New Year's Day - Gothic Arch Mingle

On New Year's Day I worked on my first Gothic Arch for the Altered Art Swap Mingle. It is for Barb and her theme is Vintage Children with their Dolls. I loved making this piece. Very relaxing and comforting colors (again her choice). Barb likes vintage lace so I dug these lace pieces out of the attic and aged them with coffee. Aren't they a nice color? I finished off the back with one large piece and my first poem of 2008! I didn't get the poem grunged up yet but will do that before I mail it off. Cheers!

New Year's Eve Art Doll - Wings

I could hardly wait to get started on this little paper art doll. My friend Patricia gave me the face for Christmas (along with 2 others) and I was so excited to use it. I applied a light amount of gel medium and brushed on Silver Pearl-X powder. After it was dry I added a touch of lavendar lumiere to her lips and eyelids. Two flower images form to create the body and they, along with the wings, are tipped in lumiere and crackle paint. I added a pressed pansy flower at the waist, drew the legs and arms, then stamped them and "powdered" them with the same silver pearl-x. When I was done, she asked me for a purple ribbon in her hair and as always with my dolls, I complied with her wishes. She is almost 6" tall and I think she's adorable! p.s. Thanks, Patricia, for the face!

December Art Postcards

I tried so hard to keep up with my art work in December but didn't get any of it posted. So once again, I will post them all in a lump posting and try to do better in 2008. Thanks for looking...please leave a comment if you would. Is good to know someone is out there! LOL


Art Postcards for yahoo group 6:6 swap. I really enjoyed creating these. For the base I used 140# watercolor paper cut into 4"x6" rectangles. I used a stamp for the PostCard wording on the back and drew the lines with a ruler. I still need to fill in my name, email address, title and swap name on the 4 lines but will get that done before I mail them off. The most difficult part for me at the beginning was that we could not use any embellishmemts...no buttons, no ribbon, no lace, nothing at all that was raised up off the paper. Had to be flat when done...


The most fun was just creating with lots of materials and new techniques. Materials used are: patterned paper, transparencies, ephemera (labels, postage stamps, sheet music), distressed inks, distressed embossing powder, oil pastels, fluid chalk, crackle paint, punchinella, rubber stamps, & rub-on letters. Love the layering process as you can tell from the list of materials! Anyway, here are a few of them! Hope you enjoy them!

I am sooooo behind on my posts but you will see why in a minute! Here is what I have been up to in November!

I entered the "Tea Bag Hag" ART doll in an ARTchix Teapot Lottery and won! So then I became host for the next one and I chose "Journey" as my theme. It was an amazing experience with 24 fabulous entries! It was fun to host but I am happy to pass the hat on to Nessa Math! I made this "Journey" ATC for the person that put the first entry into the lottery.

Here are my ATC's for an ARTchix lottery called "The Year I Was Born" which for me was 1960. How fun to look back at that year and see what was going on. Actually, there were so many events in 1960 that it was difficult to choose. But here is what I ended up making:

I submitted these matchbox ornaments for an ARTchix swap this month. I made a few extras and sold them at the boutique.

AC also hosted a holiday charm swap so you KNOW I had to get in on that! Can't wait to see what I get back. There are some very cool charms being made...gave me all kinds of ideas for the next time.

ATC's made for a personal swap with LuAnn Kessler.

ART doll made for a personal swap with Gina Wise.

A new group for me is Paper Whimsy. They are celebrating their first year anniversary with a "My fairy lives" Anniversary project. I made an entry and we will swap out on November 30th. My fairy lives in "the Forest". My first real assemblage. What fun! It is approx 9"x8".

In the ART doll group I made four dolls this month. The first one is "Zenna" my inner muse entered in the November Challenge. I used the zentangle process to make her and she has the 7 Chakra symbols on her body. Lots of fun to make and she was very strong-minded in how she wanted to be created. So I listened very carefully...wouldn't want to make the must mad now would we?

For the November Swap we were to make two holiday ATC dolls so I made Father Time and Baby New Year. Love them!

The final swap in the group was to make an ART doll using the theme of "King, Queen, Prince, Princess". I started two other dolls before I finally ended up with the Young Prince. Used lots of distressing powders and my new Crop-A-Dile. Delish!

I made Z'Clown for a personal swap with the talented Gina Smith and got a lovely Mercat in return. I am so hooked on paper dolls!

A doll I made on Thanksgiving...just for fun!

Whew!!! Think I'm all caught up now on November! :-)

Technique #5 Inky Layers

Oh my goodness! I love any technique that involves layers and this one is a real winner! This week Patricia & I are doing "Inky Layers" from Bernie Berlin's book "Artist Trading Card Workshop: Create, Collect, Swap" and I think the results were awesome! I used paper from a dictionary, sheet music, magazine (glossy), & scrapbook paper. I didn't have any translucent glittery ink or paint so I used a drop of silver alcohol ink and rubbed it around. I like the results! Here are a couple photos of the finished products!