zetti time

there was this zetti chunky swap that i really wanted to try to get cards made for because i love that zetti genre. i started working on some cards last night and finished them up today. i made 5 in total but this is the one i'm keeping. i love how that fringe looks like her hair at the top and it makes me giggle. some days my hair looks just like that!

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the visit

hello everyone. it's been some time since i posted any art because i was away for the week visiting my son in south carolina. it did this old mom's heart some good to hug him and hang out with him for a few days. we had lots of fun together. he didn't think it was too much fun when i beat him in poker and stayed neck to neck to him in mini golf but he finally smiled when he beat me by one stroke. a little friendly competition does the heart good. as it is said, all good things come to an end, it was so sad to say goodbye. i did my best to not be a blubbering idiot at the airport. thank goodness for skype so i can see his cute little face in a couple of days. i got home around 3pm yesterday and immediately headed for my art room. i dug right in and started to work on some art for upcoming swaps. this card is a sample of what i've done for a swap i'm in called wings in her hair. i have quite a bit of artwork to do and not too much time to finish things so i am already feeilng the effects of what a vacation can do your time schedule. i hope all of you were well while i was away and had a great fourth of july and enjoyed your family too.

making time for art

life has been very busy around here lately and i've really had to scramble to find time to make art. i'm going to visit my son in 2 days and i really wanted to get some things done for some upcoming challenges so i'm making a mad dash back and forth to the art room inbetween all the other things i have to get done today. there is an alphabet challenge taking place and we are on the letter h. i made this postcard specifically for this challenge and now i think i want to keep it. gosh darn it, sometimes it is hard to let things go once i make them. i don't know if it is because of the amount of energy you put into a piece or if the piece once completed just speaks to you, but i have to decide today so i am feeling a little pressure about it.

digging out some rubberstamps

i needed an atc for a rubberstamp challenge. in the challenge you have to use at least 3 different rubberstamps to make your piece of artwork. i enjoy this challenge because i really love to rubberstamp. it's hard to tell but all the leaves are hand cut out and glued on. i'm thinking i still might machine stitch around the words on the side of the card. sometimes i just never know when to stop.

making a mess

i'm still working on journal pages that i need for an alphabetica journal swap i am in. the pages are 5 x 7 and the theme is the alphabet so how hard could it be? well i have to admit that it's harder than i thought it was going to be. i started off doing the backgrounds - front and back - but i wasn't happy with them. so i really lost interest in finishing them. i only have about 3 weeks to get them finished so i really need to work on them and get them completed. since my original idea wasn't working i had to come up with something new and i am kind of liking the concept of this page but yet i still feel the need to have this collaged image on it. as hard as it is to make myself quit adding things i am forcing myself to stop with that tiny little face on the letter m.

in case you were wondering how i did this journal page i took a 5 x 7 piece of 140 lb watercolor paper and used some large stamps that i put gesso on to make some pattern. i left that dry and then i used some light green and yellow acrylic paint to paint a wash of color over the watercolor paper. i then splattered brown acrylic paint all over. i used my brown staz on ink pad and some alphabetical type stamps and randomly stamped on the page. then i thought to myself...yuck!...too bland. i decided to make it brighter. i used white foam core and punched out different letters of the alphabet. i used gel medium to adhere them to the page. i had to leave that dry overnight and the next morning i put gesso over the whole piece - yes....there went all the previous color under a sea of white wash. once the gesso dried i took bright colors: red, orange, yellow green and blue and randomly painted color washes over the whole page. once that dried i tore some pieces off an old blouse pattern and used gel medium to adhere the tissue over the letters. i used a text stamp to stamp over some of the page at random spots.

enchanted fairy

i needed a postcard for a monthly challenge that requires three different mediums to be used. the theme for this particular challenge was enchanted fairy. i used acrylic paints, stamps, markers, paint pens and machine stitching to create this. i hope you are blessed by the enchantment fairy today!

friends til the end

i made this postcard for a challenge that called for using markers and/or colored pencils. i personally love making doodles, and as far as i'm concerend, the more the better. there is a great deal of symbolism in this postcard, of course what i have created could mean something different to the person viewing it, but i'd love to hear something that this unlikely trio represents to you.

dream

i'm in a round robin journal swap. we make 8 x 10 journal pages. one page consists of a front and a back. the front of the journal page i did in markers. i used copics, prismacolors and sharpies. the back of the journal page is collaged. this page is pretty significant to the person i am. i love to day dream. it use to get me in trouble at school but i always have had such a hard time focusing for long periods of time. my mind just wanders. the only time i can really stay focused is when i'm doing art. i can sit for hours and hours doing art but i also realize that my mind has to stay busy coming up with ideas so in a way i do dream while i do art too. the back of the journal page has a saying that i am quite fond of because i really believe we create the lives we lead. all of our thoughts are energy. so being positive is a far better energetic release then focusing on the negative. thought and intention is so powerful. so go dream a little today and start to create the life you envision.

postcard alphabet

i'm doing an alphabet postcard swap. every week or two there is a new one to do. we are on "f" for the next one. there are so many words with f and i wasn't sure what i would do when i sat down to create this. i just started rumaging through my scrap box and created the background out of three different papers. then in my scrap pile i noticed a little sheet of words that i stamped flight on to. so i decided to do something with that as my postcard theme. i keep a little container of faces i either cut out of collage images or that i stamped and colored in
with markers. this way i always faces ready to go when i need one. this particular face was a collage image that was in black and white. i used my copic markers to color in the face. the wings were also a collage image i cut out, as was the little crown. i added the shadow in my favorite shadow making marker of all time - a tombow - and then i machine stitched around the image. i used my permopaque marker in brown to create the edging and then i double machine stitched around the edges.