Altered Art Journals....Make Great Christmas Presents!




The clock is ticking and Christmas is almost here! This year I have decided to make many of my Christmas presents. Not only is it from the heart, but it is fun too. I have a list of things to do. I will be making altered journals for the next few days. You can follow along and join me too if you would like. What you need to get started is

-Old magazines, books, fabric or artistic paper
-Brand New Composition Book
-Paper Glue (I prefer YES glue that can be found at Michaels very inexpensively if you go online and use a 40% off coupon)
-Imagination
-Scissors
-Razor Blade

1. First you make sure you have a nice area to spread your work out in. Gather your magazines and consider who the altered book will be for. Flip through the magazines and gently rip out images that will fit on the front cover and sleeves of the journal you will be making. You can choose random images or themed images. Your imagination will be working hard at this time.

2. Now that you have gathered your images, start to arrange them in a pleasing way to decorate the cover. In my case I found the head of a bull and some watches. The journal I am making is for my father who at this point in his life is concerned with time. I want him to worry less about time and enjoy life in the moment. So I picked these images. Remember Ferdinand the Bull? It was a children s story about a bull that preferred lounging under trees smelling flowers than fighting.

3. Cut out images using a razor blade or scissors. Make sure your surface is protected before you start cutting!

4. Glue images onto a thick piece of paper. You can use an old paper bag for this if you need thick paper in a pinch. Glue onto cover. Repeat for back cover.

5. Do the same with the inside and back cover, except in this case an old magazine page of a map, computer manual or recycled sheet music will do the trick. No need for collaging here unless you want to.

5. Find a nice piece of thick cardstock or fabric and use as the finishing binder for the outside jacket.

I will post pictures as I go. :)

I cannot tolerate monstrosity of man on a good day, much less the ugliness of unkindness. So the quote of the day is
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

This is what I want to pass on down to my children. The courage to act and serve Good in the face of Evil. I see this right now in Haiti as the humanitarian workers filter aid to the people in need. I see this in the faces of the men and women here who step up and rescue abused children from their environments when they need them the most.
When I was lying in bed after my surgery to remove my cancer, my mother told me something quite profound. She told me that people show you their true character in the hardest of times. I would like to think that most of my dear family and friends are true and people of strong character.
You might be asking what does the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the diagnosis of cancer and the revelation of a child being abused have in common? THE CALL TO DO GOOD & ACT!!!!

Pray, donate to Red Cross, volunteer at a Cancer clinic, Rescue a child.....
I am making a promise right now to teach this to my children, and I will show them by example.

I have been inspired to etch designs onto metal surfaces after reading the book "Semiprecious Salvage" creating found art jewelry by Stephanie Lee. I found a picture of the moon and wrote this poem on its surface. My "experiment" did not quite work out like I wanted. What I learned though was that etching works really well with stamps using permanent ink, not so well with laser toner and acetone.

I am really drawn to affirmations and this poem was one that I needed for myself at this point in my life as a mother and a wife. I printed it out and it is taped next to my computer where not only I can read it, but my HUSBAND can read it too. After all.....he might need reminding too that I am a treasure. Never let anyone take you for granted. If I am the moon, he is the SUN. I better get a SUN poem posted on the wall next to it for him. :)

As an artist, you cannot stop playing with different aspects of your creativity. I am always trying to evolve my art and implement new ideas and techniques into them. I am using clay with my mermaid tails and electroforming them. I love the metal with the glass. Here are a few pictures of some of the projects I have been working on.

At this moment I am busily getting ready for THE BEST BEAD SHOW down in Tucson, AZ this Sept, 11-13. I will be there on the 12th and the 13th helping out my friend Sheila one of the instructors at the event. I will have some of my beads available for sale also. They will be the Mermaid Tail, and the Spirit Tree Pendants. So hope to see some of you down there and meet you in person. :) I will post more details as soon as I find out more on Monday. This has been a last minute sort of thing.

I thought I would share the technique of cleaning tarnished pieces of silver that you might have lying around. If you are anything like me you might have a TON of things that are in need of a little elbow grease. If you lack the time to buff the tarnish away...have I got the solution for you! A friend from my lampwork group had shared a technique with me a while back about how to clean tarnish off of silver using things you might already have at home. Get ready here comes the instructions..

Materials:
Casserole dish
Aluminum Foil
Baking Soda
Tarnished Silver
Boiling Water
Elbow Grease

Instructions:
Line the casserole dish with Aluminum foil. Lay your silver on the dish and sprinkle with the Baking Soda. Pour Boiling Water over it and agitate slightly.
The Tarnish literally POPs right off it.
Apply a little elbow grease cleaning power, rinse and wear.
WaLA!!

I have caught the Mixed Media BUG. I still have a great LOVE for all things Glass, but I am having a difficult time managing my time wisely to arrange for torch time. I have a busy life involving children, housework and the proper feeding and caring of a husband. :) LOL. To torch it requires preheating my kiln, and arranging time to be undisturbed. I cannot put my bead down while I separate my children from arguing. Melting glass is equivalent to balancing honey on a stick. If you set it down it will either distort horribly or drop right off the mandrel.

I have found that using my beads in other ways has been very rewarding and does not require my undivided attention. Painting, drilling, gluing, and sculpting are my new friends. Although making beads is my main squeeze.......torch time is limited at least while school is out for the SUMMER.

Another venture I am having so much fun with is copper electrofoming. So much fuN!! Here is a mermaid that I made with that technique. NO torchtime required...except for the tail, although I had her tail for some time now...ready for a new body.

I have joined the ipod hype. I have resisted for awhile now and I am finding it VEry amusing now to listen to music while I am working, playing, everything! I am in love with the FREE podcasts they have on itunes. I just bought Lily Allens new album and am enjoying it very much! I hope you all do too!

I have added a playlist music player to this blog. I hope you find it amusing. HAPPY VALENTINES! My husband is reluctantly PAINTING my kitchen/family room for my valentines present. I will post pictures as soon as it is done. I have only had to wait for almost 4 years! So natuarally I am very excited. PAINT away.......

Hello thaRR!!

I have recently adopted a new black lab mix dog for our family. Our kids LOVE her very much. She is so gentle and patient with my kids. Our little doggie does not appreciate all the LOVIN' that our new dog does. She loves following my daughter with her leash on. Most importantly, she needs walks and it encourages me to be healthier and go walking more.


What a cutie pie!



On the BEAD FRONT.... I have been experimenting with the "use" of lampwork beads. They have to be good for other things than jewelry?! Right?! I made up a few experimental business card holders and have glued some beads onto some mixed media type jewelry pieces. I have not had much time to play around with the torch and assembling the beads together. Just keeping my family fed and cared for has been taking up most of my energy these days. I am making it a point to play around though. This Thanksgiving I lassoed my family into experimenting with decoupage light boxes. They ended up being decoupaged shoe boxes..and we lost interest after a few layers of newspaper as the base coat.

I pulled a lot of my art supplies out and spread them over the dinning room and there they have sat since Thanksgiving waiting for me to play some more. I did make a brass decoupaged piece with some costume jewelry paired with my beads. I do not know what to think of it yet. It is always more grandiose in my head than when I actually produce it. haha! I am hoping to make some vintage inspired pieces with the 20's feel to them. Art deco.....costume jewelry paired with modern lampwork. I am hoping to pair my beads with findings that are more common to find, but at the same time unique and beautiful. A lovely project comes to mind. I might write an article about my brass piece on my website. Every new "inspired" creation has to go through all the rigours of quality control before I offer them for sale. These pieces are lovingly being worn and tossed and somewhat abused by myself and my daughter to see if they pass the QC test. haha! Sorry about the image quality. These pictures were taken a minute ago as I am writing this article. I have to have pictures...don't I?


We will see if this tangent of mine survives or not. I am planning on incorporating new types of materials into my collection. there are really awesome polymers, resins, metals, etching, enamels, PMC... to name a few. I have them all spread out on my table, so let's see where this takes me.