happy leap day

I tried a new technique on the front of an artered book (above) I embroidered the flower on my sewing machine then cut it out and glued it to the front of the book. I then covered it with hot wax and sealed it with a Mod Podge made for hard surfaces like furniture. It looks better in person.

Last week was my bowling buddy & fellow quilter, Jan's birthday. I made her a pin cushion like this one but forgot to take a picture before gifting it to her. But it was similar to this one but the fabric had spools on it and she had brown funky hair. DH asked if it was a voodoo doll.

What is that little picture in the upper corner? I don't know why it turned up in that spot and I can't move it but anyway.....I got an idea from Nichol's blog. She made 30 pillow monsters in 30 days, so I thought I would take March and show a little photo each day of the month of something in my studio. Anyone else care to play along?

One last note on yesterday's blog about painting your shoes. I know that most people understand the concept but I need to clarify that proper measures must be made to do this process. First the shoes should be made of leather. You need to clean them even if they are brand new, with an acetone cleaner. Use a good quality acrylic paint, at least 2 coats and then you need to seal them with a couple coats of good quality waterproof sealer.

A friend of my daughter's liked my shoes and said if I can paint my shoes she can paint hers. Well, she used spray paint on canvas shoes without any prep and then bowled in a tournament and was leaving streaks of blue paint all over the lanes. It was a total disaster. BUT she was not an artist.

Have a great weekend and remember only 20 Days until Spring!!

paint your shoes!

As I was preparing to teach a class about stamping, I started to look around for things I have stamped to use as samples. Geez! If it doesn't move it gets painted or stamped or both around here. So these are my old bowling shoes (above)......

.....and my new pair here. I hate breaking in new bowling shoes, but I must start soon. I don't have much life left in the old ones. And me wear plain white shoes? NEVER!

tagged again!

This is the painting I created using my non dominate (left) hand. It was a challenge I bestowed upon myself after watching Sharon and Zorana give it a try.

I have been tagged by Susan to name 6 things....random,quirky,whatever about myself. I think everyone knows the rules by now so here goes.

1. When I was 18 I did pen and ink work of ships that were made into silver ingots at the Franklin Mint in Philadelphia.

2. Speaking of ships, I am afraid of big old masted ships. I had problems swimming in Lake Champlain knowing that all those sunken ships were beneath us.

3. I am a fabriholic! My motto is - "Everyday that I buy fabric is a good day."

4. I love musicals and used to participate in local theatre groups.( I need to get back to that.)

5. I was a huge Beatles fan growing up. I saw them in concert in the early 60's.

6. My biggest pet peeve is people that don't use their turn signals when driving!!!!!

Ok, now I need to tag someone else and I am taking the easy way out. If you are reading this, consider yourself TAGGED!

mail art tuesday

Sharon and I exchanged ATC's for Valentine's day and hers arrived at my home in this pretty envelope that she decorated with a paper napkin. I covered my address with her paper doll.

I sent her a mini Rose (from the paper doll challenge a few weeks back) and a card made from paper towels to show her how strong they become when coated with gel medium.

And she liked the mini doll idea and sent me a mini version of her paper doll ATC. Very cute!

happy monday

Happy Monday!

I won this mannequin head on eBay and I thought I would share her with you today.

She just makes me smile when I look at her.
I scared the DH with her tho, he hates dolls with teeth (goes back to a childhood movie he saw and scared him and I guess he never got over it) anyway he was on the couch and I didn't know he was dozing off and I stuck it in his face to show him and he about fell off the couch. I felt bad but laughed for days whenever I thought about it.

Tomorrow I will show you my mail art.

Have a great week!

weekend challenge

Sharon at All Norah'S Art put out a challenge for this weekend called Leverage your art. To take a piece of art you've made and make it new again. So I took this painting that I posted earlier this week and.....

turned it a blue tint and put it on fabric and made this piece with it.

weekend challenge

six steps of fun!

OK, here is how I make my business cards and tags. Step 1, use shipping labels or cardstock for your base. I like the shipping tags because they are bigger and I think they look funky in a good way. Here you can see that I have distressed them. I use a variety of inks and ink pads to do this. My favorite is Tim Holtz distress ink pads. (Sold at Michael's and Hobby Lobby and on line.)

Step 2 is actually putting some color on your tags, however you want to do it, but remember that only little parts of this will be showing. Sometimes I put ink on both sides of the card.

Step 3 I use the same method as Step 2 on a sheet of sticker paper as a base for my name sticker. You can get 30 sheets of sticker paper for $10.79 at Staples. (Or you can get it for $1.79 if you take in 3 empty ink cartridges.) They will give you a $3.00 coupon for each cartridge. And I always need ink.

Step 4 You can see in the above photo where I have stamped a sheet with my name sticker. I had this stamp made at a stationary store. Stamp up your name stickers. You can also use regular paper or cardstock. I like the sticker paper. With the others you can use a Xyron to make the back sticky or use glue.

Step 5 Use a punch to punch out your name sticker. I have a round stamp so I use a round punch. Use whatever shape you like. Punch these out and put aside.
I wanted to add my blogsite so I typed out a page with that info and cut them out.
I am selling a line of bags made from recycled jeans called rag bagz, so I made a sticker for that.
Step 6 After making a big pile of all three stickers....the fun begins. I do this while watching TV.
Take your tag base and add your stickers on it in whatever form you like. You can assemble them all the same or mix it up. I prefer to mix it up. Then other ideas come to me and I branch out from there.

I have this box of misc. stickers made from punches and rubber stamp designs. I use them to fill in an empty spot or to just add a little extra something to the card. Sometimes I put one or two on the back of the card or I will use a rubber stamp.

This card is made of just cardstock. I often recycle junk mail and catalogs, magazines, ect,for these. I always look beyond what I am really looking at in a magazine.

I like using lots of colors. There are no set rules to this. Just have fun with it. You are giving away a little piece of art with each card.

Have a great weekend and if you make some of these be sure to show them to me.

making tags

Here is an array of my new business cards. They are made on shipping tags. I was asked by Nichol if I would show how I make them. Over at her blogsite, she is making a pillow monster a day for 30 days. They are really cute. You can check them out by going here. And yes I will show how to make them on tomorrow's blog.

See you then........

hump day

Look what I found! My art award from yesterday. Another big thanks to Susan for awarding it to me.
Tomorrow I will show you my currant project, making my new business cards....by hand.

award day....

Here is a painting I made on a canvas, inspired by Tascha.I just love her paintings.

I have recieved an art award from Susan at A walk in the park, but now blogger dosen't want to upload any more pictures. So I will post it tomorrow and pass it on. Susan said I inspire her. Thanks!

three years!

Yesterday was the three year anniversary of my kidney transplant. Most of you know that my DH was my donor and he was a perfect match. We had other GOOD news last week. His kidney function had dropped down to 36% and the doctor said it would never get any better. Well, guess what? It is now functioning at 45%! YAY! I love good news.

I was walking down the hall this afternoon and thought the sunlight through the front door was interesting, so I took a picture and thought I would share it.

how sweet

It was the perfect day and have you ever seen anything so sweet as these heart shaped doughnuts? They topped off the evening after having dinner. The doggone donut shop is next to the restaurant where we dined. AND the hot light was on! Need I say more?

Here are the two 2 inch squares that I made and sent off for the Pink Artist project.

Everyone have a safe (I fell on the ice this morning and bruised my knee and backside) and artful weekend! We are expecting a big winter storm.

Happy Love Day!

I hope everyone is feeling the love today. Happy Valentine's day to all. I got sweets from my sweetie and I am having crab for dinner tonight so all is right with me.

I painted "Pinkie" last night and put her on the cover of an altered book. She is a little worried that her crown may be slipping off.

love weekend

I didn't just watch drag racing this weekend, I made some more Valentines. Time once again slips away from me......have to address these and get them out!

YAY!

As far as I am concerned.....winter is over! Drag racing began again this weekend. I know it's not art related but it makes me happy. This is a picture (from a few years back) of myself with my favorite driver, Ron Capps. He drives a funny car and can go 325 mph in a quarter mile....that's pure heaven.
More art later this week.

scribbler art

This picture was done using scribbler. If you haven't tried it, give it a try.....it's addicting. Just click here.

clean slate

Here it is. The work table is cleared ( I can't believe it either) I was going to paint the top but instead, I laid a bunch of my college papers on top and covered that with a thick clear plastic sheet. Topped off with a quote from Picasso. It works great.

This is the back of an envelope from today's studio work. It's pink but the lighting was bad when I took the photo. My friend Jan came over today for a "play-date" in the studio. She wanted me to show her how to make greeting cards. She had a good time and made several cards including one for her husband's birthday which is tomorrow. I created my Valentine's.

last night's sky art

It was so beautiful! And so was the day......a balmy 79 degrees. Today? It's very cold and windy with a chance of some snow. No art for yesterday. It was too nice out so I worked on my car (the 56.) And today was bowling day and house cleaning.....but tomorrow holds the promise for some art.

I dyed today

I know, I know, I have a warped sence of humor. My family is always getting on me about it but hey, it's who I am. That is not a big tumor, it's my new pink fabric. It's for my February pink altered book I am planning. I didn't know it would look so gross in the picture. It's really pretty, but I guess you have to be here to appreciate it.

Now this. Sharon and Zorana both made paintings last weekend using their non dominant hands. I peeked in on them both and it was amazing what they did. So of course I said I would also try it. And then I thought - what was I thinking? So I tried a quick sketch on this envelope to see if I even could draw with my left hand. Kind of looks like a Nun gone bad. Anyway, I will give it a shot for laughs and maybe if it all goes haywire.....I will have a Picasso of my own.

New Sunday Post

I really miss reading the Sunday Washington Post. It's a great newspaper and every time I move away from home......I miss it. But anyway I am trying to hook you up with the post from yesterday with the pink artist project. So you don't have to put in that long address you should be able to click here.
Yay! it worked!

new project for a good cause

Would you like to become a PINK artist? I think you can click on the button for the info. But I am new at this stuff so just in case that dosen't work here is the site to go to. www.girl-gone-thread wild.blogspot.com/2008/01/pink-artist-community-art-doll-project.hmtl
It's a fun little project to benefit breast cancer. So I hope you will check it out and join us.
Health update....YAY! I am almost all better and I got out of the house today!!!!
Thanks again for all the get well wishes.

it's Friday!

YAY! It's Friday and I am feeling even better! I slept most of the night and today I loaded the dishwasher without feeling exausted. That is a major accomplishment for this week. I think later on I will shoot for a load of laundry. I never thought I would be happy to wash dishes and laundry. And I think my little babysitter is relieved too. Harley, the studio cat misses the studio. He has not left my side since I have been sick.
Oh, about the cute little skullies above.....I found them at Michael's. They also had purple sparkly crowns. They are made of felt with sparkles and are self sticking. So I had to experiment with them and you can stick them on a base and use it as a stamp. Of course I used the alcohol inks to ink them up.

Have an artful weekend.

Hopefully next week I will be working at full speed....have Valentine's to create.