I finished my postcards

So happy that I got my cards out in the mail today.  As usual, I am late but better late than never! 

This didn't photograph well but I wanted to get it in the envie so didn't retake it.

I really quite like this blue flower with the needle-felted and bead embellished centre.

Music and more about Postcard Swap V.3

I love to listen to music when I am creating my art and I came across this woman sometime ago from another artists blog.  So here I am.....I am sharing the beautiful voice of this woman too.  I don't use this video, I just went to iTunes and purchased several of her songs to appealed to me.  Again, perfect music for making art; well, for me that is.







My next favourite song is Nadir (Synchronicity) and then Forrest Veil.

 I must admit up front that visually posting these photo's of my art here, I find these postcards a bit too "hot",  too visually over-the-top.  However, in real life my eyes didn't see it that way at all.  So, I will of course all be in the eye of the beholder.  I hope everyone who receives them thinks so too.

The organza is a bit difficult to photograph because of the the nature of the fibre; the glare effects that it creates with the lens of the camera.

 I don't know how the flower motif was created really, it just sort of "happened"! I really liked it.



I photographed this one sitting on it's envelope.


Here are the envelopes all in a nice neat pile!  All ready for mailing!  I hope to be able to get to the post office today to do just that.  I hope all of my participants will forgive me but between work (today is my one day off for this week) and the stormy weather, I haven't been able to get there.

This is my constant lament though so bear with me for the next challenge!  At least I hope that Shannon is willing to host another challenge.  I love to participate but I am somewhat of a procrastinator and then of course I never chose something that is easy peasy either.

These are time consuming because I have to make everything from scratch, right down to the hand made "artist tape"that is the finishing touch.  I don't have a cookie cutter process and probably never will because I would get bored doing that.

I am really glad to be able to re-cycle my drop sheets from other projects.  I had figured that I would have to put them in the burn pile since I had hung on to them way too long.  So, I hope everyone does appreciate the colour if not the oddity of the craft!!

Proto-types and Inktense fun!

I forgot to post the pencil drawing prototype to my perfume bottle below!  Bummer!  Afterwards, I realized that I had not measured the bottle properly;  the size of the upper glass piece and the lid size is off enough that it looks like a hat!

I still have a fondness for the glorious pencil!  There is nothing like it really: simple, easy to use, no need for a lot of expensive extra's.  The most expensive thing about this form of art is your paper or sketchbook!  At least my final coloured drawing has much better proportions.

I had time to enjoy a "play day" several days ago!  I love getting my hands dirty from using art materials.  In this case gesso and Inktense blocks.

 I really like these blocks because once the water dries the colour is permanent. It is permanent because it is "ink"!

I should have purchased the larger size but I didn't have the cash at the time!  So if you are thinking about going out to make the purchase...if you can afford it I highly recommend that you purchase the extra colours in the 24 pack.

I am using an old coffee table book purchased at a charity shop.  It is cloth-bound and has sewn signatures.  I ripped out some of the pages to make room for collage fodder.  On this page I slapped on some CHEAP gesso to cover up most of the photographs and printing on the page.  Then, I rubbed the Inktense colour blocks down randomly on the page.   As you can see, I broke some up to the size I wanted.  Once that was done that, I dipped a wide brush in water and slapped in on to spread the colour.  There was so much water that I let some of drip down the page.  

Bottom line, I had fun!  Not too sure where I am going with this yet but I do like it.

Altered "book" art card

I finished the "altered book" art card for my friends birthday. Silly me but I didn't get a chance to take pictures of the project before I gave her the birthday card (and a small gift!). She was kind enough to bring it back for me so I could do exactly that.

So here are some pictures of the process.

In the beginning there was a unloved children's story book....

Unfortunately it had the shiny plastic cover so I gessoed on some cheesecloth. I ended up using some tinted gesso that I had left over from another project. I don't know what I was doing at the time but it had been hanging around so I thought that I would use it up since it was starting to harden in the jar and would be wasted.

I had been concentrating on the beadwork and I almost forgot that I wanted a closure for the "card" and at the last minute added the ribbon.

I laid out the prepared painted pages, the beadwork, and the embellishments prior to slapping on the gel medium to glue it all together.

The "eye on the prize" theme just sort of came to me. It wasn't what I had planned at all, it was like the "beads" had a mind of their own.

I think my friend enjoyed the card! I think that most artistic people appreciate the work involved in making art.

I had fun doing this project and got to play with "puffy paint", resin sand, artist glass bead medium, acrylic jewels, recycled dryer sheet.

So my next project is another altered book wedding card for my niece who is getting married this coming June! More fun.

Altered "book" art

I have been mulling a new project in my head. It will be a birthday card for a friend. I'm looking around for inspiration and I think that I have my colours solidified. I found an old Elle Canada fashion magazine. Although it is a fashion magazine it is not clothing that is my source of inspiration. The picture has the colours that remind me of a Bollywood movie; very rich, very vibrant! Suffice to say, I don't want to give too much away at this point.

This was a children's story book and because it had a plasticized cover I have applied some cheesecloth using gesso; I learnt my lesson on my last project! This is the barebones of the "foundation" of the altered book birthday "card". I had some left over paint from another project so I mixed it in with the white gesso. I'm not found of the colour but that is no matter since it doesn't really matter. Next step will be applying some molding paste to the front.

Now that I'm no longer flip flopping on the colour scheme, I can get down to the business of altering the book in preparation for the mixed media art to follow.

I'm told I have a great imagination. The thing is, it all takes time with me, I wish that the inspiration just dropped down from the sky and I knew exactly where I should go next. As I have said in the past, I don't have a "how-to" for these projects. I'm not complaining, I'm just "explaining". I'm on night shift tonight so I will spend a bit more time thinking about the overall project and get a positive direction on where I want to go. Will the next step be a proto-type or will it be the final project? Hmmmm, don't know yet!

Altered "book" art

I have been so busy and now I have popped my head up and taken a look around; unbelievably, January is coming to a close already! Where did the month go?

I thought that I would post the "altered book" piece that I finished a couple of weeks ago. I had to have it ready for my very good friends wedding celebration on January 15th. That day is snowed across Ontario and we had to stay home. I sent it to her via snail mail.

It all started with an "idea".... to make something... to make a "wedding card" for a friend.

The idea morphed from the sketchbook to the actual art piece. I took an ugly children's story book from the charity chop and gutted it and gessoed the whole thing.

I think that it looks very pretty with the tissue paper texture on the front. I used some tri-Art paint on the front called "Liquid Mirror". It is super expensive so I only painted the front of the piece with it.

I think that my piece of art turned out even better than I had imagined. Since I didn't have a "how-to" or any instructions it took quite a long time to get to each step in the process. At each level I had to "think" what would work so that I could get to the finished project.

The only information that I was able to glean from a journaling website (I wish I could remember which one now then I would post it here) is that I should not have used a book with a shiny cover. Unfortunately, I had already started the process and found this information to be very true. I had a hard time getting the gesso to adhere!!

I think my friend liked it but I wasn't there to see her face. Says that she thinks that I am so very "imaginative" and that I am talented. So, that being said, I think she means she liked it. I'm glad because I just didn't have the heart to buy some of the store bought type with their banal sayings.