Hold on! Don't faint!

I'm sorry for the extreme absence in doing my blog. I really thought that if I started one I would be much more motivated to create things so I'd have a reason to post. Obviously that's not how it turned out (grin). So for those of you who still check in on me occastionally to see if I'm still breathing and creating, I appreciate it. And today is your lucky day....I've got pictures :o) Nothing exciting, just cards I made for Mother's Day, but at least it's something, right? Next week I'll be going to a scrapbook expo with a dear friend, so maybe I'll pick up a few new treasures that I'll be dying to play around with when I get home. We'll see what creative sparks can come from that adventure. Until then, I hope you enjoy looking at the cards.

Have a great weekend!
~Anita

Play time!

The fact that it is nearly 5am and I haven't gone to bed yet can only mean one thing....I've been bitten by the art bug! I bought some new stamps from Tim Holtz today (technically yesterday) and just had to take them for a test drive. I have to say, they are the nicest clear stamps I've purchased. Very thick and sturdy. They better be for the money, right? Thank goodness for 50% coupons at Michaels LOL. Anyway....as usual I didn't really have a game plan when I sat down to make the ATC. I just go from one step to another until I have something that looks finished LOL. I started with my beloved alcohol inks on some acrylic paper, then added some black ink to grunge it up. I took a squooshed bottlecap and filled it with Glossy Accents and silver microbeads. Then I stamped the bird image and quote on newspaper, cut them out and glued them down. I brushed on some glitter paint over the background which didn't really show up well in the picture except for the upper lefthand corner) and put a coat of wax over the stamped pieces. Final step was adding the tiny stars. I think the card came out pretty cool, if I do say so myself. It sure feels good to be creating again! The dark circles under my eyes will be worth it.
Good night!
Anita

Made Time To Clean

Wow, has it really been over a month since I last posted? I'm so embarrassed. That time flew by way too fast. But, I'm back now. And sadly, still no art to post! What a huge disappointment. I didn't make time to play, but I did make time to clean LOL. My reasoning was that if I got my art room cleaned out and organized that would spur me on to actually use some of this stuff. You'll see by the pictures that I do tend to over-buy, especially if there's a good sale :o) My theory is this...buy now, figure out what to do with it later. Something will always come in handy eventually. However, all these goodies can get quite out of hand, especially when you have a limited amount of space to store them. So I went back to Sam's Club and bought a second industrial shelving thingy since I loved the first one so much. At first I thought "this is great, I'll have lots of room left over and therefore can buy more stuff" since this thing is so huge. However, I quickly realized that even with this enormous structure I was still in trouble and had to come up with some creative placement for a few things. I was a good girl, though, and did manage to get rid of a lot of crap, I mean "art supplies" that I knew I'd never really need. So I'm pretty happy with the outcome of this 6-hour project.

So, here's hoping that now that I can see what I have I will be inclined to use some of it :o)

Until next time (and hopefully that won't be a month from now LOL),
Anita

This obviously has nothing to do with my art, but I stumbled across this video posted on Teesha Moore's blog and was fascinated by it. I thought it was very original, and I love the music, so I "borrowed" it to share here. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
~Anita

Trying to get my groove back

The whole month of January is such a blur to me. I can't believe that we're a few footsteps into February already! But since the death of Rebecca's grandmother on January 13th there was a lot to deal with and time simply flew by. Now that the dust has settled and Abuela is nestled up among the angels I decided it was time to get my art groove back. I miss creating something out of nothing and the whole messy process that goes with it.

So, the other night I popped in my Tokio Hotel cd, stared at the 4"x6" background I had made a few days earlier, and got to work. What emerged was a rather cool (I think) bird collage comprised of paint, metallic flakes, Mod Podge, a used dryer sheet, a page with French text from an old book, distress ink, bird image enhanced with colored pencils, feathers, wax, and of course....glitter glue. I matted it on ripped card stock and used a white charcoal pencil to highlight the torn edges. (if you click on the image you'll see a larger version so the details are easier to see).

It's not my greatest work, and I'm sure the more I look at it the more I'll find things I wish I had done differently. I'm always my own worst critic. But the point was to just get started again, get the creative ball rolling.
So...hoping to find more time this week to start on something else. It felt good creating this collage, to concentrate on the process and forget my troubles for a few hours. Art is a wonderful kind of therapy.

Ciao for now,
Anita

Making time to pray, not play

Hello out there in blogland. I noticed another week has slipped by between posts so I thought I better offer an explanation for my absence. Pretty soon no one is going to bother even coming here because it's so boring! But anyway.....

There has not been much opportunity or motivation to do anything creative. I have been preoccupied with watching Rebecca's grandmother slowly losing her fight with Cancer. It was her wish to die at home so she has been under Hospice care for the past month. This wonderful, loving, strong woman welcomed me as part of their family nearly 11 years ago, and now losing her is like losing my own grandmother all over again. During this past week her health started to decline more rapidly. She is too weak to walk now and is confined to her bed. Waiting for death to come knocking at the door is not an easy thing, but we just take it day by day.

So, hopefully it is understandable why I have nothing artsy to share with you. I have neither the time nor motivation to be creative. I'm just exhausted and emotionally drained. But don't give up on me....I will get my rhythm back eventually. I just have other matters taking up my time for now. I hope everyone else is having fun creating wonderful pieces of art that will add beauty and fun to your lives!

Best wishes,
Anita

I'm Still Alive!

Hello and Happy New Year! I know it's been a loooooong time since I've posted anything, but between work, stress, and health issues the time just seemed to whiz right past me. Not enough hours in the day, as they say. Plus, I just didn't have much to talk about. I couldn't say a word about what I had made until the recipients received their gifts. Didn't want to spoil the surprise! So now that everyone has their goodies I'll have two different projects to share with you today....

First up are some of the pages (I won't bore you with all of them) I did for scrapbooks I made as Christmas presents.

These are pictures I took at Thanksgiving when my niece and her family came down from Georgia to visit. It was the first time seeing my new baby great-great nephew, Caden, in person! So I didn't have much time between then and Christmas to get two of these scrapbooks put together! I had to cheat and use an 8"x8" format so the pictures would take up most of the room and I wouldn't be tempted to obsess for hours over each page like I normally would. I had 40 of them to make! No time for my OCD :o) Bad enough I had to sort through a thousand or two sheets of paper trying to find the perfect match (yes, I am a bit of a paper junkie LOL). It was fun doing scrapbooking again. That pretty much went on the backburner after I discovered ATC's and mixed media collage.

Next up is a set of ATC's that I made for a personal trade with my friend, Shelly.
I never really have an idea in my head when I sit down to create something. I like to just put on my music, gather a few materials, and start things in motion. For me, it all begins with the background. However that turns out will give me an idea of what theme will evolve.

"Gold Digger" started out with some stucco paste and metallic paint. It looked like gold nugget to me when it was done, and through word association gold nugget turned into gold digger. Sorry for the bad scan. The beauty of the metallic paint doesn't really show up well.

"Keep Dreaming" was an experiment with metallic flakes adhered to an alcohol ink background.

And "Queen of Imagination" evolved from painting a piece of scrapbook paper to tone down the bright colors, and adding an altered image to it.

So, that brings you up to date with my creations for now. It is one of my resolutions that I will allow myself more time to play this year. Hopefully I can avoid the dreaded creativity-block that I seemed to be plagued with the past few months. I have lots of supplies that are just patiently waiting to be transformed into wonderful creations, so I'm looking forward to being a "user" and not just a "hoarder" LOL.

Until next time....
Best wishes for 2009 and may your days be happy, creative ones!
~Anita

Sorry for Being a Slacker

I know it's been awhile since I've updated my blog, but I have good reasons. Partly because I was still recovering from being sick, and partly because of getting ready for Thanksgiving and my company that would be staying with me. Haven't been able to make time to play with everything going on, but hoping that will change soon.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I did! My niece and her family came from Georgia to visit and I was lucky enough to have my great-nephew (Ronnie), his girlfriend (Lorri), and their too-cute-for-words 6-week old baby (Caden) stay at my place. The rest of them invaded my sister's house. I really enjoyed spending time with them and meeting Lorri and Caden for the first time. I probably took nearly 400 pictures over those 4 days. Anyone who knows me knows that is perfectly normal behavior for me LOL. Snap first, edit/delete later. Here are a few of my favorites:

So hang in there, eventually I will have some more art to share!

Baby hugs,
Anita

Happy Accidents

Ok, my friend Shelly has already posted about this, so at the risk of looking like a copy cat (I've been scolded for not updating my blog enough so I'm desperate for material LOL. But in my defense I've been very sick!) I may as well share one of my accidents, too. I'm sure you're all familiar with trying to do one technique and having something unexpected happen. It's not exactly the effect you were going for, but it's not really bad either. In fact, it's rather cool. So the art piece is saved from going into the trash, you've discovered a "new" technique, and you hope like crazy that you're able to do it again sometime on another project. My example of a happy mistake is this ATC. Two things happened with this: First, I had used some metallic watercolor paint here and there on the background text. No red was used at all. But when the melted beeswax hit it, some kind of reaction happened and I got random red splotches. Secondly, when I printed the image of the little girl I forgot to change the paper in my printer so plain copy paper was used instead of my sturdier photo paper. Not wanting to be wasteful I went ahead and used it, but also being so sleepy at the time (I usually work late at night) it didn't dawn on me that when I put beeswax over the image the wax was going to soak into the paper and alter it a bit. I saw the image disappear a little but then thought it was nice to see some of the text background showing through. It gave the little girl's image an ethereal quality. At least these accidents, I mean techniques, will be easy to remember and I'm sure there will be many, many more in my future LOL.
Ciao for now,
Anita

In Need of a 12-step Program

Hello. My name is Anita. I am an alcoholic. I have a serious addiction to alcohol inks (and glitter, but we'll save that for another post). I'm almost ashamed to admit that I have every color they make. Some are very similar in color, so you may wonder why I bothered buying them. Because I may need them someday, that's why. Blame it on my Girl Scout training to always be prepared. It just makes me happy to see all those little bottles lined up and waiting for me, and whatever color scheme is needed I'll be prepared. Working with those inks is very much like creating snowflakes. No two backgrounds are ever alike. They make look similar, but each still has it's own distinct personality.

I had full intentions of making this ATC to use for a future trade. However, when the last bit of gluestick was applied and I did a final inspection I just knew I wasn't going to be able to part with it. The combination of the alcohol ink, glitter, and butterfly elements was calling my name. Those are three of my favorite things. I have used this image of the woman with butterfly wings a few times before, I am fascinated with it for some reason. But every time I use it I embellish it a little differently to help keep it fresh. These are the other two that I've done:



So, now I am back to sqare one with trying to get some cards done for trades since I'm being selfish and keeping this one. But it's ok, tomorrow's another day :o) Try, try again!

Peace,
Anita