Museum of Giant Hands

See, Paula, dreams do come true!

Artful Photos

You know, someone complained that I have too many posts about my journal dividers..heehee. Too bad. Only one more month to go anyway. Besides, that person will be sorry, once my work is featured in the renown Divider Museum!!!

My bird canvas is in the same museum (too bad it's crooked)...

Okay, okay... having a little fun, as usual. I was going through some web sites I had bookmarked, and trying to figure out why. I sometimes bookmark something that I want to check out further when I get a chance. This is one of them. It's called Dumpr Photo Fun. You can take your own pictures and insert them into various scenarios. I saved these to my computer, but you can post them on Flickr, on the Dumpr site, or directly to your blog or facebook, etc.

Naturally, I was drawn to the egg-shaped selection, because it looked goofy and has a face. So I browsed my photos find something to put on the egg.

Then I got totally addicted. One egg led to another egg to another....

It was a challenge to figure out which photo would look best on an egg, because you don't really know how it will look until you finish.

Then I decided I really should get serious. They had a couple of plain eggs (without faces). They looked identical to me and I picked the second one to figure out what was different from the first. Ohhhh, it's a holy egg, all in gold (insert choir here)...

I wanted to try out everything there, but didn't have any more time to play. They had one setting called Lomo. I thought it must mean you only use the photos you have taken with a Lomo camera, but I was wrong. It converts your picture and "lomographies" it (no, not a real word!) It kind of darkens the edges around the picture. I can't wait to go back and play some more.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the Museum of Gaye's Sample House Books!

Time For....

I love blog surfing. My list of blogs I like to visit is longer and longer. There are some that I only visit occasionally and catch up with several entries at once. There are some I visit every day. There are some I visit when I just need to laugh. So.... if, on this holiday weekend, you find yourself needing a break from either eating, shopping, watching sports, or working, check these out (some have been mentioned before, but have new stuff all the time).

Cake Wrecks - still one of my favorites, and there are lots of "turkey" cakes to enjoy (see how I used quotations... because whether they are actual depictions of turkeys is questionable!) Half the humor is the commentary rather than the cakes.

There I Fixed It - Just too much there to make me laugh. Make sure to read the caption of the post first, then look at the picture.

Bent Objects - Adding bent wire to everyday objects. Like Cake Wrecks, they now have their own book.

LOL Cats - You don't even have to like cats to get a laugh. Once you get the lingo down (and get past the 90% ads/10% pictures), it's very funny most of the time. I think there is a lot of geek element there sometimes that escapes me.

Dude Craft - Just like it sounds.. a dude who does crafts. Not only is he exceedingly funny, he looks just like a guy I went to high school with. Like Rag & Bone, he always has links to the most amazing things. I always go back through the older posts to make sure I didn't miss anything. It was through him that I found....

Gift Making Guide - (at Just Something I Made) - I love the idea of the toy truck with the pin cushion in the back. That has made me open my eyes to other objects to turn into a pin cushion! And the People Stationary has downloads of labels and vintage photos. (For all the projects, click on the title below the picture, not the picture itself.)

Have Fun!

Now, loose ends...

I got this award from Ginny. The idea is I have to answer the questions below with one word. Ginny is right, that's hard to do! Plus I hate doing these for myself. I love reading other people's answers, but I feel like I have to explain mine most of the time (plus I am such a smart alec!) (Also, it's amazing to me that some of my more serious answers would have been totally different even a couple of months ago.)

--By the way, if you have not been keeping up with Ginny, she is organizing some workshops for next year. Some of the instructors from Art Continuum of years past will be coming on a monthly basis to Ohio to teach. I told her I would have to sell my house and move to Ohio in 2010!

So, here goes (I hate it when there is a pop quiz!)

1. Where is your cell phone?...purse
2. Your hair?...head (I thought it was a "where is" question!)
3. Your mother?...Tennessee
4. Your father?...deceased
5. Your favorite food?...potato
6. Your dream last night?...sleeping
7. Your favorite drink?...Coca Cola
8. Your dream/goal?... finish the basement
9. What room are you in?...office
10. Your hobby?...books
11. Your fear?...bankruptcy
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years?...in-a-new-basement-studio

(if I use hyphens, does that make it one word?)
13. Where were you last night?...Kroger
14. Something that you aren't?...rich
15. Muffins?...cornbread
16. Wish list item?...IPod
17. Where did you grow up?...Tennessee
18. Last thing you did?...answer this question
19. What are you wearing?...clothes
20. Your TV?...muted
21. Your pets?...catless
22. Friends?...talented
23. Your life?...mine
24. Your mood?...content
25. Missing someone?...family
26. Vehicle?...Jeep
27. Something you're not wearing?...watch
28. Your favorite store?...Preston's (art store)
29. Your favorite color?...blue ...or green ...or brown... blue
30. When was the last time you laughed?...several times today
31. Last time you cried?...two days ago
32. Your best friend?...Gaye
33. One place that I go over and over?...post office
34. Facebook?...no
35. Favorite place to eat?...mom's

Have a Great Thanksgiving....

Gobble, gobble... eat til you wobble!

Not a Divider

If you love to make books, you need to go look at this video. It makes the rest of us look like such amateurs! A-maz-ing. Video here.


Book tower by Randi Parkhurst - it's called Patience. Website here.

Decisions, decisions

I do have a November divider for my journal. Really, I do. It's just not attached yet. I am suffering from a bad case of indecisiveness. Even before my fabric workshop last month, I knew I wanted to end up with a fabric/lettered divider. I finally got around to writing out November on a fabric background piece. Had to let that dry. Then I painted in some accent color. Had to let that dry. Then sewed the words onto a piece of cardstock for the divider. I like to have the month show from both sides of the page, so all of this is times two. Plus, before I attach it to a page, I like to go ahead and put some kind of color on the page. So that means paint the front, let that dry. Then paint the back and let that dry. For some reason, this didn't seem complicated before, but this time I would be off doing something else while waiting for things to dry. And, yes, sometimes forget I was even working on a November divider.

I finally got ready to attach the divider last weekend, and thought maybe a button or two would be nice on it before I attached it. Start looking for brown buttons. Hmm... start sorting all the buttons. Two hours later... I have buttons organized and forgot about the journal. But the buttons look spiffy.

Now I can't decide.... rick-rack? ribbon? buttons? leafy stuff? Honestly, it should not be this hard! I'll adopt Nike's slogan. Just Do It. After all, it's almost December!!

I'm Fall-ing

I have a renegade tree in my yard. It's holding onto its leaves with all its might, even though the other trees are bare.

Goodbye fall....

Paper Wreath

oooooh..... we want to make this, don't we?

I don't remember how I found this.... a link to a link to a link, etc. Here's the tutorial here. I love it when people share. I would love to make one of these, and I think I even have a glue gun... somewhere. I admit, though, that I am a little glue-gun-challenged. It must be one of those things that takes practice, to get that little wrist-flick thing down pat so you don't have glue strings all over the place like I do. I'll bet they go to the same school as the people who put the curl on the top of a cone of ice cream. Flick of the wrist, and there you go.

So, all I need now is a styrofoam wreath. And my glue gun. And an old book. Simple.

Didja Ever

Did you ever feel like

you are surrounded by a bunch of clowns?

(apologies to those of you with coulrophobia)

Write On

I'm still spending some time each day writing, writing, writing... can't seem to stop. But that's a good problem to have. I find it very relaxing.

It's mostly on graph paper, but some is on black paper. I also tried paste paper, but some of the ink seeped in. I'll try some No Flow on it next time. When I finish lettering, I usually take my leftover ink and either paint a journal page or a scrap piece of paper. The blues were so rich I could not stop picking it up to look at it. yummy.

I finally got tired of writing the alphabet and started lettering some of the Desiderata, just random sentences from it. That didn't go so well. My mind was wandering, I was leaving out words or misspelling them. So, that meant it was time to stop. It might have been because my wrist was hurting. I have broken my right wrist in the same spot twice over the years, so I have to watch out for the bad-wrist-days.

Last week, I did make an anniversary gift.

This is a mixed media canvas that reads "The Newtybird and the Gayely Chick can often be found living in the same habitat, feeding on fresh berries and raising their young." It is meant to go on Gaye's bird wall. Not to be confused with Gaye's word wall.

Fall Fever

I've been attacked by the fall version of spring fever. Usually at this time of year, it seems like my system starts shutting down for the winter. The shorter days really kill my energy level. But for some reason, this year I'm going in all kinds of directions, with something new catching my attention at every turn. There's a squirrel in my yard every day, frantically grabbing seeds from the bird feeder, running up and down the trees. I guess he's getting ready for winter and building his stash. Or maybe he got into some Red Bull, I don't know. But I kinda feel like that, grabbing ideas all over the place.

Here's one thing I'm playing with.

(Sandhill cranes flying overhead)

Keep in mind I don't have Photoshop and I don't have any fancy editing programs, just whatever came with the computer (yes, its a PC, not a Mac. There, I said it.) Anyway, this idea was prompted by reading about an online class by LK Ludwig. She will encourage people to take some of your unused photos that didn't quite measure up, and learn to use them for journaling. Sounds like a great class by the way. So I played around a little, but didn't have too many options with what I have. I found something on the menu called Invert Colors and got this negative type image. So I tried that with a few photos. I can see me using those in journals. I taped a bunch on the wall with masking tape, so I can mull it over and think about what I want to do. I have lots of pictures of feathers, trees, birds, and spider webs.

Also, after the class with Lisa Engelbrecht, I was determined to practice my calligraphy more. And since I'm crazy about the acrylic inks now, that's what I've been using. I'm so pround of myself. My lettering is still a little rusty, but there's just something about pages and pages of colorful letters that makes me want to do more. Really loving that!

Now if only someone would come do all those outside pre-winter chores that I should be doing.... maybe if I hide walnuts in the flower bed, the crazy squirrel will dig them up and do the weeding for me!!

Waiting for November

Yes, I know it's November already. But I'm waiting to put a November divider in my journal. I'm pretending it's still October. When we last left our journal, it had a brand spanking new October divider, with a jingling fringe of beads and dangly things. I sewed the fringe onto the page, and even took the extra precaution of adding some glue to the ends, just in case the danglies tried to escape. You remember the fringe...

A couple of weeks ago, I was adding some comments in the journal about my trip with Gaye to the St James Art Show. I had used a picture from the paper that happened to show the orange at&t tent by the fountain. The tent where they were taking "free" pictures. A free picture in front of a mural of the fountain. Never mind that the real fountain was just a few steps away.... Since Gaye and I don't have many pictures of the two of us, we decided, why not. So, I was adding that newspaper picture to the journal, plus a copy of the picture they took of us. Maybe I'm being punished for being a little too sarcastic. The point I was trying to make was, don't get your picture made in an orange tent with the sun overhead. It will make you look orange.

So, anyway, I was moving the journal around while I was working on the pages, and suddenly beads started dripping off the journal. Obviously, I had missed a spot when I smugly added extra glue to the fringe. I didn't have time to take care of it at that moment (since it would involve restringing beads, getting a needle to resew it to the page, etc), but the more I moved it, the more beads fell off. So, Mr. Journal has been in time out for the past couple of weeks. I told him not to move one iota until I returned with glue.

And I still need to go back and fix the month of _ay too.........

Details, details.....

Making Progress

I don't understand people who get bored. I never run out of things to do. I'm still playing with this new project. I made a paper template of the upper portion of this shelf thing so I could try out different colors paint. The fun part for me is playing with different objects and trying to find what works. The absolutely Hardest part is making the choice and gluing them down. I like some elements a lot and want to use them, even if they "don't belong". Kind of like the little six year old who wants to wear one red shoe and one purple shoe because she likes them both.

I also came across my baggie of scrap parts of masonite that I got from a famous person... I mean, my bag of assorted finest tiles...... They look pretty good there too.

Five Minute Art

I tried to create five minute art, but it's not possible. I need more time! I had a one day weekend, but in my free time, I used my given 25 hours (!) very creatively. I did do a couple of five minute things in the days before that, things I wanted to follow up on when I had more time. In particular, I wanted to make a lettered fabric piece, like Lisa's. I enjoyed the two days in her workshop, I was happy with my work, I felt a new confidence about writing on fabric... it looked very promising...

Make a grid on fabric with Scribbles fabric paint... check. (under five minutes)

Let that dry, then paint colors in the grids... check. (way more than five minutes. I mean, there were SO many decisions... do I want to paint all the way to the edges of each grid or leave white space? I was using new Liquitex inks, but only had primary colors, so had to experiment with mixing. Note to self: Self prefers premixed inks.)

Let that dry then write letters in the grids. hmmmm. screeeccchhhhhh to a stop. (way, way over five minutes)

I tried both the FW white and the Liquitex white acrylic inks. They both pulled a disappearing act into the fabric. Was it me? Was it the pen? Did I not shake the ink enough? Did I shake it too much? Did I dip my pen in water too much to keep the acrylic from hardening on the nib? And what about the fabric itself? Then I remembered all the stuff about primed/unprimed, sized/unsized, and about the Jacquard's No Flow.

Paint a thin layer of No Flow onto the remaining grids....check.

(And while I was at it, I painted No Flow on other pieces of fabric backgrounds from the workshop, either the whole piece or a portion for comparison.) (It was a couple of days before I was able to get back to the fabric experiments.)

The No Flow did seem to make a difference, but it was still a struggle to write on that particular piece. My cool fabric projects were becoming sample/experimental pieces. (If you ever want to get into my head, just watch what I write when I'm just practicing and writing whatever pops into my head. I really did try to write "Practice makes perfect", but by the time I got to the end of the sentence, that's not what came out!)

And I started another grid, on a different type of fabric. We'll see what happens when I can get some more play time. I decided I liked the grids filled in all the way to the edges. What's the point of having grids if they don't look, um, grid-like? A little heart popped up in one of the brown grids. I started to paint it in, then left it. Who am I to argue with random hearts.



I've also started another "no-where-near-five-minutes" project. I can't reveal it yet. I got this at Gaye's yard sale and she might want it back if she sees what I'm doing with it....