Happy Birthday Tim Holtz!

Today, Saturday, Jan. 7, is Tim Holtz's birthday! 
Linda Ledbetter of Studio L3 has set the Grungy Monday challenge this week as one to create a birthday card for Tim.  Although I haven't participated in Grungy Monday for a while, I couldn't resist making a birthday card for Tim Holtz because he is such a wonderful, generous, creative person.
So, here's the card I made for him. Tim loves Disneyland (in fact, it seems to me that in some alternate universe Tim could be Walt Disney's illegitimate son). So, I made him a Disney card with a paper pieced Mickey Mouse from my stash. The bottle cap held by Mickey has been colored with alcohol inks and features an image from Tim's stamp line. The edges of the papers have all been distressed using the Tim Holtz distress tool and inked with distress inks. I feel very lucky to have met Tim and to have taken several classes with him. He really is a terrific person, and I hope he has a terrific birthday!  If you want to join in the birthday party, go check out Linda's blog.

Captions in Paintings (+ Paint Party Friday)

When I painted my series of watercolor faces for the "Faces 101" class I'm taking (you can see the other paintings here), I found myself compelled to add captions to them.  The one on the left reads "She always blushed when she drank too much." The one on the right, simply "Pixie Cut."  I found myself doing the same thing when I drew some faces in the next lesson.  Except for this drawing, which I didn't caption:

Nothing came to me. So, now it's your turn. What caption or title would you add to this face? Or would you just let her be?
I'm linking up today to "Paint Party Friday," a blog challenging artists to paint and post at least once a week. You can see the current week's paintings at this link. My blog friend Gloria is a regular participant and planted the seed in my head.  Thanks Gloria!

How many attempts does it take?

In the current class I'm taking on drawing faces, we draw A LOT of faces.  The goal is to draw 101 faces by the end of the week! In most assignments, we make between 8 and 10 from a particular technique.  Which seems like a lot, except out of those 8-10, I will usually only get 3-5 which I actually like.  One of yesterday's assignment was to draw faces using a ink dropper. I used a Distress Reinker (Vintage photo) to draw a variety of faces.  I liked these three, but my other seven attempts will never reach the light of day or, I suppose I should say, the light of the blogosphere. In fact, at the end of class, I will throw them away (as well as my other failed attempts from various assignments). 
Which got me to thinking about how many attempts at something it takes to create a "keeper." With the advent of digital photography, it's easy to take lots of attempts and delete the bad ones.  I think I probably delete between 1/3 and 1/2 of the pictures I initially take. I don't think the question comes up in other paper crafting fields (I don't usually throw away cards or layouts, for instance). For my art journal pages, I don't throw away the ones I hate. I either gesso over them to start again or simply turn the page and try not to worry about it.  On the other hand, I do have some mixed media canvases which I tossed (or gesso'd over) because they were, well, bad. LOL! What about you? How many attempts at a project does it take you before you create a keeper?

More Drawing. Less Stamping?

One of the things I want to do with my artwork this year is to make it more "my own" - to include more of my original art (drawing, photography, etc.) and fewer images created by other people (through purchased collage sheets, clip art, stamped images, etc.). 
So, I'm taking a class on drawing and painting faces.  Here's some early attempts. What do you think? Do you have a favorite? I also plan to compose more photographs to use in my mixed media collage.
As for using fewer images from other people, I'm having a hard time purging my collection of images. Although I think I can (and will) do it. But I can't even bear the thought of getting rid of my stamps. Although I'm feeling pretty "done" with card making at the moment, I'm not yet ready to get rid of my stamps. It just doesn't feel like time.
I guess the question I keep rolling over in my mind is the extent to which I feel good using tools and images created by other to create my own art. Thoughts?

Starting the New Year Right

New Year's Day in the United States feels a bit off this year because January 1 fell on a Sunday. So, a lot of the traditional new year events, such as the Rose Parade and football games got put off until Monday, January 2, which is also a holiday here. In many ways, the second seems like the start of the year.  So, today I thought I'd share some of what I'm doing with my 2012 OLW ("home").  I've started to do a lot of cleaning and purging in my craft area and clothes closet (because I store a lot of my craft stuff in my clothes closet). It feels great to get organized and focused on where I want to be in my art.  For Christmas, I received the book "Painted Pages" by Sarah Ahearn Bellemare, which Sian had featured in her Pass the Book blog activity and which really captured my imagination (even though my name never got pulled in the Pass the Book draw). I've been working my way through the exercises, and I used one of them to create the art journal page above which talks about approaching each new year as a journey. For me, this journey will actually take me deeper inside my home (my creative home, as well as my physical home). I've been thinking a lot about what I want to focus on in my art this year, and that has helped me in deciding what to keep and what to toss.   I also found an assortment of projects that I want to finish.  I'm looking forward to a very fun year creatively!
In my organizing, I came across three idea books which are really quite good (which is why I had not parted with them before) but a little dated and not really my style anymore.  I am happy to send them to anyone who wants them.  Preference given to people in the states to keep the cost of shipping down, but I'll send them abroad if no one here wants them.  If more than one person wants them, I'll draw names.  You can ask for one, two or all three.  The books are:
Full Circle by Lil Davis Designs (about Circle Journals);
PaperKuts Power Book of Tips and Techniques and
Rebecca Sower's Scrapbooking Life's Little Treasures (has a lot of good journaling advice).
{UPDATED to add: I'm sending Full Circle off to Nancy and Life's Little Treasures off to Carrie in today's mail. Going media mail, so it may take a few extra days. Enjoy!}

2011 Intention: Final Pages

In 2011, I set as my intention to be "fabulous at 50," and I created an art journal to document  my progress month by month.  Yesterday I sat down and finished my pages for the last two months of the year.  My December page is up top, and it reads "In December, I was fabulous because I believed in myself."  And here's my November page:

It reads "In November, I was fabulous because I buckled down and got some writing done for work."  You can see the other pages from my journal by clicking on the 2011 intentions tag below.
All-in-all, I was happy with how I did at accomplishing my intention this year, as well as how well I did staying focused on my one little word ("health"). I got through many, but not all, of my resolutions.  Next year, I'll continue to work on the ones I didn't complete.
So, how did you do on your 2011 intentions, resolutions and one little word?

Storytelling Sunday, The Picture: Happy New Year

We got all dressed up last night and went out with our best friends to celebrate the coming of the New Year. We ate, we danced, we shot silly string at other revelers as we drove by.
Happy 2012!
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For other stories, visit Storytelling Sunday at Sian's blog.