2009 Fat Book Swap for Arttechniques

Here are two individual pictures and a group sampling (30) of my 2009 fat book pages. I made a total of 124 (4 extra) for this swap. Arttechniques has the best fat book swaps! I used my own technique- Magazine Scrunchy Technique. I revised it a bit for this swap. I added some gessoed bubble-wrap markings and left off the metallic embossing powders. This is great for backgrounds and great to scan to use as backgrounds where you want the background flat rather than textured. No two pages are ever the same. Pretty fun!

Playing

I took a few minutes to play with a huge box of ephemera, etc that is in my art room and came up with this card. The flower stamp is from www.layersofcolor.com. Love Laura's stamps!

Susan and I had an art day today. I was working on my fat book pages. Why is it that I always choose a technique with so many steps to it????? I am doing my own Magazine Scrunchy Technique and forgot it has so many steps!!

A Valentine

I made this Valentine using a leftover skinny page background (serendipity paper technique), one of the lovely Layers of Color Stamps (www.layersofcolor.com), some antique lace, a cute little boy image, a couple of confetti hearts, and some magazine text. The wings were from a hostess gift.

VALENTINE BLOG PARTY!

Don't miss out on the Valentine Blog Party! Check www.flatwoodsfolkart.com and join the fun! Flatwoodsfolkart is Lesley Venable's site; she is one of my co-authors of The Latest Trends in Mixed Media Art books. We will be giving away freebie images and other fun stuff in February. Be sure to check back!

Book I am Reading

I am reading the most interesting book right now. I had bought it for my daughter for Christmas and she has lent it to me. It is called "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society." It is about The Island of Guernsey during the German Occupation in WWII. I highly recommend it!

Here's a sample of 4 of my Winter Skinny Pages. Each one has a different background, and arrangement of the haiku and the snowflakes. Still completing most of them.

Arttechniques Skinny Books

I have been working on my skinny book pages with the theme of Winter. I should be able to post pictures in a day or so. I decided I had to join all 3 groups, so have 75 pages to make. I know, I am crazy, but I love to get a sample of everyone's work!
I have done a serendipity paper background, am adding punched snowflakes, a haiku I wrote myself, and the backs are embossed and distressed. Whoever invented serendipity paper did a good thing! I love to make it.
As soon as I finish the Skinny pages, I need to start my 120 pages for the 2009 Technique Fat Book. I will be making my Magazine Scrunchy technique. I'm happy I have a stack of magazines in my art room; I will need them for those 120 pages!! After this swap, I will have 240 pages of different techniques! Then it's finding the time to incorporate them into my art!
Hope your January is filled with warmth and fun projects!

Journal Backgrounds

Here are a couple of journal backgrounds using our painting prompts for weeks 1 and 2 (Arttechniques yahoo group). The lines are done with corrugated cardboard and liquid acrylic paint; the mask/stencils are cut out from a magazine and Color Mist sprays from www.outsidethemargins.com, Ranger, and a couple fo soft pastels. I will now write on the lines and inside some of the images. This week's writing prompt is about realtionships.

Journal 2009 with Arttechniques

We at Arttechniques are doing another journal. Taking ideas from several different sources, we are doing weekly prompts. We began with a self-portrait the first week of January. This week we are journalling about our relationships. Journals are a great way to vent and to uninhibitively write about your emotions, life circumstances, prayer concerns, etc.

I find doing a "gluebook" type of journal to be the least stressful and time-consuming for me. I usually add some hand-written words but enjoy finding magazine words and phrases that say what I am thinking.

76 Degrees in January??

We are having really weird weather today. It is 76 degrees and climbing with a warm wind. If I didn't know better, I would think I was living in southern CA. Crazy weather for winter!! Don't need to go to Hawaii- it's probably warmer here.

Hearts Project Coming Soon!

I will be demonstrating a fun heart project in the February newsletter for the Latest Trends. http://www.thelatesttrendsinmixedmediaart.com/. I will also be giving a few of the hearts away for our Valentine Blog party hosted by Lesley Venable at http://www.flatwoodsfolkart.com/.

If you like making Valentines, here are few I made for the Latest Trends group. We are having a Valentine Postcard swap.

Latest Trends Newsletter

We have added a new feature to our website- a monthly newsletter. Check out www.thelatesttrendsinmixedmediaart.com for January's edition.

VALENTINE BLOG PARTY

Join Lesley Venable at www.flatwoodsfolkart.typedpad.com for a Valentine Blog Party! Create a Valentine collage sheet, a heart pendant, a charm, something with which to celebrate. You can email Lesley at flatwoodsfolkart@aol.com to be added to the party line-up. Everyone needs a little romance in their lives, so have fun and party on!

Lesley is one of the authors of Exploring the Latest Trends in Mixed Media, Volume 1, which can be found at www.createspace.com/3346325, or on Amazon.com.

Putting it all Away

Fighting a cold so I spent today putting away all of my Christmas decorations except for the big tree, which needs its own put-away day. Whew! I always wonder while I put the decorations away, what my life and our world will be like when I pull them out at the end of this new year. It always makes me feel a bit nostalgic. The house seems so cleaned out when all of the decos are gone. I am pulling out ivory items to decorate with, along with some touches of light green. The weather here is clear but cold. I hope you are all enjoying these last quiet days of vacation.