thursday throw down

i managed to do one piece of art tonight. i have no idea where all my time went. the day was over before it began. i actually had started working on this 7 gypsy's atc spinner card this morning but had to leave the paper glaze dry and then i finished it tonight. i try to make one here and there for a stock pile of cards because every month i trade with three other wonderful artists. i like how this one turned out. it is just made from scraps and pieces i had laying around.

still sitting down on sunday

we'll i've managed to stay in my art chair to complete a few more things. i worked on a few of those chunky pages for the house beautiful swap i am in. my theme is alphabet dollies. i have a total of three done, so that makes only 8 more to go. does it seem like a far way off? aahhh, yes it does, so it's a good thing i really enjoy making them.

sunday sit down

today i finally finished up my altered pie recipe cards. i am hosting an on going recipe swap on the mail art site. we've done salads and cupcakes so far. the current one is for pies. there is one that is due after pies for pasta dishes. it's been so fun to see what other people's recipes are. every recipe i have made to date has been scrumptious too! this is just the front of the card, after all, i can't show the rest of the recipe since it's a family favorite.

the chunky continued

i'm still working on the house chunky pages. i have spent all my art time creating these pages, 11 of them in all, and i'm pleased with their progress. i'm still not done with them and there are a couple of things i have to do til they are finally completed, but here is a preview of what i've completed so far.

chunky pages

i joined a swap on the mail art site i belong to and it's called house beautiful cat. the "cat" doesn't stand for the meowing kind of cat that some people might have thought but is short for "choose a theme". each artist that signed up will pick a theme that they want to make for pages to send to the other people who signed up. there are 11 people total in the swap. i chose my theme as "abc dollies". these are the dolls in progress so far that i will be using on the pages. i wanted to find a way to use alot of my paper scraps that i have accumulating as i seem to find it so hard to throw things out. i made a primitive doll shape and then glued paper across the shape. i stamped the letters a, b, c across the middle of the bodies and then sewed around them in orange thread. i left the thread hanging at the start and finish to look like little sprigs of hair. the face was made out of vintage paper that i painted with cream acrylic paint. when dry i used watercolor crayons to draw primitive looking faces and then used gel pens for the eyes and lips. i'm not quite done with them yet as the hearts will house the alphabet letter of the person's first name when i complete the chunky pages for each person. i'm happy with how they are turning out so far.

sunday sit down

i was home alone this afternoon and decided to spend some time using a few of my new stamps that i got from the rubberstamp convention. i got this bee stamp set from invoke arts. i looked at it last year but didn't get it and later regretted it. so this year i decided i would put it in my basket. the flower stamp is also one of their stamps. i love the vine look it has and i'm sure i will get lots of use out of it. the background on this atc was done in watercolors and was a technique we learned at the art weekend.

rubberstamp convention

today was the annual rubberstamp convention in allentown. i went. i saw. i'm broke. i was a little disappointed that paula best didn't have a table this year. my other favorite vendor that has a table is invoke arts and that is where i spent most of my money. i did buy a few other stamps. i made a rolodex card with the little helicopter and alien stamps i bought at one of the booths. i have a feeling i might make a few things with these two stamps. i just love those little teeth sticking out of his mouth. they make me chuckle.

working ahead

yesterday i had started on a chunky page but didn't have a chance to finish it up until today. this is for my friend, cathy, that i trade with every month. she picked "beach" as the theme for june. i'm working ahead which drives her crazy. she really didn't want to tell me what the theme for june would be but i kept after her until she had no choice if she wanted me to be quiet. at last weekend's art gathering there was a girl named amy who showed me how she folded over her paper to make tabs which i did on this page. i thought amy was so clever and she loves her bright pink and baby blue gel pens to make stars so i did pink stars like she uses too. hey! maybe i should give amy this chunky page. what do you think cath?

wednesday morning art time

yesterday afternoon i received a package from alpha stamps. it had some great stamps in it this time. i used one of the stamps to create this atc this morning. she has such a great face. i stamped her over some vintage flower paper and i really like the "pixelated" look it gave. the little sunburst shape was given to me by one of the ladies (dar) at the art weekend. it was quite shiny yellow and i wanted to mute it. after playing with it for a short time i discovered if i heated it with a heat gun it allowed the opaque paint pen to not rub off.

an art get together

i was away for 4 days meeting up with a few fellow artist. there were 8 of us that got together near atlantic city and had an art fest. it was so much fun. i laughed the entire time i was there. everyone who attended was such a delight. they all shared their art supplies as well as tips and techniques so i came home feeling really inspired. i learned how to do parchment craft. now while i had a little beginner kit everything i was doing on my own was totally wrong. i've now learned the right way and i will have to practice to see if i can come up with some art work the teacher (moggy) can be proud of. our learning piece was a little flower grouping. i used colored pencils on the back of the parchment paper to add a little color. we also learned an indian technique of sewing mirrors on to textiles. the teacher (susietex) provided hand dyed fabric and yarn. i didn't get to finish what i started, as evidenced by that long thread, but as you can tell i really need to learn how to balance the tension of my yarn. it's actually pretty hard to keep the tension even. we also learned some watercolor techniques and carved some of our stamp designs.