The Square Prince

Many of you are probably aware that Alison/Craftytrog is our host this month at Art Journal Journey.  Her theme is Geometric Shapes, a theme I love, and she has asked us to make art that includes something geometric.  

I confess, I blatantly stole this idea from my friend Yvonne whose square person is much better than mine.

Instead of a hat, my square prince wears a crown on his head.

After I created it, I thought it looked more like a robot than a prince.

For this page I created in my Challenges altered book, I began by laying down a sheet of tissue paper with lots of circles left over from another project.  Then I hand cut squares for the face and body, with rectangles for arms and legs.  The shoes were triangles, of course.  The eyes were circles and the crown was cut from a punch.  I outlined the face after realizing it blended in too well with the background.  Everything was colored using water soluble crayons.  I chose the prince's colors to both compliment and contrast with the background tissue.

Thanks for visiting. I'm so grateful for your support of my art.  I hope to see you at Art Journal Journey.  Bleubeard and I would love to have you join us, too.

T Stands For Art From Friends

Today I'm sharing some incredible gifts I have received from friends.  I can't believe how blessed I am.  These are in the order in which I received them.

This first package came from Erika.   You can see she also thought the purse she made me would be perfect for T time.  I love everything about it and all the lovely gifts I'm going to share below.  The wrapping paper is double sided, so you KNOW I'm keeping it to use in my art this year.

It's always good to start my day with "a cup of white black java."  Of course, there were gifts inside the purse, too. Look at all the beautiful goodies Erika sent me.


This gorgeous card came to me from Patty S, who many of you remember used to share T with us.  In fact, she was the one who encouraged me to start this weekly event after the previous host quit without letting anyone know.

Can you believe Mia?  You saw all the beautiful and wonderful gifts she sent last month, and now she has sent more.  Although she had NO idea I was allergic to metal touching my skin, when she found out (and learned I don't have pierced ears), she sent this second gift box filled with love, stencils, a card, lovely necklaces, and COFFEE!!!

Although part of the package had caved in and had to be taped by USPS (our postal system), nothing was damaged.  I can't wait to drink some Greek coffee.  And look at all those awesome stencils.  You know I'll be using those.  In fact, I used one in my December calendar.  I told Mia I had wanted one of those brick wall stencils forever.  Now I can't wait to use it.  The jewelry was hand made by Mia, too.

Next up is this wonderful handmade card by Eileen.  I'm sure many of you have seen it on her blog, and now it's all mine!  I was also in LOVE with the flan postage stamp.  Flan is one of my favorite desserts.  I could eat it all day long.

Next up is the package I received from Chris who always sends wonderful cards and incredible ephemera I can use in my art.  Don't you just LOVE those wonderful art related napkins she sent?

By this time,

I was ready to put my Christmas decorations away.  The rest of these cards are from non-artist friends.  It's amazing, because I only sent five cards and four tip-ins this year.  I still owe lots of friends, if nothing else, a thank-you card.

My final gift simply BLEW (or BLEU) me away!!!  Any guesses?

Yes, Mia sent me a THIRD package letting me know there was no metal at all in this gift.  She promised this was the last gift, because I was starting to feel very, very guilty.

There will be tea on Tuesday, and crochet in my art.  Most everything was handmade by Mia, except the spray mist she included along with something I really NEEDED.  One of the items she sent was the spiral notebook filled with watercolor paper which is the perfect size for my calendar pages.  That means I won't need to buy a calendar next year, so thank you beyond belief Mia.  You have NO idea how you have touched my heart.

Of course, I am so proud of all the gifts and cards I have received.  I really DO NOT deserve them, but I assure you that I am so grateful to all of you and your kindness.  Thank you Erika, Patty, Eileen, Chris, and Mia for your kindness and generosity.

And in case you missed the first set of gifts I received, you can find them here.  They were sent to me by Kathy, Linda K, Sharon, Halle, RO!, Cindy, my friend Ed, and Mia.

It's now time for you to share your own drink related post.  It can be gifts you received, photos, a place you visited, movies, postcards, books, sketches, mixed media, drawings, paintings, tags, scrapbooking, or other art that is digital, hybrid, or traditional, as long as it in some way relates back to a drink, any drink.  Regardless, please share below and Bleubeard and I, along with the rest of the T gang will be by to visit.   Please link only your T post and not your blog in general.  Old photos are acceptable because they may be taken any time, not just on Tuesday and not just this year. 

My early December and mid January flower bed

My internet friend CJ has this weekly post where she shows her garden.  She calls it "how does your garden grow?"

I have to admit that mine doesn't grow at all in the winter.

This was early December.

Even my rose bush looks dead, but hopefully it's only dormant.

My pine tree is shedding needles right and left.

My holly, which has never gotten any red berries on it, is encroaching on the pine tree, now.

This area has filled with leaves.   Fast forward to two days ago,

and this is what the garden looks like in mid January.

I'm hoping the pumpkins I bought for autumn decorations will disintegrate and maybe some of the seeds will sprout.

My rose bush still looks bad, as does my pine tree.

Most of the leaves have been blown here and yon in this area, though.  Thanks for joining me this blustery January day in my flower bed.

Closed until further notice

I want to begin by saying I am NOT political.  I try to not take sides, and I try to keep anything political off my blog.  However, I can no longer stand by without making a few comments.

Many of you are probably aware that Alison/Craftytrog is our host this month at Art Journal Journey.  Her theme is Geometric Shapes and she has asked us to make any art as long as it includes something geometric.  

While looking for something entirely different in my stash, I ran into this page from a slick (a magazine with a slick coating) that showed Washington D.C..  Anyone who has tried to photograph a slick knows how difficult it is.

Back to the subject at hand, though.  I noticed how many of the buildings were geometric in shape, therefore that's how this spread was born.

The caption reads Closed until further notice, the title of the piece.   For those of you who don't live in the states, you might not be aware our Federal government has shut down.  It's the longest shut-down in history.  All Federal buildings are closed, all National Parks, all National Museums, and the National Zoo.  These employees are not working, and they didn't receive a paycheck on Friday.

That's not the worst part, though.  ALL air traffic controllers and all TSA agents (those people who scan you before you get on an airplane) are required to report to work, but got no pay check on Friday, either.

I don't care what your political affiliation is, or even if you live on my side of the pond.  Ask yourself: if you were required to come to work, yet told you would not be paid for it, how would you feel?  Would you feel like you were being used, made a pawn, or had become a serf?

This is all because of a damned wall, a wall that minds smarter than mine, and engineers smarter than me, have shown doesn't work.  We all saw what a wall did to Germany.

Eight prototype walls were recently built in San Diego, CA, near the Mexico/U.S. border.  Every one of them had problems, including shape, cost, and materials.  Many agree that a single wall design will not work over the entire 1954 miles of border.  There are fault lines that must be considered, there are specifications that must be followed, there are barriers that must be repaired or replaced over time.

In the meantime, Federal workers and their families are paying the price, as are people who these families must answer to, like their utility suppliers amd their mortgage lenders or landlords.  Others affected include the people who offer services, like dry cleaners, grocers, and food service employees, to name just a few.  I'm off my soap box now, but I hope you understand why this means so much to me.  I would NOT feel like reporting to work if I was told I was working for FREE (even though I'm known as the Queen of FREE)!

All these buildings

have geometric components.

For this page, I spent more time on my diatribe than I did on the actual journal page.   To the image I found in a slick magazine, I added the moon and the sentiment.  

Thanks for visiting. I'm so grateful for your support and understanding of both my art and my beliefs, political feelings aside.  I hope to see you at Art Journal Journey.  Bleubeard and I would love to have you join us, too.

Balancing Act

I want to begin by saying GO CHIEFS!! For my international visitors, readers, and followers, I am referring to the Kansas City Chiefs, a football team (U.S. football, not soccer) who will play the Colts today.  The winner will advance to the finals.  The winner of the finals will play in the Super Bowl.  The Chiefs have better league position, division, and conference numbers than the Patriots, who won the Super Bowl last year.  The Patriots play in their division on Sunday, while the Chiefs play today.  Now back to art and art journaling!

Many of you are probably aware that Alison/Craftytrog is our host this month at Art Journal Journey.  Her theme is Geometric Shapes and she has asked us to make any art we like as long as it includes something geometric.

I call this one Balancing Act although it wasn't what I originally planned.  I had hoped to balance the bird, made mostly of triangles, above the doily.  However, my 8.5 X 11 inch 110 lb card stock wasn't tall enough.  Consequently, the bird had to go on top of the doily.


I have NO idea why the gold has turned red,

but this is what it's supposed to look like.

Ironically, the gold on the tail is the only thing that didn't turn red or pink in this photo.

Much better and colors that are truer to what they should be.

OOPS, spoke too soon!

Better.

The balancing act sentiment is supposed to be gold, too!

For this page, I began by laying down swirls of blue and pink dye based ink onto the substrate.  I then pieced together blue and green triangles and a square to make the bird.  Two rectangle tickets from my stash were sandwiched between a circular paper doily and the light green circle, which was the same color, along with a darker green dye ink I used to create portions of the bird and the sentiment.

Thanks for visiting. I'm so grateful for your support and kind remarks of my use of geometric shapes this month.  I hope to see you at Art Journal Journey, too.  Bleubeard and I would love to have you join us.