Sunday, October 31, 2010

Two New Digital Collages from "Zetti-Re-Vamp" - Fincrafted Designs

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Behind the Eight Ball - digital collage




Whatever Floats Your Boat

Image Credits (1):
Finecrafted Designs - Zetti Re-Vamp - see below
Drapery and Eight Ball - Holliewood Studios - available here

Image Credits (2):
Finecrafted Designs - Zetti Re-Vamp - Available here
Waves and emblem on hat - Tumble Fish Studio - here
Boat - Tangie Baxter - here
Frame - Holliewood Studios (see above)

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Butterfly Effect Update #8 - Fragile Hope

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Has it really been ten whole weeks since we started this project?  August 22 - October 29?    I continue to be overwhelmed by the generous and loving spirits that join  the project, and I know I sound like a broken record, but  it's both a humbling and refreshing experience and magnifies my faith in the goodness inherent in our nature as humans. 

Butterflies from two kind souls arrived this week.  But not just two butterflies  - ....eight!   So, a very  humble thank you again to Linda and Cindy.   Together you brought the total of our butterflies to 50! 

FYI, there is still an abundance of time to join in on this meaningful project. The deadline is December 31st, 2011 (that's over a year from now!)


More information is available by clicking on The Butterfly Effect tab above ( just below my blog header.)   Please consider it.

If I received your butterfly by November 30th, 2010 you will also be entered into a draw to receive a copy I purchased of the book - I Never Saw Another Butterfly.

Great news and another  draw will also be announced December 15th, 2010!


So today with pleasure,  I bring you several photos of  more beautifully hand-crafted butterflies (and two snapshots of Cindy's package) directly from the hearts of  Linda Adams and Cindy Adkins.














** In Hebrew, the prayer  Cindy incorporated into  the above butterfly  is The Shema.
In English it is translated: "Here, Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One."





CINDY ADKINS
Meraux, Louisiana







 LINDA M. ADAMS
Reading, Pennsylvania, USA


 

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Fabric/Mixed Media Skinny Page - Just a boy and his parrot

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Although I'm still waiting for my sari ribbon and fibers to arrive, I worked quite differently with this piece than I have in the past.  A little more free form and concentrated more on 'thread painting', adding organza and other textural elements with beads, and embroidery  thread and sewing in other fibers.


First some just for fun macros -







Below is a photograph above and a scan below - the scan is the most recent and almost finished piece.


And here it is on paper, digitally -






I've already decided on my next project - it's hopefully.....fingers crossed,  going to be a painting of my daughter's cat - Paris and the next in line after that is a painting of her girlfriend.  These are, as you can see! drafts of the photographs  'altered' digitally which I have found helpful in the past to start envisioning the final piece.




Thanks for visiting!!!!!!!





Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Happenstance

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My daughter - Hayley - enjoying the moment


Often, The Daily Om provides me with uncanny 'hit the nail on the head' thoughts to consider, by happenstance.

Today before sitting down to read the below excerpt, I had been trying to juggle several priorities....household, appointments, work appointments, creative time, email. I had asked myself, how had I managed when I worked 70 hours per week and raised my two children alone ninety percent of the time?

 Even though a day never goes by without at some point feeling grateful for the luxury of independence and choice of how to spend much of my day, I still occasionally feel overwhelmed with too many competing 'to do' items.

"Occasionally" happened today. I know from my past, I am no longer the perfectionist I was in my twenties. That was something I had to come to terms with after I gave birth to my firstborn 7 weeks early and her survival was in question. Nothing else mattered and all of the 'items' that seemed to take up so much of my energy and time became trivial and meaningless.

 I also remember the day when I realized that I had to adjust my priorities and that a spotless home was downgraded to 'a tidy home'. And raising my daughters without their father when he left his responsibilities as a parent and  moved to a different province,  took first place on this list. I had to be Mom and Dad for them as best as I could.

Two years ago, Hayley was hospitalized for several months  with a very serious and life-threatening illness.  She spent her 21st birthday in hospital.   Life again, provided me with that 'wake up call' - don't sweat the small stuff...and it's all small stuff when someone you love is hurting or their life is 'at risk'.  Even as I type this tears again starting falling down my cheeks.  I know many of you reading this have had tragedies far worse in your lives.  Thankfully, Hayley as you can see above is healthy again, 23 now and is achieving her dreams at school and in her personal life.  Those endless days of worry and fear of her future are in the past and yet, they'll never stop serving as a reminder to me of how precious and fragile life is.   And again, that never ending  to do list is reduced  to merely
 a
                         leaf
                                          blowing
                                                                                          through
                                                            a
                          moment
                                                                              in the
                                                                                                                                               wind 
                                                                 of
                                                                                                                    time.

 Life As It Is - The Daily OM
 Making Life Work for You

 At the end of the day, we must come to terms with changing what we can and accepting what we cannot change.

Sometimes we have so many varying responsibilities in our lives, ranging from work obligations to caring for children to running a household, we feel we cannot possibly make it all work.

We may feel overwhelmed in the face of it all, ending each day feeling hopelessly behind schedule. However, regardless of how frustrating this can be, these are the parameters that make up our lives, and we owe it to ourselves to find a way to make it work.

 Rather than buckling under the pressure of an impossible to-do list, we might take a moment to view the larger perspective. Like the president of a large organization, we must first realize that we cannot do every job ourselves. The first step to sanity is learning how to delegate some of the responsibility to other people, whether by paying someone to clean our house or trading childcare duties with another parent.

 In addition, we might find places where we can shift our expectations in ways that make our lives easier.

 For example, expecting ourselves to create a healthy home-cooked meal every night after a full day of work, errands, or caring for an infant or toddler may be a bit excessive.

We might allow ourselves to order in food once in a while without any guilt.

Accepting the adjustments needed to make our lives work is an essential ingredient to being at peace with our situation.

 At the end of the day, we must come to terms with changing what we can and accepting what we cannot change.


 Sometimes the laundry piles up, a sick child demands more of our attention than usual, and we temporarily get behind with our schedule.

 Accepting this momentary state of affairs and trusting in our ability to get back on track when the time is right, we gracefully accept our life as it is, letting go of perfectionism and embracing life as it stands.

I hope you will

 EMBRACE YOUR LIFE TODAY
                                                     and spend some time                                                        

                                                                               i n  t h e                       

                                                                                                 P R E S E N T   M O M E N T.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

October Green Paper Challenge

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Mary Green of Green Paper (typepad) hosts a challenge each month supplying images to work with.  I was too late to enter the challenge this month, but I decided to play with one of the images she'd selected and below are the before and afters.
I colored the image of the  girl digitally.




Lightbulb Moments - 8 x 10 inch digital collage

Image Credits:
Light Bulbs - Tangie Baxter

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Upcoming Art Exhibit - Republic of Niara - "SCRAPS" - The Art of Collage - Niaran Museum of Art

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I made the above slideshow to showcase a stunning collection of artwork I recently received from Michele Jackson of Digital Dissonance.  It is a project inspired by Abby Lazar to create 'an event' featuring Michele's imaginary country - Republic of Niara.

Featured in this slide show are the various PR elements  describing the event -a two month gallery exhibit at   The Niaran Museum of Art  titled "Scraps - The Art of Collage"   - October 1st and running until November 30, 2010

Featured in this slide show -

 - 2 Free Tickets to the Event contained in a Ticket Envelope/Holder
 - A postcard
 - a Poster advertising the event
 - a Map to the Museum
 - A signed and matted  Limited Edition  Handcut Collage - titled "The Flautist"

Hope to see you there!

For more information about the exhibit  or to view some of Michele's other art - visit her blog at http://www.digitaldissonance.blogspot.com/



Friday, October 22, 2010

The Butterfly Effect - UPDATE #7

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Hi again everyone,

 Another week has flown by bringing with it  6 lovely butterflies touching down raising our total safely here to 42!

 Ironically,  ALL of them arrived from the United Kingdom!

Represented from England, Scotland and our first two butterflies from Northern Ireland a huge  thank you to

Gill Miller
Astrid Maclean
Sharne Gregory 
Joy Gray
Calub Gray




SHARNE GREGORY
Essex, England, UK





ASTRID MACLEAN
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK


GILL MILLER
Northumberland, England UK







CALUM GRAY, Age 5
Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, UK

JOY GRAY
Calum's Mom
http://www.alterme.typepad.com/
Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, UK


Thursday, October 21, 2010

I Heart Textures

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This week I wanted to continue with posting a few photos of delicious textures.  The two photos below are  both orders I placed on Etsy this week.  I am beginning to get a vision in my mind of the butterflies I will be creating for The Butterfly Effect project and theoretically plan to include these purchases in the butterflies.  

The first image is  handspun recycled and uncarded sari silk yarn (fair trade) and the second one -again, sari silk ribbon skeins.  Links to the Etsy shops I found these in are posted below each photo.






I know that Lorraine Stobie is also a texture and color junkie and lucky for me, she created a skinny page for me several months ago that combined both elements  in a strikingly harmonious way.  She created this skinny depicting a forest floor interspersed with flowers.   Striking isn't it?  Thanks again Lorraine.  For more information on the techniques she used, you can visit her website here









Finally, just a sneak 'macro' preview of one of the butterflies that arrived this week - from another  obviously talented and gifted textile and surface design artist - Sharne Gregory - I will have the full photos of the butterflies posted tomorrow in my weekly update. But if you can't wait :o) until then you can see Sharne's butterflies on her blog by clicking here









Sunday, October 17, 2010

CT Work this week

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|A new  kit at DeviantScrap featuring Finecrafted Designs - Foxes and Furs

"Nip in the Air" - 5 x 7 inch digital





And from MizzDStock - Black and Maroon, Italian Court,  Hat, and Wig Exclusives


"Magic Carpet Ride" 8 x 8 digital





"Mona, Marie and Blueberry Tea" 4 x 8 Skinny Digital