One of those days!!!

Actually, it's been one of those weeks. I've had my share of computer problems this week, and things don't seem to be getting much better. Not one to look at things in a negative light, I won't elaborate on my problems, other than to say I've gotten NO art done this week until yesterday when I made this impromptu postcard for the Christmas postcard swap.

Although it's not my best work, I decided to make them after I had all the packages open and laid out to swap.

The good news about yesterday? Although I could no longer download photos from my camera, I was able to plug in the card that is inside the camera into one of the slots on my computer. For that I am thankful. I took the photo just in case it worked and I'm really glad I did.

The postcards were made using three ribbons and some nubby material. I used the holographic snowflake for the star on top of the tree. Like I said, NOT my best work, but I really like the second postcard I made (here) and the first one will do (here). They are now at the door ready to go in my mailbox this morning.

Honoring Veteran's Day

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Germans signed the Armistice Treaty effectively ending WWI. In the United States, it is known as Veterans Day. Other countries celebrate it as Armistice Day. It is a day dedicated to world peace.

Let us honor our veterans today, as well as those still fighting to keep us safe.

Two spreads for my Hands AB

I issued a challenge on ABC yahoo group to use scraps or junk mail in their art this week. I started these pages, not even thinking about the challenge, because much of what I use in my ABs comes from my mailbox!! As I was working on these pages, I realized I had fulfilled the challenge.

As soon as I got this catalog, I knew I had to use the images from it. There were so many colorful pictures, many of which applied to safety in the workforce, an area I have been involved with most of my working life.

I began by tearing the background labels, which I did not intend to show when I was finished. However, these labels were just so graphic, I couldn't bring myself to cover them, so I placed the pictures of gloves in and around them.

Originally I considered extending the right side of the previous spread to accept the remainder of the pictures, then decided I would just make two spreads.

For the left side, I used all the remaining images of both labels and gloves.

For the right side, I first wrote the words large enough they would cover over the written words on the page. Then I masked off the hands and inked around them using pigment ink.

You can click on any of the above photos to better read the labels and glove types. In case you can't read my hand writing (after all, I have trouble reading it most of the time), I wrote:
What’s your profession? If you’re a race car driver, jockey, nurse, lab technician, dish washer, fork truck driver, steel worker, welder, or a person who holds one of thousands of jobs that requires wearing gloves each day, you appreciate how much gloves protect your hands.

An amazing blogoversary giveaway

Lynn, over at Trash to Treasure Art is having the most incredible and generous blogoversary giveaway I've seen. Below are only a few of the photos she allowed me to use from her blog of the many gifts she is giving away. You can sign up until the 18th.

Talk about a gifted artist. When you go to her blog, be sure to check out the 33 (unless I counted wrong) publications she has contributions in. Talk about PUBLISHED!

Please be aware that all photos are by Lynn, and were not taken by me, nor did I make any of these beautiful pieces. One of the pieces she is offering is a handmade cold cast metal necklace.

Here is a lovely charm bracelet, and

a vintage inspired wall hanging. But these are only a few of the offerings that Lynn allowed me to use.

Please check out her blog (and be prepared to stay awhile), then let her know you were there and that Bleubeard and Elizabeth sent you.

And in case I didn't make myself clear before, these photos belong to, and were taken by Lynn, not me.

Fall foliage: part 3

My revised UHU clipboard

I've never made a secret of the fact that I sometimes get things wrong. So I decided to revamp my UHU clipboard. Although I finished covering it awhile ago, I wanted to show how I did it and what I turned it into.

To cover the clipboard, I used UHU STIC. I covered the entire piece using a piece of lovely paper gifted to me by Donna of Findings Art.

You can see I completely covered the clipboard, carefully cutting around the metal clip.

I decided to add a piece of rick rack using the UHU permanent glue roller. I began by measuring the rick rack by folding it around the clipboard, then cutting, leaving a tiny tail.

The idea is to place the glue roller onto the rick rack. Be sure to get good coverage and press well. This could take a few minutes. Don't glue too far ahead, and press firmly as you go.

I used a drop of Twist & Glue to adhere the edges of the rick rack together.

I held the completed piece together with the tail still intact using a clothes pin until it was dry. When the Twist & Glue was completely dry, I cut the excess rick rack away, making sure both ends of the rick rack lined up properly.

I decided to not add alcohol inks to the metal clipboard because I don't want added color to distract from the piece. It now hangs on my wall and has become a piece where I can display art.

Here it holds the piece I made and showed yesterday. It will now hold weekly art that I make for inspiration, or a prototype for a swap. What better way for an artist to use the clipboard than a design or display board?

If you live in the US or Canada and have an active blog, be sure to go to http://www.gluewithuhu.com/ for your free Saunders clipboard and this month's sample: UHU Glue Stic. Tell them Bleubeard and Elizabeth sent you, then have fun decorating your own clipboard. When you've finished, be sure to send a link to your blog, so we can see how you used your clipboard.

The laundry

I only wish this piece showed up better. I spent a lot of time making this piece, but didn't take any photos of the piece in progress. It is 6" wide X 4 1/2" long.

I began by adding some gorgeous green paper that Rita sent me. I love this paper, and am just tickled to have it. Next I sewed thread lengthwise in several places on the piece. Then I added brown, purple, and turquoise paint in various places through a punchinella stencil.

I spent a great deal of time designing the clothing. It's no secret that I don't draw, so even these simple shapes were a real challenge for me. When I was satisfied they looked like real clothes, I backed some sheets of a phone book with card stock, then cut the clothes. I glazed the dress and pants, and used fluid acrylic gold on the shirt. When the dress was dry, I added the white through punchinella (using pigment ink). For the blouse and pants, I painted a pastry (pie crust) decorator using red paint and rolled it over the pieces.

To assemble, I used some old string and two brads I painted with brown antiquing ink that was oil based and took forever to dry. I used six cotter pins instead of tiny clothes pins because I liked the look.

I really love this piece. In fact, I like it so much, I am tempted to keep it!

Second Postcard for swap

I have to admit, I didn't do too much art yesterday. I prepped a page in my Hands AB, but didn't really feel like taking photos. I had planned to go to Dana's, but we had to cancel, so that threw my entire day off. Late in the day, in fact late last night, I made a second set of postcards for the swap.

I'm not sure these are much better than the ones I made two days ago, but at least they aren't stamped. The hat is a stencil and I resisted using a stencil to write the words, instead opting for my Dymo label maker.

Postcards for a Christmas swap

Not sure I like these, but they are done, so guess that they'll have to do. Not sure how altered the postcards are, but at least I got them finished before the due date, which is tomorrow.

Rework

There's nothing I hate worse than having to start a project over, but that is exactly what I did yesterday. There was no reason for it either, because I had cut plenty of rosin paper and had lots of book pages, gesso, and glue.

I could have cut the pattern smaller, but this one was such a chore to draw, I didn't want to have to start it over, too.

Before I started the rework portion of my day, I found these dried hand wipes that my friend Sally gave me. I pulled them out of their package and wet them ever so slightly. I used the color mist "Jewels" that I am not crazy about, hoping I'll empty the bottles soon. As dark as they were when they were wet, they were equally as light when they dried. Still not in love with them, but they colored the hand wipes well and will make some lovely backgrounds, probably about the time Easter rolls around! At least it got my mind off rework or starting over, if for no more than a few minutes.

Measure twice, cut once. Or measure both sides, cut once.


In this photo I have started gluing book pages to a new piece of rosin paper.

Now comes the next step in the prep work. For this, I used UHU's non-permanent glue roller to hold the template in place.

I'm keeping the rest of this project under wraps until I finish it. Needless to say, it took me all day, with only one break to work on and take the photos below. I'll be working on it for several days, so I'll show bits and pieces of it as I go.

Originally I was going to try to alter some real postcards, but I didn't realize how much writing was on the back (or address side) of each postcard. So I began by gluing two layers of heavy card stock together and allowing them to dry. Then I painted the first side with gesso, shown here, then the second side. When dry, I placed them in a heavy book. This is going to take awhile.

While taking a break from my other project, I painted one side of these cards. I left one white to show that weighing them down with a heavy book will take the curl out.

This is today's sneak peek at my project from yesterday.

Our neighborhood clean up and some lost photos

Wasn't it great to have an extra hour yesterday? Although I had many items on my "to do" list for Saturday afternoon and Sunday, I made very little art. Sunday was simply too gorgeous, with a high of 76 degrees F, lots of sun, and very little wind. Added to that, we got an extra hour to play and I decided to hang two loads of laundry on the clothes line (don't sun dried clothes smell the best?), then just sit with Bleubeard and enjoy the day, rather than doing much else.

I'm still missing photos in my camera. Some that I thought I had deleted were on the camera when I downloaded the clean up, but some from the clean up were corrupt. I'm not sure if my card is going or what, but I'm hoping it was just a fluke. Regardless, I thought you might enjoy seeing what I did on Saturday, another gorgeous autumn day in the midwest.

Each fall, our neighborhood has a clean up of a certain area within our association boundaries. I have been very involved for years, and this year was no different. We always meet at the church where our association meetings are held and by 7:30 a.m. over 30 volunteers came to help with this year's clean up.

Young and young at heart showed up to participate.

Although I never eat breakfast, I had some coffee

while others ate hot cinnamon rolls and bananas, drank hot coffee, milk, or orange juice. We always feed the volunteers very well.

I was simply thrilled at the turnout, as can be seen by the full parking lot.

To my knowledge, this was the first year we gathered outside for breakfast. The church must have needed the kitchen.

This is one of two packer trucks I'll be on. It's my job to read the map and point out where the driver needs to go and stop. We divide the designated cleanup area into two parts and each part will have a packer truck. Little did I know at the time that the truck I was in would have the easiest route! The other driver had to take his trash to the dump after only one street.

As you can see, there are cars everywhere, including a tire truck out of camera range that will pick up tires for the neighborhood.

I feel bad because I got a lot more photos at the church which didn't download. I didn't stop to get too many while we were working.

One picture I did get was while I was in the cab of the packer truck. Here you can see the back of the truck from the camera that is attached to the dash. This is the first one I've seen in color, so they have upgraded their equipment.

It always looks like people are standing around, but that is not the case. With this many people, you can only load so much into the packer at one time. That means you take your turn. People who don't volunteer for the clean up are asked to help when the packer truck gets to their house. It's all about community.

Although the people haven't moved much, they are in line with their trash and ready to go.

Here is a picture I took standing on the truck looking through the mirror. These are some pretty big mirrors. There is one below the big one, which has a fish eye.

The driver didn't have to do anything except pack the truck. He is the one with the safety vest on standing by the lever.

I think it's always fun to hang onto the packer. If you've ever been on one of these clean ups, you know they are fun, but they are also hard work. Here the tire truck is getting ready to leave. The tires must be picked up separately and the City doesn't charge to haul the tires away when we have these clean ups.

Here is another view of the tires that were collected on Saturday. I thought I heard around 65, but that may not be correct.

When finished, we all met at a local restaurant and ate lunch. Did I mention how we love to eat?

The food at our table was about ready to come, so I missed a lot of the 29 people who showed up to eat.

I did manage to get a great photo of our President and her husband. And, yes, all those people in the background are also with the group.

Here are some of the lost photos from Friday. I had to take a photo of this piece, because this was as small as I could saw it using my miter saw.

I had the heavy leather fire retardant gloves on at this point because I was removing metal from the fire with my hands.

At least I found the photos of the jar lids, which I can't wait to play with.

And here are the final pieces right as the rain started.

Silent Sunday: Fall Foliage (part 2)

Perhaps the last day to burn this year

I began my day yesterday using my miter saw to cut up an old ladder. This is the hardest thing I've ever cut on the miter saw.

I'd already burned a bunch of the ladder before I thought to take a photo. I couldn't get the metal out of the pieces, so decided to burn them with it.

I have no idea what happened to a bunch of my photos, but I also burned a lot of old baby jar lids, some metal tins, and a couple of cans at the same time. Since I had to watch the fire, I also cleaned my garden tools in a bucket of oily sand, then put linseed oil on the handles and put them away for the winter.

The fire was still blazing away in the chiminea, so I got a sheet of rosin paper (a roofing material found at the hardware store) and gessoed it. I added a few pages from a wonderful child's arithmetic book

and kept adding pages until I was happy with the results.

By now, some of the metal was cool enough to put away.

Before I did, I had to show my favorite piece in the bunch. Of course, since it was a ladder, there were two of these pieces. I'm not sure how I'll use them, but I will find a way.

Although it was nearly 3 pm, I still had not showered. I didn't want to bathe, then smell like burning wood. So after my shower, I went to my neighbor Sally's and helped her get her things together for the cleanup today. By this time I was tired and it was getting quite dark.

After I ate, I sewed the backing onto the piece I made at Dana's. Although I had brought muslin home to use for backing, I decided to use some red material that matched the front. It is now all ready to iron and sew together after I get home from our cleanup today.

It was time to glaze my arithmetic pages with orange and blue. I love glazes because you can see the images and words through them.

I have to admit, my camera gets flaky when I take a couple of photos in a row. The colors are not exactly true here, but I wanted to show why I chose the glaze colors. Each of the headers were either orange or blue.

My next project was to paint gesso on the left over piece of rosin paper. After dealing with yet another lame foam brush, I got out the big guns (or 2" brush) to spread the paint.

I first used dark green, and since some of the gesso was still wet, I got a lovely combination of greens mixed with white. Then I added a cinnamon brown. I'm thinking of calling it "Christmas tree."

Playing at Dana's

Yesterday I played at Dana's. It was probably a lot more fun for me than for her, because she kept trying to start making jewelry, and ended up talking on the phone most of the day to her two sons, or answering my questions.

Why do I start my blog photos with the worst one I can find? I know that some people show my blog on their Google reader thingy (such a technical word) that shows the first photo, so I keep thinking I should start with a photo of something completed, but I always seem to start at the beginning. Today was no exception.

This is a piece of canvas that had been used to wipe paint and color mists a few days ago. It is relatively square.

As I started painting, the cheap-o brush from Michaels broke. Too funny.

By the time Dana took this photo, I was in the throes of paint.

How many colors I could get on these two pieces would be anyone's guess. At this point, I was working from that inner child they talk about. It was pure abandon, and I don't often get to "that place."

This is one of many photos of Dana I took yesterday, but I only kept one for the blog.

My original quiltlet I started the day before had now changed radically. The original material was practically obliterated,

but the strings of black thread were still sticking out.

At this point, Dana had to run to the bank, so I took time to try to lay out some projects. I'm not really good at this, often changing my mind as soon as I've decided on a design.

Using all the scraps also became an obsession. I turned the piece on the right of the photo into a heart.

I was working on the heart when the thread came out of the needle. It was now time to go upstairs and check on lunch. I must admit, I'm not fond of sewing the fabric on a sheet of printer paper, but Dana said it would make my stitches go smoother. So, deferring to her, I did. I had a terrible time trying to remove the paper, though. I think this must be why people use stabilizer.

Dana laughed when she saw I took photos of our pizza. She left it in the oven 10 minutes longer than it should have stayed. Needless to say, it was rather well done!

Like many things I make, I'm not sure how I'll use this piece, but I really love it. Not sure you can read the writing, but it reads "The heart holds windows to the soul." Like I said, I was trying to loosen up with my art, which included the windows. Of course, I had to keep remembering where Dana's back stitch was, since mine is a button you push and hers (a Bernina) has a lever you push up and down.

I fell in love with this piece of canvas that was finally dry. Dana wanted to do some free form stitching on it, which delighted me. She cut batting and muslin which have to be larger than the top piece (I learned) because the batting will bunch up a bit as it is sewn. Not sure how you finish it, since she'll have to show me that another day.

This top piece is finally finished. I'm thrilled. It reads "He tugged the strings of her heart." The large piece of muslin behind the cloth will go in back of the batting and I will finish it at home. She showed me how to finish it, even though I didn't include the batting in the original sewing of the piece.

Before I left, I took a photo of one of Dana's trees. She kept saying it looked so much better from the highway that runs behind her property, but I think the other side has finally come into its own beauty.

When I got home, my day was not finished. I had bamboo to cut and tie in bundles for disposal on Saturday at our neighborhood cleanup. I was exhausted, wet, cold, and tired, but when a friend came by and asked me to make a sleeve for a Halloween costume, I agreed. The material was still wet, as was the glue in this photo. He wanted a brown tint, so I grabbed the walnut ink and dampened a piece of material, then sewed it. He even wanted it to look old and battle worn, so I didn't have to be too careful.

And finally, he asked me to make theta and epsilon symbols on his sunglasses. He asked if I knew what they looked like. As many times as I had to write those symbols in trig or calculus classes, I didn't even have to practice making them!!

By this time it was nearly 10 pm, so I felt like I had made enough art for the day. It was fun, but I forgot to download the photos from my camera. That's why this post is so late today.

Bits and bobs, little progress, but lots of fun!

Yesterday I promised an update on the gessoed plastic bags I ironed together the day before. Not sure it shows in the photo, but this project has turned into a MESS. However, as promised when I started this blog, I show my failures along with my successes.

The gesso didn't stick to the bags. The small colored areas in the center are bits of bag colors showing through. The gesso flaked away like crazy.

In fact, you can see the flakes of dried gesso that fell onto my craft sheet when I was trying to clean up. I just kept making more and more messes until I decided to try a different tactic.

Why I thought using these color mists would make everything OK was beyond me. I guess I was just using them because I didn't care about them.

Here I've added yellow and green to the mix and they are starting to puddle into an ugly mix!

Next I added blue and a bit more green to the mix. They were so wet, I couldn't add another thing! I laid them aside to dry, which ended up taking all day.

After working in the yard for awhile, it was time to move on to new things. I wanted to get free and loose with my sewing lines, so started this piece, which may or may not make it into a completed quiltlet. It was turning into one of those days. The only productive thing I had done so far was work in my yard!!

By now it was early evening and the color mists were finally dry, but they had faded to a dull pastel. Looking back, I keep wondering why I even messed with this piece.

To add more mess to the mix, I decided to use some Shiva PaintStik to the bags. Since these are oil paints, I thought they might work. I ended up using a lot of PaintStik and not getting a whole lot of bang for the buck. The instructions are to paint in one direction, but that turned out to be impossible because of the bumps and lumps left from ironing the bags.

It was time to switch gears. I sewed around a winter scene,

then used a paintbrush and "Warm Milk" acrylic paint to add splatters of paint to the piece.

Next came the beginnings of another quiltlet using an original image from a child's book from the 1920s. The little girls have the biggest Christmas stockings I have ever seen!

One final piece h

Publish Post

as an original book image from yet another book from the late 1920s. This piece will go onto another, larger piece of fabric.

Although I had fun in the studio yesterday, most of my work (and sense of accomplishment) was in the yard. Maybe I'll have a chance to finish something today!!

A frustrating day, but fun

Yesterday started with me waiting like what seemed forever on Dana. In order to keep from going crazy while waiting, I decided to try an Alisa Burke technique. She is the artist who makes handbags from plastic grocery bags. True to form, I didn't make mine according to Alisa's directions.

I began by cutting the bottoms with my paper cutter.

I also cut the tops the same way. Alisa used scissors.


Instead of turning them inside out before I cut them, like she did, I turned mine once they were cut. Then I aligned them, one bag facing one direction, another the opposite. I stacked six bags together because they were very thin. These were bags I brought back from California last year, thinking I would try this technique because I loved the colors in the bags.

Not sure you can see this, but my iron is set on 3, which is a medium low heat.

Although I used my craft sheet, I also laid an old (but clean) tea towel down on top of the craft sheet to protect the table. After all, I don't have an ironing board, so I had to use something with a bit of cushion. I laid a sheet of heavy card stock on top of the tea towel, but under the stack of bags, then another sheet of card stock on top. I pressed slowly in circles until the entire sheet of card stock had been covered. Then I moved the card stock and checked my progress. You can tell as soon as the section has fused because it will feel thicker and like plastic fabric that is pliable.

When completely ironed, my bags were distorted, but completely fused. I have no idea how to keep the edges from fraying or the bags from distorting, unless you use less bags. You will probably also get a few bubbles. Also, I nicked the bags a couple of times and caused holes in one layer of the bags. Hopefully, these imperfections will be hidden in the next step.

Although I forgot to take a photo, the next step was to use silkscreen ink. Since I had no silkscreen ink, I at least listened when Alisa said acrylics have a tendency to flake. Somehow I have a gut feel and believe this is true, so I decided to use gesso to cover the bags. I'm hoping the gesso will work. So right before Dana came by for me, I painted one side of the bags with a coat of gesso. I guess we'll see how my little experiment works today when I finish the bags.

Dana and I stopped at Carriage Crossing in the Amish town of Yoder to pick up some more of those huge homemade cinnamon rolls.

This sign was on one of the walls of the restaurant as we walked in. They were also along the highway.

This sign was on the other side of the door, but I've never seen a highway sign like it.

Although I tried to take photos of this wall the last time we were there, my camera batteries died. This time I not only recharged them, I took a second set for good measure. I have no idea why I did that, because this was the only photo I took of the wall of quilts and paintings.

I also only took one photo of the outside of the cafe in the tiny town,

and one photo of small grain elevators. In fact, I believe they call these storage bins, not elevators.

Dana had the four cinnamon rolls and was on the way to her car. You can see how many people were there, and it wasn't even the lunch hour!! This was a popular place, and someday we'll grab Kathy and take her to Yoder to eat lunch.

Kathy's tree is beautiful behind her as she says good bye to us. We didn't make any art, although I had intended to show her and Dana a new technique I learned. Guess that will happen another day, maybe even today!!

Another day at Dana's

Last Friday I began my day at Dana's applying gesso to some plastic eggs. I thought I would cover them with paper, then decided to gesso them only and paint them when they were dry.

These eggs are drying on one side while I look at Dana's latest art.

She was having trouble getting part of this piece light enough, so I tried shading it (like I know these things)! Dana will now go in and make a base for the bird. So this piece she's been working on for at least three of our play days is still not finished.

I started this page for Kathy's Face AB, but didn't have the background paper or other embellishments I wanted to use. So, I took a photo thinking I could remember the size of everything when I got home. Sadly, that did not happen, so now Kathy's pages must wait!

Some finished and some unfinished art

Last week, Dana and I got together again.

I began by trying to find four small circles to go inside the metal pieces on my canvas.

Although I didn't give up, I put it aside to work on yet another piece.


Dana was still working on the piece she started days ago. You can see that it is now taking on a new look. At this point, I can barely see the tissue she had added the last time we got together.

I finally found the piece I was looking for. The tiny circle inside each of the larger circles is painted copper. It's really hard to see the metal pieces, which sit on each piece of my handmade paper. Although the completed artwork is hard to see, it is truly beautiful in person.

When I added the magazine image to the canvas, it looked terrible. It was still wet and I needed it to dry before I add the chalk hair. At some point, I'm sure it will look better, but for now, I'm setting it aside.

Silent Sunday: Fall Foliage (part 1)

When the concept came together for my Hands AB

It's hard for me to see my own handwriting, but I really wanted to make this two page spread about how the AB class came about. I began the background using "Warm Milk" and "Teddy Bear Brown." I mixed the two colors together a bit more than I originally intended, but I'm still happy with the results.

I used a brown Sharpie to write the words. I had enough room on the page, so I was able to use the Sharpie without it making a mess when I wrote the words. The left side reads: "It began with a concept. No money would exchange hands. All that was needed was an internet connection and to be plugged in.

One hundred twelve people contacted me. I could only take 99 because Blogger restricted the blog size to 100. I never would have guessed the turn out would be this positive. What fun we had using our hands and a mouse!"

The beauty of this AB is, it started as the book I used to teach the on-line beginning AB class. Now it will be a keepsake I can hold onto forever.

My new clipboard from UHU

I decorated this clipboard yesterday. I first applied the black and white paper, then added the red ribbons. It's no secret, I don't have a lot of ribbon in my stash, so I had to scrounge for ribbon. Originally I planned to use red alcohol ink on the metal clip, but decided I would use ribbons.

I might change out the ribbons before I use or give this cute clipboard away.

New canvases

A few days ago Dana and I made art. We both worked on a new technique and both approached it from different places. It's always fun when Dana and I push each other.

I began by placing UHU Twist & Glue on the wood.

Next, I added muslin to the wood.

The muslin took on the shape of the wet Twist & Glue.

I tried to use a brayer to make sure the glue was on the muslin. I still don't care much for a brayer, but Dana keeps trying to convince me I need to learn how to use one.

Next it was Dana's turn with her wood. She chose gesso.

You can see she is adding a decent amount of gesso to her board.

She now has the gesso on and is waiting for it to dry slightly.

Next, she added muslin to her board, also using gesso.

At least Dana knows how to use a brayer.

It's time for me to add my first color from these color mists.

I had a terrible time trying to get this color out.

Now it was Dana's turn again. She used the dark green and yellow. By this time, we had used nearly half the bottle of yellow. It is a nice color, but we sure used a lot.

The color is much better after the piece has dried.

It's hard to believe that Dana's piece is so different, now that she has added some brown and completely covered over the yellow.

Isn't it beautiful? I love this color, but that's only the beginning.

My piece is coming along nicely. I really love the colors, but this is also just the beginning.

Dana has now added some off white to the mix and it now looks like a real canvas. Wow.

This is a heart embellishment I made from some beige heavy canvas. It will change a bit more before I'm finished with it.

I've now added some words to the piece.

Dana is contemplating, and I'm off to a new piece because my first piece needs to dry a bit.

My second piece began with Bottle from Ranger, which is a much better brand than the bright colors we used on the first pieces. I also used Dana's brown. In this photo, I still need to add color.

Here I'm adding the off white to the piece and starting to love it.

Dana has added some tissue to her piece.

Now she's added more paint over the tissue and is getting ready to use her Shiva paint sticks and glaze.

Although nothing is finished, the three pieces are far enough along, I was able to bring my two home to work on them. Not sure how far Dana thinks she has gotten on her piece.

We finally stopped for the day because it was nearly 8 pm. I could tell Dana was tired, but she insisted upon making french toast. What a treat after a long day of art!

We 3 fun minus one

Tuesday was We 3 art day, but Dana couldn't make it. So, Kathy and I ate two of the biggest cinnamon rolls I've ever seen.

I n case you can't tell, they are over 8" in diameter.

No art on Tuesday. We just drove around and looked at all the unbelievably gorgeous trees.

This is the first year in many, many that we've had weather conditions favorable to beautiful fall foliage. This year beats many, so Kathy and I just couldn't pass it up. This is art in another form!!

Rocking Rabbits

There was a question on ABC Yahoo group the other day about alcohol inks. The member and her husband were shopping and he thought they were cool looking. The cost was 3 for $10.00. I have no idea if that is a good price, because I got mine in a starter pack for my birthday one year.

Since I hadn't used them in awhile and NEVER used them with this heavy photo paper, I was eager to try it.

I folded the paper, which is Kodak, and I use HP in my printer, so will probably use these more for other projects.

The starter (or maybe it's called exciter) pack is in the photo. The paper is in the book and ready for AIs.

I have this block that Kathy's husband made. I added the piece of velcro and it works great!

I applied two colors, blue and green, to the felt. It's hard to see on red felt. I have to be careful that I don't mix them together.

I am in LOVE with this technique and with the ROCKING RABBITS that I stamped in pink.

Here they are on the scanner. Yep, I'm tickled with this technique since it made a great and unique spread. After all, how many rocking animals can a person make spreads from???

My Rocking Horse round robin AB

I want to get this AB to Dana by the time we three get together on Tuesday. Kathy has worked in it and just left it at my place about a month ago. I need to work in Kathy's book, but I took a few hours today to work on two pages for my book.
The first spread is an iris fold on the right. The horse on the left was cut from the background. I think it's great to get two images for the price of one.

The black across the top is German scrap my friend Cindy sent me. I think it 's the perfect finishing touch for the spreads. I used two colors of green acrylic paint on the left page. The green and white background is wallpaper and a bit hard to match the colors.

I drew around a large wrought iron door stopper. I have no shortage of rocking horses, so this subject is easy. I painted the horse metallic red and left the black larger than the book on three sides. I want to make some kind of edge treatment, but not sure what. For now, I'm stopping. Maybe the spirits will move me when it comes home to me next month.

Silent Sunday: the Marble Slab

A Christmas kiss

It's been awhile since I worked in my Hands AB. Since I've had Christmas on the brain, I simply had to add this image and scrapbook paper background.

Crackle with UHU

I created this tutorial for UHU, using my favorite UHU product: Twist & Glue.

Materials:
Heat tool
UHU Twist & Glue
Cheap acrylic colors of your choice
Old brush of your choice
Card stock, color of your choice
Craft sheet or other heat resistant surface

TIP: If using dark card stock, use light paint, if using light card stock, choose a dark paint color.

Cut card stock to size.

Liberally apply Twist & Glue to part of the card stock.

For this piece, I applied the glue loosely in the shape of a tree.

Immediately apply paint over the glue. Use more paint for smaller cracks, less for larger ones.

Using your heat tool, apply heat until the cracks begin to appear. Do not overheat or you will get bubbles, which may be a look you like.

The finished product looks a bit like a tree, but I fear I got too much paint on the piece because the paint bubbled before it cracked. In places where I applied less paint, I got really good cracks. Click to enlarge.

I decided to try a second piece and use less paint. I also decided to not try to paint an image. Cut card stock to size.

Liberally apply Twist & Glue to part of the card stock. Leave a border around the glue.

Apply a small amount of your choice of paint. For this project I used "warm milk" acrylic paint.

Using your heat tool, apply heat until the cracks begin to appear. Since I used less paint on this one, the cracks began to appear soon after I started heating the piece.

Allow to dry completely before using. I was happier with the results from this piece, although it was rather boring. I did convince myself that you can get a crackle finish that is as good as some of the commercial ones and I didn't get as much warp as I got with a commercial one I used recently. However, as you can tell if you click on the scan, I did get some warp, which I hope will go away after a few days under a heavy book.

Art is hard when you don't feel well

The first thing I made yesterday was a page for a new art piece I'm working on. I actually botched it at first and had to use different material. It's a good thing I was able to place the material over a section of the glued area, or I would have really been in a bad way. I really love this piece, so don't want to mess it up.

It never fails. Things never go well when I don't feel well. I was sick about the piece I made in the morning and early afternoon. I must have painted the fleur de lis on before the piece was completely dry, then drew words on the back. As a consequence, the piece tore right in the middle of the fleur de lis.

I tried to draw words on the back and they either weren't dry or I had too much paint on the page. I was sick about this great piece, but it is now in the trash.

So I started a second piece, this time waiting between takes. This is purple fluid acrylic, with tiny bits of gold fluid acrylic mixed in.

The second step has gold and purple fluid acrylics.

I did not feel like eating, but my dear friend Sally wanted to go to lunch. In fact, I planned to pay, but she insisted on paying since I felt so rotten. Although I normally love to eat, my stomach was not up to the task. In fact, I couldn't eat all my quiche or my fattuche.

Maybe art and food will both sound better later or possibly tomorrow.

One quiltlet is complete

I have felt really, really rotten for the past two days. I have not felt like making anything, but yesterday I went to Dana's and we made some art, even though I didn't feel like it.
I worked on some quiltlet embellishments in Dana's basement studio.

I also made some paper embellishments.


Then Dana and I made this Santa with various papers that has a felted background. The backing is not on it yet. We will put the backing on it another day. We also added some embellishments after I stopped taking photos, but the photo will just have to wait.

Finally, we finished this quiltlet that I had started a few days ago. The color is not good here, but a bit better than below.

I feel bad that the photos aren't that good, because the quiltlet is in the basement and the photo isn't the best. I do love the quiltlet, though, even if the color is off. There are several postage stamps on it and I absolutely love the finished piece, even though it is quite dark in the photo. I also love the little hanger Dana added.

I made some twirling pieces, too, but didn't take photos of them. I may work on them more tomorrow if I'm feeling better.