Orange you glad?

Ok, bad puns aside............. the next Rolodex cards I need to work on for Penney-Jane are orange themed. Everyone is using a different color/shade/tint so when we are finished we have a virtual rainbow in our Rolodex! What fun! Last night I started gathering whatever I had in paper and fabric for orange and since it is not my favorite color (I chose it for a challenge), there wasn't much so I threw it on my table. The burst of orange was so bright I wanted to take a picture of it, but then I thought why not add other items to it first? So, here is orange.....

and orange.........

and a closeup of orange.........

I plan on using these photos for backgrounds. Now I want to see if I can come up with some other color photos! Probably better do the Rolodex cards first since the materials are now all over my table!

Dragonfly (what else?)

I started this ......... piece........for lack of a better description (no, I don't know what I am going to do with it!?) Saturday afternoon after our foray to SAS and Saver's. I am only focusing on the dragonfly that I made last night, because I have been looking for "me" in my art and I love this dragonfly........I will use it quite often in different sizes from now on. The next item I want to attempt is some sort of mixed media fairy......... speaking of fairies, if you know of a good Michael's here in the Phoenix area that has the full collection of their new dollar stamps, fairy princess series, let me or April know............

Wahoo!!!

I passed the Middle School Language Arts AEPA (Arizona Educator Professional Assessment?) which means that I am officially "highly qualified" according to No Child Left Behind. Man, that test was difficult, I didn't study for it and REALLY did not think I passed............
Wahoo!

Metal Rolodex

I used the same debossing and alcohol ink technique that I used on my green journal to alter May's rolodex cards for Penney-Jane' s yearlong rolodex swaps. I added brads, fibers, and random charms from my collection. Here are Jane's, April's, and my cards:

I spent yesterday shopping with April and Jane, April made us go to SAS..........man, that twisted arm hurts today! Underneath the cards is a napkin I picked up at Saver's thrift store and then dyed.......geesh, she made us go there, too! The things I do for my family! ROFLMAO

Messy Hands

After dinner this evening I showed April how to scrape paint using a technique from Mary Todd Beam's The Creative Edge book. Of course, once we scraped the paint I had to get my hands into the paint left on the spoons, wouldn't want to waste any paint would we? I used my "less messy" hand to corral the camera and take a picture of our hands post-painting:

.... and here are two of the backgrounds we painted:

Pencil Shavings and a Zentangle Mandala

I have formed a group of 7th graders at my school to create a Teen Zine. We meet after school Friday and work on art, poetry, photographing stuff, etc. By the end of the school year we will publish our own Wicked Zine. The backgrounds and poetry so far are amazing and I am excited about this project! Our fabulous art teacher, Karen, has been graciously assisting us in this endeavor and last week I introduced her to zentangles. We started a mandala together which she worked on this past week while I was typing poetry into the computer................

Earlier in the day I was sharpening my pink fuzzy pencil, my 2nd favorite pencil next to my mechanical pencil, with my favorite sharpener. I was sharpening it onto a piece of paper on my desk to then throw the shavings into the trash when I realized how colorful and artistic the shavings actually looked! So I saved them and had my Teen Zine crew sharpen the colored pencils onto the paper as we went along and here is just one of the pics I took............

I like this picture because it has the large curly shaving in it. I took many close-ups of different sections of the shavings thinking they would make colorful backgrounds. You never know what will strike you as beautiful!

Yet another kitty

This is another kitty who found our back yard and my lap! She is not quite full grown and I think she is ADHD.............she hung around for quite awhile not quite settling, but roaming. It was difficult actually getting a clear pic of her because she wouldn't hold still in any one spot for long. She obviously has a home because she is clean and well-fed (unlike the orange tabby male who visits us).

WOW

This month's chunky book swap over at Penney-Jane Mixed Media Art is Altered Cards and the first swap I am hosting. Not only did I receive Karen's wonderful cabinet cards in the mail Friday, but she sent me the most AMAZING necklace ever! I have secretly longed to possess a wire wrapped bird's nest and now I have one.........it is fabuloso and I can't wait to wear it to work Tuesday. Thank you, Karen!!

New Journal

I collect (ahem.....among many other things) craft/art books. One that I've had for a little while now is Creative Awakenings by Sheri Gaynor. In this book the first project is to deboss aluminum for the cover of a Book of Dreams Journal. Several weeks ago I sent for and received the aluminum and tools I needed. It has taken me this long to figure out the process and finished the journal covers today.
The front cover:

the inside of the covers: some glossy cardstock I scraped with paint on one of my "painting" days:

This and That

I have been working on odds and ends, finishing up some swaps, playing with paint, etc., etc. lately. I got my Penney-Jane Sewing Chunky Book pages back the other day and bound them with book rings. This cover should look familiar and here it is bound with Gina's fabulous hand crocheted lace peeking from the edge of her page.

Here are all 20 pages in their chunkiness from the top:

I wouldn't have enough room to show all of my favorite pages so I just chose Jane's to showcase here.

I've been trying to doodle more and chose some heavier fashion pages from an old magazine. I first painted over all but the face and doodled over the paint, but it kept gumming up my Sharpies so I tried swiping gel medium over the paint and Voila! Much better! This is one of the three that I actually liked:

I also watched a short video on Traci Bautista's blog which showed painting with just one color and it inspired me to create these two background pages (for what? I don't know, I just like them!):

Altered Index Cards

I finally finished my altered index dividers for the Altered Card swap over at Penney-Jane. I am hostessing this swap which is due in the next couple of weeks. The index dividers were an ugly faded orange so I swiped paint over them as a base layer, then painted white through sequin waste, stenciled green, added odd rub-ons, glued on a piece of resin paper from either Charlie and the Chocolate Factory pages or Lemony Snicket pages, then stamped text over the entire card. I layered white and black duck tape and silver tape over the back. The three shown are the ones made for me (7), Jane (23), and April (14).

Play Date with Miranda

Yesterday I kidnapped Miranda to spend the afternoon with me sans her boys. We ate at Castillo's, a hole-in-the-wall Mexican food place around the corner. Then we shopped at the thrift store. I found tons of lace to dye and some wooden thread spools, Miranda found some VHS movies for her kiddos. Then I forced her to take my clothes, games, cards, etc. from my house! Ha ha! I am trying to lighten our load so that we don't take stuff we don't need in Virginia. Man, twisting her arm was hard work....... anyway, she raided my "stuff" to make a book in which she can write down the wacky and silly things her sons, Edan and Troy, say so she doesn't forget and then made another book for her student teacher.

and the finished product for her boys:

Both books turned out great! While Miranda was playing on the floor I worked on my Altered index dividers for the next Penney-Jane swap. I swiped paint yesterday and today colored the back with duck tape. Not quite finished, but getting there.