Naughty or Nice

Naughty or Nice. I just love the concept, especially for xmas cards. This one is my favorite card from this year's batch. The pinup girl is actually a Camel cigarettes coaster. Under the word naughty is the Camel logo. I thought it came out so cool I couldn't bring myself to send it to anybody! So I'll put it up here - my holiday card to all you fine people who happen along to my humble blog.

Wire Jewelry

I've been playing with wire wrapping for about 6 months or more - here are a few of my creations. I have been influenced in a big way by Deryn Mentock. Thank you Deryn for such great inspiration!!! Her work with steel wire is amazing! I've got the book, "A Charming Exchange", as well as a few of Stampington's jewelry magazines - I've been having a lot of fun with it, and hope to have some for sale soon. As soon as I started to play around with wire wrapping, I knew I'd stick with it - it just feels right to me. I love to work with metal - I've always wanted to - like to forge steel or something like that. Build gothic gates and torture devices and stuff like that... I have also long been enamored by glass. That's so cool, the wire jewelry - I like to use glass beads. I go pick the irregular glass beads from a bin at the bead store. It's a treasure trove of every color, hue, size, and shape of glass. Cheap too! And the irregular shapes add to the organic feel to my wire pieces.

The piece in the top picture is a "window charm" - I designed this with a rear view mirror in mind, but it looks cool just hanging in a window anywhere.

Holiday Bling

Fun with german scrap pieces-

Art Chix Studio Xmas Cards

2008 cards for sale with Colleen at The Sea Hag, in Brackney, PA.

Happy Halloween

Yipes! It's been like 8 months since I've posted anything on here! I've barely spent any time on my computer for a while, til recently, when Kear bought me a new desktop - luxury!! It's great but I'm still ironing out the kinks and figuring out my new programs, namely Photoshop, which I never had room for on the PC til now. So that's great...

This is my winning entry to ArtChix Studio's Halloween Collage Contest - back in May or June I think. I won $50 in Art Chix goodies! So cool!

I wish it was Halloween all year round. Hopefully I'll figure out how to get my photos on to my new computer soon, and I can post my Halloween decorations...

Crackle Study with German Glas Glitter

this is a canvas I did...inspired from Angela Cartwright's "Mixed Emulsions" - a jewel of a book, full of all kinds of ideas. it's a picture of my oldest daughter Ashley. I used Golden Crackle Paste, colored with acrylic paint and distredd ink. Also I used tim Holtz Distress Paint - a fun little product, yet a bit limiting. oh yeah, and also a few rub ons, I think all are Bohemia.

Sally Jean Alexander is right when she says German Glas Glitter has magical properties. It turned out to be just the right thing to finish the piece.

One World One Heart Winner

I was amazed and overwhelmed at the response to my art giveaway! I can't believe over 80 people have visited my little corner of cyberspace!

The winner of my collage is Susan Burgess!! Congratulations Sanna!!

Happy Valentine's Day

I put together this Valentine using a few things I am in love with - namely the Lynn Perella papers. I got her whole set from Stampington about a year or two ago, and I save every last scrap of the stuff - it has been such a great element in so many of my pieces. Also I used some mica - which I have been having a love affair for some time now. Also a piece of my favorite Basic Grey (well, one of my favorites) paper - to me it looks like old west stripes. Like on a pillow case.

Anyways, the card came out so nice I couldn't part with it, so I decided to give a valentine to all the wonderful bloggers who happen across my humble blog.

I am blown away that 80 people have visited this blog through the One World One Heart event!! That's 80 little pieces of paper I get to make today so I can do my drawing. What a great project though!! I have added a few blogs to my favorites list, and have left comments on countless other blogs as well. I realize how huge the art blogging community really is - HUGE!! So amazing, that all these artists throughout the world can connect with one another. I've always been a "low-tech" person, but I must say, hooray for the internet.

Tune in later today for my OWOH winner...

Wednesday Stamper: Valentine

I decided to use unconventional Valentine colors this year for my cards. i chose blue and brown - a recent favorite of mine. The stamping is very simple - just some flourishes atop the collaged elements - I used Tim Holtz Distredd Embossing Powder - very cool - it leaves a nice texture and lends a rustic feel to the card.

Wednesday Stamper: Asia

It took me a while to find something Asian in my art supplies. That is not a style that really does much for me - but then I found this collection of papers in my stuff that I've been hoarding for like 3 years now! I think there are 4 pieces in this beautiful gold embossed set of patterned paper. I collaged this Valentine postcard and used some flourish stamps and a newspaper text stamp to accent. TFL!

Gothic Arches: Valentines

I made two Valentine themed arches this week. The first one, "Lovers", I had a lot of fun with my embossing powders. Thank you to Angela Cartwright and her books, Mixed Emulsions and In This House...I've totally revisited my embossing stuff, which has been sitting idle upon my shelf for a year or more! Her techniques are amazing! The second one, "Together" is using a collage sheet image which I have been wanting to use for a long time. I think they are supposed to be sisters, but in my opinion they make better lovers. I saw once the heart paper clips used as a border like this, but my don't they fit well in the gothic arch!!

ONE world ONE heart

There's a place called ONE world ONE heart, and I'm joining in on this amazing art giveaway...the way it works is if anyone is interested in winning this little collage of mine, just post a comment here, and on FEB. 14, Valentine's Day, I'll draw from all (if any) the names and pick a lucky recipient to own an original Mary Franzenburg piece of art. This ought to be interesting...

The piece is a little 4"x4" canvas, with a bird and egg theme, and I used gel medium, gesso, transparency images, crackle paste, rusty chicken wire, and some aging technique. Actually it's a cute little thing...nothing eart-shatteringly profound or anything...just pleasant to look at.

Charmed, I'm Sure

Here are me pieces for this week's Wednesday Stamper: Charms. i had fun - did them in mica, and ended up with a nice verdigris effect by using aqua, butterscotch, latte, and copper alcohol inks. Then I edged it with copper Brilliance Ink.

Dawg

Here is mine for this week's Gothic Arches challenge: dogs. I got this stamp in the dollar bin at Michael's. He looks just like my dog, Maximus. The alcohol inks do the design justice I think!

Wednesday Stamper

My contribution to this week's Wednesday Stamper challenge: Button Fairies". i'm not usually one to copy other people's ideas, but this one was hard to resist. Plus, I discovered a way to use all those Maya Road chipboard corner scrolls I've got. I've found they don't work well as "corners" -at least on my artwork...But don't they make nice fairy wings? I made her into an Irish button fairy, in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day. I love St. Patrick's Day.
.

Wednesday Stamper

Well, it's about time I contributed to Wednesday Stamper - lordy knows I've been lurking there for like, ever now...the Gothic Arch theme is easily worked in to my itinerary - I made o ne for the Gothic Arch blog this week for the first time as well...

Gothic Arches

After much lurking, i have finally decided to play at the Gothic Arches challenge blog. The theme is Guardian Angels. I just love working with this shape! i had fun using some of my new mica pieces from Art Chix Studio. i fastened it with eyelets - I've got like a zillion eyelets from back in my scrapbook supply frenzy period, which I eventually set aside because of what a pain in the ass it is to set the damn things. That is, until I got a crop-a-dile tool - makes setting eyelets rediculously easy. So here I am, setting eyelets everywhere...

Skinny Book Pages

i had a lot of fun doing these skinny book pages for the Altered Abbey's project. Chrysti Haydek is amazing. She must be so busy. And I've always been impressed with the multitude of work she produces!
I used a lot of gesso in these pages. That, and Greeen Pepper Press rubber. the ladies in the hammocks are from a picture frame I bought - they were the photo that came with it. I've been saving them for at least 2 or 3 years! (a testament to how much stuff you can imagine I have) I've joined another skinny project there - imbellished copies - which I'm halfway done with right now.

Happy New Year to all the bloggers. You, who represent so much of my social life these days. this whole global community, so cool...I've evolved so much as an artist through seing all of everyone's art, and the connections I've made, and the interractions...putting my own work out there has allowed me to challenge myself more than ever before, in a whole different way. I definitely would not be the person I am today without all the influences I've gotten from blogging. I've had a great time during the past year. And I've produced far more artwork as well. The positivity that permeates the blogging community has seeped into my real time life in such a great way. I hope '08 will continue this awesome momentum I am enjoying!