SP Wednesday

I know 3 posts today but I will be gone for the weekend so this will make up for not posting then.















My self portrait looks a little misty today.

















My order from Dick Blick arrived, yippee. After seeing an article in Cloth Paper Scissors using gouache watercolors I wanted to try them. I bought a set of 24 and they are really nice. I love the intense colors.




















I tried out my new gouache paints last night and I really like them. This bird is the result.















This is a pick of 2 collages that I did a little while ago. That is enough for today.

My camera died

Lots going on today. The kitten my little nemesis did a number today so she is in the dog house. In trying to get her off my table she pulled down my Lumix Panasonic camera. It hit the concrete floor with a bang and now its toast. I turn it on and it says please turn the camera off and then on. I reseated the battery and memory card but nothing works so I guess the camera is a loss. I really liked that camera too, it fit in my purse so easily. Well at least I have my Canon so I can still take photographs.


















I have been trying to finish a few things before I have to do the dental thing. Here are more journal pages from Kelly's class. I was hoping to get 3 done but I am stuck on the third one so it will have to wait. This one we are to write about the last gift I received. I recently got a pendant that my sister had made and sent me so I journaled about that. I loved the image of this woman and the tree was so compelling to me.

















Here we are to talk about faith and whatever that means to us. Once a gain the haunting look of the woman in the picture called to me. I see her walking out of that mist to some unknown destiny. These pages a fun but challenging. The painting part is easy it is the collage part I have difficulty with but I am staring to feel better about my choices. I like both of these pages.

There's a Raven in my studio

Well here we are on day 14, I did my drawing around 3 am when i was wide awake, now I have the day to do other things.













This weekend I thought I need to finish my collage for a black cat swap I am participating in. Look what happened though. This raven flew into my studio and landed. It doesn't look like he wants to leave so now the pressure is on. I have to start over. I need a cat this time now where can a girl find a cat when she needs one.

Art Play Dates

It seems to be snowing in all the surrounding states but nothing so far in my neck of the woods. Now normally I would be happy it isn't snowing but I am prepared now. I have a fire going, Spaghetti sauce cooking in the crock pot, books around me to read. It would be lovely to see those white flakes falling just to set the mood. My kitties seem to want to cuddle more so I think winter is definetly on its way.












My friend Kate and I have been getting together to make Art and its been fun. She calls me Alpha Kate and herself Beta Kate. Thursday we met at her house and worked in our Art Journals.













I worked on these on these Crow pages first. Last week I started thinking how I could use a crow image I have as a stencil. I ended up getting up in the middle of the night to try it out. The second crow is using the actual picture. Now the next day when I drove to church there were 2 real crows waiting for me at church. They cawed at me and then flew away. There have never been crows in this spot before. I usually see Raven's quite often but these were definetly crows. I have seen some since then and there are always two of them. I am sure they have some message for me.















There was no real message here I just liked the images I had.
















I started this page by gluing down some old paper and putting gesso on the page. I then used Portfolio oil pastels. At first I didn't like it at all but now the color is really amazing. I put a layer of gel medium over the top. The photograph really does not capture the color well at all. I was going to draw or collage on top but it was time to clean up and go home for the day.
















I had signed up to do this collage with a group but I have failed miserably at doing them on time and so forth. This was my first try at using images that many other people also used.


The interesting experience that I had while working at someone else's house was that I was limited to the items that I had brought me. It really forced me to be creative in a different way. I found myself challenged and had to jump out of the box a bit. I ended up with new ideas that I never would have thought of before. So try limiting your available supplies and see what you end up creating.

















Todays drawing is a Tibetan woman but she really didn't turn out the way I planned but I think the Big Draw really is helping me do better faces. Hopefully you won't get tired of seeing them.

Fire Fancies Challenge

Celtic Lady and Shopgirl are having a challenge using the picture in my collage. Anyways I needed to post it here and then send to them so here it is. You still have a couple days to enter check out there blogs for more information.

Here is a little bit about my process. I had the background done and it looked like the picture fit so well. I added papers and made the heart and came up some words that seem to reflect the painting to me. I really didn't go back and read the directions. The only thing I remember was to think about what she was doing. Silly me forgot the title of the painting and thought oh she is looking in a fire. Well with a title like Fire fancies that is pretty obvious. So I feel a little silly about that but anyways it was a fun challenge.

A Book of Hope

It really feels like fall. I almost feel like having a fire but I think I will wait. I have been having a comfort food craving. I am going to make some macaroni and cheese. I have the noodles on to boil, soon I will be grating cheese and making a white sauce and then put it all together. Yumm I can taste it already.

I have been working on this round robin book on the subject of hope. I thought you might like to see my pages.


















This is page one I really liked the image of this little angel. I thinking times of despair we all pray even if that is not something we would normally do


















I got this image of this girl from my friend Elise and just added words here on living fully.

















I liked this quote and the images just seemed to be want to be part of this page. i was playing with color on the background....



















I used a paper napkin for the background on this. If you have never used napkins try them as they are really cool. A napkin has 3 layers, you just pull them apart and attach to the page with gel medium


















This image just drew me to the idea of hope. I see the women here just discovering something sad and I see her reaching out for hope in the next frame....

So now I move on to work on the last round robin book, the subject Peace. It should be wonderful to work on.

Great Finds at $1.50

We got some snow today, just when there was no forescast for it, its only a couple inches but it still looked pretty.

My friend Amy called to say that the thrift store she works at had something I want, so I stopped in to look.















I bought this little board book to alter, I chose it beacuse it was in really good shape --- price .50















Next was what I came for, an old suitcase. I plan to decorate the outside and use it to store craft supplies when I go to classes. I wished it had been this gorgeous leather like others I have seen but since it will be covered up anyways that does not matter at all.
















The inside had this beautiful silk lining. I look at it and wonder just who used the suitcase and I wonder all the places it may have traveled, I like to think they were exotic and the woman who used it had grand adventures. If any of you have seen altered suitcases anywhere would you share the link with me?

I did this little video on the 100 day challenge and I am also showing the art from a couple days ago and some new backgrounds too.

Wow what a book

This came in the mail and oh its wonderful. It will take some time to absorb even half of it. Some books have enough visuals but not much explanation or thought provoking narrative and some are too wordy with not enough visuals. This book has a great balance. I will be inspired for a long ti with it. I can't wait for a block of time to spend with it. Then of course my friend Violette is in it, that makes it even better. If you are hesitating buying this book. don't its amazing.

Now its back to cleaning the house. I have 8 people coming over tomorrow to participate in the waulking or fulling of the blanket. Of course I am not ready so I am off to finish vacuuming up all those tiny threads.

Quote of the Day: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched but must be felt with the heart. - Helen Keller