All Things Altered- Part 2

Last Friday I shared with you my love of altering pumpkins. I'm showing you the photo of the two I had done this year and asked you if you could tell which was the real one and which was the artificial one. Many of you guessed right and some of you said you weren't exactly sure but pretty sure. I think if the turquoise one had a longer stem it might have been harder to tell. I have found that most live pumpkins have shorter more imperfect stems while the orange, colllaged one has a stem that looks a bit too perfect. I dunno but the answer is the turquoise one is the real one. I'm sure you must feel better now that you know. hee hee hee. Not too long ago I showed you the shower curtain I designed for my Mom that can be viewed at Society6. My Mom had relocated a couple of months ago to another state and wanted to redecorate her bathroom with some different colors, which is where I came in. The reason I am showing you this again is that I have also altered a couple more items. and Lately I seem to be in this home decor line of thinking with my art. It's weird how the same things look in different lighting. And lastly, one of my coworkers asked me if I would paint her phone case. Here is how I altered that. I was pretty pleased and so was she. So that's my chapter on my latest altered projects. I am linking to Paint Party Friday here and wish you a good weekend full of painty messes, fun and maybe something altered. Thanks for stopping by.

All Things Altered - Part 1

Two years ago around this time I really went all out. I discovered the great pleasure of altering pumpkins. Everything from collaging them to painting them to doodling on them. I gave a lot of them away to family, friends and coworkers. I had shellacked them all and the ones I kept sat on my dining room table until just after Thanksgiving. I was kind of sad when I had to toss them in the garbage. I got the itch to alter some more this year. I discovered when the fall season was over last year that you could buy artificial pumpkins so I bought a couple. Hmm. Good idea. You can leave them out until just before Christmas I thought. I wanted to show you all sides. I discovered two years ago if I gessoed the pumpkin first (because of it's slippery surface) that paint would really take hold. Otherwise you're just moving paint around and it's not sticking to anything. So between using my fingers, small sponges and paint brushes I got that paint down. I think I did several layers followed by my homemade stencils ( I made with a hot glue gun) and homemade stamps made from foam shapes glued to a piece of cardboard. Pretty simple and pretty good results if I do say so. Finally, I added some pen work and doodling with various markers and pens. I took it outside one afternoon and gave it several coats of spray shellac. This one was also gessoed in the beginning but then I decided to collage it. I had already done some painting on deli paper and then finished it with the homemade stamps and stencils and shellac. So here's the question. Can you tell which of these two is the real one and which one is the artificial one? Usually I am late for this very important date at Paint Party Friday but for once I am early or perhaps right on time. Go here. Thanks Eva and Kristin. You will feel welcome and they've lots of good treats. Thanks for visiting here.

Why Not?

If you can doodle or paint on pumpkins then you can certainly alter a leaf. I picked these up in my yard last night and had a bit of fun with paint markers. I am pressing them in a book. I'll try paint next. :)

More Playing with Food and Other Stuff

Last week I told you about the Lifebook lesson with Flora Bowley who encouraged us to find different things for mark making or stamping. I showed you this. Although you cannot tell from looking at this, it began with marking making with various pieces of produce. After I went grocery shopping on Saturday, I took a potato and cut it up into various shapes and put it to paper. I forgot to photograph all of them but did get one to show you. Ok. So, it's not that exciting but it was kind of fun. I forgot to buy celery so I could use the bottom of the stalk to make that cool flower print. Saturday morning I was at my local arts and craft store (AC Moore) with two fun women. We had decided to take a break from art journaling and played with making prints on the gelli plate with the deli paper. This was in preparation for decorating Christmas ornaments. I really don't enjoy it when it seems anything having to do with Christmas is pushed upon us earlier and earlier every year, however,I think if you are making things, that's entirely different. Handmade things take more time and thought. Some ornaments were cut out of two pieces of card stock, glued together and decorated. Here's another plastic one that's getting collaged. And here are a few others that I made back in the summer time while watching Netflix in the evening. I haven't yet found the motivation to paint my pumpkins this year but maybe I still will. Are you creating holiday or seasonal things right now? Thanks for visiting here.

Happy Paint Party Friday

Last year I kind of went crazy with altering live pumpkins. It was trial and error, between spray painting a base coat and gessoing and then collaging or painting. I think I did a bit of everything. I don't know if I will do this again this year to the extent I did last year but I did pick up some artificial pumpkins and a few gourds with my employee discount at AC Moore where I am teaching some art journaling workshops. I put a layer of gesso on that one. Gee, do you think I was tired? I just realized I uploaded this picture twice. Sorry about that. If I delete it I might wipe out the entire post and have to start all over again and I do not have the energy or patience to do it again........ Last year the live pumpkins were shellacked so they lasted until just after Thanksgiving.The artificial ones will be around for awhile. Has anyone else done this with a pumpkin? Live or plastic? Thanks for visiting. Happy Paint Party Friday. Thank you to Kristin and Eva for hosting this. Hope you have a wonderful creative weekend. Kristin if you are reading this I need your snail mail address to mail you the accordion book because you are the 75th person to follow my blog. :)

Taking Stock

Since the New Year began I am taking stock in just how much art I have made this past year. My intention this year was to be a more regular blogger. I'm not off to a great start, although I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I think it's important to decide when to blog and when to create. Working a full time job sometimes gets in the way. I've come a long way in several years when I first jumped in to this blogging cold turkey. Trial and error, lots of errors. I have a lot of respect for people that can blog daily. It does take more than planning and organizing. I've gotten better about the frequency and have learned to navigate my way around, and with the help of a couple of good blogging/artist buddies have been able to put up some decent posts. It's always a delight for me to visit Hanna who portrays an abundance of energy in her blog, but it was her recent post on why we should acknowledge our list of achievements for the year, that guided me to do this. After I wrote it down I felt good. Here's my list of some things that stood out for me, with some pictures. In February of last year I completed a collaborative work with Stargardener (aka Teresa Robinson)who's blog has always seemed to appear to me at just the right moment. She sent me a homemade journal which has all kinds of "neat" prompts. I gifted this book back to Teresa. She was delighted. I sent out a lot of mail art last year. One of my pieces was published as an "inchie" on the back of this wonderful magazine and as of this post I am scrambling to find the photo. So much for being organized. I remember being so tickled when I recieved notification that it would be in the 4th issue and I cannot at this moment find my folder that houses this photo. Am I getting long winded? I doodled and collaged and painted on pumpkins. I completed a very large canvas. I altered a children's board book from The Dollar Store. I cut out and made little wooden houses.. I completed 60 days worth of art on an index card for the second year in a row over at Daisy Yellow. Tammy Garcia is another one of my favorite people for inspiration. I also drew a lot of faces last year. Ok. I want to say at this point that I am tired just posting this. I did create a lot of art in 2013. What now? This blog may undergo some changes in the coming months. I want to keep creating larger canvases; I want to pile enough up to submit for gallery showing. I want to submit more of my work for publication. I want keep getting my work out there. I want to thank you for supporting me along the way, by your following and or leaving comments, which make a person feel very good. Wishing you all good things this year.................Big Hugs.......... Jo

Dance of the Pumpkins- The Finale

I actually made a lot more little ones, but they didn't all make it to the photo shoot because some were given away, some started to get mooshy making little messes on the dining room table. I stamped, stenciled, gessoed, painted, collaged and doodled........Gel pens and sharpie paint markers worked well on the largest pumpkin. The smaller ones were ok but I found I had to use a lighter touch so as not to peel the paint off. I'm not sure if black gesso might have worked better than the quick black spray paint. Might have to try it again next year. Collaging in the round was a bit of a challenge. :) Thanks for stopping in..................................xoxoxo................jo