Helga's Weekly Challenge #2

Glad that Helga is back from vacation...and the timing was perfect for me.

I am finished with the play I was in for the past month and we were on vacation last week...so I had time to play.

Helga's Challenge this week was to add turquoise to our art. It's funny, because I'm getting ready to participate in an altered book group...and that was what I decided would be my requirement for my book...to add the color turquoise. Great minds!! : )

So...here's my second piece of art for this challenge. I created the background using AC's watercolor ATC's, and I stamped circles on the ATC using a pop lid. I then used watercolors to add the colors I wanted. I used the bird from the Pretty Bird collage sheet and Chixies Hat Affairs collage sheet. I cut the bird out and then punched a circle out of the rest of the background to add to the ATC. I punched a cirle out of a vintage Dictionary with the word CHIRP as the focus. I'm loving the color combination here.

ArtChix Bi-weekly Lottery - On Your Way Home

I love participating in the Bi-weekly Lottery over at ArtChix. It gives me a chance to try out different themes and techniques.

I admit, lately I haven't had much time to work on my art like I'd like, but I've always found time for the Bi-weekly Lottery. I don't think I've missed one week since I joined in in January.

I feel so fortunate to have won the lottery this week. I love the fact that I get to receive pieces of art from so many of the artists that I admire.

I decided to have a little lottery of my own with MY piece and Pam McKenzie had the winning ticket. I'll be mailing it out in the next couple of days.

I look at the lottery as a chance to art...not necessarily a chance to win...but I DO think it's fantastic when I win!! I can't wait for the mail to come tomorrow.

Helga's Pink & Blue Challenge

Helga from ArtChix has challenged us all to play with Pink & Blue this week.

I've been behind in my artwork since I started my new job, but this weekend I did get about four projects done and felt like I could make some time to play in this week's challenge.

I haven't participated in Helga's Weekly Challenge for about a month and a half or longer. I miss what I learn about art and myself when I complete one of her challenges.

Helga challenges us to be better artists. To search deep within ourselves and create something that shows others who we are through our art. If eyes are the windows to our soul, then art must be the window to our being.

My Desire is to continue to create art to make myself feel worthy and happy. I feel great when my art affects others in a positive way. I hope they feel happy, which in turn makes me happy.

Swap with Cristal

Last weekend I created these 4 ATC's to swap with Cristal Wooten. Cristal is an amazing artist and teacher from Arizona. Cristal was the first person to send me an ATC out of the goodness of her heart. That really touched me and got me interested in trying some different styles of art.

The pieces that I've seen of Cristal's...she likes to use different paint pens in her creations. I've been lucky enough to get to trade with Cristal a couple of times now. She always inspires me to try new things. I've started using some pens to embellish or enhance my art now. I used paint pens on three of the ATC's I made her...AND I used some H2O's on one of them. Love the shimmer and affect H2O's create.

Our theme was BIRDS and it was supposed to be blue, green, and purple. I tried to stick to the colors, but the top left one I just couldn't. I hope she likes it, as I used a REAL nest to create it. You can't see it, but there is a tiny plastic egg under the bird too.

Three of the backgrounds have pages from my vintage dictionary....I used pages that had definitions for BIRDS.

Thank you Cristal for always being so kind and willing to trade with me.

ART Blast

Here's one of the Art Blast cards I put together for the Art Blast Swap through ARTchix. I was having a difficult time getting inspired to do the Swap...I just couldn't imagine coming up with something different. BUT, as the deadline draws closer...I knew that I had to come up with something.

I have learned so much since I started in January. I look back at my first creations and see a lot of growth. Part of the problem for me is that I like immediate gratification....so I don't dwell on my art after I've started creating it. Sometimes I look back and think...I should have....BUT, I do spend a lot of time BEFORE I start a piece looking and looking at it....moving things around, change this, changing that. Usually if I need to create 6 of something I can get the first 4 with no problem and the last two are not my favorites...loss of inspiration maybe...or sometimes it's that I've used up my favorite pieces on the required collage sheet.

Wow! This has gotten wordy....I think I will stop at this and tell you that I plan to do 6 more. That's my plan anyway...wish me luck!!

Oh! My!! New Pens....

Yesterday I got new pens...they're called Souffle Pens. I really wanted to try them out on something, but didn't want to use them on something that I might ruin. So you see, I had this image from the Dreaming in White ArtChix Collage Sheet, that is scary to me. Mostly because I had a doll as a child with eyes wide open that gave me nightmares. So, I decided that maybe I could make her a little more "special" and started doodling. This photo doesn't do the colors justice...they're much more ice creamy. After I finished doodling, I added the text heart and the vintage text background. The bird with the flower brad was the last to be added.

She is much more whimsical with all of the doodling on her than when she started out. I can actually look at her now and enjoy looking at her. Tee! Hee!!

Paper Whimsy Chunky ATC

I've joined the Paper Whimsy group and this was my second swap with the group. I got Mary Ann's name and this is what I created for her. Since I'm still new to the group, and I really only had a few sheets of papers, I needed to wait until my order came from PW to finish this up. I did know that I wanted to go with the turquoise color though, and had just recently purchased this crackle paint. I painted and waited for it to dry, and then I sanded down the edges to give it a worn look. After I got my items from PW, I knew what I was going to do and started creating. My favorite part is embellishing. A little of this and a little of that. I knew that I wanted to add a knob on the top, so I headed out to the local Hobby Lobby to take a look at what they had. I tried this one, I tried that one...but my favorite one was this clock face. Now that I think about it, I should have bought more. You know how it is when you find a pair of shoes or a pair of jeans that fits perfectly and you wish you had purchased more than one pair....

Anyway, this was my first attempt at a Chunky ATC and I'm happy with my results.

Challenging My Ability

One of my favorite memories from the past is going to Herron Art School for Saturday classes while I was still in High School. I loved art. I lived for art. Art was the only thing that kept me in school. I think I took most of the classes that our school offered. I won a scholarship to go to the Saturday classes, and my parents paid for my sister to attend with me too. We had some friends from another school that we shared a ride with. They were guys and we had a blast riding with them in their Ford Pinto FIRE TRAP. The guys took animation classes, I took Basic Composition...and to tell you the truth, I can't remember what my sister took.

Some of the fun of attending Herron was visiting the Book Store. New art supplies...what could be better?! To this day, I love new pens, papers, pencils...art supplies.

While art was a big part of my life in High School, I found little time to create after I headed out into the real world. What I did do were crafts. These were easy to do and filled that creative void I had.

Twenty-five years later, all it took was a new friend to push me just a little bit...and for me to loose my job. I've started creating again, and I'm loving it. I've reconnected with an old middle school friend that is also artistic and I spend a lot of time thinking about new creations and creating challenges.

This week's challenge was presented by Helga of ArtChix.com. She challenged us to use the scraps from an old project and create something new. For me, that was a tuffish challenge as I have very few scraps. But, I mulled it around yesterday, and then slept on it...spent the day cleaning house and my craft room, and then sat down and used the scraps to create a new ATC. I was happy with the result when I finished. I hate to finish them though, because I know that someday I will be passing them along to someone else. What I did learn from this challenge was, I fell like I'm back in High School. Learning new lessons.