The Fifth Annual One World One Heart Get-to-Know and Give-away!

THIS EVENT IS NOW OVER!

OW-OH - I misinterpreted the date for this event - and I should not have posted it until Jan 31st.   My apologies to Lisa for not understanding - midnight to me is always the beginning of a day, not the end of it....but then again I was always the child who thought the year started in September and the first day of the week was Monday!!  I will of course still include those of you who have already left comments!  |Cheers!

Click on the Heart above to go straight to the OWOH Home Page

Welcome to Two Dresses Studio and the official post for this years One World One Heart event! My name is Trudi and I am from Alberta, Canada.

 I have been blogging for the better part of 4 years now and have had the privelege of making friends with countless  other art bloggers during this time.  The arts and crafts blogging community is to me  a very supportive and generous group of caring creative souls.  I can't tell you how much I've learned through my association with this community  whether it be a technique, the news of an upcoming workshop, or  a custom practiced in another country or continent.  I look forward to visiting new blogs through Lisa's annual event here and hope you will too.

 

My giveaway this year will be a $100.00 gift certificate to use to purchase a selection of my art prints located in my Etsy Shop.  It will be valid until June 2011 for the one time purchase of a collection of  prints available.  Shipping costs are included.  The prints are individually matted and  priced anywhere from $15.00 to $25.00.

 

Here's a selection of a few possible choices -

Please make sure to leave your email address with your comment so I can reach you when the contest is over!  The draw will take place February 17th, 2011 - for more information, and to view other blog participants visit Lisa's site by clicking on the logo at the top of this post.  Thanks for visiting!

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"Heading Off"

The Butterfly Effect and Two Dresses Studio will be back on-line mid February, 2011

"Heading Off" - 4 Digital ATC's

Image Credits - Freubel  for Free ATC backgrounds and Tumble Fish Studio for figures eyes, and ODD!

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Some TumbleFish Studio Lovin'

Shining Sparkly Love - digital illustration

Marsha has some great new images just in time for Valentine Cards!!!  Check out her shiny Etsy site at www.tumblefishstudio.etsy.com and spread the love! (All images Tumble Fish except for the figure from Dove Stock at Deviant Art, with some personal touches  ...and the shine comes from my heart!)

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New Creative Team Work

From http://www.deviantscrap.com/ and Holliewood Studios - Art Journalling 2 and Art Box 2 - a new group of funky paint splashed, hand drawn images et al designed with the digital artist in mind. Figures with thanks to  Sea Dream Studio (face) and full body from Eirian Stock - Deviant Art

Wet Thoughts - digital collage

Kinda Pink Kinda Not - digital collage

And from  Finecrafted Studios Sharks and Dolphins - figure thanks to Dove Stock by Full Body Shot - Deviant Art

Dolphin Swim - digital collage



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The Butterfly Effect - Update #16

Good Morning Everyone!

Below you will find this weeks' arrivals. I hope you'll take a moment to consider the thoughtful words chosen and again, be reminded of the individual difference each one of us can make by not tolerating hatred in any and all parts of our lives. 

Recent News -

A very special email arrived this week from a wonderful woman I have known since she was our family's babysitter when my children were young - Colleen Lange. She approached the principal of her daughter's elementary school several months ago with the idea of creating butterflies for the Holocaust Museum Houston. The principal and teachers embraced the idea and in November 2011 in time for Canada's Rememberance Day - each class and each of the 450 students will be creating a butterfly! I am filled with hope to know the messages that will be instilled in these young minds just may be one more  ingredient in creating a more peaceful world in the future.

One of the butterflies received this week deserves attention.  It was created by  a young man - Raymond Ritzau who served two tours of duty in Iraq with the Maryland National Guard.  Raymond just recently became a US citizen, and was born in Germany. Thank you Raymond!

And thank you too, to the other participants this week -

Marilyn Ritzau

Linda Kunsman

William Charlebois

The next Butterfly Effect Update will be posted in mid February.

One Hundred Eleven

Linda Kunsman

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

Marilyn Ritzau

Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA

Raymond Ritzau

Gaithersburg, Pennsylvania, USA

William Charlebois

Ypsilanti, Michigan, USA

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Sunday Postcard Art - Altered Mona!!!

Love this weekly challenge - play along with me?  Here's the link  It's such a great reason to practice your digital skills!  (Please pardon the partially cut off fingers...someone was playing with scissors!)

Image Credits:

Holliewood Studios, Lorie Davison, Tumble Fish Studio, www for stamp of Da Vinci,  Beth Rimmer,  Cemerony, Oscraps-Joanne Brisebois, Marta Van Eck, Tangie Baxter

And BLIP #4 -

Tonal Variations

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Studio Shots - Show and Tell Blip 3

We continue to be living in a deep freeze and neither David nor myself wanted to venture outside today to take another snowy photograph, particularly David considering his partially clad body.  So instead, we opted for an indoor photo shoot.  David and I have been living together for 40 years ever since my parents  brought him back with them from Southern Italy in 1971.    He's still adjusting to the climate here and as you can tell by his skin, rarely ventures outdoors.

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Ivory Coast: STOP CONFLICT CHOCOLATE

This will only take less than a minute of your time - please follow this link and send an email to chocolate manufacturers.

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It's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood....Day 2 BLIP

Well, no not really, in fact, definitely not.  It was MINUS 16C yesterday - or +3F  when I took this shot.   That may sound better but it isn't.

But, owing to my enthusiasm over my new camera, and my commitment to take a photo a day, I did manage to venture outdoors for about 10 minutes.  I may have to rethink the parameters around going outdoors to take photos...ya think?

Backyard - Lethbridge Coulees near sunset Jan 12/2011



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It's good to laugh at yourself....and a great reason to start blipping!

And I had the opportunity to really have a good chuckle this morning after realizing that the skinny page I had made for Frieda on Vienna - well, it was a a V city but, not quite Austria - but VENICE!  Hmmm... is this a new form of dyslexia?  Or just another brain cramp?   Luckily, there is still time  as I have until the end of January to finish her page.   Here's a glimpse of what I've managed to accomplish this far (again thanks to the public domain for these images...)  Now not only have I had the motivation to do some arm chair travelling through Vienna, I now had a great history lesson on Venice this morning!

Above  are the very beginning of the pages I created digitally.  I have  printed them onto fabric and will now begin embellishing them with machine and hand stitching.... and perhaps some  gold to reflect a the ornate "byzantine"  feel.   I wanted to also add some Renaissance art , since Venice to me is a city that played a central role in the history of the Renaissance period.  As well, whenever I think of Venice, I think immediately of the canals and the byzantine and gothic architecture.  Venice was one of my mother's favorite European cities and she had a beautifully ornate and carved jewelry chest she brought home from a trip she and my Dad took in the early 1970's. 

They say there are no accidents.  I think that's true in this case.  Yesterday,  and before I discovered my goofy mistake  I went for a visit  to Frieda's blog and was inspired by her daily BLIPS.   So much so, that I decided to start BLIPPING myself!  Daily.  Starting today.  Had I not visited Frieda's blog, like you, I too would be asking myself...what the b l i p  is a blip?   The answer lies buried in Frieda's blog or if you are in a hurry - here's a link for you! 

 Let me know if you start to BLIP?  I think it's an extraordinary way for anyone to tighten up on their photography skills plus it provides a good excuse to stop, breathe, appreciate nature and enjoy the moment. 

For me, I am very close to purchasing a new DSLR camera and so, this will also give me an added reason to be even more snap happy..

Onto my  blip today - dedicated to Frieda of course.  It   is taken at the edge of our property which  backs onto the coulees with a very very  very distant view of the Rocky Mountains.

Thank you Frieda - had I not discovered your  daily blipping, I would have probably stayed indoors today, and missed the beautiful sunshine and crispness on a fresh winter's day and the many benefits of some exercise and nature at its coolest!

Blip  1 - The Coulees - Lethbridge, Alberta -facing west - in the distance, the west side of Lethbridge and the Rocky Mountains - Jan 11 - temperature  - minus 21C

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January 2011 4 x 8 inch Skinny Page

These  pages were completed a year ago  in January 2010 when I was trying to 'work ahead' on the collaborations I had started.   I was quite relieved to discover I had a completed page almost ready to mail considering how busy this January is turning out!

For this particular page, the artist  (Frieda Oxenham) I am sending these pages  to chose   "Vienna" as her topic - and seeing as how I have yet to visit Vienna, I had to do a bit of research on this famous city.  What transpired from my reading were  two historical figures - Gustav Klimt and Bertha Von Suttner.

Bertha Von Suttner was an Austrian writer, born at Prague on the 9th of June 1843, the daughter of Count Franz Kinsky, Austrian field marshal, who died shortly after her birth. On her mother's side she was descended from the family of the German poet, Theodor Körner. After receiving a careful education she travelled abroad and resided for a long period in Paris and in Italy. In 1876 she married the novelist, Freiherr Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner (1850-1902), and for the next nine years lived with him at Tiflis in the Caucasus. After 1885 she resided at Schloss Harmansdorf, near Eggenburg, in Lower Austria.

The Baroness von Suttner, a fertile writer, produced numerous tales, books on social science and romances, among which the best known are Inventarium einer Seele (1882), Die Waffen nieder (1889), Hanna (1894), La Traviata (1898), Schach der Qual (1898), Martha's Kinder (1903), a continuation of Die Waffen nieder. She was at one time secretary to Alfred Nobel, and as a champion of the "brotherhood of nations", had much influence on him and others; and in this connection she published Krieg und Frieden (1896), Das Maschinen-Zeitalter, Zukunfts-Vorlesungen über unsere Zeit (1899) and Die Haager Friedenskonferenz (1900). In 1905 she was awarded a Nobel prize of £5000 for her endeavors in the cause of peace. Her Memoiren, full of interesting autobiographical matter, was published at Stuttgart in 1908.

Source:  Wikipedia

Her portrait is found on postage stamps and money and became the source of the images collaged and printed onto cloth below.  The images sources for both pages  are all adapted from public domain images  I found on the web.  The rich yellow background is a letter from Bertha I transferred onto cloth and Die Wafen Neider approx. translation from German to English is Down With Weapons.

"Bertha" - Vienna Page - Front 4 x 8

digital version 

Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects. Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. Many of his works are housed at the Kunstlerhaus Art Museum in Vienna, Austria.

Source:  Wikipedia

Because of his focus on the female body, I decided to repeat this theme along with the flavor of an Austrian "haus" in the background.

 

"Kunstlerhaus" - Vienna Page - Back 4 x 8 inches

(painting - Gustav Klimt)

digital version

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Sunday Postcard Art - Hobbies and New Blog Header

My new blog header started out as a remake from an older digital illustration I did, this time digitally colored.   I was having my weekly fun creating a postcard for this weeks S.P.A. but I also decided to make it into a new blog header.     Visit Sunday Postcard Art here to see this week's entries!

"Studio Musings" - 8 x 12 inch digital illustration

Image Credits:  Tumble Fish Studio here  and Holliewood Studios Art Box II here

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New Design Team Work - Mermaids Galore - Finecrafted Designs

"Sumptuous Scales" - 8 x 10 inch digital illustration 

 - images from Finecrafted Designs  - Mermaids Galore - here

"Aquatic Equines" -digital illustration, with images from Finecrafted Designs and

arm/hand from Tumble Fish Studios

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The Butterfly Effect - Update #15

Friday already - and time to resume my weekly  schedule of posting the most recent butterflies received. 

I had actually added a more thorough update of recent Butterfly Effect news, but Blogger didn't save my draft and due to my time constraints this week, I decided I  will postpone news until next weeks update.  Stay tuned.

 In the meantime, please  joining me in thanking the following artists and enjoy their   brilliant  additions to our growing collection -

Ingrid Dijkers
Trinka Seals
Cat Giglio
Katherine Kalkstein

Ingrid Dijkers

Plymouth, Michigan, USA

          http://www.ingriddijkers.blogspot.com/

Trinka Seals
West Foley, Alabama, USA

Caterina Giglio

Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

http://www.caterinagiglio.blogspot.com/

Catherine Kalkstein 
France

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Creative Team Work - Finecrafted Designs - DeviantScrap - Fairy Children

Oh do I ever have a big case of playing catch up on my hands this week!  I have digital illustrations dating back to the beginning of December that I am now finding time to post! 

Evelyn (Finecrafted Designs) released a beautiful set of images called Fairy Children in December - and below, a link to purchase as well as my two contributions to the team for this set! 

Available  for purchase here

....and the seasons they go round and round.....- Joni Mitchell

To unpathed waters and undreamed shores - Shakespeare

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