Handsome: a spread in my Hands AB

I have been saving images of hands for years, and the same goes with words and quotes from my computer. When I have an extra bit of space on a page, such as the shaving cream paper page, I print a quote or saying. This time it was "Handsome," and when I found it, I went looking for an image that would fit the bill. I drew a hand around the image, then cut it out and tried to shadow it. Since I didn't have any charcoal, I used a regular graphite pencil (number 2, I think), then erased it. Not sure I got the effect I wanted, but I tried. The background is blue pigment ink. I added the swirls from a stamp.

Another Hand AB spread with a fiber bookmark

This two page spread, which had many of the same colors on both sides, looked a bit disjointed. when viewed side by side.

To make the color difference less apparent, I layered three fibers down the page. This makes the two pages look a bit more cohesive.

This page was made using scraps of specialty paper, card stock, and photo corners.

This page uses a brown paper bag, originally designed to be a background, to cut the focal image from. The many charms and beads are shown on the scanner, although the lovely sapphire blue beads look clear in this scan.

Play day to relax

I've been working on several projects lately, and most are nearly finished or already completed. I had to take a day and recuperate, so made some backgrounds on Wednesday. It gave me a chance to try out my new red metallic paint I got at JoAnns with a 40% off coupon.
Here are the supplies I used:
Purple and red metallic paints
Butterscotch and bottle color washes (not shown)
Water
Mixing containers
Paint brush
Various papers, deli wrap, and two sizes bubble wrap
Craft sheet (to protect my table)

I began by rolling a piece of UHU tac in a ball, then applying it to the craft sheet.

I adhered the deli paper to the UHU tac so the paper wouldn't slip when I was painting it.

I placed some red and purple acrylic paint in the small cups, then dipped my brush in the water and wet the paper slightly.
Next I applied the paint to the various papers.

I sprayed the color mists on other papers and added paint to some of the papers I'd sprayed with color mists.

I got really carried away with making these backgrounds. In fact, I couldn't stop. And to think I used only four colors. This is less than 1/3 of the pages I made.

I scanned some of the pages, but didn't hold them down, so the dark on the pages is from them not being flat on the glass.

Now, before you ask, my friend Kathy accidentally left some of her Sizzix dies when she was here for our play date. I took advantage of a couple of them and turned my lovely hand painted papers into hearts and flowers to be used at some future date. It was a fun, relaxing day where I didn't have to think about composition or design principles, or hunt for that perfect embellishment to complete a spread. To see the true beauty of these, click to enlarge.

Palm reading: another Hand AB spread

I adapted this spread from a swap I was in back in 2004. All images were printed, then layered over a background made from a daily school page I hand dyed with left over Rit dye.

The large hand inside the pocket was printed in black, while the background and pocket images were printed in color. this sets the hand apart from the background.

The "Palmstry" images are both pockets and help tie the two pages together. The top pocket image was repeated on the tag backs. The actual pockets are hidden on the side behind the images, which protrude over the page edge.

The front of the tags tells everything about palm reading, while the hand tag has a strip of images on both sides that flip out.

These are the tag backs and the hand in the position the viewer sees it when it is removed from the pocket.

How I spent my Sunday night and Monday morning

I hosted ABC's 6th Anniversary swap and Sunday night I swapped the items. I'm probably not your typical swap host, because I don't open any packages until I begin the swap. I find I don't lose anything that way, they stack and store easier, and if I've made myself clear enough in the instructions, there should be no problems with the swappers getting everything right. The swap had 24 players and I debated most of the day Sunday where I would complete such a large swap. I finally decided my kitchen would be the best place for it.

I brought the packages in and started to lay them out on the table, as you can see by the row in the front of this photo. Then I realized I had way too many for the kitchen table and just stacked them all on the table so I could stage them.

You can see the table is full of packages. I knew I had to come up with another plan.

I drug my chairs around and placed them in a row. I stacked two packages per chair. That took care of 8 packages. You can see by now I have most of the packages open and have determined I can get 12 on my table. OK, I'm up to 20.

I stacked the rest on my stove and counter. That took care of the final four (no basketball reference intended (grin). Here they are as I swap them. The swapper's swap items are laying on their packaging they sent to me. Underneath this is the swapper's return envelope, with their label and return postage on top. As I swap, I lay the swapped item on top of their postage and label. That way I can keep track of things. Not sure how other hosts swap their items, but this technique has always worked for me. And, YES, each and every swap "skinny" was a true work of art.

See it, feel it: interactive pages in my Hand AB

Here is another two page spread for my AB. It's such a large book, I can't seem to center it properly on the scanner.

Just like cutting the photo off at the scanner, this magazine image had its thumb cut off. I simply lined it up to the page, which I had covered with tissue paper that I intentionally scrunched and smooshed (very technical terms) so there would be texture.

Another magazine image became a fun interactive spread when I found these two hands printed on acetate.

Rotating the hands (attached with eyelets) reveals the magazine image and provides a bit of humor and a lot of interaction between the viewer and the AB. This two page spread just came together with very little thought.

Silent Sunday: Sunday in the park

Independence Day wall hanging

I made this quiltlet to hang on my porch for Independence Day. I used a small flag, star patterned material, and two colors of twill. The back has grosgrain ribbon as an accent, so I made the hangers of the same ribbon. I aged the ribbon using linen distress ink.

The message reads:
"The soldier above all others prays for
peace, for he must suffer and bear
the deepest wounds and scars of war.
Douglas MacArthur"

The quiltlet is now hanging with the help of a tree branch from my yard.

Haere's to a wonderful Independence day for all US residents and a glorious Saturday for the rest of the world.

An untitled Hand AB spread

I'm not sure how well this connects (content wise) to the button edge, but I needed something for the back of my button spread. I used a broken leather shoelace as the decoration.

Using color in my Hand AB

What do you do when you have two images that have nothing to do with each other, but decide to put them next to each other? Well, if you are me, you color coordinate the background using pigment ink.

This image came from my mailbox, and I added hearts for a frame/photo corners, along with one in the center of the hands. I picked a beige to compliment the brown in the right spread.

After I scanned the entire page (above) so you could see the complete hand, I added the paintbrush.

RoShamBo: Gestures in my Hand AB

Who doesn't love Rock, Paper, Scissors? Game of chance, game of luck, game of psychology, game of statistical probability? Regardless, it's a game of gestures.

This is most of the full page spread. The background is scrapbook paper, over which I layered a black and white magazine image.

The gestures came from a testing pamphlet,

and the three images representing RoShamBo came from a book of gestures. The sticker letters came from Cindy McMath and I've had them for several years. I was down to the last few of the letters, so had to substitute the "RO" with vinyl letters.

Another Hand AB spread

"30 Days have September, April, JUNE . . . ." I can't believe June has flown by and I still haven't started several projects I promised myself I'd have finished by this time. So I'm off to the studio this week to catch up on catching up. I'll be posting a spread from my AB class each day this week. And maybe I'll get some breathing room along the way.

This spread used several pages from old books, including a day planner, a real ledger sheet, a German text book, and a German music book. I swiped oil pastels on the pages and around the central image to tie the ledger to the hand. The teacher's planner was dyed using leftover Rit dye. Thanks to Cindy for the German Scrap and Carol B for the heart and word.

My second set of Anniversary pages: some assembly required

This is one side of my second set of Anniversary pages. As much trouble as I've had with these, I'm not sure I even want to send them. I love the backgrounds I created using plastic grocery bags I cut in half and used instead of cling wrap. Other than that, I followed the same directions, but found I liked the results better using the grocery bags..

I carved a very nice cake out of a potato, stamped it ONCE, and promptly lost it! I carved another potato into a not-so-nice cake. This time I felt it looked more like a top hat than a cake. However, time was beginning to run out and I had to use it. A few of the cakes look like the one on the left, but more than most look like the one on the right!!

Next I got out an Anna Griffin clear stamp "6" and my acrylic block and set out trying to stamp a six that would show on the page. I finally settled for silver, but it doesn't show well in the scan. As I was stamping, the stamp kept falling off the acrylic block. It wouldn't stay on and I've had trouble with this set since the very first time I tried to stamp anything with it. Can't say I'm fond of them, but they were a gift, so I can't complain. However, I really wish I knew why these stamps don't stay on a block.

Finally, I used my red Zig pen to make a "flame" on the "6." Did I mention I can't draw even the most simple shapes? Did I mention I love the backgrounds?

So is this the front or the back? I will leave that to the swapper.

Last week I showed this photo of my 2nd set of skinny pages. I failed to mention there was SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED.

Here is the actual skinny page as it will appear when the swapper unwraps his/her package. This is also what it will look like after the swapper does some work on it! Did I mention some assembly is required?

As for the design, it was a combination of inspiration from Dana and prodding by Donna. For the background, I started by brushing gesso over the card stock. I wanted texture on the pages, so made swirls and heavy brush strokes. When dry, I brushed gold glaze on the pages, then took a sponge and added more texture.


The seersucker on the left is the lovely material I bought to make these little surprises. After tearing it wrong, I used a slippery polyester blend from my very limited material stash, which was as close to the right color as I could get. Right color, wrong material.

These two were tied with bows and took me 23 minutes to do these two. My fingers cramped and I had to take a break after only two bows. Then the light bulb came on. What is the FIRST thing the swapper will do when s/he gets the package. Come on now, I know you know the answer. Say it louder!! Yep, they will UNTIE THE BOW and look inside. It was insane to spend all that time trying to tie a bow that left my arthritic hands cramped for hours, when none of it would be appreciated in the end.

So I did the only "honorable" thing (grin) and tied the ribbon once and taped it to the material. Now each swapper can open his/her package, then tie his/her own bow and fiddle with getting the material straight, etc.

I began by sewing background paper left over from the other side, to the material.

Then I glued the burnt lids and the word "six" to the paper. However, the little packages are too wide for every conceivable binding process, even a single hole punch. Therefore, the swapper gets to not only tie his/her own bow, s/he gets to place it on the background after punching holes. As I said in the very beginning, I almost wish I hadn't started these. A really cute concept turned into a nightmare for me and added work for the swappers. OH well, I'm sure that in a year or five, I'll look back on this skinny page and laugh!

Silent Sunday: My play date jar

Asian cucumbers in my recipe book

While cleaning my garage, I found a sack of old seed packets. Instead of planting them (they were from 1998), I decided to use this image from the seed packet for art. Right there on the packet was the word "Asia," and since I still had Dana's Asian background stamp, I prepared this spread in my recipe book.

I'm not a rubber stamper, so didn't realize that the stirrer sticks used to simulate lattice on the other side, caused them to sit above a good stamping surface. As a result, the rubber stamp did not properly adhere to the page. I had to restamp by placing the stamp (which was wood mounted) as close to the original orientation as possible, then turning the page over and pressing the page onto the stamp. Every time I stamp something, I learn a bit more about stamping.

We 3 Art Play Day: Solder

We began our play day by looking at images and various projects that Kathy was planning to make. We spent a great deal of time just discussing various projects and such. It was then that Dana suggested we should just get together once in awhile to talk about our art.

In this photo, Kathy has her work station already set up, while Dana sips her tea, looks at some instructions, and admires her new soldering iron. The day was starting out good.

There wasn't enough room on the table for all the charms, embellishments, and such that each of us brought for the project,

so Kathy and Dana's boxes of goodies were stuck in every nook and cranny we could find. This is less than half of what they brought. Of course we had to ooh and ahh over what each was planning to make, then we finally got down to business.

Dana was now eager to start and wanted to cut one of the glasses, so she grabbed a glass cutter and went to it. However, it didn't want to cut, and I suggested we use the bottle glass cutter she brought, rather than my hand held one.

Dana suggested we practice on a bottle, so she grabbed one of my many bottles and went to town.

We could hear the glass scoring and grinding as she turned the cutter around the bottle. After tapping it, we decided she sort of knew what she was doing, so it was off to cut the stemware. That's when things got a bit dicey.

Dana tried to position the bottle cutter around the glass, but we just couldn't get it at a 90 degree angle that was needed for a good cut. So she took a different tact and tried cutting it by standing it up on a shelf on my workbench. She dipped the cutter in oil and went to town, turning the glass as she went.

After scoring all the way around the glass, she tried to "whack" the base away, but had no luck. When that didn't work, I laid the glass on its side, held it in place with the black rubber coaster you see in the photo. My problem was the shelf was about six inches too high for me, so I was working with my arms above my shoulders and got no leverage, although I could see I had scored the base.

Next, Kathy tried it, and determined, after several attempts that all we were doing was beating the paint off the glass cutters. Determined not to be defeated, I suggested we look through my various jars and make something in a jar. Since the glasses were so small, each of us had images for a small jar.

Kathy cleaned all the jars with Goo Gone and/or alcohol, depending on which was needed, then Dana spotted my Play Dough, which I had never used (I don't even know when or where I got it except that it was brand new and never opened). Here, Dana has created a small scene using the green Play Dough as a base for the tiny jar she will be using.

Kathy created a scene using the Play Dough as a base, images she cut, and tiny flowers. She also added a winged horse after I took this photo. If you click on the photo, you can see her scene better and my instructions showing what I thought we were going to make from the stemmed glasses.

We almost ate before we assembled and soldered our jars, but decided to finish our pieces first. I think we were all a bit frustrated. I didn't take a photo of my scene outside the jar, but I didn't use Play Dough as my base. Instead, I used hot glue and the shredded paper I called "seltzer," but I think Dana called it something else. After it was cool, I added shells at the base, and placed my back-to-back images between two shells.

Dana had to leave after we ate, so took hers before I got a photo of it. I cut off the top of the jars in this photo, but you can see our final results better if you click on the photo. Kathy's is on the left, mine on the right. Kathy chose to place copper foil higher than I did. I just wanted a good solder joint, while Dana and Kathy both wanted to cover their lids. I didn't use a lid, since mine was an old baby food jar. We all decided that we would not be soldering any time soon, unless it was to practice. However, we had fun, ate till we dropped, and had a wonderful day of friendship.

After we ate lunch, Dana left to visit her husband in the hospital, while Kathy helped me clean up the mess we left in the basement. She then packed up and went home around 5:30. It had been such a long, exhausting (and a bit frustrating) day, I simply collapsed and slept for several hours before documenting this for posterity. I wish I had taken more photos, but sometimes you get caught up in the process and forget to click. I gave Kathy the glasses to see if her husband could cut them. I really think we needed a wet saw for the bases, something I don't have, since we think the stems are solid glass.

Next month we will meet at Kathy's, and I bet soldering is NOT on the agenda! I'll try to remember to take another photo of my finished project tomorrow that doesn't chop off the top of the jar.

A quiltie giftie, a discourse on pink, and a sneak peek

So where are the photos of the We 3 play day? Well, it didn't happen yesterday. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to postpone the play date until today. Hopefully everyone will be OK and we can have our solder day.

I'd like to answer a comment left by Donna who said I must like pink. Actually, pink is one of my LEAST favorite colors. You won't find any pink in my house. I tend toward the cool colors, mostly blue and green. So why all the pink in my art? I guess because I'm always trying to find that perfect red that won't turn into pink. One example is my anniversary pages made with Staz-on reinkers. I used their bright red reinker, which turned pink when mixed with the 91% alcohol. I have some really red dye and pigment ink pads that turn into pink on the pages or the stamp, and the red fluid acrylic I bought is on the pink or warm side of the spectrum. I also bought a box of used cheap bottle acrylics at a garage sale once, and when I got them home, six of the eight were pink. So, although I don't care for pink, it seems my supplies appear to make it seem that way.

When the play day didn't materialize, I wanted to stay busy. I had made a quiltlet for Cindy McMath months and months ago, but she never got it. It's the first thing I've sent her that didn't arrive in Canada. For those of you who don't know Cindy's work, she is known as the Queen of Bingo. I used all the bingo material in a swap and on her lost quiltlet, but Kathy had some, and gave me enough to make a replacement for her. I put the material away and forgot it, until I ran across it a week or so ago. Now was the day to take my mind off the missed play day and create something that was long, long overdue. I began by layering the bingo material, some of the hand dyed table cloth, and hand dyed cheese cloth. Next I needed a bingo card.

Color is OK, but the card is too big. It swallows the background.

Better size, but it's square, where the quiltlet is rectangular, and the "white" on the bingo card is not the bright white of the material.

Much better. this color is great, the red compliments the background, the white is better, but it's still too big. So I scrounged through my stash of supplies until I stumbled onto a gem.

It was the same design as above, but smaller. It was just what I was looking for. That's when I got caught up in the process and forgot to continue taking pictures.

Here is the completed piece. OK, pink again, but this time by design. Cindy's studio is called "Pink Bird," so why not honor her bird? I had no pink embossing powder, so mixed red and white trying to make pink. Such irony: since I try hard to get rid of the pink in my stash, all of a sudden I'm trying to make pink. I also used pink pigment ink to stamp the bird. The large red "chip" at the bottom was punched and colored with red fluid acrylic (by Golden). See how "pink" it looks up against the lovely red bingo card and the red bingo number in the upper middle?

Here is the back, hand dyed using scarlet dye and an old striped blouse. The sentiment tells it all: Cindy is the Queen of Bingo and I am the Queen of Free. I hope she likes it, because I put a lot of love into making it.

OK, here is a sneak peek of the second set of anniversary skinny pages. I finished them yesterday also, and "packaged them." You'll just have to wait till Monday to see the finished project. By then, all the swaps should be on their way to me.

Second We Three Play Day

The nice thing about being a Play Day host is I get to choose the medium we'll be working in. This month I have chosen solder and Dana, Kathy, and I will actually be making a completed item (or three), as opposed to last month, when we practiced a technique (dyed fabric).

A while back, I found an article in Somerset that I wanted to try. Try as I might, I could not find that article. I only have a general idea of the technique, so most of this will be improvisation. I made up the directions based on my poor memory, so they are pretty basic.
I made a list of supplies we would need:
Stemmed glasses
Soldering iron (each person will bring her own)
Solder
Flux
Acid brush
Copper foil
Glass cutter
Paper towels
Sand paper
Glue gun
Hot glue
Ammonia
Latex gloves
Embellishments
Images (each person will bring her own)
Charms
Craft sheet (each will bring her own)

Poppy seed muffins are poised and ready to get us off to an artful beginning, along with jasmine flower tea for Kathy and Dana, and coffee for me.


You can see we'll have a full table when everyone gets their things here. At least all Kathy and Dana have to bring are their soldering irons, craft sheets (to protect my table from errant solder), and their own drink mugs.

I have set up the hot glue gun on the workbench, along with a block of moss and some crinkled, shredded paper to decorate the base of each glass. Now to put the other two chairs out, and I'll be ready to go. It should be an interesting day.

Paper towel fusion background

Here's another quick and easy background to try while I'm finishing my second set of swap pages. I call this "Paper Towel Fusion," but I have no idea what it's really called, or even if I made it up while playing around with paint and paper towels.

Supplies (clockwise from left):
Various paints and pens
water spritzer and/or mister
food coloring
Lumieres
foam brushes
freezer paper taped to surface using low tack tape
Not shown: paper towels, latex gloves

Prepare surface by taping freezer paper shiny side UP to water resistant cloth. Squirt out two or three colors of acrylic paint onto freezer paper. For this background, I used metallic pink, purple, and lime green.

Using a foam brush, smear the paint in a pattern of your choice. Note how the green is lost to the vibrant pink and purple. Don't overwork, or the colors will get muddy.

Once you are pleased with the pattern, spritz the paint with water and lay a paper towel on top. Spritz your paper towel, too. Make sure your paper towel is wet, or it won't absorb the paint. The picture shows the paper towel has been spritzed on the right side, but has not been spritzed on the left.

When the paper towel is saturated, gently remove it from the freezer paper. I found it was easiest to leave a small area on one corner dry, then gently peel it away from the freezer paper.

Note how much paint is left on the freezer paper.

You can spritz the freezer paper and repeat the process until you have no more paint. This is what my freezer paper looked like after two paper towels had been colored.

When most of the paint has been absorbed, or you want to change colors, wipe the freezer paper clean using a new paper towel.

Next, dribble food coloring on the freezer paper, then add a bit of other color. I added copper Lumiere for accent.

Spritz just a tad of water on the freezer paper this time, since the food coloring doesn't need to be watered down as much as the acrylics. No need to use a brush to spread the food coloring. Be careful where you point the mister/spritzer, though. Food coloring stains everything it touches, including fingers.

You can also use re-inkers or concentrated watercolors instead of the food coloring. You can get some beautiful papers with food coloring, but it isn't light fast and will fade over time.

Pull paper towels apart while still wet because when the paint blobs dry, you will never get the paper towels apart without tearing them.

Here are a couple of my finished pages. Yours will probably look better than mine because I have a tendency to simply swipe my brush across the freezer paper. Try mixing it up, by drawing circles, swirls, or squiggles.

Anniversary Swap on ABC

First, I would like to say that the image for Silent Sunday was one I found at a garage sale last week. It was in bad shape, and I had intended to alter it, but ran out of time before Sunday. I have NO idea who the man was and didn't ask the lady I bought it from. Now on to today's post.

Here is my first set of skinny pages for the ABC 6th anniversary swap. Although these were lightened in Photoshop, the color is somewhat poor, except for the six boxes, all made of polymer clay.


Here is a closeup of the back (on the left) and the front (with the gift boxes). It's ironic that the color is washed out on the polymer clay in the scan and were much more true in the above color corrected photo. Yes, the "box" with the lattice is bright yellow, but came out nearly white in the scan.






I actually began by printing "ABC sisters" on the left and adding all the names of the swappers. I misplaced the pages I printed, so reprinted using the words "ABC participants." Glad I did, because we now have a male swapper who became an angel swapper when one person had to drop out due to illness. Since I couldn't find the original pages, I set about making the polymer clay gift boxes using clay, some of which Halle sent me, and texture plates that Dana left after our play day. I used various mica powders (Pearl-Ex) as a release agent on the texture plates.






After I printed the second set of pages and sorted all the clay pieces, I sprayed the pages with sealer, then set to work making reinker and alcohol backgrounds. I began by making the side opposite the names as the side I added the reinker/alcohol mix to. That made the side with the names all washed out and the side that would hold the boxes too bright. I had to print MORE pages, spray them, then adhere the reinker/alcohol mix to the name side.






Next I stamped the two little girls on the back side. I love this stamp made by River City Rubber. It's a good thing I had extra pages. I placed a bit of the extra reinker/alcohol mix on the wording side of my rejects, then set out to find the best ink to use. Staz-on black was too dark, gold too light. The stamp image was too detailed for embossing, so I ruled that out having recently learned that lesson. After trying three or four more colors, I settled for lime green and the image showed, as did the names.





After the images were stamped, I started adding polymer clay to the other side, then remembered I wanted to stamp the date and number on the background. Luckily, I had only done two of them. It was a lot easier to stamp before the boxes were on than after. I used what was supposed to be red (but always comes out pink) and the same lime green from the other side. I wanted some continuity for the two sides.



I sincerely hope the swappers like them. My biggest fear is that the tower of polymer clay boxes will not go through some of the many binding machines on the market. I have, however been told (after I measured a few) that they should go through most of them.

Silent Sunday: Happy Father's Day

More hands for my Hands AB

This is another double page fabric spread in my Hands AB. I began with some silk material I dyed. It is the same material I experimented with using a blender pen. Next, I stamped several images, then layered hand dyed cheesecloth and hand dyed silk over the background material and sewed them together. After ironing it into my AB, I added two tape transfers I made from magazine images. To get a better idea of the texture, please click to enlarge.

The good, the bad, the frustrating

Why is it some art days go great, while others go badly? I guess when it starts out good, it ends good. However, there was very little good about yesterday. Sharing it with my loyal followers will help me remember what NOT to do and hopefully help some who will learn from my mistakes and not repeat them.

The day started wrong, when it took nearly 30 minutes to get my chiminea going. The rain had turned everything damp (or wet), as can be seen by the cinder blocks the chiminea sits on. The wood was wet, and the "fire starters" I use were damp. Since I use half and half in my coffee, I try to buy the kind that comes in a paper carton. It has a waxy surface, which is a perfect fire starter. Now you would think they would be protected from the elements, since I keep them in the cinder block slots, but that didn't seem to help on this day. What you see here is a carton that is blazing. The wood was still drying.

As a result, I created a great deal of smoke, which polluted the air. Not good!

After I finally got the fire blazing,

I threw some canning jar lids in the fire. I wanted to burn off the rubber and turn them a nice color in the process. I confess, I just walked away, since by now, the fire was nearly out and the wood, although some was white coals, was still mostly untouched. I would never suggest doing this, but with everything so wet, I felt pretty confident nothing would happen. Also probably not good.

After a quick shower (sorry, no photos), I was off with Donna, who wanted company since she had so many errands to run. This was the good part of the day!!

While Donna was in her bank,

I shot a few pictures of the orange cones that are everywhere in my neighborhood. Instead of the Yellow Brick Road, we have the Orange Cone Road!!

Next we went to Barney's where Donna picked up some health items. Everyone always wants to see a photo of me, so here I am. Yep, that's my reflection in the glass taking a photo of me in the glass. Not so good, but not bad, either.

While Donna was doing her thing, I got a new key for my front door. I lost my only key recently, so it was a good thing I had given Donna my spare key. The gal is making it here,

and buffing off the burrs on this side of the machine.

I didn't take any more photos, although we went several other places, including JoAnns, where I bought (yep, bought) material for my Anniversary swap. I carefully figured out the exact amount I needed and bought just that. I had no idea that material was so expensive. No wonder people go to thrift stores for material for their art projects!! Not sure if JoAnns was good or bad, but I did buy a few things I needed for future projects, too.

When I got home, the lids were cooked and cool. I dug them out of the chiminea, washed, polished with Brasso (which made them greasy), washed again, then sprayed them with sealer. They are now ready to use. I had NO idea there were so many brands of canning lids. I counted four in this batch alone. Other than the mess I had cleaning up the Brasso, this part of my art day was good.

Then came the frustrating part. I can't believe I'm so naive when it comes to material. Here's what happened. I don't have any good cutting tools and all my scissors just chew material. I've made it a habit to tear anything I am making, so I tore the lovely seersucker I bought. As you can see, I started with six inches at one end, but as it tore, it got smaller and smaller, ending up with four inches at the other end. I was SICK, frustrated at myself, and disappointed. Four inches was not enough and I had not gotten any extra material. I'm not sure why it happened, since I don't know much about material, but I would have thought it would tear straight.

To ease my frustration, I started sewing the ones I could, and noticed that the thread didn't look right. I got out my owner's manual and diagnosed the problem. I thought it was the bobbin, so I took the whole thing apart,

even the plate I have my hand on, and the bobbin holder. I figured I would clean it and look for a lost needle that might have dropped down the hole in the process. I got a lot of lint out, but didn't find the needle. At least I did something right and I now have a clean bobbin area in my machine. I even realized why the machine wasn't sewing correctly. I hadn't put the bobbin thread through the little catch thingy (technical term for I didn't thread the bobbin correctly).

What I learned today:

Don't tear material along the width unless you want it uneven.

Don't go off and leave a fire burning (do as I say, not as I do).

Don't start a fire with wet wood.

Your machine needs to be cleaned and oiled often, even if you don't sew every day.

Neighbors and friends can provide comic relief.

The surprise: a spread in my Hand AB

Fabric can be as much fun as paper.


This is an interactive page in my Hand AB where the viewer can open the surprise package. I began by decorating the background using Staz-On black ink, then lime green and metallic lavender acrylic paints. I then added the surprise, all wrapped up in a pretty sheer green bow.

When opened, you see the surprise. I sewed a piece of decorated card stock to the material, then added a polymer clay hand.

Here is a detail of the hand I made using a rubber stamp and copper polymer clay.

Sneak peek of my anniversary swap

It's summertime even though the calendar doesn't agree. It's easy for items to dry quickly outside, so here is a sneak peek at my anniversary swap.

What? You can't see what's going on? Is this view any better?

Maybe this will help now that I'm out of the glaring sun.

OK, here they are, up close and personal!! I'll unwrap them soon.

My eyes: 10th in my portrait series

This is number 10 in my portrait series. This has a Zetti feel to it because I cut

the eyes and mouth of one image and glued it over the other image. To add to the spooky feel of this one, I scribbled around the edges of the mouth and eyes with a green gel pen. I also outlined the words "My eyes" which I originally added to the ATC using the Chartpak blender pen. He also sports two green "buttons" on his shirt.

Two identical images in my hands AB

I used three glazes (gold, copper, burnt sienna) on the background that I applied with a sea sponge. The advantage of having two different size frames is they nest well when I close the book. Click on the photo to see how I incorporated some sheet music.

Silent Sunday: Fruits of my labor

High Five

The background of this spread was made using lime green and lavender bingo markers that I dabbed onto the page, then finished with a metallic turquoise acrylic applied with a sea sponge. Then I added the magazine image using UHU glue and black electrical tape. I think if I’d had a white marker or gel pen instead of the silver one I used, the color would have popped on the tape. However, sometimes you just have to go with what you have and hope for the best.

Ouchie: an AB spread

For this spread, I echoed the bandage on the hand in the magazine image with real bandages for the frame. I began by laying down gesso, then added images from a supply catalogue while the gesso was still wet. The gesso was my glue, which I used both under and over the catalogue images. You can see that these catalogue pages are very thin, so they buckled under the water content of the gesso. This means they have a very low cotton content. Even though there was some buckle on the pages, this is one of my favorite spreads.