Diva Dresses

A few weeks ago I had a friend through PBS ask if I would make her some 5 x 7 wall hangings based on one of the designs I sell on my Etsy site. I came up with this clean simple design (so not my norm) and she loved it.

To make all the images the same I had to create a template which I traced onto each watercolor. So yes, they are the same, as close to the same as hand tracing can get.

The customer asked for Jewel tones, I hope I got close enough with the colors. I love jewel tones but obtaining the rich vibrant tones in watercolor proved to be very difficult.

I learned a lot about water coloring and image transferring on this project and now I have a ton of ideas. I will also be teaching the techniques I learned in my next art class.

A Bird Does Not Sing...

This week over at One Powerful Hour the theme is...

Silhouettes

I created this silhouette by tracing a bird shadow sticker and then cutting the inside out. Next I stippled black ink until I got the level of saturation I wanted. It was fun to create my very own shadow stamp (well kind of a stamp).

The face is a total coincidence. I placed my acrylic tag on a bird image, glued it and cut around the tag. When I placed the tag on the card it fit perfectly over the silhouetted crow.

This is the last week for the lottery portion of my Altered Pages Digital Collage Sheet Give away...go HERE to enter in this weeks give away.

Altered Pages Give Away Week 3 and Week 2 Winner

Hello again and Welcome to Week 3 of the fabulous Altered Pages Collage Sheet Giveaway!

Each week for the next 2 weeks you could win a digital collage image from Altered Pages of my choosing!

This week, week 3, I've selected the fabulous "From the Kitchen with Love" Collage Sheet. Let's face it food makes me happy and creating art involving food is just too much fun!

If you would like a chance to win this lovely digital collage sheet from Altered Pages please leave a comment with contact information (e-mail or blog address). You will be entered once, to be entered more than once do any or all of the following.
1. Tweet about it (please leave your tweet info)
2. Facebook (also leave facebook info)
3. Blog about it (leave a link to post and a link to my blog and this post)
4. Become a follower (already a follower, they you are already entered 2 times).

So if you do all the above you could be entered 5 times!

This giveaway ends Wednesday June 3rd 12 pm PT. Once I receive your contact information I'll forward the information onto Jackie at Altered Pages and she will send you your new fabulous Digital Collage Sheet!

Note...the 4th giveaway will go to the individual that does the most...over the past 3 weeks and will be announced next week!

Onto the Winner of Week 2....Drum roll please.....................................................the winner is...................
Peggy

Collage Teleclass

I just finished my very first Collage Teleclass and I loved it!

Sarah from Make Great Stuff and the brain behind the 20 minute club, asked a few of her R&D team members to beta test a teleclass for her and I was one of the lucky testers.

The class was about 2 hours long which to me was perfect. She started by explaining about the teleclass technology and then about how she would conduct the class. Then we were rolling.

I had 3 collage bases out but only got to work on two, I have discovered that I am slow...no big surprise there. We started by "getting rid of the white" which works well for me b/c I would not have liked anything if the background was white.

The two background options I went for were Tim Holtz distress inks stamped direct to paper and then blended by spraying water and acrylics put on the paper using a brayer. I was not happy with the Tim Holtz bakcground so I ripped up book print that I had used the Tim Holtz distressing inks on and glued them over the majority of the collage.

Sarah then gave us prompts they were:

Drip

Layer

"5"

Connect

Erase

Stamp

Text

For my top piece I dripped Alcohol ink Layered (I considered the book print a layer) the number 5 is a stencil that I traced on originally and painted green. Connect, I completed sentences between the book print all the way across the page. Erase, I did not like my green number 5 so I erased it by covering it with the stencil and painted it gold. Stamped the butterfly and added the word Free for the text.

For my second piece (which I do not like as much) I dripped wax layered with a collage image. The number 5 is represented by the 5 close pins. I connected the close pins with the bronze floss. for Erase I covered up the right hand side of the collage and i used gesso around the mini clothes pins I stamped some text on the right hand size and for text i used a few rub-ons.

I am very please with my top collage. Neither collage do I consider finished and I can't wait to get back in the studio and add to them.

If you ever get a chance to take one of Sarah's classes I highly recommend it. I learned a lot about myself and what I like about my art.

E.I.E.I.O

This week over at One Powerful Hour I've set the theme of

E.I.E.I.O...using farm animals in your art

This lovely image is a stamp that I received in one of the Fabulous Paual's Kit Club packages...if you are not a member you should be!

I stamped him on transparency and then colored him with Tim Holtz's Alcohol Inks. The background paper is also from a Paual's Kit Club it is wonderfully textured and more on the gold side not the yellow you see here.

To finish it off I added some fencing painted with Tim Holtz crackle paints added the flowers and attached the two clips...I think that I am going to use this as the cover to a note pad.

Thanks for looking and please stop by and sign up for my week 2 of the Altered Pages Digital Collage Sheet give Away. HERE

Altered Pages Give Away Week 2 and Week 1 Winner

Hello again and Welcome to Week 2 of the fabulous Altered Pages Collage Sheet Giveaway! Each week for the next 2 weeks you could win a digital collage image from Altered Pages of my choosing!

This week, week 2, I've selected this fabulous "Vintage Artist Trading Card" Collage Sheet. To me they are gorgeous just as they are but they also make great backgrounds to build on.

If you would like a chance to win this lovely digital collage sheet from Altered Pages please leave a comment with contact information (e-mail or blog address). You will be entered once, to be entered more than once do any or all of the following. 1. Tweet about it (please leave your tweet info) 2. Facebook (also leave facebook info) 3. Blog about it (leave a link to post and a link to my blog and this post) 4. Become a follower (already a follower, they you are already entered 2 times). So if you do all the above you could be entered 5 times!

This giveaway ends Wednesday May 26th 12 pm PT. Once I receive your contact information I'll forward the information onto Jackie at Altered Pages and she will send you your new fabulous Digital Collage Sheet!Note...the 4th giveaway will go to the individual that does the most...over the next 3 weeks!

Onto the Winner of Week 1....Drum roll please.....................................................the winner is....

Silvia

Blog Awards

I have recently been awarded two wonderful awards from two very dear friends.

The first is from Tori at Book Bookie and the guidelines are as follows:

1. Get really excited that you got the coolest award EVER!

2. Choose ONE of the following options of accepting the OMB award:(a) Get really drunk and blog for 15 minutes straight, or for as long as you can focus.(b) Write about your most embarrassing moment.(c) Write a "Soundtrack of your childhood" post.(d) Make your next blog a 'vlog'/video blog. Basically, you're talking to the camera about whatever.(e) Take a picture of yourself first thing in the morning, before you do anything else (hair, make up, etc) and post it.

3. Pass the award on to at least three, but preferably more, awesome bloggers. Don't forget to tell them.

I am going with option a...starting the "getting drunk" portion right now :)

I am passing it onto

NJP Originals Designs

Reyn's Nest

Zuzu's Petals 'n' Stuff

The Second is from Susan over at Crazy Cat Ladys Library

"A prolific blogger is one who is intellectually productive, keeping up an active blog with enjoyable content. After accepting this award, recipients are asked to pass it forward to seven other deserving blogs."

I am passing this gem onto

Frieda Oxenham

Creative Lenna

Books, Writing and Life

Kristen's Always Reading

Thank you Susan and Tori for the wonderful recognition!

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey

Summary:

Jill Jekel and Tristen Hyde are two high school students who gradually discover that they share a mysterious, possibly dangerous, connection to the old novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. As they race against the clock to figure out the puzzle, they start to fall for each other - which is probably the worst thing that could happen to them.

Jill Jekel has always obeyed her parents’ rules – especially the one about never opening the mysterious, old box in her father’s office. But when her dad is murdered, and her college savings disappear, this good girl is tempted to peek inside, because the contents just might be key to winning a lucrative chemistry scholarship.
To better her odds, Jill enlists the help of gorgeous, brooding Tristen Hyde, who has his own dark secrets locked away. As the team of Jekel and Hyde, they recreate experiments based on the classic novel, hoping not only to win a prize, but to save Tristen’s sanity. Maybe his life. As things heat up in the lab though, Jill’s accidental taste of a formula unleashes her darkest nature and will compel her to risk everything – even Tristen’s love – just for the thrill of being… bad.

Review:
Romance, Murder, Mystery and a touch of a classic; this book screamed to me read me, read me my formula is perfection. Well, just like the original Dr. Jekyll’s formula this book was just bad.
The two main characters are not well developed, the author falls back on characteristics of Jekyll and Hyde from the Classic instead of making them into today teens. This would have been fine if the author had not relied so much on her readers having read the classic. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is not a book that I read when I was a teen and I do not think that it is on many teen reading lists.

The Romance has no sizzle. Yes it is a “rocky” relationship and you wonder if they are really going to end up together but it is lacking that page turning element.

All of the murders take place before the book starts, so they are all memories/haunts. Which is fine but using the same formula over and over was unexciting. As for the “who done it” portion, it is very predictable. I guess all in all this book is totally predictable which made it boring.

When I started reading this book I was immediately hit with another parent who was totally incapable of taking care of herself. I am so tired of this trend in Young Adult novels. Being an adult with children I know that this is not a common occurrence and I guess I am getting tired of being portrayed as going to fall apart at the drop of a hat. Also, teens that take care of their parents, pay bills etc etc… without difficulty seems a bit unrealistic to me. Yes I know it happens but I would imagine it would put a load of stress on the teen decreasing their grades and relationships with others. These book (and others that I have read) seem to glorify this situation.

Inner Workings of a City

Alpha Stamps is hosting a marvelous SteamPunk themed ATC swap and of course I had to play along. When I first heard the term "steampunk" I had no idea what they were talking about so after a little research and a lot of thinking this is what I came up with.

A lot of the samples in the Alpha Stamps Gallery had images of men and women suited up to look a bit futuristic. Since I always have to "buck the system" I challenged myself to not use that type of image and instead went with the fabulous city stamp by Alpha Stamps.

The other thing that really screamed SteamPunk to me is metal. For my background I used a sheet of copper that I hammered and then burned to get this look. To keep the impressions the back indents have been filled in with wax. If you do attempt this process first burn your copper then hammer it. If you do this in reverse your wax will melt when you go to burn the metal, plus I burned both sides a bit to get the desired look. Also hold your metal with pliers or something that will keep your fingers from getting hot.

Since the surface is all bumpy I couldn't stamp directly onto the ATC so i stamped the city on transparency and attached it with diamond glaze. Make sure you put your glue on the side you did not stamp on.

The sun stamp is in the same set as the city. I black embossed it onto grunge board cutting out the middle to attach a collage image of clock parts. I then filled it in with crackle glaze dropping in a few clock bits and pieces to add some more depth. Once that was dry I affixed a spring to the back.

The sprockets are a Tim Holtz product. Now that I had all my parts ready I spaced out the various sprockets and the sun. Using an awl I punched holes through the metal and attached the sprockets winding a metallic DMC threat through them so they all look connected. They also all move (not the sun).

My final embellishment is the one that I had the most fun with and am most proud of. You can purchase miniature watch bits and pieces from Alpha Stamps, they come in a nice little tin that once you use the parts out of you have another art bit. I poured them all out and constructed my very own creating. Including a lock and key on most of them. I was thinking "key to the city" when I created these. Each ATC's final embellishment is different.

These were a ton of fun to make. I got to hammer, burn, twist and smell some really strong glues! Thinking this is a very therapeutic form of art.

Hope you enjoy.

The next Swap that the Alpha Stamp Yahoo group is doing is jumbo Mad Hatter Tea Tags. Come join us!

Also take a minute to check out my digital collage give way HERE.

Key West 1927

This week over at One Powerful Hour the theme is...


Ocean...


I challenged myself this week to not use traditional blues and greens. The first place I turned was to Altered Pages wonderful vintage images. This one is from the collage sheet On the Beach.


I tri folded a dark brown cardstock that cordinates with the bathing suits. To add depth I stamped a background that resembles waves in gold. Next I affixed a decorative paper that to me looks like sand. I cut out the collage image using decorative scissors and then placed it on the card, cutting it in the apropriate place. To add an element of personaliation I named each person and placed a date and time on the image.


The Fish is from Paula's Kit Club, a full color german scrap. The sea shells are from some vintage post cards. I added diamond glaze to all three elements. To finish off this piece I added some photo corners and texture paste with sand mixed in along with some bits of shell.



Want a chance to win some of Altered Pages fabulous Collage sheets? Well you have come to the right place. Each week until the end of May you will have a chance to win a digital collage sheet from Altered Pages that I have selected. This weeks give away can be found HERE

Altered Pages Giveaway Week 1

Welcome to week one of the fabulous Altered Pages Collage Sheet Giveaway! Each week for the next 3 weeks you could win a digital collage image from Altered Pages of my choosing!

One of my favorite themes to work with is a retro feel/look so this week I have selected "Ladies Who Lunch". I love the elegance yet playful look of these ladies and wish that I could be out to lunch with them.

If you would like a chance to win this lovely digital collage sheet from Altered Pages please leave a comment with contact information (e-mail or blog address). You will be entered once, to be entered more than once do any or all of the following. 1. Tweet about it (please leave your tweet info) 2. Facebook (also leave facebook info) 3. Blog about it (leave a link to post and a link to my blog and this post) 4. Become a follower (already a follower, they you are already entered 2 times). So if you do all the above you could be entered 5 times!

This giveaway ends Wednesday May 19th 12 pm PT. Once I receive your contact information I'll forward the information onto Jackie at Altered Pages and she will send you your new fabulous Digital Collage Sheet!

Note...the 4th giveaway will go to the individual that does the most...over the next 3 weeks!

Tea's Garden Party

Another wonderfully themed journal, this time from Circle of Friends member Sandy P. She has asked each of us to create a garden tea party. The only requirements are that tea be in cups and that it be held in a garden.

Of course I couldn't go with a traditional Garden Tea Party so I decided to do a play on words. This is my "Tea's Garden Party".

The intro page, right, has an invitation to a wonderful party. I prepped all the pages with acrylic paint that I mixed myself. Next I stamped a swirl stamp in a slightly different shade. Glittering a few of the wisps in two different shades and the dark brown you see is Earl Grey tea, yep, not only is my piece fun to look at it smells scrumptious!

Close up of the invitation.

I made a mistake when I was stamping the letters and instead of tossing out the card I took advantage of it. I Stamp the offending letters correctly on a coordinating sheet of paper and then glued them on. I made a few extra letters and glued them over fine letters to make it look less like it was not a mistake.


The flowers were purchased from Michael's. I selected ones that reminded me of the various shades that tea comes in. Because they are part of a larger flower when I detached them there was a hole in the center. To hide this I added a dab of Tim Holtz gold sticklers.

The gold embellishment next to the invitation was originally silver. I sanded it a little and painted it gold so that it would go with my cover. To me it looks like a skeleton leaf.

Here is Tea's Garden Party. The inside is painted the same green but here I went over it with a glossy sealant. The lovely paper is from a Paula's Kit Club.

This whole project started with my desire to make Tea paper dolls. These suckers were tricky. First I started by stamping the tea cups (Stampington & Co.) and scanning them into the computer. I had to make a few adjustment to the images, using Photo Shop. Next I scanned in some doll faces which had to be stretched and then a few sections colored in. Once the faces were done I concentrated on getting them dressed. The dresses I scanned in and printed out on transparency. Behind the dress transparency I glued various decorative papers. This doll I used two on, one for the collar and the other for the remainder of the dress. The hands and feet I cut from a dress form stamp from Paula's Kit Club. The dresses and doll faces are also from Paula's Kit Club.

Each doll stands on ground made of Tea...so yes there is Earl grey on this page also.

What would a party be without a table. But of course a garden where Tea lives would have a table that defies gravity. The legs are made from wooden sticks died with walnut ink. The table cloth is two layers, the bottom a cotton brown the top lace. The cake and gift stamps are from Close to my Heart.

Some of the other details that are hard to see in the overall image are the latex like balloons, also from Close to My Heart. I stamped them and then did multiple layers of clear embossing powder to make them look more like actual balloons.

The chipboard letters I added a crackle medium to.

Traditionally all the members of the Circle of Friends sign their work. When I was all done I realized that I had not really left a place for my logo. So Instead a stamped a tea bag (Stampington & Co.) and on one side stamped my logo and the other put my contact information. The only picture you can see this in is the spread of the inside pages above.

On the back I stamped a little bit about my page (an explanation...sort of) I wanted it to sound like a newspaper announcement because after all Earl Grey is a big wig in the land of tea.

The background paper is aged using various shades of Tim Holtz distressing inks. I affixed it using a high gloss medium, the photographs really brought out where I stopped the glue but it is not that obvious in real life. To finish off the back page I added a bit more Earl Grey and the flowers.

I really really like this piece. Mainly because it has so many different elements. It took me forever and came together beautifully IMO.

Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoy!

Art Deco...Fashion

This week over at One Powerful Hour the theme is 1920's Fashion...

Immediately I think of Flappers and bootlegging but instead I went with the popular art movement, Art Deco. I focused on the "streamline modern" portion of Art Deco.

The lovely image is from Alpha Stamps, as is the ribbon, background paper and 3D flowers. To create the corners I took Red German Scrap pieces and painted them with Tim Holtz's Tattered Rose distressing paint.

This piece kinda just came together and I am very pleased with it. I hope you enjoy it!

Wake Trilogy

Wake
For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams is getting old. Especially the falling dreams, the naked-but-nobody-notices dreams, and the sex-crazed dreams. Janie's seen enough fantasy booty to last her a lifetime.She can't tell anybody about what she does -- they'd never believe her, or worse, they'd think she's a freak. So Janie lives on the fringe, cursed with an ability she doesn't want and can't control.Then she falls into a gruesome nightmare, one that chills her to the bone. For the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant....

Fade
For Janie and Cabel, real life is getting tougher than the dreams. They're just trying to carve out a little (secret) time together, but no such luck. Disturbing things are happening at Fieldridge High, yet nobody's talking. When Janie taps into a classmate's violent nightmares, the case finally breaks open--but nothing goes as planned. Not even close. Janie's in way over her head, and Cabe's shocking behavior has grave consequences for them both.
Worse yet, Janie learns the truth about herself and her ability. And it's bleak. Seriously, brutally bleak. Not only is her fate as a Dream Catcher sealed, but what's to come is way darker than she'd even feared...

Gone
Janie thought she knew what her future held. And she thought she'd made her peace with it. But she can't handle dragging Cabel down with her.

She knows he will stay with her, despite what she sees in his dreams. He's amazing. And she's a train wreck. Janie sees only one way to give him the life he deserves--she has to disappear. And it's going to kill them both.Then a stranger enters her life--and everything unravels. The future Janie once faced now has an ominous twist, and her choices are more dire than she'd ever thought possible. She alone must decide between the lesser of two evils. And time is running out...

Review
I think this is the second time in my entire life that I have read a series from start to finish. Mainly because I am the one waiting for the next book to come out, in this case the book Gone I won in a Paper Back Swap Game. The individual was nice enough to send me the first 2 books and thank goodness she did!

For a teen read I found this a bit gritty. There is cussing, sex, drinking, drugs and very adult situations. As an adult I am fine with this and to be honest as a teen I was not deaf dumb and blind to these things. I just have to hope that the teens reading these books do not find them cool…and Lisa does not paint them as acceptable behavior. She also glosses over the sex quickly, no details and if you are not paying very close attention you may miss it.

Lisa McMann’s characters are very different which I really liked. Many times I feel like I am reading the same personality but with different names. I also really liked that none of her characters were perfect…perfection is something that simply can not be achieved. Her characters have strengths and weaknesses, pasts that haunt them and futures that they look forward to yet dread at the same time like most teens and adults.

You are introduced to all of the players in Wake and they are developed through all three books. Each book has its own separate story/mystery to solve and the continued storyline. I never once felt like the book left to much open, but that may be because I got to read them straight through.

Who would I recommend this series to…Mature Teens that are confident with who they are and any adults that love a bit of science fiction. I would say that this is also a good series for both sexes. Yes the point of view is feminine but she is not overly girly and the male character plays a very strong part in her life.

If you would like more information…or have questions for me please drop me a comment and I will do my best to answer you without “spoiling”.