Weekend List

This is the time that I start thinking, "what shall I do this weekend." I live for the arrival of the weekends. Usually have such great plans to get so much done. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't (get so much done). My mental energy level is usually way higher than my physical energy level.

Here is another lady project in progress. Maybe this weekend I will bring these ladies to their glory. Maybe this weekend I will do the cover for my "True Colors" journal. Maybe this weekend I will do some much needed sewing for myself. Maybe this weekend I will finish the canvas in progress. Maybe this weekend I will vacuum. Maybe this weekend I will do another of these fused ladies (love them). Maybe this weekend I will get on that riding mower (think tank) and do that job. Maybe this weekend I will dust and clear a couple of hot spots in the bedroom. Maybe this weekend I will....
More later,
Sharon

Lady in Waiting

My in-progress stack grows.
More later,
Sharon

She Liked It

May be an unusual birthday
card but she is our princess
of all seasons.

This is the front and back of card.

I printed the scan on
white tissue paper using
several different hues.
This just evolved.

By the way, I am now
addicted to the Sharpie
poster-paint White
water-based marker.
More later,
Sharon

Birthday Card

I'm out of Art-at-the-desk time. Will finish inside of card at home. Do you think she'll like it?
More later,
Sharon

Happy Birthday....Ashley

Our Granddaughter Princess is seventeen today. I haven't made her birthday card yet but my "Art-to-go Bag" is supplied with the necessary bits and pieces to produce it here at my desk.

Happy Birthday Ashley

and many more.....

She was my model for this sketch. I'm thinking I will use is somehow on her Happy Birthday Card. Maybe I will get it done in time to post later today. Please do come back and see.

More Later,
Sharon

In Progress

ART in the Kitchen

So far this is all I have created this weekend. Canned biscuits fashioned into homemade cinnamon rolls. Yummy! Made by special request.
I'm off now to create something spectacular because I have just had a !!!FLASH!!! of inspiration.

I'll bring it back to you when I'm done.

More later,
Sharon

Rooster Book...follow-up

First of all, Thank You to those who commented on my little book. And Thank You for the suggestions on how to alter the cover. I plan to give it a try this weekend. Part of the problem is that I like the front cover and don't really want to do too much to it. But you never know what will happen when inspiration flashes.
I heard by e-mail from a friend who lives nearby and she had questions about the Rooster book. So I thought to share her questions and my response.
She wanted to know, "is the feather a stamp-how neat! Is the phrase Life Lessons a stamp - also the Imagine? When I first saw the page with Imagine on it I was trying to read it as: I'm-a-gine (sounding like guinea) -how fun!! How long did it take?Good job! Judy"
And here is my response.

Good morning Judy,
I'm glad you enjoyed the Rooster Book. I did it from start to finish all last weekend. Needless to say I didn't do much else. When the inspiration comes and begins to take over, I just go with it. I had been toying with the thought of how to perpetuate my e-mails because they seemed to be something to keep. It just fell together and even seemed on some pages to fit gloriously with the original book. The feather is a stamp loaned to me by my friend Susan. I love the little stamp and will now have a hard time returning it. But shall. It became symbolic of Mary who was different because she had no tail (feathers) and then of all the guineas. I am so glad now that I didn't have a guinea stamp. The book is full of life lessons and I leave it up to the reader to see them but the primary one is of course "being different" is not a problem. This was the message that I was sending to Ashley when she was entering a huge new school in 2004. The Life Lessons, Imagine and Explore (which is on the page where Peggy Von Trap finds herself "trapped" yet again across the fence) is all on one stamp along with several other phrases. It is a little stamp that rolls like a date stamp. I love that you tried to make something of the imagine stamp. I hadn't seen that but was compelled to use it on that page and thought it was a way to hint to the reader that the feather was symbolic of Mary on the nest. How cool that you heard it say I'm-a-guinea. Because that is exactly what I was trying to say. Amazing!
More later,
Sharon

Rooster Book...altered

Here it is. I haven't altered the cover yet. Not sure about that as it is slick. This is a mini altered book about 5 X 6 inches. As always, click on the photo to enlarge in another window if you can't read the journaling.

Rooster Book...altered

Blogger just doesn't want me to show you my weekend project at the moment. So I will tell for now. You will want to come back and see cause it is pretty cool.
This project was on one of my many front burners since way back in June. I showed the unaltered book here on June 21 post.
Anyway, I used the book to repeat an e-mail that I wrote to Ashley and Timothy when they moved and were starting a new school back in 2004. It speaks for itself so I won't tell any more now other than it is a pretty cute, (with a little tragedy) true story about my flock.
I will also report that I sure enough did not feel like doing any house blessing other than towel and linen laundry. I cooked a pot roast Sunday. Everybody loved that.
More later,
Sharon

Weekend Plans

Look what I got!!! I'm so excited my order was delivered today just in time for the weekend. Golden Heavy Body Acrylics. I seem to have a brush in my hand with everything that I do. I had a few Golden Liquids and I just love the Dye-na-Flow line which is great for fabric (I use it on paper too). But I didn't have any real good acrylic paint. My long ago past is in oil paints.
OK, so here is the plan. I am still too sick to bless the floors (I'm sure). I am still too sick to bless the shower and other bath fixtures. (I'm sure). I am still too sick to mow the yard. (I'm sure).
I am absolutely sure that I'm gonna feel like playing ART. Now I have to get focused on just what that will be and I just know I will show and tell you as it develops.
I hope everybody gets to makes time for ART.
More later,
Sharon

Oh, I have a hard time choosing and the 8 tube set would have probably been ample to start...but I just couldn't help myself.

Lady Dee

Still feel like (#$*#( ))@*$ heck )#*$) !! Sooner or later I'm gonna feel like doing something fun with my ladies. In the meantime, hope you are all making time for ART.
More later,
Sharon

And isn't she sweet?

Wall Flower

I haven't posted in a few days because I can't seem to tell without showing. I am a visual person. Went home early Friday sick sick. I did manage to sketch a couple more ladies. But this one actually was one of the first ones. She was a reject that I learned to love.
After doing nothing all weekend I thought maybe I felt like just putting some color on a couple pages in my A Long Time Ago art journal. It is true that a white page stops me cold. This page had some of the red on it and that's it. I'm not sure why it was half done. But you know nothing ever happens before it is time.
The scanned colors are a bit more intense than in real life. So anyway, I added color to the rest of the page and then painted color on the facing page. I just love having a paint brush in my hand. So, I gave a little squirt of Lumiere Metallic Bronze directly onto the tip of my brush and swiped it onto the red page like some kind of flower. I'm now thinking it is a closed cosmos bud. My watercolor crayons were at my elbow so I added the stems with that. Then, in my fashion I turned and picked up this little waif that I had scanned and printed on tissue paper Friday before leaving for home. She already had the color because I used ZIG photo markers on my sketches before scanning. I Looked through my stash book and found the wings already cut out, added a postage stamp and did a little pen doodle.
The page is ready to journal on but I haven't mastered that part yet. I just love the feeling I get when inspiration comes in moments one bit at a time and not before it is time.
More later,
Sharon

Lady B

This lady and some of her friends were in my head yesterday.
I will use her in several ways. I guess you, just like me will have to wait to see where she shows up next.
I'm ready to tell about the project that I have eluded to. Although, I don't think I am quite ready to start it.
I choose Flesh.
I am going to do a True Colors Art Journal with myself, and I choose Flesh for my color. I was so inspired with the Somerset publication of the collaborative of art journals by 16 oh so very very talented mixed media artist. To say the least I was overwhelmed with it. I wondered how it would impact my art. So I decided I would choose a color and follow their syllabus. In other words now that I have chosen my color, I will prepare my journal and do the cover art and probably a couple of pages with my color. Then every 2 weeks I will do a page or two using the color inspiration as chosen by each of the 16 artists.
More later,
Sharon

Art Party Weekend

I told dj this weekend I was going to put my feet up like she did and do some sketches. Also told her that I snipped my models out of the sales ad in the newspaper last week and only took those with no teeth.
dj got a chuckle out of that and pictured me sketching old, toothless people. Pretty funny and I just might do that. But not this time. I'm pleased with my results. I wasn't trying to get a likeness, just a human.
This is a good "put your feet up" and play art project and I will be doing more. These are pretty raw pencil sketches and the photo quality is poor but I have no scanner here at home.

Since I didn't have a scanner to scan and print one to play with, I used pattern tissue and traced one and made this purse. I plan to add straps but I'm still thinking on that.

This wasn't my first try at dj's fusing technique. I did a page in my Book of Dreams and the gutted book that I posted last Sunday was fusing. It is so much fun. The only thing, you have to do a little planning and I usually don't think that far ahead with composition. I just do it.
More later,
Sharon

A long Time Ago

I have thought to share this for a good while but it seemed so, well, A Long Time Ago.
The first thing you might notice is that my first blog profile picture was a little snip of this journal cover. It really is me when I was about 10 or 12. The cover back is of my daughter when she was the same age.
Sometime very early in this year I discovered a web site that gave me that swirling in the pit of my stomach that I have mentioned before. You know that type of anxiety that comes on when bouncing from blog to blog and finding the most incredible inspiration that begins to build up inside your head and stomach?
The web site was Teesha Moore's of course. I spent days looking at her gallery of art journal pages. Each morning I allowed myself to go to the gallery and gaze upon one row of the journal pages. It was all my stomach and head could handle in one day. And then one day I noticed the little blurb at the top of the page, "click here for an article on how I journal..."
Well, that did it. I couldn't get my supplies ordered quick enough. Then I had to wait. When they arrived I followed her instructions on what to use and how to use it and I was hooked. I waited to do the cover art and before I actually journaled much, I discovered other sites. Misty Mawn was one. I was and am totally captivated by her style and the incredible background texture in her work. Then I learned that she was featured in the Summer 2006 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. I purchased it just as soon as it was available. I knew then I would use her tutorial to do the art on the cover of my journal. And this is it. I remember that Sunday in April that I spent all day playing ART and absolutely having the grandest time in my life with this process. That was before I had a blog.
Then I dinged off (as my DH says) and discovered Artsymama and joined in on her dream journal "follow-along" and the rest is history.
I am about to get back to my first art journal, A Long Time Ago. But that is not the big project that is simmering on one of my many front burners.
More later,
Sharon

Who is Norah?

And where did she come from? It's not a mystery. I made a special cookbook in 2003 as a secret sister gift. I collected recipes from other sorority sisters and compiled this little cookbook. I wanted to give her a hint or clue as to who I was so I called it Norah's Cookbook. I have occasionally used the name since then and most around here know who Norah is.
When I decided to have a blog it just seemed natural to call it Norah'S. It is Sharon backwards. And that is who I am.
More later,
Sharon