Val's Altered HeART Journey

Caulk in Art Revisited - Yummy Texture and Dimension

2010-07-23T15:43:00.005-06:00

Oh my goodness, where does the time go? I'm really trying to post more consistently so my blog doesn't grow old and become stale. I'm so honored to have so many followers and people who visit my blog, and I feel like I'm dropping the ball this year because my posting has been so intermittent. On the other hand, when one is fighting the cancer battle, art becomes secondary or even further down on the priority list.

These pictures are not of new, recent art, and yes, they've all been posted on my blog before. But they are three of my favorite works using caulk....which is a product I love to use, write about, and show and tell how it can be used. I guess I just love promoting the use of caulk for great texture and dimension. Some artists out there already know about it and have used it in their art, but there are also many artists who don't know about it and haven't used it. Those are the ones I'm trying to reach and inspire to at least try using caulk.

I love the fact that it's so inexpensive (meaning cheap), so easily accessible, so easy to work with, and gives such great results. What could be better than that? It can be found at Family Dollar stores for a mere buckaroo ($1.00). It's a little more expensive at the home improvement stores, ranging in price. I buy the 5 ounce hard cylinders that need a caulk gun to extrude, but even caulk guns are cheap. Or, you can buy it in the tubes that don't need a caulk gun. I extrude it into a glass jar (the more shallow jars salsa comes in work great), and then put two layers of plastic wrap over the top, and then screw the lid on. That helps keep the moisture in. I've never had any caulk dry out on me, it can stay moist and usable for at least year, or even longer.

It can be colored with acrylic paint and liquid inks, and possibly even food coloring. Or painted any color after it dries. It can also be sanded after it dries. It can be stamped or impressed into when it's wet, or frosted over stencils for a great but subtle dimensional effect. It's a great adhesive and things can be embedded into it, or it can be used like glue to attach and adhere heavier items to a base or assemblage. It can be applied to rubber stamps or any item with a make-up sponge, to get some dimension. It can be diluted with water, or I suppose with any acrylic medium, to any consistency you desire. You can put it in a plastic squeeze bottle to get the effect of dimension, or dilute it even thinner and use it more like gesso. You can mix things with it when it's wet to get different textures, such as sand, cornmeal, tea grounds from used teabags, used coffee grounds, saw dust, small beads, torn paper, etc. The sky is the limit as to what can be mixed in with it. Oh yeah, and caulk can also be used on fabric and almost any surface. If any of you have any more suggestions on how to use it, please share that information in a comment so all of us can learn about it.

What I've shared here so far are general tips on all the different ways to use caulk. For more specific information on how I made certain art pieces using caulk, here is the link to all my caulk pieces. So just scroll down that page. And here's the link to my very first post on caulk, posted soon after I started my blog in February of 2008.

Regarding making some new art, I am actually working on an 11 X 14 canvas panel, a gift for my dear younger sister (and only sister) Jan, who requested an art work from me. She has helped me so much and been so supportive during my battle with cancer. And I love her and appreciate her so much. I've managed to get the canvas panel painted in different shades of blue, green, and purple, and duh....I'm not liking it much at all. Which is disconcerting to me. No, more than that, it's bugging the heck out of me. It doesn't happen very often that I dislike my art while in the process of creating it. Occasionally, yes, but not that often. Usually the more I do on a piece, the more I like it as it progresses. And I consider this to be a very special and important piece, as a token of my love and appreciation for my sister.

The problem is, I'm really in a quandary as to where to go from here. I suppose I could just gesso over it and start over again, even though I have many layers of paint on it, first with the credit card technic, then the sponge technic. It has lots of paint on it, but I don't like the way it looks. Even though it may sound crazy, I've never started over on a piece of art. It shouldn't be a big deal, but it feels like a big deal. I have so many ideas bouncing around in my head regarding what I want to do, I can't pick a direction to go in or focus on what to do next. The ideas are:

1. to use caulk and/or wallboard joint compound for a very textural abstract piece.

2. to do a layered collage, which I haven't done in a long time

3. to use fabric and lace on it, and maybe even some kind of transfer

4. to do a nature piece

All of these ideas are competing in my head, and I'm even trying to figure out how I can do all of them in one piece. That would be great if I could manage to do it. Or would it be? Maybe not. I just don't know. So right now I'm very stuck. I wonder if I should start over on it or just set it aside for a while, until I can focus on where I want to go with it. There's no time deadline or urgency to get it done, and yet I'm very impatient to get it done. Not only for her sake, so she can hang it in her home, but for my sake, to prove to myself that yes, I can still make art that I like or love. Because I am concerned about that since I've made only one piece of new art since January, when I found out about the cancer. At this point, I'm afraid I've lost a lot of the confidence I used to have, regarding making art. And that is not a fun place to be in. Oh well, this isn't earth shattering, I'm sure I'll work through it. But I'd like to be there already!!! I really need to gain my confidence back.

Oh, one more tip. When I go to thrift stores or yard sales, I always look for frames. Sometimes I find canvas panels of different sizes, either clean and unused, or already painted on. This panel I'm working on was already painted on, it was a painting of flowers. It was not a very good painting. So I just gessoed over it, and voila it was like a new large canvas panel that I paid a buck for. I've been able to accumulate six canvas panels so far. Sometimes I find wooden plaques that would make good, sturdy bases for a piece of art. So keep your eyes open for any kind of base that would work for an art piece.

And if any of you have any great tips for anything regarding making art, please leave that info in a comment. I think tips are always fun and interesting to read, and it's great when I haven't heard them before. Tips can really inspire me, and I could use some inspiration right now. So how about sharing your own tips? Please do!!! You'd be doing me a favor. I have the rest of the day to work on art. Here's to hoping I find my way out of this quandary today.

One more tip. If you like using lace in your art, look for lace tablecloths at thrift stores and yard sales. I bagged a large, mint condition white tablecloth at a thrift store on sale for $2.00 a few weeks ago. It's the thicker cotton lace, which I prefer. And cotton lace can be dyed. All lace can be painted. The easiest and fastest way to paint it is to use spray paint. Painting it with a brush can be slow and tedious. I figure this large tablecloth will last me a good, long time. I won't be running out of lace anytime soon, that's for sure.

Health update and I love all you people out there

2010-07-03T00:12:00.004-06:00

No new art to post this time, this is a short update on my health situation with my cancer. This post is overdue, and I'm sorry it took me this long to keep you informed. My first and only post about it was done on February 22nd, a long time ago. Here's a link to that post in case you didn't read it. This post is for those of you who visit my blog. I posted an short update on my yahoo groups a few weeks ago. I feel I should've kept you more informed, but it's not easy to write about. And this is an art blog, which I prefer to keep easy going and focused on art.

I just took a stroll through my blog, and read that post and then all of the 72 comments that were left for me. I hadn't done that in quite a while, and I'm glad I did it tonight. I love all of you, I really do. Your love and concern and encouragement and thoughts and prayers and emails and comments and art works blow me away and have meant the world to me. You all have been instrumental in, and played a big part in this journey I'm on. You've convinced me beyond any doubt that I'm not going through this alone. It does my heart good to know there is so much love and caring out there, from so many wonderful people whom I've never physically met. So thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. All you guys ROCK!!! Seriously!

I did get approved for Medicaid, and started treatment on April 26th. Waiting those four months to get approval was a scary time indeed, realizing that the cancer could be spreading to any number of organs in my body. I just prayed that wouldn't happen, and praise the Lord, it didn't happen. He had my back on that, which was pretty darn important! Thank you, Jesus. I went to radiation Monday thru Friday, everyday, until June 16th, which was my last day of radiation. Thank God for that.

The radiation is cumulative, so it gets worse before it gets better. Four weeks into it, I hit the brick wall, or fell into the abyss. I was experiencing a number of bad side effects, at the same time, and was in pretty bad shape for the next month. I was totally bedridden for two weeks, except for going to the hospital for treatment. I had zero energy and could barely get around. I ended up in the hospital for four days at that time.

The bad side effects were no energy, dizziness, a foggy brain, diarrhea, intense abdominal pain, (the pain meds weren't working well yet, they were still tweaking the dosages), a right kidney infection, and bad radiation burns in the crotch area. That was the worst side effect of all, as you can imagine. It felt like a bad sunburn and the skin was even peeling. I also experienced some depression and really had to struggle to stay in the fight and continue fighting. That month was the worst time of all. That's why I call it the abyss.

And to make it so much harder was the fact that my brother, who was three years younger than me, he was 54, died of a massive stroke. It was such an incredible shock to all of us, because he was of normal weight and active and appeared to be very healthy. He died 10 days after he had the stroke, and was in a coma most of that time. So I was trying to deal with the painful loss of my brother on top of all the other stuff. Can you say ABYSS? Or BLACK HOLE? That's where I was at that time.

But I made it through. The doctor gave me a week off from the radiation due to the bad burns, and that seemed to help a lot. I started feeling better almost immediately. Then I had only seven more treatments to go to finish my treatment plan. The side effects started to clear up and I could see a light at the end of that tunnel, so the depression lifted.

I was getting chemo once a week in addition to the radiation. And my hair never did fall out, thank God. I was supposed to be done with all treatment on June 16th, but my oncologist wanted me to do two more cycles of chemo with a different drug. Two cycles meant four treatments in five weeks. Two treatments, then a week off, then two more treatments. So I had a treatment last Wednesday, and have three more to go. The only side effect so far with this drug is a decrease in my energy. Not as bad as it was during the abyss phase, but enough to definitely notice. I learned that being bedridden is a real bummer and no fun at all. It's BORING.

I'm up and around all day now, which is the way I like it. But I start running out of gas in the afternoon, and have to remind myself not to overdo it. I've been spending a lot of time on my computer. A friend who helps me with computer problems took it home and cleaned off the hard drive, and now it's running almost like new. It was so slow before it was driving me crazy, and was barely usable. It takes time to get the computer back to where I want it, so that's what I've been working on. I was able to save the important stuff onto my external hard drive.

I have a strong desire to get back to making art, so strong it's consuming me. I have the desire and am strong enough now to do it, but I need some inspiration and direction to go in. Three of my siblings have all requested an art piece from me. I can't seem to focus enough yet, or rather maybe it's my muse Bonita who isn't focusing. It's easier to blame my muse, you know? She's off on some fun exotic vacation and left me here to fight this cancer battle. Shame on her. Oh well, I'm certain one of these days, any day now, I will be creating some new art.

My oncologist told me two weeks ago, the last time I saw him, that I've responded very well to treatment and am doing well. He said two more cycles of the chemo would give me a better chance. I won't be tested for the results of treatment for three months after I finish. So I still have some waiting to do. I'll be believing and praying that the treatment will be a smashing success. And I'd like to humbly ask all of you to pray and continue praying for me. Prayer is very powerful!

Once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your part in this journey of mine. And thank you Jesus, for giving me your love, strength, comfort, and hope. I do believe I'm going to win this battle.

Another Collaboration Piece

2010-06-30T18:24:00.004-06:00

This is the second piece of my collaboration with my art friend Phyll. This is my piece on which I made a background, seen in the first picture. (I posted this background and explained how I did it on Dec. 12, 2009, here is the link.) I sent it to Phyll to work on, and when I got it back, it looked like the second picture. I was so, so pleased -- it bowled me over. She modeled the figure out of polyclay herself. She covered a miniature trunk with the polyclay and then glued all of those beads inside it. When I opened the box this piece was in, it took my breath away. Truly it did. I was just so impressed with her creativity and what she did to my piece. Thanks so very much Phyll. You did yourself proud!!!

I think the greatest thing about doing collaboration art like this is that the end result is such a surprise, and in my experience, far surpassed my expectations. Phyll took this in a direction I never would've thought of, never would've gone. I thought what she did was so interesting and so perfect for this background. It's such a unique piece of art that we both took part in creating. That makes it very special, at least to me it does. I'm so grateful and fortunate to own this piece of art. I plan on framing it soon and hanging it on my wall

I think I will continue doing occasional collaboration work with other artists because I think it's fun, definitely challenging, and a very worthwhile experience. I think it's one way, out of many, to grow as an artist. It's also a great way to get to know another online artist better, in a more personal way. It's been a pleasure getting to know Phyll better. So, I definitely highly recommend doing this kind of collaboration. Be bold and try something new, even out of your comfort zone. I know you won't regret it!

New Art -- A Collaboration

2010-06-15T20:52:00.009-06:00

Yes indeed, this is another wonderful collaboration with my art friend Phyll. This is my third collab, and it's been awhile since I did the last one. I love doing collaborations, but it's a lot different and more challenging than making art alone. This one was especially challenging for me, because Phyll's background (the first picture) was made out of polymer clay and baked. She stamped into it with various items. The texture on it is so yummy.

I didn't quite know how to do my part due to the great texture on it. I love what she did, and considered it a stand-alone piece on its own. But I did have to finish it, and I was stumped as to what to do. I looked through some of my stashes and pulled out some things I thought would work on this piece, then I jumped in with both feet. This is not my typical art style, and I felt out of my comfort zone, because all I really did was glue on all these various pieces to embellish what Phyll had done. I loved her background and didn't want to cover up too much of it, I wanted it to shine through.

So, this is how it turned out, and I must admit I do like it a lot. I think it would look great in a nice frame, but that's up to Phyll. The work she did on my background is spectacular and I love it, but I haven't taken any pictures of it yet. When I do, I'll post that piece too.

I am so pleased to finally be able to post some new art. I felt so bad about neglecting my blog, but other than this, I didn't have any new art to post. When you're fighting cancer, other things become secondary. For me, that included art too.

I finished this over a month ago, but didn't get it sent to her until last week. I asked her to email me the pictures, since I hadn't taken any, so I could post it on my blog. The pictures came today, so here it is on my blog. I'm doing the happy dance.

The Cardinal

2010-03-20T13:17:00.007-06:00

Oh my goodness, I finally got some new art posted on my blog. I can't tell you how pleased I am about that. This piece was started last November and finished in December. I posted the background only on my blog on November 28 (you can scroll down to see that). This was made as a gift for my older brother who lives in Michigan, in a beautiful log cabin home. I thought this was rustic enough to look great hung in his home. He really liked it and hung it up right away. In fact, he took this picture for me to post.

In a way, this is a collaborative piece of art, because I used a picture he took of the bird. His property is 40 acres, and lots of birds make use of it. He's a great photographer, so he has a lot of beautiful bird pictures. He has them posted on an online Picasa photo album, which I have a link to on the right side of my blog, in case you'd like to view them. They really are great pictures of beautiful birds.

So anyway, I picked out this cardinal to feature in my art piece. I thought it would be cool to feature his photography in this piece. Thankfully he appreciated that idea. I printed the bird onto a transparency sheet, then adhered it to a green paint chip, then rounded the corners. I outlined it with black permanent marker. The long rusted piece was found in Kuwait by a friend of mine in the Navy Reserves when she was on active duty there. The rusted piece had some holes punched into it (I don't know what it was originally), so I decided to weave some yarn through them, the same color as the cardinal. Then I pulled some bark off a log, and glued a rusted skeleton key onto that. I kept it very simple except for the background. I explained how I did that in my post. This is framed with a neat wooden frame I got at the thrift store, for half price no less.

I definitely wanted to post the finished art piece on my blog. But I never got a picture taken. Then it occurred to me that my brother could do that part better than I could. Soooo, here it is, all finished and hanging on his wall. And the first time I've posted art since January 1st. It's about high time. I'm very pleased with this piece, and thrilled that my brother likes it and that it's hanging in his home!!!

Addendum: Update on my health situation. I was supposed to hear on March 16 about the Medicaid, but unfortunately, no word came. I can't tell you how sad, afraid, and angry I am over that. It totally sucks! I can't have treatment until I'm accepted for Medicaid, so unfortunately I'm still hanging in limbo, and trying hard to stay positive. Not easy at all, at this point. Thanks again for all the love and support, the cards and emails and gifts, and especially for the prayers. Please keep praying.

Belated post -- not about art but about life

2010-02-22T04:13:00.004-07:00

Yes, this is a long overdue post, for which I apologize. However I think the reason justifies why I haven't posted in over six weeks. Sadly, the news is not good, and has to do with my health. On January 9th I was diagnosed with metastatic cervical cancer which had spread to the bladder. I was admitted to the hospital on January 8th, and in my seven day stay, had two emergency surgeries, one to cauterize the bleeding and then one to perform right and left kidney nephrostomies.

I was not in good shape when I was released from the hospital. I've spent the time since then trying to recover from the surgeries, and the news of my diagnosis. Although I've had urges to make art, I simply haven't had the energy or stamina, and art has been put on the back burner for now. I've never been through anything like this before, and am a total newbie at it. I expect to get back to making art when I'm strong enough and the timing is right.

I know many of you may already know this news, because I made a short post about it on my yahoo groups a few weeks ago. But many of you may not know, and I felt it was important to share this news with you. As an UPDATE: I am doing better, I am improving. Progress is slow but is being made. Right now I'm waiting to be accepted by Medicaid. My file is in the pending status and hopefully will be approved any day. Once that happens, I can begin 6 weeks of chemo and radiation. Until that happens, I'm hanging in limbo regarding treatment -- not a good place to be in.

I have good days, bad days, and some really awful days. As a newbie, I'm still learning how to deal with all of this. I'm on narcotic pain killers, for which I'm grateful in the sense of how they help control the pain. But I don't like the side effects at all. They often mess up my mind to where I can't think straight or focus or concentrate, and make me so drowsy I keep falling asleep even when I want to be awake. They also cause severe constipation, which I don't need right now. In other words, they have many undesirable side effects, of which the ones I've mentioned are only a few. This is the first time in my life I've ever taken narcotic medication for pain relief, and it's worse than I imagined. But I need them so I take them. My mind would work better without them, but the pain would be unbearable.

My family and friends, including online art friends, have been wonderful support to me. I so appreciate that and thank all of you who've emailed me or sent me cards or art gifts. It means a lot to me. I especially appreciate prayers said for me, because I believe there is real power in prayer. I am a Christian who believes in Jesus, and my faith and trust is in Him. Yes, I am merely human, and often fall short when it comes to trusting God as I should, but I continue to try to the best of my ability. I know that He knows every detail of what is going on in my life, and is able to meet my needs. Perhaps not according to my own will, but according to His. He has this under control and I am not alone. I look to Him for comfort and strength, because I don't have the strength to walk this journey alone. Thank you for reading this.

Val, who is in the fight of and for her life right now.

It's Finished

2010-01-01T22:37:00.004-07:00

Yes indeed, I got it done. It's finished, all except for putting it into a frame. I posted this background last week, on December 27, just below. This was made for a friend of mine as a gift. Actually, she requested it, and I was glad to oblige. It will look much better in a frame, but I wanted to scan it rather than take a digital picture, and get it posted, so you can see how it progressed. I'm happy with how it turned out, and love the background. I'm really glad I started experimenting with this simple technic, which I explained in some posts below.

Another step in the right direction

2009-12-27T12:14:00.004-07:00

Oh my goodness, how time flies. Well then again, it is the Christmas season, when time is at a premium and we're all busier than normal. This is my latest art piece, another background similar to my last two posts. Since I explained the others in detail, I won't do that on this one. I pretty much used the same supplies and technics. I must admit though, I do love using the torn National Geographic pages to create these backgrounds. It's such a quick, easy, and cheap way to at least start a new piece of art, to get something down on the base, and then go from there. It inspires me enough at first to keep on going and adding more layers, to where I feel I'm accomplishing something and actually creating some new art. No pain, no angst, no fear of ruining it. This technic is a "new discovery" for me, and has helped me a lot in taking baby steps out of my prolonged art slump. In my case, going back to a very easy and simple technic to start with, kind of like going back to the basics, has helped me overcome certain fears and artist block to actually get back to creating some new art. And for me, right now, that's good enough for me!

Even though this is a background, I have further plans for it, and will hopefully work on it more today, and if I'm lucky, even finish it. I'm making this piece as a gift for friend, which to me always makes it more special and enjoyable. And when I do finish this piece, and get around to taking a scan or photo of it, I'll post the end result. But right now, I'm just happy to post it as a background, and as a piece of new art. Because at least it causes me to know I'm going in the right direction, however small my baby steps are.

So I hope you enjoy this piece, and that all of you out there had a wonderful, blessed Christmas. I had a wonderful Christmas, which I'm grateful for.

Some more new art...and a bit further out of the abyss

2009-12-12T16:27:00.003-07:00

My oh my, another new art piece. And I'm very pleased I got this done today in a few hours. And that it was easy and spontaneous, and mostly playing around. And I didn't even "plan" to make art today, I just decided I wanted to, on a whim (and a prayer). This is another background piece, but could stand on it's own I think. Lots of yummy layers, but I wasn't thinking layers or focusing on that when I made it. Why? Well because when I focus on "layers", and think about it, it kinda freaks me out and ruins the spontaneity. I'm also very pleased that I did some stamping on this, which I don't do often enough. And also used a stencil, with some new semi-transparent paint.

The base is an 8x10 inch piece of thick chip board. (Well, I have lots of that since I bought 75 pieces off ebay a while back, so I might as well use it.) And I glued down torn pieces of National Geographic pages, then sanded them, then used an awl to etch over them in order to distress the piece. Then rubbed over it with brown paste shoe polish and Golden Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold fluid acrylic. A new product for me, and one I'm very much in love with. Then I glued down some strips of netted fabric, and used a triple tip paintbrush to paint the black lines. I also used a toilet paper cardboard core to stamp the large circles. And then a foam stamp for the numbers, and a stencil for the hearts.

Gee, layering isn't so hard or intimidating.... as long as I don't think about it or focus on it. I seem to be into torn NG pages at the moment, but hey, if it works, why not? I have lots of NG mags, so I might as well use them. But I'm thinking torn pages from other mags could work too.

Am I out of the abyss yet? Well, probably not, but at least I'm headed in the right direction. At any rate, I'm pleased with this piece and thrilled I have some new art to post. And truthfully, after the week I've had, that's good enough for me.

Over and out for now. Onward and upward.

Out of the Abyss --One Small Victory

2009-11-28T10:26:00.009-07:00

Yes indeed, I consider this one small victory, because I actually got it together to make some NEW art. New art is the key here. I've been in such a depressing and extended art slump, I consider making any new art at this point a victory. And hopefully, (fingers crossed) my first small step out of the abyss, the extended art slump, dry time, dark time I've been in. Well, every artist is different and an individual, and deals with art slumps in different ways. Many artists have written on this subject on their blogs and in books, regarding how to get out of an art slump. And that is a very good thing indeed, and is very helpful to many artists in this situation. Sometimes what other's have written has helped me, other times....not so much. This time around, trying to muster up motivation and inspiration at the same time has been my biggest challenge. At times, I've had motivation, but no inspiration. At other times I've had inspiration but no motivation. And for me, I need the two together, and that just wasn't happening.

Do I know why? No, and that was part of my frustration. But I don't think the "why" is that important anyway. Right now, I don't care about the why. What I care about is that I sat down and created some new art last weekend, and that finally motivation and inspiration came together at the same time. And so this is the result, a background made for an art piece I'm still working on. Which I'm excited about, and hope to finish within the next few days. When I get it finished, I'll post it. But today, I'm posting this background, because I really like it, and it's kind of a new technic for me. One I've never done before in this way.

Many months ago, at my local book arts meeting, we played with a similar technic. We tore strips of National Geographic pages, and strips of wide masking tape, and alternated those on a base for a background. They turned out very cool and I liked that technic, although I don't know where it originated from. This time around, I decided to just use torn strips of NG pages, to see how that would come out.

I used gel medium to glue them down on an 8x10 piece of thick chip board. After they dried I sanded the piece and etched into it with a very sharp awl to distress it. Then I rubbed brown paste shoe polish over it to kind of antique it and give it more depth. Then I used my finger to rub Golden's Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold fluid acrylic paint over parts of it. I totally love that color, and it's the first time I've used it in my art. Some members of my art group suggested I buy some, and I'm glad they did. Then I brushed over the whole piece with a thick layer of gel medium to get more, yet subtle, texture. And rubbed over that with brown paste shoe polish and also some gold waxy stuff to give it gold highlights. Then I sealed it with Future Floor Finish (FFF) which gives a glossy finish. While it was still wet, I flicked Pearl Ex Pigment Powders on it, in Aztec Gold and Spring Green. I do love those Pearl Ex powders. After the FFF dried, I sprayed the piece with hairspray to seal the Pearl Ex, and then sealed it again with FFF.

So that's how this background was made. Not difficult at all. NG pages are great for this, although pages from other magazines might work as well. I think this is a great, easy technic for the first layer of a layered collage. It gets you past a blank base and into the mindset of layering. Beyond that it makes a great background for any kind of art, collage or whatever. It can be distressed or rubbed with different paint colors, or glaze colors, or shoe polish, or metallic waxy colors....or whatever comes to mind. I think it's an easy technic that opens the door to all kinds of inspiration and experimentation. And gee, if you should screw it up or not like it, it can be glued over or painted over or tossed, no great loss.

In closing here, I'm just so grateful and relieved to have made some new art, and to have a plan for how I want to finish it. True, this is a small step, but at least a step in the right direction. And that's more than I was doing before, for too long. So for me, it's a positive step back into the world of being an artist, and a step out of the abyss. And one small victory for sure.

Another page from my Melange book

2009-11-21T09:42:00.005-07:00

Okay, so here's the deal, the bottom line, in brutal honesty. I'm still trying to find my way out of my extended art slump, and just not sure how to do that, or when it might happen. I keep hoping and praying it will happen soon, but who knows? It could happen today, tomorrow, or beyond that. I dread thinking of the "beyond that". I feel certain I will find my way out sooner or later, and that even yes, there is a reason for it, one I don't understand. I'm not "okay" with it, especially concerning my blog. But then again, learning to be "okay" with it might be the best approach and help me out in the long run. I'm not sure where true inspiration and motivation come from, it seems to be rather mysterious to me. If I could just produce it on command, that would be so great. However, sad to say, I haven't figured out just how to do that. If I ever do, I'll be sure and let you know.

This is another spread in my cherished Melange Book. I definitely love the right page more, because I'm a nut for using rusted found objects in my art. And I have a great stash of RFOs, one that might be the envy of many, most scavenged from my local truck stop parking lot. So there's a tip for you. The background on this page is wallboard joint compound. I think I also used some walnut ink crystals misted with water. The snake and centipede were added last, kind of as an afterthought, but I like them, even though they are kind of creepy. I also used fabric threads and cheese cloth.

I'm wondering, how many of you out there use rusted found objects in your art? And if you do, where do find them? Do you get excited when you find them....like I do? And are we crazy to get excited about a rusted object we might find? Most sane people would say yes, and not understand at all. But hey, with us artists, it's mostly a "given" that we understand quite well. It has to do with the heart of an artist, in my humble opinion. And with something found unexpectedly that can be used in our art. And with recycling something in a creative, positive way that would normally be thrown in the trash. And with the nature aspect of it, of nature causing and creating the rust. And with the rich color and texture, that is hard to replicate any other way. These are the reasons I love rusted found objects and love using them in my art. If any of you have anything to add to this discussion, please do so. I'd love to hear what you have to say about rusted found objects. I think it's a subject well worth discussing.

So anyway, here is my latest post on my blog. And I'm happy to post this for the first time. And if it stirs up a discussion on RFO's, that's great and would do my heart good.

Spread in my Melange Book

2009-11-03T13:04:00.007-07:00

This is a spread I did in my Melange Book, probably my most favorite handmade book of mine. It was a project done in my local book arts group a while back. Well, more than a while. It was a very challenging project....but also loads of fun. I never would've created this book if it hadn't been a group project, and I'm so grateful it was, because it totally motivated me to do this and get it finished. It was a group project, but we each created our own books. Oftentimes, I need that kind of motivation. And also the help and support that was so generously provided by other members of our super-great local group!!! I'm oh so fortunate and grateful that we have such a fantastic book arts/altered art group in my area, the Denver metro area, and that I've been a member for over five years. Our group is still going strong, and I hope it always will. And I only wish that all of you artists out there could have a group like this in your area.

The left page is a fabric page of painted muslin, with lace, ribbon, rick-rack, and buttons glued down, and frayed along the edges. The right page has cool scrapbook paper as the background. The lower part is a pocket of fine copper mesh, with an altered CD inserted. I glued down four rusted bottle caps....I always love rusted found objects, that's for sure. The fiber is eyelash yarn (at least I think that's what it's called).

To be honest, I'm going through a difficult time in my life right now, and so making art has kind of been relegated to the back burner. I've been in an extended art slump, which has been quite frustrating and bewildering. But beyond that, I'm dealing with some painful family issues/realities, that have really knocked the air out of me. Sometimes, reality really BITES as I'm sure all of you can relate to and understand. However, I want to keep my blog current, because it's important to me to do so. There are a lot of things in life I don't have control over, but I do have control over my blog. And it helps me to keep it going and current, or as much as I'm able to. I know this too, shall pass, and better days are up ahead, but for now, I'm rather down under. So please bear with me on this. Thank you.

My Muse Bonita

2009-10-27T13:25:00.004-06:00

Hmmm, this looks rather different for my type of art. And yet, yes indeed, this is my art. That's a bit surprising, even to me. Because this was made five years ago, and just months after my jump into altering books. I think that part amazes me the most, that I created this just months into knowing anything about altered art and altered books. I've never posted this on my blog, so I thought now would be a good time to do so. Because this is one of my favorite AB spreads that I had mostly forgotten about. And to be honest, also because I have no new art to post, and yet I want to make a post on my blog today.

Long story short, I've been in an extended "dry period", "art slump", or whatever one calls it. Which I'm not pleased about, but it is what it is and I'm trying to work through it. However, there is still the issue of my blog, which is very important to me. And it's been too long since I posted some art. I'd much prefer to post some new, recent art, but that ain't happening right now, so I think posting some art, even though it's not new, is better than not posting at all. Regarding how "old" art might be received, I have no idea.

When I first got into altered art, back in the spring of 2004, I was very into altered books. So this is a spread in an AB, a still unfinished AB, a work in progress. At least that's what I keep telling myself, but it hasn't progressed much in several years. And I'm not even sure I'll ever finish it, but I figure hey, at least I got a great start on it.

Regarding this spread, I love the color purple, and wanted to express how I pictured my muse, so I think I went no holds barred. I like that about this spread....and gee, just wish I could approach my art that same way all the time. I won't go into detail about how I made this, except to hit on a few things. The image of Bonita was from a rubbing plate. The background under the image is sequined fabric. The headdress and earrings are real, costume jewelry glued down. I also used game pieces and some of the stamps were hand made with a wood burning tool on erasers. I used an embroidery chain stitch around the edge of the right page. I used a lot of technics and embellishments on this spread. I hope you like it.

Bones -- Halloween/Autumn Collage

2009-10-11T11:27:00.003-06:00

Ahhh yes, skeletal bones. And a fine looking skeleton it is. It started out lavender, the color it came in the package. Which was cool, but not the color I needed for this piece. So I painted it with Lumiere Gold and then rubbed black over it, then sealed it with Future Floor Finish (FFF). Regarding the second photo, I once again played around with the fish eye lens on my photo editor just to see what it would look like. I like the way it looks.

Let me back up a bit here. This is an 8x10 inch piece of chip board. I had an unopened package of multiple colors of Mulberry Papers, so I decided to finally use some. I glued down an orange sheet with Mod Podge, and then glued down a piece of very red lace on top of that. I was going to go with that as my background, but I felt the lace was too red so I glued down another sheet of orange mulberry paper on top of the lace, and liked that result much better because it toned down the red lace and gave me the colors I wanted. I really like how the orange fibers in the mulberry paper show up so well. I sealed the background with FFF also.

The orange piece is obviously a large paint chip from Lowe's. I considered distressing it first, by sanding it and then etching in it with a sharp awl, but chose not to. I did however brush over it thickly in all directions with gel medium in order to give it some subtle texture. When dry, I rubbed paste brown shoe polish over it. Well, before I textured it, I used my trusty Hot Stamps tool with my number set and burned in the numbers. I did the same thing with my alphabet set for the word "Bones". I do love my Hot Stamps tool, but haven't used it in quite some time. It's one more great tool I should use more often than I do. It works quite well on paint chips I discovered this time around. It's always good to learn something new.

The spiders came in a package of Halloween confetti, and worked out great for this piece. The paint chip came with the square windows in it, so it only made sense to glue the spiders there. I had the transparent round pieces for years and never used them until now. It's a miracle I even remembered I had them.

The long fiber piece is an orange chenille pipe cleaner wrapped with the orange fiber specialty yarn. Not my idea, but a great one. This idea, and many more easy and innovative ideas for very cool embellishments are featured in Sherill Kahn's book, CREATIVE EMBELLISHMENTS. It's one of my favorite books ever, a must have for my own library.

The leaves were picked up off my driveway yesterday, not long after they fell off the tree. I immediately preserved them by sealing them with gel medium on both sides, then put them in a book to flatten them out for a few hours. I like them a lot on this piece, but am not sure if the color works well. I would've preferred for them to be more orange, whereas they're kind of inbetween green and orange. I don't even know what color to call them. Maybe I'm crazy here, but it occurred to me I could paint them red/burgundy, and maybe even get crazier still and paint orange polka dots on them. I mean hey, this is not exactly a serious art piece, right? It already looks kinda funky, so why not expand on the funkiness with crazy painted leaves? That thought is still tickling my fancy, but I'm a little afraid to try it....as in, what if it screws up the whole piece? So I'd really like your opinions on this idea. Do you like the leaves the way they are, or should I get crazy and paint them? I'd really appreciate your input, because I still haven't made up my mind on this idea. Thanks for any input.

Ebony and Ivory -- textured caulk abstract

2009-09-22T12:51:00.003-06:00

This is a piece I made recently. One I really like and am proud of. I didn't post it on my blog because I planned to enter it into a juried open show at a local art gallery. I've never done that before, so I was excited about it....but also a bit fearful about how it would feel if this piece didn't get juried into the show. I had no idea what to expect, although I was hopeful. Sad to say, it did not get juried in, which I must admit hurt and wounded my art ego. I was sad and upset for that day, after I got the email. Well, for more than that day, to be honest. But after a few days, I got over it and am okay now. The theme of the show was "Abstract", which I felt was right up my alley. So I made this piece especially for the show.

There was only one juror, who has his own art gallery, which mostly features abstract art. I wasn't able to find out why this piece was rejected, but the lady who was at the gallery when I went to pick it up, who's also an artist although she didn't enter the show, gave me some feedback. She said she really liked this piece, but that perhaps it should've been framed, to give it a more professional look. And that makes sense to me, although even if it had been framed, who knows if it would've been accepted? But I'm sure it would've looked better and more professional if I'd had it framed.

I used a cabinet card for the base of my art, and glued it onto a 12x16 inch canvas board. Silly me, I thought that would be professional enough. I mean hey, at least I didn't use frozen pizza box or chipboard, which I most often use. But when it comes to submitting art to a real art gallery, I'm a total newbie and novice. Hopefully I learned my lesson on that.

Anyway, I mounted the cabinet card vertically, which I thought was interesting and different. On the top part, I spread a layer of caulk and impressed into it with a foam circle stamp, a soda bottle lid, a drinking straw, and the end of a paint brush. I also used a circle cut out of a vinyl rug runner, that has swirls on one side of it. My main theme was circles, which I've done a number of times before. My initial intention was to make this a black and white piece, so once the caulk dried I painted over it with black acrylic paint. I planned to rub over that with white acrylic paint, but then the idea came to me to use metallic pearl white instead of regular white. So I did that, and was rather surprised that it ended up looking more like silver than white. At first that bothered me, but then I came to like it, so I left it that way.

On the bottom part I used micro beads in gel medium on the frame part for a different texture, and painted over it with black. I used a sample piece of fabric wallpaper, with the white lines, inside the frame. Then I found the cool twig in my yard, which was the perfect size to fit inside the frame. I painted it black, then rubbed the metallic pearl over it with my finger. Then I made a caulk circle (on frozen pizza box) with my vinyl rug runner stamp. And painted it black and rubbed on the metallic pearl.

I wrapped thick black quilting thread around the canvas board before gluing down the cabinet card, to repeat the lines in the frame. (That idea was suggested to me by someone in my local art group, Terry. Thank you Terry, I think it was a great idea.) Then I painted some flat, round wooden beads black, and glued those on to repeat the circle theme.

So that's how this piece came together. I'm sad that it didn't get accepted into the show, but even so, I really like this piece a lot. And yes, I think it would look better and more professional if I had it framed, which I may do at some point. Right now, the cost of doing that is a problem, but it would look better and more finished if I had it framed.

Linearity -- Caulk Squares and Rectangles

2009-09-14T16:50:00.005-06:00

This is a new work, and a bit different for me, at least in some ways. This piece is 4 x 9 inches, a size I've never worked on before. The base is frozen pizza cardboard (FPC), nothing new there. I've been using circles in my art for some time now, because I really love them. But recently I've been inspired to play around with using squares and rectangles, with caulk applied with a small palette knife. It was harder to make them that way than I expected, because it was the first time I tried it. Hopefully, if I try it again I'll get better with some practice.

On this piece, I sanded the image side of the FPC and then covered it with white gesso. Then glued down the netted fabric, then painted over it with Liquitex Majenta acrylic paint. After that dried, I rubbed Liquitex Cadmium Yellow over it with my finger. This is a color combination I love and have used at times. Although the magenta looks more like a burgundy to me, and not true magenta at all. I love burgundy and yellow used together.

After that, I applied white acrylic caulk with a small palette knife. I thought that part would be easy, but I was wrong. It was rather difficult and required a lot of patience. Once the caulk dried, I painted it with different shades of orange, then rubbed contrasting colors over the squares and rectangles with my finger to highlight the texture.

I liked it at that point, but felt it needed more and wasn't finished. So I picked up the stems off my driveway and glued those down, then rubbed brown shoe polish over them. And then pulled out my stash of skeleton leaves and found just the right size for this piece. I didn't initially intend for this to end up being a nature piece, and yet it sort of is -- at least partially. My squares and rectangles are far from perfect....but that's okay. I kind of like them that way.

If I do this again, I think I might try adding the paint directly into the caulk and mixing it in before applying it to the piece. Just a thought anyway. Or perhaps diluting the caulk a bit and see what happens with that. Or maybe applying the caulk with a paintbrush instead of a palette knife.

So anyway, that's what I did on this piece. I kind of like this size and format, at least for the linear effect. It's nice to play around with new ideas. Where they might lead....I have no idea!!!

Seed Flower -- Layered Nature Piece

2009-09-01T18:38:00.008-06:00

I'm so glad I have some new art to post. I mean very, very glad, since I haven't been making much new art in a while. This is a small piece, a 5x5 inch art squared piece. For a long time, that was the main format size I worked on and I was very comfortable with that. Then I chose to start working on larger formats, which I enjoyed also. And I must admit, it's a bit hard to come back to this smaller size, but it's a good thing, IMO, not to get too attached to any one size or format. You know -- keep your options open, right?

The base on this is frozen pizza cardboard (FPC), which I used so often in the past, but then lately worked more on chip board. Well, I still have a great stash of FPC, and I'm glad I do. It works quite well for smaller pieces. I glued down some patterned sepia wallpaper from a sample book, and then etched random lines over it with a sharp awl, then rubbed over it with paste brown shoe polish. Then I glued down some fine lace fabric over that, and rubbed it with the shoe polish. Then I pulled a small textured fabric piece, from another sample book, and started fraying it to produce some nice fringe. The threads were thick and great for some more texture, so I glued some down, then glued the fringe down.

On top of that I glued down the seed fronds from my yard. For living in metro Denver, I'm happy to find great nature items in my yard. One wouldn't necessarily expect that, living in a big city, but I do often find great items for art just in my own yard if I take the time to go looking for them. I encourage you out there to try that too, and see what great finds are in your yards. Then I sealed this with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF) from the Family Dollar store, which gives a matte/satin finish, and flicked on Aztec Gold Pearl Ex while it was still wet.

Then I raided my rusted found object stash for the rusted washer. Oh my, I love my RFO stash for sure. And also my stash of old vintage keys. I think this rusted key is very cool. I have no idea what kind of key it is or what it might open, but the small size was just right for this piece. The seeds for the flower are squash seeds, which I always wash and save for my art. The other seeds are smaller seeds from cantaloupe I think. I pretty much save all seed for my art, never knowing when I'll want to use them.

I thought this piece was done at this point, but then I spotted a piece of netted fabric on my work table, and chose to add that at the very end. I'm not sure if it helps or hinders the piece, because sometimes I don't know when to stop. Then again, it adds more texture, a different kind of texture, so I think I'm glad I added that piece. At any rate, I did, so it is what it is.

As with a lot of my art, I didn't plan this out at all. The interesting thing to me is that this piece ended up being so layered, and yet I wasn't all that aware of layering while I was making it. I was just playing around, adding this, adding that. When I actually THINK about layering in my art, or plan it, then I get very nervous and choke up about it. As in fearing how much to layer, and covering things up. Whereas if it just happens innately, and comes natural as it did in this piece, without me thinking about it....I'm so much more okay with that. It's like I don't realize how much layering I've done until the piece is finished, and then I stand back and think wow, did I do all that layering? Ahhh, if making art could always be innate and natural, just playing around and having fun and not THINKING about it. Those times are when I enjoy making art the most!!! Do you agree with your own art?

I Am Woman (another funky artdoll)

2009-08-20T12:17:00.006-06:00

I am woman, indeed! It amuses me to view this piece of art I made a few years ago. I seem to be in the mood to revisit some of my older art that was done before I started my blog, that has never been posted on it, and post it now. Well, I admit that I haven't been posting nearly as often or consistently this year as I did last year. In a way, I'm disappointed in myself for that, but in another way, I'm okay with that. Life happens, it ebbs and flows, that's just the way it works. I haven't been making a lot of new art lately, but would still like to post on my blog and keep it interesting. Hence, for now, I'm posting some older art of mine.

Regarding this piece, I think it was one of my first ventures into using found objects in my art. The frame was found at a yard sale, and was the kind that had no glass over the picture of flowers. I liked that part, because I knew I could use it for art. So I used some Paper Perfect by DecoArt painted over the picture. It's very cool stuff, described as paint that creates the look of handmade paper. It looks and feels like wet paper pulp in a jar. I'm not sure if it's still manufactured or for sale, but I bought two jars at Joann's when they were on sale and being discontinued. I still have them, and they are still good, the pulp is still moist. That is rather surprising, and I should use them again before they dry up. Anyway, I painted that over the picture for some interesting texture, then painted over that with acrylic paint.

The head is another painted papercast that I made. For some reason, the expression looks rather angry and belligerent, which isn't the case with the actual mold. I'm not sure at all why it came out looking that way, but it did. Maybe it was the painting that gave it that look. Or maybe gluing crystals into the eyes. Then again, the stance, with hands on hips, adds to that impression. It brings to my mind the anger of so-called "feminists" of the 70's, which was not my intent in this piece, but hey, I guess I'll go with that. I find that rather comedic, and laugh about it. This may have been a more conventional, attractive piece if I'd used an attractive face....but it is what it is.

I used rusted found objects (scavenged from my local truck stop parking lot) for the torso, arms, and legs. And lace for the skirt, beads for the hands, and buttons for the feet. That's a dangle earring on the front of the body. Surrounding the woman (or rather artdoll) are pieces of a chain mail necklace and earring set found at a yard sale. And last but not least is the poodle, Pierre, on the right lower side, a pin found in my vintage jewelry stash. I used gold glitter glue around the edges of the picture.

I do love artdolls, and the idea of making them, but have made only a few so far. But this theme is coming up for me lately, so perhaps my muse is trying to tell me something??? I really don't know. I'm not always that clued in on what my muse is up to, ya know? I guess only time will tell. What I do know is that I love using found objects in my art, and that includes jewelry. I have an interesting stash of old and not so old jewelry I haven't looked through in a while. Who knows, that could be a start for inspiration. Inspiration can be anywhere and everywhere, hiding or right out there in plain sight. Here's to inspiration, any which way you can find it!!!

Funky Artdoll -- Puzzle Art

2009-08-15T13:56:00.007-06:00

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot I made this. I was browsing through my past art, and saw this piece, and decided to post it on my blog. I made this over three years ago. A fine lady and artist in our local art group was involved in an Puzzle RR, and her theme was Artdolls. However, she had a few puzzle pieces left over and asked for volunteers to help her finish her puzzle. So I jumped in and volunteered, although I'd never worked on a puzzle piece before, nor made an artdoll. So all of this was new to me, but it presented a challenge I relished.

This is what I came up with. The background was "grunge paper" we'd made in our art group at one of our meetings. Totally love that grunge technic, which is in my labels on my blog. The face on this was a paper cast I had made, and I just painted it and used crystals for the eyes. The arms and legs were made from felt wrapped around a wooden skewer and zapped with a heat gun to melt it, as far as I can recall. I'm a bit foggy on that technic. I used beads from a dismanteled necklace for the hands, and rusted found objects for the torso and feet.

Gee, now that I've revisited this piece, I really like it. Well, the idea of wild artdolls excites me, but I've only made three. So maybe I should revisit that idea and theme??? Ahhhh, there are so many themes and choices out there for art -- it gets to be a bit overwhelming, does it not my dear artist friends? Perhaps accidentally stumbling on this piece of art I made years ago can inspire me now to make another artdoll. Well, God knows I could sure use some inspiration about now. Who knows? Will I act on this, or file it away for a future time?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this piece. And if inspires you, or gives you some ideas, so much the better. Perhaps sometimes visiting old art can be a good thing, a catalyst for renewal and new art.

Addendum: Some people have asked about the size of this piece. I don't still have this piece, because I made it for another artist. So I'll have to guess about the size. My guess is it's approximately 5-6 inches wide and 5-6 inches tall. My particular piece to work on was more like a square, but of course not all the puzzle pieces were like that. So, this was a large puzzle piece puzzle that was used for her Round Robin. I'm not sure where these large puzzles can be purchased, but they're out there. And probably also online. And maybe at some thrift stores and yard sales. I hope this helps.

Another piece of Nature Art

2009-08-08T11:34:00.003-06:00

;Ahhh yes, another piece of nature art. I love making nature art, and keep coming back to it often. Why, I'm not totally sure....except that it's so, well, natural. I think when I do nature art, I go into a different art zone, a free and easy art zone, with no pain or angst or planning. It just kind of happens easily and spontaneously. Beyond that, which is totally great, I can pick up nature items from my yard and use them in my art. As in, gee, I don't have to make a run to Hobby Lobby or Joann's and buy something to use in my art. Now, don't get me wrong -- I love buying art tools and supplies, when I'm in the mood to do so. But I think I love even more using nature items, or natural items found outdoors, to use in my art.

I made this piece a few weeks ago. I was in the mood to make art, but had no clue what I wanted to make. So I took a stroll through my yard, and picked up the leaf and the seed items. I don't know what to call them, but found them in my yard. And thought great, I like these, I'm going to use them in my art. Then I pulled out a piece of chip board, and got busy on this piece.

I also used fabric and threads that were on my work table, just because they were there. I guess I made this piece because I wanted to make some art, felt the need to make some art, and for no other reason. I had no plan, and wanted to keep it simple and easy. I also chose to use a cool stencil I bought online, of various sized circles. I just love that stencil, and I love using circles in my art. I frosted over it with caulk, which I also love to use in my art. It's so simple and easy to do that, and yet it creates great texture. And I'm always about texture in my art. Sometimes I think that's my main focus, above and beyond anything else. I hope I don't overdo it, but I can't seem to help myself, when it comes to texture.

I mostly just glued various things down on this piece. And the key -- I love the key -- was a last minute thing -- I added it last. I was on a vintage key quest for several months, wanting the old regular keys, the old unique flat keys, the old skeleton keys, and if they were rusted, the better. So I bid on a number of ebay key lot auctions. I learned that buying old key lots on ebay isn't cheap, and isn't easy to win. I lost a lot of them, but also won a few of them. And now, I have a fantastic stash of old vintage keys. I mean now, I have over 100 of them, maybe over 200 of them, I lost count. I've used them in my art before, on a number of pieces. And then kind of forgot I had them, like duh! So I remembered them when I made this piece, and chose to add one.

So anyway, this is what I ended up with, and I'm happy with it. And I'm wondering, regarding art, what do YOU love making the most??? Do you have a special theme, dear to your heart, that you love making? A theme you may keep coming back to, time and time again? Do you love it when you make art spontaneously, with no real plan, or do you prefer to plan your art and stick to the plan? And what is easier and more comfortable for you -- spontaneous art or planned art? What kind of art causes you fear, pain, or angst, and what comes so naturally? For me spontaneous unplanned art seems to come the easiest, and allow me the most enjoyment. So what say all you artists out there? Please chime in.

Citra-Solv Transfer Technic

2009-07-28T12:28:00.008-06:00

These are some pages I made at my local book arts group meeting last Saturday. Pretty cool eh? Well I at least I think so. We played around with this technic, which is new to me. One of our members had tried it, and we loved the results she got, so she offered to teach it to the rest of us. Regarding the technic itself, I don't know who first developed it or I'd give them credit. Nor do I know how long this technic has been out there on the net, or in art books. And of course, I'm not the first person who has put it on their blog. I googled this technic, and found some others bloggers who've posted about it. And chances are, other people have modified this technic in various ways, which often happens since artists are innately very creative people.

That being said, I'm thrilled with the results I got. Here is what we did at our meeting. We used National Geographic magazines, published within the past 10 years. Not sure why that matters, but apparently it does. We used large sponge brushes to spread the Citra-Solve over various pages in our NG mags. The best pages to use are those with color pictures, and you have to spread the CS over both sides of the page. Then we let the saturated mags sit for approximately 30 minutes. The CS needs time to work its magic, but if left too long, the pages stick together. After 30 minutes, we disassembled the mags to let each page dry. Some people had to use a craft knife to cut their pages out, but all my pages pulled out very easily. I don't know why that worked for me, perhaps I used more CS on my pages and it dissolved the glue holding the pages together.

At our meeting, we did this technic outdoor on a table, because the smell of the CS is quite strong. It has a powerful orange smell. I had to leave the meeting early, so I brought my mag home intact and disassembled it on my picnic table on the patio. I'm also lucky enough to have a clothesline in my yard, so I hung the pages up to dry, which took around 10 minutes. Also, there are a number of Citra-Solv products, which are natural cleaning agents. For this technic, you need to use the concentrated CS, which can be bought at natural food markets. Apparently it's not available at regular grocery stores. I'm not sure how much it costs, they have different size bottles. I did go to the company website, and if you register, you can print a coupon for $1.00 off the product.

I don't know much about this technic, except for what we did at our meeting. I think googling this might give you more information from different blogs. Who knows, there might even be some youtube videos about it. As for me, all I did was spread the CS on the color pages of my NG mag, wait a while, and then disassemble the mag, then hang the pages up to dry. Obviously not a complicated technic, although rather messy with the disassembling part.

My take on this technic is that it's totally unpredictable and rather hit or miss, regarding how your pages will come out. Some came out great, others were not great at all. But hey, it's kind of cool regarding the serendipity of this technic. Beyond that, it's not difficult or too time intensive or too expensive. A bottle of CS should go a long way.

I'm wondering if any other product would work, or work in a different way??? Such as WD-40 perhaps, which I recently learned is non-toxic and made from -- get this -- fish oil! As in, who knew? Or perhaps Amor-All protectant? I'm always game to try industrial products in my art, products purposed for a totally different purpose. Hopefully when I have time, I can experiment with these other products.

So anyway, is anyone game in trying this technic? Or modifying it or "altering" it, or whatever?

Solitary Leaf (another caulk-art piece)

2009-07-18T11:36:00.009-06:00

As many of you may already know, I LOVE using caulk in my art. And I must be on a caulk binge right now, which suits me just fine. This is a special piece to me, one I'm very fond of, because I made it as a gift for a very special artist, person, and online friend, Corinne Stubson, whom I admire a lot. And I'm very happy with how this piece turned out. The theme is a circle theme, one of my favorite themes for art, and one I keep going back to.

Normally, I explain how I make my art and the technics I use, and I so enjoy doing that. However, I just spent 45 minutes typing up this post, then previewed it, then lost it. It just disappeared. Which made me want to tear my hair out. So, I'm not going to redo all that again. I've done other caulk circle pieces that I've explained, so if you're interested in this technic, you can find caulk and circles in my labels on the right side of my blog. Those will pretty much explain my caulk technics.

Also, the leaf in this piece is a real leaf from a tree in my yard. The dimensions of this piece are 5x7 inches, so it didn't take that long to make. Enjoy.

Addendum: I just remembered I explained how I made this piece on one of my yahoo groups, the Collagecats group. Here's the link to that group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Collagecats/ The number of the post that explains this piece is #56932, so if you're a member of that group you can read it there. If you're not a member, you might want to join because it's a great altered art group. There, now I feel better, having explained how I made this piece but just not on my blog.

A Karma blog award

2009-07-09T12:51:00.004-06:00

awarded to me by none other than the sweet person and great artist, Michi. Here is her wonderful and artistic blog -- http://michirhymeswithpeachy.blogspot.com/. Please take a look, you'll be so glad you did. She has also been published in a number of magazines -- a dream for most of us. Thank you so much for this award Michi. I am honored and grateful.

The wording for this award is as follows . . .

The Karma Award: These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

Well, as I've been known to do at times, when time is at a premium, I'm changing the rules here. Instead of passing on this award to eight artist bloggers, I choose to pass it on to three. For those three, you can decide for yourselves how many to pass it on to. Sorry, I hope no one is offended that I've changed or modified the rules. I truly am grateful to receive this blog award.

And now I pass it on to these three artist bloggers, whom I think deserve it. Please visit their blogs and see what they are up to, and view their singular art.

Betty Miller at http://bloubell-alteredexpressions.blogspot.com/

Christy at http://averageamericangirl.com/blog/

http://falltheflowers.blogspot.com/

Caulk for texture blowout-- a circle abstract piece

2009-06-30T14:04:00.008-06:00

Well, once again it's been too long since I posted some new art. My blog seems to be getting away from me, which definitely bothers me. Lately, my blog hits have dwindled significantly, which hurts a lot. Then again, I have to keep reminding myself that my blog, although it's very important to me, is only one part of my life. A big part yes....but only one part. The same thing with making art.

I've been in a mini-slump lately, meaning I've worked on some art but not to the extent I wanted. I've been in much worse slumps, so in comparison, this one hasn't been that bad or frustrating, or even guilt producing. So....that being said, here is my latest work of art, started and completed yesterday.

Well, as I've written before, I do love using caulk as an art medium, especially for texture. And since most of the time, I tend to put a lot of emphasis on texture, caulk is right up my alley. I love it, because it works, it's easily accessible and available, and it's cheap and economical. It can be bought an any home improvement store for just a few dollars. It has also been available at Family Dollar stores for a buck for the kind of tube that needs a caulk gun. That's where I've been buying it as long as they sell it there. I hope they keep selling it there, but I've stocked up on it, just in case.

Referring to this art piece, I used a thick piece of chipboard for the base. Well, a few months ago, I bought 75 pieces of this chipboard on ebay, and am so glad I did. The price was great, the shipping was not so great, but the overall price was reasonable. It works for me on this kind of piece, which is 8 1/2 x 11 inches. I used a non-serrated vintage butter knife to spread the white acrylic caulk. I tried to spread it fairly thin. Then I used the knife to texturize it in a somewhat random way. Then I used foam circle stamps, a larger one and a smaller one, to impress on the caulk and swirl it around and pull it up. And also a drinking straw to make smaller circles, and then a sharp awl to draw lines in it. Once I was done with it, I was satisified. So then I let it dry.

Then I painted it with coffee acrylic paint, and then rubbed over it with brown shoe polish. I've done this many times before in my art, but not so much lately, since I've been more into using bold color. After that, I used gold and coffee metallic paint diluted with water to roll down the piece in a random way, based on the texture. And then painted it with Future Floor Finish (FFF) for a gloss effect, and used splattered copper and gold Pearl-Ex over that. I wanted a random paint effect, which I think I achieved.

So anyway, this is the abstract texture piece I ended up with. I like it a lot. And it just reminds me how much I like using caulk, the poor man's molding paste. I think, even if I could afford to spend money on the most artistic/expensive supplies and tools, I'd much prefer to use other things, cheaper things, for basically the same effect and result. I'm a lot more about that approach, at least whenever I can be. I love using things not purposed for art in my art. I love pushing the envelope that way, and also saving money.

But then again, I think there needs to be a balance regarding that. Because some art supplies can't be easily substituted by something else. However, as for me, I'm always game to try!!!

My first "killed catalog"

2009-06-05T22:15:00.003-06:00

Oh my, it seems like it's been too long since I posted new art. Or even made new art. Well, as I've said before, at times, life and reality intervene, and so art gets relegated to the back burner for a while. That has been the case for me lately.

However, I'm happy to post this new work, which I made a few weeks ago. I started reading Maggie Grey's blog about killed catalogs, and it seemed very intriguing to me. So I thought I'd give it a try with a catalog I got in the mail. I mean using anything free as a base for art always attracts me, which is one reason why I've used frozen pizza cardboard (FPC) for years as a base for most of my art. However, before I started reading Maggie's blog, I'd never heard of "killed catalogs", and the whole concept was totally new to me.

Maggie's concept was to bury a catalog outdoors and let it disintegrate for a period of time. As for me, I wanted more instant results, so I changed things up a bit and took my own approach. First I soaked the catalog overnight in water, then put it on my picnic table on the patio the next day to dry out. It did dry out to some extent, but then an art buddy, Linda East, suggested I finish the drying process in my clothes dryer. I thought - what a great idea - so I tried that. First I put it in a mesh dryer bag, but it escaped the bag, and got somewhat mangled in the dryer. Luckily, it didn't leave a big mess in the dryer.

Then Linda suggested painting it with flour paste, and baking it in the oven. That sounded good to me, since I wanted to adhere it all together, and coat it with something, and hey, flour paste is cheap, right? So that worked out well. Then I painted it with a coat of white gesso. Then misted it with Memories Mists Strawberry Daiquri, and Mod Podged down some netted fabric , and then some yellow lace on top of that.

Then I frosted some caulk over parts of it and texturized that and let it dry. Then I rubbed paint over the caulk with my finger using burgundy and orange, then misted Memories Mists Mango Lemonade (a cool yellow color) over that.
I glued down some threads, burgundy twine and leaves, and frayed fabric strips. And then the orange circles, punched out of paint chip, and the yellow square paper clips, and the yellow plastic "9" in the bottom left corner. The "9" is rather hard to see on the scan. I did a scan on this, and the art piece was bigger than my scan surface, so I didn't get it all on there. I had to sacrifice the far right side, where I had glued down three orange circles and two square paper clips. So one circle and the two paper clips don't show.

I'm happy with how this turned out, although it doesn't look much like a killed catalog, a la Maggie Grey. Meaning it doesn't have much dimension, and ended up rather flat. But hey, this was my first try at this, and I mostly improvised on the spot. And gee, isn't that what making art is all about anyway? We can all start out with a plan, and then kind of get sidetracked into a direction our muse takes us, and end up with something much different than what we planned. So I guess I have to say that's kind of what happened here, but even so, I really like the end result.

I'd like to thank Maggie Grey for coming up with the idea of killed catalogs and posting about it on her blog. And for opening the door to something new and different, a new idea, a new technic. And I'd also like to thank my art buddy, Linda East, who came up with some great suggestions. Take a look at what she's done with her killed catalogs on her blog. I think they are totally great!

In closing, I'm so pleased to post some new art. I have another art project I'm working on, which is my first fabric book ever. It's a project in my local art group, and one that has taken me far too long to make progress on. It has been very slow going, one small step at a time. I think partly because I've never done a fabric book before, so I feel more than a bit intimidated and lost. I don't know how long it will take me to finish, there is no specific deadline, but I am determined to finish it. All in due time, whatever that means.

Beneath Rebel Skies

2009-05-20T13:35:00.009-06:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce my niece Shannyn to all of you. She's 17 years old and will be a Junior in high school next year. She's a voracious reader, loves to read and loves books, and also loves to write. Her dream and goal is to become a writer, as in an author, or screenwriter, or journalist. She's been writing for several years, and I believe she's very good at it. I totally support her in her excellent writing, and helped her to start her own writing blog a week ago. Here's the link to her blog Shannyn's Writing and I also have a link to it on my blog, just scroll down to find it on the right side.

Today I'm featuring part of a story Shannyn wrote in the 8th grade, or two years ago. When I read it, I was so impressed, I wanted to put it on my blog for the rest of you to enjoy, and also to give Shannyn's excellent writing some exposure. She's excited about her new blog and I hope she posts her writing on a current and consistent basis. I keep reminding her that if she wants to make her dream come true, it will take hard work and dedication and self-discipline. I believe she's up to the task. I also believe she has the "gift" of writing, and has worked hard to develop her gift and her skills. I'm very proud of her.

Her story starts below. Please enjoy and feel free to leave any comments you may have if you'd like to. I'm sure that would thrill Shannyn.

Andersonville concentration camp, Georgia, 1863: Ice cold rain pours through the musty train cars, packed with hundreds of men, as cattle brought to the slaughter. I shiver, the soldier standing beside me has a hacking cough, can’t stop. He sounds awful, like an old man, yet he cannot be over fourteen. I myself am but sixteen, though I have seen more in my short life than most have seen in fifty years of living. The air is rank with the scent of sweat and blood. My nostrils fill with the smell, though it is not half as bad as some, it makes my stomach swim. The train comes to an abrupt stop, lurching forward and sighs as an old farmer after a hard days work. Shouts and orders can be heard. A lowly Johnny Reb yanks the door open, revealing his bearded face. “Get outta the train, you filthy yankee dogs!” His young voice penetrates the thick air, arousing all prisoners, soon to be granted their fate. The great mass of bodies moves as one, making its way out of the train.

Frozen hard ground gives way to a demonic black sky. Lightning strikes, not a mile away. Thunder gives his answer with a resounding crack, which penetrates the wind blown atmosphere. Rain drops hit my tanned skin, as rocks upon a valley floor. The formerly beautiful sound of pouring water fills the air, soaking all that inhabit South Carolina in its unforgiving vengeance. “All right, you maggots, form ranks and prepare to march!” It was the young soldier again, perhaps informing his prisoners that he intended to provide them with everything terrible and evil. The mass of bodies moves a second time, with me somewhere in the middle, smashed and forgotten amidst such numbers. The sky wreaks her havoc upon the war torn ground and its occupants as all stagger towards their God given fate.

Finally arrived at the prison; Johnny Rebs shove us through the gateway, and into the camp. I suppose I simply expected something more, perhaps tents or quarters; yet there was nothing of the sort. Instead, sparse weeds littered the ground, as bones upon and ancient battlefield. Pushing their prisoners through, the Rebels shout orders to each other and let us be for the time being. I, along with many other Yankees, fall to the mire in exhaustion.

I awake the next morning to yells and groans. Morning dew soaks the already muddy ground, making it virtually impossible to navigate, ensnaring many in its boggy grasp. Coughing and hacking prevail through all other sounds, so many of my fellow soldiers sick from wounds or disease, cursing them in battle. Still, no shelters have been erected, no nourishment provided, despite the drenching rain and howling wind. This storm is unceasing, as if God is displeased with all the liquid falls upon. I wrap my uniform closer about my body, hoping it will keep me warm from the elements. Some men attempt to start fires near the wall, despite the pigeons nests atop, with Rebs sticking their noses out, awaiting an excuse to shoot someone. Their attempts are hindered by the weather, yet they continue their effort.

I, too deeply desire warmth. I spot three men huddled together, so I join their group, hoping for warmth and companionship. “Dang Johnny Rebs, they wouln’t stick thay own soldas in this God fersakin place.” Willy complained. He was in my regiment, though I never much liked him. “Ah, shut up Willy, I’m tryin ta git some shut eye.” This man I didn’t know, he was mighty tall, I could tell that from looking at him. The third soldier didn’t make a sound, just sat there shivering, his dark eyes observing their gloomy surroundings, as a hawk on the hunt.

“Git up, yank, no time fer sleep at this hea place.” “Ohhh.” I groaned, he had kicked me in the ribs, as if I was a dog that needed discipline. “I said git up!” The Reb made a second attempt to injure me, bringing his foot back; I managed to dodge it. He cursed at me and sauntered off as I tried to adjust my eyes to the bright light. It had stormed for three days straight, never letting up. Yet today it was surprisingly hot. The bright sun hung in the sky, her eyes full and watchful as those below made their way about the earth. I wonder what she thought of our circumstance, if she cared or thought about us at all. Her gaze pierced the cloudless sky and shone upon my darkened skin. I saw the three men I had met two days before near the wall, constructing a lean to out of spare wood for reprieve from the sweltering heat. I moseyed over to them, hoping again for conversation.

2nd Part of Big Reveal -- Heather's piece

2009-05-12T07:46:00.004-06:00

I decided to post Heather Robinson's piece from our collaboration project on my blog. My piece, and my explanation of our project, are posted below. Heather sent me her beautiful background on stretched canvas. The colors were so yummy and soothing, it inspired me to do a nature theme on it.. I love doing nature themes. As you can see, our pieces ended up very different, but I think they are both beautiful. Our project was very successful.

Big Reveal of 2nd Collab Project

2009-05-10T09:48:00.018-06:00

I'm so thrilled to be able to post this beautiful art work. This is my second collaboration project of this type. My dear friend Heather Robinson and I teamed up to put our hearts and minds together to create this piece. One I am in love with, I don't mind saying, and I'm so excited and grateful that it's MINE ALL MINE!!! This arrived in the mail last week, and I've been admiring it ever since.

The first picture is of the background I made on this 8x10 inch piece, done on thick piece of chipboard. Then I mailed it to Heather for her to work her artistic magic on it. And so she did, and I'm in awe of what she turned this piece into. The second picture is what it looks like now. I totally LOVE what she did, and the result of our heartfelt collaboration. She made her background on stretched canvas, and sent it to me, and I did my part on that and sent it back to her. From what she told me, she loves her piece too. We chose to synchronize our blog posts of "The Big Reveal", so you can click on her name above to see her piece, and what I did on that.

I'm happy to post the before and after pictures here of my piece. Because it shows how Heather transformed my background into a totally different work of art, by using what I did as a jumping off point. One that never would've happened or been created if we hadn't done this together, as a collaboration. And I did the same with her background. I was oh so excited when this arrived in the mail, and I could finally see how she chose to complete this piece. I kept wondering and guessing in my mind, but had no clue what she was doing on it. Once I opened it, I was in heaven, and at peace. Because this was perfect, and meant to be, and far exceeded any expectations I had.

I realized that she finished this piece in a way I never would have, meaning it never would've occurred to me to do what she did, not in a million years. Because we are two different and individual artists. One interesting and even surprising thing about this collab effort is that although Heather and I have the greatest respect for each other's art, we both admit that our art and art styles are very different, indeed almost opposite. She uses a lot of vintage images and text in her art, whereas I rarely do. My art style is more raw and unexpected and unconventional, and hers is more refined and elegant and generally conveys a message. Initially, this was a bit of a concern to us, that our art styles are so very different.

In the beginning, I think both of us, secretly and privately, felt like we had to reach for the "middle ground", and try to make art more like the other person's style. But over time, in a number of wonderfully honest and vulnerable emails, we expressed our thoughts and feelings about this, and realized the goal was not to meet in the middle, or compromise our own art styles, but to make our own art in our own styles, and be true to ourselves. Once we established that and agreed, we felt freedom and excitement and anticipation at what the other would do on our backgrounds. That made it so much more interesting and exciting, knowing that our art styles were so different, but that we could still be true to ourselves.

Heather and I were online acquaintances and friendly before we embarked on this collab effort. But in the process of doing this, we became true friends and got to know each other much better, in a much deeper way. Our friendship grew and blossomed, because we shared our true thoughts and feelings about our art and ourselves and this whole process and collab effort. Now we have a wonderful and special friendship that we intend to maintain, that we both appreciate so much. And I don't think that would've happened if we hadn't embarked on this venture and adventure, and both said an unqualified YES to it, even though we both had some underlying fears and concerns. I am just so grateful that Heather and I agreed to do this project. Grateful for the awesome, beautiful art piece I ended up with....but even more grateful for the friendship and connection we developed, which to me is the real prize!!! Thank you so very much dear Heather, for this awesome art piece, and even more so for your friendship.

I have to shout out to the world -- MISSION ACCOMPLISHED -- beyond my hopes or expectations, regarding this collab effort. And I also have to say that the same thing happened in my first collab effort, with Mary Schweitzer. Click on her name to see my finished piece from her. Mary and I also became friends as a result of our collab effort. Gee, it's funny how that happens. No, not really. I think it's the extra bonus, the special gift, of doing this kind of cooperative venture and adventure with another artist.

So as you might expect or understand, I'm very big on doing the collab thing right now. It's rather a life changing experience, as a person and artist. At least it has been for me and for Heather, as she told me that. I see it as the next step of my art journey, and life journey. And it's not like I sat around and thought about it, about doing collab projects, before the idea came to me last summer. Because it just popped into my head, out of nowhere, totally unexpected. And I just went with it, and invited Mary and Heather to jump in and go with it too. I simply did it on impulse, and am so happy and grateful I did and they did. (Because sometimes when I do things on impulse, well the outcome isn't so great, LOL.)

For those of you artists out there reading this, I totally encourage you to jump in and do a similar collab effort, for the first time. At least try it once, but most likely if you do, you'll want to do more than one. (I've got two more going right now.) I am very fortunate to have a local art group here in Denver metro that meets once a month, and I totally love it. But many of you don't have that. And so I know, you make your art alone at home. Yes, you may belong to great yahoo groups and visit blogs, and know a lot of artists online as acquaintances, but when it comes to online art friendships, and really connecting with other artists, do you have that? Well if so, that's wonderful. If not, and you'd like to have that, then you might need to reach out and take the initiative, and propose a collab effort with another artist. The most likely by-product of that will be friendship and a beautiful piece of art. And gee, if they should turn you down for whatever reason, that's okay. Just know there are other artists out there who would love to do this and would say YES!

I don't know, maybe I'm trying to start a movement here. My muse hasn't confessed to me if that's what she's up to or not. I just know doing a collab effort is a very special thing, with so many positive benefits. It's a challenge, a growth experience, a cooperative experience -- that isn't available doing art alone. It's a totally different experience, and a positive step forward in my opinion, in the art journey. It requires trust, cooperation, communication, vulnerability....all things that build friendship. All things that may not be easy, but the rewards make it totally worth it, in my opinion.

Well, I hope I didn't go on too long here, but this means a lot to me. Not only in my own collab efforts and experiences, but in my hope that YOU out there will try this also, and reap the wonderful rewards and benefits I have. So yes, I'm trying to start a Collab Movement here. I'm wondering, what is the next step in this MOVEMENT? Perhaps the sky is the limit.

The rest of my heart postcards

2009-04-26T23:31:00.006-06:00

Ahh yes, these are my last seven out of ten postcards, if you include the post below. I wasn't able to upload all seven photos in one post, so this is a "split post", so to speak. I've had hearts on my mind and brain for well over a month now, while making all these postcards. It was a fun swap and I love the heart theme. However, at this point I'm glad all my postcards are made and in the mail.

I won't go into detail on how I made these, for fairly obvious reasons. Suffice it to say I used a fabric background on all of them, which was my goal. On some the fabric is glued to frozen pizza cardboard (FPC), on the others I used the Mod Podge technic (explained in a previous post). They are all different, which was my plan.

Soon I'll be starting another collaborative effort with another online artist. Something I look forward to. And also working on my own fabric book, the first time ever. That is if I can get over my fear and intimidation of my new electronic Brother sewing machine. I totally love it, but am not familiar or comfortable with it yet.

The rest of my heart postcards

2009-04-26T23:17:00.004-06:00

Read above post about these postcards.

A dream come true....and my 100th blog post!

2009-04-17T18:04:00.006-06:00

Yes indeed, this is my 100th blog post. When I started this blog on February 10th of 2008, I never envisioned making my 100th post. At that time, as a newbie blogger, I was concerned about making my first few posts, and doing it right. And here it is, 14 months later, and I'm up to posting for the 100th time. So for me, this is kind of a milestone of sorts, and one I'm happy to celebrate.

But even better yet, I have some very exciting news to post about on this special 100th post. I'm marveling at the "timing" of this, and thinking perhaps it was meant to be. My exciting news is that my art work has been published! Yes, a dream and goal of mine has come true. And I'm thrilled about it, even bouncing off the walls. The new book in which my work is published is Collaborative Art Journals and Shared Visions in Mixed Media by L.K. Ludwig. It's supposed to be available in June, but can be pre-ordered on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/reader/1592535208?%5Fencoding=UTF8&ref%5F=sib%5Fdp%5Fpop%5Fidx&page=139#reader-link.

This is the first and only time I've submitted my art for publishing. It came about this way. Over a year ago, I joined a very cool yahoo art group, one of my favorites, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ExpressionStudio/. I became acquainted with, and friends with, two wonderful artists in that group, Darlene Wilkinson and Gail Pierce. Darlene saw the call for art for this book, and invited Gail and myself to participate in a collaborative effort to make a book for submission. She chose the theme for the book as "Circles". Gail and I enthusiastically accepted her invitation, and got busy making eight pages each on manilla folders, and sent them to Darlene, who made her eight pages and then compiled our book and sent it in. We heard back that our book was being considered for being included in L.K. Ludwig's book, and of course we were thrilled. Then for the next year, we didn't hear another thing about it, or receive any communication.

So we've been in the dark about this for over a year, and didn't know until a few days ago when her book was coming out or that our Circles book was included. But now we know, and we're all so excited about it. We are each supposed to receive a complimentary copy of the book, but we don't know when it will arrive. I'm chomping at the bit to get mine, because I don't know which pages of our book were published. And beyond that, I'd love to see and read her book.

So, that's the story on this "adventure", this dream come true for me. When we submitted this book, I was so, so hoping it would be accepted for publishing. And yet, I was wary of having too high expectations, and then possibly being disappointed. I tried not to put too much importance on this, or obsess about it. So yes, it was a dream and goal, but one I tried to keep in perspective. And it's so wonderful to end up achieving this goal, rather than end up disappointed.

I want to give a lot of credit and thanks to my friend Darlene, who initiated this whole idea and our book. Because without her, and if she hadn't so kindly invited me to take part in this....well, this never would've happened for me. Thank you so much Darlene! This book was my first collaborative effort, and it encouraged me to persue other collab efforts with other artists, although those weren't for the purpose of submission for publishing.

The five photos in my last post and the three in this post are of my eight pages in our collaborative Circle book. I've wanted to post these on my blog for over a year, but wasn't able to do that due to the rules of submitting for publication. Now, I can finally post these, which makes me happy. I'm a very happy lady today, for a number of reasons. Today is a good day for me.

My pages in a collaborative Circle book

2009-04-17T17:49:00.005-06:00

Read the next post about this Circle Book.

Ahhh yes, another fabric heart postcard

2009-04-03T20:31:00.005-06:00

Well, I'm involved in a heart postcard swap in a favorite yahoo group right now, and I have to make nine of them. So far I have five done, and four to go. Obviously I have hearts on the brain while I'm making these, and will be posting all or some of them on my blog. All the ones I've made so far are different, but I'm a bit worried about running out of original ideas for all nine of them. We'll see if my muse, Bonita, comes through for me, or if I end up duplicating some of them. The heart theme is right up my alley, because I love using hearts in my art, and have done it fairly often.

I used yellow fabric for the base of this piece, and frayed the edges. I often do that when I use fabric in my art. (I used the Mod Podge on plastic technic that I explained in my post of March 11th, so scroll down to read about that technic). Then I stamped with lavender and green acrylic paints, using my new harlequin stamp and a bottle lid for the green circles. Then I glued down the threads from fraying for great texture.

The cute bird is stamped onto a distressed paint chip (I've explained the distressed paint chip technic in a number of previous posts), and for the heart I glued lace fabric cut from a blouse onto paint chip, then painted it yellow, then rubbed over it with lavender paint. I also glued down a small skeleton leaf, and five seeds that I painted with my very cool three tip paint brush. I also used that brush on the edges for the lavender lines.

I'm proud of myself that I actually used some stamps on this piece. As I've said before, I have sooo many cool stamps and yet so seldom use them in my art. I'm not sure why that is, but it bothers me. Especially when I have so many great stamps, most of which I've never used even once. How sad/crazy is that??? And yet, I keep buying stamps, which makes it even crazier. In fact, I have to fess up that I bought some new stamp sets from Addicted to Rubber Stamps just a week ago, when they had their 31% off sale. They haven't arrived yet. I saved money on the sale, but the shipping cost was a big "ouch"! Due to the high shipping cost, a whopping $8.37, which totally made me wince, I only ended up saving a few dollars on the whole deal. I just can't believe the shipping was so high, when I know the unmounted stamps don't weigh that much.

I rarely buy things online for that very reason -- the outrageous shipping costs! But these are stamp sets I haven't seen at Hobby Lobby or Joann's, so I could only get them online. And now, I'm wondering (and fearing) how long it will take me to actually use them in my art. So anyway, I'm trying to make myself use my stamps more in my art. At least that's a goal of mine.

A Blog Award from Karleen

2009-03-30T10:41:00.005-06:00

Oh my, I've been awarded another blog award. How wonderful is that? Karleen, of the blog Vibrant Jewels, gave me this award. Her blog name is very appropo because yes indeed, she does use vibrant jewels in the beautiful jewelry she creates. And her gorgeous creations are in her etsy shop. Thank you so very much Karleen for thinking of me and giving me this award. I am honored to accept it and to pass it on to three other deserving artists. My choices are:

Dawn Gold of Gold Betty Boop

Christy of Average American Girl

Faye of Faye's Art Blog

Just click on their names to go to their blogs and enjoy their beautiful art work.

Nature Art

2009-03-29T11:33:00.007-06:00

This is a 4x6 inch piece I did over a year ago and posted on my blog way back then. I'm posting it again now because I want to enter it into the Saturday Surprise challenge, of which my good art friend Heather Robinson is hosting. The theme this week is Mother Nature. Also, when I first posted this piece my blog was very new and not that many people knew about it or visited. So this time around perhaps more people will view and hopefully enjoy it. If you want to know how I made this piece, here's the link to my first post, where I explained that. http://valsalteredheartjourney.blogspot.com/2008/02/ive-been-good-little-art-do-bee.html

Regarding nature art, I love it. It's one of my favorite themes. I mean, what could be better than using items from nature to create art? I used tea dyed cheese cloth to wrap this piece, kind of like a present I guess. I love using cheese cloth in my art, and love it even more if it's tea dyed. The idea to wrap it like this came at the very end, when I thought it was done. But it wasn't quite done yet, according to my muse, Bonita. Oh yes, I do love her....but sometimes she can be frustratingly contrary and unpredictable. However, on this piece she came through for me, and I think wrapping it with the cheese cloth was the exact right thing to do. Thank you Bonita!

Lately I've been involved in a heart postcard swap in one of my favorite yahoo groups. I've already posted two that I've made, and will be posting a few more in the near future. Oh, it's so good to be making art again, after a dreaded art slump. Making art rocks!!! And Bonita has been very supportive and cooperative lately, which makes my heart sing.

Another heart fabric postcard

2009-03-20T15:24:00.012-06:00

Well, I seem to be in the mode right now of making fabric heart postcards. And actually, being in the mode and mood of making art, any art, whatever it is, is a good thing in my book....since I'm just recovering from being in a dreaded art slump/funk. I love using hearts in my art, and also using fabric. I have a wonderful stash of accumulated fabrics, many of them remnants bought at thrift stores, some at yard sales. Sometimes I buy clothes at yard sales, which tend to be very very cheap, for the purpose of cutting them up to use in my art. It's rare indeed that I actually buy new fabric to use in my art, except for quilting fat quarters (always on sale) occasionally, because I love the colors and patterns.

When I make art postcards, they are always 4x6 inches, the standard size for a postcard. Or as near to that as I can get. And most times, when I work with fabric in my art, it's hard for me to resist fraying the edges, especially with postcards. I love the way frayed edges look, and also love using the threads from fraying, glued down for great texture. Which is what I did on this piece, and then rubbed the threads with lavender acrylic paint for contrast.

I used the same Mod Podge technic on this piece as on my last post, to add strength and flexibility to the fabric. It just works so well, it's almost amazing. MP is also relatively inexpensive (still, after all these years), and I always use a 40% or 50% off coupon when I buy it. The fabric I used for the two squares is the same fabric I used for the pc base. The middle piece is cut out of a window blind sample I got at Lowe's, the same as in my last posted piece. (Lowe's has a wealth of great things to use in art.) The hearts were punched out of a paint chip. Last but not least, I chose to glue down (using gel medium) two small skeleton leaves.

I do like the colors on this, and experimenting with color combinations. Although I don't think I do that often enough in my art. I don't really know much about color, so I mostly just go with what colors I think look good together.

I'm submitting this to Saturday Surprise (http://saturdaychallenge.blogspot.com/) for their challenge this week. The theme is Sewing Basket -- using anything that can be used for sewing in our art.

Heart postcard for a swap

2009-03-11T13:27:00.009-06:00

I'm so HAPPY to be posting again with some more new art, after a too long dry art slump. I worked on this piece yesterday, and had fun making it. Well actually, I started on it two days ago, because it had to dry overnight. I love using hearts in my art, which I do fairly often, so signing up for this swap in one of my favorite yahoo groups was right up my alley, so to speak.

I remembered I had done a certain technic on a postcard swap a few years ago that worked out well, so I chose to revisit that technic for this postcard. I cut out a piece of muslin fabric and frayed the edges and saved the threads. Then I put it on top of a plastic bag, and painted it with lots of matte Mod Podge, basically saturated it. That's why it had to dry overnight. Then I peeled it off the plastic. This technic is quite simple, and gives the fabric some strength and stiffness, and yet is totally flexible. It almost ends up feeling like a thick piece of plastic. It totally changes the feel of the fabric, but doesn't affect the look of it.

Then I painted it with Sweetheart Blush acrylic paint, and then glued down the thread I'd saved from the fraying. I love using threads for texture, especially on fabric art. Once dry, I rubbed orange paint over them with my finger, to bring out the texture and the contrast. I used the same orange paint on the frayed edges, to frame the whole piece. The three strips on the right were cut from a window blind sample I got at Lowe's. I painted them with yellow paint first, then rubbed orange paint over them to bring out the great texture. Then used a paper punch to punch the three hearts out of a yellow paint chip. After I glued the hearts on, I used a triple tip brush to paint on the parallel lines. I love that brush, and bought it at Joann's a while back, but they no longer carry it at the Joann's I shop at. What a shame, it's a great way to paint on parallel lines. I take really good care of that brush!

The large heart was cut out of paint chip, and then I glued down printed fabric over it. The details of the pattern on the fabric don't show up very well on this scan, but it has a cool linear pattern, with just the right colors for this piece. After I glued that down, I pulled out some squash seeds I'd washed and saved, and glued those down around the heart. Then I painted them, and used the triple tip brush again to paint the lines on. I'm amazed at how those lines changed the whole look of the painted seeds. I sealed the whole piece with Future Floor Finish (FFF), which gives a glossy finish.

Regarding the colors I used, I love this color combination, it's one of my favorites. I've used it a few times in my art, but actually not that often. I was using brown so much in my art for so long, and I love it for sure, but felt I needed to get back to using more color in some of my art. Because I also love using bold color. I don't know, maybe I just go through certain phases at certain times, which never seem to be predictable.

I think it's fun to revisit certain technics that I forgot about. This is a great and simple technic, and I'm glad it came to my mind for this piece. I love the way it gives strength to lightweight fabric, and feels so different than gluing fabric to cardboard. I didn't "invent" this technic, I learned about it online, but forget the source. If I could remember, I'd include the link, but I simply don't remember. I'd also like to say that although the Mod Podge easily penetrated to the back of this muslin piece, it doesn't penetrate the same way with all fabrics. So if it doesn't penetrate through to the back of the piece, you may have to turn it over when it's dry and Mod Podge the backside, or Mod Podge both sides more than once, to get the strength and stiffness you want. Basically you can play with this technic to get your own desired results.

So that's how this piece was made, with no pain or angst or problems. Woohoo for that. Any questions??? Or suggestions??? It was so great to have fun making this piece, and I'm excited it's for a swap. I just hope the person I send it to likes it. That's always a consideration in a swap, isn't it?

Three Hearts

2009-03-06T07:48:00.006-07:00

This is a 5x5 piece I created yesterday. I haven't been doing much art in the past month, so I was happy to get this done. The background is a dyed paper towel, glued onto frozen pizza cardboard (FPC). Then I painted random lines onto that in lavender, and glued down a frayed piece of muslin fabric. I took the frayed threads and glued those down also. When dry, I rubbed green paint over them. I used an embossing tool to make the dots with turquoise paint. An embossing tool always makes perfect dots, although I didn't get them on there very straight. I cut the hearts out of corrugated paper, rubbed them with different color paints and glued those down, and sprinkled very fine glitter on them. Easy peasy, and now I can finally say I got some new art done. Ahhh, now I feel so much better! It bothers me when I go this long not posting on my blog. Then again, sometimes life intervenes.

Blog Award

2009-02-11T07:58:00.003-07:00

A while back I was honored with a blog award by Marianne Konvalinka, http://mkonvalinka.blogspot.com/ . I wasn't able to post it until now. Thank you so very much Marianne. I so appreciate you thinking of me, and I am honored to accept this award. Marianne has a wonderful, artistic, and interesting blog, so please click on the link and take a look.

Honorees please follow these instructions and share the LUV!
1. Put the logo on your blog or post. (You can highlight the photo and text of this post and copy/paste wherever you need to...start your highlight from the bottom up to get the photo).
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show GREAT ATTITUDE and/or GRATITUDE
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received the award.

All awards have their rules, which may differ with each award. Up till now, I've always followed the rules for each award and never changed them. However, this time I'm going to change the rules, in the interest of time, because it would take a lot of time to go through the steps of passing this award on to ten other people, time I don't have today. I hope that doesn't offend anyone. Different bloggers have different opinions of rules for awards and also for tagging. And sometimes I wonder, who makes up the rules? Does anyone know?

Well, anyway, I've decided to pare it down and pass this blog award on to two other people. And these are the people I have chosen to honor with this award.

Linda Themer at the Textured Turtle http://texturedturtle.blogspot.com/

Kim at Ruined Art http://ruinedart.blogspot.com/

Please take at look at their artistic and interesting blogs.

Washboard Effect

2009-02-05T10:32:00.003-07:00

This is a 5x5 art squared piece I made a few weeks ago. After I made my "Starkness of Winter" piece with the weathered by nature corrugated cardboard, I still had some left over, fortunately. So I decided to use some on this piece, and just play around. I've been "into" the harlequin pattern lately, and finally bought a harlequin rubber stamp, my first one, and wanted to play with that too. And then I noticed that the bottom of a styrofoam meat tray I had washed and kept also had a harlequin pattern, which excited me, so I cut a rectangular piece out and used that for a stamp also, in the lower left corner.

So this piece is about weathered corrugated cardboard and the harlequin pattern, and as always, texture. I started with frozen pizza cardboard (FPC) as my base. I used the brown side, and etched random lines in it with a sharp awl for texture, then rubbed the piece with paste brown shoe polish. Then I glued down corrugated cardboard, and then some tea dyed cheese cloth on top of that. I also glued down a piece of rusted dryer sheet in the lower left corner. Then I used lavender and green acrylic paint and stamped with my harlequin stamps, and also painted over the corrugated cardboard. Then I rubbed brown shoe polish over the cheese cloth and dryer sheet and corrugated cardboard.

Then I distressed lavender and green paint chips by sanding them, and etching diagonal lines to get a harlequin pattern, then rubbing with the brown shoe polish. Then I used paper punches to punch out the shapes and glued them down. I don't often use beads in my work, although I have lots of cool beads, so on this piece I decided to use them. Just one more art supply I have that I should use more often. So I glued various beads down, and then sealed the whole piece with Future Floor Finish (FFF), which gives a glossy finish. The last touch was the cool rusted old key, from my stash off ebay.

I had to take a digital picture of this, rather than scanning it, due to the dimension on the piece.
I prefer to scan, because it's so much easier, although the colors don't always come out true. That's the downside of scanning. And the down side of taking pics is that oftentimes, there is unwanted glare. I even took this picture outdoors, so my flash didn't go off, which was what I wanted. Even so, there's some minor glare over the cheese cloth, which ends up looking like glitter, but there's no glitter on this piece. I enjoyed using the weathered corrugated cardboard as an element on this piece, and think it gives a washboard effect, hence the title.

I still have a few small pieces left of the weathered corrugated cardboard that I'm sure I'll use in one way or another. I'm so glad I accidently discovered it behind my garage a while back, and don't know where it came from, perhaps the trash, but am grateful. What a cool gift it was! And just to make sure I don't run out, I put a large pizza box, (not the frozen kind but the kind delivered, the corrugated kind, and no it wasn't for me but for my housemate) out behind my garage, where it can be weathered by nature. I sprinkled twigs and dried leaves over it, just for good measure, and weighted it down with a brick, so it won't blow away. Since I live in Colorado (Denver metro), and it's only February, I'm sure we'll be getting more snow and winter weather. I don't know exactly how long it will take to adequately distress and weather the pizza box, but I figure that is up to Mother Nature. At some point it will end up looking very cool and I can use it in my art.

However, today, at 11:30 am, it's 59 degrees outside, with the sun shining and a beautiful blue sky. The high is supposed to reach 64. Yesterday it was even warmer, close to 70. I don't know why we've been blessed with such beautiful, spring like weather, but I'm certainly enjoying it while it lasts. Because I know it won't last, but it sure gives me a case of spring fever. Anyway, it'll be interesting to check on the pizza box from time to time, and see how it's coming along, see what Mother Nature is doing to it.

Update to last post

2009-02-03T08:29:00.004-07:00

My good art buddy and collaborator, Mary Schweitzer, http://greenwomandesign.blogspot.com/
has posted a tutorial on her blog on how she made her fabulous tree. So please take a look.

Collaborative Project -- Fairy in a Tree

2009-01-30T13:23:00.007-07:00

Wow! Isn't this a fabulous piece of art? And I'm the very lucky owner of it. Recently my good art buddy, Mary Schweitzer,http://greenwomandesign.blogspot.com/, and I agreed to do a personal swap. We wanted to do a collaborative project. And so we did, and this is my piece that I get to keep and admire and treasure. We each worked on our own 8x10 pieces, then sent them to each other to be worked on, and then sent them back.This was a first, and totally new to us, to do this kind of collaboration. I think we were both nervous about working on each other's art, but that was the whole point, so we jumped in and did it. For results we couldn't have gotten on our own, as this beautiful piece shows. And I'd like to encourage those of you who do personal swaps to consider doing a collab effort like this, because you don't know what to expect. And what you get back can be so much better than what you sent, as this piece proves.

I made the collage background, and Mary made the oh so realistic tree, with a fairy perched in it. I mean truly, doesn't this tree look totally real??? When it came in the mail and I opened it, I was bowled over and blown away with what she did on this. And immediately emailed her to ask HOW she made the tree. She made the tree with brown tissue paper and gel medium, and lots of scrunching and shaping. I think she should do a tutorial on this on her blog. Because I've never seen tissue paper used this way before, nor seen such a realistic, dimensional tree on art before. I'm just so lucky it's on my art, and that I'm the lucky owner of this fabulous piece.

I've admired Mary's art for a long time now, even to the point of (shame on me) envy. I consider her a very innovative and avant garde artist, who tends to think outside the box and push the envelope when it comes to her beautiful art. I was thrilled when she agreed to do his collab swap with me. And I'm more than thrilled with this art work, and that we followed through on our idea to do a collab project.

So thank you so much Mary, I couldn't be more pleased with how this worked out. I'm so lucky and proud to own some of your avant garde art. Please visit Mary's blog, and enjoy her beautiful art. And if you even feel a bit envious, I can relate to that. And if you want to see Mary's piece, and what I did on it, she has it posted on her blog. What is so interesting to me is how very different our pieces are, and what we both did on the other's pieces. That's what's so cool about doing a collab effort -- you just don't know how it will turn out until you get it back.

So right now, I'm thinking COLLABORATION RULES!!! Can you blame me?

A Beautiful Blog Award from Faye

2009-01-26T12:44:00.007-07:00

Oh my goodness, I was just given another blog award. And once again, I am thrilled and honored. Thank you so much Faye, for thinking of me and honoring me with an award. It's a wonderful and heart warming experience to receive recognition for my art and my blog. And congratulations to you Faye for receiving your awards. In fact Faye just received several blog awards, which I think are richly deserved. Here is a link to her wonderful blog, so just click on it and see for yourself -- http://hastingshall2.blogspot.com/

Now I am to choose five other artist/bloggers to receive this same award. And these are the ones I choose, who I think deserve this award. Please click on their names to view their beautiful art and deserving blogs.

Mary Schweitzer - Green Woman Creating

Sharon K. Shubert Art Designs Blog

Viola - Mixed Media Art

Gail Pierce - Expression Studio

Darlene Wilkinson - Artticulation

Understand with Your Heart

2009-01-23T21:36:00.003-07:00

This is something I made yesterday. I don't often use text in my art, but I think maybe I should more often. Other than the text, I didn't really plan this out, which is mostly normal for me. Once again, I used frozen pizza cardboard (FPC) for the base, which is 5x7 inches. I cut up a lace blouse for the background, which I bought at a yard sale a while back and forgot I had. It was a cute blouse, but much too small for me. But I definitely liked the texture of the lace and knew I'd use it in my art.

After I glued it down, I painted it with Sweetheart Blush acrylic paint, then rubbed paste brown shoe polish over it. Then I used a bold yellow paint, and rubbed it over some the lace with my finger. Then I sealed it with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF) from the Family Dollar store. The rectangular piece at the top is a distressed paint chip, sanded and etched with an awl, and then rubbed with brown shoe polish. I used a corner rounder punch for the corners. This was the kind of paint chip that already had the "windows" cut out of it, so I glued a fiber ribbon piece across those on the back of the paint chip, then glued it to the background. I punched the hearts out of another paint chip and glued those down.

The text piece came from an Inspirations daily calendar. I tore around the text and the image (a parrot), then crumpled it up, then rubbed over it with brown shoe polish, and glued it down. I also used a green skeleton leaf to repeat the green of the text piece.

I thought it was done at that point, but then the idea to make a cross came to me. But I didn't know what to use for that. So I looked around my studio and spotted some screening that I thought would work, and cut it out of that. Lastly, I glued on the rusted bottle cap. Just because I love using rusted found objects (RFOs) in my art, and I have quite a stash of them by now. I chose an assymetrical, imperfect one, because hey, none of us are perfect, right? At least that's what it meant to me, and why I used that one.

Once again, I used some of my favorite things on this piece. Such as lace for texture, distressed paint chip, hearts, a skeleton leaf, and an RFO. I keep coming back to using some of my favorite things. I see that as a good thing. Also, I'm glad I chose to use text to convey a wise message, mostly for myself. If it reaches anyone else and touches them too, that's all the better.

Bloom (where you are planted)

2009-01-18T16:55:00.004-07:00

I've heard this saying before, and yes, it makes a lot of sense. However, it's easier said than done oftentimes. I realize it has to do with accepting one's circumstances, and making the best of them. But I must admit, at times, I've found that difficult to do. Have any of you found that too? Right now I'm going through a difficult and scary time, regarding my work situation, and I'm trying really hard to be calm about it and find the silver lining in what I'm going through. I won't go into any detail here, but suffice it to say that work-wise, things could be going a whole lot better.

So this is the new art I made in the past few days. I didn't plan it to turn out this way, but it did and for the most part, I'm happy with it. Perhaps my work situation is weighing more heavily on my mind and heart than I realized. This is a 5x7 inch piece on my old standby, frozen pizza cardboard (FPC). However, this is two pieces glued together. On the first piece, I ended up crumpling it up to get more texture, so it wasn't laying flat. Once I used gel medium to glue it to another piece of FPC, that solved the problem, as I knew it would.

I started out on the brown side, and used a sharp awl to score diagonal lines in it, to create a harlequin design. For some reason, I've been into harlequins lately. Once that was done, I sanded over it and then rubbed brown shoe polish over it. Then I used Sweetheart Blush acrylic paint over it, one of my favorite colors, especially when it's used with yellow. After that dried, I rubbed yellow paint over it in parts with my finger. Then I stamped the Sweetheart Blush on with a new harlequin stamp, and then did that also with the yellow paint. Then I sealed with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF) from the Family Dollar Store, which makes the color pop. At that point, I really liked the texture I achieved.

Then I pulled out a rusted washer, (a beautifully rusted washer I might add) from my rusted found object stash, to use as the center of the flower. Then I glued down all the seeds I saved from my yard, that fall from one of our trees. I don't know what kind of tree it is, but I sure love using the seeds in my art. (I don't, however, love them when they fall all over my car!!!) Oh, I forgot to mention that I glued down the burgundy skeleton leaves before I worked on the flower.
Then I sealed again with AFF, and was surprised to find that the color from the leaves started to run. I didn't know that would happen, but I didn't mind so much, it was kind of a happy accident.

The word "Bloom" was etched with an awl on a distressed paint chip. Which was sanded first, then etched, then rubbed with brown paste shoe polish. The key is a wonderfully rusted key from one of my ebay lots, and I glued it down over a piece of yellow fabric. On the real piece, the fabric is yellow, and looks good on this piece. Unfortunately, on the scan, the fabric doesn't look yellow, it looks washed out and much lighter than it is. I sealed it once again with AFF, which accounts for the burgundy on the bloom piece and the fabric.

I used some of my favorite things on this piece. Such as: rusted found object, seeds, distressed paint chip, an old rusted key, fabric, and skeleton leaves. And I'm really liking the effect of the harlequin design on the background. So, all in all, I'm pleased with this piece.

Regarding "Bloom where I'm planted"....well, I'm still working on that.

Playing with my image editor

2009-01-13T00:43:00.007-07:00

Well, this is kind of interesting. I used the fish eye lens special effect on my image editor to get the second image. I think it looks cool -- what do you think? I've never tried that before.

This is a 5x7 inch piece I made yesterday. The base is frozen pizza cardboard (FPC). I had some dyed paper towels, so I decided to use one on this. I wanted something colorful, and purple is one of my favorite colors. I also used a purple watercolor crayon, on the left side and bottom, from my Lyra Aquacolor set. I used water and a brush, and painted parallel lines, and they looked nice and even. But later I sealed the piece with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF), not realizing that the watercolor crayon marks would run. Like duh....I should've known that, but I didn't think about it. So my nice, even lines all ran. Ahh, but not to worry, the way they ran looks fine to me.

The hearts were punched out of a distressed (sanded) paint chip. Usually I then rub it with brown shoe polish, but I didn't want brown on this piece, so I rubbed it with a violet glaze and then wiped it off. The pony is stamped onto the same distressed paint chip. That is a new stamp I just got off ebay. The company is 2nd Nature Arts, and I think it has some neat stamps. You might want to check them out. Here is a link to the ebay store http://tinyurl.com/7hwxzu I ended up buying five. These are unmounted stamps. I shouldn't be buying new stamps, because I have so many I haven't used yet, but I thought some of these stamps were unlike any I'd seen, so I just had to have them. At least I'm proud of myself for using one on this piece.

I also used a harlequin stamp and stamped with yellow and then violet acrylic paint, but it barely shows up, due to how textural the paper towel is. That's dyed cheese cloth under the hearts, and the piece under the key is some yellow fabric rubbed with gold waxy stuff (kind of similar to Rub n Buff). I outlined the hearts and pony with purple glitter glue (GG), and the yellow fabric with gold glitter glue. I really like outlining with GG, but I get very nervous when I do, afraid I'll screw up. Which isn't hard to do -the screwing up part - and I've screwed up with it before. But on this piece, all went well with the GG. The key is from a lot of old keys off ebay.

Cyber Fyber Gallery Exhibition

2009-01-05T14:28:00.009-07:00

The Cyber Fyber Gallery Exhibition is set to open in Columbia, South Carolina on January 8th, in just three days. Susan Lenz, a very generous and talented fiber artist, put this massive project together, and has been working on it for over a year. Thank you so much Susan, your hard work is appreciated. Here's a link to her blog, just click on it. http://cyberfyberexhibition.blogspot.com/ There are links on her blog to where you can view the fiber art submitted, and get other information on this fantastic show.

The fabric/fiber postcard I posted here is the one I made for this show. I swapped with Susan for one of her beautiful fabric postcards. I didn't do any sewing on this postcard, but did use lots of fabric and fiber. The background is fabric and lace I rusted myself. (Here's a link to my post on that on my blog. http://valsalteredheartjourney.blogspot.com/2008/02/these-are-photos-of-various-fabrics.html) Then I glued down tea dyed cheese cloth, rusted found objects, some cool fiber trim, and the sun charm.

This piece is a bit unconventional, compared to the vast majority of postcards submitted, 276 in total. Here's the link to where you can view all of the postcards. http://cyberfyberonlinepostcards.blogspot.com/ Many beautiful postcards were submitted, so you should take a look and feast on the eye candy and huge variety of fabric/fiber art. I think it will excite you!

There will be a People's Choice Award given for the winning postcard and the winning ATC. The postcard with the combined "most comments" and votes from the exhibition at Gallery 80808/Vista Studio will be the winner. Consequently, comments do count and are important on that. Sooo, if you like my postcard, then please go to it and leave a comment. Here's the link again -- http://cyberfyberonlinepostcards.blogspot.com/, and my postcard is number 121, so just scroll down to it. And if you see other postcards you'd like to comment on, please do that too. I'm totally amazed and pleased at the variety of postcards submitted, it's totally awesome. I just wish I could go to the show, and see it in person.

Starkness of Winter

2009-01-03T11:13:00.006-07:00

This is another winter piece, and quite different in appearance from the last one. I wanted this one to look more real, more raw, more natural. I found a very weathered piece of corrugated cardboard behind our garage, distressed naturally by nature. That's what inspired me to do this piece. Then I pulled the rusted piece out of my rusted found objects (RFOs) stash. Oh yeah....this was a perfectly rusted piece! The leaf I picked up from my yard a while back, and stuck it in a book to flatten it, so I pulled that out too. Then I scavenged in my yard for just the right twig. And then I was ready to start on this piece.

The base on this is an 8x10 inch piece of frozen pizza cardboard (FPC). I probably should've used chip board, because there's some minor, minimal warping on this, but not bad enough to effect it much. The white background is white caulk spread on with a vintage, non-serrated butter knife. I texturized it as I spread it, then let it dry for about three hours. Then I sprinkled on some walnut ink crystals, spray misted it with water, and let the ink run down the piece randomly. Then I used double stick carpet tape to adhere the corrugated cardboard. I'm so glad I thought of using the tape on this, because using Matte Mod Podge or gel medium would've been much messier and more difficult, especially with a non-flat piece of corrugated cardboard.

After I adhered that, I glued down the leaf, the tea dyed cheese cloth, the rusted metal, and the twig. Then I sprinkled some more walnut ink crystals over those areas, spray misted with water, and just let it dry. The last thing I glued down was the feather, as kind of an after thought.

There are different colors and textures of winter, in my mind. After a fresh snowfall, there can be pristine beauty, eery stillness, even a peaceful feeling. But there can also be starkness, and the color of brown, rather than white, can dominate. I was trying to express starkness in this piece.

Winter in Color and Texture

2008-12-29T14:24:00.010-07:00

Oh my gosh, I'm so pleased with this piece and how it turned out. Actually more than pleased....I'm somewhat shocked that this came from me, and that I made it. More so knowing that it was a very easy, simple piece to make. I don't know, perhaps sometimes the simplest pieces of art can turn out the best. I've never been a big believer in "less is more" with my art, but now I'm inclined to believe that can be true in some cases.

This is a piece I made two days ago. In the span of a few hours. No pain, no angst, no false starts. And no, I didn't fly by the seat of my pants on this one. This one was planned ahead of time for entry into an art contest on a cool art website I signed up on recently. The theme of this particular contest is "Let it Snow". I looked at all the entries so far just to get an idea of what was being entered, and discovered the theme is wide open in how it can be interpreted. I was happy to learn that. So I knew I wanted to enter this online contest, and just sat back and let some ideas percolate in my mind for a few days until I had an idea I could start with.

I thought well, I should have some white in this piece, but it doesn't have to be all white or only white. It mainly has to evoke the idea of winter in some way. Then I thought, what evokes winter but bare trees? Trees with no leaves on them. So I cut some twigs off a tree in my yard. Then I thought I should paint them white. Regarding the background, I thought of using caulk, since it's white to start with, and I wanted lots of texture on this piece. (Well like duh....when do I not want lots of texture in my art?)

I always get excited when I use caulk in my art. It's one of my favorite media to use. So I spread wonderful caulk over this 5x7 inch piece with abandon. The base here is chip board. I used a vintage butter knife (with no serrations) to spread the caulk to get the kind of texture I wanted. That was easy enough and only took a few minutes to accomplish. The hard part was waiting for the caulk to dry, which I helped along with my hair dryer. I waited a few hours, and then proceeded.

Then I thought about painting it, and the colors I wanted to use. My first thought was using blue (acrylic) paint, because to me, blue is a winter color. Then it occurred to me to dilute the paint with water, to make it thin enough to run over the textured caulk in a totally random manner. It was fun to watch it run down this piece, to see the effect of randomness. I liked the way it looked with just the blue and white at that point. I had some cheese cloth dyed blue, so I glued that over the piece on which the twigs are glued. After I glued down the cheese cloth, I painted Matte Mod Podge on and sprinkled with very, very fine purple glitter. I wanted even more texture on the base piece, so I glued down some white and blue synthetic fibers I had. They were in a package I had bought a long time ago, and totally forgot about, but happened upon for this piece.

I liked it, but felt it needed another color, and purple is one of my favorite colors. I also felt it needed more white, but chose to use metallic platinum instead, and also metallic purple. I diluted those with glaze, and once again let them run down the piece. With the fibers on there, the diluted paint ran even more randomly. Then I glued on the twig piece, and outlined it with permanent blue marker. And voila, it was done and finished.

A part of me started thinking maybe I could add something more, but my muse adamantly put her foot down, and said NO, this piece is done!!! I had to agree with her, because I wanted this piece to be simple and organic. And I felt adding anything more would be too much, and ruin the organic effect. And I'm so glad I listened to my muse, and didn't argue. I'm not always that cooperative with my muse.

I haven't used caulk in my art for quite a while, and now I realize I've missed using it. It provides such fantastic texture, and is so easy to use, and what makes it even better is how cheap and accessible it is!!!

So in closing, I'm VERY happy with how this piece turned out, it's like how I pictured it in my mind when I started. And believe me, not much of my art turns out how I envision it when I start. Which is fine and okay, different approaches at different times to different pieces of art is okay, it's the "artist's way" I believe. For most of my art, I have no plans and fly by the seat of my pants. But sometimes, I settle down with a plan, and actually make it happen. I like making art both ways, and don't necessarily think one way is better than the other.

As an addendum here, I'm submitting this piece to the Mixed Media Monday (MMM) challenge. Here's the link. http://mixedmediamonday.wordpress.com/

Old keys -- wonderful keys

2008-12-23T16:49:00.009-07:00

My oh my, I guess I've been a very good girl this year. Santa is giving me all these oh so cool old keys!!! However, I don't have a chimney or fireplace, so he's sending them through ebay. Ah yes, Merry Christmas to me, and sometimes, ebay rocks!

As some of you may know, if you visit my blog on a regular or even not so regular basis, recently I've been using old (some even antique) keys in my art. Well, I stumbled onto this penchant I've developed for very cool old keys several months ago, and where else would I go to find them but ebay? I've been fortunate enough to win several auction lots for old skeleton keys and funky flat keys.

When I first started looking for old keys on ebay, I didn't know what to expect. So I was shocked to find out just how popular and sought after they are, and how hard it is to find a good deal on them, and how hard it is to win an auction. I bid on, and lost, many auctions before I finally started scoring by bidding at the very last minute. Even then, I lost quite often. However, I did score on some of them.

Most old key lots go for much more money that I'd ever want to spend. And most get bid on early, and end up with many bids and bid up high, before they end. I didn't even try to bid on those auctions. I had a rule for myself, that I wouldn't pay more than 50 cents per key, including shipping, and generally it worked out that that's what I had to pay on the ones I won. But considering what most key lots go for, I considered myself lucky.

But hey, on this auction, I really struck gold, and right before Christmas to boot. I kept my eye on this particular auction for several days, and it never got bid on. Which is totally rare for old key lots. I know, because I've been watching them for several months now. This one ended early this morning, and I knew I'd still be in bed when it ended, so I had to bid on it last night before I went to bed. I only bid a dollar over the entry price, and fully expected to be outbid. I was totally shocked and amazed that no one outbid me, or bid at all. I was the only bidder on this auction. Totally amazing!!!

Because this lot contains 100, yes 100 keys. The entry price was $9.99 and shipping was 7.60. So I got 100 keys for $17.59, or 17.5 cents each. Unbelievable!!! And far less than my rule of 50 cents per key. This is by far the best deal I've ever gotten on ebay for old keys. I'm still in shock that I was the only bidder on this auction. I kept waiting to see it bid on, and it never happened. Not even after I bid on it.

So anyway, I'm thrilled about this, and feel so great to get such a bargain on these old keys, knowing what they normally sell for on ebay. Today was my lucky day!!! And also, after winning this huge lot, I doubt I'll be bidding on anymore keys anytime soon. Now I just have to start using them in my art....more than I have been. There might just be a key on every piece of art I make from now on.

Merry Christmas to me, Merry Christmas to me! I really lucked out, and Santa is sending me a whole bunch of old keys. I must've been a very, very good girl this year.

And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you out there. May each one of you have a wonderful and blessed Christmas, and make a memory to treasure always. And in the hustle and bustle and stress of Christmas, may we always remember the REAL meaning of Christmas, and that Jesus is the reason for the season. Amazing grace! If not for Him, there would be no Christmas. May God bless all of you.

Green Lady

2008-12-21T16:11:00.005-07:00

This was made today for entry into the Theme Thursday challenge. The theme this week was using the colors green and brown in a piece. A fairly simple theme, not hard to achieve. On this, I used the brown side of frozen pizza cardboard (FPC) for a 5x5 inch piece. First I painted it randomly in a few different colors of brown. Then I squeezed on some tan paint and put down Saran Wrap over the whole piece, and scrunched it up in places, to get a textural effect. I let that dry overnight before peeling off the Saran Wrap. I've only tried this technic one other time, and would've preferred more texture, but it worked pretty well. Next time I think I'd use more paint for more texture.

After that, I rubbed some green paint on randomly with my finger. Then I stamped with brown paint with some eraser domino stamps I made a few years ago. Due to the increased texture, it's a little hard to tell they are supposed to be dominos, but that's what they are. I used a stencil to trace the figure onto scrapbook paper, then cut that out and glued it down. Then I used my Hot Stamps tool and burned on the number three, the other marks, and the three question marks. Those may be a bit hard to see, you have to really look for them. Lastly, I sealed the piece with Future Floor Finish (FFF). Amazingly enough, I didn't use any brown shoe polish on this piece. I almost did, but decided otherwise.

Time to post again

2008-12-17T09:50:00.007-07:00

These are two works I'm entering into the Crazy Amigo Challenge at http://crazyamigochallenge.wordpress.com/. I don't often enter weekly challenges like this, but lately I've been following Heather Robinson's lead, who enters lots of weekly challenges. Heather, http://creativesolace.blogspot.com/, is an excellent artist and good art buddy of mine, and I so admire her art. Some of you already visit her blog, but for those who don't, you really should -- it will be a treat! Heather and I have a personal swap coming up soon, a collaborative effort we'll be working on. I'm looking forward to that a lot. I think it will be very interesting to see what we end up with, considering our art styles are totally different. Greetings Heather!

The theme of the Crazy Amigo Challenge this week is Hearts. And I do love using hearts in my art! The first piece I created yesterday. I used a sharp awl to scratch diagonal lines into the brown side of a 5x5 piece of frozen pizza cardboard. (I should start abbreviating that into FPC, lol, I use it so often for a base.) Then I rubbed it with brown paste shoe polish, so the lines would show up. Then I glued some torn music paper, and text and an image torn from an old Cumberland General Store catalog published in 1976, and rubbed them with shoe polish. I don't even remember where I got that catalog, maybe at a yard sale, but I think I should start using the images, they are great. The rectangle on the right is a distressed paint chip. I've shared how I distress them in previous posts. I outlined that with a gold paint pen. The hearts were cut out of brown candy wrappers, the the gold circle was punched out of a foil bag that once contained coffee. After the fact, I don't think gold was the best color to use for the circle, but oh well. And the letters and number were burned into the piece with my Wallnut Hollow Hot Stamps tool. I finished by sealing it with Future Floor Finish (FFF).

The second piece is one I made a few weeks ago, and entered into a yahoo group challenge, the theme being using the colors red and green. I used the FPC as a base, but used the colorful image side, after sanding it a bit. Then I used my sharp awl to distress it and scratch the text into it, then rubbed with shoe polish. Then I rubbed magenta acrylic paint over it and quickly wiped some of it off, then rubbed green glaze over certain parts. I stamped with scroll stamps in the green. Then I glued down the hearts and the frame, made from distressed paint chips. Lastly, I sealed it with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF from the Family Dollar store that gives more of a satin finish.)

As an aside, I wanted to say that I stumbled onto this website yesterday, myartfriends.com http://www.myartfriends.com/index.php, and decided to join. It looked interesting to me, and there's some good art there, and lots of different artists. So, I posted some of my work there, and will be posting more as time goes on. The works I posted have already been posted here on my blog. Just wanted to share that site with all of you.

That's all folks.

The Joy of Serendipity

2008-12-13T19:01:00.006-07:00

This is my latest work, just finished. I spent a few hours on it today. Well, I have to admit that I'm rather slow when it comes to creating art, I can never rush through it and get it done quickly. Even when I think I can, and try to, it never works out that way. However, I do have to say I really enjoyed making this piece, and it was fun and easy. Why??? Because I was in the "zone", of just doing whatever came to mind. No stress, no pressure, no angst, no frustration, etc. Gee, it would be so, so cool if I could be in the "zone" all the time, but noooo, that's not the way it works out a good part of the time. So when I'm actually in the zone, I truly appreciate it and enjoy it.

I was SO in the zone on this piece, it's even hard for me to remember exactly how it came about and the steps involved in making it. I started out with a 5x7 piece of frozen pizza cardboard. And then used my very sharp awl to distress the brown side of it, which I've never done before. And rubbed brown show polish over it. I always paint or glue down a background first, but this time I didn't. Then I glued down some torn music paper, map paper, and text paper, and rubbed more shoe polish over it. Then I glued down some strips of rusted dryer sheets and rusted fabric and fibers from fraying the fabric. I also glued down a large skeleton leaf.

Then I used my Walnut Hollow Hot Stamps tool, which is basically a woodburning tool, and heat stamped the letters and numbers on. I thought it was finished at that point, but it wasn't. I sealed the whole piece with Future Floor Finish for a glossy effect, and while it was still wet, flicked Pearl Ex on it in gold and then copper. Again, I thought it was done, but decided no.... as in I had to push the envelope. I chose to spray mist it with Memories Mists in Strawberry Daiquiri and Mango Lemonade -- the only two colors of mists I own. And I totally love those two colors together!!

I confess, I was VERY afraid to spray on the mists, because I liked it the way it already looked. I really had to argue with myself to do that, and take that risk, but I went ahead and did it. Now, after the fact, I kinda wish I hadn't, but I did, so it's too late now. I don't know, sometimes I think I don't know when to stop, and let a piece just be what it is. I have to hold my breath and cross my fingers that if I take it to the next step, I won't ruin it. And sometimes I do ruin it, or feel I do. And other times, I'm glad I took the risk, and feel it turned out better for it.

With this piece, I'm not sure. I thought it looked good before the spray mists, but I think it looks good now too. Oh well, it's too late to go back, so this is the end result. And I'm pleased with it. And very happy I was able to get in the "zone" today, which doesn't happen often enough.

I have chosen to enter this piece into this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge, which is "Gold". (http://mixedmediamonday.wordpress.com/). So just click on the URL and it will link you to that website. I'm entering this piece because I flicked gold Pearl Ex onto it in several places.

"Raw Art" - the title of this piece

2008-12-08T16:09:00.008-07:00

This is somewhat different for me, but not totally. Lately I seem to be into using paint chips and distressing them, then rubbing brown paste shoe polish over them to highlight the distressing. I've done several pieces using this technic, which is my own technic developed by me, as far as I know. I've never seen it used by anyone else, or read or heard about it, regarding someone else developing this specific technic. So I feel kind of good about that -- that I developed a new technic that I've shared on blog.

In this piece, it occurred to me that I could use a sharp awl to actually write text on these paint chips. And that it would show up, after being rubbed with the brown shoe polish. And I don't often use text in my art, but this seemed an easy way to do that. Although recently, I've been using more text in my art than I ever used to. I also discovered that writing text with an awl is a bit difficult, it doesn't come out like writing with a pen, it's more like a "carving" process. Perhaps I can improve on that with more practice, but at this point, I kind of like the imperfect effect of it.

Well, let me back up here a bit. Last year in November, Cyndi did an artist profile on me on her fabulous website, Layers Upon Layers. My profile is here, if you want to read it. Just click on the URL. http://www.layersuponlayers.com/artist-profile-valerie-foster/ Anyway, Karen Campbell, a very fine and talented artist and a friend, and the leader of our local book arts group, left a comment for me about my profile. In it, she said "You specialize in raw art — art that comes solely from you and art that does not depend on a lot of commercial products. That truly is the toughest art of all." Well, I'm not exactly sure what "raw art" is, but I found her description of it quite interesting. It is true, I don't use a lot of commercial products in my art. Such as pizza cardboard, caulk/joint compound/spackle, rusted paper and fabric, paint chips, shoe polish, etc. I tend to use those kind of things much more than commercial products meant for art.

So on this piece, the term "raw art" bubbled up into my mind, and so I went with it. Although I must admit, I'm a little nervous about posting this piece, because it's kind of "out there" with the awl written text. But oh well, I'm posting it anyway, come what may. I seem to be going into a more primitive or primal direction lately in my art. And I'm so glad to be making art again, after a long slump, I'm not going to fight it.

In this piece, I used frozen pizza cardboard, and it's 8x10 inches in dimension. I used a piece of wallpaper cut from a sample book for the background. And a paint chip, which was sanded and written on with a sharp awl, then rubbed with brown shoe polish. Actually, I used two paint chips here, one glued on top of the other. The "windows" were already in the top one. Then I used my Walnut Hollow Hot Marks heat tool with the appropriate nibs screwed on, for the question marks and the lettering in the upper left corner. I'm so glad I "rediscovered" this great tool. The hearts and rectangles were punched out of paint chips. I used tea dyed cheese cloth in the upper left corner, and scrapbook paper in the center, and some copy paper I stamped with a stamp I carved out of styrofoam (a meat container) in the lower left corner. I rubbed over the whole piece with brown shoe polish and sealed it with Future Floor Finish for a glossy finish.

I'm still not certain exactly what "raw art" is, but Karen's description sounds pretty good to me. I'm willing to go with that, at least for now.

New art -- just flying by the seat of my pants

2008-12-05T17:55:00.005-07:00

This is something I made yesterday. I wanted to make some art, but as per usual, had no plans as to what to make. So I was basically playing around. Although I did pull out my Walnut Hollow Hot Stamps Alphabet tool, which I haven't used in ages. It's like a wood burning tool, with the alphabet and some cool stamps as nibs to screw into the heat wand. I'm glad I foraged around and pulled it out and used it. I used it to heat stamp ART and also for the circles. It's always nice to pull out tools/supplies one hasn't used in while, and put them to use again.

This is a 5x5 art squared piece on a frozen pizza cardboard base. I started out with using a dyed paper towel, something I've had for a long time, as the background. Then grabbed a paint chip and distressed it with sanding, a sharp awl, and a dress pattern tool. Which I've done before on previous art, and like doing and using in my art. After distressing the paint chip and the torn scrapbook paper, I rubbed brown paste shoe polish over them. On the bottom edge, I used a piece of scrap fabric, and frayed it. I used the frayed threads to glue down, rubbed with gold waxy stuff, and glued the key on top. So that's how I created this piece -- pretty much the way I do most of my art, or at least for some time now.

Any questions? (tongue in cheek and just kidding). I guess I'm just a "fly by the seat of my pants kind of artist" most of the time. AS IN NO PLANS, NO RULES, NO FOUL! That's what reeled me in, regarding doing "altered art" in the first place. The idea there were no rules, so I could do whatever I wanted to do. If it hadn't been for that, I doubt I would've had the daring or courage to even try to do art, or see myself as an artist. That part of it was so appealing, and so freeing....it gave me "permission" to just jump in and play around. Not that I still don't have doubts and fears and angst, a lot of the time, when I approach doing art, and also posting it. And I wonder if that will ever change??? And if I didn't have a blog, and post my art on my blog in a public forum, if I'd feel differently about it.

Well, I do have a blog and do post my art, so it is what it is. And I'm happy it is what it is. Even though I keep waiting for it to become easier!!! Clock ticking, crickets chirping....waiting, waiting. It's still not easy, after all this time.

An art gift for my niece

2008-12-02T10:09:00.007-07:00

This is a new piece I created on Sunday. It's a gift for my 16 year old niece for Christmas, to go along with a gift card to a bookstore. Her name is Shannon, and she's a fine young lady who has a voracious appetite for reading books. She's been an avid reader for many years now. She is also a fine writer, and has been writing and journaling for years also. I've read some of her writing, and am so impressed with her intelligence and talent. She's a darn good writer, and I believe has the potential to be published at some point.

Well, I was an avid reader and writer at her age, so I can relate to her in that way. I think I can relate to her very well. And I'm so proud of her and I love her, and am lucky to have her as a niece. And so I thought it would be nice to make her a small piece of art for Christmas. I wanted to make something to encourage her in her writing. At least that was the goal of this piece.

This is a 4x6 inch postcard format, and the base is frozen pizza cardboard. The background is a multi-colored piece of scrapbook paper glued down on the base. Then I used gel medium to glue down a piece of dyed cheese cloth on the left half of the piece. I cut some quotes on "Authorship" out of a book, crumpled it up, then rubbed brown paste shoe polish over it, and glued that down over the cheese cloth. The hearts were punched out of paint chips. The circle and triangle shapes are vinyl paper clips. I wrote the text with Bic permanent markers, and then rubbed the shoe polish over that whole part, including over the paper clips. I sealed the whole piece with Acrylic Floor Finish. (You can find it at Family Dollar stores.)

This was a fun, simple piece to make. I hope the message will mean something to Shannon, and that she'll find it encouraging. Because I really want to encourage her to pursue her writing, I think she is that good.

“Marie Antoinette…A Real Person…A Real Award”

2008-11-30T11:47:00.011-07:00

Oh my goodness, I've been given another blog award. This is my third award, and I feel the same way I did when I received my first one.....honored, thrilled, appreciative, and humbled. It always means a lot to me to receive an award for my art and my blog, no matter how many times it might happen. This award was given to me by Nancy at Never Enough ATC’s — More than enough Grace blog. Thank you so very much Nancy, for thinking of me and giving me this award. I certainly treasure it and greatly appreciate it. I am so glad that we are online art buddies. To link to Nancy's blog, and see her beautiful and creative ATCs and very interesting blog, just click on her name.

Now I am to pass on this award to seven other deserving artists. It's always hard to narrow it down, but these are my seven choices. Click on their names to link to their blogs. Please go to view their beautiful art and enjoy their interesting blogs.

The people I chose here are supposed to post the award on their blogs, link to the person who awarded it to them, and then pass it on to seven other bloggers, and link to them. Also, email or leave a comment on their blogs regarding the award. Congratulations, all you fine artists. Now it's time for some recognition for all of YOU!!!

Zeborah -- who creates beautiful art, especially her abstract work

Gravitee at Sense Engaged -- who creates amazing digital art

Trish at Artistic Journey -- who does wonderful sketching and encaustic work

Pat at Artrix -- who has a fun and interesting blog and much beautiful, unique art

Christy Grant at Art Chickadee's Reflections -- who is an amazing artist and you can learn a lot from her blog

Mary Schweitzer at Green Woman Creating -- who has stunning and innovative art on her blog

Rachel Murphree at Art Spirals -- who creates very unique and beautiful fabric/fiber art

I've been tagged -- again.

2008-11-25T20:58:00.005-07:00

Yes, Elizabeth Golden at The Last Door Down the Hall tagged me a while back, and I'm just getting around to following through on it. Thank you so much for thinking of me Elizabeth, and for the really sweet thing you wrote about me on your blog. I appreciate it so much. Click on Elizabeth's name to link to her very interesting blog and beautiful art.

On the one hand, it's fun, and an honor, to get tagged. On the other hand, it's rather time consuming to follow through on it. So I changed the rules a little to make it easier and less time consuming. Instead of writing six things about myself, I write three. And instead of tagging six other bloggers, I tag three. So here are three things about me.

1. I am very short. I didn't even make it to 5 feet tall. Nooo, I stopped growing at 4'10"! Well, I didn't stand much of a chance, because both of my parents were short also. At any rate, I've always wished I could be taller, as in around 5'4" tall. That would be so fine with me. I dislike always having to hem my pants, and sometimes my sleeves, and stand on my tip toes to reach things. And I'm not getting any taller with age, in fact, I'm shrinking.

2. I've always had an interest in learning how to draw, something I've never persued. I can't draw worth a darn. I've checked out some drawing classes offered through our county, but have yet to sign up for any. Perhaps sometime I will.

3. I started watching the Food Network channel on TV a few months ago. It wasn't planned, I was just channel surfing. And I found I liked some of the programs. I think my favorite program is Iron Chef America, and then Bobby Flay's Throwdown. The problem with watching these programs though is that they make me hungry. Go figure!

Here are the three bloggers I am tagging. Just click on their names to link to their blogs. They have blogs well worth visiting, and I encourage you to take a look at their wonderful art.

Sanna at Sanna'sArtMind

Dove at Morning Dew

Julee at HeArt Collective

Shapes collage

2008-11-22T08:04:00.006-07:00

This is a new piece I started last Saturday. However, I wasn't liking it that much and it didn't feel done to me, so I set it aside for a few days. Then I came home from work on Wednesday and decided what I needed to do to finish it. I was happy to be working on art in the evening after work, because I haven't done that in a long, long time. Most days, when I get home from work, I'm so tired I don't feel like doing much of anything. Perhaps some of you can relate that?

After I added the shapes to this piece, I found I liked it much better. This collage was done on an 8x10 piece of chipboard. Normally I use frozen pizza cardboard for most of my bases, but with this being a larger collage, I wanted a sturdier base that wouldn't warp. First I punched out various shapes out of junk mail cardboard -- the ads that aren't in envelopes, and glued those down on the base. (I started out with a different idea of where this piece would go, and soon enough, realized it wasn't looking that way at all. Does that ever happen to you?) I was going to cover the shapes with a piece of crumpled tissue paper, but instead used a piece of scorched paper made with copy paper.

I made some pieces of scorched paper a long time ago, and never used them. So I decided to use one on this piece. Scorched paper is easy to make. You just take regular copy paper and scorch it with a vintage iron. This piece was crumpled and then scorched for more texture, but you can scorch uncrumpled paper also. I use a vintage iron because it gets much hotter than the irons made today, and it's necessary to use a very hot iron to get the scorching and brown color. I found my vintage iron at a yard sale for $2.00. Lucky me!

After I glued down the scorched paper with matte Mod Podge, I then tore up a napkin and glued down parts of that, and also torn music paper. Then I stamped on the scrolls, birds, and text. Then I rubbed brown shoe polish (the kind in the round tin) all over the piece. I wanted even more texture, so I brushed on gel medium thickly in random directions. After that dried, I rubbed more brown shoe polish over the whole piece. At that point, I set it aside for a few days.

Then I came back to it and finished it, by adding the shapes, the heart, and the key. For the shapes I punched them out of paint chips. The green shapes were distressed by sanding and using an awl and a dress pattern tool, then rubbed with brown shoes polish. I really like the look distressed paint chips give. I outlined the shapes with a paint pen and a black Sharpie.

You can't tell in the scan, but with the real piece the outlines of the shapes glued down first, under the paper, show up in a sublte way if the light shines on it right. Anyway, the steps used in making this piece were simple ones. I was happy to do stamping on this, because so often, I forget to make use of my stamps. And I have far too many neat stamps that I have yet to use even once. Isn't that crazy? Unfortunately I tend to collect them more than actually use them.

So all in all, I'm happy with how this turned out. And for the most part, I enjoyed making it and it wasn't a struggle. I think setting it aside and coming back to it later was helpful and the right thing to do.

I am grateful

2008-11-15T00:34:00.003-07:00

Yes indeed, I am. It's 12:30 am, and I'm still up and on my computer. Well, thankfully it's Friday night, and I have the next two days off, and don't have to get up early tomorrow to go to work. Although I tend to wake up early anyway, whether I want to or not, due to my work schedule and biological clock. But that' okay, at least I have tomorrow off, which is such a relief. TGIF I say!

I am so grateful for all of my online art buddies out there, for all of YOU, who visit my blog and leave comments, and who also have art blogs. You all mean so much to me, you really do, more than I can adequately express. Tonight, I was scrolling through my blog, and rereading all the comments left on my blog. I do that occasionally, now and then, to remind myself of how lucky I am to have those of you who visit my blog and leave comments. To have your feedback and support and encouragement. Wow, it always has amazed me, and still does. And it always does my heart good, and renews me and refreshes me, to go back and read your comments.

I love my blog, and am so glad I finally decided to jump into blogland last February 10th, 2008.I had been vaguely thinking of doing that for some time, before I finally got proactive and just did it. And I'm glad I did, and don't regret it at all, but I must also say I feel it's a responsibility. That sometimes weighs heavy on me, when I'm struggling with my art, or with my life in general. As I'm sure all of you can relate to, when you have a public blog, it's all out there for anyone to see. I mean there's no privacy with a public blog.

Consequently, I only share myself to a certain extent, because it's more than a bit scary to share more deeply on a public blog. At times, I might be tempted to share more, but I mostly pull back from that, fearful of exposing myself too much and of being vulnerable. I wish I could be braver about sharing my true self, and have more courage to do that, but it's a difficult thing for me. Then again, I think being or feeling vulnerable, open, exposed, is difficult for most people, don't you? I think that's a pretty common human reaction. Afterall, one definition of "vulnerable" in the dictionary is: capable of being wounded. And no one wants to be wounded, right?

I have to confess and admit that this year, 2008, has been a rough year for me. A number of things, unexpected and unwanted things, have happened, that have thrown me off course in a number of ways. I have often felt somewhat lost and discombobulated due to those things happening in my life. Well hey, that's life, it's never safe or predictable, and all we can do, the best thing we can do, is take it one day at a time. I rely on God, my faith in Him, to see me through. To hold me in his hand, and heart, so to speak.

My art means so much to me, is so important to me. I'm not even sure why, I just know it is. I believe God gives each of us certain gifts, and that art is one of my gifts. I didn't ask for this gift or do anything to deserve it. And he gave the same gift to all of you, so I think you understand what I mean about that. And so, I feel compelled to use my gift and appreciate my gift, which doesn't always come easily. Sometimes it involves pain and angst, frustration, dry times.

But I thank God for the internet, and for our online art community, because it's a huge part of my art experience. I feel I wouldn't be the artist I am today without the net, and the art community I belong to in my yahoo groups. I also thank God for blogs, and for the opportunity to have my own blog, and for all the blogs out there I can visit and be inspired by. We are all in this art journey together, are we not? Yes, I think so. And I am so grateful for that, and for all of you who visit my blog, and leave comments, and encourage me and hold me up when I'm faltering.

I just felt the need to make this post tonight, and share these thoughts and feelings. Thank you all, for being a part of my art experience. I truly appreciate it, and it means so much to me. I often think it would be so wonderful for all of us to meet in person, and have a huge, happy party! That would be a great party indeed. I love you all. Thank you.

Art with a Vengeance

2008-11-09T14:09:00.004-07:00

Oh my, did I really title this piece that? It sounds kind of dark and forboding. Yes I did, and for good reason, to my way of thinking. I fully think this is NOT one of my best artworks. But that doesn't matter to me, that's okay. What mattered, when I created this piece yesterday, was my frame of mind and the weird mode I was in. Because I really didn't care how this piece turned out, I was just desperate to make some art, compelled and obsessed with making some art. I had to, I needed to.

The frame of mind I was in was FRUSTRATION!!! At a number of things. Being in a major art slump, things going on in my life right now, and things going on in the world and my life in general. I was hot under the collar, and needed to make some art, and didn't really care how it turned out or even if I liked it. I suppose in a way, that's a certain amount of "artistic freedom", I'm not sure. I've never really felt compelled to convey a message in my art, but lately that seems to be the case, whether I like it or not.

I have to confess when I worked on this piece, I felt like I was in a frenzy. I pulled out a bag of scrap pieces I've been saving, most cut off the edges of my art. I just dipped into the bag, and pulled out various pieces, helter skelter and randomly. And madly (crazily) started gluing them down on this piece of frozen pizza cardboard, 5x7 inches in dimension. Well, first of all, I glued down a few pieces crumpled/uncrumpled yellow tissue paper, with matte Modge Podge. Then I rubbed over it with brown paste shoe polish. Then I madly started gluing down the scrap pieces with gel medium. Then painted over them with gel medium, or rather glopped it on thickly.

After it dried, I rubbed over it again with brown shoe polish. Then I used my finger to rub over it, on certain parts, with gold metallic glaze. Then I wrote the words on it with a gold metallic paint pen. But that didn't show up very well, so I wrote over them with a black permanent ink Sharpy. Then I sealed it with Acrylic Floor Finish, and flicked gold Pearl Ex over it while it was still wet from the AFF. The last thing I did was glue on the very cool old, vintage key, obtained from ebay.

Up close, the words on this piece are easily readable. But in the scan they aren't, and yet they are important to this piece. From top to bottom, the words read: Get it done! , Passion, ART, Fever, Do it. I added those quickly, based on my frame of mind at the time. I didn't stop to think about them, I just wrote what I was feeling. I really wish they showed up better in the scan, but they don't.

I don't think I've ever made art this way before, regarding how I felt and the frenzy I was in when I made it. And I'm wondering, is that good or bad? I mean like....making art is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, right? But in making this piece, I can't say I enjoyed it. It felt good, but not in the sense of enjoyment. I guess mostly in the sense of "glopping" it all together, with a "devil may care" attitude. Kind of like....take this, and take this, and oh yeah, here's some more"! It felt like a way to release tension and frustration, get it out on the table, and then heave a sigh of relief.

Wow, even as I'm writing this post, I'm not sure I want to actually post it. But I know I will anyway, and hope for the best. Hope that my artist buddies out there who read it can relate in some way. I love my online artist buddies, I really, really do. You all mean so much to me. I so, so appreciate the people who visit my blog, and leave comments, and connect with me regarding art. I LOVE YOU ALL!

New art I just finished

2008-11-01T15:55:00.006-06:00

Yes, I actually got off the computer, and made art today. In like about two hours, this is what I created. I used colors that I like together, burgundy/wine and yellow/orange. These are some of my favorite color combos -- I just love them together. And believe me, I have no knowledge of how to use colors together, I barely know how to read or understand the color wheel, even though at times I've tried to study it and learn it. But I didn't get very far in that persuit. I really don't know much about color, or how to use colors together....and sometimes that bothers me and intimidates me. On the other hand, I mostly just use color combos, colors together, that appeal to me and that I like personally. And in the overall picture, I think that works out well enough.

As in often the case with me, when I sit down to do art, I don't have much of an idea of what I want to create. There are times that does happen, and it pleases me, and I go with it, but it's not something I can expect or depend on. I truly wish that was more often the case, where I knew what I wanted to create and had a plan, and then executed it....but no, that only seems to happen now and then and randomly. Then again, on the other hand, I feel some of my best art is pulled out of a hat, spontaneously, and not planned at all.

I have to say, most of the time when I create art, I fly by the seat of my pants! That is usually the way it goes for me. I'm not even sure I should admit that....it sounds rather "unartistic". I have to admit, I've been in a strange and unwanted state lately, regarding my art. And I haven't done much art at all in the past two months.

Well, it is what it is, and as I've often said here on my blog, I'm always happy when I get new art done, and can post it on my blog. The thing about having a blog is that if I hit a dry period artwise, and have no new art to post, it's not just a private matter between me and my muse. It used to be that way, before I started my blog. But now that I have my blog, and other people visit it, if I don't create new art, or post, over a period of time, others know it, and it isn't just between me and my muse. And yes, I find myself feeling guilty about that and bad about that. It's a bit hard to admit that, and yet it's true. So, is it just me, or do other artists feel the same way?

Geez, I'm not sure if I should write about all this on my blog. I feel the need to, but then again, it's kind of scary to put it out there on my blog, for all to see. Yes, I do consider myself an artist, but then there are times when I feel like I must be an imposter, and fooling myself as well as other people. Well, please forgive me, I'm just in a weird, crazy state of mind right now, and have been for a while.

So, I'll get on with explaining how I made this piece. The base is frozen pizza cardboard, my usual with most pieces. First I glued down, with matte Mod Podge, a piece of grid fabric. Then I crumpled up, then uncrumpled, then glued down with MP fuschia and yellow tissue paper. Then I rubbed over it with brown shoe polish. Then I distressed a piece of yellow paint sample, by sanding it, then scoring it with an awl, then rolling over it with a dress pattern tool, then rubbing over it with brown shoe polish. I must admit, I really, really got into distressing the paint sample, to the point where I was taking out my frustrations on it!

After I got it all distressed, I punched out the various shapes with paper punches. Before I glued them down, I used paint on swirl stamps to stamp the piece, then glued down the shapes. Then wrote on them with permanent brown marker. Then glued down the very cool old key, which I got off ebay in a key lot. Then I used a metallic gold paint pen to mark the edges of the piece, and the edges of the shapes. Soooo, that's how this piece was made.

I don't often use text in my art, so I must've felt like I had something to say here. Probably because I've felt "distressed" and stressed lately. I find that interesting, that I chose to do that. Kind of like it came out of nowhere, for me to convey an actual message in this piece of art. I seldom convey, or try to convey, messages in my art. I must've felt, or my muse felt, that I had to convey this message. I think mostly for myself.

Book made at Lynn Perella workshop

2008-10-30T14:45:00.002-06:00

Well, I messed up on the way I posted this book. Instead of it posting from front to back, it ended up from back to front. And the text part of this post, introducing this book, is at the bottom instead of at the top. Oops!!! I hope this explains my mistake. So just keep scrolling down to the introduction and first page, and then scroll up to see the pages in order. I hope next time I try something like this, I'll get it right. My bad!

Continuation of book

2008-10-30T14:34:00.002-06:00

Continuation of book

2008-10-30T14:32:00.002-06:00

Continuation of book

2008-10-30T14:30:00.003-06:00

Continuation of book

2008-10-30T14:27:00.003-06:00

Book made at Lynn Perella workshop

2008-10-30T13:52:00.007-06:00

I attended this workshop over a year ago, and it was a totally great workshop. Lynn Perella was a wonderful instructor, and I was proud to come away with this book. This is the first time I've posted this book online, and I thought it was time to do so. It's been sitting on a shelf in my bookcase all this time, and I almost forgot about it. So it's time to bring it out and post it on my blog.

This is a crazy, nothing barred collage. I wasn't totally comfortable with doing this at the workshop - it was all very new to me - but hey, that's why I took the workshop, right? To learn new ways to make art, especially regarding collage. It was a fun day, and I was pleased to come away with this book. After I got it home, I did more work on it and improved upon it, in my opinion.

We started out with a very large piece of rosin paper. It can be bought by the roll at certain home improvement/hardware stores, and also online. I'm not sure exactly what it's used for in that regard, but it can also be used for art, so Lynn Perella used it for her workshop. It's a very sturdy paper, and comes in a pinkish red color. You can see that in some of these photos.

At the end of the workshop, Lynn helped me fold my large collage into this book format. These pages are 9x12 inches, and I scanned them. I had to scan each page twice to get the whole page, top and bottom, due to the size of my scanner. I suppose I could have, perhaps should have, taken photos with my digital camera, to get photos of each page whole, but I didn't do it that way, I chose to scan instead.

I'm not going into detail on how this collage was made, because mostly I forget. Shame on me, but it's true. Well, when you do a collage like this, you just start painting and then gluing all kinds of things down. And since this started out as one large piece, and then later was folded into a book format, I had no clue how it would look as a book. That ended up as a big surprise, but a good one, I think.

So here it is, and I hope you enjoy it. Just continue scrolling down to see the whole book, it includes a total of 16 scans. Well, I mean scroll down, if you're up for that. I've never posted this many scans in one blog post before, but this is the only way I know how to do this.

I've been tagged again!

2008-10-22T20:57:00.003-06:00

Yep, for the third time this year. So I get to reveal some things about myself. My online art buddy, Christy of Average American Girl blog, is the one who tagged me this time. Thanks Christy, that was sweet of you to think of me. You can click on her name to link to her blog, and see the wonderful art she does.

I'm supposed to list seven things about myself, and then tag seven other artists, but.... I am once again changing the rules, to make this more manageable, and less time consuming, for me and for the people I choose to tag. I am changing it to listing three things about myself, and tagging three other artists, okay? The other artists I tag can either do the seven thing, or else the three thing, the way I'm doing it. My guess is, they'll probably go for the three thing also.

Okay, so here are three things about me.

1. My dad was in the Air Force for 22 years, so I grew up as a "military brat". We moved around a few times, and we even lived in France and Germany from 1964 -1968. I was a teenager, and remember everything. It was fun, in a lot of ways, and not so fun in other ways.

2. I have five brothers and one sister. One of my brothers has quadruplets, two girls and two boys. Thankfully, they were all healthy, and are now 15 years old. They are great kids.

3. I am a true blue cat lover, and have been since I was a little girl. I've had a cat, or more than one at times, my entire adult life. Right now I have one cat, a black and grey tabby. His name is Oliver, and he's 2 1/2 yrs. old. He's pretty cool, but also pretty feisty. He often attacks my legs, which I don't like at all.

These are the other artists I am tagging, and passing the "torch" onto. Have fun gals! Click on their names for a link to their blogs, and please enjoy their great art.

Mandy at Pearl Maple blog

Dawn at Gold Betty Boop blog

Eileen at Boca Babe Art blog

Shapes and Texture -- an abstract art piece

2008-10-21T17:43:00.006-06:00

Here is my newest and latest art work. And geez -- I'm thinkin' it's about darn time!!! I've been out of the "art loop" for far too long, much to my surprise. I was on a roll there for awhile, and feeling really good about that. And then....the bottom dropped out, and I dropped out, which totally blind-sided me. I guess that brought me up short, and taught me that as it goes with life in general, it can go with life as an artist. What bothers me the most is that I've let my blog go, and have hardly posted in almost two months. Yes indeed, that really bothers me. I feel badly about that, and just hope those of you who visit my blog can forgive me.

Okay, so now, onto the present, and this new piece. When I sat down today to make art, I felt lost and unfocused, not having any remote idea what I wanted to do or make. Sooo, I just jumped in, somewhat half-heartedly, not expecting much at all. And ended up trying something new, regarding the theme of "SHAPES", what I consider very abstract. Not that I don't do abstract art, or at least to some extent, but today I was so bereft of any specific ideas or direction, it seems all I could do was pull out a few of my paper punches and my old standby, frozen pizza cardboard.

This piece, by the way, is an 8x10. The base is also frozen pizza cardboard, and this size format is new to me, a larger format for me. Most of my work has been done on 5x5 art squared, or else 4x6 postcard size. Recently, I ventured out of my comfort zone and worked on 5x7 format a few times. Which gave me courage to expand beyond that, to this 8x10 format. Perhaps the size of the format doesn't matter that much, I don't know for sure. Then again, I think it's good to try new and different things and ways of doing art. I think I felt, with this larger format, I could include more on this piece. And since I had no idea what I wanted to include, or do artwise, it gave me more latitude and flexibility.

I also want to mention that this time around, with a larger format with the base being frozen pizza cardboard, I chose to glue, (with gel medium) two pieces of pizza cardboard together for a sturdier base, hoping that it wouldn't warp. And thankfully, that was a good idea and it didn't warp.

Okay, so I punched out various shapes from pizza cardboard, and glued them down onto the base with glue stick. Ahh yes, trusty ol' glue stick, which is a great adhesive. Sometimes I forget how well it works, and that it never warps. After that, I used fuschia tissue paper, crumpled up and glued down with matte Mod Podge. Another old standby of mine, that I use quite often. Then I crumpled up some yellow tissue paper, and tore it, and glued that down with matte MP. Then I pulled out my brown shoe polish, and rubbed that over the whole piece. To accentuate the texture, and tone down the tissue paper, and give it more of a "vintage" effect. The brown shoe polish is something I use a lot, more and more recently, in my art.

Then I painted on gel medium, rather thickly, in different directions, for more texture. When that dried, I rubbed brown shoe polish over the whole piece again. And then I rubbed gold art wax over the whole piece. Then wrote the text on with a black permanent marker pen. Then I sealed the piece with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF), which can be bought at Family Dollar stores. It has a satin (not gloss) finish effect, as opposed to Future Floor Finish (FFF), which does have a gloss finish effect.

I scanned this on my computer, and unfortunately the color isn't totally true. In the real piece the gold and the texture shows up much better. I am happy with how the shapes showed up in this piece, on the scan. And I'm also very happy that I made some new art today, and tried something new, and just played around with a new idea. On days like today, when I desire to make art, feel compelled to make art, and yet feel lost and unable to focus or decide what to do, I generally tend to do something new and different, or at least somewhat different.

So anyway, that's what I did today, and so here it is. Regarding "abstract" art, it does appeal to me, I must admit. I'm not sure if that's a cop out, or a good thing, or whatever. Some days, just making any art at all is difficult, and a challenge. On those days, if I can accomplish making art, I feel good.

Nature in Threes

2008-09-27T22:19:00.006-06:00

This is some new art I made today. I guess I can say I recently took a brief sabbatical from making art. Don't ask me why, I'm not sure....maybe I just needed a break. It really felt good to make art today though.

I didn't have anything specific in mind when I started this piece. This is 5 x 7 inches, the base is frozen pizza cardboard. I used wallpaper from a sample book for the background. Then I distressed three green paint chips, by sanding them and using a sharp awl on them, then rubbing brown show polish all over them. The leaf on the middle paint chip was made by spreading gel medium on the back of a real leaf, and then stamping with it. When it dried, I rubbed brown show polish over it. I used a punch for the grasshoppers. The middle grasshopper was punched out of the leaf I used to stamp with.

The other two leaves are real, glued on with gel medium, then coated on top with gel medium, so as to preserve them. When dry, I rubbed them with brown shoe polish also. Then I glued tea dyed cheese cloth on the top and bottom corners, then rubbed it with....guess what? Yep, the brown shoe polish. The "three" is stamped caulk, painted with Gold Lumiere paint when dry. I outlined the middle paint chip with a gold paint pen. The seeds at the upper corner are from my yard.

And the key is one I got on ebay, that came in a large lot of cool, vintage keys. I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE those old keys, and should have enough now to last me a while.

Oh my gosh, I've been remiss.

2008-09-14T13:53:00.007-06:00

Gee, I cannot believe that I haven't posted on my blog in three weeks, and I feel bad about that. Good grief, this is the first time this has happened. I don't quite know what to say, except that time got away from me and I haven't made any new art lately to post. Nothing major or bad happened in my life, I just took some time off from making art. So for now, I'm posting these art pieces, that I made a while back and never posted on my blog, except for being in the slide show on the side. The first two were for swaps, and are no longer in my personal collection. Which is a good thing, because my personal collection of my own art is getting quite large. Thankfully most of them are small pieces so I still have space for them.

Hopefully, soon enough, I'll be posting new art. And hopefully, I won't go this long between posts again.

A New Award!

2008-09-14T12:25:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago, I was emailed by Jo Anne Owens of Paper Cat's Page that she nominated me to receive this wonderful award. Oh happy day, I feel very honored and I accept. Thank you so much, Jo Anne, for honoring me with this award and for thinking of me.

In accepting this award, I agree to:

1. Display the logo and link to the one who awarded it.

2. Nominate at least 7 blogs to receive the award.

3. Add links to those 7 blogs to my blog.

4. Leave the nominees a message that they had been nominated to receive the award.

These are the names and links to the seven artist/bloggers I choose to nominate. When it comes to something like this, it's often hard to make choices and narrow it down. I choose these artists because I think they have great blogs, and do beautiful, inspiring art work, and would like to share their blogs with you, and to extend this great award to them. I totally think they all deserve this award. I love being inspired by other artists, and these artists definitely inspire me.
Please visit their blogs and enjoy their art works. The number of artists who inspire me is greater than seven, but I could name only seven for this award. Click on these names and that will take you to their blogs. Once again, thank you so much Jo Anne, for this award. I truly appreciate it.

1. Heather Robinson at Creative Solace

2. Marva at Purplepaint's Muse

3. Nancy at Never Enough ATCs

4. Linda East at Timeless Treasures of Least

5. Mandy at Pearl Maple

6. Michi at Michi Rhymes with Peachy

7. Julee Herrmann at HeArt Collective

I've been busy making art -- woohoo!

2008-08-24T11:13:00.004-06:00

Yes indeed, I've had more time to make art lately, and have devoted it to that end. Which pleases me because I don't always accomplish that. This top piece is a layered collage postcard, 4x6 inches. I used dress pattern tissue paper, gold wrapping paper, napkins, and paint sample. I used the paint sample distress technic for the shapes, which I explained in my August 20th post. I've only used napkins a few times before in my art, and I think I need to get them out and use them more often. They aren't doing me any good stuck away in a drawer.

I used light spackle on the second piece. Since it has very little moisture, and is harder to work with than caulk or wallboard joint compound, I chose to add some water to it with a spray bottle. I didn't add a lot of water, but enough to mix in with it and make it spreadable. Then I spread, or frosted it on with a plastic pallet knife on one area, but not all over the whole piece. Then I stamped into part of it with a heart stamp, cut from vinyl carpet runner. I bought it at a yard sale, and it has swirls on the under side, so I cut it into different shapes for stamps that work great for stamping into caulk, joint compound, and spackle. I also used a swirl stamp with paint on the left upper side.

The small heart in the center of the swirl heart just happened when I pulled the stamp up. (When stamping into caulk, jc, or spackle, you have to use a release agent. I use Armor All protectant, which works well and has no odor to it.) It looked like the shape of a heart, so I outlined it with a brown marker. I embedded the key into the spackle, but it didn't adhere when dry, so I had to glue it on. I used brown acrylic paint, brown shoe polish, and gold Lumiere paint on the piece. I also used an awl to distress parts of it, the parts without the spackle. I used tea dyed cheese cloth on the lower left corner. I'm happy with the texture on this, but not so thrilled with how the colors came out, especially on the scan. The parts that look almost peach are actually gold. I suppose I could repaint it, but don't know if I will.

I have a new needle felt piece posted below, that I made a few weeks ago. So yes, I've been working on art more than usual, because I've had more time to do it. I'm happy about that.

Needle Felted postcard

2008-08-23T13:21:00.002-06:00

I'm switching things up a bit here, as in not posting a collage. This is something I made, gee, over a month ago. And I wasn't happy with it. Well, I was fine with it, except for using an orange paint pen to outline and make marks on the hearts. That was the last thing I did back then, and felt like it ruined the piece. Which really frustrated me, since I liked it until I did that, and went too far. So it sat in my work room/studio all this time, because I didn't like it and didn't know how to "fix" it, and didn't want to post it on my blog.

Then today, in a bored state of mind, I picked it up and thought gee, I think I'll sand these hearts, punched out of paint samples. And then rub brown shoe polish over them, and see if that improves this piece. So I did that, and liked the result. Then I did the same to the small squares, and liked that too.

I know in the scan, the outlining of the hearts looks pink, but no, on the piece it's a light orange. I find that the true color quality in scans can leave a lot to be desired, at least on my printer. So anyway, I like the result now much better than it was before, and am willing to post this piece.

The main feature of this piece is the needle felting onto a piece of cotton fabric. This is my second real art piece, using the needle felting. And I love how that part turned out. It took a while to fashion a heart out of the yarn, but I stuck with it and was able to make a heart. I really enjoy doing the needle felting, but haven't done any since I finished this piece. I need to get back to felting soon, or maybe not. There are simply too many choices and options in what kind of art to make....and I tend to get overwhelmed by that. Nothing new there.

Two more collages

2008-08-20T14:41:00.008-06:00

These are my most recent works, and just happen to be collages. I'm so proud to say that, because I believe I'm making some progress on this front. These are 5x5s, the art squared format I like so much, and feel very comfortable with. One of these days, I hope to make a book with all my 5x5 art pieces that I've been making and saving for quite a while now.

In the first collage, I punched the hearts out of paint samples. The small frame is also cut out out of a paint sample. Then I sanded them with sand paper and used a very sharp awl to distress them, then rubbed brown shoe polish over them. (My oh my, but I do love that brown shoe polish!!!) I used the awl and shoe polish on other distressed areas too. The "J" is light spackle packed into a stencil. I've learned it's more difficult to frost light spackle as I do with caulk and wallboard joint compound, because it has a lot less moisture. So I can't frost it over a stencil, but can pack it into a stencil.

This is the first time I've used an awl to distress with, and I'm kind of liking the result a lot. However, you have to use brown shoe polish to get a much more cool distressed look. Good thing that shoe polish is cheap and accessible. The idea of sanding and distressing paint samples in my art just kind of jumped out and bit me on this piece. I'm thinking my muse was paying close attention and making herself available -- which is not always the case. So now, I'm glad I have a lot of paint samples in my art stash. Woohoo for that. I plan to use this "distressed paint sample technic" again and often, and maybe try to expand and perfect it.

In the second collage, I used images torn from a book for the sea creatures. And some tea dyed cheese cloth, but then rubbed over it with blue glaze. Then I added some rusted screen and a rusted washer. Oh right, I started out packing the light spackle on the piece in various areas.

I pretty much used the same technics I've explained before with these collages. If I try something new, I explain that too. The distressed paint sample/awl technic is new.

These are not for a swap, so I get to keep these. And hopefully incorporate them into my own book, at some point. Hope you like them, I do.

The Key to Your Wish collage

2008-08-13T11:45:00.006-06:00

Gee, I'm shocked, shocked I tell you. That I'm actually WANTING to do layered collage, as opposed to avoiding it like the plague. Who knew I'd ever get to this point? I know I sure didn't. So yes, this truly does shock me, but also pleases me very much. Hmmm, perhaps it really is true that we must face our fears in order to overcome them. That seems to be working for me so far, in doing these layered collages. And I'm thrilled about that.

This is something I "threw together" yesterday in just a few hours. (That's amazing to me also.) It's for a personal swap with an online art friend (Hi Linda!). She suggested we do a swap about a year ago, but I had other art commitments at that time, and couldn't do it then. I told her maybe we could do it sometime in the future. So, the future is here, and we both agreed it was a good time to do a swap. And gee, I haven't done an art swap in many months, so I was very pleased and motivated to do this one. And I didn't even have to agonize over what to make. I love it when art happens that way, don't you?

This piece is 5x7, which is a new format for me. I mostly work on 5x5 art squared formats, or else 4x6 postcard formats. But I was game to try a different size and format, and am glad I did. There are similarities with this piece to the last two collages I posted. I glued down a piece of light blue fabric (dimensional) from a fabric sample book onto frozen pizza cardboard. Then glued down a poem torn from a book, music paper, and a definition of Precious cut from a dictionary. Then I rubbed brown shoe polish on the whole piece. Then I used brown acrylic paint sponged onto swirl stamps, and stamped a few times.

Then I painted wallboard joint compound on with a brush in certain spots. After that dried, I rubbed blue glaze on with my finger in certain areas, and rubbed brown shoe polish over them again. I was mostly going with the brown/blue color theme. Then I remembered that recently, in my local art group, I had dyed some cheese cloth blue and purple, so I pulled that out and used it on the lower right side. And also used a piece of tea dyed cheese cloth on the upper left side. I used some brown netted fabric over the blue cheese cloth, and a strip of it towards the top.

Then I cut a strip (the brown embroidered piece) from a blouse/frock I found at a yard sale a while back, and glued that down. The hearts were punched out of a textured paint sample. The key is one I got in a lot of keys off ebay. LOVE THOSE OLD KEYS, AND KEEP LOOKING ON EBAY TO SCARF UP A GOOD DEAL ON MORE. HOWEVER, THEY DON'T GO FOR CHEAP. And the "wish" part came last, and fit nicely on the key.

And I sealed the piece, once again, with Acrylic Floor Finish from the Family Dollar store. When I used it in the past, it gave a non-glossy satin finish, as opposed to the glossy finish that Future Floor Finish gives. I really liked having the choice of using a satin or glossy finish. But now, I'm almost out of the AFF, and using the last few ounces, so it has thickened, and now it's giving a glossy finish. Don't know what's up with that, it's a surprise, but I think I need to buy a new bottle of it. Well, I've had this bottle for a few years now, and perhaps it changes over time?

So anyway, this is the art I ended up with, and I'm pleased with it. I really enjoy using paper and fabric together in one piece. And gluing down a dimensional/textured fabric piece as a background ends up interesting, because it provides lots of texture right off the bat. I've learned that when I do that, I don't have to add a lot of texture, even though I tend to anyway, to a certain extent. The cheese cloth is always a good way to add texture, and I love it. I love texture so much, sometimes I worry if I add too much texture to my art, as in over-kill. But I don't worry enough to stop doing it. And I don't normally use much text or words in my art, but I'm reconsidering that, and thinking I should do that more often.

Strawberry and Lemonade layered collage

2008-08-08T17:21:00.011-06:00

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. Well, it hasn't been waaay long, but longer than I intended. I started out so well, for the first several months after I started my blog, by consistently posting twice a week. Then it kind of got away from me. Well, my work schedule has also changed several times, which has had an effect on my free time and time to do art, so that's been a factor. At any rate, I got some new art done yesterday and today, so I have something new to post. Yippee! It always makes me happy to get new art done, and to post it on my blog.

On my last post, I posted a layered collage, and confessed I didn't intend for it to be a layered collage when I started out. However with this piece, I did intend for it to be a layered collage. Which hopefully means that I'm gaining more confidence in doing this kind of work, and overcoming my fears, or at least some of them, related to layered collage. Although you can't tell from the photo, this piece is smaller than the last one, and is a 5x5 art squared piece.

I glued the background, a page from a wallpaper sample book, onto my old standby, frozen pizza cardboard. This sample is fabric wallpaper. Cool, huh? That gives it a lot of texture, right off the bat. Then I glued down some hand written text, some music paper, and some dress pattern tissue paper. Also some torn strips of gold wrapping paper. At the bottom right, I cut out the image from the envelope of a dress pattern, and glued that down. I also used some netted fabric, fiber paper, screening, and obviously the small key.

Once again, as I did on my last collage, I rubbed brown shoe polish over the whole piece. Then I sprayed with Memory Mists in Mango Lemonade and Strawberry Daiquiri. I LOVE those two colors together. I finished it off by sealing with Acrylic Floor Finish, the Family Dollar brand. One last thing. The key and the screening look silver-ish in the photo, but they are more of a bronze color on the actual piece, and look a lot better than in the photo. It bugs me that they look that way in the photo, but I don't know how to fix that.

Regarding the key, I won two auctions on ebay for a number of old keys. For skeleton keys, and other interesting keys. I lost several auctions before I finally scored. And was amazed at what most old key lots are selling for on ebay. Considering that, I did pretty well on my two auctions, bidding at the last second. Now, I'm the proud owner of 17 very cool old/antique skeleton keys of different sizes. I hope to use some of them on assemblages, if I ever get around to making an assemblage. I was excited to use this tiny key on this piece. I think maybe it's a jewelry box key.

So that's how this piece came together, and I'm feeling better about attempting layered collages. Thanks so much for your encouragement in comments on my last layered collage, it encouraged me, motivated me, and inspired me to make this one. I'm trying to face my fears and overcome them.

"Playing with Layers" collage

2008-07-27T10:13:00.006-06:00

I don't do "layered" collages very often, and so far, I've only done a few. Why? I think because I have far less confidence in attempting them, I don't feel I know the technics used very well. Also, it's difficult for me to want to cover up things I've already done, as in the layering aspect. Consequently, I've mostly steered clear of them, except for occasionally. When I do attempt one, I do much better if I'm just playing around and experimenting.

When this first started out, I wasn't thrilled with it, and I almost wanted to toss it. Because I hadn't planned for it to be a layered collage, but it looked so bad, I felt it was the only way to salvage it. So I thought....hmmm, this is a good chance for me to play with layering.

This started out with frosting lightweight spackling onto frozen pizza cardboard. Now I'm well familiar with using caulk and wallboard joint compound, both of which I've used fairly often in my art. But I had never tried the spackling, so I decided to get some and try it, and see if and how it differed from the other two. I wasn't sure if I wanted regular spackling or the lightweight kind, but that's what I ended up buying. At first, when I first started frosting with it, I wasn't too happy with it. It seemed harder to work with, harder to frost, and harder to adhere to the cardboard, because it has a lot less moisture content than the other two. But I persisted and got some to adhere.

I wanted to embed some text into it, which was the first time I tried that. I had never tried that with the caulk or jc before. So I tore two short poems out of a book, one about Mom and one about Time. And tore another small piece out of a dictionary, and two small pieces out of a song book. I also used a few pieces of torn tissue paper and dress pattern tissue paper. That's the point at which it wasn't looking too good, and I was tempted to toss it. I set it aside to dry overnight and went to bed.

The next day is when I decided to try salvage it with a lot more layering and collage. I glued some netted fabric, lace fabric, and cheese cloth on, which I liked. Then I added the bird image and strips of rusted fabric, and few small pieces of decorative papers. Then the idea of stenciling the "B" occurred to me. I frosted more spackling over the stencil for that, and I really liked how that worked out. Then I did some stamping, glued on the punched out shapes and the feather. I also added some micro beads in gel medium on a few spots. I used my finger to rub on some different colors of glaze in different areas, then rubbed brown shoe polish over the whole piece. (I love that brown shoe polish.) I wrote the word "play" on there, and added some touches of gold rub on. Then I sealed it with Acrylic Floor Finish (AFF), bought at the Family Dollar store. The last thing I added was the rusted piece in the top right corner.

Making this piece was fun and challenging, and I should maybe try doing this more often. Maybe it would help increase my confidence at layering.

Feathered Carpet Ride (and you might get a chuckle out of this story)

2008-07-16T23:53:00.005-06:00

I actually did some needle felting on a real art piece here, instead of just playing around with the felting. And I love my Clover needle felting tool, and the brush mat, and doing flat needle felting. These are some tools I'm very happy I bought, with no regrets. I highly recommend them, especially for artists who love using fabric and fibers.

I made this piece for an online challenge in one of my yahoo groups. The group is The Latest Trends in Mixed Media Arts and now has 617 members. It's a great group, and this was my first time signing up for this challenge. The challenge is the monthly Art Partner challenge, where Inka (of Inka Stamps) sends out an envelope to the ten people signed up for the challenge. The envelope includes one of her unmounted stamps, a piece of cardstock, and an embellishment. Those in the challenge must use these items in their art piece and then upload it to the photo folder on the group site. Then at the end of the month a winner is picked, and the artist sends the art to Inka in return for a $10 gift certificate for her stamps, and she posts the art to her gallery.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, I got confused when she sent a piece of Ghirardelli chocolate in the envelope. And made the incorrect assumption that it was meant to be an embellishment on the art piece. Yes, I thought it seemed a bit strange as an embellishment, and wasn't thrilled about having to use it on my art piece, but just figured those were the rules. So I worked on this piece a few hours last Sunday, and completed it, all except for using the candy. And I was very happy with it, and balked at gluing the candy on. I didn't WANT to include the candy on this piece, I didn't think it belonged there.

And my muse, Bonita, threw a fit, and was screaming at me, "You CAN'T be serious about adding this candy to this piece!!!" So we argued back and forth, but I won. And so, grumbling under my breath, I reluctantly glued the candy on. And then uploaded it to the folder. And shortly thereafter, found out from a post on the group by Inka that the candy was to eat, not to use as an embellishment for the art. So then I laughed about it, realizing how clueless I'd been, and felt very silly indeed that my piece of candy was now part of my art. Furthermore, it was posted in the folder for all to see my silly mistake. And would be the only piece in that folder with the candy on it. A testament to my cluelessness!

So, that's the story behind this. If I thought I could remove the candy without ruining the piece, I might try. But I'm afraid to risk it now. I used a piece of cool fabric gelled to pizza cardboard as the background. Then cut out a smaller piece of the fabric, and needle felted around the edges to make a frame for the stamped image. I stamped it onto a paint sample, cut it out, used a rounded corner punch, and glued it down. Oh right, I painted the vintage lace with Lumiere Sunset Gold and glued that down first. The swirl clip is glued over another paint sample. And the very last thing I did was glue on the darn candy!

I had fun with the needle felting, and of course had to finish that part before I could glue down the fabric. I really had to plan out the steps on this piece due to the felting, since I couldn't felt through cardboard. The felting itself was very easy and quick, and I used mohair yarn unraveled from a sweater.

Now I have four different sweaters bought at yard sales for the yarn, and perhaps my next project will be to dye some of the yarn with Kool-Aid, so I can have various colors. Some friends on another yahoo group are doing this very thing, and it's working well for them. I think it would also work for silk or wool roving. If I do this dying project, I'll post about it.

Oh, and one last thing. Right now I'm trying to rust a bunch of safety pins in a container outside. I'm not sure if they'll rust though, because some safety pins are treated so they won't rust. I bought these at the Dollar Tree, so I'm hoping the cheapo safety pins will rust. Will let you know on that, once I know. But hey, wouldn't rusted safety pins be cool to use in art? Yes indeed, I think so!

More experiments with needle felting

2008-07-12T16:05:00.006-06:00

Soooo, what have I been doing??? I've been playing with my new needle felting tools. And these pieces are what I've produced. Again, keep in mind here, I'm a total newbie to this medium, so I'm just playing around and having fun. In the first photo, I used yarn for rug punching on a piece of fabric. It looks better up close than in the photo. In the second photo, I used yarn unraveled from a cotton sweater, felted on a piece of muslin. I like the way this turned out.

The third photo is a scan of the back of the first photo. And the fourth photo is of wool yarn unraveled from a sweater. It rather looks like a rug, and I'm thinking someone could actually make a rug with this technic, although it would take hours and hours to complete a decent sized rug. Right now, I seem to be into using unraveled yarn from sweaters. Well, I'm new to this technic, and just playing around for now, and using what I have on hand.

In fact, I bought the sweater for this fourth piece at a yard sale yesterday. And then today, went back to the same yard sale to buy two more sweaters at half price, for 25 cents each. I haven't unraveled the yarn from those yet. And when you unravel yarn from a knitted sweater, it ends up being all kinked up. And I'm wondering, if I wash the yarn in the washing machine, if it will come out straight, like regular yarn? Does anyone know if that works? I do have some specialty yarns for my art, but don't want to use those yet, until I get more proficient at this technic.

It does seem to be rather addictive though, and I can see me getting a lot of good use out of these new felting tools!!! And that is a good thing.