Chipboard Jewelry

Charlotte and I attended a class recently where we made jewelry....I'm not a "regular" jewelry wearing person as I wear the same gold earrings every day....even sleep in them! So I'm not sure what prompted me to sign up but I'm glad I did now, as I really love the look of this and will probably wear it when I put on my "grubbies"....it's just grungy looking and fun! There isn't much to it except painting the cardboard (pounced on acrylic paint in metallic colors) and gluing & wiring on whatever little goodies you have on hand. The piece with the couple on front is actually a little book of black pages. Three of these pages have pictures of vintage children on them. Of course, they must be the couple's children!
On to my next project....it's in my head. Now to get it from there to reality!

MaryTagged Me!

That "Green Woman", Mary, tagged me....I think it's a compliment!? Ok, I'll write a few things about me that might surprise some of you....
then again...? Here's how it works, you get tagged and you list 6 things about yourself, unimportant, random,habits and quirks. Then you tag 6 people and link them at the end of your post. Then you inform them they've been tagged and on it goes.

1. I was born in 1934 but I'm only 49 years old. Amazing, isn't it?

2. I have been married since 1953 but I'm about to celebrate my first 100 years with DH....(time goes fast when you're having fun! LOL.......just kidding, Ed)

3. I have 7 sons, 19 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren. (Well, jeez, since I've been married so long I should have something to show for it, right?)

4. I am still amazed by the computer and can sit forever looking at blogs, history, email, etc. (so much for walking 10,000 steps a day) I just read (online) the entire true narrative (42 chapters) of a slave woman named Harriet Jacobs. I couldn't stop reading her fascinating history, though terribly heartbreaking.

5. I'd rather play with my art stuff than clean (duh) and I like to cook because I like to eat.

6. I'm blessed beyond comprehension thanks to my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

That's it! Now to tag some unsuspecting blogger friends:

1. Jillian http://elinorscloset.blogspot.com/
2. Francine http://francines-amusings.blogspot.com/
3. Brenda http://dragonlady-1.blogspot.com/
4. Gabrielle http://parissalon.blogspot.com/
5. Danielle http://wahm922.blogspot.com/
6. Kim http://threadtales.blogspot.com/

Circles and Daisies

Here's an ATC for Altered StART mingle. The theme was Circles....hmmm. I think I could have done better with the theme but this is what came to mind. The paper is beautiful handmade, very colorful paper I picked up at a yard sale. The embellishment is foam with a sun stamp....and some gold embossing. I always wish I had made two of the mingle pieces....one to swap and one to keep, but I never do!

The daisy picture is a vintage postcard that had daisies pictured so I just embellished with pressed daisies over the printed ones and covered the entire card with beeswax. Love the salutation "Hello Girlie"! I'm thinking of sending it in the mail just like it is to see how the PO handles it. The colors are really prettier in real life.

New Collage...is it finished?

This is the first thing I've done for several days. I must have spring fever as I haven't felt like hanging out in the studio/crap room. Ooops, I mean craft room. Don't want to garden or clean or anything. Just lazy!

It was fun to work on, as this little guy reminded me so much of my youngest son, Tommy, when he was about 3. I used some gold angelina fiber on his hair.....just enough, but not too much. The piece is on heavy matt board and is 8 1/2 x 8 1/2. It hangs by the blue ribbon. I used stamping, vintage paper, crochet from a very old pillowcase and buttons. I always have a hard time trying to figure out if it's "DONE" or if it needs more. Maybe less? Well, it's finished and I'm not doing anything else to it.....so it must be "DONE"!

Our "music" mingle at Altered StART just made me think of Olivia...my dad's first cousin. She died in childbirth with her first child in the late 20's. Her name's mention was always followed with "Olivia...she died in childbirth, you know". Poor Olivia....she was an only child herself and in this photo was sitting by the piano with a piece of sheet music on her lap and a big hairbow in her hair. Her parents were well-to-do, owning a retail store in the little town of Ludell, Kansas. Her cousins, on the other hand, were not so well off, but Olivia always had nice clothes & shoes, not to mention a piano! She was perfect for this "music" mingle theme. Frances, our group mom, will receive this piece in the mingle draw.

Pansies and Cherubs

Here's a spring lottery card for Altered StART group. I used dried pansies and cherubs to bring a spring theme to mind. I love the pansies....they dry so beautifully between pages of a book and keep their color so well. Gold micro beads make curls on the cherub's hair. Beeswax covers it all.

Visiting Tucson

Since I am away from my art table and have no art to post, I thought I'd share this silly picture. Here I am standing in front of the famous suguaro cactus in Tucson, AZ. My sis says this is the only place they grow and it takes 100 years to grow an "arm". Not sure this is all true but it sounds good! I can see that I need to lay off the Mexican food....yikes! Anxious to get home and start creating something to add to my blog. I'm not a good traveler.....more of a homebody these days. Love being with my little sister but I'm ready to go back to California. Bye bye, Arizona!
PS: Click to enlarge....never mind, I'm "large" enough without! LOL
PS: Just found out that saguaros grow only in the Sonoro Desert....not just around Tucson.

Only 1 Mother 4 Me

I have neglected my blog for over a week. I have been playing with some different things but nothing worth posting. I made an ATC this morning for Altered StART's bi-weekly (does anyone know what that really means?) "mingle" which is our group swap. It was to be something with a number or numbers. It turned out to my liking and it has my beautiful mother's youthful photo as the focal point so I'm going to share it here. My mother has been gone for 5 years and spring never comes without me thinking about her bluebird houses and bedding plants. Jill asked me what the background was.....don't you hate it when you don't know how you made something? I did it awhile ago and put it away without keeping a record of what I did. I wish I could duplicate it because it truly is pretty. I probably found the technique in a book or online and can't take credit for anything more than just copying what I read. I do think that it's nice to have backgrounds made up....the whole thing only took me a little while simply because I didn't need to make the background before I ever started! Hope all of you are getting a little taste of spring. It's definitely arrived here in Northern California and it's always amazing to me to see nature spring back to life. Birds are flirty and I spend far too much time just watching their antics. We saw a couple building a nest in a BIG old birdhouse which was sitting on a lawn chair with a hole far too large. They worked so hard on it and then abandoned it even as he was bringing the last twig....I wonder if she said "This is way too much house for us...let's look for a smaller place". I need to get back to work!

Interestingly enough, I decided to take some much appreciated advice and add a couple of elements to help balance the collage. It will be interesting to see if it helped....I rather think it did! I also intensified the color with "levels autofix" which actually made it a bit more like the real thing -- except for the birds! They became lavender! What's up with that??? Here it is, for what it's worth....my new improved (?) collage baby.

First Collage

Worked on a collage today and really enjoyed it. Composition is the thing and I'm not sure I got it right but for a first attempt, I like it! The color looks very washed out on here and I'm not sure why. The background was a pretty matt that I removed from a photo album. I gessoed it to dull the color. The peachy effect in the lower left is a piece of a chiffon scarf that has pretty soft flowers. It's laid over the background. Fortunately, the oval opening was already cut for me! The pretty robin's egg blue "ribbon" at the top is actually vintage silk bias tape wrapped around a piece of the original card. There is some German scrap, mother of pearl heart shaped buttons, heavy vintage antique lace inside the oval and some birds that I cut out and applied. The size is 7 1/4 by 9.....definitely not ATC size. I'm spreading my wings!
PS: The baby is a copy of a cabinet card. I tinted it a little to pick up the peach tone. As always, you can click on it to enlarge.

Our Altered StART mingle theme was Asian...this is my first Asian piece. It's ATC size 2 1/2 x 3 1/2. Hope whatever it says is something nice! My niece teaches English in Japan and sent me some little goodies...the 3D piece in the middle was too pretty not to use! Thanks, Melody!

Here's a birthday card I made for our darling granddaughter, Stephanie, who is turning 18 today! I have a funny little program called Mr. Presto where I can remove parts of pictures and put in something different. I took out the girl's face and added Steph's baby picture. I'm sure there are ways to do that in Photoshop but since I don't have it, I use this one for some fun effects. The inside of the card says "but you're even more beautiful at 18!" That font, BTW, is called "King and Queen"....it's wonderful. If you Google it, I'm sure you can find it and add it to your fonts. Oh, and the wings and skirt are cut from some petals off a big 99 cent store flower. Hmmm, wonder if 18 year olds appreciate these kind of cards?

You Make My Day Award

Jill, one of the mods on my Altered StART group surprised me today with this lovely treat! Jill was primarily the one who kept encouraging me to start a blog....thanks, Jill!

The rules for the "You Make My Day" award are to re-present it to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness, inspiration and make you feel happy about blog land. Let them know through e-mail or by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times, and if you do, consider yourself really, really loved. So to pass it on and keep the love going ~ here are some of the 100's of blogs that keep me inspired and bring a smile to my face. Please check them out when you have a few minutes...perhaps there are some new friends to be made! My list is on the right sidebar and I am adding all the time. I'm so slow at editing and posting! I don't have all my favorite blogs listed yet but this is a start. I'll be adding soon.....
There are two special art friends who don't have blogs that I'd like to mention....Charlotte S who inspires me always and Lindy G in Buffalo who makes beautiful things....when are you two starting a blog so you can share with the art world?

Blog Troubles

When I tried to make a link for my http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Altered_stArt/ group this morning (editing previous posts) , some of my posts disappeared. Boo hoo!..... I know how to make links when creating new posts.....just haven't figured out how to do it once the post is in place. Not too savvy when it comes to this blogging stuff but I'm taxing my brain to figure it out. Don't they say it keeps your brain young to make it work harder? I need all the help I can get in that department!
ps: hope that link works.........

Pansy

The Northern California Mixed Media Artists meeting is Sunday. We are supposed to make an "art doll"....I hesitated for a long while because the muse wasn't cooperating. Then I remembered a book "Paper Projects" by Sandra Everton that was languishing in a drawer. I leafed through it and saw this pansy doll and so I went to work scanning her pattern which had a paper pansy for a costume. Of course, I couldn't let that be....I had to get my pressed flowers out and found a gorgeous purple pansy that begged to be a topper for the paper pansy. That wasn't good enough! I heated the beeswax and waxed the thing onto her underskirt. Arrrggghh. Not a good idea. Finally, found another pressed pansy that I put on the top of the waxed one....her headpiece and booby cover-up are pansies/pansy pieces. Her arms and legs are lace covered cardstock. I'm not sure she's anatomically correct but I love pansies....therefore I love her! Click on her for a larger view.