Button Fairy

Made 3 of these for a button fairy swap on Altered_stART. The wings are fused Angelina fibers (thanks Francine!!). The face is molded sculpey that I painted white and sealed w/a clear sealer. I used white fibers around the face. Finished up with buttons and a beaded doo-dad hanging off the end.

ATCs

Here are 3 ATCs that I did for a private swap. I actually managed not to use my flourish stamps on two out of 3! I also gave my pink/glitter/lace phase a rest and reverted back to browns on two of the ATCs. Images from Digital Collage Sheets. I hope you like them, Mandy!! :)

Carousel

I created this spread for an altered journal RR. The carousel horse images are from B-Muse. Lyrics are from a 1968 Linda Rondstadt song called "Fragments".

More Corsets

More corset samples I did for the upcoming corset swap.

Corset

A good art friend of mine will be hosting a corset swap on Altered_stART. We're coming up with some samples, and this was the first one I did. It's a fun shape to play with. I created a template and the corset is finished back and front. We're going to make it a loose swap because the only way to bind it would be to have a tab off the side and we didn't really like the way it looked. It's fun to create these fun little corsets out of paper and lace and fibers...definitely a great way to use up some excess art supplies!

Altered Tag - Dare to Dream

This is an altered tag I did today. I'm trying to create a piece of art each day for a week. The image is from Digital Collage Sheets. The flower was made from two separate pieces of a paper flower with a brad stuck through the middle.

ATC - Sweetheart

This is an ATC I did for a "mingle" on one of my groups. The image is from Digital Collage Sheets. I embossed my flourishes with some Distress embossing powder in pink. There's some mulberry paper on the top and bottom of the card and the base of the card is some Basic Grey paper that I added a little to. The heart is stamped with chalk ink. The card stock text is edged with some more chalk ink and then I added some clear embossing powder on the top and heated it just until it was barely melted and still dimpled. I rounded the edges of the card and inked with some silver/grey ink.

Heart Box

This is a small heart-shaped paper mache box that I decorated for an art lottery.

Valentine Fat Book Page

I've been working on 14 5"x5" fat book pages for a Valentine's fat book swap on one of my Yahoo groups. I started with a tissue paper background and then added white pastel crayon to the background to highlight the creases and soften the tissue paper images (vintage Valentine). The text heart is from a vintage copy of Les Miserables and I added a smaller heart tinted with a pink chalk inkpad. I added the image and used white gesso to add the ring around her face. The checkerboards were stenciled top and bottom and I added little white dots to highlight with white gesso. The page is outlined with a silver leafing pen, and I punched 3 holes and added grommets and some pink ribbon. The pink flower has mini white glass beads in the middle.

Sepia AB Spread

Altered journal spread for a color-themed book RR. Theme was "time flies" and color theme was sepia.

Sepia Background for RR Journal

I'm currently working in an altered book based on a color theme - sepia. I created this BG with lots of different papers that had sepia tones in them and drybrushed some white gesso over them.

Caged Bird

This is the 2nd page that I did for the bird altered journal spread. I used the background that I posted yesterday (below) and added the white square. I had to try this technique I found on Kathy Wasilewski's blog using white-out tape. It was awesome! I drew the bird cage around an image from Digital Collage Sheets, and then I overlayed some dress pattern tissue. The text was an experiment which could've gone horribly wrong, but it didn't (although I won't try it again). I ran some dress pattern tissue through my inkjet printer. This was pretty much a big experiment on all fronts...the best kind of art, I suppose.

Background

I created this background today for the other page I need to do in the altered journal "bird" book. I really enjoy creating backgrounds. I think the collage/art part of it is the hard part! Suzan (Thrifty Collage Artist) does the most beautiful layered backgrounds. I'll look at her art and try to deconstruct her methods, but I'm afraid that I'll probably never achieve that level. But it's something to strive for! This BG started with a piece of basic grey paper, then layers of pink/purple/grey watered down acrylics. I stenciled some diamonds on with ivory acrylics. BTW, I only use the cheapy acrylic craft paint. I layered some other paper onto the bg and did some more swiping with the acrylics. The last thing I did was spray some Krylon webbing spray on top. BGs are fun...but now I have to do some art on the page. Ugh. (lol)

Bird Nest

I created this page for an altered journal RR I'm in. This is for Michelle's "For the Birds" book. I love the size of these pages. I also love the fact that she has us arting the front and back of the page which allows me to create two totally different pages instead of doing a two-page spread. The background for this page started with Basic Grey "alpha pistachio" from their Aged & Confused line. I added stencilled dots from punchinella, and stencilled tiny squares from drywall tape to the BG. I used my cardboard paint stencils for the "1 2 3" and created them using sprayed walnut ink. I stamped a bunch of my favorite flourishes (Autumn Leaves stamps) on the BG too. The image is from DigitalCollageSheets, and I made the nest out of jute twine. The word "nest" are sparkly greenish chipboard letters.

Dogs & Art Space

These are our dogs. The top one, with the crinkly ears, is Kizze. We found her in the paper under "free puppies" nearly 10 years ago. She is supposed to be part Boxer (dad) and part Weimaraner (mom), and she is my DH's dog (because that's who she chose). The bottom dog is mine! His name is Linus and I rescued him from prison. Literally! He was part of an inmate dog training program, and when the program was over I adopted him. He's 18 mos. old and is nearly 90 lbs of love and energy. **EDITED TO ADD: YAY! I think I know where Linus got his name. Hubby and I spent Christmas Day watching Ocean's 11, Ocean's 12 and Ocean's 13. There is a character in the movie, played by Matt Damon, named "Linus"! So I believe that Linus was named after Matt Damon!! :)

The 2nd photo is of my art space. About a year and a half ago I started out on a small table, in the corner of the dining room, and have been taking over space in the house ever since. Our 3rd bedroom has now been converted into art space and computer space. The space is never clean. Next week I'm going to paint the walls. The brown was fine when we had our bedroom in here, but I'd like to make it beachy and happy. I'm just dreading the priming of the walls. :)

More Soldering Adventures...

I worked on a few more soldered microscope slides. The top 3 are my favorites. Images are from various sources.

Adventures in Soldering (Ornaments)

I worked on making some microscope slide ornaments today. From l to r are the order I soldered them. As you can see, by #3 I've sort of cracked the code on soldering...at least the soldering is smoother and more even. The 1st one is for my son's teacher and the quote continues on the back. The 2nd is for ..... (nevermind). The 3rd is for my son's other teacher. I will probably put some beads or something on the bottom of the paperclip point. The images for the first two are from a collage sheet from Lisa at CollageStuff.Com. The 3rd is an image from a collage sheet from DigitalCollageSheets.

Kathy's Journal

These are the two pages I arted for Kathy's altered journal on Altered_Pages (Yahoo). I chose not to do a 2 page spread, and opted to do two totally different single-page layouts. The top page uses an image that I got from Suzi Blu's blog and her journaling "muse" prompt. The images on the bottom page are from magazines.

Dream Big

This is an arch that I created as part of a swap I'm doing on the Altered_stART Yahoo group. I started with a piece of scrapbook paper and added dress pattern tissue paper and stamped the curly-q's. "Dream" is a rub-on and I stamped the word "big". The image is from Digital Collage Sheets. The edges of the arch are inked with a silver leafing pen.

Fruit Crate Label Collaged Backsplash

Suzi was talking about DIY projects on her blog. I did this project several years ago. I have always loved fruit crate labels. I bought a book from Dover Publishing and had color copies made. Each one was cut out and I taped them in place on the wall. My goal was not to have them overlapping, but I wanted to piece them together so that they would look cohesive. Once I had them placed, I removed each label and placed the entire layout on a blank wall in my dining room and then individually modge-podged them back onto the backsplash! It still looks great. I used non-yellowing shellac over the finished project. I guess I should be glad that I like it so much, because it would be nearly impossible to remove! :) We didn't have the money to do any tiling, and I don't like wallpaper much, so this was my frugal answer to a boring painted wallboard backsplash.