Inspiration everywhere!

This is the beginning of my altered book art journal.  I found this very nice hard cover coffee table book at the library for $1. 

My first inspiration was  on ihanna's blog in the form of a wonderful tutorial.  I promptly joined her Postcard Swap 2011.  She is marvelously talented and fun.

My next inspiration came when I was on a rare shopping expedition and found gorgeous paper napkins at Marshall's for cheap, cheap.  Most of them were bird themed since that seems to be my spring sonata. 

Soon I was cutting and collaging and painting and drawing!  Too much fun!  The green diamond tape at the bottom is from Roben-Marie's Art Good Shop , although I don't think it is still available.  To get the pastel colors I mixed gesso with Golden Acrylic Paints.  I see that the napkin I used was designed by Kathryn White, and it is lovely. 

I hope you'll give this a try.  I'll post more pages soon, I hope.  Thank you, Luanne, for letting me know that someone is reading.  You are so kind!

Heaven

the lesson of the moth

I read this recently and completely loved it.  Consequently, my sweet daughter gave me a 1950 copy of "the lives and times of archy & mehitabel" for Christmas.  Archy is a cockroach who sneaks into the newsroom at night and jumps on the typewriter keys to write poetry.  Since he cannot shift, there are no caps or punctuation.  Mr Marquis had to remember to leave a sheet of paper in the typewriter each evening so archy could write.  

I hope you like it as much as I do.

the lesson of the moth

by Don Marquis, published in 1927

i was talking to a moth

the other evening

he was trying to break into

an electric light bulb

and fry himself on the wires

why do you fellows

pull this stunt i asked him

because it is the conventional

thing for moths or why

if that had been an uncovered

candle instead of an electric

light bulb you would

now be a small unsightly cinder

have you no sense

plenty of it he answered

but at times we get tired

of using it

we get bored with the routine

and crave beauty

and excitement

fire is beautiful

and we know that if we get

too close it will kill us

but what does that matter

it is better to be happy

for a moment

and be burned up with beauty

than to live a long time

and be bored all the while

so we wad all our life up

into one little roll

and then we shoot the roll

that is what life is for

it is better to be a part of beauty

for one instant and then cease to

exist than to exist forever

and never be a part of beauty

our attitude toward life

is come easy go easy

we are like human beings

used to be before they became

too civilized to enjoy themselves

and before i could argue him

out of his philosophy

he went and immolated himself

on a patent cigar lighter

i do not agree with him

myself i would rather have

half the happiness and twice

the longevity

but at the same time i wish

there was something i wanted

as badly as he wanted to fry himself

                                     archy

ROD journal cover round robin

I've finally finished my part of the Remains of the Day journal cover round robin!  Here is just a  peek at my work--my very first round robin.  It was fun to add to the parts that the other girls worked on. 

My Eternal Gratitude...

 

You have my eternal gratitude (you know who you are) for telling me that my artwork is good.   I can't even express how much I appreciate your constant encouragement.  May you reap what you have so generously sown, dear hearts.

Why do I use the same colors over and over??? Must change. Must change!

After scanning some really soft acrylic-painted backgrounds,  I added brushes in Photoshop Elements.  I love, love brushes!  Can't get enough of them!  Then I played with layer styles.  These two use both overlay and hard light styles on their own layers. 

Here I used several Rhonna Farrer Vintage Photo2 brushes and added more color to the heart.  I really liked this light blue, which I found accidentally while playing digital color and brushes

Yay! Early Christmas from Mary Ann Moss

A happy Christmas gift from Mary Ann Moss: she's discounted her Stencilry and Stenciled & Stitched classes  for the month of December!  I am so in.  I've been wanting to take more of her online classes, since Remains of the Day was such a kick, and this was just the impetus I needed.

Yeah, more crazy art to come in the new year.

I'm also taking Roben-Marie's new mini workshop, Sewing Paper Gift Bags.  These bags are adorable, and Roben-Marie is as engaging as ever while showing how to create them. 

I hope you're finding some really fun things to do during this December.  Don't stress.  Relax. Decide what's really important and what feeds your soul and do those things. 

Blessings, Deborah