Wednesday, April 29, 2015

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!!

Monday, April 27, 2015

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.


Saturday, April 25, 2015

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.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

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!

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

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

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Life on the Coast



Can't resist one more picture of our spring Lupine 
and California Golden Poppies!

Friday, April 17, 2015

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!


Wednesday, April 15, 2015

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!

Monday, April 13, 2015

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.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

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! 


Thursday, April 9, 2015

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.