"Marianne" Train to Paris

My second doll, on her way by train to visit her niece.Her name is "Marianne"

combination of printing on tissue and napkin decoupage!!

This is a crackled 3.5 x 10 inch plywood substate- crackled , and added a tissue paper transfer of the woman's face and other ehpemera, the napkin flowers are decoupaged on to the surface, remove layers(2) and just lay down with decoupage under and over.Napkins can be used to cover cigar boxes or other wooden items. A really nice look and dries to a nice hard finish.

Printing on tissue paper!!

This is a 3.5 x 8 piece of plywood that I crackled and added a tree and a poem printed on tissue paper. I then laid a coat of decoupage on the surface where the tree and poem would go, gently laid the images on the decoupage and stippled with a small brush dipped in decoupage. My decoupage solution is half and half elmers glue and water. Added distressing with inks and a picture of french children. Glue the tissue to a piece of cardstock with a good glue stick , leave a 1 inch margin around the tissue. Make sure the tissue is stuck otherwise the printer will grab it instead of the cardstock. Let me know if you try it. Very nice see thru image.
You can also press it on freezer paper with an iron and run it thru, but you have to be very careful when you remove it from the FP, easy to rip. Just another option.

My Melinda doll!! My first of this kind of doll

This is my first doll with sculpted face, her name is Melinda.

"Memories"- FLAT BOARD SHRINE

This is an 8 x 10 plywood substate, painted, distressed, stamped with images and frayed canvas fabric. the hanger is a black chain.

New flat board shrine!! Ophelia

6 x 10 plywood substrate, gold crackle, hand colored Ophelia image,gold cord hanger.

I love Altered art!!!

This is such a wonderful medium to express yourself in so many different ways. Mixed media ,altered art, altered books, Wow! the range is so wide and varied it really gives you so many choices to make your art. I started making fabric postcards in a group about 6 years ago , for about a year I made postcards of every imaginable kind,painted, printed , stamped,sewn. When I decided to try ATC cards, Loved it and did that for quite some time.
The next step for me was altered books, I loved the idea that you could tranform a child's board book or a tiny journal into something beautiful and a treasure that someone may cherish. The blank pages of any kind of book with or without text is an amazing canvas to do stunning backgrounds and add all sorts of beautiful images, distressed and antiqued to your liking.I did dozens of books and sold them on ebay, now, upon reflection , I wonder if I should have sold them or kept them to pass on to the women in my family. But so it goes.....
I love it all, altered bottles, altered dolls, cigar boxes trensformed into tiny worlds, substrates of every description, cardboard, plywood, canvas, photo paper, tiles, coasters,cereal boxes. Flowers made of coffee filters, rusted hardware, beads and wire. Fabric stained with coffee hanging on the line, waiting for me to make something that says This is Me!! I often think how lucky I am to have this way of expressing myself, because I can do something different every day if I choose.Once in a while I take a class for something, for a challenge, new ideas and the comradery of people of like interests. I enjoy that and learn a few things along the way.
So it goes.... I see everything in terms of altering it,throwaways are not to be thrown away, they are to be used and looked at with new eyes. I think my next venture is dolls. If you have anything to add to this ,feel free to comment. After all is said and done,we all love feedback.
The pictures are of an altered cigar box with a school theme, the figures in the right front are my father and my aunt Jane.
The top picture is of a theatre inside a theatre with a Marie theme, the second is a shrine for a paper whimsy door challenge(never turned it in) the third a fairy theatre, the fairies are on strings like marionettes.the bottom is the school shrine.

"The Dance" flat board shrine

Flat board shrine- 6 x 9 plywood base. lots of fun to make.If you have any you have done, send me a picture and I will post it here.The quote says"Dance till the stars come down from the rafters.....Dance, Dance,Dance till you drop."W.H. Auden

Altered Books May challenge -2 page spread

"Tea Time" tea recipe, mom and daughter making tea silhouette, antique frame for Marie and her teacup. napkin flowers and decoupage, lots of gold embossing(can't really see it)

Tutorials!I All feedback appreciated!

On the top of the left column is a list of all the tutorials on my blog. I sincerely hope you can use some or all of these techniques in your own art work. Have a great day and if you are a Mother A Great Mother's Day.

Flat Board shrine-"Pioneer women"& "Tom Sawyer"

This is done on a 6 x 10 piece of plywood, it has a rusted wire hanger, a piece of a vintage quilt. The picture is a favorite of my collection. I have used it printed on fabic to make pillows and other wall pieces.The saying is from KC Willis. I am going to do more of these, a series of western themed women and men, all the same size for the sunroom.Hope you like it.This is also, like my other recent work from a class at "Roses on my Table" This is the 2nd in the series"Tom Sawyer" same size.

Shrine!

" A Spring Poem"

"The seasons are shifting, The winter shades lifting,
The springtime is filling
Earth's children with mirth.
The daffodil yellow, The south wind so mellow,
The gentle rain falling,
Upon the green earth.
The song sparrow singing, New life quickly springing,
All nature is telling
A tale of rebirth:
The deep wells of being, Beyond each day's seeing,
O'er flowing with new Life,
Restoring the earth."
- David Bumbaugh, Spring

'Daisies are the friendliest flower, don't you think?" A line from You Got Mail.

I found this lovely picture of a girl nymph celebrating the coming of Spring. Beautiful!!!

My ATC cards"Pride and Prejudice"

This is for a swap-6 for 6. Roses on My Table group. The front and back are made of book board. Wanted to show all sides.

My first Shrine" A boy's will is the wind's will"

This was a lot of fun to do, I am happy with the outcome. The shrine itself is handmade, I took a class from "Roses on my table" for the basics and added my own embellishments. My husband made another one out of wood, So that is next. Hope you like it.Any feedback is appreciated.

A piece for Mother's Day!!

A piece for Mothers day. This is my Mom. Always wore pretty aprons, she had about 20 and never wore one more than one day, they were always starched. She passed on when I was 16, she was 43.

A couple of things!

A challenge for spring, It says: You have to believe in happiness, Or happiness never comes....Ah, that is the reason a bird can sing, On his darkest day he believes in Spring. by Douglas Malloch " Hope Springs eternal"
A triangle shaped bottle , Really don't like the shape.There is no definite area for something lovely to rest.

FEEL GOOD SONG!!!

In the right column there is a gadget that says "Playing for Change" Click on it. So cute and happy! Made all over the world. The sun is shining . a beautiful day, Me and the man of the hour are working on the porch today.

Sorry!!having a health problem again!!

Too much blood thinner, caused a subdural hemetoma. MRI today. Hoping for the best with no after shocks. Thankyou for your concern and prayers. MRI showed no change since the catscan. appt. in UW coming up, hands and legs have improved.It is all good so far.

Anne arrives at the "Avenue"

The "Avenue," so called by the Newbridge people, was a stretch of road four or five hundred yards long, completely arched over with huge, wide-spreading apple-trees, planted years ago by an eccentric old farmer. Overhead was one long canopy of snowy fragrant bloom. Below the boughs the air was full of a purple twilight and far ahead a glimpse of painted sunset sky shone like a great rose window at the end of a cathedral aisle.

Its beauty seemed to strike the child dumb. She leaned back in the buggy, her thin hands clasped before her, her face lifted rapturously to the white splendor above. Even when they had passed out and were driving down the long slope to Newbridge she never moved or spoke. Still with rapt face she gazed afar into the sunset west, with eyes that saw visions trooping splendidly across that glowing background. Through Newbridge, a bustling little village where dogs barked at them and small boys hooted and curious faces peered from the windows, they drove, still in silence. When three more miles had dropped away behind them the child had not spoken. She could keep silence, it was evident, as energetically as she could talk.

A Spring poem....
The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March.

Robert Frost (1874–1963)

Butterfly and cage swap.

The flowers and butterflies is for the PID swap and the cage is the April jackpot at PID also. Still working on bottles ,love them and love the whole idea, they are so romantic and vintage looking.

Tutorial for metal tower

Starting from the bottom picture here are your wood pieces, I just had my husband cut 4 " wide by 10" inches tall and the base is 5 x 6. Sand and paint black or any other darker color you like.
Glue heavy duty foil to cardstock evenly and trim to fit. Measure and cut 4 equal pieces. One p[iece of copper foil (same size) lightweight) Emboss all with a pleasing design.I used my little cuttlebug.
color with tim holtz alcohol inks(4 different colors.
Leave a 3/8 inch border and lay your centerpiece first and then begin to lay pieces of metal, images, and copper any way that pleases youj , It will stick nicely with Tacky or even elmers glue. decorate around the pieces and images and add a votive or LCD candle to the front of your piece.
I hope you enjoy this tutorial and there is enought left of the metal foil to go around the base and do a block also. ( Of the original pieces)

CHARMS FOR SWAP

THESE ARE FOR A CHALLENGE SWAP FOR aLTERED OBSESSION GROUP.6 FOR 5.
THE VINTAGE PAPER AND BUTTERFLIES ARE THE BACK OF THE CHARM.