her vision. family. art.

it's all good

weather- times -creative energy. in everyday verbage, it was a good weekend !!

a few visuals. this little gem is my grandma. i love working with her photos. she's so beautiful, and she is my guardian angel. she continues to inspire me in life. the piece is done for an artist swap ( of course i pushed, and missed this deadline ) -what else is new-?

the image is done in greens. my color scheme was OLIVE. underneath i used alcohol ink, and acrylic on top- the lettering is done with dip pen and ink. love the feather, and i placed small diamond gems to drops of olive acrylic. the necklace. my gram is a jewelry, shoe, and handbag diva. she's all about accessorizing! -maybe that's where i get my obsession for elments. detail.  i think my favorite detail in this design is the two twinkie moles that i placed with ink on her cheek. this detail is realistic. she really does have twinkie moles on her cheek! -i just 'accented' them a little.

this weekend i got some work done on my monthly journal. i had to backtrack to feb, and i got a good jump on jan, but here's some visuals of feb completed. i used dye to stain the entire envelope, and bleach on the X,O foam stamps. the journaling on the back is done on vintage wallpaper that i adhered to that side of the envelope page. february wasn't a very 'happening' month...     event-wise, so the majority of design was focused on st valentine's. going through the motions----  actually, i used the X,O tag i posted for Valentine's as a springboard for this. same thought. different design. the journal is starting to 'bulk'. i love the overflow of elements seen on the outside of the journal;   draws interest to the inner part

and i'm digging this -look what my boys brought home to me!  tonight we're going to feast on fried morel mushrooms and grilled T-bones! in the midwest, morel mushrooms are a fab spring find! always during turkey hunting. we fry them in egg and flour until they're golden, and eat them until we're so sick of them, we don't want to see another mushroom until next spring ! they're so awesome.

another journal in motion

it's started...         but not over the top by any means! i finished the march page to my monthly envelope journal. ( i started with march and will backtrack to jan and feb ) i wanted the focal here in the  photo, so it's pretty simplistic. with a little POP in the rub-on "tattoos" i very fittingly placed! so here's the motive behind this journal...     1.to force myself to keep active in my artwork because let's be realistic, sometimes it's hard to get into the groove! 2.to have a place where i can journal and incorporate our life happenings of 2007; where i can look back on it ALL. some of this will only make sense to me, which is something that i relish! sometimes it's in the design and totally visual, and sometimes it's in the words; the appearance of my journaling ...which at times is complicated as-is   

here's a visual of march's envelope contents; journaling on an old ledger paper and photos from our recent fam photo shoot.

i used hks sticker letters to say FAM3, old masking tape for the tab. a feather is tied onto the closure string and the book text words "For the love of _" is attached to the feather with glue adhesive. i painted the entire envelope with black acrylic, and carried it onto the photo, where i wiped most of it off when it was -almost- dry. again-photo distressing using the acrylic and a very rough paint towel. *i have a towel that i use to wipe off excess when i'm working with acrylics and other altering mediums. the towel is so covered that it has some very stiff areas which is a great altering tool in itself! by using these areas on the towel, it sometimes takes away more than the acrylic!! in this case, i have random places on the photo where some of the photo finish was taken away as well. cool concept.  the rub-on words are very fitting to where they were placed; to emmulate tattoos. -makes for a fun visual. i'll explain ...bobby seems to always be everywhere but here. eth's daily ? is "where's bobby".   and eth had a tough month; pushing the limitations a bit like a normal 16-yr old..   trying to find some balances.., so these 7gypsies rub-on words were perfect for him! and this is cool...    one of my girlfriends' just came back from NOLA, and she brought me a small vile of red dip pen ink from a little shop. the ink is called dragon's blood red! she brought this to me when i was working on this photo, and it fit to use the ink to make the 'horns' on eth..   and then i'm in the background, standing over the boys' with the -heart- on my hand.  -the upper hand if you will ;-) i like how this photo played out. so the page is simplistic, but makes a statement without being overkill on design.   it works for me. it's realistic.

the last image is of the journal shell. it's pretty raw, and looking at this makes me want to fill it NOW! this is seriously going to be a challenge for me

*pretty cool that my blog is going to be featured in an upcoming article in somerset studio mag. pretty stoked about that. i don't know a lot about the article content yet, or when it's coming out, but i'm sure there's going to be others featured, so it should be a very cool piece. i'll keep you posted when i know more-

and talking about blogs..   i got to do a little blog catching up tonight, and i love the inspiration i get from her. i love her artwork/journals and her REAL thoughts! she inspires me continually with her art AND friendship! and she is just crazy-talented fun!!

have a fab week -slm

Monday

-not one of my typical blogging days...    but my weekend was so jammed that i didn't get a chance to get online and do anything! good weekend-   one of the highlights was a girlfriend of mine's daughter had her 10th birthday party. i made her birthday invites, and this FUN little birthday journal to give to her. the girls love coming to my house, and hanging out in the studio area. *exception, if bobby's home.....   they FOLLOW HIM around the house! it's cute..  so here's this journal minus a few pages... it's made from a little board book. the pages were ruffed up and painted with acrylic. then i just used a hodge -podge of girly stuff to embellish.

this inside page is where i added the envelope/birthday invite. i attached it to the center using a making memories hinge that allows the invite to flip back/forth. fun. the birthday invite and envelope was designed using heidi's flower mask and pink spray paint. *we also used this mask to spray paint the birthday party cups* when the invite is flipped over, it exposes the birthday girl's photo that i framed  in by using the center area of her party plate. then i used hks decorated tapes and distressed them with a file. for tags throughout the book, i used making memories metal flowers that i painted in coordinating colors of acrylics. stapled onto the pages. the book closure ties shut and is made of ribbons braided together.

i love this art. i do it for myself and mine, and when i inspire people -it's BONUS. i've had two different artists email me recently to ask if they could use me for a project they had to do on artists' who inspire them. i got the image from one artist this weekend . the gallery is lime tart. i checked it out when she sent me the link, and there's some good stuff here! i love the whole site-       I N S P I R I N G. hip. trendy. i love it.  thank you lee! to me, when an artist uses another artist in their work, that's bottom line an ultimate compliment. pretty cool.

another weekend highlight was friday night when i was out with friends, and i ran into a girlfriend from school that i hadn't seen in 20 years (telling my age) she emailed me this picture that her friend took of her, myself and my best friend -who was also in our class. pretty cool, and i'm looking forward to reconnecting with her. 

i'm still working on the monthly journal that i started. *about finished with the march page and then i will post it later in the week.

i finally got the drive to get a couple of journals started this weekend. the Paris photo journal ...i made for my sis-n-law's sister who just went to Paris to visit a girlfriend of hers. She bought me this fab little pen/nib set that i'm very stoked to have! -love you Tracy! So here's some visuals of the photo journal>  the shell of this journal is cardboard, covered with a paper placemat that she picked up at a pizzaria. the closure is similar to the closure on my pen/nib set. not exact. but close. she'll love it.

so this second journal is going to be a 'montly' project. -i'm challenging myself to stay on top of a 'continuous' project! i've decided to take this 7gypsies envelope 'naked' journal, and jam it up with >life happenings< of 2007. i think it's a fun concept. i guess it could be a spin off from my time capsule piece. it only has 9 envelopes bound into the book, so i'll have to be a little creative to turn it into a 12-month journal. i'm sure that i will eventually have to add something else into the cover design, however my thought now is to leave it simplistic because the reality is that the inside will probably be bulging out from the top-bottom- and sides by the time it's complete!! it wouldn't be one of my signature journals if it wasn't out of control >>Right? ;-) so here's the visual...         i layered book pages onto the journal cover, then added this very cool sticker designed by hks. -and i have to be honest...    i peeled it right off of the envelope to the christmas card my dear little friend sent to me last year! (wink)...    what can i say -it ROCKS. it's all good.   the book text shows through the negative areas of the design in the sticker. DIMENSION. -you know i love it!  the metal piece is a pretty cool thought too...   it's the door jam (i think that's what it's called...) to my front door. <i won't go into the full drama of this experience, but i'll simply explain by telling you that i replaced the hardware/knob to my front door. after i dove into this very simple home project, i realized that all the hardware had to be replaced...    ALL. deadbolt. everything. and it wasn't pretty. the end result...       i now have a fab new door knob; i'll spare you the number of hours it took me to get it all in sync and working. it's an ugly number> however, i was able to salvage a few of the original hardware pieces to use in my artwork.  i'm liking this piece, and what it symbolizes to me and the concept in this journal.

happy easter. happy up-coming week! slm.