April Postcards

Luckily, April's postcard exchange colors were turquoise and red, so while I had all those papers and things out for Michele's book, I just kept on going. I found the Chinese urn in Dover's free clip art downloads recently, so that became my centerpiece.

Michele's Turquoise and Aqua Book

Here is my latest layout for the True Colors journal round robin. I DO LOVE these colors!

Bev's Quilt in the Dining Area

I've been meaning to hang the gorgeous quilt my sister-in-law made me (based on a collage I made, how cool is that?) in my bedroom, but since we've been painting and redecorating the rest of the house for the past couple of months, I just didn't get it done. Now I know why!

Here's my redecorated dining area:





I love the punch of color it adds. It grabs your eye the minute you walk in the front door. Thanks, Bev!

Thrift Store Finds

The past couple of weeks have been a thrift shop bonanza for my art room. I found two cabinets with shallow drawers perfect for collage papers:





Of course the domino effect was in full, well, effect (or should one of those be affect? Have to ask my linguist daughter). Anyway, rearranging to put those cabinets in meant a few things lost their homes, so I needed a small bookcase, which I found for $16, along with the book holders with the small drawers underneath, for another $16.





If you think it looks like semi-organized chaos in my art room, I'd say you're very perceptive.

The fun find of the month, though, is the little crumb brush and dustpan I found for $3.99:





Can't you just picture the penguin-suited waiter with his white gloves brandishing this little baby between courses? You can't? Hmmm . . . I must have read too many English novels lately.

The Hallway is Done!

I am so happy with our new hallway. It's like we have another room in the house now: the "gallery"!

Here are side-by-side before and after shots:



And here are some of the details of the new "room":















Many thanks to Jean for her help in framing some of my artwork and for the idea to "frame" the Italian plates.

The living room and dining area are very close to done, so I will post final photos soon.

Stressed Out Dogs

Nothing like a hassock in the sunshine to stress out a couple of Chihuahuas.







I'm officially requesting that I come back as one of these guys the next time around!

March Green and Yellow Card

I'm a bit late with my colors postcard for March, but it's done and awaiting mailing.

I call it "Yellow-Green Spectrum," but I guess it could also be called "The Button Snake"!

The background uses my handmade papers, and the circles are all punched from my papers as well. I don't know where this strange, abstract idea came from, but it was fun to make. I hope Carol enjoys it. It certainly is bright. ;-)

Kelly's Faces Class

Last weekend Jean and I took a fun and different class with Kelly Kilmer. We chose faces from magazines and painted over them to give them a unique, arty effect.

Here are some of the works in progress I snapped during the class:













These are Kelly's faces, dashed off in what seemed like moments, while the rest of us struggled and worked painstakingly on our pieces!



Kelly and Annette having fun. The food provided by our host Staci put everyone in a great mood:



And here's Jean at work on my favorite face of the day:



Lastly, here are my faces:







Jean and I plan to get together to do more of these, and then scan them to use in our collages and altered books. Leave it to Kelly to come up with such an innovative by relatively simple idea!

Calendar Round Robin #2

I just finished working in Mary's calendar for March. I ended up with all collage for this one, with no journaling. The photos of women and the funny sayings just suggested further images to me and I was off and running. Here are the spreads:









My favorite is the last one. If you have a favorite, please leave a comment to let me know!

Dierdre's Blue Book

The latest book in the True Colors round robin is from Dierdre, and it's not actually a book, but a round cookie tin with round pieces of watercolor paper inside. It was fun working with the round format. I was browsing through my images looking for blue inspiration and realized I had several images of women wearing blue hats, so that became my theme.



The second side is meant to look like a top view of a hat. Around the outer rim it says "I love my blue hat" in several different languages.

Mosaic Final!

It's done! Grouting it just about wore out my right arm and shoulder, but I'm pretty pleased with this new focal point at the end of my hallway.

I'm thinking of calling it "Constellations." What do you think?





The last photo I'll post of this will be after the linen cabinet is painted and it's got a proper "frame."

White Postcard

This month's postcard exchange color was white. I've been wanting to try some work in whites, and I've been attracted to bird images lately, so I combined the two in a collage:

Final Mosaic Without Grout

The mosaic is done! Here's a photo of the completed top:



Here's the bottom part in progress:



Here's the whole thing all done.



You may notice that the walls around the mosaic are now painted, so I just need to let that dry for another day, then I can grout. In my experience, it's amazing how much difference the grout makes. It just pulls the entire mosaic together. Stay tuned for final photos!