ArtiphyTheHeart

One For Lisa With Stripes And Flowers

My 2-Page Spread In Lisa's Book For Her Altered Board Book Round-Robin:

   

I'm really not a swapping artist.  "Oh yeah," you ask?  "When was the last time you were completely swap-free?"  "Well, let's see," I answer......"I think it was sometime back in 2007....just before I started blogging."  And it is true.  I don't consider myself much of a swapper simply because I like marching to the beat of my own drum and making artwork in my own way, with my own themes.  So why am I constantly involved in swaps?  Well, I love to share my work, and very basically, I am a social, artistic soul.  

Because of this, I try very hard to put together things that I think the recipient(s) might like, as opposed to just creating something out of the depths of the top of my head.  (Heh, heh, if you really knew me well, this would make sense.  Someone once said that the portion off the top of my head was as deep as any well....I'm still wondering if that was an insult or a compliment, but I do see the truth in it!) 

Joining swaps often leads me in directions that I would never go, left to my own devices.  Sometimes I find the journey tedious, but most of the time it ends up delightful!  And I always learn something new, taking away from the experience just as much as I put into it, and oftentimes, even more!

Which brings us to Lisa's book--with stripes (this week's Crazy Amigo theme) and flowers (this week's Created By Hand theme).  I saw a couple of new papers from Webster's Pages that were beautiful enough to be left alone and framed.  I collect papers, sometimes to cut-up, and other times just to use as inspiration pieces.  Then I saw the red, fuzzy and flocked woodland animals, and the storybook theme rub-ons from Cosmo Cricket.  I HAD to do something with all of these!  This may not be an original piece that sprung from the depths of the top of my head, but it is one of the most delightful journeys into collage assembly that I have ever taken!  Thank you Lisa, for giving me the opportunity to play with this stuff!  This was so much fun to do!

And because of this, and all the great journaling pages and other wonderful artwork on her beautiful blog, I am nominating Lisa Cornelius of Simple Journeys for the *Makes My Heart Smile* award!  Now there are rules attached to this award, but it wouldn't be fair to ask someone to follow rules that I'm not able to follow myself, so I'll leave it up to Lisa, whether or not she'd like to be simply honored by this, or if she'd like to actively participate.  The "rules" say: 

1. The winner of the Award places the logo on her blog.

2. She makes a link to the person who sent the award to her.

3. She nominates 10 blogs (one each day).

4. She links to these ten blogs.

5. She leaves a message on the blog of the nominees.

 

Follow the rules if you can, and if you wish, but know that I don't blog daily.  I blog without obligation (even though I don't display the button), and while I have a wonderful time bestowing and receiving awards, I cringe at bestowing obligation.  So, here it is--to honor you Lisa, and for you to pass along as you wish and as you see fit. 

 

For my own part, from time to time as I make a blog post, I'm sure I'll get back to this award.  And before the day (or at least the year 2010) is done, I will have passed it along to ten other deserving blogging artists.  In the meantime, a HUGE thank you to Rosie Rowe of Altered(T)Art And Stuff, my wonderful friend who bestowed this award upon me. 

 

Right now I'm:

 

Listening to a howling wind and thinking, "There's no place like home...

 

Painting eggs--for a swap, of course

 

Happy with myself for cleaning-up my blog a bit

 

Enjoying a few days of random blog-hopping to broaden my horizons and find a few more kindred spirits

 

Getting ready to round-up Toto and call out, "Auntie Em, Auntie Em"...this wind is LOUD!

 

I'll be back to blogging a bit more regularly soon.  It's not all wind and swaps around here...there are other things I'm up to, and lots and lots of paint is involved, so stay tuned!

 

Have a great day, Everyone!

"Her Majesty's A Pretty Nice Girl...

  . . .but she doesn't have a lot to say. . .

 

. . .Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, but she changes from day to day..."  Or so say the lyrics to the shortest Beatles song ever recorded!  You can find it on Abbey Road if you want to have a listen, or you can just take a look at the two-page spread I did in Linda's book.

All the lyrics are there, wrapped around images of the Queen.  These pages are part of an altered board book round-robin, hosted by Lisa Cornelius of Simple Journeys.  There are six of us participating, and each month we do a two-page spread in another participant's book, then mail it on to the next artist who in turn does the same thing until all of the books make their way back to their owners. 

Each book is themed, and Linda has chosen "the songs of our lives" for her pages.  I chose to interpret this in a less-than-biographical sense, as I have never considered myself very royal, and although I admire Her Majesty, I couldn't say that "I love her alot", nor have I ever thought:  "Someday I'm gonna make her mine, oh yeah, someday I'm gonna make her mine". 

But the Fab 4 did, and this song sticks in my memory as one of the songs of my life, since I couldn't get that catchy tune out of my head when I first heard it, nor can I now!  And with a grand total of 59 words, most of them repeated and not counting the articles, everyone who hears it memorizes it without even trying!

This was probably right up there with the most fun I've had making something, ever.  The huge crown on the queen's head is chipboard, painted with a couple of coats of acrylic paint to cover, then dusted with chalk ink and embossed with Amazing Glaze.  Martha Stewart's glitter glue was used to adhere the layers of vintage glass glitter:  Large chunks of magenta and fine grains of silver.  You've got to be careful with this stuff.  It does consist entirely of shards of glass.  I finished the crown by going over some of the bare spots with a silver Krylon pen.

 

The little booklet underneath the large crown on the right is a funky little photo album, consisting of various shots of the Her Majesty taken at a race track.  I knew from the start that I wanted to make these pages inter-active, and this was the best way I could think to do that. 

And speaking of photos, none of the photos I used are photocopied.  I know a lot of people swear by making copies, but I like to use the real thing, and you'd be surprised at how inexpensive it is to find books at second-hand shops and library sales.  I always check in advance to be sure that I'm not cutting something rare, and once I find that the book in my hand is one of a gazillion remaindered copies, I cut away, to my heart's content!

I really had a terrific time, glamming up the crowns, stamping the little pink crowns on the background paper, cutting out all those roses and leaves, then hiding H.M. with her camera amongst them, and playing at all the funky little details.  You can click on any of the images to enlarge them.

I'll be posting artwork for this swap during the first week of every month until we're finally finished in June.  For now, you can see both of the first two posts in one convenient place by clicking HERE.

Have a great day, Everyone!

Anything But A Card

This week's Arty Girlz challenge is to make anything but a card.  I always have something in the works that isn't a card, and I thought I'd show you a couple of pages from my altered board book  . . .

 

This is the inside cover of my book, which before I sanded, gessoed and altered it, was a slick and shiny "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" board book for toddlers.  I chose this one from among the hundreds available at a local used book store because of the giant hole in the front cover!  How much fun is this!

 

Here is the title page, which I altered to accommodate sign-ins, as this book will be part of a round-robin hosted by the very talented Lisa Cornelius, and it will have 6 different artist/authors including me, when it's finished.  We all chose the themes for our books, and mine is "self portraits", to be interpreted any way the artist wishes.  We'll each take a 2-page spread to illustrate the theme, then mail it on to the next artist at the first of the month.  By June, our books will be complete, and we all agreed to blog our progress.  I finished these pages and mailed them out to the next artist for my book on Tuesday.

Here's what the book looks like when closed, front and back.  I prepped the covers with gesso and paint and reinforced the spine, but they are by no means finished!  When the book comes back to me in June, I'll decide how I want the outside to look, but this gets it off to a good start.

In the meantime, I'm:

On my way to drive kids where they need to go

Stopping at Toys R Us for me...I need a spin and splash!

Thinking about how badly the dog needs grooming

Listening to blessed *silence*--something rare in our house

And feeling thankful for all the inspiration I receive from my blogging artist friends!

Have a great day, Everyone!