myself from having to choose one style. On here, it is okay to mix magazine clippings or cutesy stickers with vintage items.



It's fine because one theme connects everything. I am really glad I began using the printed title strips of notable monthly dates. That's become the connecting theme.

Another connection is color and I'm also glad I have kept that going. Complimentary colors help visually connect elements.



I took a bit of a plain approach to the May calendar page itself. No coloring of the border this time. Instead, I made a layered collage strip using my new diamonds punch and a Fiskars border punch.



I totally love how it turned out. I used Scenic Route papers to compliment the Karen Foster calendar paper base. Taking the time to ink the edges with my chalk and dye inks helped create depth.

I'm thinking I might stick to just one style for 2010's calendar, though. I'm guessing I will be sick to death of stash-bashing long before December comes around. (And it will be here before we know it!).

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,

this pilgrim's progress...

{{{For all photos, please click on each one to enlarge if you wish...}}}

Happy Friday! Allow me to present my March collaged calendar spread (on March 6th, I might add...feels great to be caught up finally...here's hoping I don't lose steam...my next objective is to show April's on April no-foolin-1st).

I found myself in the groove of telling the story of March - of what happens there. This close-up of the clock for Daylight Savings Time (this coming Sunday at 2 a.m., by the way) is my favorite cuz it just looks so cool to me.

Here's a close-up of the section I made to celebrate Women's History Month...

...and panning out a bit to show the entire collage. I was tres pleased with how it came out. Never saw a collage for Women's History Month before, and I didn't realize that I'd used vintage images except for the laughing woman at lower right. It's like all of the vintage women were born before women could vote, and the one modern woman is joyous...she has their back. Who says collage is not sub-conscious? Mine usually is, which is why I get a kick out of doing it. :-)))
I included an entire poem for the first time in the section describing March weather, and was able to use clip art I had of a lion and lamb, as well as the umbrella girls. The kite was already on the calendar background. I used my white Sharpie paint pen and my orange Sakura Souffle gel pen to visually bring it forward to play.
Here be my homage to the most famous March event: St. Pat's Day. You may recall that I went overboard last year making Irish art cards and greeting cards, and I used up most of my printed images. This is the one section that I did not stick to using what I already had.

My lovely altered book muse and friend Elizabeth in NC offered some very sweet vintage image freebies on her blog recently, so I printed 3 of them out to use: the large boy, large girl, and the large harp. Thank you, Elizabeth! I love how each of them add phrases to the calendar collage that refer to St. Pat's Day and Irish traditions. Vintage stuff often does that beautifully... just one reason I love Vintage. :-))) So, continuing to pan out to the full view....
Here is the entire spread. I used crayon pastels to color the borders. I have no idea who makes them as they came in an art set that Missy left behind (another great find from her room!), and they glide on like butter, not like a Crayola crayon and not like a dry or oil pastel. So, I will just enjoy them and not worry what they technically are. winkwink

**********************

I got very frustrated with my Canon Pixma ip4500 printer yesterday, and if it continues to act up I am going to just call it a day and get an Epson, I think. What ticks me off about the printer are the 5 finicky ink cartridges.

I have had a few ink jet printers in my time, so I know you have to practically print something every day or two to keep the ink fresh and flowing. And that's what I do. But every freaking time, I have to open the hood and pull out one or more of the cartridges, shake, and then put back in, make sure everything clicks back well enough for the computer diagnostics to clear, and then I can print.

It gets really annoying. I wonder, do Epson's good printers have 5 finicky cartridges, too? Am I just stuck with finicky technology if I want to use a photo printer that's a step up from an all-in-one? Do I just have a lemon? (I got this latest batch of cartridges straight from Canon, so there should be no excuse!)

If anyone has any experience or advice, please tell me in your comment! I am spending almost $100 to replace all the Canon cartridges, just to have half of them act like they are almost dry from the get-go. Not fun!

I cannot help comparing my finicky printer to my finicky car, as far as diagnostics that don't work right and get in your way. I do not look forward to any more technological advances if they are going to act like these!

**********************

So, changing channels...I sit at the cusp of a potentially gorgeous weekend. The weather for the next several days here at Casa Miguel is for sunny temps in the high 70's to low 80's with cool nights in the 60's. Spring weather preview! The sun feels so nice on my skin. I do have a bit of @#$%@%^#% paperwork to complete, but otherwise I want to spend all weekend creating...and standing in the sunshine. :-)