Twilight Chapter 2

Chapter 2 from Twilight. Hmmm....it set the stage for more action.Established Edward and Bella's uneasy early relationship. Bella's class schedule, school routine, and all about cell division. I used some stock photos from Microsoft Office Photos, you can get some simple clip art. There is an image here of a girl looking in a microscope, another of very enlarged cells, and a math equation written on a chalk board. I still can't escape the "green". Class was in building 4. This piece has the feel of a scrapbook page for me, which is ok. I wanted to establish the reason for the OPEN BOOK title for the chapter, Bella's mom's concern for her, and of course, Edward finding Bella "difficult" to read. Why is that? hmmmm... I wonder...

http://chelise.typepad.com/vita_crepusculare/

Oh, by the way, I am officially addicted to digital collage with PSE6.

ZNE Convenzione 2009

Wednesday, I'll be heading off for California, to attend the 2nd ZNE Convenzione. I've spent the last 2 months neck deep in BRO and church projects. Writing grants for the BRO, shopping for toys, organizing an Easter Egg Hunt, Spring Fest ( the weekend after I get back), a weekend trip to Oklahoma City with my family to visit my aunt ( 94 years young), BRO Games Party, Jon Troast concert. Whewwwwww.....glad I'm retired, and happy to heading out of town. ( But you know about all the prep it takes to leave town. ) Yikes! I'm glad Rick is staying home with the doggies!



Of course any trip with mixed media artists requires some art work prior to leaving town. My Blue Dawg at the top of the page is my Artist Trading Card (ATC's measure 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches) I'm going to be swapping with other participants at the Convenzione. On down the page are 4 examples of Chunky book pages, that I sent out last month, they meaure 4 by 4 inches and will be put in a book that all the contributors will receive. The last project is a small of a "make and take" mini-workshop that I will present on Saturday and Sunday. It measures 6 by 6 inches and opens up from the middle....like a box.....kinda cool if I do say so myself. The participants will have several stamp designs to choose from. My first endeavor at presenting at this sort of event. Prayers appreciated.

These 4 by 4 pages were fun, the girl is from a stamp from RED LEAD Paperworks in ST. Louis. A great store and website. Type REd Lead St. Louis in your search engine. The butterflies are from some old Current Stationary that we found in my mother's stash of goodies.The polka dotted background was made with bubble wrap and gesso.

The ZNE All Heart page was fun too. The giant heart being carried by that little guy is a USPS Stamp cover. You've seen the booklets of 20 or so stamps, with the hearts. Well, that's the front cover. I purchased stamps for the BRO for our newsletter. We send out about 500. I love the American Flag but am really bored with the flag stamps. We mailed them around Valentines Day, so these were perfect and I recycled the stamp image on to my Chunky Book pages.

I hope to post some photos of the trip, and some of the exciting projects and classes and events.

More to follow, of course.

A fun ATC for a ZNE Swap. There are 10 of us swapping, each with a number. Mine is the number 7. Seven 7s and seven stars. Fun to make, can't wait to see what the other swappers make.

Interesting stuff about the number 7 click here :

http://www.archimedes-lab.org/numbers/Num7_12.html

Wendy Addison's Studio

Wendy Addison's shop and studio, was the venue for ZNE Convenzione's special field trip for Monday August 25. Armed with mapquest directions and GPS, this brave midwesterner, plunged into traffic with a car full of mixed media artists from west of the Mississippi and headed to Port Costa, California to The Theatre of Dreams. We shopped for lovely ephemera, vintage silk ribbons, and anything that the gifted Wendy may have touched. Wendy was incredibly gracious, allowing all of us to take photos of every nook and cranny to be had in her shop and studio. You could just breathe in the creativity, it was in everything, from a casual collection of stuff waiting to be altered into art in her studio, to the lovely displays throughout her shop! Stop in some day if you get the chance, and soak in the ambiance, I'm hoping some of it rubbed off on me!

Photo Fun in Half Moon Bay California

Thursday I drove over to Half Moon Bay, California, it is soooo much better navigating in the day light. Actually didn't get lost, more on that later. I spent some time just enjoying the beach and reading. It was overcast but beautiful. These fun little girls were having the best time.

Charms, Fun & More

Next month, I'm heading out for my first summer art adventure to the ZNE Castle in the Meadow event in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to a fun castle art project, tour of the Dodge Castle home, and wine and cheese tasting, all of the attendees are going to particiate in a "charm" swap. I've never done a charm swap before. I have been experimenting with solidering and want to do more. So here is my project. I have the initials of the participants and have taken scrabble tiles, "double face" taped them together, applied the copper tape and jump ring...and started solidering. Each one is of course unique ....since there is no quality control. But I am pretty pleased with the results....not bad for a beginner. I have tied the charms to a coffee stained tag with a bit of red twill tape.

I use these giant tin snips to hold the charm, I ordered some steel bench blocks this week from Otto Frei I think they will help in the whole process. Sally Jean Alexander uses them in her book "Pretty Little Things", and suggests them for her workshops. ( which I hope to be able to take in August....more on that later.) Here's the little charm with just it's copper tape and jump ring ready for solider.
I've set up a little "portable" solidering spot on the back patio. We need to do a lot of work out there to clean up from the winter ( and last summer and fall and spring) but I'm not comfortable doing the solidering in the house yet. ( My father's daughter, obsessing about "hot" things left plugged in!)


Of course you have to have some music, even on the patio. Today we listened to Voices of the Wetlands. Check out this musical line-up.
Doesn't this look tidy....the only thing in the whole house ( in or out). It all stacks up on the vintage gingham trays to be stored on a shelf in the house, you don't want to leave your solidering equipment out in the elements. Rust is good, but not on your anvil or other tools.
The table, coat rack, and vintage trays are "rummage sale" treasures.

Her Father's Daughter

The Zne Book Club is working on "Collage Lost and Found" this month. A very cool book by Giuseppina Cirincione, you can see it below on my "book shelf". I'm a little behind on my projects. This one was to feature an art piece that had an element that you could open, such as a door or window. I have this lovely window stamp from Lost Coast Designs.(Oh no, I just checked out their website and I think they may have a few new things I "need". But, I'm saving up to attend a couple of art retreats this summer, so I will resist the temptation!)

This piece is made with the window stamped and embossed on some celery cardstock . The background papers are fromn Daisy D and Basic Grey. Scrabble tiles, and text from a Red Pepper Burns Book. We were to reveal something about ourselves inside of the window. I am a pretty open person, and pretty readable, most days, so I was having a hard time coming up with something that most people didn't already know about me.

But I ran across the text from the Red Pepper Burns book, "Courage for facing things - the unknown, and other piece of text " After all, she was her father's daughter." and "anxieties that really matter."

It made me think of my father and how he and were alike...being worriers...among other things. We would worry about the iron being left on , or the coffee pot was plugged in, or to check the back seat of your car. Most were good things to be concerned about. But we would obsess about some of them at times. I think we did it, hoping to control some of life, when we have so little control over most of it. So I think we both would Choose Courage, to face the unknown....and worry about things that were really important....like our families and friends. This was an interesting project to work on.

Trouvaille et Part is a fun game on the ZNE Network. Trouvaille et Part translated from French means:Find and Share. It is a fun, interactive, and creative game on The ZNE Network! The game started with the first post, by "asking" for something. It could be a color, a theme, a thing, etc.The next poster uploads a piece of their artwork that directly relates to the "ask" - and then, they get to ask for their own color, theme, thing, etc.The asks can be as general or specific as the person posting 'the ask' wants them to be. Members can upload art they have already created or artwork they created specifically to relate to "the ask" - but time is of the essence in this game, because whoever replies with the apropriate artwork gets to generate the next ask.

A long story....here is my response to "50s furniture". My work here includes a 1955 photo of my mom with her new television. I was two at the time. It was my parents first television. Pretty cool. I think you can see the antenne. It was a big circle. There is a vintage silver paper doiley and vintage silver stickers with "mom" and 1955. The paper strips around the edges list events that I thought were interesting that occured during 1955. I had some "Easter Seals" from 1955 that I attached next to the strip about the Salk Polio vaccine being introduced.

Here are the events I included in my collage.

Salk Polio vaccine introduced April 12, 1955
Gunsmoke debuts September 10, 1955
James Dean dies in auto accident September 30, 1955
Racial segregation forbidden on interstate trains and buses, November 5, 1955
Rosa Parks arrested December 1, 1955 for refusing to give up her bus seat.
President Eisenhower sends advisors to South Vietnam, January 12, 1955
Marion Anderson sings at the New York Met, January 7, 1955
West Germany becomes a sovereign state, May 5, 1955
Lady and the Tramp debuts June 16, 1955
Disneyland opens, July 17, 1955
Donna is two, August 16, 1955

Earlier I responded to an "ask" for pajamas....

An ATC featuring 1948 Christmas Seals....a boy in pajamas complete with feet and a back door. The fire looks cosy. My "ask" was for an airplane.

My new "ask", in response to the 50s furniture is for a harmonica!!

Take time to smell the roses

On See it Say if Saturday......last week, this great art work was featured, created by Joanna Grant. It makes me think about how I need to take time to smell the roses, and I haven't been the past week or so, (I did take some time on April 1 , I'll tell about it later.) I was way tooooo involved in setting up for our church rummage sale. I invested about 40 hours of work into the project over the past two weeks, it was worth the effort, we made about $850 and met some great people and sent our leftovers out into the world through "Free Cycle", sold some to a local thrift store who serves immigrants to our community, sent some books to an area book fair that is supporting one of the "old mansions" in St. Louis, and then this week we'll send some more clothes to an area shelter. Good work, but....it kept me away from my on-line fun for the past week. But I did manage to buy some goodies. Great things, that no doubt, will enhance my artistic endeavors for months to come. Check these out.

These cool buttons were on a fleece vest, that didn't fit, it was left at the end of the day, I took the buttons and sent the vest for recycling.

A future shrine, from a jewlery kit box.
Cute, tiny, vintage santa, made in Japan, has to be from the 50s.
I can feel myself becoming organized as we speak, two double drawer card files, I can see my little clipart pixs and ephemera filed in these.
This has to be a little church from a train set, I remember one of these either at my childhood home or grandmother's house. Hmmmm, it can become a pattern and who knows what else!!

There were a few other cool things I picked up, including some books, and bowls, and other assorted crafting things I couldn't live without.

The Art of Nursing and My Mom

The theme for this week on Illustration Friday is"Homage", homage to my mother and the Art of Nursing.

Women at Work was the theme for the week on Skinny Saturday. So this post covers two challenges for the price of one.

This piece features a photo of my mother taken in 1944. This is her graduate nurse photo for her Texas state nursing license. She graduated from City - County Hospital School of Nursing in Fort Worth, Texas. My mom worked at City Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, Bethesda Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri and retired from Deaconess Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. I'm amazed at the hard work performed by nurses all over the world. They care for people and save lives everyday. Where would we be without them?

I found this quote from Florence Nightingale:

Nursing is an Art:

and if it is to be made an art,

It requires an exclusive devotion

as hard a preparation,

as any painter's or sculptor's work;

for what is the having to do with

dead canvas or dead marble,

compared with having to do

with the living body,

the temple of God's spirit?

It is one of the Fine Arts:

I had almost said,

the finest of Fine Arts.

This art work measures 3 by 5 inches. I used a copy of a photo of my mom, a stamped image, a wing from a ZNE collage sheet, "Special" tag, and "Those who bring...." from a vellum scrapbook page. I'm not totally sure I like how the vellum looks, but I like the over all finished design and concept.

Zne's Parata Di Arte - Theme Week Winner

I am very honored to have had my Dogz Charm Necklace chosen for the 1st Place Award for The ZNE Theme Week on Zne's Parata Di Arte on Flickr. The Theme for last week ( week #7) was Charms or Dangly things. This is a piece I made during The ZNE Book Club when we worked out of "Pretty Little Things" by Sally Jean Alexander.

Soldering can be a dangerous thing....ouch....so be sure to read the instructions. I used assorted dog clip art to make the charm collages before soldering the glass. Be careful that the glass doesn't crack. I also soldered the scrabble tiles, and added some "rabies" dog tags, since I save everything I had a few, of assorted shapes, hanging around. ( We have 4 dogs.) The hardest part is soldering the jump rings. That is one of the things I need to practice. I think I have found a way to get that all to work out better, with some ideas from "Collage Lost and Found" by Giuseppina Cirincinoe, which will be the ZNE Book of the Month for March. It's not too later to sign up!

I am very honored to have been selected by the group. Check out the link and see the other entries. The artists are amazing!

Nine Patch Inchies - Mixed Media Serenity Prayer

No it's not itchy...it's inchies. Very tiny works of art. Each little square is 1 inch by 1 inch. This is really my first major effort doing inchies, and I am afraid I am hooked. I made the one with the music background and the black butterfly, last year for a Zne Design Team Project. But didn't work with it in the 1 inch size. I worked with it in a 3 inch square and resized it to 1 inch on the computer. But the 9 patch inchies square above was created in the 1 inch format. It reminds me of a quilt block

I confess, now I am hooked on these tiny works of art. I have been using up scraps like crazy, and of course creating even smaller scraps, which I am finally parting with via my new recycling bin. But recyling will be a topic for another day. You know how collage and mixed media artists love to save stuff. At some point we all need to learn to let go. Sort of like the Serenity Prayer of Mixed Media Artists, having the wisdom to know when to throw away and when to save. Sigh!!!

Today's See It Say It artwork on the ZNE BLOGZ site was created by ZNE Member aLaNi Pfeiffer. It is a beauiful page from an art journal. I always admire the work people can pull off in their art journals, and this is a beautiful example. First, I find them hard to keep up with, because I am afraid of making them ugly, but I know it's a place to practice your art. I have one that I have been working on and have actually filled several places. Usually I start about page 2, intimidated by page one, and go from there for a couple of pages, then get distracted and go on to something else. I do have sketch books I have filled with doodles and notes, but nothing as pretty an Alani's work. Now I guess I need to explain my response.

I wouldn't be so bold as to post a journal page, at least not yet. I was attracted to those olive looking things in the upper right corner, and it reminded me of a project I did for a design class that I took at Meramec Community College in St. Louis, MO. We were to make a design with a repetitive image and use color and have images overlap and the overlap look transluscent. I think that is what it would be called. The two colors as if the colors were "mixed" when over lapped. We used those art papers you get at art school ( you can tell I'm up on the lastest jargon. So you had to try to figure out what the two papers would look like mixed. I confess, I matched my papers up with my prismacolor pencils and then matched the closest paper to the two pencils blended. Whewww....did that make sense? The photo lighting is not the best. It certainly has an olive look to it. Not sure why I went that way. But I enjoyed the process and received great praise from the teacher. Which made me kinda proud.

Plant a Seed, wait and see!

It is almost spring! About one more week. Of course, in the St. Louis area, spring could bring freezing rain and snow or 80 degrees and sunshine! We'll have to wait and see. This little 4 x 4 is made in honor of spring and to respond to Illustration Friday's challenge for March 7, Garden.It is simple, not a lot of embellishment. I hope to get out and do some plantings in the next month or so. It's hard to wait. We'll get a few days of beautiful 70 degree weather, the the bottom drops out of the weather and drops back into the 20s. It confuses the "tender vegetation" and me.

Spring always amazes me, you may not believe in God, but you've got to believe in Spring!

Happy New Beginnings and Gardening to all of you!

Mom's New Stove

When you get a chance, sit with your mom and go through her old pictures. I never remember seeing this photo, until we were going through family ephemera when my brother and I moved our parents to an area nursing home. My dad had a series of strokes and was no longer able to take care of my mom who had alzheimers. My mom passed away April 1, 2006 and my father on June 5, 2006.

But happy memories abound. This photo was taken in 1952, a year before I was born and shortly before my folks bought their first house. It was certainly a different time. My father worked at Nooter Corporatation as a boilermaker, where he would work for 44 years before retiring. My grandfather worked there for 24. But the company carried the mortgage for my folks and also assisted with hospital bills when I was born.



This was my mom's new stove, which she used through the 1970s, at which time she got a lovely harvest gold model. I know she was proud of this new stove. I don't think they had a lot starting out. But then not many folks with babies right after WWII did. They were married in 1944 and had my brother in 1947.


Why am I writing about this today. I have been looking for "stuff" to do with some of the old photos that I have, and I found one. Over on Inspire me Thursday for March 6, the topic was kitchens. Now I was a bit intimidated by some of the photos they offered for inspiration for "kitchen". And it made me think about what's really important about the kitchen. Mom would bake cookies....and my dad did most of the other cooking. LOL., My mom was a registered nurse and worked odd hours and a lot of over time. If dad wanted to eat, he cooked. I miss them both.



So go through some old photos with your mom, she'll love it!



This is a scrap book page of sorts, it has sort of a Claudine Hellmuth feel to it. Well ...maybe if you squint!

You provoke my curioisty!

Check out 'See It Say It Saturday" on the ZNE Blogz. Kristy Christopherson has a lovely collage mixed media piece featuring Crows. She has a wonderful style and I love her work. On See it Say it Saturday you are suppose to respond to the art shown for that day! So above you will see my first crow piece. The template for the crow is from Stampington's tempting template collection. I hope to make something by the deadline and submit it for publication. Check out the art work on the ZNE Network

This crow piece is by Kristy Christopherson, Enjoy!

Hmmmm....more Asian Art

Hmmmmm......another Asian Themed project. Two birds with one stone as they say. This is suppose to be my project for the February Book Club Week Three...Traci Bautista's Book, Collage Unleashed. We were to use photo copies as a background base, I rubber stamped images. Then we were to glaze over with heavy bodied acrylics. I wasn't sure what that was, so I used my matte gel medium, then painted onver with three different acrylics in a wash, applied some copper acrylic paint, adhered some of my Asian tissue and more gel, then voila...( oh, that's French) attached the little umbrellas. It needs some words or other flourishes. I'll let it dry and think about it some more. The embellishments are from my Asian Za Lotta Grab bag. It goes with the music.

I love color. I think I have a “feel” for color. At least on paper or in a project. ( I won’t discuss my early dorm room décor here,….and I moved out of the dorm room …a long time ago…but that’s another story.) I love to come up with color palettes. I love fabric stores, yarn stores, and paint chips. I want my house to be purple or blue, but we have boring faded yellow siding. SIGH. But it’s home. I digress again. I think with color I can have various moods. I can be bright, vintage, shabby, gloomy, moody, cute. It depends on what has caught my eye when I last shopped at the scrapbook store for decorative paper, or the fabric store remnants or the rummage sale vintage linens, yard goods or clothes. I have always been in love with blue. As a little kid I saw blue wagons at the store. ( you know the little red wagon, only this one was blue. ) My folks got it for me for Christmas. Then one year it was blue ice skates. I know they had to hunt high and low at the store for them.. I miss them, my folks, the blue wagon and the blue ice skates. But what I don’t get is why they painted my room yellow. Sigh….they never did explain.

Now I have to argue with my dh about what color things should be. Doesn’t he know I’m suppose to get to pick out the colors of everything.,(LOL) ok, this is minor in the whole life scheme of things.

My understanding of the color wheel is a fairly recent phenomena in my life. And I love it. I do consult it quite a bit when thinking about color choices. I use it as a guide, it is not stone. My favorite color has evolved from blue to expand and include all the colors on the color wheel from blue - red in a clock wise rotation around the wheel….blue, blue violet, violet, red violet, and red…and all the hues, tints, values , and shades that lie there in. But really, there is no bad color.

I had some of these photos of the cool clock in New Orleans. I made them to fit onto ATCs. So I stumbled onto another Challenge Blog. This one has you make a design from a sample sketch. I make a sample and post on my blog and then post a link to their blog. All very confusing, but actually makes sense and you end up seeing lots of wonderful art work. So this is Ismaki's challenge #9. Check it out .