Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Created by Hand - Easter


Easter or Easter eggs is the theme for Created by Hand this week. I decided that I would make a collage with the art from my great grandmother's half sister (copies, not the originals!) from the late 1800s. Belle Reid was unique. She loved to do watercoloring and was not bad except when she tried to paint birds. Every holiday and big event in her family's life was an occasion to write a little poem and to decorate the poem/card with her painting. I have a number of these small cards. She also loved Robert Burns and had Sunday afternoon tea parties where she and her friends would read Burns' works. But that's another story....

Monday, March 30, 2009

Awards from Val and Donna


Val has honored me with this fabulous award. Thanks oodles, Val. I hope you all will visit her blog. She loves to work with fabric and does fabric post cards. Really beautiful work.

Donna has honored me with this fabulous award. I am so blessed to have this fine artist give me this award. Her blog is a must-see. Her cards are innovative and some even have moveable parts and depth.

Since I just went through 10 straight days of giving out another award, I'm copping out on these two. I am passing the awards on to Yogi. Her blog is truly remarkable. She shares what she's learned in some marvelous classes she's taken. Her calligraphy is unbelievably beautiful.

However, all of the blogs I visit are worthy of being honored, so if I have missed you, please latch onto this logo. I think everyone's blog is fabulous.


Sunday, March 29, 2009

Colour Create Lilac and Blue

Here is my entry for this week's Colour Create - lilac and blue. The fish picture given us to get the colors from was so gorgeous. I couldn't get exactly those colors, but I hope this is close enough.

Sunday Gothic Arches

For Gothic Arches this week we are to use 2 colors of the rainbow, 2 stamps, and one word of text. My background is glossy card stock. The blue and the green alcohol inks were sprayed onto a non-absorbent surface. Then I took the shiny card stock and laid it face down on the surface. I have used my new music background stamp, my bird stamp that Judy of Illinois sent me. Since it also has the word "fly" on it, I had all my requirements. The arch is the size of a skinny.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Artarazzi

Vron has given us a beautiful work by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones. This image of the three women is for my Artarazzi entry. It took over 30 minutes after I completed it to get Blogger to load it. I finally had to make it teeny tiny.

The urn was googled; the flowers are from Dover; the background was from Kubivet.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Art Creations Friday Challenge


This darling little boy image was given to us on Art Creations Friday challenge to use in our art today. I ran across an article in a magazine showing many of Michael Jackson's treasures that are being auctioned off this spring. This crown is one of those items. It has fake pearls and gems and is estimated to bring $1000 - $1500 at the auction. The money will go to Jackson and some of his charities. The crown on the boy is actually the top of
 Jackson's gold throne.  The background music is my new stamp from Stubby Stampers.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Paper Minutes & Rainbow Lady

I received new stamps from Stubby Stampers today and had to use my little girl one. I put her in a swing instead of a chair. The balloons belong to a stamp my son got off eBay (unknown brand) and meet the challenge for Rainbow Lady's. I've given my little girl an alcohol ink and Moon Glow background. The numeral 3 stands for the 3 balloons and fits in with Paper Minutes challenge.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

An Award from my Friend, Doris

My wonderful friend Doris has sent me this lovely award. Doris, thank you so much. It is beautiful.

(For me personally, this is a most rewarding  way to bestow honors - just one each day. It is hard to select just 10, since there are literally hundreds of artists I'd like to highlight.)

Doris is a multi-talented artist. She has several blogs to display her gorgeous works. I will follow Doris's example and for the next ten days, I will nominate a blog, which is particularly important to me. I find this is such a very nice idea.

And here is how it works:
1. The winner of the Award places the logo on her blog.
2. She makes a link to the person who sent the award to her.
3. She nominates 10 blogs (one each day).
4. She links to these ten blogs.
5. She leaves a message on the blog of the nominees.

And I give this award to:
DAY 1: I would like to give the Award to Rosie.  Her blog Altered (t)Art and Stuff is just full of fascinating items she has made. She works with fabric as well as paper. She makes gorgeous digital art. She also makes lovely jewelry. And she often talks about things she is cooking. Rosie is an inspiration to me. She and her husband Nick work with the disabled, taking them fishing. The name of their organization is  Reels on Wheels. Their blog is called Disabled Angler and they live in England.

DAY 2: I would like to give the Award to Rian, who lives in the south of the Netherlands with husband Johan. Rian is interested in digital art in various styles such as vintage-retro, mixed media, stamping, and old postcards. She often has a panel called: Credits, where she shows the steps she has used to make her digital art pieces and the sources. Her knowledge in DA is light years ahead of mine. I am learning much from her on her blog Freubel Art, which has tips for photoshop and other arts. Each of her postings is an education in itself.

DAY 3: I would like to give the Award to Heather, who lives in Canada. Her blog, Creative Solace, is a feast for the eyes and has 110 registered followers!!! (There are many followers who have not signed up, as well.) Heather does mixed media, collage art, and altered tins. She is known for using pictures of babies, many of which are riding on the backs of birds. Her work with beeswax is amazing and beautiful. A lover of books, she often uses quotations and texts. When commenting on an artist's works, Heather obviously puts a lot of thought and consideration into what she writes. She is such an encourager that even the most inexperienced among us feels as if we can produce something worth viewing.

DAY 4: I would like to give the Award to Femmy, who lives with her husband (and their dog) in the Betuwe in the Netherlands. Today I received a wonderful RAK from Femmy. I had asked about one of her backgrounds. She not only was generous in supplying the "how-to", she sent me the correct paper for creating them. Femmy produces the most amazing backgrounds for the collages she makes. Her expert sense of balance and design along with her eye for color give her art pieces that free, yet orderly appearance in paper collages and her digital art. She uses a lot of muted tones, pastels and sometimes bold color. She was recently the host for the Sunday Postcard. Her comments on blogs show her caring and generous nature.

DAY 5: I would like to give the Award to Marie, who is enjoying life in Perth, Australia. Marie is a digital artist par excellence! When she's not at her computer producing beautiful digital art, she's puttering around in her garden or babysitting her 4 grandchildren. She is one of the most generous blogger with her digital "secrets". Marie has helped me try to master this strange new world of Digital Art, sharing her images and  explaining carefully and in detail how she did things. Marie happily celebrated Saint Paddy's Day yesterday since she comes from Irish heritage. Her comments on our blogs are received with gladness, as they are not only complimentary, but also helpful, especially for novice digital artists. Her works are bright and full of creativity.

DAY 6: I would like to give the Award to Nancy of Ohio, USA. Nancy has so many different styles and techniques. She started her blog to show her ATCs but she has branched out to other sizes and shapes now. She makes tags and does pen and ink drawings. Some of her work has oodles of texture. Nancy enjoys drawing and painting and does a little digital art. Her blog has several tutorials that I have found very helpful. Since Nancy makes some of her own stamps with FIMO, she has a "how to" on that. She also shows how to do transfers from freezer paper, from newsprint,  and from tracing paper. One of her interesting tutorials shows how to make boxes from greetings cards. Nancy is a lively artist whose works reflect her joyful spirit.

DAY 7: I would like to give the Award to Louise. This talented artist has been published in Stampers Sampler and Take Ten numerous times. She is on the design team for Oxford Impressions. Louise enters a variety of challenges each week including Art Creations Friday, Sunday Post Card, Make a Moo or Two and Gothic Arches. Her beautiful work usually has a, vintage appearance. She has an excellent eye for balance and design and uses soft colors. Her works generally have a gentleness to them. Louise sometimes uses unusual things in her work, including packaging from Martha Stewart's products! A visit to her latest Theme Thursday entry reveals how creative and ingenious she is.

DAY 8: I would like to give the Award to Anke, who lives in Hessen, Germany. Her blog Stempelfroschsblog is a delight to visit. As noted by her blog name, Anke like to use rubber stamps in her work. She uses clear, bright colors and often has a 4x4 format. Her cards in the sketch challenges are striking in their beautiful designs and lovely, upbeat images. Anke also enters other types of challenges and often makes her own gorgeous backgrounds. The diversity of her talents can be seen in the tea display gifts she made. This creative artist's blog is a treat to enjoy.

DAY 9: I would like to give the Award to Lynn S., who is an professional artist in Idaho, USA. There is just a certain magic about Lynn's work, whether she is wood-burning lifelike animals on gourds or creating one of her fabulous collages like this mother and child piece. Lynn does murals and faux finishes as well as designing of historical signs for Idaho. Lots of her work on her blog is vintage, though she does sneak in a clown or two every now and then. Her works are as cheerful as they are beautiful and some have recently been published in Stampers Sampler. Lynn and her husband have been married 28 years.

DAY 10: I would like to give the Award to Kris D, of Colorado, USA. Her blog, Nostalgic Collage, shows the various challenges that Kris enters with her beautiful art works. Her pieces range from moos to postcards with other sizes in between. Distinguishing her style is her use of vintage images and ephemera and soft muted colors in such a gentle, well-planned way. She was a design team member for Stampin'D Amour, a Stampin' Up demonstrator, and a member of Splitcoast Stampers. She is a published artist with a degree from Art Institute in Denver. Kris' creativity in her art is seen especially in her very delightful work "Spring Colors." 

NO MORE DAYS but I have in mind about 50 other artists I could have just as easily used. This has been so much fun. Again, my thanks to Doris for giving me the opportunity to highlight some very fine blogs/artists.

Artarazzi



This lovely Japanese image was given to us by Artarazzi to use as the focus of our art this week. I have done 2 versions and tried to give her a pleasanter facial expression.In one I reversed the image. The background is from a postcard and the fan is from a Christmas card. I thought she would look better with red next to her face.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Art Creations Friday Challenge

St. Patrick's Day is coming up so I made this an Irish themed piece. This is my entry for Art Creations Friday, using the image we were given. I made her hair a little redder and used a map of Ireland that I painstakingly changed the color of. The bottom part that looks like old boards is from Kubivet.

Rainbow Lady's Challenge - "A"


I found this adorable little girl's image in the Graphics Fairy clip art. The background is one from Kubivet.  The letter A is the theme for Rainbow Lady's Challenge this week.  

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Arty Girlz & Paper Minutes

There were 4 great challenges I wanted to do today, but I just couldn't justify the time to do all of them. So I chose Arty Girlz (smile) and Paperminutes (dots and stripes). I think it really would fit Crazy Amigo Challenge (simplicity), but I won't enter it there.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Artarazzi & One Stop

Last night I got an email that had some cute animal pix in it. This dog and chick was one I saved in case I could use it in a challenge. This morning One Stop is challenging us to make a "Sorry" card. I combined the background from Artarazzi with this picture, adding a tad of extra color.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Art Creations Friday Challenge

Here is my entry for Art Creations Friday, using the lovely image provided. The background is a picture of a famous fisherman's inn on a chalk stream in England, established in 1540 A. D.

Award from Ginger

Ginger has generously awarded me a Kreativ Blogger award. I am enjoying so much visiting all my blogging friends and seeing their gorgeous art on their blogs. This award is one I have received previously so I won't be passing it on again, but I do want you to visit Ginger's blog and get to know this talented artist. I appreciate Ginger for giving me this honor and for inviting others to visit my blog here.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Rainbow Lady's Challenge - Recipe

Rainbow Lady's Challenge today gives us a recipe to follow: a white card, a handmade flower, a ribbon, corner stickers, a stamp, and the colors red, blue and silver.

My blue and silver background is a 4x4. I used red cardstock to frame my image and to also make my flower. I had no corner stickers so I used the corners from a frame from Retro Cafe Arts and put silver metallics on them. When I put the blue ribbon on, I thought I was finished. Then I realized I had to use a rubber stamp, hence the design along the edges. The cute girl is from Graphics Fairy.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Snow!

Yes, we did get snow. Yes, we did have a power outage for 34 hours. We are back to normal and making art again. It is still beautiful, but very icy. We had a tree fall across the driveway and had to get someone to cut enough of it off for us to get the vehicle out. We got 11 inches, which is equal to what we have gotten totally for the last 5 years!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Gothic Arches - pink & brown


This was a fun project. I used some gold foil paper and ran it through the snowflake Cuttlebug folder. The folder was a most generous RAK from Sarah. Then I sprayed Van Dyke brown moon shadow mist over it. For the inside arch I used some paper in tones of brown and pink from Studio D. The little lady was my mother's second cousin (or first cousin once removed, I'm never sure about those things). The theme for Gothic Arches is pink and brown. Click to see other entries to this challenge. The pink feathers are gifts from my friend Risé.

Note: The SNOW is pouring down. If I'm not heard from for a few days, you'll know that we have lost power, which frequently happens out here in the country, when trees fall on the wires.