Quicky Newsletter Background

Here's a simple background technique using a Trader Joe's newsletter flier as my base. Click HERE to view the tutorial. I love using printed fliers for backgrounds and then tearing them and using just pieces in my art.

Have fun and play!

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Digi Page

Here's a digi piece I made with my niece in mind whose deep in the throws of winter in Indiana. Being a California Grl she's still enamoured with the snow but is looking forward to summer. The winter pictures in the background are pictures she took at Notre Dame where she's attending college. You can download a freebie HERE.

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Funky Bottle Cap Babe Project!

I've been meaning to make these easy peasy bottle cap dolls for awhile now and finally got the chance yesterday! Aren't they fun and funky!

Click HERE to see my mini tutorial on how to make them.

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Just for fun!

Sometimes I come across something just for fun and I did just that when I visited Sandy's blog and discovered this umbrella test. It seemed apropos since we've had a lot of rain the last few days. I feel my umbrella test was pretty spot on.
If your having a cold and rainy day that's keeping you indoors how about stopping by and checking out some of my freebies to get you inspired!

Your Pink Umbrella Says You're Sensitive

When faced with adversity, you respond with compassion. Even if someone is making life difficult for you, you can't help but see things from their perspective. You are emotionally in tune, and you are very sensitive to those around you. You are able to give to those who need it most, even if they are difficult to deal with. On a rainy day: you should offer to help someone who needs you

The Umbrella Test

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Starting to feel human again!

I'm finally starting to feel human again though I still tire easily, but whew! Thank goodness, 'cuz I was starting to go stir crazy! Did I mention that my baby laptop is back home again and up and running, yay! I thought I'd share a picture of Tungsten....hey don't you name your computers too? Our desktop computer is named Bob...the kids named it years ago LOL

It sucks to have lots of time, but not feel well enough to want to do art even! Just to get my art MoJo going again I did a couple of fun journal pages. The one above was first done with watercolors and then I added some elements digitally.

This one I used a quote from a wild woman calendar my sister gave me as a prompt. I thought it was a funny quote after having been sick. The quote was said to Christine Keeler, who was a prominent prostitute, by her doctor. Of course I don't hope to be back in bed LOL!

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Crafty Blogger Blurbs Are Back!

About Family Crafts Why not give your Valentine a special, home-made card this year. You can get spectacular results using these easy techniques.

Cathie Filian Cathie Filian is sewing and re-crafting and old T-shirt and skirt into a new fashion with a few simple steps.

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world This week at Craftside there is Fabulous Funky Fill-In Lettering with Lisa Engelbrecht, Floral Clump Mini Mirror and Bird's Nest out of polymer clay and mixed media with Christi Friesen, needle felted flowers from recycled wool sweaters with Stefanie Girard and an Ultra-mini pocket booklet from Lisa Sonora Beam.

Cross Stitch at About.com Stitch a chart fit for Royalty - Or at least a Pharaoh. Connie shares her new Egyptian Cat Welcome pattern this week.

Layers Upon Layers Every day, new information on classes and educational opportunities are being added to Layers Upon Layers!

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery See some wacky photos of fabulously fun knit hats with ears, horns and alien eyes from PolarKnit with links to the free downloadable patterns!

The Impatient Crafter Copycats got you down? Read Miss Madge's recent post on Internet Etiquette.

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Announcing Blog Giveaway Names!!

Okay here we go using the random number generator at random.org.

Congratulations to the following winners:

• Dorian at http://www.refrigeratorartonline.com/

• Lotus who I happen to know makes amazing dolls!

• Chris P from http://evidenceofanartisticlife.blogspot.com/

• Ms Iowa Sunshine from http://iowasunshine-myplaceinthesun.blogspot.com/

and one more cuz I'm feeling generous

• Rush from http://rush8888.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately there were a couple that were picked that I had no email to contact you so I had to move on to the next person :-(

Now then to claim your price please do the following two things:

1. email me otm@outsidethemargins.com with your snail mail address

2. Post a blurb about this and a link to my

blog http://aileensmusings.blogspot.com

or

website http://www.outsidethemargins.com/

PS if you recognize a name please email them to let them know they won! :-)

Update

Seems like ages since I've been on here I thought I'd give you a little update....they thought I had bronchitis but turns out I have pneumonia ack! what a scary word that was to me especially with the possibility of going into the hospital! But I am happy to say that I am getting better little by little between antibiotics, injections and breathing treatments I'm sure to be good as new soon! Many thanks to all of you who have sent me get well wishes, they're much appreciated!! :-)

Unfortunately I haven't done anything let alone any art but I can feel a journal page coming on so I must be feeling better ;-)

Stay tuned I'll be picking names for the magazine giveaway!

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It only feel like I'm dying....

Mentally I know I'm not dying, but the rest of my body is not convinced of that! This is about how I look and feel right now having come down with bronchitis! Dealing with the on again off again fever is starting to make me feel like I'm menopausal on steroids--hot-cold-hot-cold! As if that wasn't enough the idea of investing in Depends due to all the er... coughing is actually starting to sound like a good idea!!

I'll be back soon with you regularly scheduled program!

Meanwhile since your here you might as well pop over to my freebies page HERE to check out all my tutorials and peruse the gallery while your at it:

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Crafty Blogger Blurb Saturday!

The Crochet Dude Drew kicks off the New Year with a free pattern. Check out his "Cafe Couture"!

Crafty Princess Diaries The Crafty Princess asks: Are you a tweaker or a tried and true crafty type?

Layers Upon Layers Fabulous artwork by a very motivated distance learner :-)

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery Check out super cute pair of camo baby booties I knit from a pattern in the book Faith, Hope, Love, Knitting.

The Impatient Crafter If you're attending the Tucson Gem Show or CHA, Madge would love to meet you! Check out her schedule and come take a class or get a signed copy of one of her new books!

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world Kicking off the new year Craftside will theme each week with a letter from the alphabet and give away a book a week to a lucky commentor. This week there is ATC art, a free antler graphic from Design Parts Sourcebook: Romantic, photos from an appearance by Patti Medaris Culea with doll and altered book pocket design, and a sneak peek at some of the cool pages from Essential Fashion Illustration-Men.

Cross Stitch at About.com Be the first to stitch and submit a photo of Connie's free BGB Gizmo Pattern and have your photo featured as the stitched model. Get your 15 minutes of Cross Stitch fame!

About Family Crafts Over the years I have learned some trick when it some to storing craft supplies and staying organized, and I am happy to share these with you.

Cathie Filian Cathie Filian has a fun tutorial on recycling jeans into fashion cuffs with personalized patches.

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Gouache Paints and Cabinet Cards

Gouache Paints

I thought I'd post a replay of my gouache paint tutorial I have since I've been playing with my Gouache paints (pronounced gwash) recently. Gouache paints are fun user friendly opaque watercolor paints. Typically used by illustrators. I've found them to be a great addition to adding color to sepia and black and white photos. The cool thing about gouache paints is that you can wipe them off if you don't like what you've done and start over, they also cover well! You can paint light over dark and they make it very easy to add highlights and shadows by mixing white or black to the basic color your using....perfect for the novice painter.

Click HERE to view my tutorial and link to my 2 new freebie cabinet cards!

(click HERE to purchase an 18 piece paint set with 2 brushes)

ENJOY!

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Shout Out!

I wanted to give a big welcome and shout out to my friend Judy Streger for joining the ranks of the blogger world (she's no longer *gasp* A Blog Virgin!). Please take a moment to check out the Mixed up Media Art of Judy Streger and peruse her fun and original art dolls and welcome her by leaving a comment. Judy has a wicked and wonderful sense of humor!

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Paint Brushes

Sometimes it's the simplest things that make us happy! Here's a picture I took of a set of new chunky brushes I bought. It inspired me to do an art journal page using it. I just love my new chunky brushes, and had been wanting some larger ones then I have (these measure just about 2 inches across). What fun I plan to have using them!

I came across this thought provoking poem appropriately titled Paint Brush. I think the combination of the picture and poem would be a great motivator for an art journal entry....If it inspires you, please let me know, I would love to see what you created just post a link back to your piece :-)

Paint Brush

Bettie B Young ©

I keep my paint brush with me wherever I may go, in case I need to cover up, So the real me doesn't show. I'm so afraid to show you me, afraid of what you'll do, that you may laugh or say mean things,I'm afraid I might lose you.

I'd like to remove all my paint coats to show you the real, true me, But I want you to try and understand, I need you to accept what you see. So if you'll be patient and close your eyes, I'll strip off all my coats real slow. Please understand how much it hurts to let the real me show.
Now my coats are all stripped off, I feel naked, bare and cold. And if you still love me with all that you see, you are my friend, pure as gold.

I need to save my paint brush, though, and hold it in my hand. I want to keep it handy in case somebody doesn't understand. So please protect me, my dear friend and thanks for loving me true. But please let me keep my paint brush with me Until I love me, too.

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January is the Month of Blog Giveaways!

Apparently this is the month of giveaways, who knew! Check out some more blog giveaways I've posted below and take a moment to enter:

Kathryn over at KV Creative Designs has a Blog Anniversary and she's giving away some Blog Candy! Stop by and check it out.

Queen Kathrine from the Queen Speaks is giving away some Woot Loot! Scoot over to her realm to check it out!

Expensive Mistakes and Cheap Thrills is giving away: A Wear-Your-Heart-Around-Your-Neck Chunky Pendant Chain (ends January 12).

Kathy from Soul Reader is giving away: a Celtic Mermaid Print. Must sign up for the newsletter to enter. (ends January 25--look in the right hand side bar for sign up and print).

Happy Creating!

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My Art Challenge Answer...

I am so thrilled, amazed and inspired by all the comments people have posted in answer to my art challenge question & blog giveaway! Honestly, each and every post has been very insightful and inspiring for me, thank you, thank you to ALL who have posted!! I wish I could send each one of you a prize for taking the time to post! Please know though that your comments, I am positive, are inspiring for others as well! If you have a moment take the time to read through the comments HERE.

So in answer to my own question the ART challenge I want to accomplish in 2009 is to stick to keeping an art journal. Ideally I'd love to do a page a day, but realistically if I at least do a page every other day or two then I will be satisfied. Being realistic in your expectations of yourself is an important factor to sticking with your challenge, so keep that in mind. If your challenges seem too huge and unrealistic try breaking them down into smaller goals and tackle them little by little....at least for me this works, otherwise I get overwhelmed by the larger picture and give up completely.

I have several sketch books where I draw ideas and designs, but keeping an art journal will be different then that for me. In my art journal I will be journaling feelings and thoughts as well as ideas. I've never been comfortable in keeping a diary/journal its always felt too evasive....this blog is as close as I've come to that, so this will be a good challenge for me pushing me outside of my comfort zone just enough.

So with that said I have posted my second art journal page. It's a preliminary sample of what I plan to paint on my front door this spring after hubby gets the door fixed and prepped for me. Its taken me a couple years since we first painted our brightly colored funky farmhouse for me to decide on how I wanted to paint the door. Once I'm done painting I will roll on a layer of PYM II to seal it from the sunlight just like I did with my mailbox which has not faded after almost 2 years. I cannot say enough about how awesome PYM II is! I have solely used this product on my art for almost 2 years now and swear by it! I also cannot say enough about how wonderfully nice, and helpful the creators Doug and Donna Shepherd are to work with!

Art Journal Page

Front Door Sample

I started by sketching the design with a black micron pen and then used a travel set of watercolors and watercolor pencils to fill in. Once that was dry I went back over it with Shiva paintstiks (the squares are representation's of the windows that are in my front door just in case your wondering...what the heck those are! lol).

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Crafty Blogger Blurb Sunday!

Ahh you probably thought I forgot, nope! I'm just having to share the computer with the kid since he did have some homework to finish up...the nerve! LOL

About Family Crafts If you are looking for a reason to celebrate, find out what holidays and birthdays are celebrated in the month of January 2009 using this special days calendar.

Cathie Filian Spring brides are getting busy planning all the details of their big day and Cathie Filian has an easy tutorial on making wedding favors.

Craftside- A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world The last week of 2008 at Craftside brings you a mixed media polymer clay design, a sneak peek into the upcoming book Paper Puppet Palooza with a fun egg and bird moving card and a melting Tyvek technique. Happy New Year Crafting!

Crafty Princess Diaries It's time to get organized for 2009! The Crafty Princess talks about her own battle with the clutter bug.

Cross Stitch at About.com Make some stitching resolutions for the coming year using these ideas from Connie G. Barwick to get you started.

Layers Upon Layers Come and drool over the multi-layered collages of Melinda Asztalos.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery Jackalopes are real and they love being the motif du jour on a needle felted pillow made from recycled wool felted sweaters.

The Impatient Crafter Need some solid advice about how to do what you love and make money? Madge shares some old advice for a new year

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Happy New Year & Blog Giveaway!

Happy Belated New Years

Blog Readers!

I know I've been slacking a bit on the posts...I have a dunderhead confession to make! I got tangled hog-tied and lassoed by my laptop cord and it slipped off the ottoman and kerplunked to the floor (HORRORS!). I quickly tried to resuscitate it (stat get me the jumper cables), but it was obvious it needed a transplant when it started making dreadful noises and wouldn't let me back in windows (what the heck!). Sadly its in ICU getting a new hard drive and I am begrudgingly lovingly using the office computer where it is cold, ugly and slogs along at a turtle's pace, so if my posts and emails are less frequent this is why.

But on to a happier note...

I have a blog giveaway...for up to 4 lucky participants! I will randomly select 4 numbers from the number generator of 4 lucky people who leave a post answering the following question:

"What art/creative challenge (doesn't necessarily

have to be art related) are you hoping

to tackle in 2009?"

Now I'm not talking about loosing weight or a resolution but something you've wished or hoped you could try your hand at....

I'm going to give this a couple of weeks before I pick names so don't forget to leave me your email in your comment or I can't contact you, and I'll move on to another number.

What do the winners get.....an issue of an Altered Arts Magazine...it may or may not be this particular issue, but I'll email the winners with their selections. I have some extras I'd like to get rid of.

If your interested in ordering a magazine you can click HERE to do just that :-)

Happy Creating!

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