Carved Pumpkins and more

Here's a piece just because....it's nice to create something that isn't for a swap for a change. I painted a Masonite board with some Golden's paints then stamped into it while it was still wet with some interference paint and a foam stamp then once that was dry I stamped with a different stamp design using gold interference paint. I then added the other elements once it was dry.

For a friend

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Herm and Ethel enjoying the high life while they share a pumpkin ale!

At least they left us some pumpkins in trade for the pumpkin ale.

A Particularly Peculiar Title

While visiting Kari's blog I couldn't resist getting my own peculiar title, no need to curtsy.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Reverend Countess Aileen the Sage of Chortling Chesterton Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

What's your peculiar title?

Crowns, Casts and Lunchboxes!

Many thanks to all of you who take the time to visit my blog and even leave a comment I appreciate it. I've had some email issues and haven't been able to respond to all comments, but I do thank you!

Here's some goodies to share now that my friends Kris and Christy have celebrated their birthdays. Below are the crowns I made for each of them...I have to admit I'm getting kind of addicted to making them! I started with a plastic princess crown and added springs of leaves and beads with the hot glue gun and covered the side pieces that fit on the head with ribbon, the trick is to keep layering until it's as full as you want.

(You should be able to enlarge each of the

pictures by clicking on them).

Christy's Crown

Kris' Crown

No Queen or Art Diva is complete without her crown!

Here's a classic case of "I knew I'd find a use for it one day" Syndrome that most of us collectors er...I mean Altered Artists suffer from. I picked up an old black lunch box about 4 years ago at an estate sale thinking what a great piece it would be to alter some day and up it went on my shelf waiting for just the right project which ended up being a purse for Kris for her birthday. I just love how it turned out. This was a collaborated effort with another friend who lined the inside and made a wonderful mermaid doll to go inside. After the outside was finished I sealed it with PYMII which worked great!

I must confess I've always had a secret desire to alter some body's cast and today I got to do just that! My sister let me add some bling to her basic black cast.

At least it adds a little fun to an otherwise boring cast :-)

I sealed it with PYMII.

This weekend was a weekend of finishing up projects. There has been a lot of talk on several yahoo groups I'm on about whether or not people have more then one project going at a time and if that's okay. I always have several in various stages of completion and then I have some that I started a while back and set aside on my unfinished shelf until the right idea or piece comes to mind so I can finish the project. This is not for lack of trying to finish it, but because something just isn't coming together. I've learned to be patient and wait and not force it, and that given time it will happen usually when I'm in the middle of working on a different project. I started this particular shrine almost a year ago and finally the finishing touches came together...if I had finished it way back I would not have had the Vintage top hat charm that I used on the little fairy which I love, so I'm happy I waited. Now that doesn't mean I'm advocating waiting for forever its just that sometimes we get stuck and its okay to wait provided you DO go back and finish. I started this piece from a 6x6 chunky canvas and a block of wood. I painted both pieces with red first then screwed the block of wood to the canvas and added the legs and final to the top. Once I was completely done I sealed it with PYMII.

(You should be able to click the pictures to enlarge them)

My next finished pieces are two mini 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" canvases I painted for a swap I'm in. Now these weren't sitting on my unfinished shelf they were supplies I've had with an idea in mind . I painted them with acrylic paints and added the moss and bird in the opening. You can see from the one picture just how tiny they are.

Back side of canvases

I must admit I do love the feeling of completing something :-)

I might add that all the projects I posted were sealed with PYMII.

Yep, more drawing! I am really getting addicted to taking my sketch book with me whether it's in the car or sitting at the coffee house with hubby, I'm able to do some drawing. Here's my car art kit I bring with me:

• Sketch Pad


• Drawing pencils


• Micron or Pitt Pens


• Watercolor Pencils


• Eraser (yes its okay to erase!)

I was just sharing with a friend how liberating it feels to be doing so much drawing, I feel so free! In saying this I realized that it was because I feel comfortable with my drawing, be it good or bad it doesn't matter. My whole purpose of sharing my drawings is to encourage other people to draw and hopefully get across to others that it's okay if its not perfect the point is to just keep at it. There was a time that I would have been too embarrassed to share any of my drawings out of fear that they weren't *good enough* or that they weren't perfect. They are far from perfect I'll be the first to admit that LOL, but the key here is that I'm enjoying it and that I can see a difference in myself the more I keep at it, so let my ranting encourage those of you who read my blog to put together your own travel drawing kit and JUST DRAW! :-)

I must confess the second gypsy is not my original design like the others are. Its an ME design from a flag I have hanging up although, I did draw my own variation of it.

My scanner is on the fritz so I used my digital camera and took pictures which is why they aren't the best quality pictures. Below is a Mermaid Fairy I painted using regular watercolors and gouache paints and a white sailor pen:

Listen to some fun Halloween themed music at Live365. I know I've mentioned 365 before, but its worth mentioning again. I love listening to it from my computer when I'm in my office/studio working. There's a plethora of music genres to choose from some I've never even heard of! You can check it out at the link below:

http://www.live365.com/listen/browse.live

Martini Time!

I played Taxi driver today for my sister who had hand surgery recently which means that I had a lot of waiting time in between appointments, so I took my sketch book with me. Here's a martini I drew using a pen and watercolor pencils.

Yep, there's actually a Taxi Cab Martini see the recipe below::

2 oz. Whiskey of choice

2 oz. Orange juice

1 Tbsp. Lemon juice

Lemon twist for garnish

Combine whiskey and juices in mixing glass. Add ice and stir to chill. Strain into a Swank Martini Glass and garnish with a twist.

CHEERS!

Herm & Ethel wish you a Happy Halloween!

Herm & Ethel are home for Halloween! The spent a little too much time on the beach!

They both wish you a Happy Halloween!

More Fairy Adoptions on the horizon, these Displaced Fairies are on their way to their new homes!

Mermaid Fairy Queen

Fairy Queen of the Beach

This little fairy is one doggone cute fairy! I wonder who she grew up to be?

If you want to order your own custom Fairy click the link below:

http://www.outsidethemargins.com/dfairies.html

Fairies and Art Candy Tour!

Boy what a week, lots going on and not a whole lot of time for art. I have several Displaced Fairies(http://www.outsidethemargins.com/dfairies.html ) I've been working on here's one I just finished up for a friend.

Fairy Queen of Mirth and Magic

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Come take a little Blog Journey with me and enjoy a few of my Altered Diva sistah's wonderful art candy. Don't forget to let them know how much you like their art while your visiting :-)

Karen Owen- http://www.karenink.typepad.com/

Angela Hoffmann- http://geminiangelsart.blogspot.com/

Kathy McElroy- http://kathymcelroy.typepad.com/stories2tell/

Vicki Sun- http://livealoha.typepad.com/

Karen Campbell- http://karensaltereddreamz.blogspot.com/

My attempt at drawing an ugly witch,

hey at least she has hairy moles LOL

Presenting Isabella The Fairy

Meet the real cutie Isabella the Fairy of Friendliness.

The Displaced Fairy Adoption was a perfect match made in Fairyland!

I'm still practicing, here's my latest watercolor drawing, this one is 11x14. I'm particularly fond of this one and found I definitely prefer painting on smooth paper as opposed to cold press watercolor paper with more texture in it.

Wistful

Fairy Adoption!

Meet Isabella the Fairy of Friendliness!

Her home was once in the woods, but a storm cast she and many other fairies to the winds and they became part of the Displaced Fairies. Only humans that are kind and loving will the Displaced Fairies show themselves to. Isabella has found the perfect loving family who will be welcoming her into their home soon!

And The Winner Is...

Congratulations Lori on winning the art apron! Many thanks to everyone that participated I put all your names in a jar and had my son Spencer draw a name out.

Lori send me your mailing address, please :-)

More drawing practice

I got in the groove making some Halloween gifties using cardboard Slide Mailers.
I was excited to finally get to finally play with my cool Coffin Cards using the new Skeleton stamp and Trick or Treat Stamp Set that just arrived. I used my new Halloween Color Mists on a part of them its too bad you can't see the shimmer in the scans.

Click or scroll
down and enter
the drawing for an
art apron.

Door Poetry & Contest Reminder

I was gifted with a small box of goodies today from my good friend Christy who is one of the most generous people I know. One of the items in the box was a sheet of magnetic poetry words....something I've been wanting to get to use on a metal file holder I have hanging on my side door for when people leave notes and things when we're not home. Since the file holder is metal I thought what fun it would be to put some of those poetry words on it to play with!

Door Poetry

Thanks Christy!

Don't forget to enter my drawing (see previous post) to win a cool Apron, I've received a ton of emails, thanks everyone! Either way will work emailing me or leaving a comment just don't forget to include your email if your posting a comment and a link to some fun Halloween art!

Contest, Mermaids & Halloween

I finished another mermaid painting, it's taken me all week to finally get her done. Due to lack of time and then having to fix her face (we won't talk about that!). She still has a bit of the deer in head-light's look but what can I say I'm still a beginner :-) I do however, like how her body/tail turned out and did contemplate just cutting that out and using in some art, but decided against it for now.

Sorry, but I couldn't hold true to my word I did another Halloween Postcard! The little girl and boy image was just sitting there begging me to do something with them. I had already painted them previously with Gouache Paints and since I was making backgrounds on photo paper using the new Limited Edition Color Mists for Halloween, it all just fell together, I love when that happens!

**BLOG CONTEST**

Since it's my birthday tomorrow I've decided to give this really cool NEW Art Apron to a lucky blog reader.

Do the following 3 things:

1. Post a comment with your NAME & EMAIL

2. Include your email address (I'm not psychic)

3. Leave a link to some cool Halloween Art (can be yours or someone elses) or a fun Halloween Project.

Each person that leaves those three things will have their name entered in the drawing. Send this blog contest to a friend and for every friend that posts a comment and mentions your name you will get an additional name entered into the drawing!

The Sky's the limit!

Drawing will be held on Sunday Sept 23, 2007

**Just remember if you don't leave your name and email I can't notify you**

Before you ask the contest is open to International blog readers as well :-)

Apron is made from canvas and is adjustible to fit all sizes

Halloween's Just Around

I just finished adding a new Spooktacular
Halloween Goody Page with unique embellishments, charms and more:

http://www.outsidethemargins.com/bones.html

If your anything like me Halloween will be here before you know it and then all those good intentions of projects are out the window and next thing you know Christmas is here! I'm getting a jump start this year, how about you? I plan on making some goodie bags using my canvas baglets and I'm really hoping to do a Halloween Charm bracelet using the Vintage Halloween charms I'm offering...I especially want to use the top hat charms they're just too fun! What cool projects do you have in mind, I'd love for you to share?

Here's some dictionary pages I did for my Altered Art Divas' group. The idea was to pick a word from a list of words that were coined by one of us and then give a dictionary definition and create some art to go with the word. It will be a 5x7 size book that we will bind ourselves once we get the pages back.

Here's my pages: