SALE TODAY!!!! 25% off!

I haven't quite finished my tutorial yet on alcohol inks but I will give you another tid bit--here's the base of my new magnet series "Love Letters" collaged on recycled wood material, using a copy of a 1944 vintage Love Letter ((not mine..heheh))) which was then distressed using Ranger's alcohol ink and distress pads with squirts of water.

Would you have guessed this is regular copy paper distressed?? Cool, huh?? :)


SALE TODAY ONLY...okay thru Sunday morning when I get up:


25% off any item in my shop!! Making way for new artwork, so stop buy and check out my new items!!


Have a safe and Happy Memorial Day weekend!

Spring Time in Paris Swap and WIP new Toys!

Spring Time in Paris It Is!!!

Oh my goodness, Oh la la isn't quite enough of a word to express how thrilled I was to receive this WONDERFUL package from dear Jen!! She is the queen of swaps. I can't even begin to list all the wonderful and thoughtful items she sent as I will surely forget something. Her handmade item was this Eiffel Tower felted collage--with the words oh la la written on the frame. TOTALLY cute! Love it! Mixed in the package you can see little bits and bobs of scrapbooking stickers, tags, and many embellishments, and a quote book. In another section she had a treasure box of darling note cards, and a beautiful turquoise plate.

This is what I opened the box and found---all these beautifully wrapped packages! (((I didn't even come close to wrapping my packages as sweetly as she did))!! You can imagine, I was like a little girl at Christmas!!

Here is a collage of all the many wonderful items she managed to pack all in one box. Another favorite is the glicee print she so kindly sent. I love the colors in it. It's inspiring me to paint something in those colors of my work. Jen also included a beautiful black sketch book for me to keep for all my design and art ideas. Right now I don't even have one would you believe. My ideas are spread out in a hundred different places and it's difficult to find them when I am ready to go make something. Love the melamine bowls she sent--they are adorable. Thank you Jen soooo very much. You are the best and I love ya!!

I hope everyone who participated in the Spring Time in Paris Swap had a good experience. Please join us again soon!!!

I thought I'd share with you some of my new toys (sorry for the dark pic-despite the fact I have had an example of the lightbulb size for the dining room light in my car for weeks--I have yet to go to the store and get more bulbs...yep...I'm down to one working bulb). Anywhoo--this new to is called fun foam. You simply heat it with an embossing gun for about 30 seconds then PRESS into anything with texture and it makes your own reusable stamp. You don't like the design??? Heat and PRESS again. Press press press press. I pressed into everything. The stove. The table cloth. metal thingys, embossed wallpaper. Good thing I have 16 of them. Who'd a thunk heating and pressing things would be sooooo fun????

More new toys....and this is only part of all the new boards I have for collages. Quite an investment, huh?? Iwill be painting and collaging away until I'm old and gray with these. I used the down time during the yard sale to sand these puppies down after Jim cut them all up for me. As typical x's do, he so kindly helped me out and picked up this board from Home Depot for me and cut them up on his table saw, ummmm after I butchered the first row (not on purpose so he would do it for me...I just couldn't saw a straight line if it killed me..lol). Seriously,, no most ex's don't do this for their ex's ---but he is a good guy and I really thank him for supporting my artwork and hobbies, and for in general still being a good friend.

Last but not least, here's some works in progress--some 6x6's i'm working on as well as some of the boards all primed and ready to go. The brown stuff is tinted modeling paste I'm using for texture on some of the pieces. Lots of fun. That's another new toy of mine!! At the bottom you can see a sneak peek of a sketch that's going on one of the canvases.

Phew. Lots to do.

Good news--the yard sale was great, sold a lot but not everything. I still made about 225 dollars and all together all of us that sold things made about 900 dollars, so not a bad day. Sunday was a dud. Live and learn. I did get my boards sanded so I guess it wasn't a waste. Ohhh and I sold 2 of my prints at the yard sale (at full price). I was soooooooo excited you think I won the Price is Right!! The customers took all of my business cards I had so that felt good. I came back inside after selling my prints and found that I sold another print on Etsy the same day. So--I really made about 240 dollars Saturday. We worked our arses off though--getting up at 4:15 am to get all the crapola out.

Bottom line. There are easier ways to make money..LOL. BUT it feels good to slim down the clutter, there's still more to go but it's one day at a time around here!

Have a good rest of the week!!

Holding Me Down to Earth

Yesterday I had the grand idea to do some thrifting but as it was, my body decided otherwise. In other words, I overslept. I guess it was an omen the day before, when after working 9 hours in a bank, I leave with barely a dollar in my wallet! How can I work all day surrounded by opportunity and forget to make a withdrawal before the end of the day??? MizFixit came to my rescue with exchanging 20 of her small bills (which I suspect she may be moonlighting at an area eatery with all those ones...lol), for a 20 at the atm when we walked out for the evening. She's a friend that always comes to my rescue !

I started driving home and remember I have pretty much nothing to eat for dinner. Get gas, and then drive over to Panera Bread for some soup and sandwich. If you haven't tried their Fuji Apple Chicken salad, run don't walk. I am a total addict. I absolutely love the apple flavored vinigerette dressing. Being one that never does things in the order she should, I get a hair up my butt to go over to Michael's after I get my dinner to see if they got in the latest Cloth Paper Scissors issue or the February issue of Artful blogger. I've checked every week. That's the only reason why I've gone into the store (lol) , honest. Of course they didn't have either. I really hated to waste my gas so I figured I might as well make my trip worthwhile and buy something. My latest obsession is collecting different types of sketching supplies. Wood less graphite pencils, charcoal pencils, charcoal wash pencils, white charcoal pencils, graphite pencils in hard, soft and medium leads. Erasers that bend like silly putty. You name it, it is going to be mine! My intentions are to work on my drawing ability as I progress on my artistic journey. I want to be able to rely less on magazine imagery in my artwork and more on my own concoctions. Although, I still love to incorporate it all. I just want less imagery in my work, although I use the imagery for inspiration.


(((((W I P "What is Next"))))))
After my trip to Michael's Friday evening, I headed home with my cold soup, intent to work well into the evening on some projects, then get up early Saturday and head out to the sales. Ya. Right. By 9 pm, my body started puking out on me, wanting nothing more than to lay my head down. I did work on a few projects, these ladies part of the 4 things I'm doing. The color wash back ground are result of extra paint that I had from doing my last two Sweet HeART pictures. I hate wasting paint, so often times, I have extra paper or projects going that I can stamp or brush on the excess paint onto. During the couple of hours I spent creating, I kept getting interupted by phone call after phone call until I finally turned the phone off at 1:00am. Needless to say, I didn't get my butt up out of bed Saturday in time to do some thrifting. Going back to forgetting my money and forgetting to take the paper I bought at work home, perhaps it wasn't meant to be.


((((((W I P "Together"))))))

I really need to have a yard sale of my own truth be told. I just don't have anything big to sell, to make some big bucks ensuring the sale is worth my while. Anyone that's ever had a yard sale, knows that getting ready for one is a huge undertaking. You need to make sure it's worthwhile. Of course, I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a sale where the people have a very small table with about 15 items on it---why in the world you would spend a morning of your life selling cast offs that won't even net you 5 dollars is beyond me. No. Hell to the NO! I'm not going to do it unless I think I can make at least 100 dollars.
So, instead of yard saling, lil man and me went in search of some new shoes. Okay shoe designers for the Shoe Department, let's get something straight. Not everyone can wear open toe shoes and strappy or non strappy sandals to work!!! Nor does a woman's foot look good in ballerina round flat soled shoes with conservative bank dress slacks. Said my peace. Nuff said. Needless to say, I did not get a new pair of shoes. 492 choices and not one of them appropriate for the bank. Or am I being picky???? Lil man got a new pair of sneakers so I guess the gas wasn't wasted, but Mama is still in need. Later in the evening we watched "Martian Child"--cute movie btw. Definitely family friendly. The child in this film pretends he is a Martian to answer the question as to why he was abandoned by his parents as a baby. Heartbreaking in so many ways. It takes an eccentric widowed science fiction fantasy writer to break through the emotional barriers of this child to hold him down to earth without his gravity belt. Although I haven't been abandoned (lately), I can understand the need to escape to a fantasy world to provide a sense of order to all that doesn't make a bit of sense. I solve my problems with a brush rather than a gravity belt and sunglasses to hold me down to earth.

((((Almost Invisible completed...added shading and some additional highlights)))


And there you have it. My Friday and Saturday. Pretty mundane. Notice I didn't include any cleaning or organizing. I have soooo not been in the mood to overhaul anything in this house. I need to hire a maid. Ha! I wish. Since a maid is not going to be in my future anytime soon, I better close this post and go and meet with Mr. Clean and see what he can do to help me out in this housecleaning debacle I've encountered. You gotta know when to pull in the resources when it gets too much for one to handle on your own. I'm woman enough to know, I need help :)
*****
CHECK OUT These latest cutie's!!

Almost Invisible WIP

WIP
Almost Invisible

I'm still experimenting this week. I so very much want to be able to paint and draw portraits well. This is going to be the year I learn to do just that, mark my words. This is still a work in progress, the background done yesterday then my lady today. She's Almost Invisible, like a shadow in the night with only the light of the moon showing just a few of her true colors. Can anyone see her? Can anyone hear her? She lurks behind the flowers damp with moonlit dew, sad for all that she is not, but hopeful for all that she may become. Watch as she grows.
Maybe taking a break was good for me. I am eager to see what I come up with next. I do believe that with focus, habits are created so hopefully one of the habits I have instilled in my every day is to do something, anything relating to my art. It can only get better from here :)

Thanks for stopping by and for all of your words of encouragement! I truly appreciate your thoughts and comments!

Sweet HeARTs by Sweet Repeats

One nice thing about blogging, just when you don't think you've accomplished enough, you start taking pictures and next thing you realize how far you've really come.
Right about now, I have no less than probably 8 projects going (that are on my craft table), and another 10 or so that are stashed away for a rainy day. More than likely, I'd feel better if I'd finish some of these works in progress. The hard thing about painting and layering though, is waiting for things to dry and set before going on to the next layer. The answer to this? Start another project and that's where the trouble begins!

4 projects in this picture. Two backgrounds that will become the base for my mini collaged hearts to the left (pink and blue), then my home I'm "building"--I think I'm going to call it "The Love Shack" LOL. I'm going to use some of my mini hearts for windows. That's as far as I've gotten the planning stage for this house. Aren't you supposed to have a blueprint before you build a home?? To the right, you'll see my new book--basically it's an old book. I think the copy right says 1963. I've been practicing drawing lips and eyes which are my down fall when drawing the human figure. If I'm being truthful, drawing the human figure really escapes me all together, not just the eyes and lips. I figured I'd take a cue from another blog
friend who is "unschooling" herself in the field of painting and art. I'm a student at heart. If it weren't for the money issue, I'd probably never have left school. I'd still be taking classes in a wide array of subjects to this day if only I could!

I finished another batch of mini hearts last night. Some are going to become magnets, and others are going on the two backgrounds I have going. I perhaps have found a new obsession!!!

Whatever it is that I have found, I hope that 2008 proves to be another year in which I progress on this journey. I think I'm really going to focus in a few areas in order to hone my skills and to work in groups of the same topic. When I look at other peoples work, there always seems to be a common thread where you can identify that artist just by looking at the work. I am lacking that. My stuff seems to be slightly all over the place. Maybe that's not unusual when you are learning new techniques and playing with new 'art toys', but I do feel I need to reel it in a little bit and find my 'muse'.

I'm surprised at how much I accomplished this week art wise. Work has been pretty chaotic lately. One of my employees who backs me up has been on vacation, I've been working on digesting all my material for my training mission I'm going on this coming week for 10 days, working 3 nights this week to finish up projects that were due and I'm still not caught up. I have tons of customers I need to touch base with, and then to top it off, I was picked to be a mentor for new manager just hired (which I am very excited about doing....I love mentoring)--the down side was since I'm going away for the merger next week, I had to slam in my mentor certification training in last week, too. In between everything there's been DS basketball games to go to, personal appointments, cleaning the house, getting ready for my trip---yikes. I've turned to drinking WAYYYY too much caffeine. I think I need to reel that habit in as well. I have high blood pressure so caffeine is not good for it--I can tell I've been a bad girl because I've been getting terrible headaches. The other day I was driving home with DS and thought my head was going to explode. My little man said to me---Momma, don't cry, don't think about it and it will go away. ....((((awwww--my answer to him when he's hurt--don't think about it and it will feel better before you know it)))). He tries to be so grown up!

Perhaps I've done more this week because I've needed to wind down more than usual?
Here's the beginning of what will be the background for my hearts. You can see the several layers already that are coming to life.

Although I didn't complete these this week--I finally got around to take pictures of more mini clipboards (about 1/2 the size of regular clipboards). I'm definitely putting these in the shop soon.

Wishes

Remember

Wish

Notes

I think I like this one best, although they all are super cute!

Last but not least--I've made an effort to start reorganizing my creative space. Proof is in the puddin'. No mind you, this is about 1/50th of what I have...LOL...but ya gotta start somewhere!

Tomorrow I'm going to haul butt and clean up this popsicle stand. I have no choice, I have packing to do, organizing, studying, more organizing, more cleaning, and I took on someone's taxes to do as well. I HOPE I have time to finish at least one of the heart pieces and time to relax a bit. Oh crap. Forgot it's the Super Bowl tomorrow as well! Well, I guess it all needs to be done by 6 pm. It's not like I'm having a party or anything, but I feel like it would be sacrilegious if I didn't make some snack foods and put the game on.
So much to do...so little time. I better relax tonight because I don't think it's happening tomorrow!

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Second Guessing Myself

Despite the beautiful weather here this weekend, we didn't have much fun in the sun. Somehow, someway, my youngest DS has come down with a case of the something or another...poison ivy? Posion sumac? Allergic reaction to something? His Dad had him Friday night and actually for a few days last week since his father was on vacation, upon return Saturday morning they tell me that he was elbowed in the eye on Thursday at the summer daycare. Hmm..okay, eye doesn't look like it got elbowed, but I took their word for it and away we went on our Saturday escapade. First stop...Panera Bread. My all time favorite bagel is their Asiago Cheese bagel with veggie cream cheese. It doesn't get any better than that. After we all filled our bellies, we proceeded to got to several more stores then drive up the road an hour to even more stores. I'm looking at DS and his face is getting red as is his neck, but he's not complaining about anything....okay....we keep on going, gotta get Father's Day gifts, hopefully find some sale Summer duds...and then get lunch because it's now 3:30 and we have been out since 9:30 in the morning. As we are sitting down for "lunch" (chicken wings....I'm a NY'er after all), I take another look at DS and it's not pretty. I now feel guilty for trampsing all over tranation with an apparently sick child. After we finished smacking our lips and licking our fingers we went home and I called his
Dad, who is the consummate worry wort, and he is all ready to take him to the emergency room. I put the breaks on that because he didn't have a feaver, wasn't complaining, wasn't acting funny, had an appetite...it didn't seem to me to warrant an emergency room jaunt. Well, turn the clocks ahead 8 hours, I get up, check on lil man.....and now his eye is about all swollen shut. I gave him benadryl, had a cold compress on him...but that really didn't do anything. So now, I'm doubting my good judgment and wondering whether or not I'm going to get in trouble for not taking prudent measures, so I do what every smart person does and called the person who is an expert on everything...my Mom.

She assures me that it doesn't sound serious....just keep giving him benedryl, get some calmine lotion, give him a bath with some Aveeno Oatmeal bath, and go to the Dr. on Monday. I've medicated him, gave him a double dose of bath packets, did the lotion thing 3 x today....and now we wait for the verdict from the Dr. I'm having a case of the guilts--I hope I made the right decision...I mean he's not going into convulsions, and not complaining about anything...and no feever--he just looks like sh&t, and he's belly is all hivey too. I will kick myself tomorrow if the Dr. says I should have taken him in rather than home medicate, but as a parent, sometimes you just go with your instinct because you don't know any better. Stay tuned--I'll be sure to update his prognosis tomorrow.

As far as crafty things, I'm trying something totally different for my newest endeavor. My latest project comes from this magazine--it has been around for about 3 years, but funny how I just found it or rather this is the first issue I have ever bought.

What you're seeing right now is a mixed media paper/fabric quilt. It's quite an interesting project-totally untraditional and so much fun. I'm jumping in despite the fact there's about 20 steps to this. I normally tune out after step 6 or 7 but I'm trying to be good and go "pretty" much along with the instructions. I do the same thing with recipes--more than 6 or 7 ingredients and 2 paragraphs and there's a pretty good chance I won't be making it. I like simple. KISS--keep it simple stupid.


First step--cut some muslin into designated color pieces---decide on how many colors and cut a coordinating amount of fabric. I skipped that direction (not a good start but I recovered) and just cut several pieces. Next, prepare your glue, get white tissue paper & colored if you have it.

Next-layer and glue your tissue paper to the fabric. I used the colors as a guide for what the main color is to be for each coordinating piece.

after that layer dries, go back and add your interesting papers, pictures, words, and then another layer of tissue. I used both colored tissue and white. While the glue is still wet, add a watered down wash of corresponding color. You can then add stamps, fabric enanchements, doodles after the paint/glue dries. That's where I ended so no more pictures but to give you an idea on how the rest comes together in a quilt, you take a bigger piece of fabric for your next, which will be your background. Do the fabric/tissue/collage/paint steps, but do it in a lighter hue. After that you will cut out your design (in the magazine sample they did a tulip in a window sill) and fuse it on your background. After that stage is complete, you can go back and sew and add your finished binding. Add loops to the back to allow for hanging.

Easy? heck no--it took me a day and half to get as far as I did..LOL. Fun? Heck ya! Each piece comes out totally different. I can't wait to cut my design (which is still unknown..but more than likely will be a flower of some sort) and see what happens with that. My only issue is the sewing part. SIGHHHH..I doubt my machine will go thru these thick layers. I may do it by hand and I may regret that decision...but that's what creating is all about, just make something--you never know when that masterpiece is going to arrive. It sure doesn't appear when you do nothing!

With that said, stay tuned for more updates--warning--it may take me a while to do this, don't be surprised if the finished product is shown around November. That's the way it goes around here :)

******

Swap news--sign ups closed on Friday for all you Summer swappers, so stay tuned, we will have partner info out as early as possible this week. I can't wait to see who my partner is and get this swap started! hehe..I might have found something(s) already--I couldn't help myself!

************

lucy

Floral Doodles

So one day when I am nothing more than dust to the wind, this Artistic Phase I am in, shall be referred to the Floral Doodle Era by artist "lucy". Featured today is my latest "Floral Doodle" from start to almost finished. Almost finished....story of my life, so many things started, not so many done. We have to do something about that. Actually, I shouldn't be too hard on myself on this one, I made significant progress last nite. I am going to sell this when it's done. I'm determined, somehow, somewhere...I've been saying this for awhile, but if y'all can do it, so can I. Hey speaking of selling things, check out this collage artist...miss Nancy B of "Something two Crow About". I really admire her work, and if she can sell her journal pages (which are so personal and ,more creative than mine), I should surely be able to part with my work. I hope I can someday do things even 1/2 as collagearific as she creates.

I've finally figured out how to turn my flash on my camera. That's a big plus!

Now if I can figure out how to make the pictures more colorific and less big--we'd be good to go!

This is as far as I've gotten on my bursting with action Floral Doodle Art Tray. I was going to work on it more tonight, but I am so caught up with Dancing with the Stars and American Idol---I'm glued to the tv (and now the computer)--there's always tomorrow. I can't wait till these two shows are over with, then my Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays will open up a bit! I know, I am utterly pathetic. I have been scheduling my life around these shows since about January..LOL. This madness needs to stop!



In my last post, I mentioned my 4 hour "mowathon"-this is a snapshot of PART of the front yard. Please ignore the dead bushes. This is a rental home so I'm not investing in too much landscaping other than keeping the lawn mowed and a few flowers here and there. I do have 4 pecan trees in the front-this year, I'm going to be sure to collect some of the nuts before they rot and turn to dust.
How does know when a pecan is ripe? When they fall to the ground, or when they are still on the tree? I have no clue. I know you can't LEAVE them on the ground for too long, lest they will rot. Believe me. I know that much ((snicker...snort.....only because I collected a whole bag full, happy as a pig in sh*t, ready to make my homegrown pecan pie one day last fall...only to find all my pickins were not finger lickin' good..not even close)!




Here's another snap of my big ole yard and my soon to be big ole little garden.

Awwww...summer bliss...my new chairs ready to engage in some good reading, an "adult" beverage with an umbrella or two, and some fun in the sun tanning (but not too much for this flourescent white girrrrlll). I'm ready for some summer bliss this weekend. We've been having some great weather this week, let's keep our fingers crossed that it holds out for the biggest yard sale event in the Sandhills----The 5 Mile Long Joel Rd. Yard Sale!!! WHOOOOOO HOOOO you know I'm sooooo going to be there! Wish me some "saling" mojo! Other summer bliss will include a trip to the pool, some cooking out, maybe a trip to the beach, and some sipping on some delish coctails. Oh and I still do need a YARD BOY--I'll take applications in the back yard while engaging in the coctails, not sure if that's a good idea or not. Probably not. Wouldn't want to have Cosmpolitan Goggles coloring any hiring decisions I make :P

What's this you say?? Well, some of the pics are mine...and others I hijacked to give you all another hint at our upcoming swap over at Sweet Goodness Swaps. Can you guess any of what the swap is going to entail?? In anycase, stay tuned, after this holiday weekend, the Goodness Girls will anounce the fine details for swap round 3 in 2007!!!

Anyone who knows already they want to join, regardless of the details (not alot of the requirements are going to change...dollar limit the same, crafted item and thrifted item...but the color scheme is different of course, and there is a new twist to add a little challenge), please send an email to sgswaps@hotmail.com, title it June Swap, include your full name, address, blog, website, or flickr link, and whether or not you will ship international in the body. Again, we will announce the details after the Holiday, when Rebecca returns from her trip. YIPPEEE KIII III AAAA---Swap along friends, swap along!!

Lucy