Little Scraps of Magic

Gutting the Journal

So, this lovely, sad to say, began to fall apart. As the saying goes, "I chose poorly," at least as far as the condition of the book. Dry brittle pages, even with the help of masking tape and gesso, do not lend themselves to artistic abuse.

Aided by that little blue exacto knife resting in the upper right corner, I carefully began to slice away the pages, leaving the spine intact.

Next step: reinforce the spine with a bit of strong black paper.

I pulled some hot press watercolor paper from my stash but didn't have quite enough. I added in a few sheets of heavy weight paper, and with the addition of some absorbent grounds, it works quite nicely. I sewed in several signatures with the basic 3 hole pamphlet stitch.

Success, of a sort...it simply wanted to just splay open, so...

...in lieu of a book press, several magazines and later, a bunch of paints, were stacked on top, and left for a few days to do perform their magic. I did manage to salvage the completed pages, but I can't see a way to make them part of the book. Maybe inspiration will strike?

The whole business, along with the business of life, stalled things for a bit. I've just really gotten back into the swing of things again, as far as the journaling itself goes. I'll share those in the next few days, but in the meantime, I'm getting ready for Art & Soul in VA.

Collecting Data

I thought I'd give you a peek into my world. You won't see faces...I need to protect their privacy and safety. I wish you could see them; these children are precious inside and out, and I really do love spending time with them.

We're delving into the world of statistics, beginning with collecting data and then organizing it into line plots and frequency tables...and from there, it's only a hop, skip, and jump to means, medians, and modes!

Given a set of commonly used words, they had to predict which would appear the most frequently, and, of course, they had to justify their predicition. The wheels began to turn, and soon they were flinging terms such as definite and indefinite articles about...their English teacher would be proud. A few particularly observant young souls realized there was a capitalization error in the text, and firmly pointed it out to me with the assurance that said English teacher would have docked some points!

At any rate, armed with enough colors of pens, markers, and highlighters, almost anything is possible - even statistics!

Late Afternoon Light

Over at Focus 52, it's Week 8, our  prompt is light, something most of us long for during these dreary gray days of February. I meant to go looking for shadows later during the week, hoping of course that there would be enough light to cause those shadows. Other possibilities could be found in candlelight. But, late yesterday afternoon, a shaft of light poured through our patio door windows, catching her face.

Many years ago, she graced my mother's dresser. I remember her - holding her with my mom gently reminding me to be careful. She's not valuable in the normal sense of the word, but my mother loved her dearly, and that makes her priceless in my eyes. I brought her home with me the last day we spent clearing out dad's home.

She's a bit shopworn, a bit chipped, but, she really is lovely, isn't she?

 

Love or Red

We're at Week 7 over at Focus 52. The theme? Love or Red, and although I love hearts and such, I wanted to add a bit extra. I thought about going out to get some red tulips, and I still may since they make me smile. Working on something else, I spied a few old fashioned thread bobbins gleaned from my mom's stash of sewing items. They happened to be resting near some felted hearts a friend sent a few years back. I snapped shot after shot, most of them complete duds, but a few proved workable.

I began playing with textures and layers in photoshop, trying to get the basics down. I still don't have the hang of brightening/lightening with brushes since my results don't nearly match what I see on my printouts. So, I'll be reviewing that part via videos! Still, I love the finished product!

 

Currently...

listening to Seth over at Notes from the Voodoo Cafe

eating chips with cream cheese

drinking a diet gingerale (yeah, I know, doesn't make much sense, does it?)

wearing a long fuzzy pale blue robe, which I bought because my mother always made me wear pink while my sister got to wear blue and I always always wanted that blue

feeling tired...it's been a really long week

weather: anticipating at least a little bit of snow

wanting to go to Chincoteague

needing some steamed clams

thinking that I need to ask more for what I need because being enough does not mean I need to do it all

enjoying the thoughts of a long weekend with journal time and camera time, and a bit of photoshop as well

and sharing one last postcard....background taken at a winery overlooking Lake Erie, collaged with a bit of this and that

In the Mail

So, the postcards have been sent, and maybe, by now, a few have arrived. I really really enjoyed making them, and so, I think, I might just have to join this, especially if I can get this layers thing figured out. After doing more research and finding this, I realized just how poor a job I did, and I'm aiming for better. So much so, that I treated myself to a bundle of textures in Kim Klassen's shop, and I can't wait to get some serious play time this weekend!

In the meantime, here are a few more cards wandering through the U.S. mail system:

I grabbed one of my photos for use as a background here. I'd been working on a color series about a year ago and some extras have been floating around the art space ever since. I knew they had to be good for something, and ta-da, it worked! I glued on a few images and words and it all seems to have come together. It also gave me the chance to use up some more "stuff." Oh, I've really got lots of "stuff!"

A photo background again, provided by a close up of part of a journal page. I scavenged the lady from yet another post card, made many years ago, cut her out, and glued her on. The blue fish was a "trial" print made with a Fred Mullet stamps on scrap paper, and I found the the star fish lurking in ....yup, you guessed it...my stuff!

And, just a bit of a variation on the theme, with more bits and pieces of "stuff." Who knew photos taken for blog entries could be leveraged this way?

Just a few more to share, but then again, I'll be making more...and using some layered and textured goodies! Oh, the possibilities!

A Ta-Da Moment!

First of all, a bit more post card play...

I photographed this fine fellow in a tiny little town in Maryland, during one of those "let's go exploring" weekends.

 

A bit of ink, some collged words, and off he went into the US Postal system earlier today! What a dapper dude!

Now, neither one of these was the ta-da moment. That moment came with a great deal of muttering under my breath, crossing of eyes, reading and re-reading the directions. You need to know that tech is not my forte, but I am ever so slowly...really slowly...making peace with it. Maybe not peace, more like an uneasy alliance of sorts.

I'm realizing rather quickly that almost no one posts a "straight out of the camera" picture anymore. Texturing seems to be the name of the game.

So, I googled. I watched you-tube videos. The help section of photoshop and I became friends. A few hours later I produced something acceptable. Not great, but acceptable. And, I can live with acceptable, at least for the moment.

Remember yesterday's bottles? Here they are in yet one more incarnation...

 

Ta-Da!!!!

 

Postcard Play

I love getting mail, especially "arty" mail, and the postman may keep the other stuff. As the saying goes, "The best way to get some mail is to send some," so when the opportunity occurs, I grab it.

One art goal this year is to use my own images, particularly the photos I shoot. They end up in journals, on journal covers, as greeting cards, and in this case, postcards. Aren't these gorgeous? I shot this photo after a trip to the farmers' market last August.

I printed it on some matte photo paper and then added some colored pencil here and there. Using a sharpie, I outlined various edges to make them "pop," and then added some embossed stamping. The embossing got a bit messier than I liked...the ink pad was so juicy, it ended up dripping a bit off the stamp and then catching embossing poweder that I wished it hadn't. I'll be working on perfecting that!

Tiny glass bottles always grab my attention, and one or more usually find their way home with me. I took this on VA's Eastern Shore in a favorite antique store.

I altered this photo as described above, and I reall like the looks of both of them. They'll be heading out in the mail tomorrow, along with some others I'll share in the next few days.

I enjoyed the process as much as the end product. I enjoyed pushing them to see what would happen, and I only ended up "ruining" one.

Happy Sunday!

Week 6: Still Life

So, I really meant to set up a gorgeous still life, but life got in the way as it generally does. So much more always gets accomplished in my mind than in reality! But, much of it came in the form of the grands, and even though my house looks like a war zone, I love it all...the noise and laughter especially.

Tonight, as I lay on the floor, eye level with the youngest, I eyed the collection of toys strewn everywhere, and thought, "Why not?"

Not what I planned, but definitely what life served!

And, I have to admit, I rather like the bold chunky shapes and bright colors!

 

FOCUS 52: Week 5

Week 5's topic gave me absolute fits. Cold? Nope, not here. A week ago, mother nature gifted us with a bit of ice/sleet, but not this week. Think anywhere from the 50s to the 70s.

So, stumped big time.

Today, the light bulb above my head began to flicker just a wee bit. I began to think about ice skating. 3 outdoor rinks can be found locally and I'd gotten some lovely shots at 2 of them in the past. But, a shift in baby sitting plans cancelled that idea.

Then, the light bulb flickered just a bit once again. And, I sent my husband out in the rain to bring back this:

Gorgeous colors, no? And delciously cold!

Thank you, Mickey D's!

P.S. Tasted pretty good, too. Couldn't let it go to waste, right? Although, it probably went right to waist instead!