Something from Nothing Album Complete + Transparencies

I finally finished up my album from Shimelle's "Something from (almost) Nothing" class.  I'm pretty happy with it, especially because I didn't buy a single thing to complete it! I even had this acrylic album front (with corresponding bookboard back that I covered in dragonfly paper), a stack of 6x6 pages and 6x6 page protectors.  The final prompt was to use transparencies.  I had two 12x12 transparencies featuring birds and vines (one in white and one in black), and I used them to finish up the album.  I put one behind the acrylic cover (above) and wrote my signature on the transparency.
I used the black transparency to make a complete page in the middle of the album.  Here's the front (remember, you can always click to enlarge any image):

Since my album contains favorite photos, I decided to use a self portrait (it's my reflection in a  mirrored picture frame in the L'Orangerie Art Museum in Paris.  I added some camera eyelets and a quote by Aaron Siskind: "photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever . . . it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything."  The light orange paper on the background is actually paper on the back side of the transparency.  Here the back of the transparency in the album:

I put in a picture of our seasonal bowl filled with ducks, which is what DD Clara put in there in January (don't ask me why). I decorated the page with ribbon, flowers, hearts punched out of patterned paper and brads.  Finally, I used the rest of the white transparency (and one more camera eyelet) on a simple page which is the last page of the album. It's my first (and still one of my favorites) self-portraits:

Come back tomorrow for the altered house tutorial.  You can see how I transformed this pile of material into the beach shack below.

Class Review: Art Journaling 101 & Blog Events

I just finished Art Journaling 101 with Dina Wakley at Get it Scrapped, and it was terrific!  Since I'm not enrolled in any other classes this month, I thought I'd go ahead and post the review now.  The class focused on keeping an art journal as a diary of your daily life, as opposed to keeping an art journal as a sketchbook of ideas. (For some of my thoughts about these two different types of art journals, you can read my post here.)  As such, it focused on translating daily written journaling into art journal pages.  It was a four week class, and each week contained two lessons - one on creating the artwork in your journal and one on the journaling or text portion of the journal.  Dina presented a wonderful method for creating both artwork and journaling, as well as how to integrate them.  There were also weekly videos which presented even more information.  I could not have been happier with the class! I created about a dozen pages, all of which captured events and emotions going on in my life right now.  It helped me develop my artistic skills and work through my feelings about a variety of things.  It truly is art journaling (as art diary) at its best!  The page I featured today is a two page entry about doing laundry.  I know it seems mundane, but I spend a lot of my time doing laundry, and it was fun to journal about it.  You can click on it to see more of the details.  I'm known as the "Laundry Queen" at my house, and the layout presents laundry as a fairy tale because it truly is a never-ending story at my house! 


For my regular blog readers & House Party attendees, here's some updates. I wanted to let you know I updated yesterday's post with stamp credits for all those bird stamps, in case you need to go shopping.  Also, the house kits are starting to land. I'll have a tutorial up on Thursday or Friday. Finally, next week, Ali Edwards is running her "Week in a Life" project, where people are encouraged to capture their everyday life.  I did the project in 2008 (you can see some of it here), and I liked it a lot.  I feel like the art journal from this class is capturing the same thing.  So, next week to play along with Ali, I will post an art journal page each day that represents my daily life!

A flock of cards (plus one)

On Sunday, I got together with a group of my scrapping & stamping friends.  I was to work on DD Clara's elementary school album but decided to simply stamp and make cards instead.  I haven't done that for a long while, and I loved it! It was rainy & blustery outside, and our group laughed, gossiped and created all afternoon. My stamping friend, Katie, loves birds; so I pulled out a bunch of my bird stamps and worked mostly with them. It was such an enjoyable day. I hope you enjoy these fruits of my labor.

ETA:  The bird in hand, bird collage and bird with cat all all from Invoke Arts. The family at the photography studio is a Tim Holtz stamp.  The rooster is a limited edition, hand carved stamp I bought at a stamper's garage sale (it was probably designed and originally sold by Stampfrancisco, as the person who held the garage sale used to work for them).  The ravens are from Alphastamps in Matinez, California.

House Party - Final Tally

House of Love (Canvas)
Final roll call of House Party participants.  If you emailed me and you're not on the list, email me again at rinda1961@yahoo.com.  The art today is something I have posted before, but it remains one of my favorite pieces of all time, and it fits the theme.
UK Participants:
Sian
Liz L (Gables)
Denise
Ruth
Cherry
Deb
Jacky
Mel
Sarah
Liz G (Dewlands)
Elizabeth


US Participants:
Cheryl
Karen
Sharyn
Kimberlee
Nancy
Cindy
Margi
Deb
Julie


And from Australia:
Amy


All the packages are in the mail (except Amy's - hers will go out on Monday).  If you don't receive yours within a week, email me at rinda1961@yahoo.com, and I'll send another.  Yes, I have plenty of supplies. I  made up 20 envelopes, and it made nary a dent in my stash!  I'll post a house tutorial later this week.
As we say here in the states, "Party on!"

Simple 3-step Collage ATC's

Since I started blogging, I've had a couple of different requests from people for some information on "how to" collage. So, I'm posting this tutorial with a very simple 3-step method for making a collage.  For my "canvas"or size, I chose to make ATC's.  An ATC  is a 2.5x3.5" piece of artwork. You can read more about ATC's in this blog post. You can choose any size of  "canvas" on which to collage.  I've collaged on dominoes, and you can see some of mine in this photo.  Or you can go larger.  I chose to work on two different themes for my collage ATC's - chosen from two of my favorite challenge blogs.  The Scrappy Tree is looking for "steam punk" ATC's.  Steam punk is a style that blends Victorian age images with explorers and marvelous machines.  You can read about their ATC swap here.  The Something Completely Different blog is featuring artwork associated with different letters this month, and this week's challenge, posted here, is to create something based on the letter "B." Once you've decided on your canvas and theme, you can start the three steps.

Step 1:  Background

You can choose almost anything as a background:  patterned paper, paint, cardstock, etc.  I started with these four backgrounds - two patterned paper (map), one spritzed with glimmer mist and one painted background:

Step 2:  Image

Since I was thinking "steam punk" and "the letter B," I chose two stamps that fit these themes: a Victorian Boy and a Victorian Hot Air Balloon.  Both stamps are by Club Scrap:

I then cut the images out and placed them on the backgrounds:

I decided to mat a couple of the backgrounds to give them a little more weight. The boy on the yellow painted background wasn't really working for me, so I decided to mat him:

Better, but it still wasn't working for me.  So, I decided to add more to the background.  Since Steam Punk incorporates a lot of gears and clocks, I grabbed a Tim Holtz gears & clocks mask and masked the background with black ink.  Much better!

Step 3:  Embellishments

Now you'e ready to finish off your collage with a few well-chosen embellishments.  Three is usually a good number to use.  If you look at my finished Steam Punk Boys, you'll see that for the one on the left, I added a spinner to his hat (1), the title "punk" (2), and a pair of photo turns (3).  Even though these are technically more than three embellishments (the title is four letters and there are two photo turns), the eye perceives them as three elements.  For the finished collage on the right, I added a hat (1), a strip of words (2) and a pair of circles (3).  My finished balloon collages are below.  The one on the left has a yellow brad, a spinner and a title.  The one on the right has a strip of tickets, a small Victorian conductor and a title.

There you have it! Three easy steps that can be followed to make a collage. If you go back and look at the photo of my collage dominoes or at any of the ATC's in my old post, you should be able to identify the background, the image and the embellishments. For those attending the house party, these steps can also apply to your house (I'll post more about that later).  I also wanted to let you know that the house party is getting rather loud and noisy.  The neighbors are threatening to call the cops.  So I'm going to cut off sign-ups pretty soon. There's only room for a few more before we blow the doors off this joint!

House Party Update

Yesterday I announced the details for my upcoming House Party. You can find the details here.  I have received emails and created envelopes for:
Cindy
Cherry
Kimberlee
Nancy
Deb
Margi
Jacky
Karen
Sharyn and
Mel
If you emailed me your address and are not on the list, please email me again at rinda1961@yahoo.com, and I'll get an envelope together for you.  Also, if you're not on the list and want to participate, email me your mailing address.  The more the merrier!
The art today is a simple card I made on a plaster background and featuring a hand-drawn house. ETA:  The plaster I use is sold as redi-wrap or rigid wrap in the U.S.  You can buy it at Michael's in the paper mache aisle.  It's the stuff you would use to make a plaster cast.  I featured other art using it during the last blog hop, which you can see here, and also in this post on classes I plan to teach (including one  on creating with plaster).

It's a House Party (collaborative blog project)

Many of you mentioned that you would like to do a collaborative blog project, and I've come up with an idea.  To get in the mood, click on this link and watch a bit of this video of one our favorite high-energy songs.  Okay, ready?
I'm going to host a "house party" as a collaborative blog project.  It will be based on making altered houses, like the one at left or the ones posted at this link, this link, or this link.  Here's how it will work:
1.  If you want to make an altered house, email me at rinda1961@yahoo.com with your regular mail address.  I will send you a house kit, which you can use to decorate the house (feel free to use as much or as little of what's in the kit; feel free to add anything from your own stash).  This offer is open to anyone (domestic or international), whether you have a blog or not, and whether or not you want to participate in the second other part of the house party.
2.  I will then organize a blog hop for anyone who made a house, who has a blog and wants to participate.  The blog hop will be in early May.  If you want to participate, please don't post your completed house until the date of the blog hop.  If you want to participate in the blog hop, let me know that in your email and be sure to include your blog address. On the day of the blog hop, each participant will post their completed house and link to another blog. Full details will be given to all blog hop participants in plenty of time to figure it all out.
I hope this sounds like fun.  If it works, I'll come up with another idea for May/June.