Birthday Present

This I made for one of my best friend's birthday...she was turning the big 30! And she liked it! I am so glad. Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

Deconstruct Big Picture

2 pieces

Lost
This is a lost wish to me...it looks lost, worn, tired, hopeless... if you look real closely you can see how the wish was under the lost but then I cover it up...the wish lost.


Wish
And this is where the wish found inside...her mind and in her heart. She is bright, hopeful, fresh and awake

Flight

Clicking on image will take you to a bigger view of it. It is a 5 x 7 - bristol paper painted with black and then orange and brown. Collage elements from various ephemera...cancelled stamp, mulburry paper, flight cut from dictionary, paint chip paper, butterflies cut from stationary, scrap paper, map and bead.

Series of 3

Here is a series of 3 I made recently. I think framing into one horizontal piece would look good. They are a little darker pieces but I like them. These will be hard to give up.

Into the Sun

This ATC is for a themed trade. I hadn't done a themed trade in a while and I have to say right now it was hard. I didn't feel like I could just create. It felt stiff and forced. But I am sure I should keep trying them as I think it is good practice for me to think and use maybe skills that are umm dusty!



Battery Powered Sun

A Card...

Made this card last night....



The card base itself is handmade paper that is purple with silver specks in it. I love these cards and should have picked up more when I had the chance as I am not even sure I know who makes them now as it was several years ago when I bought them. I need to start looking for a source for plain cards like this one.

Alone

Alone

The image under the mesh is really hard to see in this photo but her face is visible in person. And the rest of the photo is very dark. But what I really like in is the plastic mesh. One thing I have found some companies that sell things like tape, tubing, paper, plastics and such will give free samples and the plastic mesh is from a free sample. Also at times I have contacted companies as those to see if they sell or give away their scraps.

Playing Around

tell me a story

Aspects I like of this card are the rubber stamped flower. It only shows a little bit of the flower. And then the tag. It was just the start of using tags.

play

I had a piece of cardboard from a box that some free samples came in. I really liked how the acrylic paint went on to the cardboard so I used it for several pieces including a few atc's. I had some little pieces left over and glued them together to get one more base for an atc.

Art & Me

My artistic passion started out when I was a little girl. I remember taking a lined piece of loose-leaf paper and a stubby pencil (or whatever I could get my hands on) and just started to express myself with lines and other scribbles. It was not just a way to pass the time, I enjoyed it. And that passion never changed. If anything, it has only deepened over the years.

Art emerges from the moment. Sometimes it has a conscious symbolic meaning, other times it's an unconscious expression; by just letting my brush, my pencil become an extension of emotion onto a piece of canvas or piece of paper. Sometimes it becomes a beautiful surprise or an unexpected discovery. My work becomes a physical manifestation of what is happening in my life at the precise moment of time. It becomes the emotion, the conscious and unconscious collaboration of dreams, visions and the spirituality of where I am in my life at that moment. Art is my voice and expression of what I am thinking or feeling.

I relish in creating my works from mixed media because it reflects how diverse I lead my life. From paintings using acrylics, to altering seemingly benign everyday objects, to creating collages that encompass several elements of different origins, different meanings, and different compositions. When I create, and when it all clicks into place, it feels like the rest of the world dissolves away leaving the only thing in front of me: the artwork that I'm communicating through. Art is a life-long process, evolving alongside everyday life. Art is my definition of where I am and what I'm feeling. Art is color, texture, and movement. It's about creation, an absorption of time, passion and life...Art.

subtleties

beauty in subtleties

I sometimes have cardstock, watercolor paper or bristol board layered on my work table. So when I paint something, I paint right on top of it. Sometimes the paint overlaps to those under layers. After a few project they turn out to be very interseting - the colors and textures. Both the pieces in this ATC were cut from those papers.

ATC - Telling Secrets

Growing up I always watched old movies. So seeing these photos of old silent screen "looking" stars reminded me of being snuggled up on the couch watching old movies on weekends.

Telling Secrets

For ATC Show

There are 5 ATC's that I submited for an ATC Exhibit: House of Cards at European Papers.


Warmer


Torn and Blue

Unexpected Surprises

Orange Postage

Dreamed of Spectacular

Abstract Landscape

Supplies used: Cardboard with acrylic paint and then I sprayed water from a bottle after each layer of paint so it created drips.

I use a water spry bottle for a lot of my work because it just creates a really interesting texture.

Unearth

In the last entry I talked about how I am into pieces looking like they were unearthed from an archeology dig well this one I thought of a time capsule unearthed. And in was the photo of the gentlemen and the bull, a map, some words like they were from a letter - so some stamps.

Also when I created this I had someone in mind, a fellow artist I admire and right away when I posted it he dropped me an email saying he LOVED it. So I traded with him.

Unearth

ATC - Nine Four India

Nine Four India

The base is cardboard painted white. I glued down a piece of map, some number and then tackcloth and then some brown dry brushed on it. I sanded some of the paint off after it dried.

The tackcloth I purchased at Home Depot and got 2 fairly large pieces for a dollar.

Right now I am going through this period where I want everything to look like I have just digged it up from an archeolgy dig. I want it to look like it has dirt hanging off of it. And that it has some history.

3 More ATC's - Recycling

The challenge for the swaps was that the card had to be used from ads or junk mail - at least 75% of the card using recycled materials.

The 1st card again uses a xerox copy but for the base. The paper in some junk mail was a little to shiny for me so I just scanned it and then photoshoped it with some grunge texture on top and printed. But then the rest of it is from ads and junk mail.

The 2nd card bases had an ad on it for an expensive jewerly store but the texture and heaviness of the paper was great. So I just ripped it up and used as it not painting over it or worrying about where the words on it ended up. It just was a nice paper to touch. The butterfly is rubber stamp but the paper again from the background of add. Often they will have one little object/product on an ad and pretty textures and colors in the background. So I used the orange paper to stamp on. I had to use opaque ink to get it to stick and then used my heat gun to set it.

The 3rd was completely made out of recycled materials.

Also the actual base that I glued the 1st and 3rd card on were a heavy booklet we got in the mail about insurance. It was a heavier cardstock so I just cut them to size and glued on top of them.

Vases

Dreams

Storyteller

Warm and Worn

In the last blog post I talked about using sandpaper. I think these 3 cards show that worn and old look you can get from sandpaper.

MidWest
Supplies used: Magazine clippings, cancelled stamps, brads and rubber stamps. Then sanded down to look slightly worn.


Travel
Supplies used: Magazine clipping used for base and sanded to again look worn. Stickers (stamps and coins) and then metal brads.


Girl
Used: Magazine clipping for base that was sanded. Beads sewn on base. Rubber stamp watercolored and pressed watercolor paper. I wanted kind of a fuzzy underwater look so slightly rocked the rubber stamp.

2 ATC's - 2 Techniques

Allergy Season

I painted the base of this atc that is made out of heavy cardboard and then glued pieces from Junk Mail on it. At the time I was suffering from allergies bad so hence the subject matter.

After everything was glued on it, I used sandpaper over it all...the images, the base and the edges. I just wanted a scratchy appearance since I always feel itchy during allergies. But really this is a great technique to use when you want an aged look. And that is what I use it for the most.

Supplies used: Cardboard, acrylic paint, ephemera from junk mail, gel medium (for glue) and sandpaper


Life in a Jar

In the last blog entry I talked about using salt with watercolors this base I used alcohol with watercolors. It makes a very bubbly like appearance.

Supplies used: watercolor base using alcohol, silver pen (for edge of card), ephemera from junk mail

Here is a tutorial on using alcohol with watercolors. It is a lot of fun using both alcohol and salt.

Watercolor Bases: Salt

Purple Postage
Compassionate

When I lived in Omaha, years and years ago, I took a watercolor class at Mangelsen's. And one of the lessons was using salt with watercolors. I like to make bases for collages and atc's out using this technique.

2 links of How-To use salt with watercolors
Watercolor Techniques
Michael's Arts and Crafts Projects

The Little Princess

Little Princess 1

This card is one of my favorites because the quote is from The Little Princess which is a favorite book of mine as a child and actually one I would like to read again as an adult. The little girl in the image just reminds me of someone that would twirl in her new dress with a dolly under her arm. And so it made me think of The Little Princess.

This card was a series of cards I did all with The Little Princess quotes and all with the girl on this image but each different in look and quotes.

Background is just blue acrylic paint dry brushed on to bristol board. The little girl is from photo I have but she is a xerox copy. I have paint pens and they are kind of fun press on the tip a certain way and the paint soaks into them. And then they write/paint onto whatever. I have them in metallics and that is how her dress is done and also the background swirls. The quote was just laser printed in Rina font.

Supplies used: bristol board with dry brushed acrylic paint, silver and gold paint pens, quote printed on laser printer, xerox copy of photo