Stayin' Dry

As I write this, Irene has been downgraded from hurricane to tropical storm.  Hey, a rose by any other name.....she is still doing a good job of kicking ass.  I couldn't resist opening a window and snapping a few pix.   The raw wood you see on the trees is where large limbs and branches used to be:

Behind the trees in the next shot is a usually well traveled parkway.  Only official vehicles on it today.

Any blurriness is not due to the photographer's shaky hands....just a basic point and shoot camera trying to capture trees bending crazily in the wind.

One last shot....you can barely make out the Hudson River through the rain and fog.

Many folks have mentioned that this weather makes it so convenient to stay home and make some art.  I don't know about anyone else, but I can't focus on a thing besides this storm.  The news has been on non-stop and every time I try to do something creative I get distracted....checking windows for leaks, watching the poor reporters getting blown to bits in Long Beach and Coney Island....I tried to work on a book binding project and just kept screwing up the stitches, so I gave up.

And now a shameless plug.  Please check out Seth Apter's blog, The Altered Page.  It's a wonderful blog any day of the week, but on Sundays he has a feature called The Pulse, which posts photos and answers to questions by an assortment of mixed media artists.  Someone you might know (insert big smile) is in today's issue.

East Coast buddies.....stay safe!







Self Portrait Stencil

The miserable weather the northeast has had this weekend kept me indoors for most of it.  I had the chance to catch up on some favorite blogs and was happy to visit Jennifer's.  She is one of my co-collaborators in the art journals, and I love her art.   Her blog post was all about creating a self portrait stencil.
First, go to this site where you can transform a photograph of yourself into one that can easily become a stencil.   Jennifer used the cartoon feature, but I opted for the one called stencil.  (There are a ton of other options that have nothing to do with making a stencil, but look like a whole lot of fun.  You can change a photo to give it a grunge look, or an impressionistic look, or......well, go there and see for yourself).
I used the photo that you see right here on the blog (though I left out the cosmo in the finished stencil).
This is what the stencilized version looks like:

Take the print and lay it under some acetate.  Color in all the black areas with a sharpie, directly on the acetate.  Then using a craft knife (TIP:  use a brand new VERY sharp blade for the best results), and working on a self healing cutting mat,  cut away all the areas you've blackened.

You're left with a stencil and that's where the fun comes in.  I did just a few samples, but definitely plan to make some more and incorporate them into my art.

This was done with distress ink and a blending tool.  Very easy and neat.

The next one was done by spraying with Adirondack Color Wash.  Not as crisp, maybe, but I like it.

The last one I did today was with acrylic paints...I used two colors and just dabbed them over the stencil with a stiff brush.

Next I'll try combining some materials and see how that works.  I'm thinking about dabbing versamark over the stencil, removing it, and then sprinkling embossing powder and heat setting it.  I also think ink and perfect pearls would be nice.

Well, thanks Jennifer for the inspiration!

I Dream In Colors Art Journal

After weeks of not receiving a journal to work in, today Tracy's arrived, sent by Carla (who did an awesome job, by the way).

Tracy's colors are browns, creams, and a touch of yellow. Nice earthy tones.

I was recently looking for images of medieval towns for a completely different project, and found a photo on Flickr that was just shouting at me, "use me in Tracy's journal!" So, I listened and simply printed it out on regular copy paper, Then I adhered it to cardstock and used a lot of colored pencils on it for shading and highlighting. Now I think it looks more like a drawing than a photograph.

I don't normally use fairy images in my art, but it seemed to fit the background.

As for the text, well, since Paul McCartney just performed here in NYC, I figured I'd use his lyrics. That does look like a long and winding road in the picture, doesn't it?

The Gotham City Stampers Monthly Team Meeting...

...was last night. We had our usual swap, and a belated holiday gift exchange. For my swap I did an ATC. I'm usually doing them as part of a Paper Imagery Design project, but since this was for my Stampin' Up group, I confined myself to SU stamps and products for the most part. Our theme, thanks to the very talented and gadget-crazy Pat, was tools. Which meant that for our swap we had to use a minimum of 3 tools. I used punches, a heat gun, my Big Kick, a Cuttlebug folder, a mask, and an alcohol ink blending tool. I am pleased with the way it came out:For the gift exchange, everyone who signed up was given a person to create a gift for. I got Diana, who is fairly new to our team. I don't know her very well yet, but I have observed a few things about her style, and know that she is a Frida Kahlo fan. I made a pendant that featured a Kahlo self portrait as part of the collage design, and I also altered and embellished a plain white box to put it in. The frame for the pendant is actually from the SU Hodgepodge Hardware set!The photos aren't as clear as I'd like (sorry!), but I love the necklace and box, and more importantly, Diana did too:

My name had been given to Heidi, and she made me an AWESOME gift. I haven't photographed it yet, but when I do it will get it's very own blog entry.

12 Gifts of Christmas - Day Eight

I am loving this 12 Gifts of Christmas swap from the Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group. Today I got to open Dianna's gift. I had some trouble with the photograph. I tried taking it with the flash, without the flash, I scanned it....nothing worked very well. So, just so you know, these pix don't come close to doing justice to this gorgeous two-sided Christmas tag. My white branches are getting full, and the display is just beautiful.

Waterfalls in NYC!

What a fabulous day! A while back a friend sent me an email about free Circle Line tickets to view the temporary waterfall installations dotting the East River. My friend Heidi and I applied for tickets, and yesterday we went with some other members of one of our Meetup groups. The weather was glorious, the waterfalls and other NY sights were awesome, and I think we all left happy and inspired.

Inspiration

My friend Carla posted a piece in her blog (http://cardsofnyc.blogspot.com/) about inspiration coming from so many places, expected and otherwise. I couldn't agree more. No pictures of cards or ATCs today. Instead, some of my recent trip to the beautiful island of Curacao. Here's some colorful inspiration!