links and ramblings...

For inspiration, when I need some:

Mixed Media Monday weekly theme for interpretation by participants

The Land of Lost Luggage, blogger who posted a journaling tutorial (in five parts, total)

Illustration Friday weekly theme for interpretation by participants

Inspire Me Thursday another site with a weekly theme

Think Monday Think ATC yet another weekly theme site- but for ATCs (obviously)

Wednesday Stamper again, another weekly theme site using rubber stamps

Thrifty Collage Artist, another blog with a journaling tutorial

Suzi Blu, blog with video entries- tutorials and inspiration... her videos are also available on YouTube.

I mailed off my ATCs to their recipients today... now, I just need to finish the last six inchies for that swap; I already have the ideas for them, it's just a matter of following thru. I sometimes have a problem with that "follow-through" thing; I get partway through a project and then sort of "lose interest" and abandon it, never to finish it. I recently started reading the book The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, where they discuss this very thing- it talks about this being a tactic of avoidance, used when people are perfectionists and they don't want the finished project to somehow end up to be a disappointment, not being as "perfect" as they want it. So, does that sound like me?? I think it sounds a lot like me... I am trying to work through some of the ideas in The Artist's Way, but it's difficult (it requires some self-reflection, which I am also good at avoiding), and the process is going pretty slow.

Anyway, this post is turning out to be a bit rambling, after all... the list of links is to remind me that whenever I'm lacking for inspiration, I am only a click away from plenty of inspiration and themes to use as starting points for my projects. I did go onto swapbot.com to mark my ATCs as "sent" and I found a couple new swaps to join, so I better get going, right?? Or maybe not, since I have a few weeks till they need to be finished... plenty of time...

procrastination is the answer...

You know how they say "Necessity is the mother of invention?" Well, I think it's procrastination. I am a terrible procrastinator, always have been... I think it forces me to be creative, though. Tonight, I made ATCs for a swap I have known about for at least a month... I could have made them anytime- the theme was an easy one, I thought: cancelled postage stamps- but I just couldn't come up with any ideas I liked! Now that the due date is finally here, I was forced to do something, which led me to a mad dash around the house and thru my craft room, this evening after work. Hopefully I'm not the only one who sometimes needs this creative "mad dash sprint" to the finish line?? Anyway, these are what I came up with: These first two are not my usual style, at all... The bottom one is a crazy sort of garden, with the postage stamps as flowers... the bumblebee is stamped, and colored with marker, while the leaves and grass are hand-drawn with colored pencils. I like the top one a lot: there's a bit of a glare, but the postage stamp is Cinco de Mayo, so I put together a fiesta-themed card. I found the magazine images a few days ago in a back issue of Phoenix Home & Garden, and put the whole thing together in about 15 minutes. (that was after I searched frantically for the magazine, having mis-placed it, of course... that sort of thing always happens when I'm looking for something specific!) These two were also put together rather quickly. The card on the left is a postage stamp of a lighthouse on DiamondHead in Hawaii, so I made a beach from sandpaper, and a palm tree from torn mulberry paper. I really like the graphic design on the stamp on the right ... I simply found matching cardstock and wove strips together to play up the quilt pattern. (I say simply, although it required some glue and finesse to get it put together...) These are a few more of my latest creations, made last week... I'm also coming down to the wire for an "inchie" swap, which is 1-inch square pieces of artwork. These were also really difficult for me to come up with, even though the artwork can be any theme- you'd think this would make it easier for me, but not really. I decided to go with "abstract" for the style... these were made using a scrap paper towel, actually- I was drying my paintbrush out after rinsing it, and still had paint in it- I thought it looked kind of neat, so just continued painting the paper towel with more colors of paint and water... after mounting the towel to watercolor paper squares and trimming them, I added details with metallic pens, sequins and glitter glue. I have two more sets completed, but still need to make 6 more- the mad dash with those will be tomorrow afternoon's project!

art project pics as promised...

...although a little late. Life intrudes at the most inopportune times, doesn't it?? I was planning on posting these pictures yesterday, but I had an extra-long day at work (FDA auditor + Monday... 'nuff said!), and didn't feel like doing anything once I got home except falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV after eating Filiberto's leftovers... it's a sad way to spend the evening, isn't it? I agree, but sometimes, it's just what happens. Today is another day, I left work at the normal time, and the audit is now over, with no observations- yay! Anyway, these pictures are from this weekend's crafting... I spent the afternoon cutting, pasting, and painting (I still have some acrylic paint underneath my fingernails... note to self: be extra careful with the black paint!) I am still not comfortable working with overly-large projects, so these are 4 x 6 inches, postcard size. These first two pics are a technique I saw on Flickr (I think from Jeannine P, although I don't remember for sure- there is such wonderful inspiration everywhere on that site!)

The colored sections are regular old Crayola crayons, scribbled onto a piece of watercolor paper. While I was doing this, Tom had to smell them, to reminisce... I think I heard somewhere that crayons are one of the most recognizable smells anywhere- I know they are for me. After the crayon scribbling, I covered the entire thing with a coat of barely-diluted black paint, then wiped it off the crayon areas, to create a "resist" effect. The circles are "stamped" with white acrylic paint, using lids off a couple drink bottles. (I have quite a collection of these odd things going; unfortunately, sometimes Pandora finds them, and we're woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of her shooting them across the kitchen tile...) The quote is a rubber stamp- that portion of the card was covered with a clear sparkle glaze, which was done to cover up a bit of a smudge, actually... but don't tell anyone!

These two pieces of paper were just to test out a couple of my newest toys, Heidi Swapp masks... they're cut-out images made of adhesive-backed plastic, and you use them like a stencil (only it's the opposite: the paint ends up around the image, leaving the image itself blank). I just realized this combines some of my very favorite things: books, the color blue, and plants and birds- funny how that happens, even when I'm not trying to do it. These bits of paper will be used for something- not sure for what, though...

This picture is also pieces of 4 x 6 paper, and it's another technique I've been wanting to try , seen in a recent issue of Somerset Studio magazine. It uses torn strips of regular masking tape and torn strips of magazine pages. The strips were attached to the background paper in an alternating pattern- the lighter strips are the tape, and the darker strips are the magazine paper. After attaching them, you get out the acrylic paint, start painting, and see what happens- the colors of the magazine paper are affected differently depending on the paint colors used... I also added some clear glitter glue for added interest, too. It was a bit futzy to do, but I like how they turned out. Here is the pink piece, finished off with a bouquet cut from a catalog and an edging of blue watercolor crayon. Now, I'm off to work on inchies for a swap, and maybe cut a few more pieces of 4 x 6 inch watercolor paper... (maybe I'll even mail some of these, seeing as they ARE postcard size!!)

another weekend ends...

Another weekend ends in the desert, and like all of them, it didn't seem long enough. Yesterday I ran some errands in town, we had a fire in the chiminea, and we cooked dinner out on the grill (hamburgers, hot dogs, and a couple portobello mushroom caps with garlic and mozzarella cheese). It was nice to relax on the patio with a fire crackling; this past winter was too cold to be outside much, so we didn't have fires very often. There's just something so relaxing about the aroma of pinon pine and mesquite! Tom got the telescope out early Saturday morning, too (like 5:30 am!!)... Jupiter and Venus are now rising early in the morning, so he spent some time watching Jupiter before the sun came up. Today was quite a bit colder (about 60 degrees today, when it was in the 70s yesterday); we got our favorite Filiberto's breakfast burritos, watched the race, and I did some crafting, which I will show you tomorrow (or you can check out my Flickr page). The prickly pear cacti in the front yard are growing by leaps and bounds; the pads are flattening out, and the spines are beginning to appear.

Sedona and Butters spent some of Saturday afternoon relaxing on the couch together. I am so glad these cats get along with the dog... Phoebe and Cleo never got used to Sedona, and I feel they lost out on the last couple years of their lives because of this...

Pandora in the bedroom window, checking out the action in the backyard... Pandora and Butters have gone out into the yard a couple times (only because of the cement-block wall), and they actually like it out there... we have to watch carefully, or they can sneak right past us when we come in the house!

a few pics, hopefully...

Yay, it worked! Sedona went to the groomer's Saturday, for a long-overdue "Bath, Brush, and Tidy" and this is the result. She cleans up nicely, doesn't she?? Amazingly enough, her third birthday is next month... hard to believe it's been that long! (sometime in the next few years, hopefully she will start to calm down at least a little!) This is her newest trick... she isn't exactly patient, but she can do it. (unless the treat starts to slide... then, all bets are off) This picture is for you, Mom. This is the red yucca in our front yard; these are the seeds you have. I finally cut last year's flower scape off a couple months ago, and this one started blooming a couple months ago... it should last for at least another six months. These are a couple in-process projects- above is a two-page spread from a board book I bought at the thrift store... so far, I've gessoed the pages, and startd painting the backgrounds. I have no idea what I'll use it for, yet... a two-page spread I started working on in the composition book... painting, stamping with foam stamps and the lid off a soda bottle, glitter glue, and white pen, so far... no plans for this spread yet, either, but it was fun to do. Perhaps a border of some sort...

a post of links...

Follow your Bliss is a blog I just found while surfing... wonderful photos and journaling. Check out the pics of crafting supplies, here! It totally makes me want to spread my supplies out all over the dining room table...

Dispatch from LA is a blog I found thru a book, oddly enough. This woman is a visual journaler who makes her own stencils and uses spray paint (something I would love to try sometime!), and also takes wonderful photos, of course. See a couple of posts with great pics here and here. The book is a Somerset book, the second issue of Artful Blogging. I bought this book on a whim, not expecting to like it... I mean, c'mon, a book about blogging? But, I was very pleasantly surprised- curling up with a book was a nice change from clicking on the laptop, and the book also gives a good backstory about each of the bloggers' motivations, how they started blogging, and how they found their "blogging" voice. I found quite a lot of blogs I want to check out, and got quite a few ideas for my own blog (but will I ever follow thru with them, is the question).

I found a couple more links I wanted to keep (crafty tutorials), but of course, I did something funky when I was typing the previous post, so I accidentally closed it... so, I think I better hit Publish before something else happens...

links to remember... yay!

Yay, I forgot Blogger now has an Auto-Save feature! I thought I lost this post, but it was still there, in Draft form...

Here is a tutorial (from a blog titled Doll- the Art and Craft of Mimi Kirchner) on some really neat fabric Christmas ornaments... they involve figural fabric, felt, tulle, and the sewing machine (which I'm not so sure about). I know it's a long time till Christmas, but fabric is starting to intrigue me again- especially after signing up for the Art Quilt class at Art Unraveled.

Here is another tutorial from the same blog... this one involves stamping on fabric, which also sounds interesting.

spring has sprung in the desert...

okay, Blogger is being difficult today... I've tried to load pictures twice now, and it gave me an error, so I'll just point to my Flickr page, where I have added some new pics of the plants in our yard and other places, such as wildflowers growing along the highway north of town. We have a couple prickly pear cactus in our yard that were only one individual pad when we planted them- all winter, we've wondered if they would do anything. Our friend Mike, who gave them to us, said "just wait... they're like weeds, and you'll have to keep them in check by trimming them back, eventually." Well, he was right, I think- they're finally growing new pads (which are pretty funny-looking- see here and here), and it seems like they will be very prolific!

I also added a few newer pics of the pets- Sedona, Pandora, and Butters... and have actually done some work in my new journal... this page is not my usual style at all, but it captured the feeling that I wanted, so I'm pretty happy with it. The idea for the page style came from a new book, Journal Revolution. (bought it with a gift card from work, so that makes it even better!)

Next time, hopefully Blogger will cooperate and I can add the pics here... now, I'm off to make a mess in my craft room!