I keep forgetting to mention that the mail art tin I mailed arrived at its 
destination intact and good shape! You can read more about Karen's mail art adventure on her blog. At the last min before I mailed Nellie in her tin I decided to put her in a plastic envie so the window didn't get scratched and added the stamps to the outside and the address I left on the inside.I challenge you to send something fun through the mail and share with me what you sent :-)
Labels: Gothic Arch Challenge, Wine Label
Here's this week's Gothic arch challenge the theme is Viva La France. I used a Vintage French wine label for my background.
Here are a couple of pictures of 3 of my 4 guys working on my This year I asked to have our arbor/arch Labels: mother's dayrequested 
Mother's Day project. Its the one day out of the year that I specifically ask for a project I would like done instead of a gift. In past years they have surprised me with things they have built (chairs, brick walkways and, planters). 
that sits at the opening of the walkway to our front door painted orange to go with the soon to be painted front door. 
They now resemble a close likeness to Oompa Loompas from the orange over-spray LOL
Labels: mother's day, shrine, Wood Shadow BoxHappy Mother's Day!
To all you mom's out there, the unsung heros! If you have a mom in your life celebrate her and enjoy the time you have and give her a big hug! I miss being able to hug my mom.
My son and hubby gifted me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers they picked while out on a bike ride today. I thought my son did a great job arranging them in the vase.
Celebrate Friends...
is the theme of this wooden shadow box shrine I created. I first painted it with acrylic paints and then added paper in the backs of the cubbies.
I've been wanting to play with the wooden shadow boxes I sell on OTM and
finally gave myself permission to play....do you ever do this to yourself? I'm forever telling myself that I have to do such and such first before I can play....I suppose if I didn't do this I would just play all the time and never get anything else accomplished.
I knew I wanted to use the color combination that I did, I just wasn't sure what I was going to put into the cubbies, but it eventually came together as I used up things I've had. *You should be able to click on all the pictures and enlarge them for better viewing.
Labels: Gothic Arch Challenge, Lottery, tag
This week's Gothic Arch challenge is Chair.To all the wonderful and supportive people from the Gothic Arch challenge and others you've been very kind to go out of your way to take time to look and leave comments hereTHANK YOU!
This month's lottery theme is making fun of "Men" this seemed appropriate. I'm so glad GI JOE didn't mind posing for me to use him on this over-sized tag ;-)
A little Play time (remember to click images to enlarge them) Labels: Color Mists, gouache, palette, Windows Live WriterSoftware Recommendation
I just have to share a software recommendation.... if your a blogger that gets frustrated because you can't get pictures uploaded and sized right and things go wonky for you check out WINDOWS LIVE WRITER and download a free copy. I've come across this software mentioned several times and finally took the time to download it (not that it took anytime at all) and loaded and I have to say its very user friendly, I'm loving it! Click the following link to read more about it and download your own copy: http://get.live.com/writer/overview
I've been busy the last few days creating a couple of pieces just for fun...not because it was for an obligation, swap or specific purpose, but just because and man did it feel good!
I began the first piece by using another wood palette as my base. I gessoed it and then misted it with repeated layers of
Color Mists using the heat gun to dry in-between layers. I then sealed it with PYM II . After it dried which is extremely quick, I drew the image and painted it in with Gouache watercolor paints and then sealed again. The bubble was cut out from the text of a book page and sealed with matte fluid acrylic and then painted with 2 coats of transparent glaze mixed with Golden's Titan Buff and once dry the wording was added using a rub-on and then sealed again. I drilled holes with the drill press and added the wire and beads. 
ATTITUDE is a chunky 6 x 6 canvas. I started by creating a frame around the sides and border using book pages. I then painted over that with a couple of coats of transparent glaze mixed with Golden's Titan Buff to cover up the wording just enough. After that I painted the center with acrylics and wrote into the wet paint with a rubber tip some wording, once that was dry I painted the image using gouache watercolor paints and water soluble oil pastels then sealed it with PYMII.
Labels: Color Mists, Fairy, Gothic Arch Challenge
This week's Gothic Arch theme is Garden Fairy. For my base I used cold press watercolor paper sprayed with my Color Mists , I then stamped with white gesso. The fairy I pieced together since she didn't have legs and added the dress from some tag board dresses I've had for awhile waiting to use them on something.
Prom time again!
Here's my son and his girlfriend ready to go to the Senior Prom. It seems like just yesterday he was going to the winter formal his freshman year!Even harder to believe is that a month from now he'll have graduated and will be off to college.
Labels: coffee, Color Mists, palette
Clouds in my Coffee Here's a piece I did for a monthly lottery, since I'm the host this month I thought I'd try and entice some more participation by creating this coffee palette, the theme is coffee. I used a wooden palette that I adhered paper that I had misted with Color Mists to using soft gel medium. I free hand cut out shapes to form the cup using bits of scrap paper and highlighted it with paint and gel pens. The shading I added with a brown charcoal pencil and when I was completely done I sealed it with PYM II.
Labels: Mail Art
Here's a mail-art tin I made for a friend. I intend to send it as is in the mail and as always pray that it gets there in good shape...but hey that's part of the fun of sending mail-art right? So far I've had good luck in the past and I've sent some pretty odd things through the mail as is....I like to believe that it gives a bit of joy to the mail people and perhaps that they even take a little bit of special care even....don't burst my bubble I like my fantasy LOLIf you want to know more of how I made it click on the link below to find out:
I've had several emails asking what Blogarithm is so here goes...
If you want to save time and be notified when a blog is updated add your email below and you'll be sent an email once a day that notifies you of all the blogs that you've added that have been updated. This is how I try to keep up on the blogs I like to visit. I love that I get one email and I can click on the blogs from my email notification and zip to the blog.
Subscribe to my blog below:
While at Asilomar I met up with an old friend of mine Diane Bouchard as luck would have it we both stayed at the same Stuck Up Inn (It was fun to hang out and see you again Diane!). Diane just posted pictures of all her amazing trades, art and Asilomar goodies! Diane is quite a prolific artist, Check out her pictures here:
http://www.alteredbookstudio.blogspot.com/
Labels: Gothic Arch Challenge
I've been continually inspired by my friend Karen Owen's entries for the Gothic Arch Challenges, so I finally took the plunge and created my first Gothic Arch challenge for the theme My Doll and Me. Here's my first Gothic arch piece (my apologies for the blurriness, I probably should have used the digital camera since my scanner doesn't do 3D well).
This was a nice surprise...Mz Jackie sent me an email to share that Blogarithm has posted my blog on their popular blog list, I had no idea and probably would have missed it if she hadn't sent it to me, thanks Jackie!! :-)
http://www.blogarithm.com/discover.php
Check out my estate sale finds! can you say SCORE! I couldn't resist the hands I'm hoping to separate them and use them in an assemblage. I also found mini baking tins that will be perfect for shrines some brass candle cups that look like feet to me, a variety of tin snips, a rubber mallet and a antique jar of beautiful shells from Baja to name just a few of my finds! Whens the last time you went garage sale hunting or antique shopping? I hadn't been in awhile and had forgotten how fun it is to come home with new treasures! :-)