Wow, the holiday season is in full swing and somehow I'm so far behind, I'm not sure I'll ever catch up. That's okay, though. There's another holiday season rolling around next year. Maybe I'll be ready for that one.

This is an ATC I did for an Art for the Creative Mind swap. The theme was "For whom the bell tolls" and my first instinct was to pull out my copper sheeting. I've had this stuff for a few years, but rarely have come up with a use for it. This made me happy.

This is on encaustic board because those wings are heavy. I did a direct to paper (or board in this case) technique with distress inks. Two colors of green, no clue which two. I painted glue over it, and because the distress inks are water soluble, they lifted, which was the whole point. I put tissue over the whole thing and scrunched it. When it dried, I did more inking over the ridges of the tissue, added some copper embossing powder and used my heat gun.

The copper was Big Shot embossed, then I used liver of sulfur to blacken it, swiping the black off the tops of the embossing. Glue it all together, punched out an image from Altered Pages, used copper embossing powder around the edges of it. That's it. Very easy. It was a good swap. I do have to say, I think it was a shame to cover up that background. It was really neat.

Doing a real quick post because someone on one of my groups asked about tinting an image and this is the best example I have of doing that. This is a black and white stamped image. I used a stippling brush and distress inks. I hit the brush to the ink pad, then stippled it on the image, different colors in different areas. The baby's dress is Old Paper. The faces were done in Tea Stain.

As you can see, this looks like an old photo with the barest hint of color.  It was stamped with black Stazon ink on white glossy paper.

I should have something new later today. I owe a blog post to Altered Pages.

One of my latest projects, altered mouse traps. Thanks to TG from Art for the Creative Mind, who comes up with all these interesting swaps.

Basically, I took two mouse traps, got rid of some of the hardware (the parts that you use to set the trap to kill mode) and painted them with Lumiere paint in a purple color - and those who know me will know why I don't list the actual name of the paint. Because I don't remember it.

After painting it, I just attached some really cool flower and bird's nests to the top, emu feathers to the bottom, and then on top of those I glued bird images from an Altered Pages collage sheet, and the words from a sticker collection (also available at Altered Pages).  Some pretty fibers at the top and voila! Altered mouse traps.

It's been awhile. I don't know why it takes me so long between blog posts. I've been creating like crazy, making all sorts of interesting things. Like this jar for a Kids at Play jar swap.

I took an old salsa jar, dropped some beads and sparkly things in the bottom, then poured pouring medium in and let it dry. Pouring medium is an acrylic medium that is used to make acrylic paints pourable, but it dries clear so it was the perfect solution for capturing these little items and locking them in place.

Then I glued two little girls (cut out from collage sheets from AlteredPages.com ) to stems I saved from silk flowers I'd used for something else. I did the same with some little plastic princess buttons I'd gotten. Stars, a gown, a crown, a clear slipper.  I used E6000 glue, which grabs fast and dries quick. When it was all dried, I used a drop of glue and anchored each of the stems inside an alphabet bead and then to the bottom of the jar.

I poured a little glue down the inside back of the jar and put more sparklies in the glue to dry. I used my Big Shot and a Nestability to cut out a cover for the top of the jar, embossed it, then added two word magnets that say "Once upon a time" and "In the castle". There is a little castle button in between. Here is the lid:

I had a lot of fun with this. I love jar fairies, and this was jar fairy with a twist. I really had no clue I was going to make such a frilly, princess themed jar until I found the words for the top of the jar. Then I knew exactly what I was going to do with it.

Today I'm making sand bowls, something I found on Pinterest. Definitely a learning process. Mod Podge and sand mixed into a cement paste and poured over the outside of an upside down bowl. I think I'm going to have to spackle more sand mix on them when they dry because the sand kept running and there are going to be holes. I'll post a picture when they dry to show you how they turned out. If they turn out.

The next week, I will be on a houseboat with five other amazing women, but after that, I promise to post more often. Every two months isn't often enough.

ATCs and other stuff

I have been busy lately. I finished a kit for Altered Pages. The Butterfly pins are something I threw together for Spring. I am so ready for the sun to shine here, and those little flowers brought a smile to my face. If you visit my blog and like to work with collage sheets, go visit Altered Pages. They have many collage sheets, but they have a lot of other stuff that you can use to make your own art. And I'm on the design team. *shameless self-promotion*

On to the ATCs I recently made.

These were done for an ATC swap, Words of Wisdom. They're titled Stop and Smell the Flowers. I used Twinkling H20s for the background of each, painting a purple, a blue, and a aquamarine on randomly then placing plastic wrap over it to dry. When I peeled the plastic wrap off, I stamped some flourishes in purple and tel. The paper flowers were something I made from book pages. Very simple. I had a tutorial, but I'm not sure of the link. If someone sees this and knows the link, please share in the comments. It was very easy to make them. The other one, I stamped with Memento ink then used Twinkling H20s to color them in.

Add a little bling and you've got two very serene ATCs that really are a great reminder that we all need to stop and smell the flowers.

New swap material!

I just finished this for a swap. I really like it. It's not like the other, gorgeous pieces I see the other swappers doing, but it's my style, and there's not much I want to do to change me.

How did I do this? It was pretty simple. So simple I almost don't want to tell. I started with a 4x4 canvas board. Using direct to paper technique, I smeared distress inks on the background. I didn't like it, so I decided to cover it with tissue. I slathered on the Mod Podge to lay the tissue over, and the color lifted. Magic? Not really. Distress inks are water soluble so it's really common if you put something wet over something water soluble, it dissolves. So the Mod Podge lifted the color which then seeped into the tissue.

I added alcohol ink to a glossy glaze medium, which makes for a very interesting substance, not at all what I expected. I painted the green (Bottle) on top of the tissue in light strokes. When it dried, I wet the entire piece with the glaze medium and squirted more of the Bottle alcohol ink onto it in spots. When that dried, I spritzed it with water and pushed a gold paint pen down on the surface in the corner. The paint pooled in the water and I tilted the board to spread it randomly. And voila! That's all I did for the background.


The puzzle piece is one I did a bunch of a few years ago. I love it, though, so I am always happy to be able to use it. It was done with alcohol inks, stamped, then UTEE was added on top. Gold leafing around the edges. Easy peasy, right?

And that was my adventure in art today while I was home sick. I almost don't want to give this away. I think I'll be making another.

Butterfly ATCs

Using alcohol inks on encausticbord. I love this stuff, by the way. The encausticbord. It's heavy, board (not paper) and I really like handling it much better than I do little 2.5 x 3.5 inch pieces of paper.

This was for a swap on Art for the Creative Minds (great group, by the way!). Butterflies were the theme. I love alcohol inks, the rich colors. Love!

Art in Nature

We were outside tonight, Dustin, Dylan, and I, looking up at Jupiter and Venus. They are shining very brightly in the sky, making the stars look dim and dull by comparison. They were two points of beautiful light in the sky.

I decided to try to take a picture, expecting a big blur, but I had to try anyway. What I got was pretty cool. I used Dustin as a tripod. He's 21. He's 5'9" tall. If he could have held still, he would have been perfect, but he couldn't and this is what I captured.

These are the exact images. I have them at higher res on my card so I can see how squiggly the lines are, but those are the entire images. Not cropped or otherwise changed. The shutter was open for a good twenty seconds at least. I think this is really neat. 

Work in progress

I've been so busy doing so many things, I haven't really thought much about posting on here. So let me rectify that.

Currently, I'm working on a shadow box for one of my friends. Her name is Princess. The box says, "We can't all be princesses. Someone has to clap for me as I go by." Inside, I'm using paper and stamps from Altered Pages. I can't wait to finish it so I can show it off and send it to Princess. She doesn't know she's getting it, and since she doesn't read my blog, I don't have to worry about spoiling the surprise!

This is a triptych ATC I did for a swap on the Art for the Creative Mind Yahoo group. I did these on ATC sized encaustic board. They are thick, stiff, and they hold up so well to all the distressing you could possibly want to do to them. Love these boards so much!

I have other projects too. I'm in an altered book swap for the Art for the Creative Mind group as well, a swap that is going to be going on until July. We each started our own book and shipped it off to the next person, who then adds to the book. My theme is Fairy Tails, a book about myths and mythical creatures. I did my cover and the two interior cover pages in the front, then sent it to the next player. Here is the cover of my book:

I did a gel medium transfer of the pretty fairy picture at the bottom and of the title at the top. The border "lace" or whatever that is has been painted with sparkly paints. I don't like it so that will be changed when I get it back. But I am in love with that fairy image. Oh, the background was painted with gesso, then when it dried, I put some water on it then added Lumiere paints, covered it with plastic wrap, crumpled it, let it almost dry, then pulled the wrap off.

I also made a Mardi Gras mask to swap. It's finished, but I haven't gotten a picture of it yet. I am also working on a Year of the Dragon box swap, but I haven't gotten it done just yet.

I think that's about it for what I'm doing. I have other swaps that I've signed up for but haven't started yet, but dang, I've been busy with all the painting and crafting and stuff. My downstairs looks like an art supply store has exploded and settled in my house. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

4 x 4 Canvas board and other stuff

I've been busy making stuff. Lots of stuff. I don't have pictures of all the stuff I've made because the computer with the pictures got a virus. That lovely virus that sits behind ads and waits for you to not be looking, then pops up and says Windows Vista 2012 (or whatever OS you're using in whatever year it is) Security something or other. I left my laptop online while I went to get a massage and came back to an infection, so now I'm using my son's desktop. Not many pictures here.

But I do have one. I made this canvas for Altered Pages.

As a design team member at Altered Pages, I have access to tons of gorgeous images as well as the talent of the rest of the team. And Jean's support is phenomenal. She gave us an idea - time - and this is what I made.

It's titled "Time Flies". It's for sale as a kit here Time Flies, Altered Pages. I don't get a commission or anything, but I do get a very special thrill knowing something I made is being packaged and offered to others. It's such a high, and one that never seems to fade no matter how often I see something I made on someone else's site.

So, that's my latest creation. Not much else to show since I have to fix my laptop to get the other pictures. Hope you have a wonderful new year!!