I'll Be Back!

Having some medical stuff going on right now -

 but I will be back here at Altered by the Sea.

photo courtesy Bill Abbott

Retro Fun!

To celebrate Margot's birthday we spend a night in a 

vintage aluminum travel trailer at the 

Flying Flags RV Resort in Buellton

 The interior was an interesting amalgamation 

of '50's bombshells and vintage Paris.

Circa 1959 - the El Dorado model made in Burbank.

Look at all that shiny aluminum!

We were surrounded with other vintage
trailers from the'40's and '50's.

 Our lovely outside lounging area!

Loved this very cool light fixture and the

 "oh, so '50's" colour scheme of pink and grey.

We had a great time - a blast from the past!

Final Tags - Part 2

I feel a sense of accomplishment that I finished 

making a set of 2 of each of the tags for Chem 102.

 I love many of the techniques I learned and it was 

lots of fun to try out products that were new to me.

The above two use a technique called "Chalkboard" - a black tag embossed with Antiquities Frosted Crystal Embossing Powder, then rub regular chalk over it and work it in with your fingers - Voila! - it really does look like a chalk board.

These two use regular embossing powder 

and ultra thick embossing powder on

 chipboard crowns to produce a pitted metal look. 

I've put them all on a BIG key chain

and pasted the technique details on the back - 

a handy reference to return to!

Final Tags - Part 1

Finishing up the last four techniques in
Tim Holtz's Creative Chemistry 102.

 Above and below - "Rusted Distress"-
 using Distress Embossing Powder to give a
rusted metallic look to chipboard, cardstock, etc.

Also used the Distress powder with 

layering stencils on the tag backgrounds.

And these two use clear embossing powder
(on a black painted tag) that is then lightly painted over,
the paint is scrumbled off and leaves a "Shabby Chic" look.

Check in on Monday to see the last two sets of tags!

Buried Treasure - From Mess to Marvelous 05/16/12

 I realized a few years ago that there was no way I could keep all the magazines that were accumulating in the studio.  And then there were the stacks of computer printouts, workshop instructions, yada-yada-yada.

 So at first, I put loose items in three ring binders, then I went through many of the magazines and clipped out the articles that I wanted to keep(leftovers went into the collage pile or recycling) and these went into the binders as well.

  But of course,over time, when I would come up with more articles or printouts, they just got shoved into the nearest notebook and you guessed it - pretty soon I had a whole new kind of chaos!

One of my projects this spring was to tame this particular paper tiger. First I amassed all the binders, all the  loose pages and all the magazines that were waiting to be clipped.

Then, duh, I actually came up with all the categories I needed and,"duh 2", made labels for the outsides of the binders so I now know what's in each one.  I know it sounds so simple, you'd think a college graduate, not to mention a librarian, would have done this the first time around.  But better late than never.

Now if I'm looking for that article on "art journaling" I can just go right to the binder that says Art Journaling, if I want info on shops and flea markets - there's a  labeled binder!

Sometimes it's the little simple things that make us so happy!

1500!

                                      photo courtesy of http://jessica-agreatread.blogspot.com/

This is my 1500th post!  That's a lotta blog since February of 2009.  Thank you all for following, for your interest and your comments. A blog would be a lonely thing without its readers and I so appreciate each and every one of you.  It's been a great 5+ years sharing my travels and art with you - here's to many, many more.

Stencils & Spray Paint, Part 3

 And the wrap-up to my stenciling/spray paint festival!

 Web, gears and sun stencils from Stencil Girl

Sun rays over design from plastic placemat,

Sun rays with splatter,

Web and gears with splatter,

Leaves over web,

Skull with punchinella stripes,

Leaves over web and chandelier mask.
 I had lots of fun doing these.

All available at my show at the
Cambria Library during the month of June.

Stencils & Spray Paint - Part 2

 Stencils drying after a session of spray painting.  

Gears, sun rays, and filigree  from Stencil Girl

Skull with splatter,

Branch with splatter,

 Alphabet with splatter,

Filigree with splatter, 

Gears over alphabet.

Stencils & Spray Paint

Had fun over the weekend playing

 with stencils and spray paint.

 Used canvas panels as my substrata
and Liquitex Spray Paints.

Stencils from a variety of places, including some of 

my absolute favourites from Mary Beth Shaw's Stencil Girl.

I'll post more in the next few days. 

 These will be available at my show at the 

Cambria Library during the month of June.

Art Show @ The Cambria Library

Now that I'm retired the Cambria Library has asked me to have an art show during the month of June. They feature a local artist every month and 20% of the proceeds from sales go to the Friends of the Cambria Library.

My daughter Jenny (who took all the pictures)
 and BFF Destiny helped me set-up

 and both had marvelous ideas for showcasing the art.

There are assemblages, 

collage pieces,

small painted panels, tags,

journals of all sizes,

and red rosin collage paintings.

Library hours are Tues-Fri 10-5 and Sat 11-4.

 Cambria Library 1043 Main St.

 If you're in the area, drop by and check it out!