Create It Forward yesterday.
It is a mixed media piece from Jacqueline Bequette aka Spiral Bettie.
I love it's sense of flow and the message in the background.
Even Himself said he also liked the sewing around the sides!
The circles are actually bluer than they are showing here, I guess the scanner didn't want to play blue today!
Thank you very much, Jacqueline. You added joy to MY world!!
but can't post them, as they are for the Create it Forward folks!
Really been having fun with these.
Have to work on them in bit and pieces, as we are hot and heavy working on kitchen and upstairs and outside.
Yesterday I sanded and put the first coat of paint on an old pine bench we had on the back porch. Thought I'd throw some pillows on it and bring it into the kitchen. New life for an old thing!
Today I'm off to the Daughter's to meet with her and maid of honor who is helping me host bridal shower. We are going to do all that fun bridal shower planning and probably have a gab fest! Fun stuff!!
My son absolutely lives, eats and talks non stop movies.
The other day some one told him about a DeLorean sitting in a car lot in another part of town.
So he and his wife (not too long suffering...she shares his love of movies!) drove over there to check it out.
The DeLorean was actually for sale in a car lot.
So while wife drove slowly by, son took a pic.
This he posted promptly on Facebook.
I then co-opted it and had a little fun.
I had an old photo of son in Star Wars outfit he had made (told you he loved movies).
Then I added in a concrete background and a train.
Here is the result of that short digital darkroom time!
Enjoy, popcorn crunching son of mine!
Here at Joanna's Art Journal Moss Hill Studio
There has been some good news in that they got a year of Medical coverage. But they still are going to need help, if it is anything like normal insurance. And not to mention regular things like gas to go back and forth and meals out when Joanna is up at the hospital. All the little things add up.
But anyway, give a little on the side Chip In and go over to JoAnna's blog to keep updated. It's a really Good Thing!
In Which Blue Guy Gets a New Bed
So Blue Guy was lying around the other day, and the day before that, and the day after that.
And He decided he needed some place soft to lie down. The top of the desk and studio table were just NOT cutting it any more.
He fairly demanded a bed be made for him.
After much Googling, a paper pattern was found, printed, colored, cut, glued, and there you have it: a Blue Guy Bed.
Then, he hopped over to the scraps that are so conveniently located at table height, and just a leap away.
Blue Guy picked out two fabrics, that seemed to suit his shining personality to a tee:
blue hats and canes for those times when he's dreaming of being out and about;
and a reverse side of stars (some blue) on a red background to match his beautiful red lips!
All sewn up and stuffed so high. Blue Guy is King of his dreams!
Just type disintegration collaboration into Google and
click on Images.
This is a fun way to see what looks to be all (?) of
the participants' bundles in one go.
Thank you Oh Great Google!
I live on 45 glorious acres filled with woods creeks, grass, birds, animals and sky.
I love watching the seasons emerge grow and fade.
I appreciate every bird song, every deer sighting, and every flower blooming as if it were the first.
Earth Day is every Day.
Don't forget, you can click the picture to see it larger!
Thanks go to Elizabeth Golden over at The Last Door Down the Hall for the image of the postcard and the girl. The background is from a collage I'm working on that I painted. the rest is brushes except for the globe which was a black & white image that I painted in Photoshop.
Back to Kitchen and now dining room stuff.
I wouldn't normally do this.
BUT.
And this is a big but, this strikes close and hard for me.
I was reading my emails pleasatly today, catching up from not reading them yesterday when...
WHAM.
I read:
*****************************************************************
Keep up to date with Ron & JoAnnA from her blog Mosshill Studio
http://mosshill.blogs.com/
JoAnnA writes..... Ron's neurologist explained to us, as we viewed his MRI scans, that this tumor is massive, compressing the brain stem and 4th ventricle. Ventricles in our brain carries the CSF Fluid. That is my understanding. This is what the doctor said: Ron needs immediate surgery. He has maybe a month to live before the ventricle would be cut off and he would die.
Ron's doctor wants him to have his surgery in San Francisco. If Ron is not eligible for medical treatment, then he will not be able to have the surgery.
taken from the creative souls on ning.
*****************************************************************PLEASE.
I Know What A Brain Tumor Can Do.
I Know What A Brain Tumor Can Do To the life of the person dealing with it. And the person loving the person dealing with it.
I Know What A Brain Tumor Can Do to the finances of a family.
I Know What Little We Can Do is big in the eyes of the people dealing with a Brain Tumor.
Please, do a little, and help JoAnna and Ron through this time of what can only be described as unreality for them.
Spent all of yesterday cleaning sawdust off of kitchen things and putting them away in my:
(say it like the guy on a game show) Brand New Kitchen!
Alright, minus the dishwasher, sink, stove, countertop. Detail, details.
Plus, I am having to finally pair down and get rid of a lot of things. I have so many I just don't really use.
And I found some cool pieces that had been stuffed way back in drawers that I had totally forgotten I even owned!
And the good news is: I get to do it again today!
Yes that's right, there's more. More kitchen stuff, and then the dining room to tackle.
This is total purge time baby!
It's now or never.
I want a leaner cleaner house.
My studio may be full, but the rest of the house will be cruising on the half way mark!
Off I go now. Guess art is on the back burner for a few days. Drat!
Hah! I said back burner... Kitchen, get it?
Oh well, Blue Guy is grinning.
Today's digital collage is about taking chances. it's based on two different peoples' blogs.
Judy Wise wrote yesterday about the "value of self discovery through self portraiture".
And today, Elizabeth Golden over at The Last Door Down the Hall had some marvelous vintage freebies to celebrate her year of blogging.
I combined the two and came up with the following:
The chances I was talking about are putting a self portrait out there, even a modified-in-photoshop one. I really don't like looking at myself, and not for the usual age reasons. Aging is a natural part of life, consider the alternative! No, it's all tangled up with my sense of self since my brain tumor surgery almost 11 years ago. I'd look in the mirror, or at a picture of myself and it didn't feel like me. So I just stopped looking. Now, for the past year, I've been looking! Still not the same person, but a different one I've come to terms. My past that I'm building on is a very rocky and disjointed one, but I'm still trying to build on it, because my future seems very bright!
Thanks go to Judy and Elizabeth for giving me the tools to jump start this conversation with myself, and make this collage.
In Which Blue Guy Gets a New Back
So Blue Guy was getting embarrassed to go out in public with the state of his, shall we say rear.
No we'll say back!
It had been left in an unfinished state as requested by me.
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the little fellow at the time I won him.
Little did I know what was to come!
So he kept hurtling himself over to the material that had yet to be folded and stacked, and I finally got the message.
I let him pick out the fabric, and thought he did a bang up job of it, couldn't have done better myself. But gosh he took a long time.
Then the trouble started. I threaded the needle and started to come at the back of Blue Guy with it and you should have seen him grimace!
I tried to give him pills, but that was a failure, he refused to open his mouth!
Then I had a brilliant plan...acupuncture!
That seemed to go over just fine with him, as you can tell by the sort of dazed grin on his face.
Then it was time for the surgery.
By the look on Blue Guy's face he is in some far off bead meadow, frolicking with all the other bead boys and girls!
He is obviously NOT feeling a thing!!
Before he knew it, the surgery was over, and it was a success.
Here is Blue Guy's brand new back side!
See, I told you Blue Guy picked out some cool fabric!
As always, Blue Guy and I thank Shirley Ende-Saxe over at In the Name of Art for the joy of having Blue Guy here.
Now we return you to your regularly scheduled art.
The Create it Forward spots are all filled now, sorry.
But if you look around the web, (use quotes) there are lots of them happening!
This is one of those happy spreading sort of things, like flowers on a vine!
Ever onward, folks!
Thought I'd quickly tell you:
Though it says 5 comments, there is still room for one more.
So jump on down to the comments section and sign up!
It's load of fun and spreading like crazy around the web.
Seth over at The Altered Page reminded us this morning that May 1 is The Big Reveal of our Disintegration Collaboration.
And that's only two weeks away!
So be sure to set your calendars for coming over here and seeing what happens.
Then you'll want to take a trip around the world, as there are now 120 world wide members of this interesting art process, and see the whole Disintegration Collaboration.
You'll probably have to do it in chunks of time, like any decent trip! You know savor things along the way, get lost in the scenery!
Seth finally announced the second part of the project, but as I haven't seen him post it yet, I'll wait to say it here.
I will say it's fun and exciting!
Gotta run, things to do, people to see!
Have an art filled day.
Blue Guy says "HI!"
Over at The Last Door Down the Hall, Elizabeth has been giving away more vintage photo freebies. This seems to be a regular occurrence, so you might want to be a follower on her blog!
Anywho, I decided this morning since I had a cat warming my lap I would use one of her latest freebies in a digital collage. (Or is it digital montage? I wish I really knew the difference. Sometimes I think it's montage for sure, but everyone calls it collage, so it's easier just to use that. Oh well, where was I?) Here is the digital collage I did:
She Waits is a pretty simple collage made with only a few layers. I started out adjusting the original photo in camera raw in Photoshop CS3. Then I used the notebook filter to giver her a stone look. I added a shadow to a brush for the leaves in front on a separate layer. The back is a photo of petunias from our garden last year that I adjusted in camera raw and then overlaid on the girl. I finished with a gradient of dark yellows over all and the title.
I wanted to keep this simple and let her eyes and stone figure tell the story.
Thanks, Elizabeth, for another fabulous freebie!
Brave People Make Things so get excited and make things....
The first five (5) people to respond to this post will get something made by me.
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:
1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. Whatcha get is whatcha get.
2. What I create will be just for you, with love.
3. It'll be done this year (2009).
4. I will not give you any clue what it's going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. Or it may be monstrous and annoying. Heck, I might bake something for you and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5. I reserve the right to do something strange.
6. In return, all you need to do is post this text on your blog and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to blog.
7. Send your mailing address - after I contact you.
IMPORTANT: This offer is null and void if I do not see you post your own blog to pay this forward.
This text was used from www.thecreativejar.blogspot.com. and http://spiralbettie.blogspot.com/
Play nice and make things! It's going to be an adventure!
Blue Guy told me to tell you all about it.
First he met the youngest of the studio cats, Charlie. Charlie has been very needy of late, jumping in my lap every time I sit down. So Blue Guy decided to jump on her and introduce himself. She seemed quite pleased to meet him.
Blue Guy Meets Charlie the Found Arts Studio's littlest cat.
Then Blue Guy went on his first trip. Well his first outside the package trip!
Blue Guy is excited and sorta nervous...there are tornado warnings happening just over the ridge. What will the day bring?
Well first, since it's lunch time...it brings...
Blue Guy getting some pie maybe?!
Then after a filling meal, it was off to a wondrous land of strange sights. Blue guy was amazed at all he beheld.
He found these weird silver tunnels that he just had to explore. They led nowhere.
Finally,all the shopping was done, and everyone headed home as the sky poured down rain. Blue Guy hid in my pocket all the way home! Shaking just a little as we listened to the radio tell of a possible tornado siting just where we had been! Yikes!
Today, all was calm as Blue Guy decided to learn his way around Found Memories Art Studio and start helping out a bit while I worked on making a journal.
Blue Guy and I hope you have a very happy Easter or Spring Day tomorrow!
Shirley Ende-Saxe, over at In the Name of Art, sent me a most wonderful little fellow that I had won. He arrived today and was quite happy to be here.
The alternative was apparently quite dire, something about a park bench or such.
So He practically leaped out of the mailbox ready to run up the road to the house and start his new life!
As we walked up the road to the house he was jabbering to beat the band about snow and sleet and cold weather, but that he was pretty cozy wrapped up in some little pictures and popping stuff. But such a sunny day he came out of the package to!
But what was all that buzzing noise? Blue guy must investigate...
I told him it was just the bees going after the last of the red buds. Oooh, Look, They match me!!
He thought that was funny.
He looked around a bit more.
Then he thought it was time to go into his new home.
I believe Blue Guy and I are going to be quite happy together!
Thanks Shirley for this little beaded fun fellow.
we've all been waiting for...
The cabinets are here!!!
We've spent the last few days sanding the floor. And having the sander vacuum bag system break and sawdust is now literally all over the house. We couldn't just return it and get a new rental, as the place was an hour away. So we just kept sanding, sweeping and vacuuming; repeat. It was a bit of a nightmare. There really is a coating of fine sawdust everywhere. Yuck. Too hard to clean as there is still more sanding to come and the workmen are in and out right now.
That's the good news. The guy is putting our cabinets together. We picked out our sink and countertop yesterday. The countertop doesn't come for another 3 weeks. Yikes!
The floors will have to be finished sanding then polyed. Then we are gonna start putting stuff in the cabinets even without the counter top. We'll just cover over the tops with cardboard to keep dust out.
Oh so you want to see a picture of the cabinets? Okay here's the shot I took just this morning when they came:
Pretty, aren't they?!
Nope, the cabinet puter-together-guy had not yet come when I took this. And since then, I've been down here doing online searches for various things we need. (trying to find good prices, ya know)
But at least you can see the light pale yellow walls and the soft white trim and the ceiling painted already. (Everything used to be a dark gold yellow. With barn red cabinets.) And the back wall is the old log wall of the dining room. That stays the same. Why change something 200 years old?
Okay, enough for now.
I've been trying to work on my collage, but just not finding the time.
It was extremely strange weather we had here yesterday, by the by. Snow, sleet, rain and sunshine. Down below freezing this morning. Definitely a Dogwood winter.
Okay, so I got this camera, a Kodak Zi6 for a very early Mother's Day gift. I thought I'd try it out in the studio since that's one of the reason's I got it! I know, I need practice, but then all new things take time to learn. Hopefully I'll get better at this.
See Lisa, I was able to cut the paper up. But I'm not done yet.
Well, that's enough excitement for one day.
Plus Himself has the kitchen walls painted!!
Tomorrow he is getting a sander for the floor. Ugh, more dust. Everything is coated in a fine white film. Oh well, the outcome is worth it!
So I said stay tuned. And here it is. The next step for these deli paper squares. I gave them several light washes of liquid acrylics. Blotting in between with a rag. They underwent another step today, but that was just a few minutes ago, and they aren't dry enough for a picture. So once again, stay tuned!
There is a difference in color between the two, though slight. One (the left) is more greenish yellow.
I've been way busy working on a big collage that takes loads of thinking. The kind I even think about at night. I haven't had one of those in a long time!
Also still busy with yes I'm going to say it, kitchen stuff.
And trying to keep up with 6 cats. Seem we are keeping this last stray as an outside cat for now. I call it Pirate Kitty. It seems to have a problem with one of it's eyes so that's why the name. Also still having a problem with the dog who won't leave. No animal control in this county. Though I did try to call about it. We just keep chasing it off and it keeps coming back and terrorizing all our cats. Now they are scared of going out without an escort. Sort of like walking cats without leashes.
Here's a pic of the second oldest (white) and the baby. The white one doesn't usually get along with any of the other cats: he's mostly Siamese. But times are stressful right now.
While I was out I got a picture of the first cherry blossoms of this spring. They are so pretty, especially against the blue sky.
Of course, I was right about the weeding and the rain! Had quite the storm pass through last night. Luckily no damage.
Also been busy working with my daughter and her maid of honor on bridal shower plans! We're going to hold it outside here in the middle of May. Let's all keep our fingers crossed (when we're not arting) that we get the kitchen done, the weeds pulled, and the weather is great that day!!!
for collage purposes today. Not much I could do in the kitchen. Himself was moving a vent and we were both waiting for the electrician. Who is now coming tomorrow, of course. I did manage to get some weeding done out side. But it sure is hard to come close to keeping up with that. Every time I start, seems we get a good rain, and they pop up two fold!
Anyway here is the deli paper for collage I did:
The different thing I did is plain to see in the pic: I used StazOn ink instead of black gesso to do the stamping this time. I still put a layer of white gesso down first. It was a very thin layer this time, then I stamped with the Stone Gray. I would have used black, but I think my black is finally going dry after several years!
There were 2 reasons I used the StazOn: 1) Since we don't have a kitchen sink, I have to wash everything in our bathroom sink, what a hassle. 2)I wanted to see what would be the difference between gesso and ink in the long run. I'm a curious sort, don't always stick to the rules kind of person!
Stay tuned for the final results!
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