Timeless Treasures of Least

Press Release for Wild Haired Ladies Coloring Book

2010-10-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

Press Release for "Wild Haired Ladies"

2010-10-30T18:10:00.001-07:00

Do you love to color?

2010-10-18T05:26:00.000-07:00

It appears that the post below worked. All-righty-then.

I have always loved to color, ever since I was big enough to hold a crayola...I still love to color and a lot of my friends told me that they still love to color, but they couldn't find anything out there to color...wala! the "Wild Haired Ladies" coloring book..."A Creative Experience for Adults" was created. I drew the pictures and found the most wonderful Publisher ever...Falling Star Publications...Donna Dove is the best editor and publisher you could ever want...We hope to start working on the #2 coloring book in 2011.

MY coloring book for adults "Wild Haired Ladies" is available on a pre-published sale over on my website www.lindaeast.com the sale price is $10.95 + S&H, this price is good until October 30, the launch date is November 1 and the price will be $12.95 + S&H. So if you would like to take advantage of the sale, just go to my website click on the box that says coloring books and you will find the "Wild Haired Ladies" and a shopping cart. Easy Peasy...lol

Wild Haired Ladies coloring book

2010-10-18T05:12:00.000-07:00

I am going to try and make this blog entry thing work one more time...I guess if it doesn't I will delete this blog and create another one with a differt program than this one...this is really frustrating.

What is going on?

2010-05-26T06:58:00.000-07:00

I have not been posting to this blog very much because I have a new website and the fact is Google has "jacked" with the choices of how the posting is made, and it is so much easier to post to my website and to my FaceBook Fan Page that I just don't take the time to post here...I hope if you are a follower of this blog you will visit my website and my FaceBook pages. Hopefully you have my Etsy shop as a favorite and you can see my jewelry there. I am not closing this blog because hopefully Google will make some changes that are more user friendly in the future and I will post here more often.

Hopefully you will visit me on my website and my Etsy Shop You will be able to get to my FaceBook page from either of these links...

Creat & Share
Linda (Okla)

New Web Site

2010-03-15T07:02:00.000-07:00

This is the home page of my new web site...I am so excited to get it launched...thanks to my friend and computer Guru...Christy Sobolewski...she is the most awesome web designer on the planet.

Hopefully you will check it out and let us know what you think...it even has a contact page so feel free to send a comment. For some reason Blogger is not letting me enter a link so if you would just type in www.lindaeast.com in your address line it will take you to the site.

We are adding art work and new stuff everyday...so it is a labor of love and a work in progress. I guess you can tell I am really excited about this, and of course you can still find my jewelry on Etsy (New Spring Line is being photographed this week) should be up next week.

OWOH 2010 Winners

2010-02-27T08:56:00.000-08:00

Well better late than never I guess...sorry for taking so long to post the winners of the Steampunk Heart Necklace drawing for OWOH...this yearly adventure is so much fun and we all get to meet new art friends. I really was surprised to see how many people don't have their "REAL" names on their blogs. But I just used the names that came up in the random drawing...????

So without further ado here are the 3 winners:
Kathy Sprinkle from California
Melissa from Pannsylvania
Shaka from Washington

Congradulations ladies...the necklaces will be in the mail as soon as I hear from you with your mailing addresses...awesome...:)

One World One Heart

2010-01-25T10:23:00.000-08:00

I will be giving away 3 of my "one of a kind" steampunck heart necklaces... Besure and leave your email/contact information when you post a note for the give away....

This Steampuck heart wis made with pink and silver polymer clay and is embelished with a small heartshaped lock and key charm....it is hung on a silver chain.

This is a black and red swirl polymer free formed heart...it is embelished with small watch gearts, cogs, watch hands and a piece of vintage prayer beads...

This darling Steampunk Heart is made from purple an silver polymer clay. It is embelished with a small heart shaped lock and key.

Here we go again for another fun networking adventure...please join us.

A new collage...

2010-01-20T05:09:00.000-08:00

This week is the 1st week of Lent and the assistant pastor has ask different people in the church to create a piece of art that represents the chosen Bible text for that week, so I went first (because I am so shy you know?lol) my Bible verses were Matthew 26:36-46....this is when Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane...so this is my interpretation of that scripture.
The canvas is 18"x24"...I used Perfect Paper for texture and then did layers of color using Golden Glazes... I had printed transparencies of the images that I wanted to use, and I trimmed them to fit in the areas that I had chosen...I applied more Perfect Paper around the edges of the transparencies so that it didn't look like I had just "glued" them on...I wanted their to be areas of texture and areas of smoothness...I used some glaze over the transparencies...then I used a Qtip to remove some of the glaze so it made more dramatic high lights...after applying 3 lays of glaze, I wrote the quotes from Jesus prayers on top of the last layer and then I then added the leaves and flowers for a real 3-D garden effect...I think it turned out pretty well. A lot of people at church liked it...:)

Ohmygoodness! I have been bad!

2010-01-03T10:03:00.000-08:00

OMGoodness! I have really been bad about posting to my blog...but I have been so busy with creating new jewelry and the holidays and yes I have become so addicted to Face Book....I have reconnected with so many of my former art students and class mates and made so many new art friends...it really is addicting + it is so easy to post too. So I am apologizing to all of my followers here. But I do see and talk to a lot of you over THERE! LOL I also have a Fan Page on FB, and would love to have you join.

I am so excited to tell you that I will soon have a new Website created by the incredible "Computer Guru" and bestest friend Christy Sobolewski...I can hardly wait...we have been thinking of all kinds of things to put on the site...You will be able to see all of my art work and be able to purchase right from the web site with this awesome shopping cart that Christy created. I will still have my etsy shop where you can purchase my jewelry, but I will have special things that will only be available on the new website...it really is all very exciting...

#5 in Expression Series is Finished

2009-08-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

This is the finished piece: #5 in my series of faces that I call "Expressions". This is a mixed media process of drawing, inking and coloring with Prisma Pencils and water color. If you read the post below it goes into the process a little more in detail. I thought this was going to be the last in this series...but!...I have already started #6..so I guess there will be one more...

This is a close up section of #5...

#5 in Expression Series

2009-08-13T18:13:00.001-07:00

This is the completed drawing and the beginning of the inking process...not sure why it is turned vertically...but sometimes Blogger has a mind of its own????? This is the finished drawing and it has been completely inked. I have started the coloring process with Prisma Pencils.

Not quite finished with the face but I was really excited to start the water coloring so I will go back and finish the face when I get the watercolor part done...this is the first in the series to have watercolor on it. These seem to be getting more and more detailed and complicated...not sure why but I guess it doesn't matter. You know I was thinking that I have always loved to color in coloring books...now I just draw and ink my own drawings and color them...hummmm?

I really like the "bubbles" I got some new pan watercolors that have glitter in the paint, so I used it to color the bubbles...I don't think you can tell in the photograph...but it is really cool. I am wondering if the glitter will still show once the piece is matted and framed with glass...If you click on the pics you can see them really big and get a better idea of the detail. This piece is 28"x30" on Strathmore 180# watercolor paper.

This is a close up...so you can see the bubbles and the flowers.

Exquisite Corpse Collaborative Published

2009-08-12T15:58:00.000-07:00

Just found out that the "Exquisite Corpse" a book collaborative that I worked on with 10 other artists has been published in this September/October issue of Somerset Studio Magazine. One of the things that was so awesome about this collaborative project is that I made some life long friends while working on the book. There are some pages below that explain what "The Exquisite Corpse" is all about. This is one of my pages...I used a "self portrait" of Vincent VanGogh which was only chest high and then using prisma pencils I complete the form, and added the brushes and the paint palette.

This is my second page...It is an original watercolor of a "Clown".

This is the explanation of the Exquisite Corpse that I got from Wikipedia. I did the words and Christy Sobolewsky did the digital back ground and Ingrid Dijkers did the page background. If you click on it and blow it up you will be able to read the definition. You can reach Ingrid's web site by clicking on her name in the right hand column.

This is the inside cover page...it has all of the artist's names and addresses on it.

This is the cover....done by Ingrid Dykers...Ingrid did all of the binding and organizing of the book...There were 2 extra books made, just in case something happened to a book when they were returned. Some of the artists live in Germany, Australia and all over the US so we wanted to make sure everyone got a copy of the book.

This is a pic of the book when it was finished. The whole process took us months and was very tedious because every page had to fit perfect for the book to come out right. It wasn't a matter of being able to trim or adjust the pages when it was time for Ingrid to put them together.

Some of the artist used clip art, some used original digital images, some did original drawings and some used original watercolors. So each page is very unique and expresses the style of each artist.

It really is an incredible work of art.

Since we were lucky enough for nothing to have gone wrong and all of the artist received their own books, the extra books are going to be auctioned off over on Ingrid Dykers web site. So if you would like to see the rest of the book and join in the auction please just click on Ingrid Dykers above and it will take you to her web site.

This is all so very exciting and I can't wait to talk to the other artists...WOWZZZZZZZEEEEEE!

Finished #4 in the "Expressions" Series

2009-07-31T08:41:00.001-07:00

This is the finished piece in my series of "Expressions".

I did a little something different in this piece...I used Gel Pens to color her jewelry...like the head piece and the earring...I really like it because it gave it a metalic shine...not sure how it will look once it is matted and framed behind glass. We will see if the shine still shows????

I really enjoy making the "Fairy Wings" because no one can ever say I never saw "wings" like that...lol

Expressions Series #4 The drawing & Coloring

2009-07-31T07:52:00.000-07:00

These are some of the steps in the creation of Expressions #4...of course you know how it is? I get into the process of drawing, inking and then the coloring and I forget to take pics. I tried to record the process...but sometimes I forget even though I have my camera right beside me. Oh well I think I did better on this one than I have the others, so maybe you can get the gist of my progress. First I do the drawing...and I even remembered to leave a boarder this time...it makes it so much easier to mat and frame if the finished piece has a boarder of 1" to 1 1/2"...I usually just use the width of the yard stick which is a little over an inch...I started with a piece of Strathmore drawing paper that is 18"x24"...that seems to be the size that I find the most comfortable to work on...or maybe it is comfortable because that was the size I had handy when I started...lol..
you know "roll with the flow" and what ever is handy...lol

A little more drawing...

Once the drawing is completed then I begin the inking process...I used an extra fine Sharpie permanent marker...this process takes almost as long as the drawing...because I seem to make it so complicated and have to really watch to not cross over any lines...unlike pencil there is no erasing errors at this point.

Now comes my favorite part...the coloring...this is when I think about being a little girl again and coloring in the multitude of coloring books that I colored when I was young. I use Prisma Pencils,

my all time favorite colored pencils.

The red poppies in the right hand corner are from a picture taken by my good friend Dawn Gold,

from the UK...she took the pic one day while walking her dog. The pic was awesome and she gave me permission to use the image as a reference for my drawing. I like to us photos as reference material for my flower drawings. Most of the other images that are in the drawing are from my head. Sometimes I use magazine pics of girls to achieve different expressions and skin tones...but most of the ribbons, butterflies and of course the wild hair are just my imagination. And yes I do thank the "Big Guy" for my imagination. My mother says I was born with this imagination and she even has some drawings I did when I was 3 yrs old...I used to wonder why mothers save stuff like that until I had children and grand children of my own. LOL

Some more coloring...I decided to make this a little risque...lol.

Don't forget to click on the pics to make them bigger if you want to see the details. :)

Here is the #1 Drawing in the series

2009-07-31T07:43:00.000-07:00

This is #1 in the series of drawings of girls with lots of hair...lol...the series is called "EXPRESSIONS"...several people said they didn't see #1 so I decided to repost it before I post #4 (which I just finished last night).

This piece is 24"x30"...it is a mixed media (pencil/ink/Prisma Pencil).

#3 in the Mixed Media Drawings

2009-07-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

This is #3 in a series of mixed media drawings that I have completed. It is 18"x24". First I draw in pencil and then I ink the drawing with an extra fine point permanent marker, then I erase the whole thing and color in the parts that I want to be in color using Prisma Pencils. I like leaving the "Hair" in black and white with all of the embellishments in color. The drawings usual take be about 3 to 4 days. I started this one while we were in Santa Fe, NM. Then the inking takes about 8 to 10 hours. After inking I erase the entire drawing to remove the pencil marks, I don't like for the pencil marks to interfer with the Prisma Colors...because it tends to make the colors blurry or darker. Taking this one to be framed and am starting #4...It seems I am on a drawing "kick" never know how long it (the "kick" lol) will last...but I have a lot of fun while it does last...:)

Altered Book Yahoo Group 10 Year Celebration

2009-07-03T06:53:00.000-07:00

I belong to one of the oldest and longest lasting Yahoo Groups on the web, Altered Books Yahoo Group, and it is the 10 Year Birthday of this group....there are over 7000 members...and to celebrate this occasion members were ask if they would like to create a page (4"x6") to be made into a book. So far about 200 members have signed up. That is really exciting. Each person that participates will get a coping of their own to keep. Wow!
This is my contribution to the book...this is an original hand carved lino stamp that I made. Then I embellished it with gel pens, and used my "chop" as my signature.

Drawing almost finished.

2009-07-03T06:48:00.000-07:00

All most finished. This is a Prisma Pencil/black marker drawing...I draw everything out in pencil, do the editing that I want and then go over the drawing with Fine Tip Sharpie, then color the parts that I want to be in color with Prisma Pencil.

New Drawing on the Table

2009-07-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

There is a new drawing on my drawing table. I haven't been drawing enough lately, when I say drawing I mean that I haven't started a drawing that is intended to be a completed piece of art work...I draw all the time sketches, drawing in a journal or an embellishment in an altered book.
I really draw all of the time, but this is the first drawing that I have started as "just" a drawing.
I am sure this sounds a little redundant...but you get the idea. I have been working in mixed media for quite a while and haven't drawn a piece to stand alone..

So these are a couple of "Progress" pics, I don't usually take pics of the progress o my paintings or drawings...simply because I am usually into doing the piece that I don't take the time to take the pics...but decided to use a little self discipline on this and see how they would look.

Color & Texture in Chrisy's AB

2009-06-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

This is an altered book belonging to my friend and cohort Christy...we are involved in a Round Robin on ICE Yahoo Group and we are in the last month of the RR... This pic of the entire book.
It is awesome.

This spread was made with Perfect Paper..then I added a large embellished butterfly on the left and a small metal butterfly on the right page (she really like butterflies) then I added some large sequin garland on the right hand edge. I used Golden Glaze for the color and added a sheet of cellophane that had silver stars(it came from a 1924 Central State University year book that I found in an antique store in Palestine, Texas...how cool is that?)

This is the second spread that I did and it has Golden Gazes for the back ground color, then some foam triangles that I cut out with some scalloped scissors and wrote on with gel pens. Then I sewed some beaded garland that I got at World Bazaar in San Jose California, they were having an after Christmas 90% of sale...love it...then I added some beaded fringe at the bottom.

This is the third and final spread for Christy's book...what I did here is I used some paper that I altered by using strips of an old magazine that I tore up and glued down to some water color paper, then I added strips of masking tape (3/4") and some glue dribbling for texture. After the glue was dry I did some washes of blue and yellow allowing them to blend in the middle, hence the green area, I stamped some swirlies on it and then just glued the page into the book. Then I added some alphabet beads to say "color" and "texture" and some little rhinestone embellished

cross beads. Then I glued down some sequin and furry trim and added some little tiny safety pins that had purple heads to the trim...I hope Christy likes how it turned out...

Three Finished Catalogs, Killed by Me

2009-06-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

These are the three Catalogs that I have killed so far..you may have seen in previous posts how these catalogs looked after I soaked them in the bath tub and then how they look after they were scrunched and smashed and then dried...I really am amazed how they turned out...each one is so different. I just started adding some paint, some glazes and some stamping...then I added some fibers and some clay pieces that I had made and painted....these were quite a stretch for me, I usually lean more to the realistic side of art...but when I finished I was pleasently surprised. I am thinking about putting them on my Etsy shop. This one has a lot of beads and pages that I rolled up while they were wet and let dry. It could be hung on the wall or place on an easel for display. I gessoed the back of this one but I left a lot of the printed material in the catalog show through the glazes...The green pearlized leaves are some pins that are like corsage pins that I got from Lisa at Collage Stuff. I just pushed the pins into the back of some of the rolled up pages. There is a little frame that was made by cutting a small square in the paper before it was dry. There is a piece of lace that I put on diagonally to create a little more texture and then the beads are from a store called World Bazar in San Jose.
You know after Christmas sales are awesome, you can get some really cool stuff at 90% off.

I call this one "I See You" because I found some "googly eyes" that are funky colors and they just happened to match the colors I was using...funny how that happens some times....I probably had these things for 20 years and I just knew I would use them someday...well this was the day...lol. This is the catalog that had some blue & yellow Easter egg dye on it, so I built on those colors...well you know how much I love my Golden Glazes and the burgandy is my favorite so I add some of that...then I wiped it with a rag while it was still wet...then I used some permanent markers to do some doodle thingys. I have about 2 million buttons so I went through them and found 3 green ones and I sewed those on to the center. When I started to do the doodles I began to see triangles and so I followed the folds of the paper and accented those triangles with a purple marker. This idea of the Catalog Killing came from a UK artist by the name of Maggie Grey...if you google her you can find a lot more of her awesome work.

Any way, there are more "unsolicited" cataloges being soaked, or dryed or squished as we speak, some other artists and I are going to do a collaboration using this media, it will be fun to see how different our styles will be when we finish....we will post the results some time at the end of the summer...hope you enjoyed clicking on these so you can see them bigger.

I Wish I Was 18 Again

2009-06-05T19:54:00.001-07:00

Click here to view this video

This is a video from my 50 year class reunion that was held last month in Fort Worth Texas. It is really cool...what great memories.

Garage Sale Finds-The pickin's were good!

2009-06-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

Yes you are right! These are very old "Roller Skates"...most likely from the 40's. But this is the awesome part...(of course you know me everything has a little story to it)
I found these skates at the same garage sale that I found the little porcelain dolls below, and it was what I thought to be my last stop, and I only had enough money for the dolls, so I talked to the lady and told her I was a mixed media artist and I made all kinds of things out of old "stuff" (understatement). She asked if I saw the old skates?
(9 of them to be exact) so I went and looked at them, and ask how much she wanted for them, and she said "Oh $1 I guess". I told her that I had given her the last of my money for the dolls. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when she said why don't you just take them and make them into something, and she went and got a brown grocery sack and loaded all (9) of them up and gave them to me...well let me tell you tears came into my eyes and I hugged her and gave her my blog addy so she could visit her "skates" when they got made into an art piece...(inspired by Michael De Meng of course) You know this ole' world is all about communication (and money of course but that is another story)...I can't wait to get started with these skates.
I really have a great affection for these kind of skates because when I was about 4 or 5 years old my daddy made me the best scooter ever, he used a skate (like these) and an apple crate. It was awesome. I spent hours gliding down the street in front of our house in Wichita Falls Texas, until one day the Milk Man was delivering milk to our house (that was in 1946 when you could still get your milk delivered to your door) and I was coming down the hill pretty fast (at least it was fast to a 5 yr old...lol) and I could not stop and ran into the HUGE bummer of the milk truck...and yes it knocked me out and I saw stars and birdies flying around my head. When I woke up I was in my bed with an ice pack on my recently acquired "pop knot"...and bandages on both my knees and elbows...but let me tell you that is not what I think of when I remember all of this...what I remember was the terrific scooter that my daddy made me.

These are all of the skates. They are fantastic...can't wait to use them.

These are tiny little bisque fired porcelain dolls (sorry for the blurry) I am going to make jewelry out of them, and the good part is I only paid $3 for them, I am here to tell you that I wouldn't have poured and cleaned them for $3. My friend Ingrid makes these kind of dolls all the time and I don't know how she does it. They are so tiny and precious...I photographed them in the palm of my hand so you could see how small they are.

Below are some other great finds (eat your heart out Michael De Ming,,,lol) I had set my self a $20 limit for my Garage Sale shopping spree...and I spent $22...opps...because I found a printer (brand new Lemarx) for $3 dollars.

What we have above is a big bag of buttons for .50 and below some really cool stuff including a gauge, a really old (old enough to be called antique, which is older than me...lol) light off of a Singer sewing machine, a metal flower, some wire, a grater and something that looks like an insulator but I am sure it is some kind of attachment for an electric juicer...OMG...how cool is that? That white thing with the gold brads is a bracelet...OK...the possibilities are endless here....what fun.

Web Marketing SOS?

2009-05-31T08:56:00.000-07:00

My friend and partner in crime, Christy Sobolewski has a new online business. Christy is only the most artistic and creative web designer on the net and she has decided to offer her services to anyone needing a Web Design, a Banner for a blog, Etsy shop or personal web space. She has been a web designer for 10 years and has master level skills. She has taught classes on our Ning Network "Artistic Avantgarde". Her new endeavor is called Web Marketing SOS. She offers a full service web marketing agency that can build custom CMS templates, find the right net works and they offer A La Carte Services to meet your personal and business needs at a timely schedule and bugetable price. She has a very knowledgeable full time staff. She is reliable and works in a timely manner to accommodate your needs...how could anyone go wrong with that?

The First Catalog Killing is finished

2009-05-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

This is my first attempt at Catalog Killing...I killed 3 catalogs...and the other two are in work...if you click on this pic you can see it big and you can really tell what is what with the embellishments...this is great fun and you get to recycle some of the junk mail that we all seem to get everyday. I used a piece of mat board to mount the catalog, that way it can be hung on the wall. I used Golden Glazes to paint the mat board.

This is a close up of one of the clay pieces (made from a push mold) then painted and "glazed" to show more detail. This is a close up of the top left corner.

This is the complete piece...I have added some fibers and wire coils...the clay faces are some I made using a push mold...I sewed the fibers to the bottom of the catalog across the bottom, then I coiled some wire and used my Japanese screw punch to make some holes for the wire to be attached without it showing from the front.

The Killing of the Catalogs has begun!

2009-05-06T07:31:00.001-07:00

This is my latest undertaking "Killing Catalogs for Art". This is a project inspired by a terrific mixed media artist from across the Big Pond (that would be the Atlantic) by the name of Maggie Grey... she is awesome. I am not big on the whole "Green" thing (maybe because of Al Gore?) but I figured that every little bit helps and my friends are all wonderful "recyclers", so this is my effort to help out...these are unsolicited catalogs that I got in the mail and a magazine that I had since 2007. The plan is to kill these catalogs and make them into a piece of art. I think Maggie Grey and her friends actually buried theirs, but I just threw mine in the bath tub with some dirt, lots of water and ashes and leaves and "what ever" (we all have some of that "what ever", mine included some Easter Egg dye tablets...how funny is that?) In a couple of hours I took out the "sloppy" globs of dead catalogs (I checked before proceeding...they were dead), then I rinsed off the dirt and "what ever" and threw them in a couple of pans, I then distressed them by squishing them and beating them with a stiff hair brush. I am now waiting for them to dry. If you go to Maggie Grey's web site you can see how the pros do this and you will see some beautiful finished pieces that are just fantastic. This is a pic of the magazine (Real Simple) still in the bath tub...you can see the egg dye tablets.

This is a catalog after I "squished" it

This is another catalog after I threw it in a roasting pan...ONLY TIME WILL TELL!

Next Step in my Gourd Project

2009-05-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

The wood burning is complete and the lid is cut...this is the removal of the lid... Ok..so this is really ugly...you have to wear a mask and scrape out the old dried pulp and seeds.

This is a view of the inside of the lid...uggggllly! But just you wait and see how awesome it is when I scrape and sand and paint it...:)

This is a close up of the design that I carved in to the gourd with a wood burning tool.

The bottom after the carving of the design

This is the design on the other side.

The cutest Great Grand Baby Ever!

2009-05-04T10:41:00.001-07:00

Not sure why this is so small...but it doesn't matter because she is the cutest thing you have ever seen...our Julieanne...7 weeks old...OMG

Cleaning of the gourds

2009-05-04T09:42:00.000-07:00

This is how the gourds look when you receive them...I order my gourds from Welburn Gourd Farms...they have every kind of gourd that you can imagine. They grow 350,000 gourds every year. These are cantine gourds. They really are pretty ugly. This how they look after scrubbing....

This is how they look after their bath and they are dry.

This is one that I shined up a little by just rubbing with a towel.

I have drawn out my designs and will draw them onto the gourd with a pencil. Then using a wood burning tool I will burn the design into the gourd. So come back in a couple of days and see my progress.

Steampunk Hearts are Hot on my Etsy

2009-04-02T08:38:00.000-07:00

This is just one of the Steampunk Heart Pendant necklaces that are available on my Etsy leasttreasures@etsy.com
I am having so much fun making these Steampunk Hearts...they really are addictive. The basic idea for these came from Christi Friesen (a wonderful polymer clay artist). I have already sold over 2 dozen of them. Steampunk jewelry seems to be really hot right now. I saw a couple of TV shows where the stars were wearing Steampunk jewelry (Ugly Betty & Ghost Whisperer).

I have been reading some controversial talk around the net about people posting things for sale and promoting their Etsy or Lollipop shops (or other venues) on their blogs, I thought it was my blog and I could put what ever I wanted on it, without having to ask for someoneelse's opinion. Hummmm???? Maybe the people that are complaining don't have other venues for selling their work, or maybe they don't want to sell their work (that's ok), or maybe they don't have any work that is worth selling (that's ok), or maybe they don't need the money (that is great). I am thinking that this is my little corner of the net and I can do what ever I want here, and you know what so can you.

Patricia's Sounds of the 70s AB Spreads

2009-03-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

Hot Rod Lincoln is the theme for this spread in Patricia's "Sounds of the 70s" AB for the RR in our ICE Group. This was the 1st RR we started about a year ago...and we are on the last "leg" of the RR. So the books are making their way home and we are all very excited. I found some copies of tickets for Concerts that were in the 70s, so I copied them and used them here...also found this pic of "Tony Orlando & Dawn"

It is just me but I thought the cover of Patricia's Book was a little plain so I added this cute "Hippy Doll" I hope you like it Patricia...it really is cute and I have had the doll for a really long time and I knew someday the perfect opportunity would present its self...and wala...this was it...how cool is that????

Dawn's Inspirational Women AB

2009-03-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

These are the spreads that I just finished in Dawn's "Inspiration Women" AB for one of the RRs we are doing over in the ICE Group.

Some More Jewelry for my Etsy

2009-03-21T11:06:00.000-07:00

I decided while I was over here loading some new blog links, that I would just post a couple more of my new jewelry pieces that will be on my Etsy Shop starting April 1.
This is one of my Steampunk Hearts...It is 3" long and comes on a leather necklace. It is one of my favorites...it has lots of chains and metal decorations.

This is another Steampunk Hearts (these hearts were inspired by Christi Friesen). I call this one Rusted Copper.
This necklace has coral beads (the spiky looking ones) with glass and metal beads. The pendant is acrylic with white flowers. All of my jewelry is a one of a kind original design.

This Black and Silver Steampunk heart is 3" long and has lots of watch parts and a part of a Black Rosary Bead chain, all of these hearts are made from polymer clay and the metal parts are attached before the hearts are fired, so the decorations are permanently attached. This particular heart is $12. So if you are interested before I put them on my Etsy Shop (I take PayPal) just let me know. This one is really cool.

This is a double strand necklace with a beautiful glass heart pendant. I also have earrings to match. In fact most of my necklaces have earrings (and sometimes bracelets) to match.

This necklace is 32" long and the pendant is brown acrylic with flowers and a hummingbird. The beads are glass, wood and metal. Just click on it and you can see the detail. I don't usually make the necklace match on both sides of the pendant the same but I did on this one.

Spring time in Oklahoma

2009-03-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

It is definately Spring Time in Oklahoma... The Redbud Trees are blooming!

The Pear Trees are Blooming....

The Tulip trees are Blooming...
The Creeping Philox is Blooming....

The Flowering Almond is blooming....

New Jewelry for my Etsy Shop

2009-03-18T07:59:00.001-07:00

These are 3 necklaces that I made for my Etsy Shop. I will be putting them up next week, because I am having a sale this week...I have reduced the prices of everything in my shop over $10 to 50% off...this is my "Stimulus Package" to make room for my new jewelry. So if you think you might be interested hop or click on over there and check it out this afternoon. This is a glass turquoise Heart in an ornate cage...the beads are glass and silver to match the heart. This necklace is 21" long with a silver toggle clasp. I sells for $35 and if you would be interested in purchasing it before I post it in my Etsy Shop just let me know. I have earrings and braclets that match, and are available on my Etsy.

This is a beautiful Black and Turquoise Glass Pendant necklace with black, turquoise and silver beads...the clasp is a silver square toggle clasp. It is 32" long and sells for $45. If you would be interested in purchasing this before I post it on Etsy just let me know.

I call this piece "Green Ice"...it is made of Green glass and acrylic beads. The pendant is green glass with gold sparkles, black and brown swirls...the square green beads are in graduating sizes and have silver foil centers. It has a flower shaped silver toggle clasp and the total length is 28"...I also have earrings to match...You can purchase the necklace for $45 and the earrings for $16...SORRY I JUST SOLD THIS PIECE...but I have more coming on my Etsy April 1st and every thing in my shop is on sale now.

New Jewelry...aka. Steampunk Hearts

2009-03-18T07:42:00.000-07:00

These are some of the Steampunk Heart Pendants that I made to sell on my Etsy Shop. My friend Kathy Parks made some so I just had to try them...mine are not as good as hers but I like them. The idea came from a polymer clay artist by the name of Christi Friesen...she is an awesome artist. These things are addictive...I can't seem to quit making them...I got a great deal on watch parts from Sky Blue Pink...a great web site for all kinds of embelishments. I have a lot of old jewelry (chains, charms and what not) that has either been given to me or I found at garage sales and I used quite a bit of that stuff to embelish the hearts. My first couple of batches were fairly dark and so I made some with out "antiquing" them because I always like a little more color than most people...I made small (about 2" long), medium (about 2 1/2" long)and large (about 3"long). I am going to sell them for $5, $10 and $15.

Congratulations

2009-02-12T04:53:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Karen Klomparens and Marilyn Butler for winning my drawing for the OWOH giveaway...if you could contact me at leastart@yahoo.com I will be sending you your bracelets right away...again CONGRATULATIONS!

New Jewelry on Etsy

2009-01-24T10:47:00.001-08:00

I wanted to show you some of the bracelets that I am making to put on my Etsy Shop. They are not posted there yet but will be this week along with some other jewelry that I have been making...the link is http://leasttreasures.etsy.com/

There are charm bracelets, earrings, vintage necklaces, custom necklaces and surprises. Please check it out. I will custom make bracelets with music charms, sports charms, or just about any kind of charm you would like.

Eye Opening Experience

2009-01-23T06:01:00.000-08:00

I don't usually post without pics but today I found a website that I feel is a link to Art around the world, and I would like to share it with you all, and I hope that you will take the time to check it out...It can be a real "Eye Opening" experience...so many of us live in our own little worlds and that includes me...but today I ventured out and WOW! I was wonderfully surprised to get a birds eye view of somethings that are going on "out there". The link is http://www.woostercollective.com/ I am sure there are lots of other web sites and blogs that are enlightening but I just happened to find this one today.

2009-01-20T09:07:00.000-08:00

This is a silver Kokopelli Charm braclet that is made up of glass cube beads and silver spacers, the clasp is magnetic (which makes it ease to put on and take off). The Kokopelli Charm is 1" and the overall length of the bracelet is 7". If you would like to win this bracelet in a random drawing please read the info below.

I am participating in a project called One World-One Heart 2009. This is a project to help artist connect, make new friends and network. You can read all of the details by clicking on the symbol. The basic idea is fairly simple. I post a piece of art work (ie. the Kokopelli Charm bracelet) to be given away in a random drawing. All you have to do to be elegible to win is to post a comment to this post. That sounds pretty easy, huh? The drawing for the bracelet will be on February 12th, so be sure and leave me a email addy so I can contact you if you win.

I have another charm braclet that I am giving away over on my other blog......

http://jewelsoftheeast.blogspot.com so if you would like a chance to win that give away just click on the link and leave me a comment there also....This is going to be a lot of fun and you will be able to visit a lot of (new) blogs.

Some pretty cool Jewelry for my Etsy Shop

2009-01-13T06:50:00.000-08:00

This is a set of earrings and a bracelet that are made of black and white "chunky" square acrylic beads...I will be posting them on my Etsy Shop this afternoon. This pair of earrings are dragonflies that are checking out some little flowers..the black and white beads are hand made glass.

These little blue Fimo Clay shoes are precious and you can find them and some red & black shoes and some black & white shoes on my Etsy Shop...there is a link in the right hand column to my shop.

This necklace, bracelet and earring ensemble is made up of pink and green crystal beads with silver bead spacers (the silver is from Taxco Mexico where silver is less expensive than here in the US, I love to go there and shop in the awesome Silver stores...) The heart pendant is a hand blown crystal heart with pink and green swirls.

Two Days in San Francisco

2009-01-06T06:48:00.000-08:00

This is the 1st pic I took when we got to San Francisco...these are condos right across the street from the Golden Gate Part. This is our hotel, The St Francis...it is on Union Square. We could see and hear street musicians and protesters all day and most of the night.

These are 3 of the hand carved ceramic tiles that are in the Union Square Park. Even the Palm trees were decorated for Christmas...lots of lights and lots of people.

This is the Christmas tree at the entrance to Pier 39. We had so much fun shopping and eating (to much) fish. We found a shop there called San Francisco Sock Co. and I got socks for just about everyone we know...you can't go wrong with socks...hardly anybody is allergic to socks...lol. Found another store that had lots of collectibles and I found a "Betty Boop" lunch pale for my friend Dawn from England, and a "Goofy" mug for Susan (she collects anything Goofy, guess that's why she likes me...lol) I got a new hat (as seen in the pics) at a huge hat store.

The first store we came to at Pier 39 was the Hard Rock, so of course we had to have Hard Rock San Francisco shirts...the guy that waited on us was very interesting...he had tattoo sleeves, a thing pierced into his nose that was purple and made his nostrils flair out, earrings that made holes the size of a quarter in his ear lobes, some kind of shinny stone embedded in his forehead, and as we talked he mentioned that he was 51 years old....WHAT?....a true OLD HIPPIE in the flesh...working at the Hard Rock..

oh well this is San Francisco....

This is pic of a Bagpipe Player on the corner of Union Square....Susan said, "He is pretty good"....OK....I guess he was, it sounded pretty good to me....

Susan and I got some other "tourists" to take our pic with the SF Bay behind us. That is my new hat that I was telling about earlier....

OK so I know this pic is blurry...but it is of our hotel at night and I thought is was perfect that it was blurry...you know a lot of photographers take blurry pics on purpose...of course I didn't do it on purpose...but I still liked it a lot...so I decided to share...lol

Ghirardelli Square was great...got free chocolate...bought chocolate...ate chocolate...

and got a chocolate colored apron...what more could a girl want?

MY NEW HAT!!!!!

This a pic of Alcatraz through the window of the restraunt where I ate Crab until I was miserable...You can get Crab in OKC but it is just not the same as sitting and eating it by the shore of San Francisco Bay. Know what I mean? It was messy and great...the crab that is...not the Bay...lol...

This is a great shot Susan got of the fog rolling in under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was soooooooo beautiful.

More San Jose Museum of Art

2009-01-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

This is shot of the Christmas Wonderland across the street from the San Jose Museum of Art. There were over 100 decorated Christmas trees and animated Christmas scenes. This little Monkey by James Grashow was sitting on a window ledge looking at the Chihuly glass in the entry to the Museum.

This is one of the Chihuly Glass Sculptures in the foyer of the Museum. We have a very large permanent collection of Chihuly Glass at the Oklahoma Museum of Art. If you are ever in Oklahoma City don't miss the chance to see the collection because it is fantastic. I saw a special on the Chihuly Glass Group Compound during the holidays on the Discovery Channel...it was very intriguing...if you get a chance to see the video be sure and watch it...Chihuly doesn't blow the glass anymore but he designs the pieces ...the video was all encompassing of the process...

I met an Art Teacher from Houston, Texas, Phyllis Knerl Miller . She and her husband were in San Jose visiting their son for the holidays.

Some Pics from the San Jose Museum of Art

2009-01-06T05:41:00.000-08:00

A baby Monkey riding on the back of it's mother. The Monkeys are made out of Cardboard by James Grashow...they are life size and there is 100 of them. Glashow is a cardboard artist that makes all kinds of animals. The Monkeys appear to be constructed of cardboard and then covered with a layer of brown paper...paper mache' process maybe????

The San Jose Museum of Art

The San Jose Museum has some Chihuly Glass Sculptures. It was like the monkeys were looking at the Chihuly Glass...it was really a wonderful exhibit.

These are just some of the Monkeys made by James Grashow. The exhibit was at the San Jose Museum of Art and contains 100 life size "Cardboard" Monkeys...I have to tell you that thses are incredible...you may have seen James Grashow on the Oprah show a while back. I was really excited to get to see the show. There was also a showing of photographs of Fredia Kahlo at the museum. It was a great day to visit the museum because there was a Christmas Wonderland across the street, and ice skaters in the court yard of the museum. We took my Mom and Step Dad and they both really enjoyed the art.

Merry Christmas from ICE

2008-12-17T06:14:00.000-08:00

Give us an M...give us an E...give us an R R...give us a Y

Give us a C...give us a H...give us an R...give us an I...give us an S ...give us a T...give us an M A...give us an S...

What does that spell?????

MERRY CHRISTMAS...

This a wonderful group of artistic cheerleaders from the ICE Group, wishing you a Very MERRY CHRISTMAS.

This picture was composed by Chris Tessener, a member of the International Colabaration Experiments in Altered Book Yahoo Group that was started about a year ago. Chris made this pic digitally by taking the pics of each member and turning them into cheerleaders for a spread that she did in Dawn Gold's School Days Themed AB.

I thought it was so clever of Chris that I would use it for a little Christmas Card here on my blog. Thanks Chris for the smiles and for your artistic and creative skills that you share with all of us...we are truly blessed to have you and all of the other gals involved in this AB RR.

New Living Room

2008-12-14T12:20:00.000-08:00

These are the after pictures......

These are the before pictures......

The new furniture arrived 2 days after the final painting of the floor. Georgia (O'Keeffe) one of our Carrin Terriers had to check out the new chairs and our friend Charya liked the black side chairs....

Big change huh?

These are pics of the "new" floor...the old floor was carpet that had foam backing and was glued to the concrete...if you remember this type of carpeting then you are older than 29...lol...any way we had the carpet pulled up and then we (Susan & I) scraped, sanded, scraped some more and then we put muratic acid and then we rented a sander from Lowes...OMG...it was the Big Mac Truck of the sanders...wow...it weighed 250...seriously...the guy at the Lowes loaded it and we "slid" it out of the back of the Envoy...then when we finished our neighbor, two doors down came and loaded it up for us...it was a "duzy", but it got the job done...Then we used a carpet cleaning machine and then we sealed it....I painted the center of the floor cream (the same color as the walls) then I used a sea sponge and "fauxed" on the gold...well it looked so much like a rug I decided to paint tassels on each corner....I just free hand cut a pattern and drew it on the floor and painted it with the cream and the gold and then used a Sharpie marker to draw the detail...then I painted the outside edges (border) with black...it really looks cool. Then another coat of sealer. This is a close up of one of the tassels....

This is "long shot"...not the kind you bet on but a full view of one end of the room...

Getting a new Roof

2008-12-14T12:01:00.000-08:00

Well on top of remodeling the old and new living rooms, building an Art Studio....we had a bad hail storm a few months ago and our roof has to be replaced and they started on it yesterday. It is really hard to get in the mood of Christmas with all of this going on...I can't get to my stuff to make my baskets or wrap packages...I am not sure how all of this got pushed so close to Christmas...oh well it will all get done...and one of my favorite "Eastisms" is..."Stop Global Whinning: and it seems that I am whinning...so even though it is frustrating...I am really trying to not whine about it all...after all I am getting a new Art Studio....and can't wait to get it finished and move in. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!!

Our back yard.......

Our Patio.....can't wait for the AFTER Pics....lol

Insulation Installed...Yippppeee

2008-12-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

One of my students from the drawing class at Rose State came and helped do the insulation yesterday...Susan and I are going to finish it up today...the Peg board and sheet rock are going up tomorrow...

The Building of the Art Studio

2008-12-05T07:49:00.001-08:00

And so it begins...this is a little after 9 am...on Monda December 1...these guys were so nice and "fast"...the building a from Cedar Built...ok so this is really exciting. They are putting in the floor. As soon as the floor was in they started on the walls...Wow...this is only about 10:15.

This is a view inside...and they have only been here like 2 hours...

This is vew from inside with the window installed....

This is like 4:30 and they are almost finished...just putting the window frame on...Wow I can't believe they built it in one day...it is awesome!!!!

Artistic Avant-Garde

2008-11-15T08:14:00.000-08:00

There is a new network of artists that has been formed on Ning...we call it Artistic Avant-Garde. Christy Sobolewski and I have tried to create a networking venue for mixed media artist, writers and music artist. We are hoping to broaden our horizons in the artistic world by making a place where all types of artist can meet and discuss what is going on in all aspects of the art world. Sometimes I feel that I work in a "little" box and need to expand my world to accommodate my creative spirit. Hopefully this Artistic Avantgarde site will help get me out of the "box" and embellish my art world. If you are interested in joining us please email me at leastart@yahoo.com and tell me why you are interested.

Free Halloween Images

2008-10-25T07:19:00.001-07:00

I found some images in my stach and thought you might enjoy using them for your Halloween art projects...Trick or Treat...Happy Halloween

Antique Shopping in St. Louis

2008-10-20T13:52:00.001-07:00

I went to St Louis this week end for the Bands of America National Regional Marching Band Contest with the Putnam City North Panther Pride Marching Band, there are some pics over on my other blog about the band, we were scheduled to go on a River Boat ride on Saturday but because there was a big Obama Rally at the Arch everything on the river got canceled, so the kids went to the Dome to watch other bands perform and some of us went to the Antique Shop district and went shopping. Below are some of the "treasures" that I found.... I found these beautiful pieces of antique and vintage lace...I can't wait to make some collages using these pieces...some are small like cuffs and collars. There were also some vintage buttons in the jar with the small pieces of lace.

One piece is fairly large...it appears to have been a dresser scarf.

In another shop I found German Scrap, and more German Scrap, I got at least one of each of the different packages and a couple of books of black and white Victorian drawings, that I can photo copy and color with pencils or print it out on watercolor paper and then watercolor them...I was so excited. Can't wait to start working with them in my art work....

More German Scrap...the gold bunches of grapes are really for use as wine labels, there was 25 to the package for $1...Oh Wow will those make great sign in tags for altered books or what???? I probably should have bought more...of course I always say that after I get home and realize what a treasure they are.

This is some Antique Sheet Music from 1916...the lady had to many of these that I couldn't make up my mind...but because I am such a Sousa fan, I decided on the marching music.
This is a Red Fox stole and muff (if you look real close you can see the real fox head) and I only paid $15 for it...It will be awesome as fur trim on a Santa doll. You should have seen the ladies reaction when I told her I was going to cut it up...it was pretty funny.

I Have been Tagged by the Average American Girl

2008-10-13T04:20:00.000-07:00

Well I have been tagged by my friend Christy from Fort Myers Flordia...Average American Girl...is what she call herself...trust me she is anything but an "Average" American girl...so now I have to tell the world 7 Things that you don't know about me...Hmmm???? Lets see...

1. I am a clown. Yes my mother and I had a clown business..."The Clone Clowns"...we dressed alike and our clown makeup was the same...we did kids B-Day Parties, balloon animals and magic tricks, delivered balloon bouquets the whole deal...She was 75 yrs young and I was 55 when we started the business.

2. I just figured out that I have been married 38 of my short 67 year life.

3. I am a Teen Leadership Facilitator .

4. I love choclate milkshakes made with vanilla ice cream and choclate syrup.

5. I drove 100+ miles per hour down an airport runway in my pick-up truck, just to see if I could.

6. I layed 2300 square feet of ceramic floor tile, by my self, in my house. I wore leather knee pads stuffed with Kotex "extra heavy" sanitary pads...it worked great.

7. I love Iris, and I hate when people call them "flags"...because Iris come in more colors than any other flower and "flags" are the wildflower that only comes in white or light purple. My Grandmother "Grace Ella" was the president of the Oklahoma Iris Society in the 40's

Now I am susposed to tag some other internet artist friends...so here they are:

1. Toni Curtis

2. Baron Farha

3. Partricia Schweitzer

4. Chris Tessner

5. Kristin Bolton

Copper Queen finished Pic

2008-10-08T07:26:00.001-07:00

This is the final pic that I am using for Aileen's Mannequin Art Doll Contest. I took this pic yesterday and it turned out to be the best one I had so I am posting it for everyone to see.

New Pages for Altered Book Round Robins

2008-10-05T14:01:00.001-07:00

These are my 2 spreads for Mary Schweitzer's beautiful AB "Vintage People with Wings".

This is my other spread for Toni Curtis's Inspiring Women AB. These pages are dedicated to Fredia Kahlo.

These are the spreads for Nessa Math's AB book called "Wish". This is the last book in this RR on Our Round Robin Alterered Book Group...It has taken 9 months, and the books are so awesome...the pics do not do these books justice. My book "Angels" will be coming home this week and I am very excited to see it in person.

Presenting the Copper Queen

2008-09-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is the front view on the "Art Doll" from a 12" mannequin I got from Outside the Margins...Aileen is sponsoring a contest over there and I thought I would try it out. I have never made a "mannequin art doll" before.I needed something around the neck so I used a silk flower, I took the flower apart and painted it with the Copper Lumiere, when the petals were dry I cut the sections in half and glued them around the neck like a collar. After I attached the sleeves I layered the flower petals and feathers (3 layers) you know petals, feathers,petals, feathers, petals, feathers...I embellished the sleeves with some more flower petals (the smaller center petals)and some copper beads and some more feathers (did I mention I love feathers?) The dress skirt is the only sewing that I did on the doll...that was just to gather the fabric to fit around the waist. (Hand sewn not machine) The skirt is two layers, the under layer is full length and the top layer is shorter with feathers glued to the hem. I used some of the copper ribbon (like on the head dress) to make a "belt" then I curled the ribbon around a pencil..this ribbon is pre wired so it stays in the curls.
This is a back view of the doll and you can see the feathers that go all the way around the upper skirt. The wings are made from a feather butterfly that I had and I just painted it with the same copper paint and added some copper glitter on the wing tips.
This is a close up of the "breast plate" it is made with some vintage jewelry pieces that I put together with some beads and a dragonfly charm...I hot glued it to the upper front of the dress. The Copper Queen also has a scepter made from a wooden bar-b-que skewer wrapped with the copper ribbon. I added some fibers and beads. There is a little bird on the top of the scepter...It was yellow but I painted it copper and added some feathers to match the dress.

I really enjoyed making this doll and I like the way it turned out...I am off now to create her "sister" the the "Golden Warrior Princess"...I may have to make them a step-sister, the "Silver Ice Princess". Looks like I might have to order some more mannequins from Outside the Margins. You know sometimes your muse just goes off on a trip and luckily you get to ride along...lol.

The beginning of the Copper Queen

2008-09-27T10:47:00.001-07:00

The process of making the mannequin into an "Art Doll" has begun, this is where I was about noon yesterday...I made the face out of Fimo Clay using a pop out mold, the copper paint is #564 Super Copper by Lumiere (I just love this paint) I painted the entire mannequin and the face. I then glued the face on with E6000.

The hair is made of copper colored tassels from some trim I got 75% off (of course) at Hancocks...I found an old "bone" bead in my stash and painted it copper, and glued it to the top of the head...I used some copper ribbon I got at Michaels ($1 bin of course...what else would you expect from the "Bargain Queen") I folded the ribbon and hot glued it to the copper paint bead.

There was a nice big hole in the bead so I squirted in some hot glue and added the feathers and the tear drop shaped stone (up side down) I got this glass tear drop from a hanging sun catcher that my brother gave me a year or so ago...he is always bringing me great "stuff", just because he is a cool and awesome brother.

I then glued some feathers behind the head, I wanted them to accent the head, you know like a big stand up collar, don't all Queens have those big stand up collars???? I got some copper "sparkellye" fabric at Hancocks. (they had all of their Halloween Costume fabric on sale 50% off). I cut a strip of the fabric and wrapped it around the upper torso.

Standing in line for new clothes! Pick me, pick me!

2008-09-24T06:14:00.001-07:00

These mannequins came to my studio this week, from Outside The Margins, they are getting measured for some new out fits (they believe that they can become Art Dolls). I am sure they were dancing around this morning in the studio, but they just "froze" when I walked in. A few of them tried to get my attention by raising their hands. These 3 are just jealous because "The Copper Queen" has already gotten her paint and is sporting part of the pattern for her costume. I hope you check back soon to see what kind of trouble these future "Art Dolls" get into. There is a contest over on http://www.outsidethemargins.com/ to make an "art doll" using a 12" wooden mannequin (available for only $4). Aileen has some really great art products that I can't seem to find anywhere else. Her prices are excellent and her service is great. She doesn't know that I am giving her this "plug". I just like to share that I am a happy customer of hers and thought some of you might like to get in on this fun project.

Yipppeeee

2008-09-22T05:29:00.000-07:00

I am really excited to say that I won the bid on Christy's Collage #B (see below). It is such a worthy cause and I was so pleased to be able to participate. Thanks Christy for all of your hard work...just wait until you have walked the bridge and then you will really have done the hard work...lol....I see a foot massage in Christy's near future.

Christy's Collage Auction for Alzhiemers Research

2008-09-17T05:22:00.000-07:00

These 3 collages were made by my friend, partner and awesome artist Christy. Christy's mother-in-law has Alzheimer's and there is a "Memory Walk 2008" campaign in Fort Meyers, Florida to raise money for Alzheimer's Research...so Christy has created these 3 collages that are being auctioned off over on her blog... http://averageamericangirl.com/ If you could take a few minutes out of your busy schedule sometime this week to check it out that would be great...all of the info is on Christy's blog. Collage C
Collage B
Collage A

Go check it out.... http://averageamericangirl.com

Experiments with Watercolor & Acrylics

2008-09-14T12:08:00.000-07:00

I tried some experimental background techniques using watercolor paper...I wet the paper and then I used sponges to apply different colors of acrylic paint. Starting with the lightest (yellow) color, layering on med colors (orange & turquoise) and then the darkest color (purple). As the paper and the paint dried it became more intense...then I used a smaller sponge and applied more purple.

I had carved some geometric stamps on linoleum blocks, I stamped the background with these stamps using black (permanent) ink...then I applied orange and turquoise dimensional paint to accentuate the design of the stamp.

This is another lino carved stamp that I carved (inspired by Sherrill Kahn). I stamped it in black and use the same process of embellishing the design using dimensional paint.
This a free hand "Angel" drawn with dimensional paint...these paints are really made for writing on fabric (like T-shirts)....I like the small pointed tip, because you can get some great detail with it....the other stamps are mine...and embellished with the dimensional paint also.

After the purple sponge printing..I used some watercolor daubers to make poka dots...the part I really liked about this section is the white of the paper showing through the paint...just like in a watercolor painting the white of the paper gives a "sparkle" to everything.
I think these will make a great start for a collage. I could add some layers of paper and dry brush gesso, then some images and 3-D stuff...that might be cool..I think the possibilities are endless now that I have the backgrounds done...
These backgrounds were done on some 100% cotton fabric that I had washed and dried in the dryer...it came out all "crinklie" and I kinda liked that...I wet the fabric (just like the watercolor paper) and spread it out on my work surface...then I applied acrylics and watercolor to the fabric just like I did to the paper...the color seemed to be a little more intense than on the paper...but that could have been because the fabric was not as wet as the paper...after all this was just an experiment...lol.

I cut off a piece of the paper with the intentions of embossing...but the paper was too thick to emboss...so I just stenciled the embossing design using my gel pens...you can't tell in the pics but there is a lot of glistening parts because some of the gel pens were metallic.

Some more sections of the fabric background...
After the fabric dried...I ironed the back side...to heat set the paint.
This is a close up of the middle of a doll that I free handed on a section of the pre-painted fabric...another idea from Sherrill Kahn...After I drew the doll on the fabric I embellished it with dimensional paint and stamps.

This is a close up of the top of the doll...I applied beads to the design (which is not finished...I always forget to photograph my work in progress)
This is a view of the entire doll...the face will be made from polymer clay...I really love the colors of the back ground fabric...once I have finished the embellishments, I will stuff the doll and take some more pics (she is 22" tall)...You know I always like to include the size of my projects, because it is really hard to tell how big or small something is in pics. Check back soon for the finished product.

More Inspiring Women Spreads

2008-09-03T11:32:00.000-07:00

These are the tags for the pockets in one of the Georgia O'Keeffe spreads for my Inspiring Women AB RR for our ICE Group. I had so many pictures of her and her art work that I decided to make some tags to display the pics...I just glazed the tags with some Golden Glazes and then used the same stamp on them that I used on the pages of the book. This is my 1st Georgia O'Keeffe spread...I glazed 4 pages and then folded the 2 middle pages down and glued them to make pockets for the tags...I stamped (just a little foam stamp that I like, not sure where I got it...one of my bargain stamps!) then I used some border stickers that I got at Big Lots (they always have great scrap booking bargains), then I used one of the quotes from Georgia O'Keeffe at the bottom right...just click on the pic and you can read it...
This is the 1st page of my AB for the RR...the back ground is Golden Glazes (3 colors.. warm, cool, warm) the yellow dollies are some I got in Santa Fe at a really cool place called "Jack-a-lope", they had all kinds of Mexican paper stuff, great beads and lots of other stuff to numerous to mention...Then I used a little swirly stamp and a portrait stamp by Stampabilities "Woman in Waiting" from Hobby Lobby (On sale of course.. lol..) The lettering is made from some foam alphabet stamps highlighted with markers...I got some new markers at Sam's the other day they are made by Bic and they are permanent ink...but they are pastel colors...been experimenting with them a little...nice colors. I added some colored rhinestones around the dollies...you know I just have to have a little "glitz". The fringe at the bottom is a little ribbon trim with sequins as the fringe...it was perfect for this page. I am working on my other spreads, should have mailed today...but my room mate Susan, fell at Band Practice and broke her wrist, yesterday so I am running a little behind. Awwwhhhaaahhh don't you just love Life 101?

The beginning of Inspirational Women AB RR for ICE

2008-08-31T10:28:00.000-07:00

This is the back of my book where I made 2 niches...I glued the pages together then I cut the niches...I covered the pages with some Japanese (white on white w/gold highlights) paper that I got at the Flax store in San Francisco...did I already say if I ever move to SF, that I will either live in this store or at least try to get a job there so I can take my salary home in paper...lol... Then I glued some pearl and net border (I got it at Hancocks) around the edges...it really is pretty...my plan is to make a "page protector sheet" bead (from Sherrill Kahnn's new book) in the small niche and a 3D embellishment in the large niche...the reason I made the niches is because my book is fairly large (in pages) and there are only 7 player/artist in this particular RR... This is my sign in spread...the sign in cards are Bridal Shower Invitations that I got on the clearance at Wal Mart...of course I didn't know what I was going to do with them but it turned out that they were perfect for this...don't you just love when that happens? I cut of the part that said "You Are Invited" with some decorative scissors and wrote over the stuff inside to read Name: Address: E-Mail: & Blog:, so each of the player/artist can fill in their info...Sometimes little things can lead you in a direction with your art when you least expect it...that pesky muse of mine does that sometimes. I really did not intend to alter my book in such a "girly" way...but the stage is set. The paper in the back ground is some that my friend Christy in Fort Myers, FA. sent me, I am sure it is because it is pastel and she is definitely not a pastel kind of girl...of course she is not an "Average American Girl" either but she claims to be...lol...I added some beaded ribbon and the Antique Crochet is some that my Grand mother made for pillow cases back when I was just a weeeeee lass....we won't go there, but trust me it is "Antique".
This is the cover of my Inspiring Women AB...I really was going to do something with a lot of texture and bright colors...but I decided I wanted my book to feel soft...so I put some quilt batting on it and then I had this beautiful blue upholstery fabric (left over from another project) the lace trim came from another trip I had taken to SanJose several years ago and my friend Neldi took me to an Asian Fabric store that had every kind of lace known to man...really...the letters are some embroidery letter from Hancocks...then I added the pearls around the letters and I used white dimensional paint with a very small holed writing cap to write the rest of the words...the "hinges" are some Tim Holtz Grungeboard pieces painted gold with Lumieres...the piece of the spine is a glass slide embellishment that my friend Toni Curtis made for me...it is just perfect....so my texture turned soft and my bright colors turned pastel...with a little help from my muse and friends....more spreads to come in the next couple of days, because the mailing date is Tuesday....So the fun for the Inspiring Women AB RR is just starting....watch for more posts on this subject...I am sure they will be fun...

"A View of the World", Lin Collette's AB

2008-08-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

This is the first spread I did in Lin Collette's AB "A View of the World". I decided to use the 2008 Olympics in China as the theme for my view of the world, since it is what is going on in the world right now....I had no problem finding images for these spreads since there were so many to choose from on the Internet...I used Golden Glazes for the back ground...along with a map of China that was available from Dover Publications last week...I used a border punch and then glued some red card stock behind it. I found some images of the Olympic Torch and then used some metallic wrapping paper to make the flames...I embellished with some Asian coins from Stampington and a Chinese New Year ornament. I made 5 tags using the official characters used for the Olympics. The back of the tags have the official Logo on them.
The second spread has a pocket holding a Chinese envelope that contains all kinks of pictures of Beijing, the Olympics buildings and ceremonies. The words I wrote are about World Peace...because that was the feeling I got from watching this amazing event...I used a grunge board swirl, some metallic Koi Fish stickers, a foam embellishment that is stamped with one of my hand carved lino stamps and some 3-D black and white letters. The background is sprayed Moon Mist and sea sponge (which I love the look of) stamping using Lumiere paint.
I just thought that the sign-in tags that the other artist (Chris Tessnear of North Carolina, Lorraine Watson, Dawn Gold and Kristen Bolton, all of the UK) were so awesome that I would include this pic for you to see.

This is a close up view of the envelope that holds the images of the Olympics...I got these darling envelopes from Lisa at Collage Stuff, she has all kinds of really neat and hard to find embellishments.
I hope Lin likes the work that we have done in her book, because it is really a terrific book...a real treasure to keep forever.

The ICE Group is going full steam ahead and starting another AB RR with the theme of "Inspirational Women"...all the player/artist involved in this new RR are really excited and creating some wonderful AB covers...I can't wait to get started....

A Little Collage for Val

2008-08-14T17:46:00.000-07:00

This is a small (5"x7") collage that I made for Val Foster...I call it the "Biological Clock".

Chris's Birdland Book for ICE AB RR

2008-08-11T09:40:00.001-07:00

These are the spreads I did for Chris, for her "Birdland" book. The book is so awesome I wish everyone could see it in person....We are in the 5th month of our Round Robin over in the ICE Group and the books are really starting to set some awesome art work in them...no wonder, since everyone in this RR is so very talented.

This first spread presented me with a little diliemma...the spread had been gessoed and then two precious little birds had been drawn near the bottom...my dilemma was did Chris prep this page so that one of us would add our art work to it or did she just want the spread left like it is?...as I looked through the book I saw several spreads that were done the same way, you know with gesso and drawings...so I decided to take a chance and add some art (I use the term loosely here because the art was really already done by Chris) I used a quote by Aesop: "It is not only fine feathers that make the fine birds" and I added some beaded fringe to the top...then I glued some beautiful feathers to the pages...I sure hope this is what Chris had in mind....

These 2 spreads were a lot of fun...The one with the hummingbirds is definitely the most colorfull...for the back ground I used some Asian Gold Leaf paper and I put a bird nest pic on the Gold Leaf then I cut up some brown paper (a Braum's sack to be exact) that I had sponged with some brown and black paint, to make it look like sticks. The other background is a sponging technique that I use from Sherrill Kahn, on water color paper. The square in the right hand corner is also a technique that is from Sherrill Kahn, using foam sheets that have been heated and stamped (my own original hand carved stamp) then painted with Lumiere paints...The hummingbirds have on crowns with a little jewels and feathers. The quote on the left side is:"Never look for birds of this year in the nest of last year". Then I added a fiber covered gold metallic pipecleaner and tied hummingbird charms to the fibers on the right edge of the page.

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer...It sings because it has a song" is the quote I used for this page...The background is some printed paper that I embellished with "Squirt" fabric paint and some wooden leaves and flowers. My friend Susan the musician made the music notes (she says I don't make them right). Then I glued on some beaded fringe...I didn't think this book had enough "stuff" hanging out of it hence the fringe and the fibers...lol....Chris is going to love it. (I hope)

This is the last spread that I did, the background is some beautiful printed tissue paper that my friend Christy sent me...the pocket at the bottom is made from a dry brush technique on heavy textured card stock...the trim is some gold and white braid that I have been wanting to use ever since I bought it in...lets see...1994 maybe. I used my feather and crow stamps and made tags with pics of birds on them, I stamped the crackle design on the tags before attaching the pics...then I embellished them with some embroidery and beaded flowers...they turned out pretty cool. Well these are my spreads for your book Chris...I hope you like them.

Spreads for "Realization" AB

2008-08-08T07:17:00.001-07:00

These are the spreads I did for Amanda Stirm's AB "Realization" over on Our Round Robin Altered Book Group. I think my favorite spread is the one using Norman Rockwell's painting of a young artist running with her art supplies and easel. I got the image from a calendar that my mother saved for me...she saves all kinds of cool stuff for me to use in my altered books. Aren't mothers the best?

I Wanted to tell you about the "Foam" doll...she came with her own "stick on" clothes. She is like a paper doll but she is made out of foam...(one of those Michael's bargains) so I put her clothes in a clear yellow envelope and used the label from the package that said dress me...I painted the back ground with Golden Glaze to match the envelope and then I glued some pink trim down the edges of the pages...it will be a lot of fun to dress the doll...I love making pages that are interactive...it gets the viewer involved in the art....there are lots of other pages in this book that things to touch and enjoy.

Spreads for "Quilts" AB

2008-08-08T07:06:00.001-07:00

These are the 4 spreads I did for my friend Priscilla Hoekstra's "Quilts" altered book in a round robin over on OurAlteredBookRoundRobin Group. I hope she likes them...I found the quilt pics on a web site called Quilts.com. Silla is the one that writes the poems I used in my altered board book "Haiku by Silla", which you can see in my older posts...she is a very talented artist that I am happy to call friend.

Everything Georgia O'Keeffee

2008-08-05T22:20:00.001-07:00

This is a numbered print of Georgia O'Keeffee by Dan Budnik taken not long before she died, (she was 98 years old when she died) I loved the Alexander Caulder mobile in the back ground....I go it in the gift shop at the Georgia O'Keeffee Museum in Santa Fe. I am going to frame it with some other postcard pics that I got of her and make a collage of them in our dining room. Of course I got a lot of her note cards and Susan and I got Georgia O'Keeffee T-Shirts.

These are pics I took of the front and back of Georia O'Keeffee's home in Abiquiu. During the tours they don't allow you to take pics of anything...

This the church that Georgia O'Keefe painted so many times...if is atop a hill just to the south of her home in Abiquiu. It was so exciting to be able to see it in person.

These are some pics I took of the Church in Abiquiu, New Mexico. The church has been very well taken care of and they have services there every week. The church is owned by the Arch Diocese of Santa Fe. It is named Saint Thomas Catholic Church and is located on the plaza in the Pueblo of Abiquiu. This historic church has been a continuous place of worship for over two hundred years

The doors are all solid carved wood. Abiquiu is where Georgia O'Keeffee had her home and studio.

There are a lot of things going on out here in the dessert. In August there is a "Fiesta of Santa Rosa de Lima" which is celebrated each year and begins with the carrying of the statue of Santa Rosa to anto Tomas Church.

In October the "Annual Abiquiu Studio Art Tour" takes place on Columbus Day weekend. It is a driving tour that takes visitors to over 50 artists who open their studios to the public to show & sell their art.

Some More Flowers

2008-06-26T05:53:00.000-07:00

Every year during the Easter Season our church decorates the whole church with Easter Lillies and then the parishioners take the Lillies home on Easter Sunday...Susan and I each get a pot and I plant them in the flower bed...These lillies are the result of the last 2 years...They didn't bloom until the 1st of June this year but they were so beautiful that I just wanted to share them with you.

The Hydrangea was a gift for Susan at the end of school. It has been blooming for over a month and is still covered with buds. The Hibiscus is a plant that Susan got for me because of my knee replacement surgery. It is so gorgeous...The center is red...One day it had 14 blooms and is now covered with buds...we had a bad hail storm and the leaves took quite a beating, but it has recovered and is ready to bloom again. Hopefully it will bloom all summer...it reminds me of Acapulco where they grow wild.

New Concept in Construction

2008-06-26T05:22:00.001-07:00

I was reading Holly Harrison's Book "Altered Books, Collaborative Journals, and Other Adventures in Bookmaking" and a fan fold book called "Towers" by Michael Jacobs, tweaked my interest...because usually I make fan fold books with a theme in mind and I create the pages to lead the viewer through them just like you would read a regular book. But the "Towers" FF book is like a series of collages that are connected to each other. So my idea was to stretch myself to step out side my safety zone of former successes with this type of FF book....Below are the collages that I have created: Each collage has a front and a back, and ea. one is very different...sorta of...I used some of my hand carved stamps, prisma pencil, napkin designs (applied with Mod Podge), a large "script stamp" from Stampabilities and I worked on card stock using hand made papers that were a gift from Christy Sobolewski (That Average American Girl). I used Mod Podge to "stick" down the hand made paper to the card stock, then when it was dry I created 8 individual collages ( of course you all know how hard it is to venture out of your comfort zone) so when I finished the pages I looked at them and I realized that even though each page was different, they still had many similarities...Now the next step is to cut them into smaller pages that will be hinged together to make a Fan Fold Book...I hope you come back to see the end result in a week or so.

Doors and Windows AB

2008-06-26T05:03:00.001-07:00

These are 4 spreads that I have just finished in Corrie Manning's AB for a RR that I have been working with for about 6 months...all of these books (there are 10 ABs) are just fantastic...The theme selected by each player is very inspirational, so it is not hard to come up with ideas, and it is very interesting to me that each artist's interpretation of the theme is so diversified. Every book I have worked in is a wonderful work of art. We should be finished by October and I can't wait to see my book..."Angels"...and enjoy the art work of the other 9 artist....

A Handmade Get Well Card from Toni Curtis

2008-06-26T04:50:00.000-07:00

This is a beautiful hand made "Get Well" Card that I received from my on line friend and fellow artist Toni Curtis (Toni lives in Lousiana). Toni makes the most beautiful "Gypsy Bags" and art...she is what I call a "Southern Bell-Gypsy" because her work is so wonderful, free spirited, exciting and just plain awesome. You can see her work at http://artisajourney.blogspot.com Please visit her blog and enjoy the art there.

THANK YOU SO MUCH TONI....

Journals, RRABs and Beginning Fan Fold Book

2008-06-26T04:38:00.000-07:00

These are 3 pages (well really six pages or 3 spreads) I have just completed in a Traveling Journal. This Journal is one of the projects that I have been envolved with in the Serendipity Journal Group, this project is in its 6th month and all of the journals are just awesome....I can't wait to see my journal that is in the UK at this time. It is great to see the pictures but to hold the journals in your hands and be able to read everyones entries is just the best.

Butterfly and Heart Neclaces

2008-06-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

This necklace was made for Alex, Christy's daughter in Fort Myers, Florida...I hope she gets it in the mail before she sees it posted here...she is a very talented artist as is her mother.

The Butterfly Book necklace is a little "Diddy" I made up for Christy. I is a butterfly image folded in half with butterfly shaped signature sewn into the middle and a blue ribbon for the necklace. Then some fun fibers added for sparkle (OMG I do love sparkle)...these went off to Florida yesterday with the book below. I hope they enjoy both....

Butterfly Altered Board Book

2008-06-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

I am sending this book to Chrisy in Fort Myers, Florida...."The Above Average American Girl" that loves butterflies.

This is a small children's board book that I altered using a butterfly theme...I got quotes from the Internet and butterfly images from everywhere...including some terrific paper that I got in San Francisco at the Flax store (I could live at this store). The back grounds consist of tissue paper, raw silk samples and some printed pages from a 1880's book. I used all kinds of embellishments from paper dollies, glazes, silk flowers and lots of fibers.

Flower Arrangements

2008-06-04T07:59:00.001-07:00

These are a few of the 24 table arrangements that I made for the Oklahoma Wild Life Federation Banquet. They really turned out pretty.

I Want to Talk about Paper

2008-05-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

I have been visiting with some other like minded artist and we all LOVE paper. Following is a couple of pages that I have been writing in my journal. A little serious and a little humor...but all so true.

PAPER

Let me share some thoughts I have about paper. Sometimes the thoughts are more like feelings. Thoughts are in my head and they spurn feelings that consume by entire body. Paper has been a huge part of my life as long as I can remember.

I love all kinds of paper: brown paper bags, wrapping paper (whether it is around a new pair of shoes in a box or around a wonderful surprise wrapped for Christmas, birthdays or an anniversary gift), hand made paper which I have made or machine made paper with beautiful fragrant flowers pressed into it, slick magazine papers, textured or smooth drawing paper, news print still on the roll brought home by my father who worked for a newspaper, water color paper, thick or thin (40lb or 300lb)hot pressed or cold pressed. The yellow paper used in the telephone book, crepe paper, plain copy paper, card stock, wall paper, and any kind of paper made from natural fibers or man made fibers.

Paper is the most versatile art medium there is to use. It can be used as a tool to apply paint or glue. It can be used as a tool to correct and error. Not that artist make errors...lol. It can be used to clean up a mess and then smooth it out and use it as part of a college. I just love paper...I know I said that before.

Paper can be made into a hat (like pressmen wear to keep the ink out of their hair) a pair of shoes, a purse or even a dress (One time, in 1968, the Yellow Pages had an advertising campaign, they gave away dresses made out of the yellow pages and my friends Mary and Alene and I got these dresses and wore them to a party, as soon as we began to perspire the paper began to fall apart, we were really glad we wore "appropriate" underwear).

Window shades can be made from paper. Furniture can be made from paper: when I was in collage in 1959, my room mates at North Texas State University, who were twins from Nacogdoches, Texas, they had some pressed cardboard paper tables that were really strong.

Of course don't forget something that is black and white and red all over....the newspaper...lol....ok, old joke. They say that newspapers are one of the "cleanest" things to use when delivering a baby. WHAT? I am not sure what that means but in the movies they would always say: "Cover the table with newspaper and boil some water." I had 3 babies and I never heard any thing about boiling water or newspapers. It's a wonder my babies survived.

We wrap our food and flowers in paper. We wrap our garbage in it and throw it away. We write on paper, we praise paper, we waste paper, we draw on paper, we fold paper into shapes (Origami), we roll tobacco in paper, we roll paper into beads to make jewelry and embellishments. We decorate with paper. We cover the walls and the ceiling with paper. We mail paper, we weave paper, we use paper to wipe everything from the floor to the ceiling. From the time we are born we use paper to wipe our bottoms and our tops and everything in between. I have heard that if everyone would recycle just their Sunday newpapers that would be enough paper that not another tree would have to be cut down to make paper....WOW! that sounds like a "Texas Whopper"...but what if it is true?

Paper is stiff, paper is soft, paper is transparent, paper is thick and thin, paper can last for centuries or it can disintegrate with the drop of a water monocule or the heat of an iron. Paper can burn, or be used to start a fire. Paper can be made into the most beautiful book you could imagine, and then that book could be altered into an awesome work of art.

Paper is a wondrous thing that we all seem to take for granted! I am sure there is something that paper can't do, but for the life of me I can't think of it now.

I Love Flowers

2008-05-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

I love flowers. These are only a few of the pics I too yesterday on the way home from my pre op appointment with the knee surgeon. We stopped at one of the "Flower Tents" that spring up in shopping center parking lots this time of the year. I probably took 30 pics and then tried to edit them a little to put on my blog. They are all so beautiful and varied that I just couldn't stop taking pictures. I hope you enjoy viewing them here even though they are so much more beautiful in person......

Summers in Full Bloom

2008-05-28T08:03:00.000-07:00

Individual Pages of "White"

2008-05-17T07:11:00.001-07:00

Standin Fan Fold "White Book"

2008-05-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

These are a couple of views of my Standing Fan Fold "White Book". In an earlier post I gave some info about materials and techniques that I used in the creation process,
but the final construction was the biggest challenge...since I tore the pages instead of cutting them it was impossible to attach the pages together using the sticks (which was my original plan) so I used my Zutter Bind it All to attach the pages together and added some beads and feathers to the sticks and then I used ribbon and glue to attach the sticks to the back of each page. I really like the way the pages fold better now using the bind it all wires. With all of the embellishments it was going to make it difficult for the book to lay flat when closed. The book is made up of 8 pages all with white embellishments. Air dried clay charms, feathers, eyelash fibers, tyvek papers, buttons, pearls, chip board swirls and some found mesh. I have been doing sketches for this book for about 3 years...it is interesting how the process changes things. You have an idea of the finished piece and you make some notes, then you begin the process of creating each page and it takes on a life of its own. Each page is a 6"x10" collage. It has taken me about 3 months from beginning to finish, not counting the hours of sketches and notes. But I think it was all worth it, because it is very close to my original idea. I will post the individual page pics later.

THE MOST IMPORTANT POST ON THIS BLOG (EVER)

2008-05-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

This is a letter from a fellow artist that I want to share with anyone reading my blog. This is so very important and I hope you will take the time to join this campaign to stop this legislation. This legislation will impact all artists world wide.

If you can't take time to contact your legislator, president or governor, at least click on the link below and sign the petition, it only takes about 3 minutes.

If the links don't work...just cut and paste the url into the address bar...this is that important.

The US government, as well as a few countries in Europe are trying to pass legislation that requires all artists of any kind (artists,designers, musicians, writers, filmmakers) to register their creations with private registries for a fee. If creations are not registered, they become "Orphaned Works" which means basically that they have no copyright and become public domain- meaning that anyone can sell or distribute them without the original artist seeing any income whatsoever.

You can read more about it here;http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=

Below is a link to sign a petition against this act;
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/no-to-orphan-works-act.html

Below is a link with the contact information for the president and all US senators, representatives, state governors and legislators;
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

Please let us all as beings whom express themselves in creating and/or enjoy others expression put a stop to this.

Forward this to everyone and anyone you know, especially other groups and artists.Please take the time to share this info and drop a quick note to your congress.:

Love Light and Peace:Carol

Here is a great link where you can read what has gone on and what is going on with this bill...including a link to the actual bill. You can check it out for your self.
http://www.copyright.gov/orphan/

Dawn's Little Altered School Book for ICE RR

2008-05-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

These are my pages that I altered for Dawn Gold's Altered Book in the ICE RR. Her book is so precious...it is an antique picture album, from the 1800's. It is only 5"x6", and only enough pages for each artist to alter 1 spread. so I made a fan fold that is the same 5"x6" but folds out too 13". That gave me lots of room to play...Dawn's theme for this book is "School Days"......The fold out is made from some pages that came out of a 40's 3rd grade reader book.
This is not really a picture of a teacher that I had when in school, but it is a picture of my friends Great Aunt who was a teacher in the 20s...and I thought it was perfect for Dawn's book. Teachers sure don't look like this now days....

"White" Book

2008-04-28T07:26:00.001-07:00

These are pics of my new "White" book. I have been working on it for a little over 2 weeks, although I had done thumbnail sketches and drawings in my art journal, an on going idea for over 3 years...it is just one of those projects that starts with a little spark of an idea and keeps growing until it catches fire and you have to light it up. Somethings happened spontaneously: like the Embossed Wallpaper Boarder that was left over from my brother and sister-in-laws new house, the air dry clay pieces that were inspired by a project over on The Artist Circle workshop using Sherrill Kahn's new book "Creative Embellishments", Tyvek paper from Flax Paper Store in San Francisco.

This is a "Standing" Fan Fold Book...it is designed to stand instead of laying flat. There are 8 pages connected with ribbon and dowel sticks that have been sanded and painted. Each stick has a wooden Tulip at the top. The pages are 140 lb. watercolor paper, torn into 6"x10" sheets. The next layer is cheese cloth applied using ModPodge. Then scraps of watercolor paper that were torn and "crinkled" using a Friskar's crimper, were glued on using ModPodge. The embellishments are Crayola Air Dry clay, I used a mold for the faces and free form technique for the other shapes. I made holes in some of the shapes so I could attach fibers to hang down. I used another technique from "Ceative Embellishments" using pipe cleaners wrapped with the same white eyelash yarn. I used Sea Glass (I bought the bag of glass at Hobby Lobby...on sale of course...lol...always "on sale" that is my motto) the adhesive I used for the glass and the clay pieces is Golden Thick Gel Medium. The other adhesives I use on this book are: E6000, PVC White Glue, Elmers White Glue, glue stick and the Gel Medium. (The embellishment determined the adhesive I used) After everything was glued together, I painted the embossed wallpaper border with white acrylic paint, but I didn't like the dull look, so after it dried I painted it with Golden Glaze Pearl. That gave it the sheen that I wanted plus the look of pearls that looked good with the pearls I used for embellishment on the front of the pages.

These are 4 of my "sorta" finished pages. I say sorta, because I went back and added some more embellishments to them. I will be posting the completed book shortly, just waiting for everything to dry so I can photograph it.....

My Spreads for "Once Upon A Time"

2008-04-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

These are the spreads I did for an Altered Book (owned by Heidi Bazilian) in a Round Robin over on Our RR Altered Book Yahoo Group. I use Alice in Wonderland for my images...most of them came from the Internet. Some were B&W and I colored them with Gel Pens...I love my Gel Pens and I love to color...so this was great fun. I am kind of particular about how I cut out images...I see some people just cut out the images and leave a lot of the back ground around the edges, but I like to detail cut out the images...usually when I am sitting around watching TV (Oh I guess I should say HDTV now...lol) at night. Always have to have these hands busy you know....so there is a lot of detail cutting in these spreads, the flowers, the teapots and the maze. I used a really really tiny vial to put a note in, it says Drink Me... and it has some tiny little glitter stars in the bottom, I hope nobody really tries to drink it...lol...

You have to turn the Maze Spread side ways to see the full effect. The picture below is turned so you can see the whole spread vertically. It kinda formed an optical illusion for some reason...but I think it looks pretty cool...It is really made up of 3 different pictures...1 with Alice,( I cut around the maze so the text in the book could show through) 1 with the "Card Guards"marching thru the maze, and the "Queen of Hearts" was an individual image that I glued on top. Of course all of these particular images are from Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

This is the first and last spreads that I did. The 1st one above, has a mirror glued down on to pages that were glazed with Golden Glazes using a technique from "Altered Books Workshop" by Bev Brazelton...it seems like I use a lot of stuff from this awesome book. I also added a strip of cloth (a remnant from another project using techniques by Sherrill Kahn) at the bottom of the page and glue some little lilac vintage trim on top of the cloth. I did some stamping with gold ink and added the ribbon around the mirror and along the edge of the 2nd page. There is a silk flower glued on the corner of the mirror and a teeny tiny vial wired through a gold eyelet. Remember when Alice found the little bottle that said "Drink Me"?

The last page is also a Disney Image of the Card Guards holding up a banner that says The End. The maze part on the left of the page is folded over from the page before. I like to fold over images and glue them down to the next page...it seems to make the work just flo from one page to the next.

Haiku by Silla Board Book

2008-04-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

This is the board book I made in the workshop by Leslie over on Artist Circle Yahoo Group. I call it Haiku by Silla...because my friend Priscilla Hoekstra writes Haiku poetry and she allowed me to illustrate a book using her poetry...is she awesome or what? This was great fun and because the workshop lasts until the end of April I am busy making 2 more smaller shaped board books. I will post them soon.

There is an earlier post about the processes I used in prepping the book and some of the techniques that Leslie gave us. Of course (as usual) mine seems to be really different than everyone Else's...go figure.

I tried to down load the pages in order...but you know how this blog thingy is "A mind of it's own"
This is the second page in the book.
This is the back cover.
This is the front cover.

BIG DISCOVERY

2008-04-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

OK...I have just made a Big (Huge) Discovery...when you have 2 Blogs you have to be careful when posting because you could post on one blog and think you are posting on the other blog...do I sound confused?...Well I didn't think I was until I hit the publish button and looked to see how everything came out and LOW AND BEHOLD...I had "published" my new book on http://jewelsoftheeast.blogspot.com instead of here...so I guess if you are really interested and you don't mind the 30 seconds or so to click over there, you can see my latest AB which is on its way to Patricia in Kentucky...OK so I guess if this is Monday and I am already mixed up...then the rest of the week won't be so bad....LOL...Forgiveness is another perk of being a Senior Citizen...people seem to think because you are "old" that they can forgive you for stupid mistakes...Thank Goodness...LOL...Eastism...."I have heard that when you admit your mistakes you are on the road to recovery...I just didn't know the road was so crooked and long....:)"

A Fan Fold Book

2008-04-08T14:21:00.000-07:00

This is a fan fold book made from Watercolor Paper. The buildings and the trees are molds that I made using matt board. I laid the buildings and trees on a piece of Masonite that I use for "printing plate" for a small press. The watercolor paper is submersed in water for several minutes, just long enough for it to become pliable, then the watercolor paper is placed on top of the molds and passed through the press. This embosses the shapes (in this case the buildings and the trees) into the watercolor paper. I then took the paper off the printing plate and placed it on a large piece of wool blanket that I use for couching when making paper. I let the paper dry for about 24 hours. Then I watercolor on it just like any other piece of watercolor paper...the clouds and grass are free hand, but the buildings and trees are painted within the embossing. Sometimes I like it just to be the white of the paper and I don't paint it. But, in this book I wrote a little story using my grand children's names. I made 3 of these, 1 for Bryan, 1 for Chelsea (my grandchildren) and this one I kept for my self. They loved their books by the way, I made these when Bryan was 12 and Chelsea was 7, but now that they are in their 20's they enjoy them more than ever.
The books cover is cardboard covered with handmade paper and embellished with rose buds. The books are 4"x9" when closed and 9"x30" when completely expanded.

Large Handmade Book

2008-04-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

This is a book I made using 12"x18" paper, folded diagonally. The cover is made of cardboard covered with hand made blue and natural colored paper with wood chips. The signatures are all sewn by hand using linen thread. The trim on the cover is tea dyed to match the natural color of the center section of handmade paper. The inside of the front and back cover are handmade red papers with gold flecks. The cord is black silk. A lot of people ask "What are you going to put in the book?" When I tell them "Nothing" they are surprised....I then try to explain that the making of the book is the art form. I have made a lot of books just for the sake of making the book. Because of the way I folded the paper it made for a very interesting shaped book.

Board Book Experiments

2008-04-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

These are a few of my "pages in progress" for a work shop over on Artist Circle Group. We are using Children's board books. The book I chose (Got it at Dollar Tree) was a round book that opened to 36" long (I guess I should have taken a pic before I cut it apart). When I realized that I wouldn't be able to embellish it the way it was I cut it apart with wire cutters. Then I removed the printed part by peeling it off, then I applied gesso to all of the pages.
I applied some raw silk samples I had stached away for a while (like since 1978 when I was an interior decorator...lol..) Altered Artist, well maybe artist in general, never throw anything away...well I won't go there today...lol...but I do have some good stuff......

After I put on the raw silk, tissue paper and a couple of pages with old book text for background, I Mod Podged on some lace on a few of them, and a couple of other pieces of fabric. When that was dry I painted them with Golden Glazes, using the layering technique from "18 Creative techniques for self-expression/Altered Books Workshop" by Bev Brazelton (love this book), Then I sprayed on some "Moon Glow Shadow Mists" The workshop lasts the month of April and we are in the 2nd week so I will post the progress next week....It really is fun to do these workshops on Artist Circle...you learn so many cool techniques from the participants and the teacher.

Heart Book Pages for Our AB RR

2008-04-07T05:46:00.001-07:00

These are pages in "The Heart Book". They were done in Karen Doucet's AB for "Our Altered Book Round Robin" Group...This book is awesome...Karen's husband cut the book in the shape of a heart. I really had fun working in Karen's book. Can't wait to get the next book...we have been working on this RR for 3 months and the art work in the books is just wonderful....it is nice to see the pics of the books but to see them in person is just great.

ICE Round Robin Altered Book

2008-03-31T10:30:00.000-07:00

This is the cover and Inside Cover of my latest RR AB for our "International Collaboration Experiments in Altered Books Group"

My theme is Nature and the title (as you can see) is "Where The Green Fern Grows"
This book was an old Child Craft Encyclopedia that I gleaned from the local Thrift Store for $1...great bargain...these kind of books (and school text books) work great for altered books because they were made to have a lot of wear and tear, and the spines are really strong...I figured for a RR....with 12 players, my book would get lots of wear and tear...especially since 3 of our players are in the UK and the traveling by land/sea/air or what ever the post office does with them (sometimes I suspect they use horses and camels..lol)...anyway, this is a sturdy book. I sanded the cover and then painted it with Lumineers (Love that paint). I found an "Animals of the World"
puzzle book at Borders on the clearance rack, I took the North American Animal puzzle out and measured and trimmed it to fit the front cover of my book, I put a coat of Gel Medium on the back of the puzzle (just to hold it together and make it easier to handle). When my paint was dry I glued the puzzle on with Gel Medium...then I used my new Japanese Screw Punch (gotta' love it)to drill holes through the puzzle and the cover to accommodate the Wood letters (I stained the letters Green with Golden Glazes). I attached the letters with Brass Brads....I think it worked out pretty well.
The Brass Brads holding on the wood letters on the front came through to the inside of the cover, so I needed some way to cover those and make them stationary at the same time so I put some "glops" of gel medium over the brads and stuck down some silk leaves over the brad backs. I decided it looked a little plain so I drizzled some glue around on the leaves and sprinkled on some seed beads. It is always important to put your name and address in an altered book that is going to travel, because if it should become separated from its packaging (for any one of a million reasons) then the post office would know where it belongs and hopefully return it to you. So I wrote my name and address in "Green Sparkle Gel Pen"...my grand daughter is into Gel Pens...so I have become the owner of a set of gel pens...gotta' love'm. I use them all the time now...ABs and journals...they are awesome. On the first page I used Golden Glazes for the back ground and the gel pens to write in the name of my book. I also glued some leaves and beads on this page to make the spread cohesive. To finish up I used some little butterfly stamps, that I have had for centuries, and Green Distress Inks to kinda' pull it all together.

Keepsakes for each RR Player

2008-03-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

These are some little keepsakes for each of the players in this RR. I always like to make a little something for each of the players as a remembrance of our creative time together. These little notes are made from paper that I got at Flax in San Francisco....can I just tell you how much I loved that store....The inside has a butterfly stamped on it and then I cut a heart shape from hand made green paper and sewed a butterfly charm on to the heart. The front has a butterfly stamp and some Green Braid glued onto the bottom edge. Nothing spectacular, just "special".

Sign In Pages/and tags for "Where The Green Fern Grows"

2008-03-31T09:29:00.000-07:00

This is the sign in page for my book...the background is some of the bamboo print paper that I got at Flax in San Francisco...the pockets are plain parchment paper with Green Distress Inks speared on strait from the ink pad...The tags are also colored with Green Distress Inks...The pockets are folded over at the top with a piece of lace glued in the fold and then stapled with a staple that says, "Precious". The tags have some "hairy" variegated fiber strings and are stamped with the same butterfly stamps from the previous spread and on the other side of the tag is a place for each of the other artist to sign in, Name, Address and email address.
This is a pic of how the sign in page looks with the tags out of their pockets.

My Second Page

2008-03-26T19:20:00.000-07:00

This is my second page for the EC Project...It is a Clown painted on 300lb Watercolor Paper.

The Exquisite Corpse

2008-03-19T05:26:00.000-07:00

This is the first of 2 pages made for a collaborative project based on "The Exquisite Corpse" game. There are 11 artist, from all around the world, involved in this project. We have artists from Germany, Australia and all around the US that are making their pages for this wonderfully interesting book. If you are interested in "The Exquisite Corpse" just Google the name and you can read what it is all about. I want to thank my friend Christy the "Computer Guru" of digital art, from Ft. Myers Florida for her help in making the words work on this page....I would also like to thank my friend Ingrid Dijkers for inviting me to participate in this project, and for working out all of the details and for making the covers for the book.

I chose a self portrait by Vincent Van Gogh as the starting point for this page. I made a laser print of the portrait in the size I needed, then I cut the image out and glued it onto card stock...if you look closely, you can see where the original image ends and my drawing begins....I used Prisma Pencils to complete the figure...I also used Prisma Pencils to color the back ground. I tried to make my background similar to the original painting...the challenge was to use pencils and make them appear to be oil paints, since the original was painted with oils. This is an awesome project and I am sure all of the other artist are enjoying the challenge to stretch artistically as much as I am.

Gourd Project

2008-03-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

When I was still teaching Applied Design to high schoolers, my neighbor grew some gourds, well it turned out he grew about 200 of them and he gave me 160 of them to use for my class. Well that is great, BUT...it takes at least a year for them to cure and dry. Oh my! Anyway they did dry and the kids loved making objects (like bowls, bird houses, and ladels) out of them. I made several different things, but have given all of them away (no pics). I found a couple that I had cleaned and sanded and decided to decorate them......This is the one that I just finished.....

I drew some faces on it, then I used a wood burning tool to follow my drawn lines, then I drilled holes around the top and using some red cord to attach Pine Needles around the top edge. I strung some wooden beads to hang down at the point where I started and stoped the wrapping. I used paper pulp dye and permanent markers to color in the shapes(eyes, lips and hair). To seal the whole thing I brushed on acrylic varnish.

Heeereee's Jimmy Ray...Johnny's Brother

2008-03-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

This is Jimmy Ray...he is Johnny Lee's brother...and he likes to play baseball as much as Johnny Lee likes to fish. Jimmy Ray is a paperdoll in a box, created for a swap over in my PaperWhimsy Group. I know someone with the initials RA is going to be very surprized in a few days when Jimmy Ray arrives at her house.

The paper doll is on cardstock and I used Prisma Pencils to color him. I had to paint the shoes white because they were printed in black and Prisma Pencils wouldn't cover.The box is just an old cigar box painted to match the background fabric which I made using Sherrill Kahn's methods from her "Creating with Paint" book. The grass and weeds are just that, except they have been dried and dyed. The baseball bat is a miniture wooden bat, the ball glove is painted wood, the ball is a miniture ball that I drew the red stitching on with a permanent marker. The fence is wooden and colored with markers then wired together. Those are just little rocks in the bottom. The ivy around the outside is silk and the green trim, both came from Hobby Lobby. Everything was glued in or on with Gel Medium, PVC Glue or E6000.