Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Lace and Pearls



This was my first attempt at a lacy, frilly wall hanging. It is 13 inches x 5 inches. I am working on my second one but it still needs more lace or something. It was really fun and I am sure I will be making more of these. I have alot of bits and pieces of vintage jewelry that I need to use. Anyway..............Off to work...spread some JOY today. My wee Irish friend has a new blog and you should stop by and say Hi..http://cheekyurchin.blogspot.com/

Monday, July 28, 2008

Chunky Book with rings



Got my CHUNKY BOOK together...what fun, I love it. Want more!!! Guess I will have to see if someone at AFA will host another...Maybe I should host a blog swap?? Hummm I will have to give that some thought.

The She Sells was done by me yesterday. Love that image, she was also the star of Jewels from the Sea Swap.

I LOVE the page I got from Cardina Soap Chef http://www.atcsforall.com/forum/member.php?u=1767 She is over at AFA. It is a great page. It was just one of the six pages I got in the Chunky pages with Quotes....

The Last page is from Mireya http://www.flickr.com/photos/art4mysanity We did a one on one swap over at flickr. and you can find her at AFA too.

My little book has 6 pages from Amy's Swaphttp://www.atcsforall.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3601, 6 pages that I made and one from my friend Mireya...

The SWAP idea keeps popping into my head...I guess I will have to see how many people are interested first. Stay tuned. Stay Happy........Diane

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Jewels Of The Sea Swap #3



Ok....here are my last 3 pendants from the swap.
The first one pictured is from Jullie. It is very delicate and hard to photograph. It has a beautiful Mermaid in the top and an awesome silver fish and crystals in a lovely shade blue. The card that she printed is pretty enough to wear too. I just love it. You can see her art at
http://www.shabby-jules.blogspot.com/

The second picture is presented on a cool ATC. I didn't photograph but the back is a playing card with the number 3 and an Octopus on it...don't know what game it might have been from but it fit the theme. She made the sea weed element out of some type of clay and added real shells and some copper and brass shells too. Very cool, all that and then the pendant, which is a shell with pearls and crystals and a very pretty copper starfish. Love it Lisa.... You can see her work at
http://www.onestaraway.com/

The third one was made by Tiffany. She is
http://flickr.com/photos/rowanwillow/ at flickr and has a nice demo as to how she made it. Cool drill Tiffany. The pendant has a large amber colored crystal, very cool beach-glass and some hand made charms. You can see her work at http://www.aleahstreasures.blogspot.com/

Any way....I learned a lot from my first blog swap and met some outstanding people who are no longer strangers.. Have a Creative Day.. Diane

Friday, July 25, 2008

Jewels Of The Sea Swap #2




Here are 3 of the 6 pendants that I received. First of all I want to say they were all wonderful..This was my first swap in the Blog world and I really loved it. Speckled Egg did a great job sorting and distributing everything.. What fun she must had had.
The top one was made by Jenny at www.fatedfolliesstudio.blogspot.com She really did an outstanding job. She put so much work into each one. She made six and each box was papered, with lace and a fun top. Then she decorated the card to hold the pendant with lovely paper and a miniature print of the swap photo on the back. Oh.....and did I say the pendant was lovely. And if you want a good LAUGH...CHECK OUT HER BLOG. Let her know Diane sent You..
The second picture is a metal pendant that says Seas with fun little shells and net and beach glass. The little satin bag filled with little glass pebbles and the drift wood topping was fantastic. It was made by Amy but I lost her address in the mess of my studio. If someone could get it to me I would appreciate it.
The third one was beautiful with crystal and pearls in the prettiest shade of blue and a silver shell on the end..It was attached to a very pretty tag that looked like the ocean. Lovely. Check out Ledie's work at www.junkgirl66@yahoo.com. I will post the next three in a day or so.
Thank you for stopping by and ART-ON. Diane

Jewels Of The Sea Swap

Well I received my returns from Heather at Speckled-egg, and I want to say they are all wonderful. My friend Roc asked how I could wait to open them until I had the time to photograph them...she is just like my sister, she always opened Christmas packages the minute they arrived at her house. I quit sending the kids gifts to her house and started sending them to my Mom's so she and the kids could open them there Christmas day...I guess its because the wrapping is so pretty that I like to look at them awhile. And of course now with this Blog I wanted to share the beauty with everyone too. Check out all my returns on my Flickr.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

I LOVE making 4" x 4" Book Pages


What can I say......I love making Chunky Book Pages. I hope I still love them after I punch two holes in them and ring them together. Some of them are fairly thick and I may not be able to use my Crop-a-dile punch and eyelet setter. I think if they look too thick I will just drill holes with my handy-dandy drill.
I have so much to do tomorrow...It will be nice to just drown myself in art and escape from the smoke and the fires for a little while.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Visiting My Grandson's



It was good to get out of town for the weekend. Our Daughter-in-law's parents have a lovely home and beautiful yard with a great pool. It was so nice to just sit outside and have fresh air. (did I mention an amazing grape arbor??)
The smoke is still so bad in fact it got worse last night as they started some backfires. Very smokey this morning. The Grand kids are growing so fast, wish we could see them more often.


I received three swaps in the mail. I have to photograph my little packages of goodies from the Sea Swap. I didn't even open the little packages they were so pretty, wanted to take pictures first. Returns from the Chunky Book pages were awesome...all six of the ones I got were fantastic artwork. Great job Amy at AFA. And my Gothic Arches were wonderful with the fun Zetti theme. Mandy at Mail art World must have had a fun time hosting this one. Great Art.

Today: Sprinkle some Joy around.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Emma future Oueen of Quitealot

This was a fun little 4" X 4" collage for my CHUNKY BOOK. Amyfaerie hosted a swap at AFA. I should get my 6 returns any day now. I made a few extra pages to fill in my little book. They are so fuzzy and wonderful when you put them all together, I am getting excited to see which ones I receive.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Lime Complex Fire, Trinity County




Well we have been living in the smoke filled mountains for almost 4 weeks now. The fire fighters are amazing....They are well trained and diligent in their efforts. There have been very few injury's, no structures lost. The forest however has burned close to 140,000 acres. That is not counting the surrounding county's, Shasta Co., Butte Co. and on, and on in California. The president will be in Shasta Co. today and fly over our area and the fires here.
Our friend Fritz took these pictures. The first photo was taken Tuesday about 7:00 p.m. It was quite scary and only about 10 or 15 miles from our town. It looks like two large fires might burn together..I don't know what our forest will be like when this is over, or how long it will take to recover. I remember Yellowstone...new life starts in the spring, slow but sure the renewal comes.
GOD BLESS THE FIREFIGHTERS.....They leave their family's to protect us. We pray for their safe return.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Fun 4x4 Chunky Cup Cake


This was fun...I had this old single earring that someone gave me and it was the cherry on the top. NO time today so I will just wish you a joyful day.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Eight Favorite Blog Sites

Just wanted to share my 4 x 4 Chunky book page. Love Crows don't ya know??



Ok.....I think I got this right. My seven nominations for favorite blog's and the person that gave me this award...Roc and you can see her work herehttp://whatsuproc.blogspot.com/
Here are the rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog. ( click on it and save to your files)
2. Add a link to the person who gave it to you..(that would be me)
3. Nominate at least 7 other favorite blogs.
4. Add links to those people.
5 Leave a message for those 7 nominees.
Here are seven of my favorite places to visit and find inspiration.....







and my newest find/friend is Marilyn http://marilynhealey.blogspot.com/

Saturday, July 12, 2008

MY FEATURED ARTIST




Another Favorite Artist and long time Art Friend has nominated me for the "BRILLANTE WEBLOG" award. I am honored Roc and the surprise is on you, because I had already picked you to be my FEATURED ARTIST. Roc and I have been trading art for a few years now. She is an amazing artist and her work just keeps on being imaginative and original. These three ATC's have always been on my workspace and not in my album, they keep me company when I am working and when I drift off to that other place I go. So....check out her blog, she is doing the most amazing POSTCARDS and I can tell she is enjoying working on the larger canvas. Check out her art here http://www.whatsuproc.blogspot.com/

I need to nominate 7 other blogs and leave links to them so I will give it some thought and post them at another time as I am out of time. Peace

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

My Little Stardust Rose



This canvas was inspired by my new friend Viola....her work is so Lacey and lovely. The canvas is 12 x 12 the little girl is from a photo I found on my antiquing adventure. Check out her blog and I am sure you will be inspired by her work too. http://saray-viola.blogspot.com/ I would love to hear from you...what do you think of her work? I will be featuring some of my favorite Artist/friends here on my blog. It will be a surprise who I pick, random even for me, as I find so many talented Artist thru my Internet connections. This is my second feature the first one was the three mermaid ATC's I bought on E-bay. You will get to see them again soon as I have created a frame to keep them safe and dust free.... Have an Inspiring Day........

Monday, July 7, 2008

4 x 4 Chunky Book Page & Lime Fire



Helicopter Base
It is still very smokey here and looks like most of these fires won't be out until the rains come. I took a few photos yesterday of the fire camp. They are all on my flickr site. So far no sign of the Marines.
http://flickr.com/ more photos.

I had fun making 4 x 4's yesterday. Her hat says enjoy the journey on metal tag. Happy Monday! Art On! Also played with my lighting again..I think I am getting something setup however I may have to invest in some more equipment...ugg

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Royal Family


This was a little difficult to photograph. It is a mixed media collage that is 9" X 12" on a stretched canvas. Even with a mat finish the lights still glare somewhat. I got out two big clip on lights with the new "Day light" energy saving lights. They are bright. I have a little more work to do with my lighting. I would like to get something set up so I don't have to shuffle everything every time I want to photograph my work but with limited space that may be a trick..One artist had a closet set up and her photographs were great and some really small jewelry, without any glare. Anyway that is my present challenge. If anyone has any suggestions I am open for information. Have a deep breath, relaxing Sunday!!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Bee's Wax Experiment


Well this is my little GOOF....I still love her but wish I didn't put that bee's wax on it..tho I had fun playing it sorta melted my embossing powder that was rubber stamped on the back ground. It took away some of the bright gold look. I started out just putting it on the wings to see the affect. You know how that goes....I used my little iron to smooth it away, so I added more wax and ironed it smooth. This went on and on just on the faerie, anyway it doesn't look too bad but not real happy with it either. Have to try new things....always. ART-ON!! Experiment!!

Friday, July 4, 2008

fUN fUN fUN


Well I just had so much fun yesterday....I got some bees wax and was fooling around with it. Haven't read any how to's.. or anything just jumped in with both feet....I do that often. Well the end result was not good. I pretty much wrecked two arches that I had made...boo hoo. I guess I will have to get some instructions. Anyway I switched to embossing powder and this is the Arch that I came up with...

Thursday, July 3, 2008

GOTHIC ARCH Buttercup


OMg these are so fun.....Little BUTTERCUP is her name. Simple collage. Background paper was sent to me with a trade and I couldn't wait to use it. I have done a few more and will upload them over the next few days.


They are sending in the Marines Sunday about 550 should arrive and set up at our county fair grounds. The fires are still going but they are making great progress and no structures lost at this time, even in the Wildwood area that they evacuated a few days ago. We actually had a little blue sky yesterday and this morning..after almost two weeks without sunshine or blue sky.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Rush Rush Rush

This mixed media collage is 8" X 10". It was made with the old photo I found on my antique n thriftin trip. I enlarged the original to 5 x 7. It was really fun.

HAVE A CREATIVE DAY.