Spits

I sewed these pieces together and sewed around the outside of the article on spits, as well as the spits in the article. This was a quick layout for my Altered Recipe AB. I just had to take a break from making Christmas goodies, but hope to have something to show soon.

Silent Sunday: where blue skies peek through barren trees

Let's Say Thanks Every Day

Do you want to do something that will make you feel good and see some really great art from school children between the ages of 6 and 13? Then hop on over to the Xerox sponsored program called "Let's Say Thanks." I remember that some company, possibly Xerox, started a similar project a few years ago, but at that time, you could only send small recorded messages to the troops and you had to go to one of their stores to record your message.

Xerox has made it a lot easier to Say Thanks everyday, because they are sponsoring a program that allows you to send as many postcards as you want, any time you want, right from your computer. They print and mail the postcards and you provide your name, City and State. They even have little widgets you can add to your blog, My Space, or Facebook pages. You don't get to designate a specific person, but it will be mailed to some member of our armed forces overseas.

I just stumbled across this link yesterday. I may be too late to send Veteran's Day cards, or even Thanksgiving cards, but I am not too late to start sending daily cards to members of the armed services who must be in a far off land over Christmas and New Years. And since I'll be in the daily habit by then, I'll continue doing it, not just to show my support, but also to show how appreciative of them I am.

When you go to http://www.letssaythanks.com/ (yep I repeated the link so you wouldn't have an excuse not to go), you have your choice of a plethora of designs, all created by young people.


The one I chose first is this one created by a young man named Joshua, who lives in IL and is age 11. Before you think I stole the design off their web site, that is not the case. You may download each photo with the click of a button that is located below the "send" button.

Please remember that these brave people are in a strange land, with no family around for comfort or support. We can help make a difference and show how much we care about their efforts and their bravery.

While I'm on the subject of LINKS, I want to share three blogs that are featuring the same YouTube video. Since I don't know if they needed permission to place these on their blogs, I decided it would be best for you to go to one of their blogs to check out this video. Here are the direct links to both posts. One is from Ingrid at http://ingriddijkers.blogspot.com/2009/11/http.html and the other one is from Debrina at http://mistressdebrina.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-book-comes-to-life.html. I promise you won't be disappointed. And Seth over at The Altered Page has added the link to Debrina's blog on his sidebar "Inspiration Station." I promise you won't be disappointed and it only takes about 2 minutes of your time to view it. If you like altered books or art, this video will blow you away!!!

Double dipping

I don't often show posts that have nothing to do with art, but Thanksgiving was an exception, since I took a break from making art, and instead passed some out. I began by giving my friend Billie the ATC I made and showed on Wednesday.

She's actually reading it as I took her photo just before we left for lunch.

Soon we were on our way. Billie wanted to go to a local buffet, which was a favorite of ours over the years. We are getting close to the zoo because you can see the huge metal sculptures that are along the sides of the road. Sadly I forgot to take shots until all that was left was the snake on the left side of the photo. You can click on these and they will be quite large. Unfortunately, the camera is so sensitive that you can't be speeding along, like with my other camera. So many trade-offs in these two cameras, and I seemed to use the wrong one both times.

We are about to pass the zoo

and head past one of our many parks.

Then we headed into the country, where the only green left in the landscape was found in the evergreens. Our lush, lovely countryside was now brown and bleak, although it was an absolutely gorgeous day.

Home again, I took time to get prepared for my second meal of the day. Can you believe it? The person who only eats once a day, had two big meals and one of them included MEAT (if you include turkey as meat, like I do).

My art buddy Dana invited me to spend Thanksgiving with her again this year, so I gladly accepted, simply because I hadn't seen her in over three weeks. It was a good time to catch up and share a good time with her family.

Here is her husband looking for the turkey plate in his mother's cabinet,

while their daughter opened the wine and his mom looked on.

My art buddy Dana is collecting the broth for the gravy.

Roxie, the real star of the show was so much fun to photograph. She is not only adorable, but poses for the camera, something Bleubeard has never done.

Roxie, that is NOT your food dish!

While taking photos of the pies, I spotted Dana's husband preparing to carve the bird.

I got closer to see his technique.

While bringing in drinks from the garage, Libby had to pose by the truck she covets. Although I tried every tool in Photoshop, this photo would not lose it's red tint or get any lighter.

Libby's boyfriend was also coveting the truck.

But it was now time to eat, and no restaurant food will ever compare to the wonderful meal that is homemade.

Lots of friendship,

conversation,

good food,

remembrances,

and full bellies

made for a wonderful evening. As the night wound down,

everyone said their goodbyes. Talk about a fun day. I don't think I'll ever forget the Thanksgiving I "double dipped" and had two full meals.

Have an old fashioned Thanksgiving

as long as you don't have to cook!

Returning to Altered Recipes

It's been awhile since I worked in my Altered Recipe book and I wanted to finish it before the end of the year. Also, my thoughts have turned to tomorrow's feast. What else could I do, but grab a page in my recipe book.

I'm not a scrapbooker, but this page looks like a scrapbooker made it. I matted the recipe and picture, and added the spoon embellishment, which I sanded, then colored with three ink pads. I'm SO impressed with my new scanner. I love how the little spoon doesn't distort the rest of the scan. The background is a napkin, which produced a really nice texture.

I tried to use various ink pads to simulate shadows on the page and ended up making more of a mess than anything else. Goes to show I should leave things well enough alone. At least you can click on the images and they will be big and legible.

One ATC

I had exactly enough time to create one ATC for today's entry. I spent way too much time on the computer yesterday trying to create a layout without using a word processor. Then I entertained a friend from TX yesterday evening and again this morning. That means things are slow art wise around here, but I'm hoping to get something made tomorrow. I'm tired of just keeping my head above water with my art!

Can you see it now?

Some days my brain gets the better of me and my brain is thinking ahead of my actions. I totally forgot to mention Patty's last name is Szymkowicz and her blog is Magpie's Nest. Although I provided the link before, I only gave about half the information you needed to actually go to and enjoy the wonders of her blog.

Patty generously gave me permission to show the matchbox I made, along with the protective drawstring package I used to keep the little porcelain rose safe during its trip across the country. Even though her blog photos aren't clickable for some really weird reason, they are still 1000 times better than anything I took. So, if you missed her post, or couldn't see the items I made (I know several people have written and asked what they were), here are the photos.

Again, thanks go to Patty for the photos. You can tell they are certainly NOT mine.

A little birdie told me

It's crunch time to Christmas, so I'm experimenting with some layouts for my annual tip-ins I make for altered book artists. In fact, they should have been made by now, but I seem to be running "behinder and behinder" this year, even though I started making Christmas items in late August.

This ATC was made using high end gift wrap, anaglyptus (the proper word for textured wall paper), German text, and a small image in the center. I colored a bunch of the anaglyptus with Evergreen acrylic paint, so I have lots left. I may make a few more of these, but this won't be anything I'll use for the tip-ins. The texture on the wallpaper is too bumpy for the delicate German text or the image, but it will be a nice little Christmas ATC to send to a friend.

Silent Sunday: when there's only a memory

Secret Sunday at the Altered Page

Once again, I have joined a collaboration with Seth Apter at The Altered Page who invited about 200 artists to participate in what I believe is his biggest collaboration yet.

According to Seth, he will "present The Pulse (his artistic zine) as a series of online and print projects. And the first will begin next Sunday, November 22."

Further according to Seth, "Secret Sundays will present the answers to the question asking for your art secrets...and there are some great ones already! There will be a post every Sunday until everybody's responses have been posted."

Please check back often to learn when and where Seth's other questions will be answered, including my own.

A reallly, REALLY fun swap

A couple of weeks or so ago, I joined a matchbox swap over at Pat's Ooglebloops blog. In fact, check out her matchbox and everything in it.

Here is what Pat said about the swap "I'll put everyone's name on folded up scraps of paper in a bowl, have a disinterested party close their eyes, and pick out names, 2 at a time, to match everyone up.

As soon as I get everyone's address, I will let you know the "mail by" date.

The rules are - there really are no rules of design. Just decorate a tiny matchbox- the ones that are about 2" long. Fill with ephemera, vintage pieces of this and that, things that could be used in altered art some way. If you like it - I'm sure your swap partner will like it too!!! As many items as will comfortably fit in the box - there is no prize for having stuffed the most in there!!!"

In the e-mail to my partner and myself, she wrote to "Alter the box however you desire. . . " I was simply delighted to learn that I had gotten Patty's name (of course I can't pronounce all of it, but who cares, right?). She is one of my favorite artists and I love everything she makes, including her amazing photos. In fact, she assured me she's taken photos of my box and hers. Hop on over to her blog and look at her photos. I promise they will look so much better than anything I can take.

Isn't this wonderful? All these goodies arrived in Patty's box to me, except for the lovely vintage handkerchief, which the box was bound in. The hanky has beautiful yellow flowers on it that reminded Patty of the sunflower photos I used from her blog one Sunday.

I was simply tickled with everything, even if it is hard to see. On the left is the gorgeous box and a handmade piece of inchie art made by Patty (which means SO MUCH to me). Below that is a tiny hand charm, a small card with words, and three shells. To the right of those are a phone staple with a fuzzy thing stuck in it and two teeny tiny tags. To the right of those are Patty's awesome hand stamped shrink art, which has images on both side, three tiny buttons, and a metal key.

At this point, we need to go back to the top and look at the totally awesome handmade cinnamon applesauce gingerbread man, which smelled so good when I removed it from the box. In fact, I wondered why my craft room smelled so good even before I spied the little guy!!

There is a tea tag with a love quote on one side and below that is a gold four leaf clover charm. Back at the top, is a postage stamp from Bhutan. I already have a layout planned for it. To the right of the postage stamp is a bingo marker. Below the postage stamp is a metal thingy that Patty assured me was a metal curling rod. I love it and will keep it in my special pieces. An acorn, a bee, a tack, and a safety pin are grouped close to each other.

A bejeweled flower on a piece of ribbon is shown next to a metal piece with "friendship" written on it. Now what could be better than that as the final piece?

Well obviously that was not all. Patty also included some totally wonderful pieces, including several that have hand images on them. I was totally tickled.

I was totally mesmerized by the circular sensor charts, which brought back memories of my metrology lab days. And since Patty is a stamper, she couldn't let that envelope go undressed. Sadly, the one I sent her was naked as a jaybird.

My apologies for the quality of the three photos above, but my camera batteries were all dead and I just HAD to take photos of everything I got from Patty. I know the photos are not the best, and that is because I either didn't hold the camera steady, or had it on the wrong setting. Regardless, I apologize. I personally thought the smaller photos were better, but if you click on them, you can see everything, even if everything is a bit blurry. Please be aware, Patty's address is blocked out on the envelope.

For my box to Patty, I must have overlooked the "Vintage" part of Pat's message (above), but it doesn't matter because anything I have can be used in vintage pieces, with the possible exception of the shrink plastic pumpkin. But I digress!

Although you can't really see it in the photo, the box is covered with some card stock I colored using Blazing Red Staz-on reinker and 91% alcohol. I only had one ribbon that even closely resembled the embellishment I had chosen, a vintage pink porcelain rose in an antique gold setting, so I made the card stock to go all around the piece, although I've seen several that were covered using images the size of the box width and length. The box is opened with a little red heart.

Did you notice that Pat said to fill it with whatever was comfortable? Well, I did just that. Actually, it's nice to know something about the person you are making the gift for, so I was really lucky. I put in a few things I knew would have special meaning to Patty, including the antique sewing machine charm, the elephant, the bird, a tiny feather, the crown, and a couple of rubber stamps.

There were 33 discrete pieces in the box and I had so much fun packing them over and over until I got it right.

What's so funny is, the pieces went together so easily the first time around. They fit perfectly. Then I removed them to photograph the items. I had to put them in the first time to make sure they would all go in. In fact, I had to leave one set of clock hands out because they just wouldn't fit the second time around.

If anyone who is a stamper knew how long it took to stamp these words, they would laugh. I even got one of the "s's" upside down. I attempted to stamp other images on the back, but there just wasn't enough room given my limited number of rubber stamps. As an aside, you can see the ribbon I added to both sides in the above picture.

I purposely kept the box plain. I didn't want a lot of bling and embellishments on the outside. I wanted to save it all for the inside of the box. I didn't even cover the inside tray of the box, leaving it plain so I could add more items. The only alteration I made to the tray was to glue the ends so they wouldn't fall apart with the extra weight.

Patty's secret stash will surely change over the years and each time she adds and removes items will bring new memories.

I want to thank Pat for allowing me to play in this swap and Patty, without whom this swap would never have materialized (on my end). Thanks to both for a truly wonderful and fun swap.

If you can do this . . . .

I had intended to do a bit more on this spread, but time got in the way. This was a quickie that I made using a piece of cardstock, a used fresh garlic bag, and the image that came from a box a friend gave me years ago when she installed her new internet. With all the computer/internet problems I've experienced for well over a week, I thought it was about time I used the image. While I was gluing it to the page, I kept thinking "If you can do this, your computer isn't as misbehaving as mine!!"

I finally had time to make a few additions to this page. I was glad I had not posted the original post yet, because I wanted to show the additions. I added five clay hearts to jump rings and hung them from eyelet covered holes to the outside of the piece. I also placed the two hands from the push molds on the cardboard. I'm definitely more satisfied with this spread.

Click to enlarge the above images I scanned with my new scanner. I have to admit, it does a much better job than the other one with antiquated software the new computer refused to install.

My ally

For this spread, I used a wonderful magazine image I found and part of a saying from another magazine. The background began with bright pink metallic paint, then I added the sewn colored paper towel and image to the page. Finally, I added the saying.

Baking day

What do you do when it's snowing outside? Why bake of course! And that is what I did yesterday. Although I didn't take photos, I made a green bean casserole and a macaroni dish (can't really call it a casserole) that probably sounds better than it was. First, over the weekend I made salsa with some of my ripe veggies I harvested on Friday, then added the leftover salsa to some cooked macaroni and popped it in the oven. It was not as dry as I anticipated, but I felt like the mac took some of the flavor, especially the cilantro, away from the salsa. There was no cheese, milk, or butter in this dish, that's why I can't really call it a casserole.

In between baking, I worked on some polymer clay pieces that will be showing up in my art in the next few weeks. I had a terrible time freehanding the hearts and wings. The hearts are my favorite and that was the real purpose for baking clay.

One of the faces in the top row was an attempt to make what I thought might be the color teal. I'm still not completely sure what the color is, so I decided to play around and try to create my own teal color. That's one of the things I love about polymer clay: creating my own color blend.


In the top row in this picture, I experimented by making a button. I heard they were hard to make, and I'll let you know if I ever sew it to anything, something I don't do (hand sew, that is). My favorite of all the pieces is the heart on the left. I thought the colors turned out so well and everything I did was freehand, including the wings.

The six purple hands on the left are from a cookie cutter, the smallest of three. In the middle of the top row of hands are two made from two push molds. On the right are three pieces I stacked together using the three nesting cookie cutters. I'm thinking the piece might go in a niche in my Hands AB. The bottom row middle has four white hands that were made from my handmade Barbie doll mold. I simply used hot glue and encased Barbie's hand in the hot glue to make the mold. When cool, I removed the hand. The bottom right is a piece made from the same push mold as above. It was the first one I made and I separated all the fingers.

I hope your day is warm, sunny, and free of computer problems.