Merry Christmas from ICE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.