One Small Area of Work Space

I will be showing more of my work spaces but this one is where I am a lot these days sewing up different items such as my wallets and Remains of the Day pages. I spent several hours sewing up pages yesterday but I can't post them because they were made for someone that I am doing a one on one swap with.

As you can see, I have a stack of games. I use these in my artwork although the ones pictured haven't been used yet. I think they add character to the room. I have another area where I have a lot of scrabble pieces, monopoly (love the car, the iron, etc) RummyQ tiles, etc. that I work out of. I am a big thrift store shopper so when I see it, I get it but I think I have enough of that stuff so I am not buying that right now.

I have a real love of cigar boxes. The ones that are really old, I won't do anything with but there are some that I will alter to hold things in. I don't know why but I just love having them. I will be posting more about those later. This picture just shows a few of them. A few of them on the shelf are some that my mother had back in the 40's and 50's. On one of my swap meet stops, I found a guy who had a few that were from the 50's and I bought all he had for a mere $2 apiece.

Altered Bingo Card

As you can see I do a lot of different kinds of art. This is an altered Vintage Bingo Card that I did in an altered "card" swap.

The word diagonally spells out CARDS where I cut open the five slots. The base of this card was chipboard and then I mounted the bingo card onto that. Some of the tile pieces were small scrabble pieces and when I ran out of those I used the regular size scrabble tiles.



Just a close up of one of the cards. For a variety, I used different words such as Glue, Paint, etc....any five letter word that had to do with art.




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A Couple More Bottlecap Purses

I just took a few more pictures to share with you. I had everything photographed but a while back, I lost all of my pictures with a computer meltdown so I am slowly retaking pictures. I am sure there are some of you who can relate to this unhappy circumstance.

A few years back I bought a huge lot of Vintage bottle caps and this is what I use in my purses except for the "Flag" purse. I can't remember where I purchased the stars and stripe ones but somewhere on the internet.





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It's All About Decorating Paper

I LOVE LOVE LOVE decorating papers. This time it is decorating big sheets of watercolor paper (although you could do it on other kinds of paper). This is done with Adirondack Color Wash Sprays and Dye Ink and tar gel. On one of my yahoo groups some time ago we had a huge technique swap and I chose this one to do. Way too much fun. On the ones where the tar gel is white, I put the tar gel down first and let it dry thoroughly and then colored it. On the ones where the tar gel is colored, I colored the paper first and then put down the tar gel and in doing it that way, it took on the various colors throughout the page. I don't know which one I like the best. This was not my original idea as I gleaned it from one of my art books which the name escapes me. When I remember, I will edit this post to give credit where credit is due.....you must remember my mind is not as sharp as it used to be......how sad is that. Oh well I will get over it and before I know it, there will be something else I don't remember.

Excuse me now please.......I must go and watch American Idol. I don't watch a lot of tv but for some reason I like this program.

Fun in the Sun, Cabo, San Lucas, Mexico

Last year I went on an Artful Voyage Cruise to Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. My new found friend, Nancy Mayer, and I were walking around seeing the sights when we came upon a place where they were trying to raise money for the Wildlife Foundation. You could either choose a Tiger or a Lion cub to have your picture taken with. We decided on the Tiger. I decided to incorporate the picture on an 11 x 14 flat panel canvas. Nancy M is on the left and I am on the right. What a high this was to have that Tiger in your arms. Never done that before but loved it and think about it often.

I painted the canvas with different layers of acrylic paint. Then I stenciled the tiger stripes. On top of the whole thing, I put a layer of Rock Candy Crackle Paint. The name "Nancy" is from a Nancy comic book. The lettering is from a set of grungeboard letters and painted with acrylic paints.

Giveaway: Celebrating My New Blog

Please leave a comment and you will be entered for a giveaway here. I have been thinking about doing this for a long time so now that I have, I am celebrating. It could almost be anything.........maybe a batch of my colored papers, collage stuff, game pieces, a package of my painted canvas material or a little of everything.....who knows as I have a lot of stuff that I think everyone can use in their artwork. I will announce the winner or perhaps winners in a week, 1/18/10.

Decorated Papers

I don't buy much colored paper these days as I enjoy coloring and decorating them a lot myself. It is messy but so worth it. I like having a stack of these to use on various projects. In making these, I have used Ranger's Adirondack Color Wash Sprays, Ranger's Distress reinkers and other dye ink reinkers that I have on hand. I use stencils, blank needlepoint pieces and punchinella to make designs on them. I do it in layers with different colors and stencils. I let one layer dry and then do a different layer till I am happy with them. I am not a good photographer so these are not the best of pictures and there is a lot of shine to them because I mixed Perfect Pearls and/or Pearl Ex with the reinkers. They look much better in person.