6months on--6 months off

So, when last we met, I was befuddled by the rapid passing of the first half of 2010. And lo--we are now beginning 2011.  Happy New Year to all! I hope the last 6 months and your holidays brought you much joy.  I won't go into mine--suffice to say, I am glad they are over and I am looking forward to making the most of this coming year.

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

**********

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!