Timothy

Chasing Yellow Butterflies

She Got It

I have a new blogging stop that I wish to share. Rella at Faerieluna makes the most wonderful art dolls. Well they are so much more than art dolls. They are Mothies. I won't even try to describe them to you. They are stunning and you really must go see them. Rella was the recipient of this special little envelope from me, The Wingkeeper. She received it and now, I'm expecting a little Mothie. I'm told it is already in flight to me. I can't wait and I'm sure I can share with you when it arrives. You can have one too because Rella has just set up her Etsy.

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My Weekend

And now about my weekend. Most of Saturday was spent in experimental mode. I was inspired by article in Somerset Studio by Lisa Bebi, titled "Beach, Tints, & Beeswax". Par for me, I kinda did my own thing and it all started when I rediscovered some beeswax in a stash from long ago.

(click on image for a closer look)

My first effort at this was spoiled in the final beeswax stage. Determination took over and I did another. The image that I used is from my original "Flyaway" piece and is printed on muslin smaller than the original. I used molding paste with a stencil to accomplish the floral swag on the right and bottom left corner. One of the foam egg stamps from the tutorial was used and stamped on a strip of black fabric. Beeswax was the final step; however, you may not be able to see it in this picture. It is not completely covered with beeswax, just random around the edge. It is a nice effect. The piece is on 11 X 14 canvas board. I think it will look stunning in a frame. I'm thinking I will list this on my Etsy.

More later,
Sharon

Another Friday Already

breathe.........

came with my wish 204803 in the form of a little pink tissue flower. The first thing I did was stick it down in the 'notes' section of my calendar.

(do you remember how irresistible tissue is to me?)

It has been a great reminder this week. breathe....

Then the doodling started. Plus it seems I always find a little bit of something to glue stick down. Usually it is to cover up something. You know, one of those creative opportunities. The green and gold also came with wish 204803.

This week's paper fortune was cut apart before adding it. I like that. The little rambling vine was a holdover from The Wingers page. You may not have noticed it. I discovered it to be a great fun thing to do, write in pencil and doodle in pencil as the first layer of the painting. Watch for more of that.

These little vines are so fun. Here is what you do. Put your pencil down and mark a little line. Then, make a little leaf and pencil it in. Back the pencil up the stem and go another direction and make a little leaf and pencil it in and so on and so on. Try it.

Oh yes, I'm in a green mode...I think.

Another thing, I feel this doodle inspiring my weekend art. That's cool.

Hope your weekend is full of silly laughter and ART. Mine too.

More later,

Sharon

Mail in Mail out

WISH 204803...

...arrived Monday. Sometimes you just don't know what you wish for. So as they say...be careful... Well, I say keep wishing! I just wanted one of those little "wish" tickets. I didn't know the number was so significant. I didn't know it meant so much. I didn't know Wish 204803 was attached to a huge bag of treasures.


Yes indeed, I like it!

We, that would be me and eb traded wishes.

If you haven't passed by her place, you must. A very imaginative artist. Click here on eb.

Here is another little bit of mail art going out today. I don't know if you can tell that

the envelope is made with some of my over painted papers. Remember those deli wraps that I use under the pages when prepping an altered book?

I never throw them away. I just alter them some more after making the envelope.

More later,

Sharon

the Wingers

The Wingers

Goodnight,

Winged

Having a great weekend.

Still swirling.

This is in my "A Long Time Ago" art journal.

Hope to finish the other side tonight.

Family will need to lock my studio doors if the bathrooms get cleaned.

More later,

Sharon

True Colors Black

I Choose Flesh

The Wingkeeper.........

Here Is My Week

I'm swirling.....................
and I can't stop. That is how I feel right now with inspiration churning in my whole body and sole. I hope you know the feeling. Although, it is not altogether pleasant.
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So glad it is the weekend, almost. I just hope I can keep my focus and energy to do half of what swirls.
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About my calendar this week: I was having a another blank week, other than the journaling. Oh yes, and the little bit of polka-dotted at the bottom. I was experimenting with a copy machine transfer. You may or may not be able to guess what the image was. And then the little red corner under it is a little scrap of ...well it is the corner of a playing card. Just a little collage OK. This morning I thought to bring my Caran d'Ache (big girl crayons) in my art-to-go-bag. I was blogging around and I can't remember where; but I got a glimpse of a beautiful golden swirl. That's all I remember and I knew it was how I felt and my inspiration. The gold edge on the left is RoseArt Color Sharp Metallic. I love to use them and then real quick like smear the mark. That is why I called it to your attention. You should try it. I do that with gel pens too. The finger is the tool. But I do use a brush and spit...yes I said spit to move the watercolor crayon around. Remember this is Art-At-The-Desk.
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So now, I have two more things to tell you. First, you might want to go see the stamps that Gina made. It is such a cool feeling for me that she tried out the stamp tutorial. And her stamps are very impressive. If you tried it let us know.

Second, here is the link to my ETSY. Slowly but surely. You can....I can...
More later,
Sharon

Can't

....keep my mouth shut. You know I can't.

Here is my Etsy banner.

Nothing is there yet but I am one step closer. I'm thinking I will be listing totes, purses, She Bags and She Sacs first. Well that's because that is what I have ready. At this point, you have already seen them all. I've been hoarding them. Also, trying to get up my nerve to do this.

I have some other ideas too. But for now, maybe I can keep my mouth shut. This feels scary to me so please wish me luck.

More later,
Sharon

PS I'm thinking if I tell you this, then I have to go through with it. That's what I'm thinking.

Book Of Me

I am giving a youth workshop in August through the County Extension Service and this is an example book. When the kiddos come in to sign up they can see what an altered book is all about.

I am supplying the board books and other supplies and they will bring their own pictures, magazine clippings, pens and stuff like that.

Notice the butterfly on the front cover is from this morning. I just tweaked it a bit.

Me in 1946. But the book is "About mE today."

The word 'today' is from my phone bill. There is a faint background and I used the same paper to stamp the word 'about' on. I also used it on the back cover to stamp on.

I'm wanting to make a point to the kids that you don't have to go out and buy a bunch of supplies. It's free in the mail and junk mail is on their supply list.


The pages are in order and this page is the first one inside the front cover.

I tried to keep this little book simple. Time will be a factor but I really want to just give enough to inspire.

So I just stamped some circles and then punched some wallpaper circles. Actually circles happens to be one of my favorite things.
This page is about butterflies, one of my favorite things. This is the one I chased down this morning.

What is a wingkeeper, you ask? I'm having dreams about being a wingkeeper...another day.




My report card in the third grade mentioned that, "Sharon likes to day dream".

Still do, but this page is about making pockets and tags.






Oh dear how I hated putting a picture of ME in this little sample book. But the point is to encourage the kids to do so as well.

I just noticed that smiling crocodile in the background on the left.

I guess it wouldn't be about ME without flowers. The Rose of Sharon picture is from this morning. I just printed mirror images and cut it out.

The black letters are from those little stacks you can get at the craft stores. I thought it would be something the kids could easily use.

You know I'm a crazy fool about my chickens. I'm just a lucky duck that I don't have to take care of them. My dear husband does that for the most part. Today they gifted me with 3 green eggs, 1 brown egg and 2 cream colored eggs.

If you click on the picture it will enlarge in another window and you can see the dictionary is on the "chicken" page but it is my Spanish dictionary...English to Spanish.

On the cover I used black Gesso. Then I stamped with a black StazOn. I think you can see the really cool black on black effect.

Just in case you're wondering how I managed to get this done today, all I can say is I hope I don't have any company. I didn't do any house blessing today and my dear sweet wonderful husband cooked tonight.

Now here is my question for you, do you think I kept it simple enough for kids to do?

I will only have eight and should be able to give a lot of one-on-one. I think the time will be an issue but we will just see.

Now, I have to go clean up my work area and gather up a few table scraps left from my day and get them ready to wing out of here. (I'm smiling)

More later,

Sharon

PS....maybe you will be inspired to make a quick little "Book of Me"

Good Morning

Just thought I would pop in to say good morning, just in case you stopped by.

I've got a project on the table today and needed a new Rose of Sharon picture. So, I went out to get that and came face to face with this beautiful butterfly.








I chased her a little bit and got several shots to play with. I sure hope she is still out there when the camera batteries recharge.

Well, I must get back to it.
More later,
Sharon

Blank Week

I'm kinda having a blank week. It's Thursday and nothing doodled on my calendar yet. It's blank.

I crashed on the couch in front of the TV Tuesday night and had to ask my daughter how many movies we watched. She said, "we watched 2 and you watched the news and 2 late night shows". Oh. OK

Last night, I just bypassed the couch and went straight to bed at 8 for a little nap. I really was going to get back up at 9 because I have some really cool art going on. My batteries needed recharging. I think they are now.



I received this wonderful collage card with the sweetest note inside from Gina, my blogging buddy who lives in Sweden and always just leaves me the coolest comments. Love this Gina, it is so neat to get to have one of your cards in my hands to enjoy. And Norah's head is spinning with the inspiration that came along with the card.

Speaking of comments. I can't tell you how thrilling it is to hear from you when you stop by for a visit. I loved getting all your comments about the little egg stamp tutorial. Isn't it cool how one thing always leads to another. Some of you remembered the belts hanging in your closet and no doubt other things that are handy for making stamps.

So, if you made a stamp or a frame, please tell us and leave a link so we can all run over to your place and ooooh and ahhh. Because one thing always leads to another. So fun.

To keep me from rambling any more I'll just save...
More later,
Sharon

One Thing Always Leads to Another

an egg stamp tutorial

I found this great bargain on metal buckles at Wally's World for $1.00. I had a great idea about what to do with them.

alter them of course

In case you haven't noticed, I've been into eggs of late. I still am. It all started with the photos of my bird nest boxes with eggs. I believe ever bit of art that I have created since then has had eggs. Last weekend I needed an egg stamp or stamps and Wally's World just doesn't carry Michelle Wards beautiful stamps. That's the shopping options here, Wally's World or H E B Grocery.

So, having a little bit of rubber stamp carving supplies on hand, I get it out and very quickly carve two different sizes. One thing always leads to another and I remember the blue foam that I had and thought I would also cut out an egg shape from that. It already had a bit of design impressed in it and made a great egg stamp.

And that is the method that I want to demo for you. The first blue stamp above is the one that I made that day and used in the first pieces of art. Later last week I made the other two. The piece of blue foam already had the impression in it from the brass Heart in the lower right corner.

So here is what you will need:

Foam door knob hanger from craft department

Anything metal that has a design in it like the brass heart or bargain buckles

Heat Gun

Small piece of transparent plastic

Scissors and Pen

Use the heat gun to heat the foam. If you melt it, move over and try it again. It actually withstands a good amount of heat.
Immediately press the metal design into the foam just as hard as you can.

beeuteefull !!!

But if not, just reheat the same area and the impression will go away and you get

do-overs !

When I made the first stamp I just drew an egg shape on a piece of paper and drew around it on the foam. Today while working on the tutorial, I remembered a little piece of left over transparency floating around in the work area and thought if I made a template with it, I could see through it to audition where on the egg I wanted the design. Decide. Draw around it. With just regular scissors cut the shape out. Notice perfection is not an issue. As a matter of fact, the imperfection is ...... well perfect.

I did three different eggs today, using three different metal designs. But if you only have one metal design to use, you will discover that you can make many different eggs by just moving the template around. They will all come out looking totally different. Promise.

I have three new egg stamps and can't wait to use them. The brown eggs on white paper is stamp pad ink. Then I applied white acrylic paint with a foam brush and stamped the cards.

But, one thing always leads to another ............

...............................................................as it should be when your muse is watching. This is when norah's quick eye and hands took over my tutorial. I let her go and enjoyed the moment!

1. she really liked the little design and saw a crown

2. she dug around in the photos left from Ashley's egg page and grabbed one

3. she reached for a little bottle of Lumiere Metallic Acrylic and

4. she stamped the crown on

(dummy, it went off the edge and doesn't even look like a crown)

5. she grabbed a painted card

6. she laid the picture on the card and stamped the crown again

(yes, I like it)

7. She liked it....and said, " take photo" and

8. she turns the tutorial back over to me

and I continue. But now in this moment, I find it incredible to discover the blue and yellow complementary colors and I really like the way the crown goes off and creates layering opportunities. The point I am trying to make is that I was totally in the moment and enjoying the moment and not judging what I was doing. I was just doing it. I had no expectations and there were no little voices in my head saying no no no, what if it is wrong...etc. .............and

As this tutorial is titled, "one thing always leads to another", my dear h was assisting me by altering the bargain buckles. The are no longer buckles......

they are little metal frames. See. Whatca think? Might need to do a little more altering, they do look a bit too new.
The fun thing about the foam stamps, is the clean up. Just chunk them into your water bucket.

Yes indeed, time to clean up.

More later,

Sharon

My True Colors Journal

I Choose Flesh

DREAM

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I have finished my "blue and ochre" phase for now, I think. Another "egg" page of Ashley for my True Colors Journal.

Maybe this one got a little busy, but I like it all the same. Maybe because it is Miss Ashley who is a little devil in disguise.

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So here is the deal: My right and left brain made a pact with each other. If I could finish this little bit of art this morning, then I would go out and do my outside chore. Do you remember what that is? Yep, I'll be going around and around and around just thinkin and thinkin and thinkin until the turf is under control again.

I'll be back.

Another Friday

Here you go. This week's calendar doodle. Confession: the smudges are from a stamp pad just within Norah'S reach. Not much doodling but flowers always seem to bloom.
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I need to make my "things to do" list. Right now it is all in my head and my head is just about to explode. My remedy is to right it down.
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I'll go do that now.
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I will be showing and telling more this weekend because my muse, Norah'S working me overtime.
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More later,
Sharon



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Thanks!!!!