12 days of Christmas - Days 4 and 5

Pretty little bird earrings from Linda S. for day 4

Linda's pretty packaging

Jeri's pretty package and beautiful book that has lined paper to write on
inside for day 5.

12 Days of Christmas with AAWA

AAWA is my art group that is all over the US. We open one gift a day the 12 days before Christmas.

These snowflakes were opened on the 3rd day of Christmas and they are from Jean.

This is Jean's pretty handmade packaging. Jean is from Florida.

This is Julie's pretty stitching on our day one gift. Julie is from Texas.

This is my little Christmas tree before all the gifts were put under it and I
am putting many of the 12 days gifts on my tree.

This is Yooper's Day 2 gift. It is a cute little magnet on my fridge.
Yooper if from Florida.

Our Local 2nd Saturday Altered Book Club Christmas Party

Our altered book club had our Christmas Party Saturday. We made handmade gifts and put numbers on them and had fun opening them.

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This is Jean's wreath to Charlotte with stick pins. She designed it for them to be removed from the wreath and cards to be made from them but I would be hard pressed to take them off that pretty wreath.

 

 This pretty box that Linda made was given to Martha one of our newer members and she is a paper doll collector and maker. She said that she would probably put a doll and her clothes and toys in the box.

 

These vintage Vargas girls paper dolls were Martha's gift to Pam. They are dressed in vintage wallpapers.

We have an art exchange each month and these are mine from Dorothy and Jean.

This is the configuration box that I made and Jean received this gift.

Martha, Karen, Linda, Pam Jean, Charlotte and Dorothy

Hopefully I will get one of the other girls photos because I didn't get in any of these.

Pam's stained glass bottle to Linda.
 



December's art exchange to Pam. Woodland theme.

Sorry but this photo is blurred and doesn't show off this beautiful canister set
that Dorothy made and Karen received.

Jean opens my gift to her.



Roxie's gift to Nancy which is a box with little folders inside to
hold pictures and I LOVE it! Thanks, Roxie!


 

Dance in the Rain

I have not had a lot of time for art lately but here is my latest art that I did for Roxie in My Altered book club. Her book is an artist choice so I had fun doing a face and some flowers.  She also wanted a quote in our layouts for her book so the quote is on a Tim Holtz stamp. I think she looks like she is in the rain trying to learn to dance in spite of her circumstances. That would certainly be what I am going through right now! We are taking care of my DH's 90 yr. old Mom and she has dementia. We have good days and bad days but we try to make the best of them. Hope Roxie and you that see this enjoy the art! I had fun doing it!

Mix It Monthly Challenge - Still Life

This was a magazine picture that was the inspiration for my still life drawing.

This is my still life of jars and bottles and it looks like it is on my back porch table. We have white siding on our house too so
I can just picture these old jars and bottles on an old antique table on our back porch. I was trying to get into the color scheme so I decided to use some packing tape that I had made on my Gelli plate to one of the bottles.
I hope you enjoy my still life. I had fun making it.

Another crazy dress for Mix It Monthly

I had to do a tag for a friend in my Altered Book club so I did this one. It is from a book which I don't remember the exact title but I purchased it for my 9 year old Granddaughter. It was something about the art of Zentangles. I did a head drawing in my sketch book and so did she and she did quite well. Wish I had taken a picture of it before she left but alas I forgot to. We had fun all weekend with that book. One of the pictures was of a fairy zentangle dragonfly bride. I changed her some and made her into a butterfly bride as my friend, Jean wanted a tag with butterflies and flowers on it for her piece of art that we do in our local altered book club. She has red hair which is a nod to another of my lovely Grandgirlies. I hope Jean enjoys her and I hope that you enjoy looking at her. After I did her I realized that she would fit right into that crazy dress theme that Mix It Monthly has going on so I will add her to the links there.

Mix it Monthly - Crazy Dress

I had to do an altered book for my friend, Char in my altered book club and her theme is Seasons.
Lots of people have worked in her lovely altered book and most of the seasons had been done. So I looked at Pinterest for some design inspiration for Seasons. I saw in there that an art teacher had dressed the Mona Lisa for the Seasons in the classroom. Well that inspired me to dress some famous characters for the seasons and I thought that I might could combine it with Mix It Monthly's theme of crazy dress. So I chose American Gothic for my characters to dress. I painted over them with gesso and drew their outfits onto them. The Spring outfit is the crazy dress for Mix it Monthly. The flowers
were from Easter Seal stamps and I found the Summer drink in some of my Summer stuff. The Winter one has glitter snow on it. These were fun to do but were quite the challenge! I figured the original American Gothic would be perfect for Fall. What do you think?

Mix It Monthly - Theme sailboats

Here is my art for my online group, AAWA (An Affair With Art) where the theme is Bright Sunny Day and for Mix It Monthly where the theme is sailboats. I had to do 3 4x4s for my online group and they are all similar but just a little different. Here is the one that I liked best because the sailboat is in the middle of the sun. Hope you enjoy seeing it.

Umbrella Chunky Book

Back in March I posted a picture of the 4x4s that I was making for my online art group, AAWA. Well I did get all 17 of those 4x4s done and now I have finished 17 for a friend who signed up for this swap but had some health issues and she was not able to do the swap. I didn't want her to miss out so these were a labor of love for a dear friend. She wanted to use a real drink umbrella on her 4x4 so I remembered that another one of my friends had done a drink umbrella on a tag and it was really cute. But she did not open the umbrellas up. I could not fit them unopened on the 4x4 because it is smaller than the tag. So I opened them up and this is what I came up with. I think they turned out really cute! I hope you like them, Claudia and what do you think, Bren about your changed up design?

Mix It Monthly and Art Journal Journey - Theme Coffee and circles

 

I have never been a coffee drinker other than an occasional cup every now and then until recently. 

 I  purchased Folgers Breakfast Blend and we love it! I love to open the can and smell it! This is my favorite coffee cup which was my inspiration for my drawing.  And the W. C. Fields quote describes my morning moods perfectly. I am definitely not a morning person! And I was really surprised to see when I was commenting on some of the other art for Mix It Monthly that there is also an Art Journal Journey site that has a challenge with circles!

 

Pretty Laces

I did a swap with my online art group and we each dyed various laces and they were send to me and I mixed all the colors up and will send them back out tomorrow. We dyed them by various methods and some are color safe and some are not. I think they turned out so pretty. And some of the girls did little tags that we can use on our art and one dyed some ribbon to go with her lace. I thought I'd share how pretty they are with you.

Mix It Monthly - another side to my art journal layout - Theme Maps

I did a fun picture of a girl that wants to ride on the Swamp Rabbit Trail and after I made it, I knew that I wanted to put a more detailed explanation on the other side of the layout in my art journal. I used a picture of a model from a fashion magazine and cut her out with dotted paper and put a map of my home town behind her. Then I wrote about my home as many other have done for this challenge. There must be something about those maps that make us think of home. I did lots of journaling and some doodling. I cut out the heart for home and on the same dye, there is a flower so I put that in the girl's hair and I think that helps to tie the two pages together.
Now I feel that this layout is complete!

Mix it Monthly - theme maps

This is done in watercolors in my art journal which is my favorite way to paint. Her hair is a map of Greenville, SC which is very near where we live. Greenville has a bike trail which is called the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Part of it is on old railroad lines. It goes a long way through the city and it seems that all near by cities are getting on board and making their trails to connect with the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Greenville has been named a top 10 city to bike in. The Swamp Rabbit Trail is very big here and this girl is looking forward to a ride on the trail.

Finally some time for art!

This is an altered book for my friend, Linda in our altered book club. Her theme is trees. The quote part of a quote that she put in the front of her book. It is done in watercolors. I hope that she will enjoy it.

Orchid April 2, 2014

This is my orchid now. I thought that it was through with 20 blooms but it now will have 28 blooms!
My front window was so bright that I moved it into my den and put it on top of our gas stove. With that dark background you can really see the orchid. And there are still a few blooms not open. You see this one that will probably open today or tomorrow and These two that will take a few more days to open. Now that is amazing to me! I wonder if this is all or if there are more to come?
I am posting this for a friend who gave this orchid to my Mother in Law and she gave the orchid to me because she did not know that it would bloom again. But she is enjoying the orchid here and she loves seeing it bloom here. Everyone who comes here just loves it. It has surely brighten up a long winter for us!  Thanks, Bill for your kind gift that keeps on giving!

No Time For Art

Well, it's been a while and I have not had time to do any art but I did want to share some things with you. We went to a wedding and they had a photo booth. So we had our pictures made. We opted to hold up little signs instead of using the props they had to dress up in. I really like the 2nd best. We had a great time at the wedding. It was held here. It was up a very steep mountain at the Cliffs of Glassy which is about 1 1/2 hours from our house and the reception was at the Venue in Travelers Rest, SC. It was a very fun time!

Here is the Double Dutch card that I received from Yooper in my online art group, An Affair with Art (AAWA) and the ladybug ATC I received from Ellen. My Grandson is a space nut so he will love the card and I adore the cute ladybug ATC!
And I cannot believe that the orchid has 6 new buds on top of the 20 blooms that it already has on it! Wow!