Wednesday Stamper

Here is my creation for this week's Wednesday Stamper, the theme of which is frames.
The frame stamp is by Orange Bus Studios and the lady in the window is by Oxford Impressions. The swirls are by Autumn Leaves.

Monoprinting

You are going to be so jealous of me, you're not even going to be able to see straight for all the green envy! I learned a couple of new monoprinting techniques today. And it was the most fun I've had at an art class in a long while!
So here is the lovely and incredibly talented Ariane, showing off all the different types of monoprinting that she knows how to do.



Here we are starting out, putting our stuff onto the transparency sheets. I love how bright and cheerful all the drops of color look.

And here we have a finished product. What you can't tell from the photo, is that it looks EXACTLY the same on the front as it does on the back. It really is such a fun technique.

Here is a picture of all of our creations laying out to dry.


See, aren't you jealous? You know you are.
You want to learn how to do the technique? Go over to the Indiana Altered Books Group website, I'm putting it up there. So go on over and cure your jealousy.

A Card & Pancakes

If I have one weakness, it's breakfast food. And since I'm NEVER hungry first thing in the morning, I like my breakfast for dinner. Take a look at these yummy blueberry pancakes that I had for dinner. This photo really does not do them justice--they were filled to the brim with tart blueberries. I slathered them in blueberry syrup and went to town.
Now, I don't normally post pictures of plants--and for a very good reason. I grew-up in a house full of people obsessed with plants. We're talking Latin naming, pruning-sheer wielding, plant obsessives. While they spent hours outside tending soil, I spent hours inside practicing my music. The problem was, I didn't have anyone who shared my obsession, and was forced to listen to endless dinner conversations about root-rot and other such things. I actually used to interject musical bits into the conversation sometimes. It would go like this:
Mom: The hydrangeas are really coming along nicely. I'm glad we got the ph balance sorted out.
Andy: Yeah, and did you catch a load of that Atropa belladonna, it's really blooming!
Me: I find the dissonance in Shostakovitch to be more soothing than disruptive.
And so on.
Which is why, I hardly ever post any pictures of my own garden. But I had to post this, because the color was so lovely. I will not bore you with the Latin name, or tell you stories about what kind of plant food I used.


Lastly, I have this card that I made for my grandmother as a little get well present. I saw something similar in one of the stamping magazines and really liked it, so I modified it slightly, and made this. I think it's cute if I do say so myself!

The crazy rules.

Here is a page from my altered art journal. I did the background using acrylic paint as well as some lumiere and metallic calligraphy ink sponged on top. Don't you just love my new letter stamps on the lower left hand corner? I bought them recently and want to use them on everything! The little swirl stamps are Zettiology stamps and the ballet dancer is from a collage stamp by stampington & co.
You can't really see it on this scan, but I wrote out my rules for dealing with people when they suddenly and inexplicably begin acting crazy. Here they are, my crazy rules:
1. Say to them, "You know you are acting crazy? Stop that!"
2. When they attempt to excuse the behavior (i.e. it's been a stresful day, week, month, year, lifetime...) tell them that you "Don't care!" And repeat No. 1
3. Recommend that they go in for a therapy "Tune-up" And repeat No. 1
4. If 1-3 fail, suddenly remember that you have "A pie in the oven" and hang-up the phone, or walk away ending the conversation. Do not be afraid to use the pie excuse even when you are out in public and obviously not near an oven. They are crazy anyway, what do they know??
Now, I have to sign off, I have a pie in the oven.

creative fun

I am posting this really late--today was a long day for me. I was out of town for most of the morning and afternoon and then it was to teaching. But now, the house is quiet except for the sound of rain and my Philip Glass string quartet. I love this time of year. The early spring rains, which always inspire me to stay in and create.
I found this wonderful book the last time I was at Borders and if you haven't seen it--well you should! It's full of really fun ideas on making your own embellishments.
I tried a couple of her techniques, but I only have photos of the one. Here is a sheet protector collage. Basically, you put a bunch of bits into a sheet protector and then melt it using an iron to fuse it together. I am thinking about turning this into a postcard for a swap I'm participating in.


I am off to work on a friend's birthday present...Have a wonderful evening everyone and sleep tight.

A little art and some cookies....

Take a look at these adorable cookies that my brother bought for me at Dean&Deluca. They are just too cute to eat. Of course as I am typing this two of the cookies have magically disappeared. Oops, make that three.

So my journal prompt for this week was about blobs of paint. The idea was to squirt paint onto the page and then close it. And then you were to write on the page with your paint. Now, I really hate writing in paint, so I punked out a little bit--I'll admit it--and only wrote in paint for part of it. The rest was done with Sharpies and gel-pens. I titled this, my spring manifesto, even though it's less of a manifesto and more of a "things to do" list.

Wednesday Stamper

The theme for this weeks Wednesday Stamper is grunge, I haven't really tried this technique before, so I thought I'd try it out on an ATC. I started with a base of Lumiere paint, and then layered a bunch of different stamp inks on top of it, using a brayer. The bird stamp is by Rhonna Ferrar and the stitching and lettering are rub-ons.

Lovely Day

Spring has finally decided to put in an appearance. Yesterday it was in the low 70's, with a lovely balmy breeze. Bye-bye snow! We had our ATC meeting yesterday morning and exchanged our Nude atcs. I got some really beautiful cards--take a look! I can't decide which one is my favorite. Every time I make-up my mind I change it.

Here we all are-- we actually it's everybody but me, since I was taking the picture.


After the meeting my hubby and I headed to TASTE for lunch. If you live in Indianapolis and have never been to TASTE shame shame on you! The best breakfast/lunch in the city. Their fries are to die for. Take a look:
That's some sort of truffle-oil dipping sauce that they're served with. (Which I like to pretend is magical and has no calories.) Not only is the food fabulous, but they always have cool art up on the walls for sale. While we were eating yesterday there was a little four-year-old boy at the table next to us, who insisted on putting his fries in his water glass and then rubbing them on his shirt before eating them. My husband said that you have to respect the kid for actually eating the mushy food.
So, good weather, art, and then yummy food. I can't think of a more perfect Saturday.

More ATCs

So here are the last of my ATCs for our meet-up tomorrow. I am going to try and remember to take my camera so that I can get some pictures of everyone and their lovely cards. Again, all the backs are alcohol inks. The last card has a Tim Holtz stamp embossed on it. All the fibers are Basic Grey.

Some ACTs

So I belong to a local ATC swap group and we are meeting this Saturday to do our monthly trade. The theme this month is nudes...so here are a few of my completed cards. I have three more to go. If you live in the Indianapolis area and are interested in joining us please feel free to click my contact me button to the right!




All of the backgrounds are playing cards that have been altered using alcohol inks. All the fibers are by Basic Grey.
So I know I don't normally post twice in one day, but tomorrow I'm out of town for most of the day doing stuff for my design team job. So have a happy Friday everyone.

Another Journal Page

So I'm pretty much going to let this one stand on it's own without too much explination. I will say, that someone I know did say this to me, and they were serrious.
Oh, and the mister-yuck stencil, is one I made myself.

A little levity to tide me over....

So I've been feeling the need for some levity--for the obvious reason of the terrible events in VA. But also, because my grandmother had a stroke this weekend, which has my mother whipped up into a frenzy even thought my grandma is OK. No permanent damage, just a very very scary wake-up call. But you know how it is with familly; everyone has an opion and everyone thinks things should be done a certain way. And they will tell you about it, until you're ready to kill yourself jsut for the break. My husband is looking for a new job and is stressed out about the very difficult process and chooses to deal with it by sleeping constantly and grousing on the rare occasion he's awake. And my best friend's picked this weekend to completely lose her mind--we're talking full on foaming at the mouth mean spirited crazy attack, here. It's enough to make me take to bed until mandatory medication is instituted. Seriously, I look at my life and all I can think is "Welcome to the monkey house." So in the midst of my anger and depression I decided to try for a little humor. I'd been thinking about this conversation I overheard in target a few weeks ago. It was one of those moments that was so funny that it stuck in my brain, and I decided to do a page in my art journal.


My scanner really does not like it when I do anything in metallic--and the first two words are stamped in silver. The text reads "Be quiet. you don't bargain with the Easter Bunny. It's not cool." Which is a direct quote from some random mother in Target. Sometimes it's good to know that life can still be really funny.

Oh and PS--Kurt, I will miss you so much. I cried when I read that you died. I feel thankful for having met you. Hope you come back as something really really cool. Like the Easter bunny. I have it on good authority that nobody bargains with him.

last of my samples

Here are my last card samples that I created as part of my design team work for Wishful Thinking. They both use stamps by Stampington and Co. the first is titled "Lotus" and the second is titled "Calligraphy Robe."


I haven't gotten a whole lot done today, my brother is in from NY visiting (and upset at the picture I posted of him here. He says he looks like a dork. Hehehe.) So I haven't had a lot of time to make much this weekend. But he's leaving tommorow so I'll be back into the swing of things.

Tarot Deck Collective

I took place in an art collective for a gallery show that's going up in England this upcoming May. The idea was to get a bunch of different artists to create cards from the tarot deck. My creation is up on the site as of tonight if you want to take a look. Artists are slowly adding their work as they complete them. I am excited to see the complete deck when it's finished! Modern technology is so wonderful--now I can see the exhibit I'm in, even when I can't fly across the ocean:) If you want to read about the show click here. If you want to see some of the art click here.

Wednesday Stamper

The theme for this weeks Wednesday Stamper is cars, so I created this little ATC, using a dyed baby wipe that I sewed onto the ATc Back. The sun stamp is just one I picked up for a dollar at Jo-Anns, and the man in the car is a Tim Holtz stamp.

A little India and some samples

When I was in Chicago, we went into Little India, which was a ton of fun. We were the only Anglos as far as the eye could see. Which is always a fun experience. I'm sure they wondered at us, wandering around, going into used book stores, looking at Bollywood videos and trying to figure out some of the strange food-stuff for sale. We went into a Sari store and ogled all the beautiful fabric. I wound up buying these traditional bracelets. In the store they were a feast for the eyes, in every color imaginable, hanging on long wooden dowels, looking like long arms bejeweled with sparkles. I wanted to take a photograph, but they had very clearly marked "No Photos" signs up, so we'll have to make do with this little one of the bracelets I bought.

Here are a couple more samples that I've been working on as part of my design team work for Wishful thinking. The first two use a stamp called Geisha Collage by Invoke arts. The last one uses a stamp by Stampington and Company called Lotus.

RA-RA-SISK-OM-BAH!

So my journal prompt (that I've been talking about for a few weeks now here) for this week was titled "An accurate Reflection." It was about doing a self-portrait that reflected your inner state more than what you really look like. So, I drew this. It's an image of me as a cheerleader. Mostly, because I've been feeling like everyone in my life is unhappy and I wind up being their cheering squad. And when I sketched this out, I was feeling fed-up with my role. Hence, the cheesy smile and horns. I accidentally cut off my one foot while I was trimming this down, which irritated me in the moment, but now I find it incredibly funny.
The background of this was done with spray paint. You can see I wrote my cheers in all around my portrait, to finish it off.

Asian Cards

I started my work this week for Wishful Thinking's Design Team. I am making some cards for a class they are hosting using Asian inspired images. Both the cards below use images by Stampington & Company. The first is called Puccini's Muse, and the second is called Calligraphy Robe.

You can't really tell from this photo, but I cut out the butterfly on her face, so that it sticks out. Since I scanned this in, it got pushed back down, so you have to use your imagination.


I think I'll be making eight cards in total (two with each of the stamps I have) so there will be more over the next few weeks.

Whew!!!

Chicago was a lot of fun! I was so tired from all the walking, that I came home and slept for 12 hours straight! Whew! Here is a photo of the Navy Pier from a distance. It was way too cold for that sort of thing--it snowed the whole time I was there, so no Ferris wheel for me.

Here are two photos of the lake, it was such a lovely color, from the cold. The waves were really rough, but I didn't get a good photo of it.


Last but not least, here are couple of photos of fun stuff I saw while I was out and about. I loved the details on that building. It was actually one of several, that were obviously all built at the same time. The second is a little Eiffel Tower that didn't seem to be connected to anything French. But it was cool nonetheless.


Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to put up some of my art.

Working in Sections.

So I've been working with the art journal prompts that I mentioned here, and the prompt for this week was working with lines. The prompt was to draw lines, or create lines to divide up the space in your art journal. Well I started working and came up with this:
Obviously, there are no lines, but I did wind-up dividing the page really differently than I usually do. I started out working with masks to create the boxes and then layered spray-paint. When I was done, I discovered that both pages had three distinct sections, so when I wrote, I used the three narrow sections, and multiple colors of ink. I really like the way that the division of the sections allowed me division of different thoughts. I am off on my trip, so I will be back in a few days with some photographs.

A dog and some fibers

I made this page using some spray paint and stencils. I finished it off with some fibers and that cute little dog. If you look closely, you'll see the Pegasus that was from the original page, that I masked off, as well as the chapter title. The text is a stamp, but I don't remember who by....sorry. I am gearing up for a trip to Chicago to buy some supplies. In the meantime, I've been making a bunch of ATCs, hopefully I'll have time to do some scanning and posting tomorrow.