My first Zendala Mandala...

I know these are nothing new. I've been seeing them on some of the blogs I follow so I wanted to give it a try. At last something I can do at work with just a journal and a few pens!

Coat Check Girl

Another piece I got done today. I tried out my Distress Stickles on her scarf. Jury is still out on how much I like them but they worked okay - they dry much flatter then they go on. Replaced her buttons with some neat little sequins I got from CollageStuff. BG is a mish-mash of different papers and then painted, stenciled and stamped on top of. Guessing I'm going to try and get back to work tomorrow... (Girl Image is from Lisa's Altered Art)

Heart String

I'm fighting a really bad cold, so I've been stuck inside and haven't had much energy. Today I decided that I needed some art therapy, so I put this 4"x6" piece together. I tried to do it quickly without thinking too much...I think that's where I get frustrated - oh and looking for stuff I know I have somewhere! I'm also trying to stay away from the brown/sepia colors where my comfort zone is. Have a good day.

Bad Weather = Beautiful Sunsets

We had a cold front come through this a.m. which took out our power and caused a power surge that burned up the phone box attached to our house. We are back w/phone and internet on a temp. line. The wind picked back up this afternoon, just before sunset, and the sky was a gorgeous orange and then spotted this rainbow that had appeared. A beautiful ending to a rather crappy day! BTW--this photo was not photoshopped! It just came out of the camera (Canon PowerShot A560) and I compressed it for my blog.

Swimming

The holidays are over and tomorrow will be back to a full week of work. It seems that my days off always go much quicker than my actual 8 hour work day. I did this piece today. The fish, and shell "hat", are Victorian scrap from CollageStuff. The boy is from Digital Collage Sheets.

"Grateful" '09

My friend Sandee posted about the Creative Everyday Challenge for '09 and also referenced Christine Kane's blog. Christine Kane has a different take on the whole "New Year's Resolution" mindset. Christine theory is to approach the New Year with a one word as the "theme" for the year. Sandee's word for '09 is "release". I decided my word is "grateful". There are lots of things I have to be grateful for going into 2009. One of the most important is taking back my "free" non-working time for ME and my family and not solving the problems of the rest of the world! This is a 4x6 piece I started on New Year's Day reflecting my choice for '09. One of the things I love most about this image is the lack of shoes on the little girl's feet! I hate shoes too!! Happy New Year! Image and wings from Lisa's Altered Art.

If Not Now...When?

Wow! This is my first "art" for many months. I don't know why I didn't start back out with something like an ATC, but I ended up doing a 5"x7" piece. The image is from my personal collection of photographs. I used one of my TH masks that I got from CollageStuff. I could've sworn I'd ordered the "time" mask, but I double-checked my invoice and I hadn't. The border that runs up the left side (vertical) of the piece was done with TH's border mask. The rest of it -- well, what can I say? -- it's a mish-mash of whatever I could think of. My skills are beyond rusty! The idea for the text came from an interview I'd heard on the news about a man who'd written a book called "If Not Now, When?" and I loved the idea of that phrase. It applies to so much in my life right now.

Pink/Orange Altered Journal Spread

This is the last journal that I had to work in for the "We Dream In Color" altered journal RR. I've been holding this for about 5 weeks and need to get it back to Megan. I hope she likes it! Megan's color theme was pink & orange. This is the first real art of any kind that I've done since the summer.

INBOX Sign

This is my only artistic creation in well over a month. It's a sign I made for my office at work (5"x7"). Everyone else used a marker on a 3x5 index card but I had to make mine glittery!! I broke down and used a piece of flocked vintage wallpaper that I'd gotten from Donna at Under The Red Roof. I have two packages of different styles, but they are so beautiful that I haven't wanted to use them for any projects for fear of messing them up. The letters came pre-glittered (silver) and then I attached various trims. The single strand of silver sequin trim at the top of the sign was a find at a thrift store---probably near 10 yards of the stuff all wound on a giant spool---for $4.75! Now that I'm settling into a routine with work and school, hopefully I'll start getting my creativity back on the weekends. I even bought some black and silver glitter at WM today!! :)

Goodbye, Friend!

(click on photo to read)

Goodbye, Friend! You were always there for me. For the past 19+ months, I know that you were the ones I could always count on...through good days and bad days. Now, when I get dressed for work in slips, and pantyhose, skirts, blouses and dress shoes, it is you - dear yoga pants - that I will miss the most (and my beloved Crocs too). We'll only have weekends from now on, but I will cherish our fond memories.

Nudes in N.Y.C. Sightseeing

full spread

left page

right page

This spread was for my friend Sandee's journal for the Altered_Pages RR, and her theme was Vintage Nudes. I'm so glad to be getting her journal back ome to her! I used vintage giant NYC postcards that Danielle had RAK'd to me. I had to cut them down because Sandee's journal pages were wide from R to L but not very tall. All images come from Lisa Vollrath's Naughty Nudes CD. My inclination was to add more "stuff" to the pages, but I really didn't want to take away from the backgrounds.

Flying Heart 4x4

This is a 4x4 I did for a friend. It's also the first time I've tried using grungeboard (heart). I punched holes with a needle and used sparkly gold thread around the perimeter of the heart. The wings are German scrap. The quote is from www.thinkexist.com and the author is unkown.

Microscope Slide Pendants

Yay! I'm finally posting something other than Bind-It-All Post-It Notebooks! The 2nd photo are soldered microscope slide pendants I did using a collage sheet from Retro Cafe Art that was designed by Kristin Hubick (except for the 3rd slide and I'm not sure where that image came from). Kristin's microscope slide collage sheet is great! It was easy, and I added some glitter pens and changed a word on one of them. But then I really started thinking about how long it has been since I've sat down and done my own collage work! So the top photo, of the 7 pendants, are my own collage work. It sure was fun getting back to digging through my images and papers again. I ran out of ball chain for the last slide, so I just put it on some ribbon. I'm going to add some beads at the bottom and make it more of a window hanging. I thought, after about 5 hours of soldering, that it would've gotten better--but I think it looks pretty good for not having soldered in 6 mos. or so.

Flower Journal Spread

This is a spread I did in Peggy's "Flower Children" altered book for one of my RR groups.
The book is a vintage botanical photo album. Some of the elements (like the cut outs) were already in place. I covered up the flowers on the left side with roses from a magazine. On the right side I used more flowers from a magazine in addition to some dimensional flowers. Vintage images are from Lisa's Altered Arts. Butterfly & Ladybug were stamped and I added the circle in the background with stencils and different colored chalk ink. This was a really fun book to work in. Thanks, Sandee, for taking the photos for me!

"40" Tag

A tag I did recently for a tag book collaboration.

Altered Journal - Haunted w/Acetate

I was feeling like my spread for Tamara's book was missing something. Deb suggested putting fingerprints on the pages but I was really worried about messing up and having to start over. Then I had an idea - I borrowed my little one's hand and made a hand print using white gesso on a piece of acetate. The acetate piece is the same size as the page (6"x6") and is a separate sheet between the spread.

Altered Journal - Haunted House

This is an altered journal spread I did for Tamara's "Things That Go Bump in the Night" book. Girl image from Lisa's Altered Art. I put some cheesecloth, that I'd painted with black gesso, underneath the image of the house. Text is from one of DH's haunted tales book. My dark & scary muse has been gone so long and I've been doing so much pink & flourish work that this was a little tough going for me.

TMTA - Spring

The theme this week at TMTA is Spring. Nothing says spring to me like pretty pinks, whites, yellows, buttons and lace. Image from Lisa's Altered Art. The scan doesn't show it, but there's a finish coat of twinkling H2Os over the BG and the paper lace.

ATC - Le Garcon

I ended up doing a private trade for this ATC so I'm back to the drawing board for one for the circle mingle. :) I made this ATC for the upcoming ATC mingle on the Altered_(st)ART group. The new theme is going to be circles and/or dots. Image from Lisa's Altered Art. The crowned cat German scrap piece was part of a RAK. I used a little gold paint to accent it.

ATC - D

An ATC for a RAK. Image from Digital Collage Sheets. BG done using Bernie Berlin's Inky Layers technique. Flourish stamps, lace trim and metal initial accent.