My Busy Day

We have had a lot of excitement here lately, because the street in front of our house is being torn up to replace water lines. Lots of noise, banging, holes in the grass, but thankfully we don't live across the street. . .

The hole in our lawn . .

Enough distractions. I stayed away all morning, and worked on my classroom stuff all afternoon. It's creative too, really!




OK, so the evening was in my Art Room. The new colors for this month for my Color postcard Group is . . .Red/Orange/Pink. I KNOW! What a combination! I will do my best. Thought black would look good in there too. So I did get a start on these. Tomorrow and over the next few days i can scan these when the paint has all dried.

The orange looks yellow in this photo

These will look better when I am able to scan them - you'll see!

Update on the AB - yesterday I used Matte Gel Medium on the edges to hold it together -don't do it! It did hold things together, but it's very heavy and plastic-y, and when I pulled some of it off it took the paint with it. I know Beth Cote said what to use, I'll just have to look it up! Luckily the page is not ruined however, just not as nice as i want it to be. I think I might put a border around the whole thing, either black or deep purple. I'll keep you posted!

Thursday-almost didn't make it!

I almost didn't make into my art room today. I worked all morning on my classroom sewing, making little cloths and a pouch for objects, then out to lunch with Mom, then to the gym, home, dinner, bath, thinking of excuses not to go into the Art Room - can't think of what to do - maybe missing one day won't hurt - I'm sure you know all the excuses!! But I did go, and I started by filling up the hole in my AB with lavender. One of my children at school gave me some lavender bath salts she had made. Bath salts with bits of real lavender. I tried some in my bath, then stopped sprinkling when I realized I couldn't use little bits that could jam up the jets in the tub!! So what I did instead was pick out a bunch of those bits and put them in my fragrance niche. Smells very nice!



Then I needed to glue all those pages together. I decided to try Matte Gel Medium and painted it all around the edges, then clamped it together to dry. I will report tomorrow to tell you if it worked.



The last thing I did was some Thank You cards. I had told myself I needed to make a bunch of these to keep handy next year. I always need Thank You cards! I really liked the Moo card I made yesterday, so I adapted it to a Thank You card, and made 3 of them.



That's it! At least I DID make into the art room! Now I'm off to watch So You Think YouCan Dance!

Wednesday ATC's (and some Moos)

Well, I spent this afternoon making ATC's from all the backgrounds I made yesterday. I was completely uninspired, so I did the gold edges first. I had been flipping through an ATC book last night, so I tried to remember some of the ideas, and then everything just flowed! So here they are:

"Going Crazy"

"Ooh La La"

"Paris"

"Golden Tile"

"Secrets"

"Scheherazade"

All images (Secrets, Scheherazade, Going Crazy and Ooh La La) are from Altered Pages.

The next thing to make was the new Moo Challenge at Make a Moo or Two
The theme was Black and White, and I did make 2!

See you tomorrow!

Monday and Tuesday

Got new batteries! Now I can show you what I was doing yesterday:

I cut a one inch square niche because I thought a page about fragrance should have a smell. My thoughts are to put some lavender buds in here.

I painted the hole. I'm going to put a netting over the hole to hold in the lavender and so the smell can escape. I hope it works!

And this is what I did today:

I played with my stencil! This is the same stencil I used for the crayon rubbing 4X4.

I used it on my new journal page. the 4 outside pieces looked like birds when i started tracing around them, so I gave them eyes! I love how this turned out. Like the Bandanna technique by Tim Holtz! The dots along the V are raised. I guess I'm in a dot stage - I've been using them a lot!

I was looking at a lot of Challenge Blogs this morning, and I came across this background technique blog. So I thought I'd give it a try, it's a tissue paper technique that I've done before, but it's always fun to play! She has several other background techniques to try as well.


After cutting the page into ATC sizes I did some doctoring. I used Memories Mist, some cat's eyes, some distress inks, and acrylic paint. I'll make ATC's from them tomorrow.

And last but not least, I made my first ever Moo Card. these things are tiny! I used the challenge at this site. A Moo Card is 2.8 x 7 cm. The theme was Asian, and next weeks theme is birds, so I did them both!



The rooster is covered with Dimensional Magic, a very clear glue that gives it a raised effect.

See you tomorrow!

Dead Batteries

Yes I did do some art today, but the batteries in my camera died! So I'll have to show you tomorrow. But I have finished my journal page, and have started on my next page. Also worked on the Dictionary Altered Book, figured if the page was about fragrance, I should have some, so I'm making a niche to put some lavender in, so the page will smell like lavender! This is my first niche! Will have to go and find some lavender tomorrow.

Saturday & Sunday

I did work both days, but not a lot. I worked in my journal, I rediscovered an altered book I started last year, and I worked in the altered dictionary. Saturday night DH and I went on a date night out - lovely! Dinner at a very nice steak house, then to see Les Miserables at a local theatre. So not much time to post!

This was Saturdays work - putting these images onto the page. I often stamp the image onto tissue paper first, then I can reposition it anywhere I want. I stick it down with the same stuff I use for my journal. It does dry shiny, as you can see, but when looking it the page as a whole it's OK. You can also see the second image at the top of the page.


This is the book I've rediscovered. It started as a children's book. Each of those squares in yellow turn to reveal a new picture. I'll show you again later. There are 3 themes to this book. I covered these pages in paper.




This is what I did today for the altered dictionary. I'm almost done, just one more thing to add. The flower images were added the same way as the others, but I colored them with colored pencil first.
See you tomorrow!

Happy Fourth to my US Friends!

Hope everyone is having a Happy 4th of July today! Our holiday was on Tuesday, Canada Day, and that's when I broke a tooth and had to have it extracted. Great day! Hope yours turns out better!

Here's what I did today:

Finished my 4X4


Worked on my Journal:



Using watercolour pencils I sometimes trace around the edges of the images just to accent them, and I draw the lines. Then I go over the lines in white to tone them down. I decided to use white gel pen to write.



And worked in a friends Altered Dictionary:



The picture is not stuck down, just sitting there so I can think about it. It sitting on top of some of the words. The dictionary word I chose was "fragrance" This page is just started, not finished. Perhaps I will finish it tomorrow.

I Look at Some Online Challenges

So, today I was wondering what I would do, since I had completed the things I needed to do. I worked on my Journal, adding some magazine cut-outs. I was looking for interesting images with colors that would go with what I had, nothing more. I found a few and added them. I glue these down with Liquitex Glazing Medium. It's liquidy, paints on smoothly with a brush, then I go over top of the image as well, like decoupage.

Below is the box of magazine cut-outs I keep. Just anything that catches my fancy!

As I was wondering what to do next, I remembered all the Challenge Blogs that I look at each week, and say "I don't have the time. . ." Well, now I do! So I chose 2 challenges to do in one -GPP Street Team (my fav) and 4X4 Friday. GPP Street team is doing stencils, very cool technique, using a crayon, rub the stencil with paper over top, then paint over with acrylic paint, spritz with water, and gently rub off. Easy! 4X4 wanted an orange and yellow color palette, so this is what I came up with:



But, it's not finished yet. I will leave it until tomorrow and we'll see what I come up with to finish it, if anything. (Image from Altered Pages)

So that's it for today!

The Big Clean-Up!

Well, to do art everyday, you need somewhere to do it! So first I had to transform this:



Into this:



OK, so now I'm ready. I'm going to make a new journal page. Several people like the idea of making a journal, but don't know where to start. First, go to the Dollar Store and buy a composition book. They are fairly thick, with lined pages and a hard cover.

Make sure you have some cheap acrylic paint on hand, choose a colour, and paint. I chose blue. Then the the other colour left on my table was Kiwi green, so I sponged the edges in Kiwi. Yuk. It was a horrible combo. So, I taped up a border, and painted black inside over the blue.



Much better, not so much blue.



Now what? the green edge needed a border print, so I went to my leaves and found this little stamp which I stamped all around.



That's it for now! I usually let things sit so I can look at them again, see what else I might add from my drawer full of cut-outs from magazines. I'll probably do some more cutting tonight while watching "So You Think You Can Dance"! I also often move right on to the next page and add colour to it and a few after that too.



This is a mingle 4X4 I made for my ByHand Yahoo Group, it's for our "Yalpha Mingle", due early June, obviously late, but not forgotten! I needed to choose a letter, then illustrate it. there are words on the back that all start with "M". The background is from a magazine, the "M" was cut out of white CS after I stamped a map onto it. I edged the M in red paper, and edged the whole thing in red. The back has the word "Map" in red, then lots of red Ms with black words that started with M: Music Marsh Man, etc

So that's it for this post! See you tomorrow!

July's Challenge

Finally, it's July, and there is no school to go to everyday, and I won't be exhausted at 8pm every night! Should be a time for rejoicing and finally getting onto my Art Room! But, alas, as happens EVERY year, it is a time of sadness (somethings missing), depression ("don't know what to do" she whines), and a creative block, as I sit at my chair in my art room,look around, and say "maybe I should sell all this stuff". BUT - it doesn't usually last for long. There was a challenge on my Altered Books Yahoo group to do some art, anything, everyday in July. So I am up for that challenge, and I'm declaring it today, July 1, (Happy Canada Day BTW!!), that I will do some art everyday in July and (try to) post everyday in July to show what I've done. I actually have made a list of things I want to do everyday this summer:

1-ART
2-JOURNAL
3-READ
4-PLAY PIANO
5-FLYLADY
6-MAKE MATERIALS FOR MY CLASSROOM

With Art at the top, it will be the first thing I do everyday, even if nothing else gets done!

So, to start, here is another (yes, this is REALLY my last one) violet and lime postcard:

It's hard to tell with the scan, but all the little dots are raised silver dots. I love this stuff!

I haven't posted any journal pages for awhile, so here are my last several pages:

The white piece on the right is a piece that Wanda sent , embossed using the same stencil she used for the ATC on the left. I know you can't see it, but it's there!

Not one of my favourite pages!

I love the colours on this page

This page was fun, I took a face from a magazine page and painted over it! The pink thing hanging down is Ron's hospital band.

Using my new Paper Artsy stamps! Also, using the colors from my new Color Postcards group -Salmon and Turquoise

again, using June's colors this time from my Colors Postcard Group -Violet and Lime. The dots are gold raised dots. like on my postcards.

So, there is my June 1st post. Don't expect this much everyday!! I will try to also post my Journal Pages this month as I finish each one.

Last one

This last postcard is for my dd. I sent it as a surprise, and it got lost in her deep dark mailbox. I had to reveal the surprise so she would go and look for it in her mailbox!

More Lime and Violet

Here are a few more Violet and Lime postcards for my color postcards group!

I've Been Tagged!

Valerie, from Val's Altered HeART Journey has tagged me! I feel honored! She has changed the tagging rules a little bit, now we only have to list 3 (instead of 6) things about ourselves, and tag 3 (instead of 6) more people. Should be easy enough!

So, 3 things about myself that people might not know. . .

1- I am a stamper at heart (you may have guessed that one) I literally have more than 1000 stamps, and I try to use them whenever I can!

2- I have 2 cats, one white and one orange. The white cat had an infection in her ear last year and now it's folded in. it makes her look evil. But wait - she IS evil! We call her the evil cat because just as you are petting her, and she is purring -ZAP- she gets you. The orange cat is twice her size, but a few years younger. She had an encounter with a full grown fox the other day. Here she is, waiting for the birds to be thirsty:



3- my mother is a visionary artist. She actually paints! If you click here you can see her wonderful art! I must get my artistic streak from her!

Here are the 3 people I tag:
1-Ingrid Dijikers Ingrid is one of my all time favorite artists. I LOVE her work, especially her journals and books! I hope she's not too busy. . .

2-Pattio She has just made herself a new wonderful studio -have a peek!

3-Kelly Burton Kelly and I go WAY back to when I first started stamping! She was awesome then and she's awesome now!

So, I hope my choices aren't too upset with me! And thanks Val, 3 is so much better than 6!

Violet and Lime Green

Here we are, I've begun making my violet and lime green cards. Now my violet seems a bit dark, is violet lighter than this? Don't know. Maybe I'll try a few with a lighter, lavender color.

The transparency is from Altered Pages

I am using my coasters that I bought last spring for my postcard base. The coasters are all different sizes and shapes, which gives me a lot of creative ideas to work with! The coasters are perfect for traveling "naked" through the mail!