Oh Happy Day

I finished 2 sets of atcs today - both for swaps at the artist trading card Yahoo group. I love that place! I'm always innvolved in several swaps there. The one on the left was for the "Feeling Blue" swap. The right one is for "Vintage Style Best Friends". I used mica chips in those. I've had that mica for ages. The background was hand done by me with Anita's Fragile Crackle. And now I can't find any more of it - Michael's used to have it but they just stopped carrying it. Does anyone know where to get it? In my opinion, it's the only really good crackling medium. I recently got some of Golden's crackling medium, but for some reason I can't get it to crackle at all. I tried it by itself and also mixed with acrylic paint. Tried all different thicknesses. But no crackles. I hate it when that happens...

Today is a wonderful day: there is now a LINK to this BLOG on Art Chix Studio!!! I'm beside myself with elation. They picked 2 out of my 3 entries for the Mermaid Faux Post! My link is under "artist information" where the faux post sheet is listed. This is so cool. I should take this chance to plug my picture trail -

http://www.picturetrail.com/kearymary. And my Yahoo group - http://groups.yahoo.com/outlawscrappers . Yeah - Outlaw Scrappers - my baby. We've got a small, little group...I've tried to keep things evolving, but I have mainly lurkers I think. There's a lot of members, but there are only the key handful of us who stay active. We've done some atc swaps, some challenges, some card swaps, and also now we are getting ready to do a round robin book! (my first). I wish more was going on there, but then again, I barely have time to give it the attentuion it needs as it is.

I've been reading a lot of artists' blogs, and being very inspired to keep up with mine better, and also I'd like to be more profiscient with Picture Trail.

I hope some of the amazing artists involved with Art Chix will look at this blog - I'd be honored to have the visitors. Especially from there. Ever since I discovered Somerset Studio, Art Chix Studio, and the like, I feel as though I've come home. This is a community I want to be a part of. I feel happiest being in my studio, rummaging through stuff looking for just the right thing to glue on to my latest project. This paper arts and mixed media thing has really gotten a hold of me IN THE BEST WAY!! It's been a few years now and I can't believe how much my art has grown, changed, matured, and fine tuned itelf. Only a mere five years ago I was without creativity in my life and it was very empty. ( I mean, I've always had my tattooing, but this art is just for ME)I started out scrapbooking and j ust went from there. My art has brought me back to life, given me recovery, brought me peace of mind. Amd also I've been published too - in Scrapbook Answers and Somerset Memories. YAY for me!