Where am I From?

After looking through all of my photos in my computer, I realized I really don't have any landscapes of where I live. Weird, considering there are thousands of pics in there. But then, to answer Michelle's crusade: Where in The World?" - I'd have to have many, many pictures to represent all the places I have lived in my life. All in all, I am a Yankee. I was born and raised in upstate, NY - Buffalo, Owego, Binghamton, Endicott, Ithaca, Cortland...I went to college in Providence, RI. I lived in Ann Arbor, Mi for a while - a very nice place. I was married and divorced there, changed careers there, and more or less found myself there. After that I went to Maui, where I was for a whole decade. It was there that I sowed mt wild oats. Met the love of my life, started my family, developed myself artistically and spiritually. I miss it there. From Hawaii I went to Oregon City, OR. And then, 2 years ago, I found myself back in my home town of Owego, NY. Here we all are, all seven of us, making it work and basically happy. That's it in a nutshell. i am so happy to be home, here in New York. I love this place. I love the winter, and how beautiful the bare trees look against the sunset. The rolling hills and autumn leaves. The spring flowers and the family of deer in the back forty. That's what I missed most while i was in Hawaii - the change of seasons. I think Autumn in NY is spectacular. I love this place and I'm so proud to be from here.

VIP Christmas Cards

These are my best cards this year, gone to my VIP's. I think almost all of my cards had my little glittered Prima flowers on them. I just love how they came out. I think it'll be next christmas before all the glitter is gone from throughout my house. I mean, it's everywhere!

LOST??!!

These are some of the tags I made for an Art-E-Zine swap:"What's Your Tag?" I sent them out a while back - thye were late, but they did get put in the mail...I've been waiting for my stuff to come in the mail...finally I go to the Art-E-Zine site, click to the page with the What's Your Tags, and mine aren't represented there. So I wrote the hostess, and she told me she never got them. NEVER GOT THEM??!! I am very distressed to say the least. I worked so hard on them. And they came out soooo good. And now, to think they have fallen into the wrong hands - well - I'm speechless. I think I may have some kind of jinx when it comes to Art-E-Zine. Of the 4 swaps I've entered, only one has come to fruition. One pkg, that went to Ireland, got there too late because I unknowingly insured it, thus making it so the reciever would have had to pay all this money just to pick it up. So it got sent back. Another, I signed up for and then forgot, so I backed out of it as graciously as I could. And then this! I love art-E-Zine, and I think Gillian Allen is amazing. The fabric tag swap I did there was spectacular. Now I'm almost afraid to join another swap there. But then again I want to just so I can save face. They must think I'm a total flake over there!

My New Art Journal

Here's some pages from my new art journal. I'm doing a little spread using the scraps and leftovers from whatever project I'm working on. I started it after my Halloween art was all done - I had a ton of stuff left, but couldn't bring myself to throw any of it away, even though I knew I'd most likely never use it. I love the freedom of an art journal - there isn't the pressure to make it come out perfectly - I find that the collages come out with a totally different feeling as any of my other artwork.

Oh So Glitter-y

I've discovered the fun of glittering everything in sight in the name of Christmas. In previous years I've thought of glitter as being a bit tacky...but no it sure isn't!!I've been covered in glitter everywhere. My face, the baby's face, hands, feet, etc. My whole house is all sparkly. i've experimented with a zillion kinds of adhesive and a whole bunch of different glitters. One of the best things I've come up with are glittered prima flowers. I've got there cream colored flowers that look so great with fine glod glitter on them. I used a glue pad (like a stamp pad) - pressed the paper flowers into it, and then dusted with Marths Stweart Smoky Quartz glitter. They look all winter-whitey antique-ish. I glittered little fake ivy leaves, which are cute too. The Provo Craft glue pen works great for fine line glittering. (see the swirls and outlines) I'm making these ornaments for Xmas gifts this year - thanx to Art Chix Studio for such a nice selection of vintage children and angel imagery!

What is My Muse?

Michelle's Crusade #14 kept my wheels turning all month long. Till right now, with only 9 minutes left of November. Who is my muse? I could go a million different directions with that. I am influenced by so much - everything around me - but what moves me, from the inside, is my awareness of self. Where I come from, especially the amazing and strong women in my family. I know so many stories of my great grandmothers. My grandmonthers were both very strong forces in my life, and they were both so amazing. The sense of style, and what's what comes from these women. I draw so much power from them. And so much of my identity. So much pride. I look at thier pictures and imagine times past, such cool style. My European background has a huge influence upon my creative spirit too.

Crusade #13

Gotta love Michelle Ward's Crusades!!! This month, "get gothic" was a cinch for me...no problem here finding gothic Halloween imagery around my house!! Unfortunately, I seem to have lost my camera, thus making it impossible for me to share some of the spooky cool Halloween corners around my house. I just love this time of year. I wish it was always Halloween!
I put together these Halloween tags the other night...actually they were the first thing I really made this month...I totally overcomitted myself in September, and ended up with like a zillion deadlines for sept 30th. I was in the weeds to say the least. It took the joy out of creating my art, being under so much pressure like that. And then I went ona bit of a hiatus during October. So thank you once again, Michelle, for the much needed inspiration. I could not resist joining this particular crusade.
I was looking through my collection of free artist papers that come with Somerset Studio and Legacy (memories) - which by the way is the most awesome collection of papers!! I came upon These two sheets that Michelle designed a while back - they are done in nice rich Autumn orange hues - they were PERFECT to use as a base for my little Halloweenies here. How Cool Is That? Gawd, Michelle, what would I ever do without you?

GPP Street Team Crusade #12: Crushes

After a long and laborious thought process, I came to realize that I've got a crush on Michelle Ward! Yes, Michelle, I have a crush on you. (In a respectible way) I love her style. I feel as though I can relate to her. Her rubber stamp imagery really reaches me! Like, every sheet of rubber is something I surely cannot live without!! I admire her achievements as an artist, and she is so inspirational to me. Her influences are similar to mine. She's my idol I suppose! A little while ago I bought 3 sheets of her unmounted rubber stamps - and they are too cool for school!! I have been exploring all the different images, and using the hell out of them. I have shown you above a selection of my stuff using the Green Pepper Press stamps. All of them are from the last couple of weeks.

And oh yeah - I thought of another obsession of mine: ADHESIVES. My grandmother would be proud of my prowess in the ways of sticking one thing to another thing. I've got an adhesive for any occasion. You name it. If I had to name a favorite, I'd have to say Diamond Glaze - that stuff is amazing! Crafter's Pick "The Ultimate" is in close second.

GPP Crusade #12: OBSESSIONS

I've been thinking about the Crusade - the subject is obsession / infatuation / crushes. This one is very thought provoking, to say the least. I've been obsessing about my obsessions all month long. I realized that what DON'T I obsess on? I suppose I am an obsessive person. I am definitley that way with my food. I'll have a few things I love at the moment, and that's pretty much all I want to eat. Like for a while it was Lucky Charms...Instant Oatmeal...then there was those disgustingly fattening frosted sugar cookies (20 pounds later I got over them)...Creme Brulee Haagen Dazs...Tiramisu Haagen Dazs...and lately it's been the Krusteaz cinnamon crumb coffee cake mix. I can't get enough of them. Sometimes I will only be hungry for that. Thank goodness I cook for the fam, or else I'm sure I'd be so malnourished!

One thing for sure, I have always had an ifatuation with Jagermeister. It's the only alcoholic beverage I actually like the taste of. And I have definitely had a few love affairs with it over the years!

I would have to say that my current obsession, artistically, is TRANSPARENCIES. I can barely do a project without using something you can see through. I love the depth and layers. For a while it was chipboard - you should see my collection of chipboard thisses and thats! I think before that it must have been ribbon. I remmeber the ladies at Michael's would say to me, "see you tomorrow!" - when I'd stop in to look at the dollar ribbon rack to find that perefectly matching colored ribbon for the scrapbook layout I'd be working on. I've got so many spools of ribbon that storage is a serious issue for me. Let's see, what else....Ranger Distress Inks...buttons...the list goes on and on...oh yeah - ALPHABETS!! I've got like a zillion alphabets of one kind or another. Rubber stamps, chipboard, stickers - you name it.

One obsession that deserves it's own paragraph is my love for paper. I could just browse and browse through any selection of patterned paper! I love it so much that they are each in themselves a work of art - for under a dollar (usually) - all the styles and textures - I'm like a kid in a candy store. When I buy paper I really like, I'll always get an extra piece so I'll never run out of it! Needless to say, I've got piles of paper all over the place.

Another obsession of mine is magazines. I'm such a sucker for them. I have a zillion of them, in piles all over the place: upstairs, downstairs, by my bed, in the car...I have art mags, tattoo mags, scrapbooking mags, Stampington mags (my fave), gardening mags, food mags, Martha Stewart mags, and several miscellaneous ones as well.

Yes, I am very obsessive. But I embrace it. It makes me who I am. I have been known to obsess on things that may or may not be the best thing to get hung up on...but as I get older and know myself better, I am able to recognize these things before they get the best of me. Most of the time anyways...

Haunted House ATCs

A set of atcs for the In This House group - Haunted House Tryptych cards. They had to be attatched - a new thing for me. Nice little challenge. The group seems like it could be very enriching. I'm involved with so many other things right now, I don't have the time I'd like to devote to getting to know everyone there. All in good time. I've got another project going there as well - a haunted house collage, like the ones in the book except smaller. I've goten out all my creepy Halloween goodies to use - very fun indeed. I want to make something exceptional, but I'm trying not to be too influenced by the artists in the book. Although, that too is okay - being influenced by artists you admire - I think there is a fine line between that and losing your own personal style though. So I'm going to have fun with it.

New ATCs for Art Chix

Here are some new lovelies for Art Chix swaps: Mysterious Women and Sepia themes. I used the ladies from the Peek-A-Boo collage sheet. Very fun indeed. I especially like the effect of the Mysterious Women set. I used the new Marah Johnson (she is SO COOL) Intention papers for backgrounds. They are fabuluos to say the least!