Glitz-Oh!Girl

A little Holiday Journal for fun- and a class...

Hi again...I've put together this fairly simple double needle coptic-bound holiday journal today...I'll be leading a class on making it, at Scrappy Craft in Phoenix, Oregon, in October.  The journal is 6" square, and has nine signatures (groups of pages).  Each signature has alternating covers in green and red... I loved the dotted swiss ribbon, and wanted to use it for the tie.  I also took some gold acrylic paint and dry-brushed the page edges, and some of the front cover, with the paint.  I used Canson 70lb sketching paper for the pages, with heavier scrapping paper for the sig. covers.  The covers of the journal are book board, with painted edges, and scrapping paper covers.

Hello from me...

I know- Long time, no see.  Just consider me lost in our major home renovation - like several walls removed, half of house gutted and redone, all new bathrooms, kitchen, family room, refinished original oak floors, etc etc etc.....sighhh.  but....we are DONE! - for now. :))   four+ months of twilight zone weirdness.
In the meantime, my mom has celebrated her 96th birthday, our younger son gets married next month, and my art muse went on an un-approved vacation!! ARGHHHHH.....  Another big SIGHHHHH...

However, I am slowly getting 'stuff' in order- and will be posting pics of art by next month, I surely hope.
here are a few pics from our 'new'  old house - built in 1947.   

Here's a view showing our refinished oak floor of the dining room, looking into our new kitchen (with an island that's on wheels, and also 'electrified' for appliances when needed.) It's twice the size of our hideous old 70's (another awful remodel done in the early 70's) kitchen.





















And here's a view from our kitchen to our 'new' family room (which was gutted and entirely re-done).  that's one of my book sculptures on the wall - you can see more of 'EVE' here:














And just for fun, here's my 125 gal., 6ft wide, by 20" tall by 18' deep saltwater fishtank.   Yes- that's 'Dory' and 'Nemo' in the foreground - a Pacific Blue Tang and a clown fish.
We also have blue damsels, a coral beauty butterfly fish, a one-spot foxface rabbit fish, a chocolate chip starfish,  hermit crabs, snails, three 'firefish' dartfish,  a royal gramma, and a cleaner shrimp.  We'll be  getting the invertabrates - mushrooms, anemones, etc when the tank is just a bit more settled in. Currently it has live rock and live sand which grow all sorts of fun stuff.

More later folks - It's good to be back online - I want to thank Jen Worden for helping to fix my cantankerous website...she is one fantastic artist and all around superwoman!  Love ya, Jen!

Another great freebie "Countdown"...

...from Lisa Vollrath-Ten Two Studios - this one is through St. Pat's Day to Easter - it starts tomorrow, March 7! Thanks, Lisa!

Where have I been?  going crazy- that's where...our house is being renovated entirely upstairs, and a couple walls out, new showers, and new kitchen downstairs.  I can't even get into my art studio- it's blocked off! waaaaahhhh!
My asthma has of course kicked up a bit with the dust; though the 'crew' is big on dust control, it's unavoidable.  Anyhoo - pics will come, and somehow we'll get through this.  I've been a disaster at replying to emails as well - I can't get to the computer as often as I'd like....please- forgive my tardiness....I am scattered, way too scattered, and admit it - but as I gather my wits from here and there, I'll reply-even if I'm way too late!  Blessings upon all of you out there, my friends.

Go Fish!

I have yet to upload my beeswax class pictures from last Saturday, Feb. 2, but I do have this fun altered composition book to share. (I'm just now figuring out my Adobe elements 5 program - it's amazing even compared to the Photoshop 7 that I had and lost when my 'puter went kaput. )(I didn't have the disk to reload, alas.)
Anyway....I have fish - not only our dear old koi in our 14 year-old pond, but I have tropical fish and am soon getting a 125 gallon salt water tank setup.  This journal is to record the many water tests I will be doing over the first several months, as it sets up and cycles. 

The large fish is from a sheet of paper I got when in Florence, Italy last Spring. The smaller fish and woman with fish images are from Ten Two Studios, the April Fish Collage set.
I covered the front with Golden's Fiber paste, covered with cheesecloth.  I let that dry after spritzing it with a blue spray wash .  I then added the images using Perfect Paper Adhesive.  After the adhesive dried, I painted on the white 'coral', and added the chipboard letters before painting the coral.  I also added some small clear adhesive circles ("Page Pebbles "by Making Memories) as the air bubbles.

The back cover has part of a sheet of hand-marbled paper I also purchased in Florence last Spring. I overpainted a part of it with blue acrylic paint, and used a fine-tipped black pen to create the scale patterns.  I hope you enjoy it!

(click the image to enlarge it.)

My Computer -bah! (and a SPECIAL Valentine's Day Coundown - free!

Well- my computer went to it's cyber-maker this week. (sheesh - I've had that thing for 8 years) - lol - my computer folks saw it and the manager said: " Oh - I remember these!".  LOL - makes one feel a tad out-dated - know what I mean??   (Of course, I got to bring the dead parts home- I always retrieve old circuit boards for my art, as in this book sculpture figure. -

and this -

and this -
Well- it's gone for good - so - I got a new computer!  Uploading programs and re-doing links is just so darn much fun- NOT!!!! - however- my trusty kewl computer folk here DID retrieve most all of my data and files that were important- and got those integrated onto my new computer - so - I'm sort of back in business- but not catching up very fast.

Now - for the FUN!  Be sure to go to Go Make Something  at Ten Two Studios to get your FREE Valentine's Day images!

I taught a really fun beeswax collage class again at Scrappy Craft- pictures to come as soon as I reload my camera data and figure out my NEW Photoshop - Adobe Elements 5!

Ciao for now!

Invited to participate in the 2009 CyberFiber Exhibition

I'm thrilled to share that I have been graciously invited to have one of my book art works in the 2009 CyberFiber exhibition in Columbia, South Carolina, Jan. 08-20,2009. Read all about it here.  Thank you, Susan Lenz!

A Calendar Shrine..

...with the art nouveau images from the latest collage sheets by Ten Two Studios. I just 'HAD to have these vintage postcard images. :^D)
  Instead of using the kewl calendar date pages which go with them (provided in pdf  form by Ten Two Studios), I decided to enshrine my cards, so I'll be able to use them year after year.  I've had this tin shrine for years, and never did decide what to put in it.  (It has a glass door closure - I love it!)
I used remnant stonehenge paper I'd painted for journal pages as the backgrounds for the images of each month's card.  I put the current month card in the shrine..thereby holding time captive. (I wish).

(click the image to enlarge)

Boo! :^)) Back again - with fun in a class!

Yesterday I taught another fun class at Scrappy Craft- we made candy tin dolls! - using the great Color Collage Sets from Ten Two Studios, as well as Ten Two Studio's "Rose Is a Rose" set,  plus assorted scrap papers, embellishments, with lots of laughing, sharing of stories, and best of all- friendship!
Below are a few pics I took during class; alas, Lupe had to leave and I didn't get a picture of her fabulous doll before she left - sniff! It was so cool. :)
Here are the beginnings of Summer's and Joyce's dolls:

Gloria was creating her own special 'Cat'- (shown in progress here) with fur tail (made with feathers!) and all!

Lissa was creating her doll using the 'brown' color set - everyone got into the mood of dolls - such a fun day!

Here is my latest tin doll of the Color series -"Aqua Girl!" - you can see the other 5 dolls I've created on my page of the Ten Two Studios Design Team.

Helping those creatures....

...who cannot speak for themselves.  In one phrase - "A Place To Bark".  Go to this link and read all about this valuable no-kill animal rescue.

Mind over Matter

Lately I've been encountering some 'interesting' health issues - with attendant tests, physician visits, and more tests, and a bit of waiting around....I'm not much for 'public' journaling, but wanted to work on some altered books during this uncertain time....so I've finally delved into my set of TIME/LIFE Books - this is a series "Mysteries of the Unknown" published by Time/Life Books in the 1980's - dealing with all sorts of life's oddities and mysterious goings on.....

For my first choice, I chose the volume "Mind Over Matter" - because that's how I'm approaching these health issues - in a positive frame of mind - over negative matter.  As our younger son likes to remind me: "Mom- Good thoughts become good things." - How right he is!
So here are the beginnings of this volume...I like to do covers first when I'm altering books - usually whatever else I do is based on the covers...sometimes I do very little else EXCEPT the cover - altering books can be done in any way that you like  - :^))

This is the whole book (which is 9"X12" when closed):



I work in mixed media: the inspiration for this cover art came initially from Ten Two Studios - the faux postage of Harry Clarke - it's dynamic imagery - these are just the BEST artist stamps I've seen. I love them all!
I first worked on 12X17 67lb white cover stock- mixed media collage- the faux postage from Ten Two Studios, acrylic paint, fabric, ephemera, sewing, sponge stencil stamps, and rubber stamps by Hero Arts, Hampton Art Stamps and Stamp Out Cute.  Once I had my 'background' paper the way I wanted it, I cut it in half and glued each half to the front and back covers of the book, using Golden's 'Regular' gel medium.  I pressed the paper to the book until dry.  I then added the 7 Gypsies lettered gaffer tape to the spine and front cover and inside window. Next came the chipboard letters, which I stamped over, and then the 7 Gypsies lock and key.  I added more Ten Two Studios faux postage to the front and back covers for more black accent.
Here are a few more images...just click the image to enlarge it.  (Please- do not 'save' or upload these images without contacting me - thank you!)




















I added the window on the front to let the original book cover image by Bryan Leister show through - with tape over the image. Velcro brand black fasteners hold the window closed, but let it be easily opened.

Stocking time!

Our younger son is newly engaged to a beautiful young woman , and they are coming to our home for Christmas - so are our older son, d-i-l and three 'grands'!  It'll be so much fun to have us all together for the first time to meet Amy - and in honor of our new 'almost' daughter-in-law, I made her this stocking. (It's 2 feet long).  It's patterned after the shapes on our son's stocking, which we still have after 34 years- lol.  After Christmas- they will get to take BOTH stockings home to Portland (OR.)

FREE Christmas images from Ten Two Studios!

Have fun with this wonderful seasonal 'countdown' to Christmas!   Brought to you by Ten Two Studios. :))

The Real Business of Living

This 3ft. X 1.5 ft.X 1.5in. gallery wrapped canvas is a mixed media composition I created last week. The painting extends around the edges from the front. Acrylic paint, ephemera, dimensional paint, sharpies, matte medium. It currently hangs in our freshly painted guest bedroom/computer room.
Click picture to see enlarged image.

BEESWAX! YUMMMMM.....

Yesterday I taught what was for me such a FUN beeswax collage class!  There were 8 terrific ladies who created throughout the day, with a total of  18 collages finished. Color, imagery, ideas- all individual, all super.  Thanks so very much to the amazing crew at Scrappy Craft in Phoenix, Oregon. Dee, Joyce and Gloria , Summer, Sam, Lupe- super friendly, super to work with.  I could not have had a more enjoyable time than I did yesterday!  A special thanks to all who took the class- you wax wonderful! :))
Here are some pics from our busy, productive day.

Joyce so kindly getting lunch things together!  What a great store- art, fun, friends, and food.



















































Here are two of my demo wax collages that I did in class yesterday.

Star Book and website problems

Sorry about my website error message-  am working on it .  In the meantime, here are a couple more book images. Thanks for looking!






























And hanging as a star ornament!

A Star Book- finally finished....

I created this book in a Star Book Class I taught in September.  I finally finished the cover today, and added the fibers from Tracie Lampe.
The full range of images, with descriptions, is on my website.
(The covers are 6 inches square.)

A NATURAL ARTIST....

Sometimes there is no improving upon the original - these are grape leaves from the arbor over our 16' X 16' deck....pinot noir leaves, to be precise.  Nature's palette...what a wonder!! Who said grape leaves had to be thought of in green?

Off to finish prepping for my Beeswax Collage Class at Scrappy Craft tomorrow.  In January of 2008 (the 19th), I'll be presenting ' Altered Art for the New Year'.  If you're in the So. Oregon area then, come!

Also - check out the new Design Team pages at Ten Two Studios !

Artwork published!and name correction :)

I'm delighted to find that one of my mixed media postcards ( created on a 6" X 4" thin piece of wood) was just published in the latest Somerset Studio Magazine (Nov/Dec 2007), on p.111 ( with instructions on p. 140).  Alas, my first name was once again misprinted.  It is C O R I N N E, not Connie. 

The image on the card is from the Ten Two Studios Christmas collection .
Here it is. (click on image to enlarge it.)

I'm still here! I promise... :))

OK_ so no art to show- yet - but boy is my house starting to shape up!  I've finished re-plastering the ceiling cracks and window cut-out of one wall (now sheet-rocked in by yours truly!) of our guest bedroom, which doubles as my 'office' and computer room.  I love it - desert-y tannish wall, white trim, pseudo Colonial look of animal print pillows (fake, of course!), etc...all in all a warm room to be in.  And now..I'm doing our bedroom.  Ugh - the ceiling and wall cracks are re-plastered, waiting for me to prime them today - and I've started priming the walls...which have been a deep forest green for nearly 20 years or so - and will now be the palest of tans, with again, white trim.  Once the room is done, we are getting new windows put in our 2 downstairs bedrooms, both upstairs bedrooms, and a small one replaced in the kitchen.  Call me happy to have my part of home re-deco almost done!  I've been working on this project since last March.  Pictures will come eventually...but for now, I'm trying to keep up.  My art? well- errrr...it's been in the backseat for a bit- but will lunge forward soon!

Hugs to all- thanks for reading and being here!

Back in the world.....

Hello to everyone!  As you can see, I've been off my blog for waaaay to long!  Here is my list of excuses:
1) Re-plastering and repairing cracks in our home's plaster ceilings and walls
2) Re-painting same - done -  dining, livingrooms and hallway, halfway done with spare bedroom
3) Teaching star book class, prep for same
4) working in garden, re-configuring our pond's filter/waterfall situation
5) weeding, etc, in garden
6) giving 70th birthday party for a friend
7) lately making some fun Halloween art (shown below)
8) and last, BUT NOT LEAST!!!!! --- celebrating the engagement of our younger son to his beautiful and vivacious and funny and witty and smart girlfriend!!!!!  We have one fantastic d-i-l already, whom we love so dearly. We will now be blessed with another- how lucky and fortunate we are to have two fabulous sons, 3 beautiful grands, and our 'girls' who love our 'boys'.   :)) Sighhhh-

OK- now to a few fun Halloween pieces, using the great collage images from Ten Two Studios.
First, a can of brain soup - yep- delish!






















Next- a little memorial plaque for hanging - about 4X6, minus the ribbon.











































And last but not least - a spooky little ATC-holding bag book for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

















































That's it for now - but more soon - thanks for being here and sticking with my blog ! I'm baaaaaak. :)