More Journaling and EBAY!

I'm  now  in  week  3  of  the Strathmore  journaling  workshop.  My pages  pretty much  look the  same  with  just  more  color  added  in the background  and  little  details.  There's  one  more  week, and  I'll post it when  I'm  finished.  Once  I  start,  I  get real  fussy  with  the details--does  anyone else  have this problem too?

Well,  I  wanted  to  do  another page,  and  I  decided  to  do  the very first  one.  All  the  journal  artists  say to  start in the middle  somewhere,  because of the  fear  of  messing  up  a  brand  new journal, and not to start at the beginning.  But  I wasn't  "afraid", so I made  page #1-

Since  it's  my  journey  into  the journaling world,  I  had to use  the map for the collage elements.  I really liked making my face on the map!

And now  on  to  the  Ebay.  I've  been  cleaning  and  "purging",  but there are some things  that  I  can't  possibly  throw  out,  but yet  have enough  of  these items to last  me  2  lifetimes,  so  I  put  them  up  on Ebay.  Let  me  show  you  what  is  up  for  bid--

I  have  some  vintage  handles  that are  aged  very  nicely, plus  these larger  hinges.

These 2 great vintage magazines that  are  in  remarkably  good  condition--great victorian  images  and ads!

And  how  about  this  fun  lot--all of  it's  included  in  this  cigar  box.  That  book  is  dated  1892!

And  speaking  of  journaling  or  possibly altered  books--here's  a  great  lot  of  children's  board  books. 

Everytime  I  saw  them  this  summer  at  garage  sales,  I  would  get  them---I  could  now  start  a  board  book  library.

These  are  all starting  at  low  bids  and if you  want  more  info,  you  can  go  to  my  Ebay site  HERE.

And  on  a  side note,  Darla  asked  me  if  I  was  having  problems  with  blogger--you  know  moving  photos  around  or  changing  your  text--well-- haven't  we  all.  Somedays she (Miss Blogger)  can  be  very  disagreeable,  but  she's  nothing  compared  to  MS EBAY--this  lady  is  in  full  PMS mode!  It  took  me  about  2  hours  to  list  these  4  listings.  Alot  of  times  when  I  would  press  continue,  it  would  tell  me  that  the  web  page  was  "expired"--just  a  way  of  saying--start  over and  do  it  all  again!  But  I  didn't  give  up,  and  they're  now  all listed.

I  also  wanted  to  tell  you  all  about  my  latest  purchase.  When  I  was  at  Border's  I  bought  this  setchbook (a  nice 5 x 7  size)  I  have  papers  that  I've  made  sketches  and  ideas  scattered  all  over  the  house.  And  it  was  the  last  straw  when  it  took  me  over  an  hour  to  find  this  sketch  that  I  made  and  put  in  a  place  where  I  could  "find"  it.  So  now  this  book  never  leaves  my  side  with  all  of  my  ideas  in  it.  I  now  have  a  little  black  book--

: )

P. S. American  Idol  starts  tomorrow--I'm  very  excited!!

Cigar Box Love

I used up all of my papers, and my cigar boxes, except for one  lid.  Here's what I did on the second one--

I made a shadow box!  I made all ofthe collage items to put into it--

I like to think of these as puzzle pieces. I arrange and rearrange them until they just "fit" into place--you know, just like putting a puzzle together.  And I love when I find just the right touch to add--

This was from a necklace that I had, and I just colored it with alcohol inks. I love alcohol inks--they're great for adding color to metal or glass, or anything for that matter.

And as for the other cigar box--I took my own advice. I'm using  it for storage for my neocolor crayons.  One reason being,  is that they're not that cheap, and I want to take care of them.  The other reason is that I've become very attached to these little guys. I love my crayons!

And also, I know I don't say this enough, but I just want to thank everyone for visiting me and for  all of your comments!  Plus, I want to thank you for sharing your art with me--I've learned so much in the last few months--I can't believe it.  I think it's great that we can share and learn from each other--so thanks guys!

Fun With Cigar Boxes

I know that I don't have to tell mixed media artists that when they're done smoking their cigars--don't throw out the boxes. (just kidding--I know you don't smoke cigars, or do you?)  These boxes  are probably a staple item in everyone's art supplies.  I don't happen to smoke cigars either, so every once in a while, I'll visit the local tobacco store and pick some up.  I just bought these 3 for $1.00 each!

My only requirement is that they be wood, and not cardboard, because I like to alter them into functional boxes--

Isn't this fun?  I also like to take the lid off (but don't throw it away--it's a great surface to paint on), and make collage boxes out of them, or turn it over and paint on it like a gallery-wrapped canvas.  If  anything, they're great for storing crayons, markers, pencils, or whatever.  This is  why they're great to get.

Plus I also finished my last 4 x 12 canvas--

When I posted these before, Martha was saying that these would look good with a Suzi face on it, and I thought, yeah that's a good idea, but  I decided to make a Suzi sun face instead. I love making these sun faces  (probably because  we don't get to see  much of it  around here).  I think this one is my favorite--but I like them all.

I think that next time I do this, I want to make one on a larger canvas or maybe a piece of wood to see how it turns out, and  I really love these with the painted papers.  You can't tell from the photos, but they all have lots of texture.

I also wanted to thank everyone for their comments on my art room/studio from my last post.  It's so funny because alot of you remarked on how neat and tidy it was.  And your right--it is.  Don't get me  wrong, when I'm in the middle of a project, all hell breaks loose, but when I'm finished, I always clean up and put everything back.  I never used to do this, but when I cleaned this room out last month, I vowed to keep it this way, because I would get so fustrated trying to wade through the mess all the time.  Now when I go in there--I just love it!!  And it's inspired me to clean the rest of my house--seriously.   You don't want to see the rest of my house--trust me.

And one more thing--this is to Dapoppins--I hope you're reading this. I wanted to tell you that I love the scrapbook that you made--I think it was for your son--right?  The reason why I can't tell her on her blog, is because she turned her comment option off.  She feels that she is addicted to comments and is trying to break her addiction : )  Lets face it--we all like comments. It's kind of like when  someone's talking to you --you want to reply to what they're saying or showing.  It's how we get to know each other.  I've made friends in the last couple of months with bloggers just through us commenting to each other.  She does, however, have a poll on her blog for you to vote if she should turn the comments back on, and last time I checked, 92% said yes!  So come on Dapoppins--turn on your comments again so we can "talk" : )   Just click on her name to visit her blog.  OKAY HERE'S AN UPDATE ON THIS BLOG--I just went to Dapoppins blog, and she's put the comments back on--YAY for you Dapoppins!