55th Wedding Anniversary

Wow! This can't be! August 12 was my last post? Lots of craziness in my big family so I've focused more on this stuff than on art I suppose. I did a few things which I should post although I've hesitated since they were things that magazines and books had inspired me to try. I always feel like I should have more ingenuity and not have to use other people's ideas. But I did like the results!

We just celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary on September 26th at Lake Tahoe which was a lovely, relaxing time. Marriage is really an interesting topic these days as I've received comments all the way from "I'm sorry!", to people who are stunned that anyone could actually stay married that long! We are parents, grandparents and great grandparents, and though I will admit it wasn't always a bed of roses, at this stage of the game, we both thank God for His provision and blessing in our marriage. I made Ed a little book that pinpoints some events in his life and he seemed genuinely touched. Whenever I have made a book for anyone, he always asked "Is that one for me?" He finally got his book! When I look at our wedding picture, (and he was movie star cute!), I wonder if I would have ever dreamed what the next 55 years would bring? I think it's good that we can't always see into the future. I was not even 19 years old and had no vision of real adulthood but I learned FAST! As an Air Force wife, we had more than our share of separations but oh, those reunions!!! : ) Life is very comfortable after 55 years together. Enough of this....off to post some more pictures finally!

More Storage.....Woo hoo!

I just found the neatest thing for storage. I have a shoebox full of ribbon spools but then there were all the pieces of loose ribbon too long to throw away and not fitting on any spools. I saw this on someone's blog (not sure who!) and she said it was from Lowes....only $11.97. (Doesn't that actually mean $12? LOL) Anyway, the little doors LIFT. They are not drawers. It sits or hangs, and is 14" wide, 19" high and 5" deep.
I also discovered that it will hold spools up to 4" wide so I may get another for the spools and ditch the shoebox idea. Believe me, I've tried all sorts of things to store ribbon! Anyway, for me, this is the cat's pajamas. I love it!

Revised Collage.....

What? It's been since July 28th since my last post? Well, I think I might have removed the Lauren and Sam post since I thought maybe my grandkids antics weren't all that interesting to other people after all!
This post is showing the revised (again) collage now named "The Girl and the Bluebird". Revised because I had to put a piece of handwriting somewhere on it to enter in the New Trends in Mixed Media group's August collage contest. I also added a few other things (shouldn't I be taking things away instead?). It takes courage sometimes to promote our own work and yet I get a lot of satisfaction out of knowing what others think, good or bad. It's sure not a perfect example of collage but I think I'm growing each time I attempt something. Hopefully....

I've not done a lot recently....life seems to get in the way of art, doesn't it? In a way, I look forward to fall and winter and being "holed up" in the house; on the other hand, I somewhat dread the craziness of the holidays. I need to learn to take life as it comes....one day at a time.....not look too far into the future lest I become overwhelmed with what I know is coming. I don't handle the holidays so well anymore. It's almost like "been there, done that" and maybe I'm just enjoying the simple things of life more and more. Dragging out box after box after box of Christmas paraphernalia seems so redundant after 55 years of Christmases with my DH and family. Do I sound jaded? I don't mean to be....just being realistic, I guess.

New Collage

Finished a collage I worked on the past few days. I just can't quit when I'm ahead. Well, it's all stuck down now and if it wasn't, I'd probably remove the book...I don't think it needs it now that I look at the thing with a jaundiced eye.
It's about 12 x 20 in an old frame. There are some flowers from a napkin thanks to Norah's tutorial here:http://allnorahsart.blogspot.com/2008/06/napkin-play.html. The bottom area has some anaglypta. I never knew that embossed wallpaper was called that until my friend, Sally Paul, clued me in about it and sent me a piece. I asked her for some advice along the way and unfortunately, I don't think I followed it very well. She's been an art teacher for many years (I think she said 40!!) and I would probably be considered one of her most difficult students. Go ahead, give me an F, Sally....I deserve it! That's it for today. Just going to sit back now and pick it apart in my mind and wonder about all the things I did wrong and if I had it to do over again, what would I do differently? I would love some feedback....and like I told Sally, be truthful because I'm tough and I can take it.....LOL
PS: You can click on it to enlarge. Better to see all my mistakes...: )
PS again! Revised picture added above. I tore off the top piece of heavy lace and replaced it with some player piano paper...trust me, it's better in person! Well, at least I think so.

Tea Chest

I'm on a tea kick...here's a little tea chest that I made; front, top and side view. It has German scrap roses and birds and some hand painted strokes here and there. I had it filled with tea bags but have been using them regularly so I need to replenish my stash! There are napkins in the drawers and a little sugar and Splenda.

Is this a shrine? I never know!....Mary Green Woman says a shrine is paying homage to something you love and I love tea! A bit different than my tea shrine that I posted earlier.

It's 108 degrees today in the Sacramento area (and smoky from all the fires around us).....after a high yesterday of 113. When my first son was born in Salina, Kansas on July 8, 1954, it was also 113 degrees.....we had no air conditioning in our little place, nor did the air base hospital! I was 19 years old and thought I was going to DIE. When I came home from the hospital, DH went to Sears and bought a table fan which we placed next to the crib and turned it on the baby full blast. He had the worst colic ever....duh!

Brian and Bird Condo Side Views

Two posts in one day? Glory be! I'm supposed to be cooking turnip greens. Why can't I do what I'm supposed to do instead of playing with this blog stuff? I just wanted everyone to see darling grandson Brian with his grandma. This was after he got his altered dictionary grad gift (see earlier post below). He really, truly seemed to love the book and thanked me over and over. Pretty neat for a 23 year old. He's got class....heh heh!
Also, I'm posting the side views of the 2 story condo (earlier post) as a couple of people asked to see the sides. So here they are in what is my poor photography attempts. Don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge!I just can't get the lighting right and I'm too lame to understand all there is to know about basic photography. Maybe I just don't want to take the time. I have to go cook turnip greens now.

A Spot Of Tea

I saw this idea in a book by (I believe) Anna Corbin and fell in love with it. Can't remember the name of it now. DH made me a wooden box which became this little tea shrine/assemblage. Can someone explain what the difference is? If a shrine has a religious connotation, well then, so be it. I don't worship tea but I sure do love it....expecially fruity teas and Tazo. The Tazo website is great fun if you've never visited it. Here's the link. http://www.tazo.com/noflash.html
Last night, Lauren, the infamous 3 yr old, came to visit while her mommy and daddy celebrated their 7th wedding anniversary with a dinner out. Immediately, she saw the dining room table was still looking very "cwafty" after the bird book completion. There was no turning back. She had to make a bird book for her mama and daddy and one for her day care lady, Miss Hannah. She worked hard at it and punched more birds with my new bird punch than you can count. Then, when there was paste and scraps on everything (except the book) she announced that I was to take it to the post office and mail it to them (they were picking her up in a few minutes)! So I was to mail it today. Actually, I was supposed to take it last night but I explained that it was closed so the mailman could rest. Did I mention that I left the room for a split second and when I came back, she had a pile of Diamond Glaze the size of an elephant on a piece of paper?

Oh, and I got busted, too. She walked into the "cwaft" room/office/storage/junk room and said "This room has too much stuff in it". Wait a minute, girlie, who's the boss of this house.....you or me? If I want too much stuff, (which I do), then just wait till you get your own cwaft room! I hope I'm still around to point out that you've got too much stuff! Anyway, you will never be an "ahtist/cwafter" if you don't have a lot of junk around to play with. LOL

Bird Book Play Day

Charlotte and I had a play day yesterday. We both worked on bird books. Our inspiration was from the new Somerset Studio Gallery....Charlotte's was completely different and very lovely. I wish she'd "blog" so she could show off her work.
Mine is 5 x 7 illustration board....quite heavy. I covered the pages with different papers and dry brushed some of them. I was pretty unhappy to find when I filled the xyron with a new roll and ran two pages through before I realized it was laminating stuff!
$20 down the tubes. Shoot....the pages were weird and nothing wanted to stick, of course. No extra rolls so I just used soft gel medium to glue the paper to the rest. Then the fun part was embellishing with stamps, scrap, all kinds of birdies and eggs. I'm sort of hipped on birds....can you tell? Well, actually the gold finches in my yard have eaten the zinnias down to bare bones. They by-pass the seed and eat the flowers and leaves. We can't make them stop so I didn't put any gold finches in my book. Bah on them!

I just finished it up tonight and scanned all the pages. I should post a picture of my dining room table, too....I don't think the surface is visible at all. When it gets to that point, I can't find anything so I spend most of my time looking for things I need. I thought I'd clean it off tonight but I'm too pooped. Art is hard!
Remember, you can click on the pictures to enlarge. Better to see my mistakes...heh heh.

Just finished this little bird thing that has been calling my name. It fell off the closet shelf a couple of times in it's original state of navy blue, orange, yellow and red. It had drawers in it which had to go bye bye. This mother bird is resting up after laying 2 eggs that were big enough to do her in real good. Actually, she's thinking about a sitz bath. On the sides, there's a copy of a child's story about a robin. The photography is lousy....should have taken the picture in the morning light.

Transfers

I have been trying transfers for what seems like forever! Never had much success but I'm pretty excited about what I tried this morning. For what it's worth, here are the pictures of what happened. I belong to the Yahoo inkjet transfer group and have mostly just lurked trying to glean information. I have tried a lot of posted techniques with little or no success. Now I don't know if anyone who is good at transfers would think much of these, but I'm happy enough that I would attempt to put one over something that I previously was afraid I'd ruin. I followed Angela Silva's (Inkjet Transfer group) directions and used Office Depot High Gloss Premium Photo Paper, 9 mil thickness, heavy weight. There are 25 sheets and it was on sale a week or two ago for $9.99. Then I used Golden Soft Gel (Matte) on the substrate with my finger, just making a nice smooth layer. At first I used too much and it was obvious when I removed the photo paper that it was really oozing. When I printed the image onto the photo paper, I used the regular printing option (standard) and glossy photo paper setting. I have a Canon Pixma 6700. Funny thing is that the picture of the little boy actually was a black and white cabinet card. The black ink evidently turns blue when it hits the Soft Gel. Oh, and I tried the back of a spoon, a bone folder, the scissors handle and a brayer. Didn't seem to make much difference what I used. Why does a transfer always leave out someone's beak or nose? Hmmm?
Thanks to Angela for helping me make some fairly decent transfers!

Rust and Cwafts

What's this? Two posts in one day? I just wanted to share the beautiful rusted paper (so much prettier in real life!) that I learned to make from Val's blog at http://valsalteredheartjourney.blogspot.com/
It was just on regular copy paper but it almost has a parchment feel once it's rusted. To learn how to rust stuff, you will need go to her blog, scroll all the way down and then go to "older posts" and it's about half way down the page. I doubt if you'll get there very fast because she has the most delicious textured things to look at on the way! The rusted technique is wonderful and she even does fabrics. So here's to Val...the texture queen! Thanks for sharing your technique, Val.

Rusting aside for the moment, I wasn't going to bore you with this but I can't help myself. I watched my barely 3 yr. old granddaughter, Lauren, today and she said "Gammaw, I want make a cwaft (craft for those who don't know 3 yr. old talk), ....we made crafts for 2 hours and when she had made one for everybody in the family, including both grandmas, mom, dad, the daycare lady, and the cat, she said "I'm an ahtist, gamaw. Are you going to be an ahtist, too?" Just too much fun, these 3 year olds! If the truth were known, I would have been very sad if she hadn't wanted to be an "ahtist"!

Brian's Altered Book

Finally finished the altered book for my grandson's graduation gift. The pictures are on Picturetrail and here's the link. (Gosh, it's been so long since I posted, I can't even remember how to make a link!) http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=19880460&uid=8870981
He will see it Saturday night at his grad party. It's big and fat...it was a dictionary but not the one I originally intended....the ten pounder! I soon realized I couldn't deal with that one so this little less weighty one worked out fine. It took me about 2 months to complete. A description of the cover and each page is on Picturetrail.

As we have told our children many times, there are consequences for not eating your vegetables. Here is a shrine depicting what happens (eventually) when you don't eat a healthy diet. This is so NOT ME to make something like this....a far cry from vintage darlings and spring flowers and birds. Not sure what took hold of me other than I had a couple of medicine bottles that looked interesting. My friend Charlotte (who is a veritable gold mine of supplies!) came to my rescue when I said "I think I need a skeleton....where would I get one?". She (as usual) said "I have one". Not only did she have one but it fit EXACTLY inside the shrine. One leg is a itsy bitsy longer than the other (you see, other maladies occur to the human body when you don't eat your vegetables!) but he is perfectly positioned just where he needed to be. Thanks, dear Charlotte!

Who Are These People?

It was a hot day in Sacramento....3rd day of near 100 degrees but not too hot to keep me home!
Went garage sale-ing today and found a few items. One is a dictionary that is 4" thick and weighs about 10 pounds! It's going to become an altered book for my grandson's college graduation. I needed a huge book because his mom has given me so many goodies that I'll have to make a few niches to get them all in. Glad he's a big strong guy so he can lift it...LOL
Also, today I picked up two very old lovely frames with what looked like cabinet cards. When I got home, I took them apart and found two other folks inside the frames....so now I have a husband and wife plus their child and the stern mother-in-law. I'm just guessing about MIL, but I know the couple was married. The 70ish lady who sold them to me said she remembered them in her grandmother's house and thinks they were her grandmother's great-grandparents....I'm thinking mid 1850's by the dress. Anyway, you are free to take them and do with them whatever you want. Another successful garage sale day!

Sew What?

Had a lot of vintage sewing ephemera and have been wanting to do an assemblage or shrine type thing with it. Finally got busy and put it all together. I love the colors and all the little doo-dads. The lid is shown on the left. It's in a wooden box about 8 1/2" square painted an oldish blue-green. Pretty much every thing is vintage. Some of the hooks and eyes and button cards say 4 cents or 8 cents! I found that J. C. Penneys was a great source for the home seamstress. The picture on the inside of the lid is a copy of some vintage scrap advertising Clark's ONT thread. If I ever get my Etsy store (scary!), I might sell this baby although I am pretty attached to it already!
I have a 6 drawer antique spool cabinet that is one of my favorite things....teardrop pulls and glass fronts on the drawers that are backed with red. The drawers read Clark's - Spool Cotton - On White Spools - O.N.T. (our new thread) - George A. Clark - Sole Agent.
I'd like to say click on pictures for a larger view but it rarely works for me. Maybe I just don't know how to do it. Good possibility! Sorry.