Art Travel Journal (Part 2) !

Here's the second half of the art travel journal pages.  Again, to read the quotes, just click on the image and it will enlarge so you can see it - enjoy!

Art Travel Journal - Ready for Travel! (Part 1)

Here's part 1 of my prepped art travel journal pages.  Each page has its own quote, which is reflected on the bottom of each page.  My plan for the journal is to take it with us when we take our August trip.  Each day I will add my own thought for the day written on the tab in each library card envelope, and also include a photo of the day!  Since the quotes speak for themselves, I won't add any other comments.  I think you can click on each image to enlarge it to read the quote!  Enjoy!

Found Poetry - Love Poems ATC Swap

Been working on this ATC swap for the past couple of weeks - just a little bit on the weekend days, as I could. Anyway, thought I'd share! The theme of this ATC swap was love poems made up of found poetry. Found poetry are little snippets of phrases and words that you find in old books. I used a used book I bought at the library's used book sale once - I plan to make an altered book of it someday, so taking a few pages now is no big deal. I just pick words and phrases that appeal to me and I figure I can put them together in some way! This first ATC was meant to capture the joy of those "daddy-daughter" special times - certainly a special type of love!

This ATC had a photo of my parents as the subject of it. I'm not certain, but this photo was taken when they were very young, and maybe even newly engaged - hence, the poem!

And, this one just makes me laugh for some reason! I just love this photo of the 2 couples - i have no idea who they are, but, for me, the woman on the far right as you look at it sort of makes the photo - her expression can mean so many things. I know, technically, this isn't a love poem, so I didn't include it in the swap, but I couldn't resist how the words sort of worked together, her expression, and when I couldn't stop chuckling looking at it sort of pieced together, I knew it had to be an ATC, even if not for the swap!

Enjoy!!

Book Page Backgrounds - Part 4

This was another ATC (Artist Trading Cards) swap using book pages as the backgrounds for the cards. The first one, above, is of a young man striking a somewhat formal pose - maybe this was to be a formal portrait? It just reminded me of how those types of photos really emphasize the fact that time does fly, and we're only the way we are for a relatively brief moment in time. I used the book page background running vertically - I thought it almost looked like a patterned wallpaper behind him.

For this ATC, I used the peeled paint technique over the book page. I found the old image of what looked to be a little stone cottage. It reminded me of a similar building at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL, that was set right along a lovely garden. I added the rose petal that was set in some handmade paper, and decided this would be a rose petal cottage.

And, finally, this piece that seems sort of ethereal to me. This time I used some pastel tissue paper over the book page background. The tissue had some butterflies, dragonflies and flowers on it, very soft. When applied to the background of the ATC, they sort of melted into the background, creating that sort of ethereal feel to me. I added a small image that I had of a botanical drawing of a tulip, and that seemed to add the perfect touch.

Enjoy!

Little Houses ATC Swap

Here's some recent art from last weekend. It was an ATC swap, with the theme of Little Houses. I decided to have some fun with this! The above little house used an umbrella from one of the umbrella drinks. Now, I think of those drinks as summertime drinks, so I thought the "little house" would be a summer home. Since I also used dress pattern paper on this ATC, reflecting the sizes that the pattern covered, I thought the summer house would be made to order! A little whimsy!

I liked the feeling of this ATC - a delicate little house and then a nice image of a young woman, who I think of as thinking of her dream house. Kind of a soft dreamy feel to this ATC.

This last ATC was kind of a fun one, too! I found a napkin that had some coffee beans on it, and thought, of course! A coffee house! So, I decided that they would really be doing a great deal on a cup of coffee - 5 cents per cup! Haven't seen that price in years and years!!

Enjoy!

February Bizarre Holidays

It's another month of bizarre holidays! February brings us some fun ones - the first, above, is International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day. Miki, our German Shepherd, really enjoys this holiday, as she dreams of biscuits every day!

Confuse your Valentine this year! On February 13, celebrate Get a Different Name Day by picking out a new name and totally confuse your Valentine the following day! So, which name will this young lady choose?

And, finally, a day Jeff celebrates whenever we're on a trip or vacation! Whenever I'm running around taking photos, he usually finds someplace to relax and take a nap. Altho February 28 is the official Public Sleeping Day, Jeff finds a way to celebrate it throughout the year!

Enjoy!

Love Birds - A New ATC Swap

It's been a while since I've posted anything, mainly because I have been dealing with other stuff for much of January. But, here are some adorable little love birds from an art swap I did participate in this month. The theme was to have a bird and a heart on the card. I found a template to create some cute little birds and decided to use some sort of patterned or handmade paper for the body, a little scrap of a different color for the beak and a piece of text paper, with a word highlighted for the wing. The first one above, Sleepy, may be a bit of a stretch on such bright paper, but the hearts are of some nice soft designed paper!

The second one, Found, reminds me of how birds will take scraps of things they find to make their nests. The heart locket is a little stamp I have, and I used a piece of (sort of) yarn as the little "chain" thing for the locket. The bird's body is made of baby wipes that i used to clean my hands and brushes from several different colors of paint - kind of a nice soft mix of colors!

For this last little bird, I decided to go with a softer color palette, almost, but not quite a monochromatic theme. The hearts are hidden within the soft green leaves, and the entire piece reminded me of the promise of spring.

Enjoy!

Butterfly ATC Swap

The theme of this swap was butterflies. The ATC above uses some book page text as the background. I then applied a napkin that had some really pretty roses and added a gel transfer of a butterfly that I found in a magazine to the very top. Because it's a gel transfer and not the actual magazine image, you can still see the text thru the wings of the butterfly as it sits perched on the roses.

This ATC uses a piece of a music page as the background. Again, I applied a napkin to that, with some rose buds and leaves on it, as well as a little butterfly. I also added a butterfly stamp, just for a bit of balance.

And, finally, the piece I call Butterfly Bling. Again, music pages as a background, but this time I used a butterfly rubber stamp over it. I then colored in the wings, body and added some very obvious antenna with art glitter. I'm not sure why I really like this one, but I do!

Enjoy!

Bizarre Holidays in December - ATCs!

December has its fair share of bizarre holidays! December 10th is the Festival for the Souls of Dead Whales - this has to be one of the more unique ones. Why whales? Well, I did a bit of research, and one of the stories behind the holiday is that it is an Inuit holiday (Alaskan native). They relied on whales for food, and it supposedly was their way of honoring the whales. Sounds good, right? Well, again supposedly, the Inuits never heard of this holiday. So, now the thought it this was made up by a calendar company, looking for ways to encourage the purchase of ceramic mugs.....of whales, I suppose!

December 30th is not only Bicarbonate of Soda Day, but also Festival of Enormous Changes at the Last Minute Day. I focused on the Bicarbonate of Soda Day, but I think the background also sort of reminds one of a lot of changes all happening at the same time, which makes it all seem like the last minute! So, I'm kind of honoring both, don't you think?? (tee, hee!)

And, last but not least, is December 3rd, or National Roof Over Your Head Day! This holiday is to be a day to appreciate all that we have, not the least of which is (hopefully) a roof over our heads. No one knows exactly who first founded this day, but I like this sentiment, and hopefully this gentleman appreciates the roof that's over his head.

Enjoy!

Apple of My Eye ATC Swap

As you might guess, apples were the theme of this swap. Rather than just making ATCs with apples on them, I tried to think of apples in a different way. Did you know that mojitos came in the flavor of apple? I didn't.....but I do now!

How else are apples liquid? The more traditional apple drink is apple cider, and the above ATC represents that! I remember when I was a kid, in the fall, when my brothers and I would come home from school, my mom would have glasses of apple cider set on the counter for us to drink. Ahhh, good memories!

And, finally, probably the most popular use of apples (besides just eating them) - apple pie!! Yummy, yummy! I love to bake apple pie, but then, there's just Jeff & me to eat it, and that's not very good for the waistline!

Enjoy!!

Blackbirds are Singing!

Welcome to the latest ATC swap! This one involves blackbirds and sheet music. I couldn't resist taking advantage of the title of the piece of music (above) and expressing it as a dilemma for our little blackbird friend!

And do blackbirds really sing in the rain.....or is that just Gene Kelly??

And what lovely lady doesn't like to be serenaded by her favorite blackbird?

Enjoy!

Bizarre September Holidays !

Welcome to another month of bizarre holidays!! I know this is a bit early, but I have been working to get all my art commitments finished before vacation, which is only a few days away! However, there's no bizarre holiday in September called Vacation Day, so we'll just celebrate my upcoming vacation with these three! September 8th is National Date Nut Bread Day - I really love date nut bread, so I just had to create an ATC to celebrate this day! I used the color of date nut bread crust as the predominant color, and added a recipe I found online and then a layered image of the actual finished product!

September 4th is Newspaper Carrier Day (are there even any newspaper carriers left??). I used a text page as background (after all, newspapers are mostly text, right?). I then added the images of a bike (that's what the newspaper carriers in my old neighborhood used, unless they had a fabulous sister who used the car to help them...) and the actual newspaper. Kind of a fun reminder of yesterday!

This last ATC honors a wonderful little lady! I didn't know who Emma M. Nutt was, so I looked her up. The phone is a hint for you, but I'll tell you anyway. She was the first female telephone operator, and September 1st is her day! Of course, I used a page from a phone book as the background, and then added the image of the phone and of Emma herself!

Enjoy!

Book Page Background ATCs - Revisited!

This was a fun swap on a couple of fronts. The main requirement was to use various book pages as backgrounds. I then also decided to try a new technique - faux encaustic. That technique would create a more layered look, but sort of making it look like the layers were separated by melted beeswax, except it doesn't use melted beeswax. I don't think I did it quite correctly (I must practice it more!), but I did really like the effect that I achieved anyway! For the above card, I added some green to the faux encaustic material and it created the swirly effect. I then added the cool leg image that I found in a magazine. I added the Confidential stamp mainly because the font of it seemed to compliment the foot!

This is such an airy ATC, isn't it? The book page I used was from a mass hymnal book, in a foreign language, altho I don't know what language - Latin? The color added to the faux encaustic was a magenta color, which considerable lighted when mixed with that material, again with the swirly effect. I added the stamp of the woman's face, covered by another layer of the faux encaustic material, and then the postage stamp of the flower, which adds to the overall feeling of the piece, and the butterfly, for a touch of extra color to add interest. Then, another layer of the faux excaustic, and the Fragile stamp to finish it. Why Fragile? The overall feeling of this piece was, to me, delicate and, well, fragile.

This last ATC may just be my favorite of the bunch! Again, a foreign language book page is the background, and this time I added a pale lavender color to the faux encaustic. I then added the black checkerboard stamp. I used black because I felt the piece needed something to sort of anchor the piece. After a layer of faux encaustic, I added the magazine image of some sweet treats - cookies! Another layer of the faux encaustic, and finish with the "dream" stamp. I again used black just to balance the piece a bit. Looks yummy, doesn't it?

Enjoy!