Blue Cheer - Mixed Media B-day Wishes

I have made another postcard for a good friend of mine who will be having a birthday this week.  I sent the postcard via express post but it will still take two days so she will be getting it a day late.  Oh well, I just couldn't be helped.

I call it Blue Cheer, the title of this project is not solely because of the song (okay so they were a one hit wonder!!) Summertime Blues.  It is because we will be going out on her boat in Lake Ontario again this summer.  So much fun and the view on the water is breath-taking; I never tire of the 1000 Islands.

In the snap above you can see it up close; you can see the netting over the organza, the sparkly fabric (I found it in the sale bin and I would expect it is used for skating costumes and such like).  I did a bit of embroidery work and of course my beloved beading.  I put the two fabrics to get using glitter glue for something else different in this mixed media piece.

  I knew that I had a blue button somewhere in my stash and I knew that I just had to add it.  But where?? I decided that it would be an abstract representation of the sun.  I sewed the button on and used slivers of organza to add more texture.

I made the horizon off-kilter reminiscent of being on the boat in a windy stormy day with the waves getting higher and higher.  I hope that my friend can see my vision.

I had a very "fluid" plan in my mind when I started my creation and I am quite happy with the results.  I hope my friend enjoys her card as much as I did creating it!!!

Fake is the New Real!

I was trolling through the net and came across this title for a journal page on making a fake journal.  I don't really have any intention on doing this but it brings up a point.  I now have to acknowledge that "fake is the new real"!!!  I hate having to do this but when I think about the ham we had last night this point really hit home.  Most so-called ham's are pressed meat into a shape that resembles what we think a ham should look like.  I don't know why we think that ham is something that should be perfectly round or shaped like a thigh is beyond me.  If my recollection is correct a ham had a bone in it and when it didn't my parents would buy a picnic pork shoulder (a ham for poor people!!).  Hmmm, weird memories but at least they are fake.

Finishing up my current project but no photo's yet.  In fact, I forgot to take any so it is almost finished and there are only a few to show you later.

I tried to make some "artist tape" using some dollar store and other cheap tapes that I bought at that big bad "W" store.  I don't go there frequently but I knew that they would likely have something cheap.

The article is from Somerset Studio's March/April 2012 edition and it seemed easy enough so I thought that I would give it a go.  I dug out some stamps as well and used my Staz On stamp pad to see how they took on the tape.  For colour, I used Tri Art liquid paint, Liquitex acrylic as well as Ranger Inks.  It was a good trial and depending on the look you might be going for on how likely I would be to actually using these in an journal.  Now that I have made some, I will use them just to say that I did.

I went for a walk the other day and came across these flowers at the end of a farmers lane way.  I think that they are domestic flowers but I have never seen them before.  I love the pastel shades of pink and purple and especially liked the dots on the leaves.  If anyone has any idea the name of this flower let me know.

Spring walk

It is Easter time already and we will be packing to head down to Toronto to see the family.  Very nice!  It is a very fine sunny day so driving will be easy and I think that many will be coming north and we will be heading into the city so traffic should be less hectic than weekday.

I had a wonderful walk yesterday although it was really cold.  The sun was shining but the wind was brisk.  Luckily, I was wearing the appropriate attire; often I am not and find the walk miserable.

I as always I brought my trusty camera with me and got a few good snaps.  I think this one of the crows is the best of the lot though.

It is a bit surreal in its minimalism.  I did however enhance the colour since the current spring time colour around here is beige and brown.  Spring is sprung but the farmers crops are not peeking out of the ground quite yet.

I read a blog and the author puts up pictures in her "noticing journal" and I totally get where she is coming from.  I call noticing my surroundings, consciously looking.  It is amazing what you will see when you are consciously looking around you to see what there is.  At first there seems like there is nothing new to see.  I walk several different paths but really there is not much different on any given day but if I actually look....sometimes there is a lot.  For instance, these three birds that I caught in flight.  They had just landed in the field and I had to wave my arms and whistle at them to get them to move once more so I could take this snap.  It wasn't where I wanted to grab the picture but where I could since I only carry my point-and-shoot with me on my walks.


I rushed into town yesterday to buy the ham and I'm glad that I did since they had lots of hams that were smaller than the two that they had the day before.  I got one that was a reasonable size and popped it in the freezer.

Mixed Media Fibre Art Card

I made a fibre art card last month for a friend's birthday, that day has come and gone so I thought that I would display it here.

I have been enjoying myself very much making these small art pieces.  I used:

• glass beads
• recycled onion bag netting (painted)
• sequins
• metal sewing notions - black and silver snaps
• embroidery floss
• cheesecloth
• acrylic paint
• molding paste texture medium
• purchased embellishment
• Strathmore watercolour postcard

I didn't really have a "plan" per se and it just could be that is why I like it so much.  I could have made it so much more but really I like the simplicity of it just as it is.

I am really glad that I choose to join the international postcard swap in January of this year as it has taught me to work smaller and to experiment with these small art pieces.  

April Fools

We have been fooled by mother nature!  She has given us warm weather and sunshine and now we have got a mixed bag: snow overnight and rain today.

Here is a doodle that I have been working on over the course of the month!  I enjoy distilling my life, both personal and work wise, on to a single page in this way!  It makes me select those key areas of my life that are either milestones or important in some other way!  I try to put enough drawing in to make it an art form but really I just want to keep a journal of sorts; a record of my journey that is not simply "typed" on a white background.

Maybe this is something that you could do too!!  If you are thinking of trying it, please send me a note or add a comment.

The month of March in review includes:

•  listening to a new podcast on my iPod!  I really like this one!  

• I am really upset that Kraft salad dressings no longer include low calorie French.  It seem it has been "de-listed" - Whaaaaat the heck!!!!????  Don't they know that I have a yen for French the last few weeks and now it is simply unavailable...say that is not so, please?!!!  

• My opinion about Rogers has changed.  I thought they were on the ball and I found out the hard way that they have a bunch of people working for them that have NO CLUE!  I shouldn't be surprised since we employee the same sort.  The 20 - 35 year olds who think that they are "ENTITLED" to anything they want.  This means that they also think that THEY KNOW IT ALL!   Technical services technician are a especially full of themselves there; I was told that the Rogers Rocket stick doesn't work on my MAC Lion operating system.  Whaaaa??!  I have been using it all along and loaded on Lion a year ago with no problems.  The technicians are so dim with regards to Apple that they did not even know that Mountain Lion will be coming out this summer.  So, how many other MAC people have they told to remove the connection manager from their applications list??  I know now that I know more about my system that their dimwitted technicians.  

What will I be working on this month? This month I will be working on a new "mixed media fibre art" birthday postcard for another friend.  I think that I will make three the same or similar because when I finish one, I like it so much that I regret that I have to give it away.  That negative feeling will be solved if I make more than one.  I think that I have her fibre art birthday card all figured out in my head.  I spent a bit of time this afternoon getting my materials together in the colour palette of choice - blue!!