Artful Journey

Just got back from an idyllic retreat of days filled with Yoga, Art and camaraderie

. I took DJ Petit's class 'A Bird in the Hand' and learned how to paint on photos, sew random bits of fabric to paper and cloth and create a sumptuous book with a button binding.

A crafty evening

I just spent a fun evening at a crafting event sponsored by the staff of Anthropolgie and Uppercase. It was great to hear about the behind the scenes artistry that goes in to the displays in the store. I met up with Janice from Papier Valise and we had a great time playing. We made books, buttons and a weird sputnicky thing that I am not quite sure what I'll do with !

My little Easter garden!

I used some brown egg shells as mini garden containers to amuse myself this morning..... So much less fattening than chocolate!!!!

Testing out my new Bogg boots

Spring storm!

Why did I put the snow shovel away!

Earth Hour

I shut off all the lights, lit some candles and journaled by candlelight in honour of Earth Hour last week.

Putting my credit card to good use!

Lemonny yoghurt on a lazy Sunday morning!

Lemons... A zester...some honey and plain creamy yoghurt..... Perfect over fruit or inside a crispy crepe! Yum!

Repurposing a little shelf unit

Quite a few years ago I inherited a little shelf unit and never quite figured out how to put it to good use. This winter a light bulb went off and I decided it needed little drawers made. Here is the before and after!

Daylight savings time begins soon

So to welcome March into my home I took down the hearts and put up my light bulbs... And used them as hanging flower vases! I love it!

Whispers from the past

Applying a painterly effect using Kim's tutorial I tried several photos without much success. I eventually persevered with this one and you can see the before and after ....I got rid of some of the distractions using that great lasso tool and content aware feature things I had never heard of before let alone tried!

Photographically speaking

Our assignment this week was to set up a still life and then use a gradient to create a vintage effect. Another new thing learned about Photoshop!

Time Capsule

This week's challenge was to take six photos
documenting your day and then place them into a template in photoshop. Kim's excellent video instructions really helped as I have tried this before without success!
This is a visual of a typical day right now.

Challenge Week Two.

Vision and Blur is our theme for this week's challenge.

 I took my Canon SX30 out of Auto mode and put it in Manual....set the aperture as low as mine will go and opened up the shutter and clicked! Then in Photoshop I added Kim's new texture Organic which I loved watching how she made....thank you for the demo. This is making learn  more about what my camera can do.

6 words to describe myself!

This is the latest challenge in The Beyond Layers    class. I took a photo using Hipstamatic's Susie Lens on my iPhone and then processed it with some bokeh and Kim's scripted edges texture set to screen blend mode.

My new Ikea muffin pan

I just baked a batch of savory cheesy muffins in my new tall and skinny pan... They turned out amazingly well.... I am always amazed when anything I bake is a success!

Awaken

I took this photo for the Beyond Layers class. The assignment was for a simple composition and lots of negative space...this was quite hard for me!  But I am happy with this result. i added Kim's "Awaken" texture
and reduced the saturation levels a bit.

What to do on a cold and wintry day!

Make jam of course! I came across several bags of fruit taking up space in the deep freeze so I hauled them out and got them simmering.....now my shelves are filled with jars of dark red yumminess! I had some for breakfast this morning!

Spontaneous mark making

I just spent the morning doodling along with a Traci Bautista video class sponsored by strath more papers ... It was fun being free!

OPEN

 Today is Texture Tuesday , the theme " Open", and I used Kim Klassen's Texture "Serious Magic"

put blending mode to "Screen" and after a few tweeks with curves I was done!

Made a new journal for an online class

I signed up for Kim Klassen's on line class "Beyond Layers" and this is my new photo intentions journal.
It is made from an old year book with new pages inserted. Hopefully it will get fatter as the year goes by ... Filled with tons of photo projects!
Kimklassencafe.com if you'd like to check her out...

I phone tips

I just learned this cool tip from photojojo... On the left is the picture taken with the camera app ... Centre tap on the lightest area and the camera will automatically darken ... Right tap on The darkest area and it will auto lighten... Isn't that cool!!!

Journaling on my I phone

I have spent a few days reorganizing and sorting my art supplies .
I love my art space when I can find what I want when I need it, and even though I have a spacious work table I always end up working in about one square foot with all my treasures surrounding me!

This is what I spent the morning doing:
making collaged ornaments and using
some of my favourite washi tapes and
old papers.
I just have to attach some wire hangers
and they'll be ready to adorn my house!

Harvest Moon Rising

Last night I sat on my deck and watched the Harvest Moon rise up over the hill side....It was beautiful ............all pink and glowing. I love nature!

Light Bulb Hangers

While my cousin Bob was visiting here, he helped me get brave and experiment taking light bulbs apart. We first watched a "How To Video" on YouTube , then donned gloves and goggles  to create funky little hanging vessels over the dining table.  Now all I have to do now is decide what to put in them.....Halloween is fast approaching so maybe I'll find some bones somewhere!  Thanks to my son Shawn for taking the photo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn4-cJKgHPg&feature=relmfu
This is the link for a how to video if you're interested to try this for yourself.

I am using a lot of my I Phone photos to make Gift Tags....most have been taken with the Hipstamatic App.......still my number one Fave! Here is a little selection.

Rozina and I made printing plates, then rolled some paint on and printed a whole lot of deli paper to collage with.

Inspsiration

A friend shared a pretty napkin with me the other day and it inspired a frenzy of pattern making!

I am always on the lookout,
where do you get your inspiration from?

Body Building!

We are making Body casts out of
brown gummed paper. These can be used
as dress forms or, as we are planning to do,
collage and paint them for an installation
exhibit. Here are the two we did in the
studio on the weekend. It was fun and
only took about an hour with  couple of
diligent helpers to apply the tape and prod
and pummel it into submission!
Ideas are percolating!

UpTrending Dollar Store Finds!

The Rec.Therapy department bought some dollar store bird houses, the other day and we painted them up and then stencilled patterns on to them. I finished them with a varnish so they would be a little weather proofed , now I'll keep my fingers crossed that the birds think they are pretty enough to nest in!

Dyeing thrift shop finds.

 This is what I did.
I chose a pallette.
Went and got some dyes.
Bought some old
linens from the thrift shop.
Most were about 25 cents.
Put them in the dye pot.
This is what I got.
I cut long strips of fabric and sewed
them in spirals to make the flowers.

I cut up the table runner to make a cushion cover. They all came out different colours but in the same range. I had fun repurposing my finds on a cold and dreary winter's weekend!

Coffee Filter Flowers

I used up a package of coffee filters that had been sitting on the shelf for way too long, added a few circles of text paper and even newsprint.....dipped them with Walnut Ink and left them to dry. Then I scrunched them up and wrapped around floral wire and hey presto I had some vintage looking roses.

Tea-dyeing old ribbons and trims to create another vintage looking album.

Sent from my iPhone

Shifu.....spinning paper into yarn with my electric drill so much fun

Hey, check out this image I made using Diptic on my Iphone.

Sent from my iPhone

My new favourite book.

This is a book I got from Anthropologie and it is quite beautiful eye candy.
I think I feel a shopping spree coming on!!!

Photo album

I took some papers,ribbons and tea dyed muslin and began sewing. Look what happens when you start doing instead of thinking!

Sent from my iPhone

Surrounded by love

Hearts all over the place. Love is in the air!

Sent from my iPhone

Putting up heart strings from the melted wax hearts I made the other day.

Sent from my iPhone

Untitled

A page from my Journal.......I make a month page and add bits and pieces to it as things happen.

Warped

Wahoo....Shawn showed me how to use the warp feature in Photoshop....love the possibiliities!

Collage of wax crayons melted in to paper and hearts cut out! Spread the love.

I made this with Collage Lite - Available on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and (coming soon) iPad. Download the full version at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/collage/id289943863?mt=8

Sent from my iPhone