Farm Truck

This is a long overdue post.  I thought I would post one of the collages I did a few months ago in a class with Stephanie Lee.  I am also posting the original photo.  This is my grandparents on their Kanasas farm.

Pages for Funky Fusion

Still working on that book title LOL
Here are some pages I did for the inside. My favorite is the geisha picture. I've had that image for a long time. She was on a pink background, which I loved -- but I do have to say I like my background even more LOL

Fantabulous Book Class with Kelly

I love all of Kelly Kilmer's classes, but this one was my absolute favorite -- the one that was absolutely calling to me! This was her Reclaimed Artist Book class. One of my favorite things is to create new and eclectic pages for gutted books.

There were some nature things on the front cover. I cut new paper to cover those up and I was really happy with the vintage look of the black ruled paper. On the back I used several punched circles from a recent project. I couldn't bear to just toss them out and I knew they would end up on this cover :) It makes a neat texture with all the raised circles.

I haven't quiet figured out a title -- that's the only thing I need to add to the front at this point. I know it will have Fusion in the title, but I haven't figured the whole thing out. It will be about various cultures from the Old World -- but sort of a fusion between Old World and funky LOL

Fabric Book

Wish I had more to show, but all I have really is a cover -- except for a few background pages inside. I suspect it will be a long while before I get any work done in this. This was a fabric covered art journal I made in a Kelly Kilmer worskshop. She just has the best book classes ever!

On the Career Front

This was a stressful week. My future boss in Information Technology worked out a deal with my current boss to share me between the 2 departments. I am being given tasks with little direction and I have to basically figure out how to do them -- and then do them LOL I am also getting paid to study the architecture and set up of this new enterprise system we are getting ready to test -- and then I have to figure out how to test it.

I just got scolded a week ago for trying to solve my own IT problem -- and now I am expected to be the problem solver, so this may take some adjusting to. It's also kind of weird, because I come from a very social department where everyone is nosy and in each other's business and we know everything about each other professionally and pesonally -- and now I am in a group full of computer nerds who eat lunch at their desk every day LOL

The good thing is that they placed me in the old desk of my mentor -- and that is a bit comforting.

But the stressful part was this backstabbing --- grrrrr! There is a co-worker in another department that was using me as his go-between to get things from my new IT boss ... and he is upet that he just lost that leverage. He volunteered to send me some info I needed on a project and as soon as I accepted his offer, he sent me a nasty e-mail copying his boss on how he could no longer assist people in IT. He's getting quite the reputation for temper tantrums and back-stabbing.

Bird Art

Here are some more poetry pages I did. I'll get them all uploaded eventually --- I was on a bird kick that night LOL

Footsteps

I recently did some painted pages for a poetry-themed bag book. I did the images and then wrote the verse. In this case, I put the verse on the wrong page ... so I decided to use the same verse on both.

Painted Feather

Long time no see LOL I'll end catch-up post after my finals are over ... I just decided to post this now. I'm doing a mail art round robin with painted face envelopes with some other great gals from the Guild. You can see the start of Kelly Snelling's envelope here.

Rather than just paint a plain envie, Michelle Ward's Street Team post got me to thinking about how cool it would be to take advantage of some of the neat textured papers out there and alter them. Here are scans of my original papers.



Here is the back of my envie made with textured paper and molding paste:


And this is the front:


The background had a very earthy feel, so I felt inspired to draw and paint an image of a Native American girl -- cutesy as she is LOL I have a lot to learn about painting faces yet -- but I'm still in that stage where I am amazed it more cloely resembles a human than a Martian LOL

Chameleon's Breath

I started this page quite a long time ago, but it is a Picasso-like self-portrait. The drawing was pretty quick and easy, but I set it aside for a while and just completed the journaling to go along with it. This style of drawing was a stretch for me -- but so were the colors. I tend to do really complicated backgrounds, so lots of solid colors was waaaaay outside my comfort zone LOL


This also goes along with the GPP Street Team prompt this month on adding words to your art journal pages. I started out adding very little text and am slowly learning how to blend the journaling with the art. This was an unusual style for me, so it took a while for the words to come. I used to use rub-ons and rubberstamps for lettering, but have been getting braver about writing my own.

There is no grand meaning in what I wrote on this page. Sometimes I like to just write things that evoke a certain feeling or require imagination to visualize it. For this one I brainstormed a few words that popped into my mind based on my portrait and spun them into sentences afterward.

Riveting Metal Book

Yeah --- I have internet access again LOL

I wanted to psot pics of all the completed books from a metal book swap I hosted with an amazing Guild of altered artists. I had a vision of a fun and very eclectic compilation of metal pages -- and they did the most amazing pages ever! It took me a while to think up covers that I felt would do the interior justice.

My front covers are altered copper mesh attached to old Bingo cards and I embellished them with copper pieces that were sooted, stamped, sealed, and embossed. I just love this technique and haven't done it for a long time. It has a lot of steps, but is fun if you assembly- line it and do a bunch at once. The images turn a rich brown after they have been sooted and sealed.

The back cover is torched copper that was embossed and wrapped over a chipboard cover.

Jacqueline Sullivan Classes

I don't have computer access at home right now, so I haven't been able to post as soon as I would like. I had a wonderful time taking 2 classes with Jacqueline Sullivan. It was a lot of fun and I learned some new techniques. The green collage is pretty good size, but I was determined to alter these paper-mache half-hearts. I used family photos on that piece. Hope you like them!

St Paddy's Fantasy Postcard

Aaaahhh ... it feels like a long time since I've made something LOL I'm in finals week at college, so I've been stuck behind a computer the last several days. I decided to make a postcard for a friend that works for Gothic Arches and WednesdayStamper. I usually don't scan the backs, but I loved the look of this one :)

Mad Alchemist Cabinet

I rarely ever post a picture of an unfinished piece LOL But I am breaking traditon ...

Michael de Meng brought replicas of the old fashioned printer trays with him for us to alter in this class. This is more of what I consider a collection-box type piece, which is outside my comfort zone. We did quite a bit of construction though ... more so than I have done on other pieces.

I'm a very outside-the-box type gal, so the thought of being restrained by boxes was very intimidating to start with. We did remove some sections to widen the areas though ... and I brought this huge and very ornate mirror to mount my piece on. This was one of those classic 70s ornamental mirrors ... heavy plastic ... and very brown and blase. I think I perked it up a bit though LOL

I took photos inside and could not get good light, so the top is very difficult to see. This is a collection of artifacts from Edgar Allan Poe's stories. There is an ornate P and E on the top, but it is shiny and doesn't show up in the photo due to the glare. I felt the clock in the middle could stand for the O. I have more pieces to add ... text ... some more blending and antiquing to do.

I think I will need a few more red items for the left, as it feels unbalanced to me right now and I think maybe a whitish piece toward the bottom to mirror the effect with the angel on top. It is still a work in progress.

Guess what? Mixed Media Monday has a prompt called Time -- and my piece has a clock in it --- wooo hooo!

Collage of my Parents

I finally got a photo from my brother's camera downloaded of the collage I did of my parents. I gave this to my father on Christmas Day and he passed away exactly a week later. I painted the photo using the techniques I learned in Karen Michel's class few years ago. I had some difficulties, as usually you start with a high contrast photo ... but I had to use what I could find and this was my favorite picture of them together.

I didn't do a very good job on my Moms eyes. What was funny ... my Dad said he recognized my Mom right away and wanted to know who the man in the picture was . I told him that was him ... but the funny thing is I did a better job on him and it looks just like him LOL He said he never saw them together in a photo LOL

My brother only took one photo --- grrr! So this is all I have. It is not particularly good. The little white dots are where the flash was shining on the glossy parts.

Birds of a Feather Blog Party

Welcome to my blog for the Soul Journal Birds of a Feather blog party!! I loved the unique twist of birds on Valentines Kathryn came up with!

I am going to college full-time plus working full-time, so I couldn't get as prolific as I wanted with the hearts --- and I looooove making hearts!!

Here is an older journal page I did centered around the heart -- most tend to focus on dark hearts, but this is one is definitely on the lighter side for me.

And finally my new feathered friends page for my Heart Speak Journal ... I was in a bit of tropical mood -- longing for warmer days LOL

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

Grandma Z Collage

This was a collage I did over the holidays. It's funny, because I can use a photograph for inspiration and come up with something completley unlike it LOL I used a picture of a beautiful bride out of a bride book -- but she looked like an old woman -- so I made her hair blue LOL The name popped out of nowhere that her name should be Grandma Z -- she must remind me of my Grandma Zelda on some level.

Heart Page

Admittedly, I was suppsoed to be doing my homwork -- but I felt utterly compeleled to make a journal page -- so I did LOL I was feeling guilty that my treasured Heart Speak book had been abandoned for so long, so I did a page.

I learned something though -- it seems I am driven to create from the bottom up -- meaning I do a base layer and that layer drives the rest of the page. I tried to do my heart and embellishments and then figure out the background, but it won't really work that way for me.

I had more plans for this, but I got such an ethereal look with the Leonardo image -- I couldn't bear to add anything else. I am also posting this for an impromptu prompt (catchy phrase LOL) on The Altered Heart -- just so people don't think I completely abandoned the site LOL I haven't done much heart work lately -- but I'll try to get back into my hearts a bit more ... especially with Valentine's looming!

Also -- this is a bot of a stretch to call it fabric art, but I layered some neat cheesecloth paper I got from my friend Nancy and stitched it on. I love this cheesecloth paper and I see all kinds of potential for it!

Unmasking ME!!

Wow -- It feels like forever since I have psoted! I've had a mountain of homework, but also got caught up in the whole self-portrait thing going around LOL I'm not one to stick with just a drawing, so mine is incorporated into my journal page. I drew my image by looking in the mirror without looking at the paper -- mostly without looking at the paper LOL I was supposed to do without lifting the pencil, but I did cheat a but and lift the pencil.

My brother didn't care for the fact that I did'nt finish the eyes, but it seemed importatnt to keep them hollow and let the background show through. I couldn't figure it out until I sectioned off my page and started journaling, but it seems to represent a mask.

I am going to call this my face book LOL Every page will have a large face -- or maybe a collection of faces -- not sure there yet. Last year I saw this supersize wooden photo album at the thrift store that looked like it was straight out of the 70s; I couldn't pass it up. I want to get a few pages done before I figure out what I want to do to the cover. This had those magnetic film pages with cardbaord inserts. I peeled all the film off and am using the cardboard pages as my bases. They are large -- almost 12X14". I meant for my faces to cover the whole page almost, but so far they are ending up a bit smaller than I anticipated -- so I improvised with all the writing. This is new for me too. Almnsot almy journaling has been in one font mor or less -- so I tried mixing up some styles here.

This is also inspired by the "Taking Flight" book. I am so loving the whole patchwork paper background thing -- although I ended up covering a lot of it up here ...