I made an interesting discovery today

I was gessoing some pages on an old book, and put wax paper between several pages. I guess that I did not let it dry enough, and when I opened the book back up, the pages were stuck to the wax paper. I let all of this mess dry, and then made my discovery.

After all had dried, I peeled the pages off of the wax paper. Much to my amazement, they came off and were very usable. These are the pieces, and I plan to use them in collages!

After the disaster of the sticking pages, I scribbled with Derwent Watercolor pencils on the remaining book pages. The colors and textures were very interesting and I will do more pages and then embellish.

There is also the most interesting resist effect on the left side of the pinky/purplish page seen below.

I have been doing spring cleaning and found a book that I forgot that I owned. The Decorated Page by Gwen Diehn. Great book, even though it came out in 2002 (it was one of the first altered book books that I ever bought). It inspired the glueing, gessoing and coloring that I worked on today! Looks like she has a new and improved book which I will have to add to my wish list on Amazon!

I just can't get enough of this site!

see more crazy cat pics

Follow the link, all of the pics there are great!

I am not quite that bad in the morning, but almost!

Happy Sunday

Spring is finally here!

Cherry Tree on my balcony blooming means that spring is here!
And I am ready for it. It has been a windy spring, and the usual harbringer of spring, the plum tree that I look at from my computer setup, had the usual coverage of pink blooms blown away. Tried to take a picture but it looked so pitiful that I decided to use this picture instead.

I needed this!

see more crazy cat pics

This is a great site. After the funk I have been in, I laughed out loud at these animal pictures!
Especially the one above, and there is a great one about colored chickens....
We all need to laugh everyday!

4000 is too many- bring them home!

I attended a vigil acknowledging the 5th anniversary of the war last Wednesday.
Yesterday, I was devasted to hear that a new mark had been reached. 4000 young americans have lost their lives in the Iraq war.
The program that where I heard this figure stated that MOST AMERICANS DID NOT KNOW HOW MANY AMERICAN SON AND/OR DAUGHTERS HAD LOST THEIR LIVES! That fact blew me away also.

Best Birthday Present this Year!

My mother ordered The Painted Quilt by Linda and Laura Kemshall for my birthday. The book came this week and I have been drooling over it ever since! Fantastic pictures, processes and ideas.
This makes me want to take their online courses! This has given me the jumpstart that I needed.
Thank you Mother!

Latest art

I was fascinated by an article that I saw in Cloth Paper Scissors, Winter 2005. I came across the magazine (after more than a year and a half!). The article is Ancient Passage Layered Mixed-Media Collage Art by Kim Grant.

Below is my base, watercolor paper with gesso on both sides, glue gun squiggles, then painted with Gold paint (steps 1-4 in the article)
Collage layers added. I used a jungle theme instead of the oriental theme Kim Grant used.
Steps 5-8 in the article.
This is very wet paint, with rubbing alchohol applied. It really does not look this bloody!

I am off work tomorrow, so I plan to finish this piece. I have other papers and a leopard picture to add!

BTW- I have had to disable comments, as I am getting hit with spam replies!

Studio cleanup

I had a great visit with my mother for the last two weeks, and she left today.
While she was visiting, I had not done anything artsy, except for the last of the tying on the snugglie for my bedroom, which Mother and I both worked on.
My studio is also the guest room, and so for the last two weeks had been doing double duty (but to admit it, it was really messy before Mother came). After she left today I went to Target and checked out their storage stuff.

This is the before...

And after, with Baby Cakes checking it out...

I found a great PURPLE stoage rack, and a stainless steel rack.

Put them together today and now have before and after pictures.

I discovered that I really have a cutting table underneath all of that stuff!

And I know that I will just pile it up again, that seems to be part of my process!

March/Easter Freebies

Lisa Volrath http://countdown.tentwostudios.com/index.html, is at it again. I love her freebies, and her current batch is for March/Easter


I am finishing up a snugglie for myself. I basted last night and my mother tied today, and we are about 2/3 through. I very rarely make anything that I keep, so this is different for me. These are my favorite colors, red, yellow, orange.


Here is a closeup of the flannel- it has buttons, needles, and thread! How appropriate!
And since it is still cold here (may snow tonight) it will come in handy.

It has been a while since I posted

Grandmas New Toy

I have been busy visiting with my Mother, who is visiting for two weeks.

We have a new toy! I had a stairlift installed and we are playing with it.

The cats still do not know for sure what is going on,

and they do not like the beep that it makes!