Marriage should be between two people who love each other.

Tins and Lids ...Magnets?

A few months back my sister came to visit mom, and as always, we decided to do a little art while she was here.  This trip was no different.  The day came to play and she took out of her carpet bag, tin lids from glass jars, tea tins, bits of paper, buttons, 2 part epoxy and other embellishments. Ok, this has my attention.   I have always been an instant gratification kind of gal.  I am intrigued.  We lightly glued paper on the bottom of the lids, added buttons (we shaved off the shanks) and words from a book for typed it from the computer.  I found that to be the easiest. As you can see from the photo above the words from the book didn't turn out as well as I would have liked it to.  You can see the words from the other side of the page.  So, in the future I think I will just type out the words I need.  (Squirrel...much easier to read)  After placing all the do-dads you want in your lid, you mix up the epoxy according to the instructions and pour in the lids. Be sure and cover all your treasures. Sister has us take a straw and gently blow the bubbles out of the epoxy.  Let them dry over night and we slapped a magnet on the back and called it good.  All of our lids turned out so different. The sky is the limit, so have fun!

Good fun, good times and great laughs!

In Loving Memory of Sophie Mae Baker Webb Bonney -

Mr. Milklips

It's hard to loss a pet.  This is a photo of our friends cat that passed away recently.

  He was a Maine Coon, about 25 pounds or so...biggest lover you would ever meet....

he will be missed.  

Photoshop is so much fun to play with.  There is not a thing you can't do with it!  I changed the color of the slide and gave more life to their faces.  Two of my favorite people.  

Fishies and the Seahorses

Here fishie, fishie....playing again!  

Black and Green

Susan's property was a grand place to photograph plant life.  Between her plants and my Photoshop Elements.....man, am I a busy girl.  Thanks Susan for the endless possibilities of creativity!

Zen Butterfly

My mother has for the art of Zen-tangles.  This woman had put out some of the most detailed work I have seen since she used to cross-stitch. These have make some gorgeous cards.  Nice job mom!

Wendy's Table

Saw this bland little table in the thrift store for $5.00 and thought with a little "arting up" it would make a great little 'thank you' gift for some work she did for me. The top of the table was about 8"x8" triangle and the legs stood about 2 1/2 feet off the floor.  
 


With a little collage and shiny black paint, I was able to reform this plain little table to a fun art piece...enjoy it sister!

Rainbow Balloons

Photoshop has been my new love for the past couple of months...wow, that is just TONS of stuff you can do with photographs.  This is just one of the things I have been working on.  More to come....   ;o)

Mom's Chair

It's been a long summer! Lots of things have been going on like vacations, resting and having tons of fun! So one day I was feeling very creative and decided to start working on Mom's chair. This is a chair that she found somewhere many years ago and painted it an adorable yellow and sponge painted white on top. After many years out in the weather it needed a little help. Mom asked if I would collage it. Sure, why not! I had just finished a table for my sister. I do believe that Karen O'Brien has created a monster in me...I just love to collage! Nothing is safe in my house. Someday my partner will come home and I will have collaged everything including the TV!

With lots of love, paper, glue and paint the process begins. My favorite papers to use are maps, book pages, music and a coloring book page (this makes for interesting marks). Layers after layers are put on the chair. Karen taught us NOT to fall in love with any one section because before you know it...it's changed. I love to watch it transform from one look to the next after each layer. Add a coat of transparent paint to the end and watch it change again.

Use what you've got around you...

Mom recently took an online class "Art of Silliness 3" by Carla Sonhiem
One of the assigments of the day was to make a face with what you have around you. This is what she came up with...too cute!! The paper under the face is a background I was using to paint on. The eyes are candles, nose is a nut, eyebrows and mouths are a peice of old cording...clever, mom, simply clever!!

Dogs Eat...Cats Dine

Thanks to Teesha Moore and YouTube, I got a chance to do something different in my journal. This was a blast! We started with a border around the edge of the journal page, added some cut-outs from a magazine and started a funny picture. Added some fancy eyes, whiskers, pail of fish, wavy lines and fun pen strokes....and there you go, a great page! Thanks Teesha for the inspiration and trying something new.

Grunge Meets Karen

Hello fellow journal people! Today was an awesome day for creativity! Mom and I went to another class with Karen O'Brien! Once again it was fabulous. We had been asking Karen to help us with the pages of our journals. She taught us how to create background pages....well, that's great, but what do we do with them now?? Today was just a small spattering of what we could do! With an image, glue, paint, tore paper and a few markers I came up with this little doll of a gal. Not sure what to name her yet, but it will come to me.

The left side of the spread is a grunge technique that we learned from a video we watched from Comfortable Shoes Studio. Leslie has some great videos on You Tube if you get a chance to see them.

Collaged Mats

Ok, this was a lot of fun! And I have to make more! Cat asked what would happen if you collage a mat for a photo....well, I wondered....why not!?! So the next time we were at Michaels Craft Store, we picked up a couple of photo mats that fit a 4x6 photo. I cruised through my old photos and found a couple that I thought needed to be matted. Away I collaged. I like to use old books, maps, sheet music and a little fun for the elements. Once again I have to thank Karen O'Brien for the collage lesson. That women rocks!


The first, of course, is Keiko the killer whale. We got a chance to see him when he was up in the aquarium in Newport, Oregon back in 1996. Huge, beautiful animal! It was stormy that weekend, so his water was a little cloudy. If you wanted long enough, he would appear from the murky water straight to the window and look at all of us. Oh, he was a site.

Next was a place called Fountains Abby in North Yorkshire, England. The architecture was amazing. Some people leave their heart in San Fransisco? I left mine at Fountains Abby. Mom and I got the chance to come back at night and listen to a men's choir sing some up to date songs. Seemed odd in such a magnificent place.

Our Family...

Our best friends, Dana and Fran, had a baby back in May. He is just about the cutest thing you will ever see. Sweet face, sweet nature, just a sweet boy. Sigh! I seem to cry every-time I see him. Not sure why, I just feel the emotions and smile....

While visiting them in October we walked into a baby store and I saw a wooden frame that was so-so done with the words "Our Family just grew by two feet". Clever, I thought, but I think I would like to make one for them and make it more personal. So, as Fran was giving Lee his bath, I asked if we could take a couple of pictures of his feet....so sneaky! Christmas was coming and I thought that would be a great time to give them something special. So Cat and I put our heads together and came up with a great wide black frame, the pic of his feet, some velum for the words and the collage technique Karen O'Brien taught, I was off and running....

Hollywood Journal

Well, I finally got the outside of the Hollywood Canvas Journal finished! Whew.... that can take some time looking for just the right closure and buttons and .....stuff! It has been fun adding stickers, letters and finding pictures to add to the inside of the journal for visual fun. The trip begins....


I have written before that mom and I are trying very hard to use things we already have or given to us. So, why not use a book of maps for the inside pages?? I tried to stick with the California maps the best I could....I have never been crazy about my hand writing so I found much easier to type out the trip on the computer.

We found a great little coffee shop very close to the place we were staying....



We visited with Cat's grandma Virginia before she passed about a month later. What a lovely visit we had playing cards and reminiscing with old photos. Miss Virginia, you will be missed.

This was a great experience and I think I will make trip journals in the future...

The Fat Man is coming!

Christmas is on it's way and I am getting ready to make some canvas journals to give away...

Get a nail brush, paint and gesso'd canvas and paint your little heart out. I like using the nail brush to move the paint around and it's good for getting the paint in the canvas.

After it dried I put a coat of Golden Gloss Medium. I like a little gloss of the covers. It's not too much, it's just right. Hard part is waiting for the gloss to dry. Waiting, waiting and wait some more....

Sew a few signatures and add a button and a closer...then they will be ready for wrapping and giving them away.

Collage Class with Karen O'Brien

Ok, I am a fan of Karen's work and love the way she teaches! Mom and I took another class from Karen O'Brien today. We worked an Red Rosin paper that you can buy very cheap at Home Depot. Then we used gesso, painted, marked, mono printed, painted some more, collaged, stamped and everything else you can imagine. We learned about the different types of paints, translucent and heavy bodied, glues, gel mediums and more, learned some new things. This piece is about 17" x 24" large. It's all about layers. And layers and layers and layers....did I mention layers?? Yep, layer more and more...it takes on a life of it's own. You start off thinking what the outcome would be, but you end up with something completly different....wonderful class....thanks Karen! I look forward to the next class.

Good Seasons

Well, mom is at it again....she has created another great little book out of the cardboard from an Italian Salad Dressing box. She even took the time to look up words in Italian to put on the inside of her cover....very clever mom! Stay tuned, she has more ideas up her sleeve...