AEDM and ATC progress

Yesterday while the baby napped, Tweetie Peetie and I did some painting. Actually she did some painting and I supervised. She likes to be watched and complimented - don't we all *-)

She used a combination of my Neocolor II crayons and watercolor pencils. I have to be careful not to lead her while she makes art. I am always tempted to give color advice and must bite my tongue. She does not necessarily want to use "real" colors and prefers lots of color when she paints.



Last evening I spent a little time adding to the ATCs I have in progress. I think some of them are done, but am not sure yet. The few that I put a golden wash on are a little hard to see, especially the "In the Garden" one, so I took a picture (a little blurry) of it separately so that it shows better. I really love to use the Golden Fluid Acrylics Iridescent paints with a bit of water to make a wash over a finished ATC. The look is much nicer than I can show in a photo.


It is Saturday morning. DD soon has to go to work and I have her two little girls plus my son's 5 year old for the day. I don't think I am going to get much art time, but I will surely be creative as I play and interact with these precious girls. I will be totally pooped this evening, but will have tomorrow morning to finish some of these so that I can post them on Monday.

Until I see you again, don't forget to live in the moment.

AEDM and ATCs

Yesterday the hubster and I drove into town and did some errands before DD had to go to work. We stopped at a farm store for rabbit food and birdseed. Then we went to Meijer's for fresh fruit. Our last stop was Sam's for odds and ends. At Sam's the frozen salmon fillets have gotten so pricey, we have stopped buying them. I am missing fish, so I bought some flounder fillets. I am not sure how I am going to prepare them, but this gives me a chance to try some new recipes as well as getting fish back into my diet.



DD worked from early afternoon until 10 pm, so art time was severely limited. I did, however, get a chance while the baby napped to do step 2 on my in progress ATCs. I am pretty happy with them so far, except the model face that I gessoed over. I don't think I have enough on her face. I want her features to show just enough for me to redraw them to my liking. The gesso is uneven and doesn't cover the face as I would like. I will add another layer today.

My work day today ends around 4:30, so I hope to get some of these done so that I can run to the post office in the morning before DD has to go to work. I have promised some art time to the 5 year old today. She doesn't have school today and I purchased some little gingerbread men and gingerbread houses in plain wood that I think we will paint today. Maybe during that time I can work on my ATCs, but there is a good chance I won't get to them until this evening.

A Real 3D ATC

I was reading the blogs that I subscribe to today when I came across a wonderful ATC made on a block of wood 2.5" x 3/5" x 3/4".

You've gotta go see this here. I, too, have a hubster who has a gazillion power tools and lots of wood scraps laying about. I wonder if I could get a few of these made so I could play with this idea??

That's all for now, don't forget to live in the moment.

AEDM and Catching Up

I spent most of yesterday's free time rearranging my art room. I am trying to get it to where I am able to reach most of what I want without actually getting up and searching for it. It is getting better, but it is not done yet. At the end of the day after the girls were asleep, I began to get backgrounds started.

When I got up this morning I added a layer to them. Once they dry, I can begin the fun part. I have two swaps that I have to get made - one is faces (I love working with faces) and the other is whatever I want. I am thinking those are either going to be difficult because of the freedom of choice or going to be extremely easy and happening because of the freedom of choice - know what I mean??


I am going to try to take advantage of this morning's freedom (my daughter doesn't go to work until 12:30) to get a lot of art started and maybe even some of it completed because tomorrow there is no kindergarten for the 5 year old and the hubster is going up to the cabin with his brothers and my daughter works Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I am hoping to do a bit of painting with the 5 year old while the baby is napping on Friday.

On Monday I am planning a trip to Hobby Lobby with my artist friend who lives in the area and on Tuesday I have an outing arranged with a retired teacher friend. Two days in a row of adult fun - YEAH!

I hope to add some pix of finished projects tomorrow. Until then, don't forget to live in the moment.

AEDM And Back Home

I have returned home after a day of art and meeting other artists and then a trip to my sister's house for several days of sister time.

The art date at Kelly's house in Olivet was a wonderful experience. Artist's are such interesting and friendly people. At first it seemed to be a small gathering and then more came. I think I can name them all. There was the hostess, Kelly, and her daughter, Bailey; there was Tina and Puff; there was Lynn and Susan; there was Shauna and Nancy; and me.

Tina brought The Wizard with her. It is a die cut and embossing machine. I tried it on one of my recycled cardboard 2.5 x 3.5s that I use for ATCs and it did a really wonderful job. I just had to have one. I checked at Michael's and JoAnn's and they didn't have one, so I went online and found one at Ritz Camera at 35% off. I ordered it and can't wait for it to arrive. I will have to talk a bit to Tina to find out where to find the best, least expensive accessories.

What a talented group of women. There was work on ATCs with metal, sewing handmade purses, sewing a group doll book, embossing and die cutting, book making, and clay bead making. There was a large table overflowing with ephemera. I was able to get a couple of Stampington magazines.

There was also food. Because I am severely lactose intolerant, I had to stay away from most of them, and I can't even name them. I brought a salmon pasta salad and also had some of Kelly's dump cake.

I didn't do any art while I was at my sister's house, but I was creative. We played numerous games of Scrabble (one must be creative to come up with words when getting really awful letters), cribbage and yahtzee. We shopped at some of my favorite stores to find unusual art items - Big Lots, Michael's, JoAnn's, Pier One and the Dollar Store. I found lots of wonderful things - containers with small drawers on sale at Pier One; some copper mesh scrubbers at Big Lots that I am going to take apart and use; some metal charms and stucco on sale at JoAnn's; colored craft sticks and baby wipes at the dollar store.

Something is wacky with my computer since I've been gone. My first indication that things weren't "normal" was when I opened iTunes to listen to music and it said it could not find the iTunes library???? Then every time I tried to open Firefox, my computer froze??? Then when I uploaded the pictures from Saturday's art day in Olivet I got a window telling me that I had 4 more days to reactivate the software before it quit working???? So sorry, no pictures today. I will work on it and see what I can do.

For now, don't forget to live in the moment!