Portal of Prose and The Enchanted Forest

These are the pages I did for my friend Megan's book. Here theme is Enchanted Forest. Her pages are different shaped chipboard pages. I decided to make the scalloped shape into a sun on one side and a moon on the other. The page underneath is the enchanted forest in the daytime and the enchanted forest at night!

This spread is for the coolest little book titled Prose Portal. We were to make pages based on books that made an impact on us. I felt it was like a little time machine and I kept going back to books I read over and over as a child. One of my favorite books is Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. These pages represent the Ozark mountains, the two coonhound dogs and the magical red fern.

New Marie themed journal pages

I have been waiting for my vacation time to catch up on my art groups. This spread is for my Marie Antoinette Art Journal Round Robin

group. I drew Marie ready to go to a masquarade ball. I am working on two more books and I will post those as soon as I finish them! It feels good to finally get to work in my friend's books.

Santa Baby, hurry down the chimney tonight!

While I was digging in my crowded garage bringing the Christmas decorations in I happened upon this original 45 of Eartha Kitt's Santa Baby in my grandmother's records! Isn't it cool looking? It's dated 1954 on the back. I created a shadowbox complete with a hot pink stocking, a pic of a light blue Cadillac, a copy of the cover of the single, and a photo of a Tiffany's box. I lettered some of the lyrics around the edge of the shadowbox. I love this version of the song and I thought this was a cool way to display it for the holidays.

It will be traveling to Connecticut tonight as a gift for my son's partner.

What do you think? Is it retro enough?

I hope your holiday is overflowing with love!

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree!!!!

TaDa! Here is my sweet little

Marie themed tree. I made most of the embellished ornaments.

It's a tabletop tree and I LOVE it.

Now I'm on the hunt for a cool big white tree OR a silver

aluminum tree from the 50's!

Merry. Merry To You All!

This is what I've been up to this week.

I wanted to make some

ornaments for my little white tree I bought after Christmas last year. I am in a Marie Antionette Round Robin and I wanted to make some girlie, frilly, sparkly ornaments for MY tree. I had some embossed wallpaper and I layered sheet music, scrapbook paper, lace, ribbon, glitter and jewels! I had so much fun I made a bunch more to give my girlfriends at work! I will take a photo of my pretty little tree so you can see how it all looks!

Please Check out My Son's Next Career Move- It's an Album, Baby!

Hello blogger freinds! Happy Holiday Season to all of you!

Please take a few minutes to check out my son's video from Kickstarter.com.

Scroll down and turn my Playlist OFF and then click on the video above. It's pixelated at the beginning and then it straightens out!

Kickstarter provides a unique concept to help struggling artists live their dreams. They have one month to raise the funds for a project online. It's ALL or Nothing!!!!! My son has reached 1/3 of his goal and he only has 9 days left. If you want to support his talent, he will be grateful for ANY donation starting at FIVE dollars! If you wish to leave a comment I will forward those to him . Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. If you'd like to read more about Jamison's project OR make a donation click on the blue title right under the video and you'll get to his page on Kickstarter!

Thanksgiving Greetings!

I made a few Thanksgiving cards for my family this year. The components came from Paula's Kit Club. I was a member for several years and I treasure all of my lovely themed kits! I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving . Surround yourselves with loved ones and be happy with what you have! I am so thankful for the love, friendship and art that fills my life!

Christmas Card Workshop Designs 2010

I have been busy this week making preperations for my annual Christmas Card workshop extravaganza!

I invite my friends from work and my family to make Christmas cards. I design 5 new designs every year. When I started this tradition I assumed everyone who came really wanted to learn new cool techniques. But, I soon found out that, NO, not everyone is handy with the scissors and glue. So...

I got with the program and I prepare lots of the elements ahead of time and my frinds have fun coloring and putting the pieces together. We have dinner and drinks and spend a few hours making handmade holiday cards. Of course, I have to make sure they get a good start before I serve any cocktails!!!!! My party is tomorrow evening and I will try to post some pics of the festivities.

A Face In The Crowd- Sketchbook progress

Here are a few of my latest drawings for the Sketchbook Project. I have about 20 pages left to fill before I mail it off to the Brooklyn Art Library. It is due in early January so I know I can get it finished. I am working on the 3/4 profile. The hardest part is getting the eyes right because it is not as symmetrical as a front view. Sometimes my eyes come out a little cross-eyes looking! I've enjoyed

this project and I do feel like I've gotten better. I like coloring with colored pencils and I know I need to learn to blend my colors more.

Welcome 2 new dolls!

I made this card to welcome my dear friends latest granddaughter. Congratulations Bonnie, Michael, Grandma and Grandpa!!!!
My cousin Tina made her very first art doll when I kidnapped her and forced her to go to the workshop with me. I totally LOVE what she created! Awesome job, girl!

ART DOLL WORKSHOP !!

Last weekend I spent a sunny Sunday making ART DOLLS at Wendy's in Torrence. She was hosting a mixed-media artist group that meets regularly to teach techniques to each other.

I convinced my cousin,Tina, to come with me and give it a try. We had such a fun day putting our dolls together. Our hostess Wendy had the wooden blocks (which were made to hold rubber stamps but she scored them stampless) and paintbrushes which made the body and the head of the dolls. Next, we shared the goodies we all brought and decided what to attach for arms, legs, hair, wings, etc. All of the dolls turned out so differently ! You can really customize this project by using your own buttons, charms, symbols, to make a gift that holds personal meaning.

Wendy is putting together kits that she will sell in her ETSY shop. I am going to buy a few for my next art get together. The kits contain all the basic components and you can customize it with your own colors and embellishments! Tina's doll came out so cool I was jealous! I will post a picture of hers as soon as I get it.

Drawing + Writing = Learning! Visual Art Journals

www.donorschoose.org

If this project gets enough donations, 25 students in California (South) will get resources MY CLASS needs to learn!!!!!

Make a commitment to see "Waiting for Superman" (waitingforsuperman.com) and you can get a FREE $5.00 donation to contribute at donorschoose.org! It was REALLY easy. Please consider contributing to my class project or perhaps a teacher at your school who is doing the same thing. DO IT TODAY AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIFE OF A TEACHER WHO IS STRIVING TO ENRICH THE LIVES OF HIS OR HER STUDENTS!

Sketchbook updates!!!

Here are a few more pages in the sketchbook project I am doing for the Brooklyn Art Library.

The completed book needs to be mailed in January and will tour the country with thousands of other sketchbooks in the exhibit! Cool! I will try to go to San Francisco to see it next June.

Buried in Altered Books!

I have FOUR books here to work on and send on in the altered book groups I'm in. I got 3 at once and here is the second layout I did. This theme is, A Gift From The Sea, and the colors are beach glass colors. I did a retro layout and included the poem, maggie,millie,molly and may by e.e. cummings. What do you think?

You Can Do Magic...

Here is what I did yesterday in a round robin group I'm in called We Dream in Color.

The color theme here is Greens and purples with a touch of gold and the book is titled Spells and we were to illistrate a chant, spell or recipe for something we desired. I wanted to illustrate song lyrics on my page. I journaled some of the lyrics to You Can Do Magic by America. Doo doo doo do do doo doo do do!

Traveling Sketchbook Project: The Beginning...

Here is the cover and some of the first pages of my Sketchbook Project journal. This project is sponsored by the Brooklyn Art Library and you can check it out here: Sketchbook ProjectI ordered the Moleskin journal from the project website and I need to complete the journal in any style I choose and send it back by January 15th. Thousands of artists journals will travel in the exhibit to museums around the US. They are all bar-coded and you get an e-mail whenever someone checks out your journal to look at your artwork. Cool, huh? This journal has the very thin pages so I am gluing thicker pages in to make it sturdier. I was worried about completing it in time, but because I can use sketches I have in other books I have a good start!