nesting instinct

this is an old art piece 

from back in the days of making tons of atc's (artist trading cards)

these atc's are all paper pieced bird houses

I used:

stamping

decorative papers

sanding

inking

a little bit of vintage lace

and attached them all to an old piece of fence wood

it's been hanging in my kitchen for 3 yrs now

and today I decided that it needed

beeswax

a quote I saw yesterday:

take something.

do something to it.

do something else to it.

- jasper johns

some things are much happier with a bit of beeswax

* * *

looking forward to the season of birds

this is what we woke up to:

it's just a little wimpy bit of snow up here in western Washington

it's very pretty and just a little bit of a nuisance

but with our hills and lack of snow removal stuff, 

it's enough to close the schools

and put us all into hibernation

atc's done!

This month's swap at Chriss' Artist Trading Club features the peeled paint technique and is hosted by Gaby Bee.

I finished my atc's and these are my favorites out of the bunch:

.... now to decide which one I should keep for myself .....

hmmmmmm

peeled paint

This month's swap at the Artist's Trading Club

is hosted by Gaby Bee.

Her spotlight is on "peeling paint technique."

I gave it a go yesterday and this is what I ended up with.

I ended up doing it in 3 coats with 3 different colors.

I gradually realized that the trick is to 

let the paint dry Absolutely Completely Thoroughly Totally DRY.

Have you ever waited for paint to dry?

This requires either a lot of patience -

or a lot of little things to do in between coats of paint.

Gaby's wonderful wonderful blog: Colorful Adventures

The post about this technique is: HERE

tea and intermittent sunshine

This is actually my friends cup of tea.

She just left for her yoga class.

I loved her choice of tea ...

and snagged it for this photo op before cleaning up.

The hang tag is a keeper for something arty :)

***

Did you know Chriss (a t on tuesday blogger) has an ATC swap club?

I'm skating in on last month's theme in the nick of time.

April's swap was hosted by Patty (also a t on tuesday blogger) ...

the theme was "Vintage."

Can you tell I'm ready for sunshine?

I hope your Tuesday's sunny!

Thanks for dropping by!

***

please visit these other tea on tuesday tea parties today:

Patty

Chriss

Pat

Dianne

Christen

Penny

Elizabeth

Jean
Debs

Judy

Rosie

Meadowlark Days

the fire poppy

This miraculous flower is among a precious few species that ONLY emerge and carpet the ground following a wildfire - specifically a wildfire of the California type - burned chaparral and sagebrush overgrowth. They are called "fire annuals" or "fire followers," and their seeds will lie dormant in the soil for 50 years or longer - and only germinate after a fire. Fire poppies will grow profusely for several years but will eventually disappear again as the chaparral plants return.

The regular chaparral plants such as sagebrush, black sage and laurel have very strong toxins which permeate the soil around the plant and act as germination inhibitors. But these toxins burn away in a fire and other plants seeds will flourish - this is what gives a "fire scar" bounteous flowers that haven't been seen in years.

There was a house fire in our neighborhood this weekend - fortunately no one was hurt - but the house is a "total loss."

Have you got something in your life that is or was a "total loss?"

Watch for those precious miraculous things that will germinate ONLY in those conditions.

I know that might sound preachy - especially if you're in the thick of things right now - but just try to remember the fire poppy .......

"Tooting My Own Horn"

2 of my cards have been published in this magazine:

here's 2 page spread:

Kris Dickinson (her blog is Nostalgic Collage) organized it. She sent around the rubber stamp (of the cat in a party hat) and we all took turns with creating 2 cards for submission in this ongoing feature of Stamper's Sampler: "Different Points of View." The idea is to showcase how many different ways one stamp can be used.

I made this twinchie:

and this atc:

Thank you Kris! I have to toot your horn too, because it was a patient task to organize our group and submit our work. To give you an idea of the patience involved, I made my cards last June. June of 2008 that is!

The Tin Man saves the day ....

(atc for ELK's swap)

It's the tin man who saved the day right? By not falling asleep among the poppies ... but then he rusted when it snowed on everyone .... but it all turned out ok in the end. I love that song you hear in the background as they run run run out of the poppy field once they all wake up .... "you're out of the woods ... you're out of the dark ... you're out of the night" .... and the witch says something like, "Why is there always someone helping that girl!?"

I made the tin flowers by using a flower punch to punch out the shape, and then added dimension by embossing the metal:

Sad Scottish Soldier

I made this atc last night and it just sort of unfolded into this sad image of a very distracted (or focused) man. He seems as if he's seen too many battles ....

(Thank you Lumilyon for the beautiful collage image of the soldier.)

Birdhouse

I made this birdhouse atc for the ABAA challenge this week.

In the News

Confidence in the Stock Market?

I made this atc for Linda and Rosie's weekend challenge over at ABAA "Newsprint".  I heard a little play on words in my head the other night while listening to the news. All this talk about confidence in the stock market got me thinking about the other kind of "confidence" ... the big con-men with their big con-games. Just a little play on words - right?

Green

ATC

Today on Wednesday Stamper, it's all about Green. This atc is a single layer of white cardstock with a stamped geisha image, inked background, applied text, gold embossed edge, gold leaf pen edge and beeswax. The beeswax gave the colors a very rich and transparent look which doesn't photograph as well as I'd like. Thanks for looking!

One Powerful Hour/Theme Thursday

ATC

The challenge today on One Powerful Hour is "Love (fill in the blank)."  The idea of the One Powerful Hour Challenge is to see what you can come up with in one hour using their prompt. I chose "Love Triangle," thinking of the famous literary love triangles like Darcy, Wickham and Elizabeth Bennett. Or Heathcliff, Cathy and Edgar Linton.

The challenge today on Theme Thursday is "Game Pieces." I chose face cards (hearts of course) - which is one of my favorite things to alter. I love the graphics on the face cards.

I am currently reading an old english novel (The Mayor of Casterbridge) that is filled with love triangles - there's Mr. Henchard, Mr. Newson and Susan. Then there's Lucetta, Susan and Mr. Henchard. There's also Mr. Farfrae, Mr. Henchard and Lucetta. And Lucetta, Elizabeth Jane and Mr. Farfrae. I'm not even 3/4's through the book yet. It reads like a Puccini opera and is hugely entertaining. Life is so complex in books like that - oy vay! It makes me really appreciate the simplicity of my own life :)

Of Tarts

This is a two sided atc (this picture is of 2 so you can see both sides at once).  I used a playing card for my atc base which I distressed by sanding, gessoing, painting, inking, scribbling  and otherwise abusing ...... The images are stamped (the Alice in Wonderland stamps are from Stamp Francisco).

Subtle Gesso

Here is an atc showing the "before gesso" and "after gesso" (and other stuff). The original image was too bright for what I wanted. To tone it down, I applied a light coat of gesso which I then sanded lightly after it was dried. I adhered german foil trim on the left side (which I also sanded lightly). I stamped the text with Staz-on ink. Then, after masking off the text box, I used a glue stick to apply a small bit of adhesive around it's edges - which I next dusted with gold pearl powder. I drew rough lines with gel pens (gold and white) to further define the edges of the text box.

This is for a swap later on this month, but it also goes with today's challenge on Wednesday Stamper - "Gesso".

I especially love the text. It came as part of a larger set of mostly unmemorable stamps - except for this particular one which really speaks to me:

In the depth of winter

I finally learned that within me

there lay an invincible summer.

-Albert Camus