Giving it away...

Sorry all the stuff is gone for now. - updated 2/11/07

STUFF – I have too much of it. I’ve been building up quite the supply of art/craft supply STUFF. You know paper, fiber, stamps, paints, embellishments, ephemera and all the other kinds of stuff. So much STUFF that I can’t find it when I actually need it. So, I’ve decided to give some of it away. I have three motives behind this decision. The first is to force me to go through my STUFF and do a little organizing (a four-letter word in disguise). The second is to share my STUFF with others who like to collect STUFF too. And finally, to see if people actually read my blog besides my blog buddy Aimeslee.

Here’s the scoop. Leave a comment and I’ll send you a little of my STUFF! I promise it won’t be junk.

Show and Tell Finished

I learned a good lesson with this project. I decided not to go with a three-dimensional focal point and instead add images of dogs to the canvases. Because of this the great texture on the canvases meant wrinkles which showed under the images. So, next time I either need to use a three-dimensional focal point so the texture doesn't show through or make sure the texture won't be underneath my image. I like the final canvases other than that. It wasn't so scary after all :)



Here they are. Let me know what you think.

Show and Tell Step 2

Here are the three canvases after the next round. I decided to go with a dog theme to practice making a piece to donate to the local animal shelter for an art auction they are having as a fund raiser.

These now have more layers of paint, text and stamped elements. I used bubble wrap, a chop stick, rubber shelf liner and an old funnel to make the stamped elements.

Loyal

Faithful

Friend

Show and Tell

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. I did go out of town for a few days. We went to St. Paul, MN to visit friends and watch them show their dogs at the Land O'Lakes Kennel Club Dog Show (pictures here).

I have also been working on painting some canvas boards. I read an article by Sheri Beaubien in the current issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors and decided to just dive in an try it. It scares me a little to do this stuff because I always think it should turn out perfect the first time. One of my goals for this year is to stop thinking that way. So...

Here is the result after the first 3 steps.

There are three canvas boards. At this point they all look alike so I'll only show one.

Step 1: Glue on tissue paper (wrinkled).

Step 2: Cover with gesso.

Step 3: Paint a base coat.

More to follow.

Daisy Belle

I couldn't resist posting this cute picture of Daisy. She doesn't normally wear a hat indoors.

New Year's Day Dog Walk

Dogs (from left to right): Daisy, Daphne, Honor, Dreya, Allie, Guiness and Rowdie

People (from left to right): Mom (Shirley), Dad (Bill), me, Nathalie, Todd and Lorette

(not shown Becca and Peter - the photographers)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Welcome to 2007!

I hope this New Year brings health, happiness, prosperity and CREATIVITY!

We had a great New Year’s Day dog walk. There were seven dogs and eight people. The weather was beautiful. Dogs and human’s had a great time.

I’ve been MIA for a while. The hustle and bustle of the holidays has rather zapped my creativity. I did get rejuvenated with some great Christmas gifts to inspire me. The biggest is a color laser printer so now I don’t have to run to the copy store to make color copies. This was rather inconvenient when my muse struck late at night or early in the morning.

I also received some great books:

Traci Bautista’s Collage Unleashed
Sommerset Studio’s Transparent Art
Sally Jean Alexander’s Pretty Little Things
Bernie Berlin’s Artist Trading Cards Workshop

These books are all inspiring and my goal for the year is to try a new technique as least once per month. I’m also planning on trying some technique swaps in a new Yahoo group I’ve joined. This means I’ll be doing less swaps in the other groups. I need to push myself to try new things so I don’t get stuck in a rut and become bored.

I started playing with one of the ideas in Bernie Berlin’s book and will post pictures soon.

So my artistic goals for this year (in no particular order):

Try a new technique at least once per month.
Swap with new groups.
Take some classes (if I can find them).
Push myself to try things that scare me (it’s ok to fail as long as I try).
Get some art on my walls at home and at work!!