Paper Doll Dresses

The Yahoo Group Art-in-the-Word is having a Paper Doll Dress swap. The host is going to make a garland with the dresses and then return a garland to each of us. Each dress was to be approximately 4 x 6 and was to have a scripture verse. I put the reference on the dress fronts, and have the verse printed on the backs. I chose part of 1Peter 5:5; "...clothe yourselves with humility toward one another..." It is nice to be able to express my faith in a project. My sister Nancy and I and our friends used to spend hours designing paper doll dresses when we were younger. Paper dolls bring back happy memories.

Digital Collage Play

I played around with some new digital art elements I recently downloaded. Lots of fun papers and other goodies. Cottage arts has some great stuff! I am also learning CS3, Photoshop, which is the big daddy version of my Elements program. I hope to get better and better as time goes on. I find it hardest to trim images so that you can use just the image without the original background. I'll keep plugging away. The fun papers and brushes and embellishments make it interesting.

Morpheus Box Workshop in Danville

I had to add a picture of Peggy's Hoops and Yoyo who go everywhere with her and love to participate in her artful endeavors. It was great getting to meet Peggy and Lisa from Arttechniques at this workshop. There were 6 of us from Arttechniques and some of my other art groups there.

The other photo is of the Morpheus box parts we started with.

Our class was from 10-4 and we had such a great time. I had heard that Michael DeMeng was a great teacher and he was. The class was fun and informative.

Michael DeMeng's Morpheus Box Class

Here are the "In-the-midst-of-working" pictures of my Morpheus Box. I used Tub and Tile Caulk for the texture medium. I then pressed a piece of punchinella (sequin waste) into the back and sides in a random fashion. I used a wooden skewer to draw the squiggles and scrolls. I find I use scroll designs a lot in my work. I am very drawn to scrolls! I added a salvage yard computer part to the top (not dramatic enough, I need to do more!). I put some Russian text and Finnish music on the rotating piece of wood. I added piece of marble paper from Italy that an art group member sent me to the back of my box. I also added some titles from the Daily Bread to the sides and bottom of the box before washing over it. There is another computer part attached to the top front of the box. Our local salvage yard has great doodads for art!

Micahel DeMeng Workshop- Morpheus Box

The top pictures are of the class at work. We met at the Stampers' Warehouse in Danville, CA. The class was filled with 16 artists. The lone man was our teacher, Michael DeMeng, who is a very gracious teacher. He willingly shared paint combinations, texturing techniques and other secrets.

The other pictures are of Susan working on her Morpheus Box. Her theme was "Hidden Assets." She did a fantastic job. You need to see the sides of her piece to get a feel for the great texture and painting she did.

Michael DeMeng Morpheus Box Workshop

Here are some of the finished and almost finished boxes at the end of class. My box is on the top; I need to add a stand of some sort, and more to the top of the box. I used some titles for daily devotions from an old "Daily Bread." I figure I can turn the inside picture to the saying appropriate for the day. Also pictured is Sally from Sacramento with her beautiful box. It has a very Renaissance look. Truly beautiful! The other pictures are an assortment of what the class members created.

An Experiment Gone Wrong

These backgrounds for ATCs were to have shown up the building images much more clearly. I like the looks of the ghostly images. I had tried a transfer technique that did not work all that well. When I applied a glaze of Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, it made the details pop out a bit. The background on the bottom left is actually the paper left after trying to transfer the image off of it. It turned out better than the paper I was transferring to! Oh well, it was a fun day to play when I was sick with a cold and it was windy and rainy.

Letter A, Number 2

Here is one of a series of ATCs I did for the arttechniquesatc group. The theme was Letter A, Number 2. I used Lumiere paints and Color Mists, a favorite rubber stamp, and a chipboard number that was painted and then hammered with Tim Holtz' Texture Hammer. I then rubbed black ink over the number.

Magazine Collage from Ann's Workshop

Ann had us start out by taking one magazine from her table and spend 5 minutes ripping out images that appealed to us. I happened to get a Better Homes and Gardens from July, so it had lots of summery pictures of kids. I usually don't do a lot of kid-themed collages.

We then had a few minutes to tear around the designs a bit more, and then a few more minutes to decide exactly what images we wanted to use and play around with placement.

I love how this collage came together with the images and words. I added one more butterfly (today) going off the top of the page to give the idea of childhood being a fleeting season in our lifetimes. Seasons could refer to the time of year, or the time of life. The simple joys of patty-cake, blowing bubbles, playing in a sprinkler, and enjoying a parade are ofttimes left behind as we become adults. I want to keep a youthful, fun-loving spirit as I age. Facing each day with a joyful attitude of "what wonderful thing will happen today?" is how I want to face the future. For a quick exercise, I was pleased that I could find so much that is meaningful to me in this collage.

Lovely February Day

Dan and I went for a walk at a newly opened park today. There isn't a long path yet, but it was nice. There were a few fishermen in their belly boats and the golfers were wearing short sleeves and shorts. A beautiful February day! It will probably be 70 or 72 degrees today. A nice change from the incessant rain we've been having!

More Photos of the Workshop

Here is our group photo taken at the end of the work shop. Roberta sent me the photo of my work table. I tend to spread out and make a mess as I work. As Jo March would say in "Little Women", "Genius burns!" Ha ha!

Ann Baldwin Class

We had such a fun time in this Layered Collage Workshop with Ann Baldwin. Held in her lovely home studio, Ann has a gracious and easy-going teaching style. A big thank you to Roberta for putting this workshop together. Pictured is the group watching Ann demonstate, and the bottom picture is an unedited picture of the piece I made. I had a theme of "books", and the photo on the left is of my aunt taken around 1919.

Cruise to the Mexican Riviera

We recently went on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We visited Acapulco, Zihuatenejo/Ixtapa, Puerta Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. Puerta Vallarta and Cabo were the nicest. Acapulco was too big, and the merchants would not stop harrassing you to buy something. I didn't take a lot of pictures because it seems like we were always busy. We went on the trip with Dan's sisters and their husbands and Dan's cousin and wife. We did enjoy cruise life- good food, nice spa, great entertainment. We went on the Norwegian Star. Having a balcony was great. All of our rooms were next to each other, so we could talk balcony to balcony. I was hit with Montezuma's Revenge or something on our travel day home. Let's just say that Matt's bucket came in handy that day more times than I care to remember!
I was disappointed in that I never saw the cute little things I was hoping to find for art projects anywhere. All of the merchants sold pretty much the same merchandise from town to town. I was able to get some nice sterling silver bracelets and earrings, but otherwise, didn't buy many souvenirs.

ATC Fun

Another ATC made with fabric painted by Cindy Powell, and embellished with beads received in swaps. I had fun using my new sewing machine, a Viking Sapphire 850. It makes sewing a breeze!

I love the colorful fabrics created using ideas from Sherrill Kahn's Creative Embellishments book. Sherrill gave me permission to host swaps and challenges using inspiration from her book which is much appreciated!

More Creative Embellishment-inspired ATCs

These ATCs were also inpired by Sherrill Kahn's great book, Creative Embellishments. The bottom ATC uses fabric made by Cindy Powell, and the other fabric was created in Cindy's home studio in Sandy, UT. All of the beads in the ATCs posted were received in bead swaps last year and were made by a variety of wonderful artists. I thank Cindy and each bead artist for helping in the inspiration of these fabric ATCs.

Inspired by Creative Embellishments

Here are four ATCs inspired by Sherrill Kahn's book, Creative Embellishments. We are doing these in the Arttechniquesatc group and The Latest Trends in Mixed Media group. We were to incorporate painted and stamped fabric or paper foundations with wrapped pipe cleaners and handmade beads.