More art photos

Happy Spring

Hello Friends and Family. I just wanted to take the first step in updating my blog. I have a couple of new photos to share with you. On a personal note, in the fall I had my hip replaced. This makes the fifth time due to complications and infection. Hopefully this will be the last replacement. It isn't great but it is soooo much better than it was. It has taken me a long time to be back in the to creating mood. I have joined a cloth book round robin, and I will be posting photos from that. Here are photos of an altered RR book and my spread is Life of a spy. Hope you have a wonderful day, and keep creating and sharing.

New Art

Hello Friends and Family. Well, I finally got around to scanning in some new art for my blog. I hope that you will enjoy it, and please leave me a comment if you will.

The first piece is a double image transfer. I printed the images on matte finish photo paper, and transferred them to an acrylic background using matte gel medium. I came back in with a black pen to add a little interest to the top image of the woman. I especially like the crackle look to the images that I was able to do with the heat gun, due to the fact that the background was acrylic, and when heated it expanded a little and cracked the transfer.

The second and third pieces are beeswax collages. These are fun to do, and not being able to leave well enough alone, I like to add additional color with an inexpensive crayon in one hand and my heat gun in the other. Way fun, and you can get some neat results. I would love to be able to get my pieces more smooth, but when I try with my heat gun it seems that I end up melting away too much of the wax. I think next time I am going to use a low temp small sewing aid iron, dry heat of course. If you have a suggestion on how to get that really smooth look with well attached elements, please let me know.

Well, spring is in the air, almost, and I am going to try to redo my blog again, and this time try to get back to the three columns that I had before things went haywire. I am just worried about saving my elements, and especially my archive. I will do some researching first before I try it. I am planning on adding some more new art very soon, and some pieces will be for sell so please drop by when you are in the neighborhood! Haha! I hope to do some spring inspired things, and some more painting.

BLOG IS A MESS!

Hello Friends and Family. Well, I am really happy that you came by, but hate for you to see my blog looking a mess. I was trying to install a new background and somehow I ended up converting my three column to a two column blog. I am going to have to sit down and take the time to fix it.....I hate all of that wasted space on the sides. However, I am working to meet a deadline at the moment. One piece of my art was selected for a juried show and I am so excited about that!! Then there is another one to try to get into on Monday. Hopefully, I will have next week to get this blog done,and add some new photos.
Oh, and I am still trying to keep up with my journaling, not too often, but still, better than last year! I will share that later too.
Have a great weekend, and be safe!

Happy New Year

HELLO THIS IS MY LAST PAINTING OF A GARDEN GATE DONE IN ACRYLICS ON A STRETCH CANVAS. PLEASE LEAVE ME A COMMENT AND LET ME KNOW IF YOU LIKE IT OR IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO OFFER A SUGGESTION!

Hello Friends and Family. I am so excited about all of the possibilities for the new year. I am feeling creative, connected, and committed to my goals for this year. I am not really one for resolutions, but I do see this as a wonderful time to make changes in myself. Someone said, and I wish I knew who, that if we don't stop to examine who we are that life is not worth living. I have been doing a considerable amount of this self-examination.

If you are like me, one of my goals is to continue to watch my calories, (I am slowly loosing!), but I know that I have got to increase my exercise. I want to be stronger, and more flexible so I am really going to work on this.

Number two on my list is a simple enough statement: I want to be more creative. WOW is that one ever loaded for me! I am starting about four journals. I have never even kept one, and now I am starting four! I must be out of my mind! #1 is a visual art journal of images, colors, and textures of things that I just like. I want to practice my doodling and lettering in this journal too. #2 is just a Wine Journal, more concrete with various information about wines that I will purchase and taste this year. #3 Is a Spiritual Journal. It may contain images, colors, etc, but also Bible verses that speak to me, quotes, and I don't know what else! #4 will be a Diet/Exercise Record book for the progrss (do you like that positive word?) that I make with my diet and exercise. Please wish me luck with these Journals.

As if that wasn't enough, I have decided to practice drawing more. I have a new Sketch book, and I want to go to Half Price Books, and find another copy of the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". I am terrible at drawing, and as I add sketches I will upload them so you can offer suggestions and comments, and if you would like, you can draw along with me.

Part of my being more creative this years means that I am becoming more involved in creating my own art in the form of paintings and collage. I am a member of a couple of local art associations, and I want to enter some shows this year. Of course if they are juried shows well then you have to be selected to be in the show. That is scary!!

If you have read my blog in the past you know that I have been involved with online art groups. I was the owner of such a group, but two days ago I stepped down to make more time to do my own art. I still love altered art, and I will continue to do that, maybe in the form of small collage art, en caustics, and altered objects, but I am not going to be doing any ATCs or Book Round Robins, well not any RR of any kind.

I have to say it was a little sad to give up owning a group, and sad to think of the things that I won't be doing this year, but I needed a change, and so I am going after it. I want to encourage all of you to 1) examine your life, and 2) make your own changes. I want to learn, create, and expand on who I am as a artist.

My third and final goal for the new year is two parts: to give back more to my community and my church, and to have a closer walk with my Lord and Savior. This is what this means to me and some of my plans: Through a friend at a local gallery I will be teaching art to some under-privileged children. Since this is what I trained for, I think it would be a shame not to use my skills in this area. Through my church there is a program of helping others called Hearts and Hands. I am planning to volunteer there whenever I can. Also my church has a school, and they do not have an art teacher, and I would like to discuss with the school how I could volunteer my services there.
I have decided to take up a challenge to read the Bible cover to cover in a year, and I know that by reading God's Word that I will find the closness, the faith, and the spiritual growth that I am seeking. If you are a person that prays then I ask for your prayers on my behalf to reach my goals.

All of my goals I am going to write down in my Art Journal. If you don't write it down and then make the time to do the things that you say, then you will never reach your goals. I am feeling so good, so full of life, so willing to share and to change that I am very excited by all of this. I know there will be many days when I won't do a thing, but I will be aware of them if nothing else. Sometimes when you are retired like I am, one day just runs into the next, and it is easy to procrastinate! If you like, please send me some encouraging words, quotes, questions, and if you want I will do the same for you. Just let me know in a comment.


On a very personal note, most of you know, but in case you didn't, I am a widow. My husband passed away in January of 2002. I have been alone all of this time. Well, in July of 2009 I decided to start dating. I am dating now, and looking for a new love of my life. Dating is never easy, but I find it more difficult since I have not done it since I was 24 years old! Oh my goodness! Has dating changed!!! I am doing online dating, and it is slow and time consuming, but I think it gives me the best chance I have to find the perfect match for me. I'm not saying a perfect man, because there aren't any, but just someone who will love me unconditionally, be honest and faithful, and committed to the relationship. That is all!!! I wouldn't mind if we had similar interests but that isn't really necessary if we are respectful of each other and the things that we do. I could use so luck and prayers in this department too!

Well, time to close and head off to bed. It is almost 3:30 here, and I plan to be up early to start my new goals! God bless you all, and happy creating!

Lisa's Countdown to Christmas

Hello Friends and Family. Just wanted to remind everyone that Lisa Vollrath is hosting another wonderful Countdown to Christmas with free collage sheets. Just click on the title of this post to be taken to her web site! Happy downloads to you all!

HELLO TO EVERYONE!

Hello Friends and Family. I have been gone from my blog so long, and really feeling guilty about it! I have been working on some new Christmas ornaments, and I will post a photo of the one that I created and mailed yesterday for a swap.
I just joined Twitter today, and I will be adding that to my blog just as soon as I figure out how! I hope you are all staying warm. It has been really cold here in Arlington today. I am working on a small canvas for an art club swap. Doesn't that sound like fun! I hope to get it finished very soon since I will be swapping it on Saturday. So, I have an art club meeting on Saturday from 3 to 6, some friends are having a gallery show from 6 to 9, and I am co-hosting a Christmas party dance at a local club from 8 to 2AM. I am not sure how I am going to do all of this, but I am going to give it my best shot! I am also working on some art to give as gifts, but I'm not going to say anymore about that!

Well, it really feels good to be posting again, and I hope that you are all well, and enjoying this wonderful Christmas Season. More to come very soon!

New Collage

Hello Friends and Family. I didn't mean to go so long without posting. I have just been tied up starting a new Yahoo group, and preparing for our first meetup. It was last Saturday, and everyone had a wonderful time. We all did a sort of directed collage and they came out so well. I forgot to get photos of all of them, but I have a few and I have mine.
I am not quite happy with this one yet. I plan to do a little more to it, and to the one that I finished before. I just need some time to sit down and do that. I am having car problems, and I am looking into getting a new or used car. I will see what comes my way.
Well, let me know what you think of the photos,and I will do a little more work on them and rescan. Thank you for checking out my blog and for being a follower. I think it is important for all of us artists to visit and appreciate the work of others!

Recent Collage

Hello Friends and Family. I had an opportunity to work on a collage this week at a creative nights meetups. We have a really good time there, and each month the project is different. I have met some new friends there, and am looking forward to the meetup next month. I am sharing this collage with you even though I am not crazy about it. I had limited paints and supplies, and being in a rush just took its toll on this. I think I could work on it again and possibly make it work. Let me know what you think I should do to it. I call this piece Angela, after my daughter.

More Art Today!

 

Hello Friends and Family. This is a scan of my own collage that I received from our latest canvas/collage board RR. My theme was Shabby Chic, and if you scroll down aways, you will see what work I did on it before I sent it out.

I am very happy with it, and I will probably add just a little more to it before I call it finished! I really appreciate my group and the great work that they do.

Here is another collage board that I worked on today. This one was great fun, and I really enjoyed it. It belongs to my friend Wanda. I added the five images across the top area, the spider and web, the boy with the pumpkin and the skulls. It wouldn’t be Halloween without skulls! I hope you enjoy seeing this one. It is finished in this RR, and is going home tomorrow.

Here are a couple of the Torsos I have made for a swap. I scanned in another one, but I have no idea where it is now. If I come across it then I will post that one. I am going to make a few more for myself, and make a little garland out of the ones that I received and the ones that I will make.  If you haven’t tried altering a torso then give it a try. It is fun and quick. These are about five inches tall and three inches wide. I hope you like.

Well, I am ready to move on to something else now, but first I have to clean up my art room! It looks like a tornado went through here. TTYL

My Round Robin Christmas Book

Hello Friends and Family. I have mailed off my Christmas book to be worked in by the first person, Stacy. I am excited to be doing another RR, and I hope that all of my group will have fun with it. I had been planning to do the book on Vintage Christmases, but I only got past the first spread, and then my muse took over, and I went glitter crazy on my signin spreads. That is OK though because at least I have had my fill of it. Now to get on with the themes that each of us chose. I think I will receive a book tomorrow to start on.
Do you remember back in June when I started on my altered canvas/collage board. Well, it is home and it looks   great. I will upload a photo tomorrow. I just hadn't written in a few days, and I wanted to say "Hi all of you art lovers!". TTYL

New Jewelry For Me!

Hello Friends and Family. I had to get some beads for the Chotski pins I made and I had some left over so I thought I would try to make something for myself. I can't believe that I made this necklace and these earrings for me! Yes, it took me a little bit of time, but I am so happy with the results. I thought I wouldn't be able to see well enough to actually make something, but what a happy surprise. Now, I can't wait to go back to the store and buy some more beads and to try something different. Let me know what you think. I know they are not all that fancy, but I like them and they were great fun to do!

New Round Robin

Hello Friends and Family. I was going to mention that I am starting a new Christmas Book Round Robin with my group. If you have been wanting to do a RR, then you can read and follow along as I prepare my book, and do the first couple of spreads in it before I send it to my mailing partner. I will be happy to walk you through the steps as I go, and you can made a similar one, or one with a different subject. I will be starting on it soon, and I think our last mailing will be right before Thanksgiving. The first thing you will need to do it find a good sturdy book, with sewn in pages, not glued in pages. Here is a great tutorial on determining if a book has sewn or glued in papes: . Lisa Vollrath has many other great tutorials on making and working in an altered book. Just search at GoMakeSomething.com.
So go find your book, and choose a theme, and we will get started soon. Email if you are thinking of doing this so we can talk.

CHOTSKI PINS

 

Hello Friends and Family. Here are two Chotski pins that I made for a swap. The blue and green one is for my friend Jo Ann, and the one with the vintage and a couple of new beads is for my friend Deb. Now Deb knows a lot about Ireland, and she says that a Chotski pin that looks like a big safety pin, sort of, is what hold the kilt of an Irishman closed. Neat huh? Well, I think that this is not a real Chotski, but this is what I could find at Jo Ann Fabrics so I was desperatate enough to use these. They are really easy to do, and you can hang any number of things from the loops.

I am also working on my Torsos for a swap on my group, and they will be going out soon. When I get some scans or photos made I will upload them for you to take a look. I am thinking I may connect mine together to make a banner, but I could change my mind by the time I receive mine. If you want a pattern to make some of your own, just email me and I will send it to you. Pleae put Torso Pattern in the subject line. Well, I hope you are having a good crafting and arting week, and that you will continue to make beautiful things coming up.

Altered Books Group has 10th Birthday!

Hello Friends and Family. I hope wherever you are that you are staying cool. I’m sure trying to, but this Texas weather is not wanting to cooperate.

If you have been in altered objects, books, etc., then I know you have heard of the huge Altered Book Group on Yahoo. They are celebrating their 10th birthday! So many of us have come from that group, forming new groups, new projects, new friends. You can clink on the right if you would like to check them our.

The piece of art that I have up today is a 4”X6” heavily collaged page for the group’s birthday. Corinne, who is in that group, is a real doll and she is collecting all of the pages from everyone that wanted to participate. She is doing lazar color copies of all the pages, and sending them back out  to all of us fir FREE! I told you she is a doll! She will accept postage to mail you all of the page copies, and when you get them you can bind them and have a wonderful memory piece of this event. 

You know I am not shy about showing you my boo-boos, and this next one is a dozy:

Yes, the first time I made this I made it in the wrong direction! So from now on I am double checking the instructions. I know it had to be flat and I did pretty good with that, but the orientation got me.

Well, that’s it for today. I will be adding some Torsos for a swap this weekend, and preparing a book for a Christmas Book RR so I will write more later.

COWGIRL COLLAGE FINISHED

I have finished working on my friend Deb’s collage board, and here are my photos with an explanation of what I did. I hope she and you will like it!

Here I am trying various papers and images on the board.

In this photo, I have glued down the red paper in the left top corner, and done some rubber stamping in the background, including a crackle stamp, and the cowgirls on the left.

Here is have used some Delta Dimensional Pant in Blue with a large foam rubber stamp.

Here is the finished project. I am pretty happy with it. I saved room on the left for one more person to work on this, and then it is going home. I hope you are inspired to try a canvas board collage for yourself!

HOWDY PARTNERS

Hello Friends and Family. I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday, and that you had good food, good family and friends, and good fun! I had a great time right here at my new apartments. We had a catered lunch for the 4th, and I didn't even have to leave my place to see a wonderful fireworks show at the Rangers Ballpark. A great show and it was free!

I am preparing to work on another round robin collage board that I received this past week. This board belongs to my friend Deb, and she likes cowgirls and she isn't even from Texas! This collage is done on a piece of masonite board, and it is very flat. The first think I want to do is to add some texture and the appearance of texture. I have a lot of Western images, and embellishments so I am looking forward to working on this one. I have a Western book started, but not finished so I think I will get it out and work on it this week too.

In my online Yahoo group, I am fishing for some new ideas to inspire my friends there. I have lots of new polls and suggestions out there right now. Beeswax collage, microscope slide jewelry, Christmas in July, Christmas RR book, and several more ideas. I am hosting a Torso swap right now, and I am creating Chotski pins for another swap so I will be adding some photos from these things soon.

You know how things slow down this time of year, with the kids home from school, and the weather so hot, well at least here in Texas, that all we want to do is stay indoors, or in the pool, and drinking ice cold tea....with lime. That's the way I love it!

Here is how I make my tea: I start with cold water in a glass measuring cup. I add two family sized decaf tea bags, and pop it in the microwave for about 4 minutes. I take it out and let it stand for a bit, and then pour it in a gallon jug. You can add one cup of sugar now while the tea is hot, or fill the gallon with water and then add a sugar subsitute. Then squeeze in a couple of limes, removing any seeds, and then pour over lots of ice. Ahh....wonderful!

I have been visiting some of my favorite blogs, and I love to visit blogs, and see what everyone is working on, and I will be making my rounds this week doing just that. I hope to add some new art photos this week, what with this newest RR collage board, and I hope you will come by soon and let me know what you think.

Goofy Day, Goofy Play

Hello Friends and Family. I am goofing off when I should be getting some things done around here, and I'm going out to the pool in a little bit. I had fun yesterday putin on the red, white, and blue that I picked out from The Cutest Blog on the Block! I also went to Blingee.com and played and played with the glitter, and sparklies. Here is a new blingee photo of me. It would look pretty good, if I were 25 again

Trash to Treasure Art

Hello Friends and Family. I hope you are all doing OK tonight, and if not, well email me, and let's talk. I am a good listener, and I won't repeat a thing.
I wanted to tell you about a new friend, Lynn, who has a blog. Just click on the title above, or here, and check her out. She is celebrating at the moment because of receiving her 200th post! That's great! Also, in these difficult economical times, you know I have been doing more thrift store shopping for objects to alter, books, general junk, old frames and canvases to repaint, and it is so much fun!
Well, Lynn at Trash to Treasure Art and I must be on the same wave link! The big news is the wonderful art give aways that she has right now, and if you don't go check out this great blog you will be sorry. I call dubs on the earrings though. They are just too cute!

Some days are diamonds and some days or stones….what a week of stones.

This whole week has been nothing but stones. I have been really down the last few days, but I hope things will be looking up soon.

I am looking into a couple of local groups to join, since I left my last group, because I just love the meetups.

Also, I lost my brother Charles a year ago today to cancer, and so I have been dreading this day, and I’m still missing him so much. Why do the good ones always have to go first? Charles would have been 60 on August 9th.

Well I have a lot of projects that I need to be working on, so I am going to get started tomorrow on some of them, and you know I will post some photos.I am starting on the curtains, finally, for my living roon, and some other things.

BTW did you notice my new short hairstyle? Let’s just say it is a little shorter than I wanted, (but Sis says it will grow back Ha), and I dyed it sort of a light reddish blond. I really needed a change.Hugs to all of you out there, and hey send some back my way!