Karen's Altered Dreamz

Journal -- Framed!

2011-06-21T20:47:00.000-06:00

Recently I found an old art journal I started several years ago in a class with artist Kelly Kilmer. Each page has a frame cut nad I will be making works of art to insert in each window. I decided to try collaging across some of the windows, glue on some extensions, etc ... just to shake things up a bit.

I didn't have any real design for the cover, but just felt like adding a starfish and painting. I like the look, but it may take some additional work to keep it from looking like an ocean-themed book.

Bird Journal

2011-02-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

These are pages and the journal I made for a holiday/season themed altered book round robin. I wanted really eclectic looking pages with stitching ...

Fabric Hearts

2011-02-23T17:29:00.003-07:00

Better to post late than never I say LOL These are some fabric hearts I made for a Valentine's Day heart banner.

Birthday Greeting

2010-10-29T18:19:00.000-06:00

I don't know if the recipient will like this, but I just wanted to do a fun collage postcard for their birthday. I used images from Collage Play with Crowabout. Wish I would have remembered to add the shading around the images ... but it was still fun!

Sun Burst

2010-10-14T21:49:00.000-06:00

This was a fun piece I made for a friend away at college. I consider myself somewhat fabric-challenged, so I was happy it turned out the way it did.

Science Doodles

2010-09-17T22:24:00.003-06:00

EMC2
Originally uploaded by transtartwin
This was my favorite so far of Carla Sonheim's Silly 2 online class assignments. I did it in charcoal, as I love the look of charcoal smudges!

Egyptian Fragment

2010-09-11T22:37:00.000-06:00

I have always been drawn to Egyptian art. I did this page a few months ago while I was taking a Kelly Kilmer class. I was actually working in a journal I made in her class the year before ... the Reclaimed Artist Book. This book has been my favorite book ever! If you get a chance to take that class, please do! I just loved the fragmented look of this face.

Scraped Fabric

2010-09-11T17:57:00.003-06:00

This was an experience.  I  decided to take  Michelle Ward's Street Team Challenge and try scraping paint on a piece of gessoed fabric I am using for a wall-hanging for a friend.

I scraped on cadmium yellow, crimson, and phthalo blue. Then I scraped some paint over a masked stencil. It made neat patterns and a grungy kind of texture, but the images were lost. An interesting combination of colors ... but not the color scheme I was looking for and defintiely did not match the trim I picked out.

I brayered over most of it with French Vanilla and scraped more paint in pink and blue tones. Coordinated with my trim better, but definitely not the colors I was originally aiming for. I wanted a crisper look with my masks this time,so I used fluorescent pink and teal spray paints. This was fun and I will definitely experiment more with tyvek masks on paper.

I'm Back!!

2010-09-04T09:17:00.001-06:00

Yikes ... I've been gone way too long! Life was running me over, but I am taking a break from school after this term ends in 2 weeks and I will get back in track with some art and stuff.

I am doing an altered handkerchief swap with some dear friends and this is the start of mine:

I am really excited about this swap and found it so difficult to stop once I got mine going.

Farm Truck

2009-11-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-09T11:56:00.003-06:00

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

2009-08-09T10:34:00.006-06:00

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

2009-08-01T13:26:00.003-06:00

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

2009-08-01T12:18:00.002-06:00

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

2009-06-23T21:43:00.004-06:00

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

2009-06-20T21:57:00.005-06:00

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

2009-06-15T21:05:00.016-06:00

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

2009-04-06T23:44:00.002-06:00

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

2009-03-31T16:50:00.005-06:00

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

2009-03-30T16:05:00.004-06:00

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

2009-03-14T00:19:00.004-06:00

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

2009-02-23T09:31:00.006-07:00

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

2009-02-23T09:16:00.007-07:00

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

2009-02-14T08:17:00.011-07:00

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

2009-02-07T12:30:00.003-07:00

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

2009-02-01T07:34:00.005-07:00

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!!

2009-01-31T08:19:00.004-07:00

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 ...

Collage Art

2008-12-28T18:48:00.009-07:00

Wow ... I can't tell you when the last time was that I did a real collage on canvas LOL This was a stressful holiday, as my Dad was suddenly diagnosed with a terminal illness and not expected to make it much longer. My sister is doing in-home hospice care for him and he made it out on Christmas Eve to be with his family, but is basically an invalid for the remainder of his days.

We were all fried between his hospital stay, last-minute preparations to bring him home, and all the normal holiday rush ... so we had a couple art nights to de-stress ... and this was the third of my pieces. The first one was a painting of my parents for my Dad's xmas gift, but no one had a camera to take a photo ... so I don't have a photo of that one right now.

The background was done with scrapbook papers and paint ... Kelly Rae Roberts style. The painted face was inspired by DJ Pettitt, but I did a little different painting technique and I really like the look ... so I hope you guys do too :)

This seems to fit in with several prompts, so I am posting it on Arty Girlz, Mixed Media Monday, and Wednesday Stamper.

The photo is not particularly good, so I also scanned as much as I could squeeze on my scanner bed for a better shot of the face I painted.

Discontent at the North Pole

2008-12-15T06:56:00.005-07:00

Well this is a little dysfunctional LOL This was inspired by one of the collage sheets from Collage Play with Crowabout. This man immediately reminded me of misfit elf Hermey from the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special I used to watchwithout fail every year. I wonder if Hermey/Herbie ever found happiness LOL

I'm cheating by amending this, so I can include Wednesday Stamper LOL This week's theme is shoes. This is a bit of a stretch, but I do have a line of text about Prancer's shoes in this LOL

Also ... a bit of trivia about this piece. I started to write somnething about mrs C buying shoes for Blitzen and Prancer ... but then I started thinking about Mr Claus golfing while she was working and before you know it, I wrote that she had got blitzed instead LOL This is also another entry in my funky junk mail journal -- love that book!

Christmas Doodle Page

2008-12-13T23:24:00.003-07:00

I was determined to get these doodle apges finishe I've been working on for while. I was really tired when I drew the first elf and I realized he was upside down the next morning LOL -- so he is now dangling from the top tangled in some Xmas lites LOL

I used souffle pens and a black gelly roll pen to do my doodling.

What I'm Working On

2008-12-07T09:54:00.003-07:00

Geez ... I can't believe I haven't been back to my blog in a month LOL

An assemblage collage I hoped to submit to Somerset -- did not get finished LOL -- will repurpose that into something a little different now I think. I got hung up, because I envisoned crackle paste and could find not find crackle paste to save my life ... sigh ... I also couldn't find a box big enough to hold the dimension, so I kind of gave up on the idea -- so off to my UFO (UnFinished Object) pile it goes!
Went through a gazillion ideas for the cover of a metal book I am hosting with the Altered Guild group -- most of which weren't working for me. I finally went back to a revised Plan A. I heated and sooted copper peices, stamped into it, and applied a gazillion layers of sealer to protect the soot, and then embossed the images. I have to get the inside part done, so I weight it down ... and then add my embossed stuff --- but I am determined to get this step on the first cover done this week, so I can submit for Wednesday Stamper since they are doing a metal prompt.
I have various journal pages for Soul Journal and Collage Play started --- no progress there LOL
I've done a little collaging on mail art envies
I've done homework out the wazoo for college -- and am really struggling to keep up, but I am getting near the end of this term. I had big plans to get art things wrapped up over my long Thanksgiving weekend -- and I ended up doing homework almsot the whole weekend :(
I decided to call my Lynne Perella collage from August fit into -- because I can't find the rest of the journaling I was going to write on there LOL I took pics and they were terrible, so I will have to try and photograph again. I had sunglare last time. It's cloudy, so maybe now is the time.
And --- this weekend, I've been trying to get well. I caught some kind of viral infection and sleeping 14 hours a day is pretty much what I've been doing. I feel a little better today, so now I have to cram for my homework LOL

Still Kickin'

2008-11-09T21:46:00.002-07:00

Not sure how long since I posted ... but a while I am guessing LOL This has been a tough semester at school -- perhaps I should have stuck with a part-time schedule ... but I really like my classmates and I'm trying to keep up with them so we can keep taking classes together.

One of my classes net term is a hybrid, which means one day in class and the rest is online work. Sometimes the hybrid end up being more work in the end ... but I sure hope this one doesn't LOL I miss my art time :(

This coming week is our mid-terms and I am hoping it will get a bit easier. My body is soooo fatigued :(

Halloween Doodle

2008-10-18T18:31:00.005-06:00

This is a doodle page I did in response to a Soul Journaling prompt. I didn't set out with the intention of doing a Halloween page, but I couldn't shake the Halloween feeling with my orange background LOL I wish I could take credit for thinking up the skinny man ... but I used an image from Dover clip-art for my inspiration. My section dividers are pieces of embossed wallpaper.

The nervous prompt on Inspire Me Thursday seemed appropriate for Halloween too, so I also worked that in. This wasn't the most soulful journaling, but it was way fun ... and I needed easy after the crazy schedule I signed up for at school LOL

Junk Mail Journal

2008-10-11T14:16:00.004-06:00

I altered a little 3-ring binder to store my junk mail journal pages. I had lots of leftover images from previous collage sheets from the Collage Play with Crowabout group, so I used those on my cover.

This is also an anything-goes entry for the Rainbow Lady's Challenge.

Sublime Junk Mail

2008-10-08T22:56:00.005-06:00

Ha ha! I started a new journal using junk mail. I never knew what fun backgrounds they could make. I got tired of the inundation of Obama and McCain flyers and postcards in my mailbox ... so I made some into art LOL This one had some nice big words, so I sanded to distress and added a gesso wash before adding some color.

This is my entry for the week for Collage Play with Crowabout. There were some fun images to play with and I got to use one of my new Marie Antoinette stamps from CatherineMoore ... although Marie lost her head :)

This is also a color combo using brown, so it works for my Wednesday Stamper entry too. I'm a little fuzzy on what colors I combined ... Deep Turqouise and Vandyke Red Hue I think. The Vandyle red is my favorite color right now; it has a brownish tinge.

Lost And Found

2008-09-21T14:44:00.004-06:00

This is my page for the Lost and Found Soul Journaling prompt. It is well disguised, but I used part of a drink coaster from a restaurant ... I used snippets from advertisements ... the thing at the bottom with the holes is a wrist band from an event of some kind (rubberstamping convention most likely LOL) ... acorn caps ... lots of random postage stamps ... pieces of embossed wallaper ... some kind of white paper mesh used for packing paper ... a label off of a bolt (found object LOL) ... and a few pieces of negative film strip.

My page looks pretty busy LOL But it is radically different from my others and I like that. I have not yet uncovered the true meaning of my page, but perhaps that will come in time.

Growth

2008-09-19T16:46:00.003-06:00

Here is another page in my Heart Speak journal. I felt truly compelled to do this page ... in honor of my friends for encouraging me to do something I was terrified to do :)

Happiness

2008-09-06T16:19:00.003-06:00

This page is pretty different for me -- not my usual style

And boy was it hard to photograph LOL

I don't what kind of dog this -- looks a bit like a Weimeraner -- that was the next dog I wanted ...

Secret Yearning

2008-09-02T19:35:00.004-06:00

I designed this page for the weekly challenge on the Collage Play with Crowabout group, but since it goes in my heart journal ... I decided to cheat and also use it as a prompt for The Altered Heart -- if there are any readers left over there. Vale and I haven't posted any prompts for quite a while, so hopefully someone will wander over there LOL

Lady Liberty

2008-08-24T19:06:00.003-06:00

This is my first journal page in response to Nancy Baumiller's Collage Play with Crowabout. I feel like I have so many journals started now -- and everyone a different style LOL I decided to do this page in my Heart Speak journal. I cut the binder down to an unsual shape (just seemed like the thing to do LOL) and my requirement for this journal is the pages must all be personal to me and they all must have a heart on them.

I had a tough time figuring out what to do, but it seemed to me that she resembled the Statue of Liberty a bit and I was able to draw a parallel with something currently happening.

I seldom use magazine images, so these should be interesting challenges!

Ravaged Heart

2008-08-16T16:30:00.003-06:00

I'm a little late, but this is what I did in response to Sarah Whitmire's taped page soul journaling prompt. I'd like to try it again with the tape laid out in more of grid. It was a neat background for sure, but it didn't feel done until I put some writing and images on top ... so I did one of my hearts. This heart felt a little naked; I'm used to gunking a lot more mediums on top. I found a good use for some of my rusty nail collection though!

This is also my entry for Inspire Me Thursday. I didn't really plan it this way, but it includes lots of opposites ... dark and light ... hard and soft ... vulnerable and tough.

Muerte de Medusa

2008-07-19T14:18:00.003-06:00

Yeah!! Another project not destined for my UFO (UnFinished Object) pile LOL

I was a little nervous about the time on this. I signed up for Michael de Meng's Found Object Alchemy class. Half a day was spent hitting antique stores in search of objects to alter. I figured I'd be coming home with a half-finished projct ... but whew! I got about 95% done in class ... that' pretty good for me LOL

I had a bit of a headstart on mine. Part of my assemblage was fashioned from an old lamp I found in the rust pile at my Aunt's house posted a few weeks earlier. It was a major feat to get the roof and base removed, so it's good that I had this done ahead of time.

The base is made from an ornate metal jewelry box I gutted. I had it in my head to do something with a Greco-Roman feel, but it turned out quite differnt. Michael pointed out the colors has a Latin American feel and the vines and medallion on the front gave me a feeling of Medusa, so I am calling this Death of Medusa.

I'm also posting the back, which seemed to be Michael's favorite part LOL I just hate velvet. It was covered in black velvet and I knew I wouldn't have time to do anything elaborate to get rid of that look, so I just gessoed and painted it and I ended up with a faux rust look.

Under the Sea

2008-07-13T13:59:00.003-06:00

This swap was announced right before my first term at college ended. I figured I could get the bulk of my pages done on my 2-week break if I recycled some previous drawings I did for DJ's class. The longest part was getting my backgrounds done. I collaged various papers onto cardstock and painted in purple and turquoise tones.

Everything beyond the background was stitched on. It felt so good to put the glue away LOL I hope everyone in this book likes them. These are possibly my favorite chunky pages I've done so far -- and I think the pages have such a cool texture between the papers, molding paste, and tulle!

Wild Kingdom

2008-07-06T20:40:00.002-06:00

My road trip to Kansas was quite the adventure! I live in the big city and I am quite used to pigeons and what-not, but I have missed all the wild life small-town and rural life offers. I must say my preference is not to meet up with wildlife along the road where they can dart out however.

Here is a little inventory in all the animals I encountered on my trip:

5 Deer (I met up with 3 contemplating suicide on my midnight drive home -- eeek!)
2 Wild Turkeys (admittedly one got smooshed trying to cross the road -- but not by me LOL -- and no I wasn’t drinking!)
2 Rabbits (them babies run across the highway in no time flat!)
6 Buzzards (these guys were circling my Aunt’s property looking for dead animals presumably -- quite intimidating when you see that many together)
1 Owl in flight
3 Hawks (this was shocking -- I usually see more lie a dozen on my trip)
2 Rooster Pheasants
2 Field Mice (crossing the highway -- wonder which animals were chasing them LOL)
2 Bob Cats (This gave me the creeps! There were 3 dead animals that got smooshed in the highway … then a Bob Cat with glittering eyes laying in wait on the left side of the highway … and a second Bob Cat laying in wait on the right side of the highway less than 1000 feet down. I assume they were trying to tag team it and catch some innocent animal trying to cross there since this was a popular crossing zone. What menacing characters!)
2 Foxes
1 Coyote
1 Raccoon
2 Prairie Dogs
3 Blue Jays
1 Domestic Goat (he was wandering around a country road)

Basically, I saw everything except a partridge in a pear tree LOL

July 4 Art

2008-07-05T15:50:00.002-06:00

We'll call this my art for July 4th LOL

Scavenging for Assemblage Stuff

2008-07-05T15:30:00.004-06:00

Yippeeee! This was good timing. I am visiting my cousins and Aunt in Kansas. My Uncle was an avid collector of forgotten timeless treasures, junk, and you name it. My Uncle passed away a few years ago and my Aunt and cousin were cleaning up some things lying around. There was a huge pile of rusty stuff outside and they let me scavenge for what I wanted before everything else gets melted down.

I have cool ideas for shrines and assemblage just rolling around in my head now :)

Book of Intentions Progress

2008-06-29T08:55:00.003-06:00

I seldom post works in progress, but this will likely be one of those projects that takes years to complete -- if it ever get there LOL The book cover just terrified me ... a little too much like sewing LOL This is the cover of my Book of Intentions from Lisa Engelbrecht's class. We adhered strips of fabric to fusible webbing; mine wasn't holding well, so I stitched each strip afterward and also stitched gathered tulle to the edges for a neater finish on my cover.

Soar with Eagles

2008-06-21T13:53:00.004-06:00

This was the last collage page in my doodle book. You were to look through magazines for images that spoke to you that define health ... whatever kind of health that may be.

Doodle Dandelion

2008-06-21T13:41:00.003-06:00

This is another page from our spiritual doodle book. This was a neat book. Everything is in a handwritten style instead of a typical typed font. We were to doodle a dandelion and add intuitive experiences we have had.

Mysical Moon Poetry

2008-06-21T13:25:00.003-06:00

This is a page I did in the Spiritual Doodles book. It is intuitive poetry. You take about 15 minutes and write down phrases or words that pop into your head. Afterward, you arrange your phrases and thoughts into a poem. The instructions said it was perfectly fine to be nonsensical -- it is more about the emotion of the piece.

I like what I wrote and think it would be fun to do a page in a real art journal adding imagery.

More Class Homework

2008-06-21T12:49:00.004-06:00

I am officially out of school for the term --- wooo hooo! My homework was long done, but I had a few more pieces from my success class I wanted to upload now that school is over. This is probably the only class I'll have in my academic career allowing that kind of freedom LOL

These are Academic Advantage tip cards. The teacher supplied large index cards and said we could alter them in whatever way we chose as long as we included our tips. Here I am showing the cover and the backs of 2 cards to show what my background looked like. I stained them with walnut ink, used Color Mists from Outside the Margins, and rubberstamped.

Doodle Pets

2008-06-13T20:37:00.003-06:00

Here is another page in the doodle book. We were supposed to doodle every pet we've ever owned -- I've had a few too many to fit LOL

Homework Woes

2008-06-13T19:30:00.006-06:00

Well this was kind of a drag. One of my classes was easy, but also hard in that there was a huge amount of work. This class was about creating professional and academic success. The teacher made it more of a personal discovery class -- to learn what your personal keys to success are. She more or less passed over the class text book. We used Sprititual Doodles & Mental Leapfrogs as a workbook for the term. This is a vey fun book overall, but some of the items were a little tougher than I was expecting.

We were to turn it in at the end of the term, so she could verify that we did the assignments -- but most of the class complained about this not being their cup of tea and she buckled and gave everyone a perfect score -- even though some had barely touched it. It just aggravated me, because I worked really hard to be sure I got all the assignments done; it gets under my skin that people who put little effort got the same grade as me after I gave it my best effort.

So anyway -- I am posting a few of my exercies out of the book. This assignment was to do a collage based on your dreams.

Vampyres

2008-06-07T19:42:00.003-06:00

Here are some pages I did in a vampire-themed AB. I was realy excited about the challenge of working in a dark theme. I did my art first and then I couldn't figure out quite how to finish the pages off or how to come up with a storlyline that would explain the images. I ran across a site about a legendary vampire in Rhode Island named Mercy Brown, so I used her as inspiration. I added some new characters to tie in with the altered cabinet card I did. Here is the storyline I wrote to go along with my pages:

Mercy Brown was 19 when her physical body succumbed to consumption in 1892. She was buried in a crypt until the cold winter Rhode Island ground could thaw. How could her beloved daddy know that Frank and Steve Longstretch had given her everlasting life in the dark world of a vampire and that she had been sustaining herself on the blood of babes?

Mercy’s brother was also ailing from consumption … wasting away and growing weaker daily, as was most of the small rural community. The Brown family doctor approached Mercy’s father with his theory that his deceased wife or daughters were undead and responsible for bringing death to his doorstep. Fearful of losing his last child, George Brown agreed to have the three graves exhumed and inspected for signs that they had crossed over to the undead.
One can only imagine how distraught he must have been to learn that Mercy had turned in her grave in the above-ground crypt. Fresh blood in her heart confirmed the doctor’s theory. They acted quickly to burn her heart and put her vampiric soul to rest. Ashes from Mercy’s burnt heart were fed to her brother Edwin in an attempt to break her spell over him, but alas … it was too late.

Fruit and Flowers

2008-06-01T17:26:00.004-06:00

This is my last calendar page for the RR. I had to drop due to school :(

London

2008-06-01T17:22:00.003-06:00

Here is a page I did in the May calendar for the RR. It was a travel theme ... kind of a hard theme for me.

Altered Torso

2008-06-01T17:16:00.003-06:00

Here is an altered torso I did for an art lottery. I felt kind of stumped about what to collage on there -- and I have a gazillion postage stamps so that 's what I used LOL

The black accents were added with a bubble printing technique at MHBA -- fun!

April Fairy

2008-05-20T18:35:00.004-06:00

I did this page in early April -- when Colorado typically gets slammed with a winter storm. We did get lucky this year though LOL I was feeling nostalgic for spring -- we've moved straight into summer now though LOL

As luck would have it ... this also fits in with Theme Thursday.

Black and White Medley

2008-05-20T18:31:00.002-06:00

I didn't have any great dreams for this page. I just made a neat background and wanted to play around with black and white images -- negative and positive and see what happened.

Fragmented Resonance

2008-05-20T18:26:00.002-06:00

You can't really tell now ... but the bottom layer was a plastic shopping bag I melted to the page and then painted.

Lone Heart Grunge

2008-05-20T18:22:00.003-06:00

And you just know I couldn't make it a month without doing at least one heart page LOL

Yankee Doodle Dandy

2008-05-20T18:15:00.004-06:00

I totally lost my momentum with getting my jourmnal pages posted ... but here is a page I did in the April calendar ...

College Update

2008-05-20T17:57:00.002-06:00

I don't think I have said much on my blog, but some of you know I went back to school to pursue a degree in the Information Technology field. I love art ... it is my passion, but not something I would ever want to beat myself up over trying to make money with. I do art for recreation and to fill my soul.

I love the IT stuff -- working with data. It's hard to describe, but I get such a charge when I can figure out what is broken with something. I met with my mentor today and he has been so supportive and so encouraging of me following at least part of his footsteps. And he was cracking me up. My academic advisor made a recommendation for what IT class to start with next term and my mentor was saying you could do a lot of damage in that programming language if you didn't know what you were doing -- not a good choice for an intro -- but he was cracking me up -- and the idea that things could go incredibly wrong or incredibly well I found appealing and adventurous LOL

I am so excited. I have As in my classes so far -- and I'm getting close to the finish line for this term, so it is looking like I will keep my As -- assuming I don't fall off the wagon or something ... but school is one of those things I always loved and I can't stand not doing my very best, so I don't foresee that happening.

After several weeks wondering if I would get an academic advsor, they finally assigned me one ... and not a moment too soon. I never got all my loose ends tied up before being propelled into classes. My admissions counselor was all about getting the sale -- getting it signed -- blah blah blah She had a really flippant attitude about my fears of not doing math for 20 years and everything that seemed to come out her mouth was either dishonest or disrespectful. My academic advisor has been really nice and I get to meet him in person tomorrow evening -- and he already assured me that I will not have to deal with admissions anymore --- wooo hoooo!

Homespun

2008-05-02T19:28:00.006-06:00

This is an art journal page I did in response to a challenge on Created By Hand. I glued some striped scrim over a painted decorative paper. I just thought it was the coolest thing ever (and cheap) and wanted to use it LOL The name homespun just popped into my head :)

Hula or Homework?

2008-05-02T19:20:00.002-06:00

Which is more fun ... to hula hoop or do homework? LOL I'm working on a research paper, so you know what my answer will be LOL

I'm struggling with all these journal pages and completing homework for college, so I printed one of my homework assignments on decorative paper for a background LOL

Anatomy of an Injury

2008-05-02T14:13:00.003-06:00

This art journal page was inspired by a fall on my face LOL I haven't banged up my knees like this since I was a kid -- guess I was overdue. I fell on the street and banged the dickens out of my knees ... not to mention a horridly large bruise on my chin and a sprained wrist and hand.

My bruises are all gone now, but the tenderness in my knees, hand, and chin is taking a while to heal.

I found some clip-art anatomy of the affected areas for this page. I'm a little late, but thought this was appropriate for last week's Inspire Me Thursday prompt.

Woven Postcard

2008-05-02T13:25:00.002-06:00

Oops ... I went to download my photos and realized I never posted this LOL

Pink and Blue Blessings

2008-04-06T20:48:00.002-06:00

This is my final page for March. I've been wanting to use that crumpled up blotter paper for a while and I stuck to the original pinks and blues in the paper and went from there.

Sally

2008-04-06T20:37:00.003-06:00

I don't like this painting as well as the ones I did in DJ's class. I struggle with shading and what-not. It is going to take me a lot more practice. She turned out more cartoony than I would have liked. I decided her name should be Sally -- but it later occurred to me that maybe her name should be Paris, because she is painted on those plaster of Paris gauze strips. The cheesecloth texture was hard to paint on, but it was a very neat effect.

Suess Inspired Page

2008-04-06T20:29:00.003-06:00

This page is what happens when you use Dr Seuss as your reading material before bed LOL

I'm pretty happy with my page -- except the doodle trumpet --- bleckkkk! I need some serious practice there LOL

Haiku Triptych

2008-04-06T09:34:00.004-06:00

One of my yahoo groups is doing themed prompts with haiku's so I thought I would try my hand at it. The theme was dreams. This is also a page I started a few weeks back for the fantabulous Karen O! prompt of transitons a while back on Gothic Arches. My idea got too large for me to pull off, so I made it into a triptych ... but I was too late to post ... sigh ...

More Frida

2008-04-06T09:31:00.001-06:00

Another altered Frida pic from the calendar ...

Gloomy Fridas

2008-04-05T15:25:00.003-06:00

Here is an altered artwork by Frida Kahlo I did in the calendar journal RR. I am not very familiar with her work and no really good ideas popped, so I more or less added a border.

Lookie What I Got!!

2008-04-03T21:30:00.005-06:00

I have been carless for the past 6 months -- and it really bit LOL

I was waiting for my income tax so I get a better used car ... and guess what? I found one!

I found a little mom-and-pop kind of car lot where this guy fixes up cars that have been in minor collisions and resells them. I picked out a car last week. The advantage is the car had not been started yet and I got to see what it looked like before he fixed it up -- and it truly was minor damage on this car. I saw the engine and everything firsthand. My brother and I felt very good about this car.

They are done fixing it up for me and it is so perty!! He replaced a few dinged up panels on the car and the tires are almost brand new. The body is pristine -- except for one minor scratch.

Oh yeah -- this is a 2001 Saturn SC-2 with 77,000 miles. My last car had 83,000 when I got it.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all my local gals who carted me and all my junk to local art meetings!

This is only my 2nd car -- and I am excited at how spiffy and sporty it looks!

This car has a feature called a suicide door. That sounds creepy, but it's really cool, because I can get art stuff in the back seat real easy LOL I got some weird lighting effects when I took the photo of the inside, so the seats look all speckly and funky ... but the interior is just as pristine as the outside. And this car has all the fun extras :)

The only defect I found is the seat won't move forward. He told me to bring it on Saturday. He will fix that for me and also detail the inside for me.

I am so thrilled --- this makes the 6-month hardship worth it!

Hand-Carved Stamps

2008-03-30T20:40:00.006-06:00

Here is a stamped page of all my missing hand-carved stamps from last year :( Sigh ...

So the timing couldn't be more perfect for Michelle Ward's stamp carvng crusade.

I did an art journal page with some of my new carved stamps, but the paper was a little too textured and some did not stamp well. I also added the pages were i was stamping off as I worked on them. They are pretty faded ... I was using an 8-year old stamp pad LOL

Heart in Hand ...

2008-03-28T19:27:00.006-06:00

I am a bit late ---- eeeekkkk! But here are some hand pages I did for a hand-book swap in honor of sweet Michelle -- who does some of the most amazing journal pages I've ever seen :)

I hope she likes them. I haven't been doing incredibly deep work lately. I'm just doing what I like these days --- if that makes any sense.

Leap

2008-03-22T12:26:00.002-06:00

My last page for February ...

The Red Shoes

2008-03-22T12:21:00.003-06:00

This was inspired by a fairy tale ... if not a somewhat macabre one :)

Trust Your Heart

2008-03-22T12:07:00.004-06:00

I can't get with it lately. I seem to have lost the logging bug :( I am posting some remaining pages from the February calendar I was too lazy to post last month. Perhaps I will get the March pages posted in April LOL

Things have been a whirlwind lately.

Lisa's Countdown

2008-03-22T12:00:00.002-06:00

I almost missed it LOL But here is a link to Lisa's Countdown. Cool images!

Betray

2008-03-08T17:10:00.002-07:00

Well, I'll spare you all this sad story -- but this was kind of an art therapy page for me. I had to let go of an 8-year friendship and regain control of my life. It is still shocking to me that I was so blind to what was happening -- but life lessons were learned from this experience.

Hearts Galore

2008-03-08T17:04:00.002-07:00

I'm more than a little late posting LOL But what could I do for a Valentine's page, but hearts?

Shoes

2008-03-08T13:29:00.002-07:00

Shoes ... shoes ... shoes LOL

Alpha

2008-03-08T09:22:00.003-07:00

I had a tough time getting journal pages started last month. It felt like I was simply running out of ideas LOL So I cut out alphabet letters and glued to the page. That turned out to not be so quick and easy as I thought LOL

Long Time No See

2008-03-08T09:03:00.002-07:00

It seems I have lost interest in blogging lately -- and perhaps art too. There have been a lot of life changes in the past month -- out with the old and in with the new as they say. My focus has been on my job lately -- and there is potential for it to turn into a more professional career, but to really make this hapen I need to pursue a degree.

I only have a few credit hours, as I took one semester of college immediately following high school, but due to a number of life circumstances I was unable to return. It has been laziness that I have not considered returning before now -- but it is time. I was never one to take classes just for the sake of taking classes. My goal at 18 was to major in English, so I could become a fiction writer one day.

My focus is quite different now. I have several mentors at work and they say I am a natural for IT work -- particularly when it comes to being a Business Analyst -- and I also love working with the data. Data sounds so boring, but I love tackling challenges. If I don't have to use my wits to solve problems, I'm not really interested LOL

I have the potential to move into several slightly different fields of work at my job, so hopefully I can hang on long enough to get at least an Associate's degree -- but a Bachelor's degree would definitely be better.

I'm going to fous on getting as much art stuff wrapped up as I can -- but ultimately, I will have to drop a lot of groups and probably will not sign up for any more long-term commitments. My focus will be moved back onto my local art group, as I have spread myself so thin I feel I am not getting everything I can out of my local art group.

This is a lot of change for me and I am trying to embrace it -- but we'll see LOL I am also hoping that cutting back on the art stuff over time will motivate me to get my art stuff all organized. I get to a certain point and it just stops while I mess things back up with more art LOL I'd like to truly get it organized -- in a way that I can actually manage it. I never got to the point where everything has its own place. I don't know how successful I will be in that area -- but a little peer pressure will help LOL

Late Valentines

2008-02-19T20:16:00.004-07:00

Well -- a Valentine just wouldn't be a Valentine from me if it were in time LOL
I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do more fun mixed media hearts -- so here are some Valentine postcards I made and they seemed perfect for Wednesday Stamper and Mixed Media Monday this week.

WorkShop Art

2008-02-10T20:02:00.001-07:00

I think it has taken me about a week to recover LOL -- but I took the most fabulous workshop with DJ Pettitt and Traci Bautista. I worked on my projects all day and put in another 3-4 hours a night doing art in the evening. I was absolutely determined not to add another UFO project to my growing pile LOL

I struggled with the mono-printing in Traci's class a bit. I was a bit heavy-handed with the paint and my prints on paper did nto turn out so well. I cheated on some and brayered paint on, stamped, etc LOL The paper towels and fabric prints were my favorite though! And I actually got a book assembled this time --- yippeeee! This was a really fun binding -- I can't wait to do more like this!

And DJ -- she was such a joy -- and so sweet! I've always been terrified of drawing people. DJ was very encouraging -- so I hope to do more drawings and face painting :)

There's about a gazillion thumbnails below -- so have a look :) Thanks for the fab weekend, DJ and Traci!!

Okay -- I'm cheating LOL I uploaded these a few days prior to the "By the Sea" prompt on Theme Thursday -- but it seemed perfect for this prompt. I've really had it with snow and winter, so I just had to do a sea theme -- longing for summer LOL

Broken Wing

2008-01-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

My temporary purple/blue obssession continued with this page LOL
I had originally intended to do a whole piece of bubble wrap for the background -- in honor of Bubble Wrap Day LOL -- but my muse had other ideas.

The heart was textured with puff paint. There is also a piece of tulle netting, but it's not really visible in the scan.

Journal Your Week

2008-01-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

I did this page in response to an old prompt posted on Art Journal Fridays. We were to divide the page into grids and journal about something we did each day. Okay -- so I didn't do grids LOL I knew I'd need some bigger spaces on some days, so I cut out some neat textured lines from embossed wall-paper and used for my dividers.

Some day I have to work on my doodle lettering. All my lettering ends up looking the same. Apparently, this was the week for teal and purple -- I don't think I've used those colors together in my life -- LOL

This was a fun page and I need to do it again sometime!

Glimpse

2008-01-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

I started this page and figured out the connection when I started writing the words. I've been stressed over a special project at work -- one that is special to my heart and one where everyone looks to me for leadership. We were not getting good technical support -- in fact, he was literally tearing our department down -- brick-by-brick -- and there was a risk that he would undo all the good things implemented by the previous contractor that worked so hard for us.

Watching this destruction was hard for me professionally and personally. The temptation to reach out and catch someone ready to fall is great, but I had to let him fall to save ourselves if that makes sense.

There seemed to be no hope. I woke up one morning and it was crystal clear to me -- our previous contractor was coming back to us -- our work family would be complete once again. Approximately 3 days later things fell apart and the wheels were set in motion to bring him back to us -- and he is here now. ESP scares me -- but it is not always about bad things :)

Small and Feeble

2008-01-30T13:00:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure I care for the execution of this page. I had no idea what to do for an image, so I used a long-neglected rubberstamp.

I haven't been working in my normal pattern for the last few months. I usually get a burning desire to get a certain message across -- something in my heart -- and I see that one page through to completion. Lately, the words do not come. I start 4-6 pages at a time and have to fight to get the words on the page.

I have plenty to say, but I've been locking those words away.

Creator

2008-01-30T12:50:00.001-07:00

Having fun with clip-art ...

Spherical Harmonics

2008-01-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what the meaning behind this page is LOL

I was desperate to get something on the page and I made this for another book and decided against it, so I added a few more images and used it here.

Belief

2008-01-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

Seems like a million years since I have posted LOL

Here are the first of my calendar journal spreads for 2008. This one is an altered picture in a Tuscany themed calendar.

Iron Heart

2008-01-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

This is a bit ironic LOL -- but the challenge on Inspire Me Thursday this week is to push your boundaries and what timing. I push the boundaries with a lot of my art, but some pieces are harder than others. 3-D work has been a challenge, but also the most rewarding for me.

I couldn't find my large paper mache heart and the thought of trying to form my own heart shape seemed daunting, but I tried an experiment. This is actually the central piece for a window screen assemblage I am outting together and I plan on entering it in a juried show -- another scary thought LOL

I cut out a heart shape from brown paper bag, stitched, and stuffed before treating with texture mediums and iron paint.

Dark Souls - Pages

2008-01-13T11:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't been very productuive here lately -- but I did manage to get my pieces for my Dark Souls box done last weekend. I had this plastic mask I've wanted to alter forever -- but the shape was unappealing to me -- and since I chose the Phantom as my Dark Soul, I cut down the mask to a size and shape more appropriate.

Eiffel Work

2008-01-05T08:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple peices I did recently for some overdue decos ...

Winter Wonderland

2007-12-25T13:11:00.000-07:00

Someone must have been dreaming pretty hard of a white Christmas, because we got one LOL

I also took pics of the little squirrel feast I left him for Christmas -- and a kitten I've been calling Thunder.

Ethereal Urania

2007-12-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

Yippeeee! This has been slow RR, but it is finally complete. The longer between mailings, the harder it is for me to keep up my momentum.

This looks better in person than my scan does. I painted on transparency and boy was that fun! I'll be doing more of this -- too cool!

On the 12th Day of Christmas ...

2007-12-25T11:30:00.000-07:00

I received this magnificent beaded ornament from Vicki!

Thanks, Ladies -- this has been a fun swap!!