A+Red+Hearts Journal Art

Over in blissful art journaling she puts out a theme for a journal page.  This week is an A, red and hearts.  Here is my page.  A is for answers...

It was fun to dig out the red and pink stashes from the files and dig through them!

Altoid Tin Art

I joined an altered altoid tin (or any available tin) swap.  Alter the outside, fill the inside, send it on it's way.

So, I searched my stash, luckily I am pretty organized so I had a box where I drop tins into in case I ever need them, lol.  I found several I liked, chose three to alter.

I dug out the air dry paper clay and put a layer on the tops. 

I tried to make a "hump" type lid on one, one I put a knob on, and one I tried to use a cookie cutter to make a butterfly... that was no too successful.  Had to let that dry over night.

Then, I found the micro beads.  I have never used these much before, but I thought, I will use these up on the tins.  I painted the tins with a thick coat of acrylic medium and dumped on the beads.  Let that dry over night too.

Like I said, I haven't used micro beads before and when I checked, there was quite a bit of brown clay showing so I had some metallic green acrylic paint and I gave the boxes a wash of that to fill in the bare spots.  Then I gave them a guilding too.

I bought a box of knobs one time... what they are really for I have no idea, but they make the cutest legs for things like this, so I had to try to figure out how to mount them.  I drilled holes through the bottom of the din then used carpet tacks down into the knobs covered with glue to attach them.  I am not sure how stable this attachment is but they do hold the tins up, lol.  They got a wash of the metallic acrylic too.

Some 3-D paint spots and guilding and they looked pretty cute!  I sent one on it's way before I realized I had not taken a photo.  

I have to play with more tins.  They are so cute.

Journal Art

When I was working on the Strathmore workshop, I actually did about 6 or 8 pages, maybe more.  I usually work in multiples.  Here is a page I did because I had this piece of paper where I had imbedded some twine between two pieces of tissue.  I think I put some torn pieces of some of my art or writing as a border.  I then tried to use a spray ink over a paper doily to the edge too.  That just kinda gave me a speckled look, not a lace look.  Step two, I added the blue crayon and smear Pam showed how to do.  That was about as far as I got with it.  Then, the other day, I was on the blissful journaling site and she had a challenge to make a page using the number 5, blue and squares.  Well, this page was already almost done.  I added the 5's with my old stamp set, added the blue birds... thinking in my head "five blue birds squared equals________________.  I still need to fill in the blank, lol.  Here is the page.  I have decided I don't like the pages I have completed from this workshop... too much business in them.  I will be using parts of the elements she taught though.
So, here is the busy busy page with absolutely no point to it what-so-ever.

The red line is the book mark ribbon on my sketchbook... so just ignore it, he he.

Owl Art

The story behind the art:

When we lived in the village we had no views! Nada, none!  So, when we moved to the hill where we live now, we so fell in love with all our "views" and the wildlife that came into our lives.
About four years ago, we discovered some owls had hatched babies in the cliffs we drove next to to get to our hill.  We watched the little white fluffy babies watching us as we returned home from work each late afternoon.  All their heads and eyes would move in unison as we slowly drove up the road watching them, lol.  They gradually changed from white to their young tans and browns, and would sun themselves in the late afternoon on one of the ledges of the cliffs.

I have been known to do artwork that reminds me of the birds we have around us on a daily basis.  We do see an owl once in a while in the cliffs still but only once did we get to see the family.  I was inspired by CPS's reader challenge to do something with buttons.  Owl eyes of course!  The buttons are some I have had in my collection for many years.

Here is the

cliffs up close taken from my car window as I drive by.  You might be able to see the swallow nests too.

Here is the view of the cliffs from my deck, and one of my husband's art birds.

And here is the quiltie with free motion owls with their button eyes.

This was a fun little quiltie to make.  I pretty much "drew" the owls with free motion then added the vintage button eyes.

Fabric Mail Art

Over in the fabricinalteredart group, I signed up for a couple of swaps.  Here is the beautiful and interesting valentine post card and the quiltie for S I received from a new friend, Kathy M.  Thanks to Kathy for the beautiful pieces of fabric art she sent me.  Swapping items of art can be fun and you make new friends too!

AND

I apoligize for the weird photos on my last post... I have no idea what caused that.  The elephant three times and two of them huge?? How the heck does that happen?  lol

Journal Prompts Art

I have fun playing with prompts I find on the net.  I pick and choose the ones I feel like I can actually do something with that pertains to my life, my values, my art.  The last post was about the pages I did from the Strathmore workshops.  Today, the pages I have worked on from Milliande's January journal prompts.  I find it difficult to do one a day so I am way behind her, but here are a few pages I haven't posted before.

Layered lines... I will write about something someday...

Stories of women right page

And stories of women left page.  I like this idea and think I might noodle around with using it some other way...

And taking a line for a walk... lots of white area for journaling.

And remember Carla Sonheim's fun and silly prompts?  She takes an instrument of some kind and smears left over paint in the middle of a page... then when it drys make something out of it.  Here are some smears that I finished up lately...

Hand drawing...

Birds on a feeder... these are such cute little guys...

And an elephant???

Playful art... it's great!

Workshop Journal Art

The Strathmore Jounaling class by Pam Carriker is finished.  I posted my step one pages here:  http://swallowcliffs.blogspot.com/2011/01/strathmore-journal-art.html
And today the finished pages.  I enjoyed her process and learned some new techniques to adapt to my needs as I journal.  What I found interesting is that some of the pages told me what to write about, some are still blank of writing, waiting for the right time to come.  For the negative spaces I mostly used my own created stamps and found object stamps.

I used some of my art and some photo copies of old snap shots of my Mom... I still miss her!

Photo copies... and broken bonds due to death and torn trust...

Sorry this is turned wrong... what causes this?  Anyway I had the bit of world map which turned into a teddy bear... demanded to be a teddy bear! and how my Mom was my safety teddy bear!

Just collage pieces and a piece of my art (art doll),  I will write about walking the tall fences on our 

block! 

This one is collage, photocopy of an old photo when I was little (left eye) and a pencil self portrait photo copy.  The apple of someones eye came from the collage...  and do you recognize the zebra carved stamp, lol?

Just some collage really... nothing of my own.  You don't have to have photocopies of your old work if you don't want to to try her methods.  Not sure what I will write here yet.

And this is a piece of paper embedded with strings that I made some time ago and just have always wanted to use it for something and never found the right project, lol.  The papers around the edge were justs notes and such I had laying around the studio.

And this was just some a photo copy of some leaves I had in my ephemera stash.  I think this one looks more like what Pam would do than any of them... more pastel looking... It is nice!  Now, I can write how I have grown in 2011!

I am looking forward to March for the second round.   In the meantime, I have been also working on Milliande's prompts.  Daily is a bit fast for me... I have to have time to let an idea emerge.  Now that she is off the Zs I am doing a bit better with her prompts, I think.

End of Glossy Project Art

I am finished with January's Glossy Project girl.  I wonder what February's will look like? This one I have completely enjoyed doing and she rather took my muse by the hand... or serendipity did.  The elements to her just "seemed" to fall into place as I worked on other things.  Like when I decided I needed to add some words, and the slip with the saying I found as I was looking for something else for a different project and it just seemed to so fit her look!  Then I found the glittery thread that matched her dress so I did a running stitch around the saying and some on her dress...  The words and the last step, free motion sewing and here she is in all her wild abandon....

Brown Paper Bag Art

I have always making things from brown paper bags.  Envelopes are fun, and I used to make them lots.  That was before the bubble wrap envies became so popular for mailing artsy stuff!  Anyway, I have a roll, yes a roll of paper bag paper!  I use it all the time for all kinds of things. It is even fun to draw on and I have been going to make a brown paper bag paper journal for that.
But, moving on....


My friend and mentor Alma Stoller, being the prolific artist that she is, hosts the I Heart Zines swap every year starting about in July, I think.  I have so enjoyed doing this swap!  You would not believe the most beautiful and fun zines I now own because of that swap.

This year, one of the zines I received was from Lorie G.  It is all about brown paper bag art.  In it she has so much info about brown paper bag projects, like making flowers, charms, etc.  One that I fell in love with was waxed paper bag dolls.  As soon as I read the zine I got busy.  Here are the dolls I made:

Above you see a glimpse of Lorie's beautifully crafted zine...

Waxing gives these modern day ladies a rather "old world" look.

I experimented with coloring the dolls... some things work some don't

The bag lady on the right is using a paper bag with a different texture, kind of a slicker feel to it, and it showed the glue a bit more.

I had fun with these ladies... and thanks to Lorie for the inspiration and to Alma for the swap!

Challenging Fabric Art-Glossy Project Steps

Here are a couple more steps on my glossy project (see the first steps a couple of posts back).

I have to admit-giving the whole piece a gesso wash after the embroidery was a bit scary~  but once dried it was fine.  I painted her with liquid water colors.  Her hair seems to need something more, don't you think?

So, she was laying on my painting desk as I was looking for some things to put in an altered altoid tin, and I found these gee gaws that seemed to want to be on her.  So, since they are not made to apply to fabric, I just stitched over the edges and such to hold them on.  I think the rose and star on the belt dangle is good.  

Now, what will I add next, what next?

As I was posting this, my muse said "words!"  

Valentine Art

If you google Loveland, CO you can find all the information you need to get your cards or post cards mailed from the Loveland post office with a cute little poem and Loveland mail stamp on them.  Kind of fun for the recipients.  I have been sending postcards to my car girls, I think this will be the third year.  Here are the postcards I made this year, all fabric, of course.  The car girls are always thrilled to get any mail, but these are their favorites!

Bug Art

Milliande did a millipede me page as a prompt. I had a hard time with the millipede idea.  But then I finally decided to do a bug.  So this is a "what bugs me" page in my journal.  I still have to write in things that bug me but thought I would show you this.

Some things that bug me is people who ramble on and on about mundane things, people who do not respect a person's space and rights, having to use sissors to open nearly everything, children who ignore their Mom's, bugs, slugs, and dirty windows.  Just to name a few, lol.

On a brighter side, here is my oldest car girl playing with her ipod. She is a cut up!

Love it!

Challenging Fabric Art

Have you been checking the Glossy Project?  This month she is doing a cover from Vogue.  She posted the cover on the website,  so I printed it out and I am giving it a try too.  Her process is interesting, I think, and very creative.  So, here is step one... the basic embroidery part front and back sides.

The next step is to add a bit of gesso and then embellish as you like.  I have to figure that out yet.  Some bright lovely colors... beads... more hand stitiching... maybe some machine stitiching... what?

And another challenge... notan.  Some one mentioned this on one of the groups I visit, I had not even heard of the term since my college days.  I still have to do some research on it as I am not sure what all it encompasses.  But on the group you were to do a quilt block either in paper or fabric, I think... I guess I did not pay enough attention to the whole convo... and maybe they are swapping, I am not sure.  But, I just was interested in the "reflective" or "mirror" image concept and decided to give it a try.

What I did:  I found a piece of black and a piece of white fabric... cut a square... not too carefully either, lol.  I laid the pieces together and cut them in half.  I sewed one piece of black to one side of white to make a new square.  The other sides I put face to face then cut out the circle, and then the butterfly out of the circle.  Actually that is just half of each.  Then placed the cutouts on the opposite colors and sewed around the edges.  Then I added a bit of stitching for the antennea and legs.  I probably will use this on a journal cover some day, if and when I make a new one.  I have way too many journals and I am trying not to make more, but I have all these fabulous fabric things I have made that would look so cool as journal covers.  So, this is going onto the pile of "someday."

Swapping Art 2

This morning I sent HRH to the village with "mail art" that needed to go to various locations around the US.  Every time I do this, I pause for a moment and "I think to myself, what a wonderful world"  that allows me to send pieces of myself all over the world.  For some reason, and you all know this, it is rather disconcerting to mail off one of your creations to some unknown person, who may or may not love it.  It takes a brave brave person to do this.  It does get easier with time.  So, as I post pictures of what I sent today, I beg those who will eventually receive something from me, please please love it! lol

I joined two different ATC swapping groups dealing with the words of intent for 2011.  In one group we made other peoples words.  In the other we made a set of our own selected words.  

And for the first time ever, I joined a quiltie swap.  The fabric in altered group does one of these monthly.  I have never swapped things like this before.  For the month of January they are doing the letter S, and so something shiny was to be included.  All the fabrics on the front of this is shiny as is the beaded butterfly shape. I really love love love the colors and shine to the piece in the center!  I like challenging myself to do new things.  Making a quiltie and beading both are new activities for me.  

Now, I still have several things to finish:  an altoid tin, some fabric valentines, and my glossy project for January.  (see link to right if you want to do a glossy)  So, I think you will be seeing more "mail art" posts soon.

Swapping Art

My first swap was with my new cyber friend Norma, who always stops by here and leaves me a very encouraging comment.  (You should do that too!  Please, lol)  She liked my dolls so we decided to swap.  I forgot to scan the cute little mermaid I made for her but you can see it on her blog.  She sent me a scan but being semi computer challenged, I lost it so can't show it to you.  You can get a glimpse of her in the cupboard if you look closely, she is the one with the green sea weed looking hair.  You can find Normas blog addy in the comments on the dolls.  Any way, this is the cute little ballerina she sent me.  Doesn't she have the most beautiful hand drawn face?

Some other swaps I am doing right now is two different ATC swaps dealing with our focus words for 2011.
And an altered altoid tin swap.
And a post card valentine swap.
A little quiltie swap.
Notan quiltie swap.
I have lost my mind... signing up for all these swaps... but what else is a person to do living in sub zero weather?
And a valentine card swap.  Here are the cards I made, just about ready to send.

And I need to make some valentine postcards to send to my little car girls.  They love getting them in the mail!

This That and The Other Art

I drew some more highly prized things.  I did one or two more of the prompts from Milliande.

The littlest car girl sketch... highly prized indeed!

A water bottle.  Water is something I value so much.  Living in a high desert environ makes me so aware of how important water is in our lives.  We have it pretty good, but there are many places around the world that does not even have decent drinking water, let alone water for yards and pools and other unnecessary things.  The newspeople are saying our water average for the years is close to 300% so I guess we might be our of drought we have had for last several years.  Yea!  

And Milliandes "window" prompt.  I was not going to do this one but then I found the quote and it seemed to tie my focus word for 2011 and her prompt together, so into my journal it went!  This is really way too busy of a page to be eye pleasing!