I'm Doing the No Snow Dance

Hello friends! Hope you are well. I'm doing the NO SNOW DANCE TODAY AND TONIGHT as I have had quite enough after the last snow that hit here in Virginia a couple of weeks ago. I grew up in New York State and also lived in Boston for a number of years so I have had enough to last me a life time. Virginia does not know how to deal with it, and I find it hard to deal with Virginia not knowing how to deal with it. The older I get the less patience I have to deal with it. Yes, I know it's pretty if you do not have to go out in it, break your back shoveling to go out in it etc and if you live somewhere where they know how to deal with it. When I was in college in upstate New York we went to classes by holding on to ropes that were suspended from one building to another,and weighed our back packs down with bricks and books so we wouldn't be blown away into snow drifts. They did not cancel classes. Here, the mere whisper of the "s" word sends people flocking to the grocery store for bread and milk and schools are let out early. Sometimes I think the weather people, the media, and the grocery stores are in "cahoots" with each other. So, while this last snow was more than a whisper, and it came down very hard and fast, it was a royal pain in my you know what. Ok. Enough of my whining. I am working my way up to putting my house on the market so am doing a lot of downsizing and packing. The majority of my boxes will say "studio." I am moving to a much smaller place but a studio I will have- in place of a living room and dining room. I mean, who needs that when you've already had that. It is more important to me to have a place to come home to where I can make happy messes. Something new to share- a kind of continuation of work in my last post. I seem to be very drawn to this watercolor and collage thing. For those of you who follow me on Instagram, sorry for the repeat. Got to get back to my packing. Wishing you a peaceful and creative weekend. I'm going to make a quick stop at Paint Party Friday since I can't seem to stay awake long enough on a Friday night to post much lately. I wonder if we could do a hash tag for Paint Party Friday on Instagram. Anyone thought of doing that? 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.

Altered Deck of Cards

Thank you to the kind "welcome back" committee. I often worry how long people will stick around if one lapses in blogging. I tend to feel guilty when I've gone this long. Sometimes one just never knows how long one might be gone. Yesterday I showed you the first few cards of my altered deck of cards. Here are a few more. More to show you tomorrow. Thanks for dropping by and for sticking with me. I hope you are well. I am off to spend a few more last hours with my Mom who is leaving the city tomorrow morning to begin a new chapter in her life.

No Longer an Android

So I made this little mini book on cheapo water color paper, although I think it's really cheapo mixed media paper. Good way to use up scraps. I realize as I am uploading these pictures to this post that I have taken pictures of the book upside down. Two weeks ago I inherited my daughter's boyfriend's Iphone 5 since he has upgraded to a newer one. I was just too tickled because now I have also begun to post on Instagram. Imagine. I recently had to buy a new printer, and then a new computer and now I have a new phone. So much new technology!! The phone was a wonderful gift and daughter and boyfriend Reggie have been wonderfully supportive and patient with my numerous questions regarding the phone and posting to instagram. It has taken me nearly 1 1/2 hrs between photographing and posting to instagram and this blog I am going to watch a 'Bones'episode before it is time for me to hurry up and sleep. I hope you are well. Thanks for visiting. And if you go here you can see a lo of cool stuff.

A Little House for a New House

I had lunch with my Mom the weekend after Mother's Day weekend. It was just too crazy with graduation stuff. I made some home made wrapping paper. Had some fun with home made stencils and some stamps and then I took the little wooden house that I made and wrapped it up with bling because my mother loves bling. I think the gold ribbon looks awesome with the colors in the wrapping paper. I hadn't realized how long ago I had made these little wooden houses which you can see here. I actually used one of these and one of these I was pretty tickled with myself. At one time I had posted them in my once upon a time Etsy shop and they have since sat in a box waiting for good homes. Not only does Mom like bling she really loves art with buildings and houses etc and since she is moving to a new house pretty soon I thought this would be nice to hang in her new home. She loved it!! Thanks for stopping by.

Something New

Yesterday I told you about making Valentines for ourselves in my mixed media class at my local AC Moore craft store. You can read about it here. I took this and after a lot of persistence and patience I was able to get it in to this. This is a very cheap embroidery hoop. $1.99 cheap. I'm surprised it did not snap. Brown paper is not thin. I will finish the canvas and paint the hoop black. And you can use different sizes. Instant framing. How cool it that?! I'll show you when I'm finished. Thanks for visiting.

Be Nobody But Yourself

I am continuing to play in this Moleskine Journal, sometimes in the car in the morning before work. If I have laid down some gesso in the background at home, I can spread some color on with some water color crayons with a water brush or a baby wipe in the front seat of the car. Baby wipes are great for spreading larger surfaces quickly. When that baby wipe is full of color and when it dries I can also use that somewhere. I begin some journaling and eventually something will come to me that I want to collage. I find myself still drawn to using faces in my journaling, so this one came out of altering a face from a fashion magazine and the gown came from yet another magazine. I love recreating an entire new character. Call it my love of costume design in college or making paper dolls as a child. Maybe both. Day by day along with some brief journaling, a bit more drawing with watercolor crayons, doodling with paint markers and the page is full. I like it. And I am a firm believer that one should always be oneself all the time, not only in art. I am joining the party. You are invited!! Thanks for stopping by. Happy New Year!!

Happy Paint Party Friday

I am continuing to journal in the car in the mornings before work. Yes, I am crazy with my in-the-car- art bag which right now contains the Moleskine journal, a plastic box with Neocolor water color crayons, a water brush. a glue stick, scissors, an an assortment of paper for collaging. I can easily lay down some color on a page or two and leave it on the front seat to dry. A woman's got her art on when she can and I do it best first thing in the morning and since I have to get to work early in order to get a decent parking spot, why not have art with my coffee before work? It makes it easier for me to start my work day... It's been a heckova work week. I'm so glad it's Friday. I'm going to visit Paint Party Friday since I've not been there for a couple of weeks. I hope your week has been ok. Thanks for stopping in.

It's Coming Together

I had an awesome time on Saturday with three wonderful, creative women at my mixed media class at my local arts and crafts store. We've been working on a large piece together, a group collaboration for the last several weeks. I've seen growth. I've seen us begin to loosen up, to not be so critical, and have fun creating together. Check out how this is blossoming.There's a lot happening. Here's my daughter Liza, getting a panoramic view for us. And she got a great panoramic view. Stay tuned for more on this group collaboration. I'm proud of them. Thanks for all your comments on my last post. Hope you had a peaceful, creative weekend. Thanks for visiting.

Art On A Tile

A couple of posts ago I showed you this. I collaged strips of painted deli paper and then doodled with paint markers to finish it off. I did another one this weekend and tried my best to document the process. The photography is mostly done in the evening so the lighting is not great but ok. These tiles are ones that were left in a closet when I moved in to my house about 10 yrs ago. I first coated them with gesso because of the tile being very glossy. I gathered pieces of deli paper that I had done on the gelli plate and started playing, tearing and glued them down with matte medium. Until I arrived at this. I don't like this one nearly as much as the first one, I think because the paper is not distressed enough. It doesn't have that blended look. It's not what I was after but it's what I ended up with. Still was fun. I think I will try painting more on the tile first and then perhaps add some collage. I've got about 10-12 more tiles to play with. It's nearly time to start collaging the pumpkins. Thanks for stopping by.

Gelli and Deli Printing

So I've been having fun with more printing on the Gelli plate on plain card stock and deli paper. It's very easy to get on a roll with this process. I have no problem creating big piles of prints. I am using some of them on the inside page of the journals I have made for my art journaling workshops at AC Moore, and some for collage in my own journals. I love how some of them really look on deli paper. Some journals for the workshop. I think I may have a few more people for this Saturday's workshop than previously. I'm excited and hope to be able to show you some pictures next time. Here's using the deli paper on my journal page. Hope you're having a good week. Thanks for visiting.................