Halloween Treats!

Happy Halloween!

It wouldn't be Halloween if I didn't give you a bit of a treat for stopping by today! I hope you enjoy this sweet little pumpkin PNG file.

Beware of things that go "bump" in the night, and have a very Happy Halloween!

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A Timely Reminder!
(This png file is for your
personal use only!)

This is the weekend that we finally get the hour back that was lost in the Spring. Yay!

If you're currently on Daylight Savings Time, don't forget to push your clock BACK one hour before you go to bed on Saturday night. It's my favorite weekend of the year! In honor of this auspicious occasion, enjoy this timely image.

Wishing you a weekend filled with treats!

First "Zetti"

Journal Page
8 1/2" x 11"
(Click on the Zetti to see the details!)

My family always laughs when I say that I'll try anything once! (Except for skydiving!) Well . . . here you have it . . . my first EVER Zetti figure! Several months ago I enrolled in Nancy Baumiller's "Collage Class". Lessons began last week with techniques for making backgrounds and borders, and this week's lesson was to create crazy, Zetti-style people.

Why has it taken so long for me to create a Zetti figure, you ask? Many of you already know that really scary things frighten the stuffings out of me. Believe it or not disembodied people and severed body parts fit into that "frightening" category! You might say that I've been facing my fears with this class. (Frankly when I saw all of the various body parts laying in wait on my work table, it gave me a great case of the "willies"!!!)

Actually, once I overcame my initial fear and started putting "Matilda" together, I really enjoyed the Zetti making process. Overall, I'm having a lot of fun with this class. It's forcing me to be more playful, to work larger and to try new techniques. I can't wait to see what's next!!!

Hope you're brave enough to try something "new" today!

"Gypsy"

"Gypsy"
5"x7" Collage
(Click on a the tiger rug to enlarge!)

When this week's Crowabout images included the words, "fortunes" and "told", I had to have a gypsy somewhere in the piece. I've always been fascinated by the gypsies; maybe it's because of my Eastern European heritage.

When I think of these intriguing and enigmatic people, my romantic vision always includes beautiful women dressed in silks, fabulous color and exotic environments. If I close my eyes, I can almost smell a smokey fire and hear the soft, melancholy sound of a violin!

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My Techniques

This collage began by sizing all of the elements in a photo editing program, printing them out and carefully trimming them before they were finally glued into position on a piece of scrap paper.

All of the images, including the background, were enhanced with Neocolors and Prismacolors. Additional patterns (leaves and flowers) were hand drawn on the background paper with a brown Pitt pen, and further interest was added by stamping faux text and flowers with brown StaZon ink.

To finish the collage, a border was drawn around the edges with a metallic, copper-colored paint pen, and tiny "dots" were added to give the background a bit of sparkle.

Hope you have an opportunity to "dream"!

Credits: All images from Nancy Baumiller's Crowabout Challenge, with the following exceptions - the gypsy's body (Flickr's JerseyBarb85), and the crown (Pixel Music).

Giveaway Winners & A Freebie

The numbers were tumbled by the random number generator, and the lucky winners in my "100th Follower" Giveaway are:

1. Bat Girl ATC- #12 - Marilyn Rock from www.marilyninmyroomblogspot.com
   
2. Little Witch ATC - #8 - Sharon from Live Wire Jewelry
   
3. Pendant - #15 - Yvonne from Artic Blonde Creations
   

Congratulations to all of the winners! I'll be contacting you for your addresses soon so that I can mail your prizes. Also, a HUGE thank you to everyone who left a comment or paid a visit. You've made my week sparkle with your kind words and happy thoughts! You're all AWE-some!

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Your Freebie!

Couldn't let the upcoming Halloween Holiday go by without a little something. This png file was created from a picture I found in the Library of Congress. She's wearing the pointy hat, now all she needs is a set of wings! LOL!!!

Hope you have a fun weekend!

"Talent Show"

"Talent Show"
5"x7" Collage
(Click on the flying piggy to see the details!)

This week's Crowabout challenge is full of interesting characters and my beloved color. Who can resist a dancing bear or a flying piggy?!? And doesn't everyone have a trained flying monkey to answer their beck and call?!? As you can see, I had a lot of fun with this week's challenge!

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Giveaway Reminder
Last Call!

You still have an opportunity to participate in my celebratory "100th Follower" giveaway. You can read more about it by clicking here. If you'd like to enter, leave a comment on this post (or the original post), and you're automatically entered in the drawing. The winners will be announced on Friday, October 23.

Wishing you an colorful day!

Credits: All elements are from Nancy Baumiller's Crowabout group with the following exceptions: The theater curtain (Itkupilli), the elephant (Flickr's Playing with Brushes), the flying piggy (Kelly L. Watson), the small cowboy cartoon (Flickr's Angel & Spot), the pretty lady and monkey (Flickr's Sassyarts), and the moonface, dancing bear and butterflies (Dover Publications).

"Crown Prince" & A Freebie

"Crown Prince"
4"x6" Digital Collage
(Click on the crown to enlarge!)

When this week's "Goth" theme was announced at "Sunday Postcard Art", I almost had a panic attack! This fascinating style of art is the polar opposite of my wacky, whimsical style, and I almost didn't participate this week. But that's what a great challenge does - it dares you to try new methods, techniques and styles.

Voila! Here's my very first Goth attempt ever! For some reason, I couldn't imagine creating this piece with the traditional cut and paste method - I had to "go digital" with this postcard. Needless to say, a lot of research and studying this intriguing art form has helped me to grow creatively, artistically and digitally. And that's the epitome of a super challenge!

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"Freebies"

Thought you might enjoy these little guys. Don't they look like they've got something naughty planned?!? This week I've included a colorized PNG file as well as the original photo and a black and white JPEG - a little something for everyone to enjoy!

A PNG File
For your artful pleasure!Both of these black & white
pictures are
JPEG Files!

The Original
Courtesy of the Library of Congress

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Giveaway Reminder

You still have an opportunity to participate in my celebratory "100th Follower" giveaway. You can read more about it by clicking here. If you'd like to enter, leave a comment on this post (or the original post), and you're automatically entered in the drawing. The winners will be announced on Friday, October 23.

Wishing you an artful day!


Credits: The image of the boys (Library of Congress) was placed over two blended backgrounds (Itkupilli), and I added the little bird (Flickr's Playing with Brushes) and the awesome goth crown (Pixel Music). Custom brushes were created from images of a bat and a cherubic swag (Graphics Fairy).

A Giveaway!

Win one of these ATC's
Or . . .

This cute pendant!
(Click on any image to enlarge!)

(Glass tile pendant is approximately
the size of a Scrabble tile & looks a LOT
nicer in person. It just didn't photograph well)

It's A Celebration!

Yesterday, Darlene Pringle (A Dancing Mango) became my 100th follower - a definite cause for celebration! And can you believe that her surname is "Pringle" too!?! How serendipitous!!!

A heartfelt "thank you" to Darlene and to each and every one of you! I feel that it's an honor and a privilege to have you take time from your busy schedules to pay a visit or leave a comment. I am thrilled and grateful to be in your wonderful company!

Here's what you have to do to win one of the ATC's or the pendant. It's easy peasey! Just leave a comment on this post or any of my upcoming posts until Wednesday, October 21. The lucky winners will be chosen by random. org and announced on Friday, October 23, so you've got a week to enter. Remember, if you chose to enter, please make sure that I have a way of contacting you if you win.

Also, if you've been hiding in the shadows, this is a great time to introduce yourself. I love making new friends! Good luck to all who enter. And, once again, my heartfelt thanks to all.

A quick note - If you've stopped by for the usual Friday "Freebie", I haven't forgotten about it! Because of today's giveaway, I'll be posting it tomorrow. So please check back!

With love, blessings & gratitude,

Credits: Image of little girl on pumpkin courtesy of Etsy-Lisa's Altered Art. The little witch and pumpkin are courtesy of Itkupilli.

Stepping Out!

Welcome
to
Damariscotta, Maine!
(Click on any pic to see the details!)

Sometimes you need to step out of the studio and take a bit of an art break. Today's post was inspired by our recent trip to Maine. One sunny September afternoon we had an opportunity to travel north of Portland and Brunswick to the little town of Damariscotta (pronounced "Dam-er-scot'-ta").

Damariscotta is a quaint seaside town, filled with fun little shops and lots local color. We had lunch, strolled around the town and visited a few of the many boutiques - one of which is a fabulous pottery shop. This unique, hand painted sign colorfully welcomes you to the awesome pottery studio where you'll find their vibrant work.

Hope you enjoy this little art break and the quick stroll around Damariscotta, Maine!

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The Pottery Shop

The mosaic counter R-O-C-K-S!
It's all made out of broken pottery!

A sampling of their work!

I found the color & pattern
in these gorgeous lamps
very inspirational!

Wandering around the town!

How clever & colorful is this???
My daughter & I made my husband
stop the car for this picture!


A little charm!

Gorgeous color in front of
one of the shops!

A handmade whirlygig!
Isn't this fun?!?

I fell in love with this display!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!
Have a wonderful day!

"Wanted"

"Wanted"
5"x7" Collage
(Click on a rose to see the detail!)

This week's Crowabout images posed a creative dilemma and were a real challenge for me. I loved all of Nancy's pictures, however, there seemed to be very little color on the sheet. (And you know how I love color!) My mission was to give this collage an injection of my beloved color, so I chose to create a colorful, mixed-media background to showcase the central cowgirl image.

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My Techniques

While working on this piece, I envisioned a vintage/grunge look. I began with a piece of gessoed chipboard (from a cereal box); and used a baby wipe to blend red, orange and yellow Neocolors. Next I dry-brushed some red acrylic paint around the inside border, and used turquoise acrylic paint splatters to finish the initial ground.

All of the collage pieces were sized in a photo editing program, printed on a HP inkjet printer, and carefully hand trimmed before being glued into position. Next, each image was color enhanced with watercolor pencils, Prismacolor pencils and then outlined with a black Pitt pen for more definition.

To get the desired grunge look, I printed my text in a funky font, stamped a few stars with black Stazon ink, and added the white marks to the background by dipping an old plastic credit card into white acrylic paint and sliding the edge through the collage. The broken circles were created by dipping a pencil (without an eraser) into turquoise paint.

Distress Ink was used to age the text and was dry brushed over the finished collage to attain a vintage look.

Hope you have a colorful day!


Credits: All of the images - with the following exceptions - are from this week's Crowabout challenge. Thanks, Nancy! The "grown-up" cowboys are from Flickr's Paper Scraps, the little guy from Flickr's Angel & Spot, and the roses were cropped from a vintage postcard supplied by Flickr's Images by Kim.

"Bye, Bye"

"Bye, Bye"
4"x6"
(Click on a star to see the details!)

The theme for this Sunday Postcard Art is "Blackbird", and my mind immediately went to the old song, "Bye, Bye Blackbird". This postcard's style is a bit more simplistic and graphic for me, but it gave me an opportunity to try new creative "wings". (Please pardon the pun! LOL!!!)

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My Techniques

I colored a piece of watercolor paper with Neocolors and gently spread the color around using a baby wipe. After a quick "blow dry" with my heat gun, I applied the crayon/baby wipe technique again to obtain deeper hues and more color variation. Much credit and a special thanks to my dear friend Lynn from Her Creative Spirit for sharing this awesome technique.

A Bonus "Freebie"
For your artful pleasure!

After finding a great picture of a real blackbird, I used a photo editing program to scan the picture and posterized it into a stencil which I then printed onto cardstock. It was a bit tedious to use an Exacto blade to cut around those little feet, but the results were worth the extra effort. The star stencil was created by using large and small star punches and scrap cardstock.

The blackbird was stenciled with black acrylic paint, the stars with Lumiere paint (Metallic Bronze), and the word, "bye", was stamped with black Stazon ink. A copper metallic marker was used to edge the entire piece.

Hope you try your creative wings!

Some Pics & Some Freebies!

For Your Artful Pleasure!

(These PNG Files have been created
with images from the Libary of Congress.)

When I found the pictures of these two, sweet little girls, I couldn't make up my mind as to which picture I liked better. Since I couldn't make up my mind, I decided to use both for this week's "freebie". Sometimes indecision is a "good thing"! By the way, I love the boots on the first little girl, and I think that her coat is divine!

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Vacation Pics

Over the past few weeks I've taken quite a few pictures, and here are a few that I thought you might enjoy. Be prepared . . . this is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg!

Maybe I wanted to capture the end of the growing season, because I found myself taking a quite few pictures of the lovely, colorful flowers that I found strewn along the way. If something strikes your fancy, click on it to see the details.

Portsmouth, NH

Kennebunkport, ME

Damariscotta, ME

Wishing you a colorful weekend!

"Friendship"

"Friendship"
5"x7" Collage
(Click on the pumpkin face to see the details!)

"Friendship" was created to meet two challenges this week - Crowabout and The Three Muses number-themed challenge. I hope this collage makes you smile!

All of the images are from this week's Crowabout challenge and Nancy Baumiller, with the exception of the "pumpkin suit" (thanks to Flickr's Suzee Que) and the blue butterflies (Dover Publications).

I loved being on vacation, but I adore being back in the studio. Absence DOES make the heart grow fonder!

Wishing you a day filled with the joy of friendship!