B-Bye June

EDIT: ok, so the pic doesnt EXACTLY look like me :D lol! What to you expect from a pic taken in a car with a cell phone??? So far, my g/f didn't even recognize it as me and my friend thought it was my daughter because the face is too round---lol! oh well, i was there--i vouch for myself that it is me--looks better than my drivers license and my work id....lol

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Can you believe half the year is gone already?

 --looks under the bed--under piles of papers--inside the closet--under the cat---

Where did it go?????????

Well. I had the rare pleasure, this last morning of the first half of the year, to have art time before going to work!  I have not been able to do that in YEARS!! But today we were up early and i turned the laptop on for something else and found myself in photoshop elements creating!!

I've been in need of a new avatar for my various social networks and had recently taken some funky photos of myself (where else but in the car with my phone! LOL!)--in about a half an hour, I arrived at this:

Filters and layers and blurs-OH MY!

I've also printed it out to add to one of my art journals.  I'm seriously thinking this year's Holiday cards may involve digital art printed out...and I am planning some Christmas in July projects!!

the wheels are spinning.....

Hope Notes

I think it is a beautiful thing how word gets around blogland (when it is a good word anyway ;) ).  While catching up on some of my favorite blogs, I came across an oportunity to commit a wonderful act of kindness.  Won't you join me in making some Hope Notes ?

some quotes to maybe use inside:

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible. --Anon

All human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope.  --Alexander Dumas

Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him(her) the gift of miracles. ~Samuel Smiles

When the world says, "Give up," hope whispers, "Try it one more time. ~Anon

Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all. ~ Emily Dickenson

And some beautiful examples.

Second visit to gridlock

I did get some time in the studio tonight to both finish a "real time" grid lock spread for this month's Street Team Challenge (click button in left sidebar to visit the challenge!) get a decent photo of it and photoshop the photo :)  Since I haven't been doing too much in the studio of late (except making curtains and reorganizing--ehem, cleaning--) there wasn't much in the way of "evidence" to glue into my journal--but the things that did turn up actually went well together (blue and purple pens laying around, deep blue flower rescued from the floor, a plastic scrabble tile that escaped from its friends and a usps express envelope with lovely stamps on it)--

without further ado--my second grid of the month....

Sneak Preview

Here is a little preview of a couple of the items I will have for sale in the not too distant future---

Jungle Cat

Princess Hidey loves to hide in the jungle that is my window sill of house plants :)

Grid Lock

Since I don't know when I will get to any "real time" art, I decided to do this month's Street Team challenge (see button link at left) as virtual (digital) art :) I chopped up the last of my digi tutorials and put them into a grid form:

playing with the elements

i adore digital image manipulation!! i've spent several years admiring and tinkering with digital art in various forms--yesterday i picked up a fantastic book (with a 40% off coupon--even better!) called Digital Expressions by Susan Tuttle. Absolutely perfect for me! I have the basic  knowledge of what Photoshop Elements can do, but this book acts like tutorials showing step by step how to achieve certain looks!

the first little lesson was an easy vignette--i took it a step further and altered the color to be less saturated and a touch sepia--

next was a lesson in selecting objects, desaturation and color popping--because the statue had no color to begin with though, i added a spectrum gradient layer--

third lesson was all over the board--multiple photos, text, filters, brushes...

so much fun!

What a deal!

On a mission to locate "bead ends" for my sister, I stopped at a local shell shop that also carries some jewelry stuff (Raider's Reef--if you are ever on Anna Maria Island, you gotta check it out!)--they had a bin of "vintage jewelry" in little zip bags for 50 cents, $1 and $2--so for less than $12 i found these treasures!

the dark chain bracelet with the crown pendant has already been usurped by my hunny--glad I could please her for a dollar...lol

a pretty pendant for $2

and how could i pass up the libra earrings for 50 cents??

Greetings from the sunny coast of Florida

Wow--i'm not sure where the month of May has gone!!

We are down in Florida now over the Memorial Day holiday, and I purposely only brought my laptop and a sketchbook hoping to catch up on my own blog and reading everyone else's--much to my own chagrin, the internet connection here is elusive at best!!  So I will hurry through a post, and hope the connection holds out!!

So maybe it is because I miss our little Hidey Cat, but this little ring holder kitty just meowed at me and I had to have her.

I finally made it to a crop before we left for Florida, but instead of scrapbooking, Becky and I worked on some jewelry. Now, my big box of bead projects is somewhere in storage, but I did have my grandmother's broken jewelery box of miss-matched jewelry bits.  Seven sterling charms (still on their cards), a brand new charm bracelet, and two broken ankle bracelets became a colorful new bracelet for me!!  Unfortunately, the jumprings i used were ineffective and I almost lost my two favorite charms--While sunning by the pool, i replaced the rings with wrapped wire and voila! my charms are safe for wearing!!

Zen Owls

I've been drawn to owls this week. I always like them, of course, but i have been inspired to draw them everywhere!  there are flocks of them on my desk calendar, in my planner and in two art journals...

today was my second day working on these owlies--i will share their progress every so often--i only work on them for about 15 minutes during my lunch, so it will likely take a while to finish. 

Happy Woden's Day to all and thanks for stopping by!

Senses

Senses

I don’t know how to handle
the words I hear.

(time)

They drifted into memory
as you locked yourself away
from my sight.
But I hear them
again and again
as they replay themselves in my mind.

(time)

I can’t see you
But you are near.

(time)

The tears of hopelessness flow.
salt
mixed with bitterness of rejection—
all I can taste
since dinner
like our soul
grows cold with absence.

(time)

The bed is empty
Your pillows and your scent are gone.

(time)

The vastness
of the space where I lay
envelopes me with harsh emptiness.
The pillow is soft
The blanket is warm
But I feel nothing
without you
by my side.

Harrumph

Well, i have no photos to share with you of my art play from last night, because my attempts at using transparencies and the clear, acrylic caulk were an epic fail.  I did manage to get very pale transfers when i used plain white acrylic paint, but again, not the results I had hoped for. Not sure what I am doing wrong, because i have done this type of transfer (with acrylic paint) and had it turn out fine.  Perhaps stress and lack of sleep have me forgetting some crucial point...

What types of transfers do you all have success with?

FINALLY!!!

It seems like it has been forever since I had any art time or even time to read other blogs!!  We've been in the new house for about a month now, and as you can imagine, it has been one thing after another. We've had 3 floods (all non related and in different parts of the house), issues with contractors, and I was almost flattened when a shelf of books in my new studio fell on me...(not just A shelf, but an entire section of shelves....)

My awesome new studio is still a ways from being complete, but about 75% of the stuff is in, the tables are set up and it is functional! On Tuesday, i locked myself away and worked on Michelle Ward's latest street team challenge--mono printing

Here is a group shot of my finished pages:

My favorites from the group--this one was a first pull after spraying the paint/glass with water:

I plan to go back over this one with a black marker to sketch in the details of the flowers and leaves--or maybe zentangle them!

                                      

this was a first pull of one mono-print, with a second pull of another manon-print layered over.

                                         

Another layered print--first layer was a second pull, and for the second layer, i layed the tyvek shaped that were thick with paint on the glass to pull a print of just them.

                                         

For this one, after pulling a second print, i painted flowers on the glass with black paint, sprayed it with water and pulled that as a print.

Definately a great technique with lots of possibilities! I'm curious to try it on fabric---Thanks for the inspiration, Michelle!

In desperate need of artisitic diversion

Packing, moving, unpacking, organizing---certainly NOT artistic endeavors! But they are necessary evils that balance out the awesomeness of making our new house home!  Even though my art studio looks like Dorothy's cyclone has passed through, I still enjoy being in it--even if it is only to drop more stuff on the floor!

My muse is patiently waiting--living vicariously through the blogs of my kindred spirits and eagerly absorbing all the articles in my latest magazines...

maybe i should do some 60 second sketches/doodles....hmmmm....

Progressive

art journal pages +

Hidey Cat =

the beginning of my first attempt at digital collage!

Feeling Zen

Creativity has mostly been put on hold the last two weeks as my life revolves around the acquisition of our new home.  Today we have our inspection and we move one step closer to the American Dream. I guess creativity hasn't truly been put on hold, it is just taking a slightly different guise...such as picking out cabinets and designing the space for my new art studio!!

You may have noticed the new look of my blog as well! Creativity has cropped up there as well as i spent the better part of the week learning how to tweek the css and html to make my blog more "magickal."  I photo-shopped my Samhain BJP images to create the banner and background, added some buttons, blogroll and a nifty moon phase widget (did you see the witch fly by??) and voila! Let me know what you think of the new look!

And finally, i finished up two zen doodles--one that includes "x"s and "o"s for my second contribution to the Street Team and one that reflects my longing to get back to my garden!!

Hugs and Kisses

GPP Street Team challenge this month is to create "love letters"--to be exact, the letters "x" and "o"

---inspired by some of Michelle's hand carved stamps, i cut out some stencil letters in a "gothic" sort of font and used black ink on red cardstock to create both positive and negative images.  i outlined some of the letters and then stamped text here and there...

Whole lotta creative goin on....

While i didn't work on any of my "home" themed projects last week (well, not directly, but I have been researching the techniques I want to use on my Hearts at Home art quilt and we did go see a few more houses this weekend), I have been creatively busy.

With Valentine's Day less than a week away, I am scrambling to complete several of each of my two designs for this year.

Being a BIG BIG fan of Tim Holtz and all of his products, I just had to create a log book to keep track of all that I have and all that I want! It's still i a work in progress, but I like the way is turning out! More to come---

Cover showing tabs....                                                                                 ....page showing stamp pads etc.

And my latest obsession--"zentangles"--if you haven't tried them, you should! There are lots of examples and tutorials out there! The are so simple and so relaxing! I have so many ideas for this artform!! Definitely more to come!

Body Beautiful

I knew when I decided to do a "Creative Everyday" challenge for myself, that the idea was neither mine nor was it new. I'd heard the phrase many times in the past couple of years. For the hell of it, I decided to google the phrase and see where it would take me.  To my sheer delight, it led me to Leah Piken Kolidas blog Creative Everyday. She IS the creator of this challenge and provides encouraging and motivating space for others to be creative everyday--in whatever way being "creative" means to you.

With only a few days left in January (my head is still spinning from this fact), I signed up to be part of this community. Leah offers themes each month that you can use or ignore at your will--with this month's being "body." I chose to interpret this theme through visual representations of plays on words...

fairly self-explanatory...

"Body Language"

This page started as an idea to do "Body of Text" but subconsciously changed to "Body Language" after I stumbled across several old books in various languages that I had purchased ages ago to use for backgrounds.  When I put the books under my art table to be packed up, I didn't realize they would find their way into today's art---

 

"Body Type"

ok--so I am mildly obsessed with the written word as a design element. I can't help it--it just looks cool. 

in the same way that the universe directed me to my multi-language books, the measuring tape background paper just happened to be in the mess of stuff on top of my art table and i couldnt resist the symbolism it added--after all, how is it that we harshly judge our body types than with a tape measure??

The rest of the numbers game

Well, here we are, on the last day of the month (OMG!! Really? a whole month of the new year is already gone?? Where did it go??) and I am happy to say that I completed   a page for every day--sometimes they were two-page spreads, and a few times i did several pages at once to catch up--but I did it!  Will I be doing this again for February?? um....well...no...lol....but there will be more in posts to come on February's goals!

For now, here are the remaining three pages inspired by my facebook peeps and the numbers they chose---

Miss Emma chose 114--completely random, just like her.  I chose a fabulous "dark" photo of her and used black and red to reflect her style.

I'm sure you can figure out the Krisha's number for yourself....I helped myself to her facebook profile photo for a "yin-yang" effect...

and my buddy Kraig (who I haven't seen in almost three years! We really need to get together!) offered up 647. At some point, back in the day, I called him K-dog--so it had to become part of the page...while Kraig is as far from urban or grunge as you can get, I do like the feel of that in this page.

Thanks to everyone who inspired me with a number! You helped keep me motivated!

Part II....

Day 4 was 420 provided by Muse Angie...

Day 5 from my scrapbooking buddy, Cassandra. Her number was 352:

and day 6 was from my good buddy Jen, who knows me quite well and chose a number I would have chosen for myself--the magickal number 13!

I still think the edititor is jacked up, even with the "upgrades"--curse you blogspot! LOL!

Number Inspirations

I am very much enjoying my "CED" book, but after just 11 days, I was already tiring of "theme-less" pages. I took my need to my facebook peeps and requested seven "random" numbers to be the inspiration for the next week's worth of pages--and they did not let me down! I

have only one number left to do (tomorrow), but below are pages inspired by my honorary muses and the numbers they provided.

(The first and second pages of the week will have to be posted later as they are on a memory card I left at work--

DOH!)

So day three's number was provided by my wonderful girlfriend, who a year and a half ago celebrated her birthday on 8/8/08----888 was her muse number:

(UGG! I am remembering why blogging annoyed me so much!!! I will have to have a separate post for each image as I have now lost images and text three times and this tiny format for creating posts is starting to grate on my nerves. WTF.)

Houses

**************January 17 update

Thank to everyone for the wonderful comments on these pages!! The color scheme is a result of a very limited color pallet--my "mini studio" only has 12 bottles of paint, and the only primary is yellow! I used magenta, violet and purple for my houses, and the magenta and yellow created some orange--

It's been a long time since I've had color theory and design classes, but i have discovered that a 4-color analogous color scheme is quite dynamic because it also includes a complimentary color scheme--try it out with yellow, orange, red and violet (which is what mine is with the magenta representing the red) or maybe green, blue, violet and red....

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And two pages for the GPP Street Team Crusade 36:

http://michelleward.typepad.com/how_cool_is_that/

Do Something Creative Everyday

So the new year is under way, and my goal of doing something creative everyday is in full swing! On today, the 11th, i successfully have 11 simple collages! they certainly aren't great works of art, but the keep the creativity flowing for all of my other projects! Here are a few pages--see a theme emerging??