Collage on canvas Bird on a Picket Fence

Here is my latest creation. The photo doesn't do it justice. I painted the background, stamped the background using a styrofoam design, added cardboard for the picket fence, used homemade paper, added a bird and flowers image, and used pastels to add a glimpse of flowers in the background. I may add some stamping, but for now it is a finished piece. The handmade paper really adds an interesting dimension. I hope to put this in my library exhibit.

Tag Tuesday Theme: Summer

"A Moonlight Flight" This tag is all about the background. I made a styrofoam stamp and did at least three layers of stamping. The glow is from powdered pearls- copper that I put on the stamp with a sponge. Then I painted over some of the swirls with powdered pearls. The butterflies are from paper napkins. I wanted it to look like night and moonlight. Summer nights would be the best time for a midnigt flight. I like the way the wings overlap and the background can be seen through them.

http://bellesouth-blogchallengegarden.blogspot.com/

Think Monday- Think ATC Challenge: Cups

I love cups. My mother and grandmother collected them. My friends

Carol and Jewels collect them. I have so much fun finding cups at resale shops and while I'm on vacation. Cups are in many of my collages. But, better yet, I love a cup of coffee. Once, in a blackout the first thing I thought of was getting a cup of coffee..it might be my last. I like strong coffee with cream. Coffee in a cup is like dessert for me. I love pretty cups, but the ones I have have wild sayings ( only fitting for family and close friends). My daughter-in-law gives me a new cup each Christmas. The sayings are always over the top. The cup on this card is left over from my Mail Art swap themed: royalty. Ummm... time for a cup of coffee.

http://tmta.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/tassencups/

Sunday Postcard Art Challenge: Gnomes

Couldn't resist the cute gnome I found in a vintage children's book. Red background from a scrap of magazine paper. Tim Holtz stamps for Eiffel tower and butterflies. Postal stamps from Par Avion Rubber Stamps and stamps and stickers from Ephemera Stickers both made by Cavallini & Co. My little gnome is suppose to be sending a postcard from Paris and his visit to the sights, but it looks like he is only noticing a butterfly. This was one expensive postcard. He is a bumpkin gnome visiting the city for the first time so we understand. :^))

http://sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com/

Sunday Postcard Art Challenge: Vintage Men

My postcard displays two distinguished vintage gentlemen. But the main feature is Mr. Darcy played by Colin Firth in Pride and Prejudice. The stamping bacground is from Tim Holtz. Added men's fashion is from an old Sears catalogue and the border design is from a book about the Victiorians. It says: I Swoon, Mr. Darcy. As you might tell, I'm a Mr. Darcy fan.
http://sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com/

Think Monday-Think ATC

Theme: Cats Wow, another Monday.

Vintage image of cat and rats from French children's book, writing and music from the same book, a seal from Ephemera Stickers- Cavallini & Co, and the old standby flipflop stamp. Every cat here at the farm was a mouser. And we had many a cat since we lived on a farm on the main highway so we inherited cats regularly. Thus, my ATC shows the villainous cat.

http://tmta.wordpress.com/

Rose Garden- Collage on canvas

Rose Garden-Collage on Canvas

I did it, Yeay! My first collage on canvas. While I was taking Lenna's class Collage on Canvas, I was using Multi-media board for support of my collage. Cruising around the web, I found that Jerry's Artarama had a sale on 5x5 canvases. I splurged.

I have been rolling around ideas and decided I liked my Summer/Sunshine ATC. so I used it as an example. Lenna was correct in her instruction that the canvas gives a different look and is different in the way it reacts to the gel medium and stamping. I used a green acrylic wash with large blue droplets of wash. Then I used bubble wrap to add a layer. Added computer images and a magazine picture of roses, but didn't like the way they turned out, so I looked for roses with a softer color. There is a layer of tissue with gold sparkles and swirls (love it). More images. The butterflies are from a paper napkin. Finally added some TH flourishes around the edges. It looks like a Victorian botanical print...so I'm pleased.

Thanks Lenna, for great instruction. I highly recommend her on line classes. http://creativelenna.blogspot.com/

Sunday Stamper Challenge: All Around MY Hat


Couldn't resist this challenge. Is this a Paris

Fashion statement or what? Tag shadowed with olive

chalk. Tim Holtz stamp of Eiffel Tower and

diamonds in the background. Frog image from

a vintage children's book with hat embellish-

ment added from that picture. A glitzy flower

topper. Then I added Tim Holtz flourish

around the edges. Finishing touch polka

dot ribbon. Merci!

Stamp Man Swap

"The Bottle Tree" Ah, such a wonderful tree from
Australia. Not only a cool shape, but useful fruit that
is even made into ice cream.


"The Little Pine Tree" Pine trees are a large
part of Michigan's history. Infact, the land we live on was logged.
Both of my grandfathers were lumberjacks, and we look out
our back window on Colorado Blue Spruce and Red Pine.

"Redwood Forest" A place that I would like to visit.
I'm so in awe of these trees and
their history in our nation.


Stamp Man ATC Swap Theme: Trees This theme was so much fun. All of the trees are so interesting. The images come from vintage books. It gave me a chance to use my new purchase, a 1888 Geography book. I used the maps and illustrations for the redwood from that neat book. Ths postage stamps for the bottletree and pine are my creations..faux stamps. I used Tim Holtz florish stamps from his Artistry Collection. The other stamping is from my flipflop collection..homemade. :))) Can't wait to send them off to England. This will be my first international swap. Whew.

Collage Stuff Swap: Vintage Children

I'm really excited to be a part of an ATC swap. Great fun using vintage children images from Graphic Fairy, TH clock stamp, vintage music, some butterfly stickers, and my Joann's,$1 flourish stamps. I smudged the edges with Sienna Chalk. And I topped it of with my homemade flipflop stamp. I think they look very vintage. Can't wait to receive my swapped ATCs.

Art Journal ... Today was definitely an experimental, no holes barred day! Thanks to Lenna, I tried out a spread in my journal using water color crayons. Well, there you go folks. Thanks to Jewels, I tried repurposing a card I got for Mother's Day, but found the glue I was using wouldn't stick on the crayon surface. This was not a waste , as it might seem. So, new tactic. Found a different glue and added a sunflower I had in my junk pile. Embellished with some permanent markers. Thanks to Lenna 's last post, I did some journaling around the flower with a saying I love. I wanted to see how stamps worked on the surface. Seemed to be ok. I think the bird page needs more work. What an all consuming activity. I cut some rubarb and put it in the freezer, and hoed my vegetable garden this morning. So, I could play awhile. :^)))

Theme Thursday: Summer
Summer, for me, is sitting outside drinking a cup of coffee, watching the birds and butterflies, tending to my gardens, breathing the fragrance of ragosa roses and sweet grass. Summer time is the color chartruese. The green foliage and the blue sky are wonderful after a long winter. Summer is a time to stay out late and get up early. Summer is sunshine!

http://themethursday.webpress.com/

Leslie has requested that I go through the steps of making this ATC. Here goes. I found some wrapping paper with peony, writing, and some scrollwork. I attached it to my ATC ( file folder cut to size) with a glue stick. Loving coffee, I sorted through and found a coffee cup in a magazine ad, cut it out, and glued it to the bottom corner. Next, I cut out a butterfly from some small napkins I found at a gift store (way too expensive for ART, but heck). I carefully pulled it apart and placed it on a layer of gel medium. Then covered it with a light coating of gel medium. This made my cup heave a little so I had to press it down around the edges and lightly add gel medium over the top of the cup. I found the word sunshine and edged it with Versafine black ink. I also edged the card with black ink. Waited for it to dry some and then used my Joann's , $1, stamp around the edges with black ink. Hopefully, you don't notice the smudge on the top where I held it before it was dry. This stamp set came with a little flower, so I added it to the composition. Viola, done.

Wednesday Stamper


Theme: Animals

My love of Rinos and the unfortunate need for their horn has prompted this ATC in honor of the rhinoceros. I used my favorite rhino stamp, a homemade stamp that I made using a hole punch on art foam, and a floral swirl punch I found for a dollar and Joann's.

http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com/

Think Monday - Think ATC: Mushroom Challenge I'm hooked on ATC.

Here is their link: http://tmta.wordpress.com/

Stamping Wednesday Another challenge: the world outside my window.. This is my interpretation on an ATC card. Another chance to work with a theme. I had fun.

http://wednesdaystamper.wordpress.com/

Vintage Gluebook: Getting the Farm This spread is all about my mom and dad getting the land that they lived on and farmed. Although this is not the original paper, I copied the morgage that was paid on the acrage that was to become their land. The bottom part is from a ledger page showing payment. The stamps are from the envelope that held the land abstract. I saved the envelope but couldn't resist tearing off the stamps. The image of my parents is from 1948. The house and barn above them is the house I was raised in during a hard winter with snowbanks up to the telephone lines. (Does anybody ever talk about telephone lines today?). My book will only hold a few more pages, so I'm looking for pictures of my grandparents. That should do it.

Vintage Gluebook: Gee Gee (my mom). After doing two spreads about my dad, it was time to dig through the photos and find some of my mom as a child. It was even harder to find original paper stuff, so I used poetry and images from vintage children's books that she would have liked. The first photo is of piglets and it was probably my mom's chore to feed them. I thought the french pig dance would tickle her funny bone since it looks like the girl pig may be kicking the boy with her wooden shoe.

The second spread is of my mom and her younger sister Clarabelle. They were close in age and great friends. Mom is on the left. I just love the way her stockings are falling down. I thought the kitten poem very fitting because they always had cats and kittens, strays and mousers and always a tabby. I printed the photo on an end page from one of my old books (kitten poem is from the same book). I think it looks great.

I had to reinforce the pages. Hope I can get through at least two more spreads before the book is totally bulging.

IT IS BEAUTIFUL WEATHER and everything is popping! Just couldn't leave out the art of Mother Nature. Here is my yard and flower gardens. Sorry, Leslie, I didn't mean to rub it in!:(

Vintage Gluebook: Today's effort has to do with my dad. I am really fond of the picture of him holding up the gigantic potatoes they were harvesting. The picture is taken of the field next to the barn. It's houses now. In the background is my grandmother and probably my aunt Freda. The whole family is out working. No indication on the picture of who all of the children are. Interesting, my dad ended up being a potato farmer and housed the spuds in the basement of the house I live in. It use to be filled to the ceiling and to this day, I can smell potato smell down there.The next spread is also of my dad who went to the one room schoolhouse just down the road from his farm. He went through the 8th grade and took it over again because he said he hadn't learned enough. He is the one standing in the back. Also in the group were his sisters and the neighbor kids. I couldn't resist putting on the inscription in the Ecclectic Reader that I have been using. It is from Dad's Grandmother Saxton to all of the children in WU Bancroft's family. WU was my grandfather. Mary, has suggested using as much vintage paper as possible, but I had to add the Dairy coupon and some stamps that I had. No one will ever guess that they are from France.

It is hard to find the right colors and stuff. But, I am working on getting rid of stuff. The problem is that the book has already separated from its cover and I will need to do some repairs. I took out some of the pages toward the back. ( I'll never miss them.)

Vintage Glue Book: Here is the little book I am going to use for my Gluebook class taught by Mary Green. When I found it in the thrift store, Free. I couldn't resist. I looked at the little Moleskin notebooks and decided in queen bee fashion that this was the book for me. So I got right to work gluing two pages together as Lenna had suggested. The pages seemed a little thin. I think there are about twenty spreads. I wonder if the book will get too thick. Ah well, we will see.

Such a sweet little book printed in India in 1952.

I cracked up because I as I went I was reading the meditations... I guess it was a good choice. Got busy today collecting vintage papers. Then I wondered how old vintage was and decided that if I was to use up paper, as Mary suggested, that I would have to use the photos of my family and since I am over 60, I considered myself vintage. I also thought it would be a great way to save pictures for my son and daughter-in-law. In a little book sooo.....

B&W photo of myself and my mom, vintage alphabet, words from a old children's book, images from a Kate Greenway book about flowers, a poem my mom would have liked, end paper from an old children's book, and the ripped spine from that same book. Whew~! Page 2&3 theme was me and how I was very curious as a child. I happened to find the illustration of the girl wearing a tartan shawl... and my dress is a tartan plaid. I have always loved birds and butterflies and always wondered. I let the text fill in the story.

I agree with Mary, when something else is needed, add a stamp. I also had to include the 6 from a school house stamp kit that I have had since a child.

There you have today's efforts. Yes, that's me, full of it!

I may go over this spread because I feel like the colors are too bright and shiny. I just don't have things in vintage colors to tone it down. I looked at the images Mary supplied, but didn't find anything I thought would fit. Perhaps I will add some music or another layer on the edge of the birds and flowers to see if that is better.

Now if I could just figure out how to use Blogger so I don't have that big space inbetween the end and the comments.

Theme Thursday: Pink and Brown. This is the first time I have tried doing a challenge and it was great fun. I basicly found some pink and brown images in a magazine and "auditioned" each piece as Lenna would say to make an ATC card. I also thought about titling it, Barbie with Flowers and Chocolate"...too long.

http://themethursday.wordpress.com/2011/06/