The Earth Laughs in Flowers!

Yep another alcohol ink background...this is a piece I did for Artwords...it's been awhile since I've contributed anything. This weeks word "Botanical" sparked my creative juices. The saying is a favorite of mine :-)

Ingenuity at it's finest!

There is no loss for creativity in my household...after blowing the grass clippings and dirt from the cement my son Spencer's ingenuity kicked in to high gear and he hooked the leaf blower to one of their old Tonka trucks and ran with it as it sped down the street! What's even funnier is how quickly they can go from being so grown up to letting the kid come out to play!

In less then 24 hours he went from GQ debonair looking to what you see LOL check out his prom pictures: http://www.outsidethemargins.com/juniorprom.html

When your Muse Comes to Visit!

I found a kewl song on Sonific and fell in love with it! It's Called Empathy Song By The Mosaic Project, the album is titled: Children's Songs for Peace and a Better World (I did have it playing on my blog but found it to freeze up and load the page too slowly on some people's computers, so I've removed it but check it out at the link above).

I should have been working, but my muse came to visit and held me hostage until I finished the art pin below. Often times creativity and inspiration show up when we least expect it and I've learned to go with it. You can't always plan and schedule your art time, so allow yourself some freedom! I guarantee your work will still be there waiting for you ;-)She was made from the following items: cheapy Plastic paint brushes, a square of metal screen of some sort that's about 16-18 gauge (more treasures hubby brought home to me) and mini brass 3/32" size eyelets. The head was made previously from PMC (Precious Metal Clay).

(Click picture to enlarge)

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Creativity comes in all forms!

Check out the new Headwear

for Spring 2007!

Why is my son wearing a leaf hat you may be wondering? (isn't it great!)

No particular reason except that his creativity got the better of him and he was inspired by the leaves in the tree and went for it. How often do we do that as Adults? We could certainly take some lessons from kids...they don't have to have a reason to create they just do because they're inspired....look around and let yourself be inspired just because :-)

Beauty comes in all forms....

Check out my beautiful bloomin' bathtub...

...and the treasures my hubby and son brought home to me from the antique tractor show they went to...yes they are all beauties to me!

A wonderfully rusted folding rule (I stand corrected, it is not called a ruler but a rule I learn something new everyday :-), and 4 rusted cast iron faucet handles!!

Can you just see all the endless possibilities?

I've been working on more charms for a found object charm swap hosted by Belinda. When I hear the words "found object" rusted grung comes to mind and I had intentions of doing that but my muse had other ideas...

I started with a budget pack of kid's plastic paint brushes and cut most of the handle off, I then wrapped what was left with deli paper painted and stamped with Color Mists and gel medium once dried I then stamped with some gold Krylon leafing paint and sealed them with Crystal Lacquer. Once they were completely cured I drilled holes in the tops and wrapped them with copper wire and beads.

Paint Brush Charms

Below is yet another piece I did using one of my alcohol ink backgrounds...I know you all are probably getting tired of these but I've promised myself to try and use up all the samples I made so here you go:

alcohol ink background with glow in the dark star wall stickers from the dollar store, stamping with krylon gold leafing paint and black Staz-on ink and vintage image. I have to tell you I had forgotten the stickers glowed until I walked in last night and saw my piece glowing in the dark, what a kick to see it glowing! LOL

I created this tag for a tag and ATC lottery by using one of the alcohol ink backgrounds I created previously (shown in the slide show), stamped with Krylon gold leafing paint added some dollar store wall flowers and the image is from my Charmed 2 Collage sheet and the brass frame is from my charms page .

Here's a chunky page I did for a little fat book for a good friend to help her through a difficult time. The background of the page and the front and back cover are more of the alcohol ink backgrounds I mentioned I made a few posts down (see slide show to the right). I stamped with Staz-on ink. The charms can be found at the following link:
http://www.outsidethemargins.com/charms.html

I'm feel doubly honored to have been asked by Cyndi at http://www.layersuponlayers.com/ if I would do an artist profile to be featured on her site, if you would like to read it click the link below:
http://www.layersuponlayers.com/artist-profile-aileen-roberts/

And also to have been nominated by Kris Henderson for the Thinking Blogger Award. If you haven't had the chance to check out Kris' Blog its always a wonderful source of inspiration for me both soulfully and artistically. Kris expresses her thoughts through photos which are not only beautiful they're soothing to the soul. I highly recommend taking a moment to read and view pictures from her recent trip to Africa when you get the chance.

Now to pay it forward I nominate the following 5 blogs that make me think...for me the following blogs either cause me to think and/or inspire me. My nominations (not in any particular order) are:

Joanne Thieme Huffman-has a natural talent for writing and really poses some great artistically provoking questions, I truly appreciate her contemplations that leave me with intriguing thoughts to ponder. Not only that she posts wonderful eye candy to boot :-)

Corinne Stubson-is one of the most generous inspirational artists I know. Her blog is chockful of thoughts, eye candy and inspiration, definately a must see!

LayersUponLayer-Cyndi's blog is a vast source of useful information and endless inspiration! You could spend a great deal of time here and still not cover it all.

Dispatch From LA-I always find this blog a captivating read on art and life in general, not to mention the engaging photos and inspirational art that are posted as well.

Flaurellas- in-between Laurel's hectic day of insanity she posts wonderfully alluring photos of food, floral and fauna and witty sardonic thoughts on life! One never knows what they will find when they visit her blog, which is why I so enjoy it!

Dreaded Tax Time

Its that time of year I hate dreaded Tax time! so no art for me right now, but I will leave you with some food for thought...
An on going obstacle that many artists have (myself include) is allowing our inner critic to take hold and plant seeds of doubt about the art we've created. One of the hardest things to do is to learn to listen to your muse and NOT listen to your inner critic! Practice dusting off your shoulder with your hand as if you had a piece of dirt on it and flick that inner critic away and just say "No!"

Happy Easter!

Hope you all have a very happy Easter!

In honor of Easter I thought I'd share with you some beautiful colored eggs that were colored using Color Mists. They were done by a very talented artist and friend Karen Owen, check her site to view more pictures and other artwork she's done.

Bird's Eye View

Here's another piece I made from sitting down at my messy work area and using whatever happened to be at hand...I wasn't intentionally doing this but as I sat there I noticed the alcohol ink backgrounds sitting off to one side in a pile and then the girl image and a bird nest label sticker were sitting on another pile and it all just fell together. After the last couple of days I've had plus trying to get 30 4x4 bird pages finished up I was in major need of some "no plan art time" which is always good therapy!

As I mentioned I used the alcohol ink backgrounds I made previously and then stamped with a crackle stamp (the crackle stamp is from Stampa Rose which is no longer around but I believe that Above The Mark also has a crackle stamp) some gold Krylon leafing pen pumped out on some

acetate (When I say pumped out I press the tip down until I get about a dime size puddle of paint), next I used chalk ink around the edges of all the backgrounds. I then used some star punchinella (thanks Angela!) and more gold Krylon leafing on the blue background. I layered the bird nest label onto the blue background (you really can't tell now ) and then slit the nest and perched the girl image into the nest like she was sitting in it and then added a hat from a scrap of alcohol ink background. I then added more stamping and chalk inks by this time you couldn't tell she was sitting in the nest unless you knew...I happened to have a couple of small faux nests I had picked awhile back and I cut about 1/4 off of one of the nests and adhered it with some crystal lacquer then cut up some of the nest left and glued it inside to fill it up more. Next I cut the corners off using corner scissors and added the pieces cut to the outside corners. Next I added jewelry tags stamped with eggs then layered onto metal tag brads. I cut two 1/8" holes at the bottom and wove some faux twig vines through the holes. I sealed the piece using PYMII.

BIRD'S EYE VIEW
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