In with the New

 The substrata for this journal is an old ledger

 (an eBay find, several years ago).

I plan to go with a combination 

theme of steampunk and vintage mail ephemera.

Busy gathering supplies, embellishments,

 decorative paper and various bits and bobs 

that will work with the theme.

I was thinking I might end up working in a smaller book this time

 but as usual it's almost just as big, not as thick but  taller than the last one.

Can't wait to get started!!

Out with the Old...

I've been working in this journal since last August

 and will finished it up in the next day or two.

Here are a few of my favourite spreads from it.

I had a lot of fun with this one - big enough to 

do some large work which was different for me.

On Wednesday a preview of the 

new journal as I prepare it for daily use.

Santuario de la Soledad

Santuario de la Soledad  24x13

Here's the finished piece!  

And here's what it looked like when my friend Susan gave it to  me for Christmas.

She has a glorious knack for finding amazing, kitschy, incredible things at swap meets 

and flea markets.  One thing you know - a present from Susan will never be boring

and you'll always be able to figure out something wonderful to do with it! 

I've had the pewter angels and heart for several years

and the old iron rest even longer, just waiting for the 

perfect art piece - and this was it!

It was so much much fun raiding my boxes of crosses,

holy medals and scapulars to come up with all the 

embellishments for around the frame and inside the niche.

There is even a "secret" niche at the bottom - I put in holy

cards, a very old miniature testament, Prayers for Mass, an 

instruction book for Novenas and two candles.

Making Progress

After a week of various medical stuff, I'm back in the studio

and making progress on my shrine.

Have placement for all the embellishments

 and will soon start gluing and wiring things in place.

Looking forward to the final results!

Cool Picks from Pinterest

Just some of the wonderful art and photos I've found on Pinterest lately.

Early 20th century dance card

Tim Holtz Configurations 

Beautiful doors

A library made from cake!

Piles of journals 

Rick Stevens' Studio

Tim Holtz Portfolio

Life on the Coast

Can't resist one more picture of our spring Lupine 

and California Golden Poppies!

Favourite Toy Friday

Every Christmas I could look forward to a new package of Silly Putty (or Nutty Putty, as it was originally known) in my stocking.  It really did do all the magical things it promised!

What I loved the most was the way it would copy the comics from the Sunday newspaper.  And then you could stretch them out in all different directions, change the faces, etc. Give me a comic page, a roll of Silly Putty and I spent hours pulling and pushing and changing the pictures.  Ah well, we were easily entertained in the '50's!

Progress is Being Made

The shrine is coming together -

slowly but surely. 

Trying out different embellishments,

here and there.

What looks good with what,

Which pieces complement the others.

Some I've had for years waiting for

 just the right assemblage, Some  I found just last week

at the garage sales.

A bit more of this placement and then

 the actual "assembling" -I'll keep you posted!

City-Wide Garage Sale -Score!

Every April Morro Bay has a City-Wide Garage Sale.  And every year more and more residents participate in it.  My daughter Jenny was over for the weekend and she generously was my chauffeur
and sherpa for the event.

As we all know garage sales can run the gamut from 

fantastic to stuff we can't believe people 

would even have, much less try to sell.

But usually each year I hit one or two that have

 great merchandise and this year was no exception!

Lots of very cool paper ephemera including old tickets, 

bank deposit books, and photo graphs.

A Cracker Jack tin for great storage, as well as a 

wooden tea box with delightful graphics.

I love these old art prints - great colours, and a

  Gray's Antatomy for 50 cents? Can't beat that!

But the steal of the day was this box of

vintage German glass Christmas ornaments.

Only $10.00 for the lot. Beautiful hand blown glass.

Marbleized Easter Eggs

A little late with this, but I did manage to get them done the day before Easter!  Found the tutorial on Tim Holtz's Blog. Step by step and easy to follow.  Plastic eggs from any craft store - either the kind that screw open and are shiny or the kind that are matte and look more like real eggs and alcohol inks in a variety of colours.

The results look remarkably like marbleized eggs

 and take hardly any time at all!

The first photo shows the eggs after I applied the alcohol inks, 

...the other pictures are after I applied a coat of matte sealer.

It gives a bit of shine and adds to the effect. 

 If you use the shiny plastic eggs to start with

 you can skip the sealer.

I was pleased with the results - easy, fun and beautiful decorations! 

Marination Time!

Things gathering on the studio table to begin their "marination".  

Thank you bobbie, for coining such a great word for my process!

This is the "before" picture, my friend Susan picked this up for me

and said "I know youll do something amazing with this!"

Have been through many cigar boxes,

 searching out the perfect bits and bobs to use.

And am about ready to start - very exciting!  Will keep you posted.