Art is in my Heart

A sweet friend sent me the link to this video, the message really touched me, that I felt I had to share.

White Rabbit

I have finished Teri's Round Robin Journal pages. Her topic was the journey of the White Rabbit. I am not terribly familiar with the story of Alice in Wonderland, other than that Alice is lost and wants help getting home, runs across the white rabbit who can't help her because he is always running late for something or another.

Well, I twisted it around a bit, and made a little play on the words of him being late for a very important date, and he is now late for his important date with Alice!

I had this "great" idea to make this little love birds page, and I found the cutest papers and embellishments, that all coordinated, but they were pink, hot pink, silver, black, gray, totally modern if you know what I mean. Not vintage at all, which is what Teri's journal is. But they were all coordinating, and they had the "feel" that I was after. So I was trying to think of a way to make them work and I was throwing ideas around with my mom, and we decided that a bit of gesso and some distress ink would do the trick. What do you know- It worked! Would you ever guess those background papers were hot pink, black and silver???

These are the close-ups of the pages, and the right page with the door open to show Alice. The pages are painted over the gesso and distress ink treatment with both watercolor crayons and watercolor pencils. The path is mostly crayon, and the weeds are mostly pencil. The mushroom is done with the watercolor pencils.

I have then added some paper flowers that were actually a gift from Teri herself, and then added some seed beads for centers and set them with crystal lacquer. The White Rabbit is carrying a bouquet of peach flowers for his "sweety". The teacup is the sign-in that we were asked to put our name and email on.

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by my friends Brenda in Australia and Trish in Ohio.

Here are the rules...
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Mention the rules.
3. Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
4. Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
5. Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged.

OK, on to my six quirky or boring things:

1. I am a night owl- I could stay up til 4 in the morning, and sleep til noon everyday if someone would let me.
2. I really don't like chocolate very much. Once in awhile, I will eat it, but I don't "crave" it like most women.
3. I HATE to cook. I don't like anything about it. If I have to cook a meal, I usually don't eat then, because after I have looked at it while I have had to cook it, it is no longer appetizing to me. Needless to say my husband does 99 percent of the cooking in our house.
4. I am a habitual procrastinator. I don't think that needs any explanation. LOL
5. I am a clutter bug.
6. I taunt my husband in his sleep because he snores really bad, and I can't sleep because of it, so I will pull his arm hair or poke him til he wakes up (which can take quite awhile). I don't think he ever really realizes that my taunting is what woke him. (tee-hee)

OK- here are my six friends:

Milliande- my lovely friend from the UK - I am sure she is far to cool to be boring, but I am sure she will try.
Connie- my mom (she has a lot of funny boring stuff to share)
Beckie- my big sis- she is also a great friend and I am sure has learned to be boring over the past few years?
Ruby Claire- I want to see if she can come up with something!
Kimmie- This is Wyoming- I am sure you can find lots to share- lol.
Leslie- Lie if you have too. :0)

Can't wait to see what fun things you come up with to share!

Out to Art Door Hanger

I forgot to post my door hanger, so I thought I would post it now. Basically if this is hanging up, it means: BUG OFF- I'M BUSY WORKING ON ART! I CAN NOT BE DISTURBED!






















It is supposed to be hung on the door to were you have your art space. I have a designated "art room" but it is in shambles, and has not been set up yet as a work room, so I have been working on my art in my recliner. My family is very familiar with how this all works, so when my "door" hanger is applied to the side of my chair, there is one mama that needs to be left alone.
I have to admit it works!
The only one allowed near my chair is Kota, who is my "art buddy" There is no keeping him away. You can see a tiny bit of his fuzzy paw in the upper right corner if you look really closely.
My door hanger is very dimensional. The bee is a very large embroidered patch, in a bright purple, orange and yellow. I added a gold metal crown... It is a Queen of course! All the flowers at the bottom are silk and/or paper and are about 3/8" thick. The little caterpillar is a printed chipboard piece hidden amongst the flowers. The butterflies are an embossed fabric foam, which is an interesting textural addition to the piece~ their color seems extremely bright in this picture, but they are the exact colors as the orange and yellow in the bee. I had to add the round epoxy word token because of the colors and it says "Happy Time" how perfect is that? To top it all off I added a tiny metal crown to the Artist Date Queen~ she must have decoration too! So this is my magical flower garden, and I am the Queen Bee!

Purple Tree

My first Page for the Milliande Artist Dates, is Purple Trees.

















I started by drawing my tree and then coloring it with watercolor crayons. I am really trying to use these more. I like the soft look of them. I then covered it all up- go figure. :0)

I added a fluffy sparky eyelash type fiber for the large branches, and then seed beads for the smaller branches. I used dyed purple cultured pearl beads for leaves. I think they were really fun to use for this project, as they are just different and unique. I used the brown fibers below the tree, because all the grass has died off for the winter here.

I am trying really hard to work on my sketchings, so I wanted to add an owl in the tree. It is late fall here, and if you listen carefully just before night hits you can hear an owl hoot from one of the trees near our house.

Funky Birds

I have finally gotten a bit of my muse back. I have had a bunch of things that I have been needing to get finished, and I just couldn't get my head around them. I think I just had to keep at it until I got through the slump.

I created these two pages for Pam- she is in the Tip-In Round Robin project with Paper Traders. Her theme is Birds, Nests and Eggs. I did not include any nests or eggs, but I did the birds instead.

These birds are made with a real feather coming out the top of their head, and flourish stamps for the tails and decoration on the wings. They have little black brads for eyes. The background is done on heavyweight watercolor paper with watercolor crayons. I have not done a lot with watercolor crayons yet, but am really learning to like them, and the look that they create. Inspired by Claudine Hellmuth, the background is highlighted with penning.

Look What Happened At Our House

Wow! We knew we were having puppies, but for some reason we were not as prepared as we had hoped to be. I think things have just been so busy around our place, that I got sidetracked, and forgot to look at the calendar. Anyway, when we took her into the Doc, he told us 4 possibly 5 but not likely.

Well- Doc was WRONG!!!!!

We had a lovely batch of 6!!! And to top it all off 5 of them are boys.

We have a huge list of people who want girls- of course.

Meiya is doing swimmingly, but man, I didn't expect such a big litter. I know that there will be several happy families for Christmas, as these babies will be ready just a few days before the Big Day! I bet we have a few late deliveries on Christmas Eve :0)