gemgirlart

I Say: MOO to You!

2011-10-13T15:38:00.007-04:00

Hey now 3 posts in 2 days, nothing like making up for lost blogtime ;-)
Anyway, today's 365 picture is showcasing a few of my recent MOO rectangular stickers (labels) made from some of my ATC cards.

I was contacted a few weeks ago by a Moopresentative that had seen my new label size stickers on Flickr and asked if I had any interest in a little spot in the ideas section of the Moo website. I said sure! and sent them back the requested bio-type info and some explanations of how I use current and intend to use any future Moo printed products. I've long been a fan of the Moo Mini Card, and have also used them to do postcard prints of some of my work, as well as a set of standard size business cards. I love the quality and the uniqueness of their product designs as well as their online designer interface (with Printfinity you can have every single card be a different photo design which I love! Variety is the spice and all that ...) I'm in the planning stages of some new (Rounded Edge!) business cards and more postcard sets, plus possibly some more labels and stickers. That's what I was doing in fact - on the Moo website ordering a sample paper pack before I decide on what I want for this batch, when I saw the link to my page there :))

Anyway, I think it turned out pretty cool, and wanted to share if you are at all interested :)

*and of course now I really feel some pressure to redouble my efforts at getting some new stuff into the Etsy shop! In fact, I just had an Etsy message commenting on the Moo stickers and asking if I sell them, eek! And I really have been working on some new collages, just not getting them to the completed stage as fast as I'd thought or hoped to ... Need to step it up and not blow an opportunity, here!

ta for now, then! xox gem

Upcycled Rice Bag Pillow

2011-10-12T18:12:00.005-04:00

Ta-Da! As promised (to myself) I made a quick & easy craft today - one I've been meaning to do for awhile but yaddayaddablah just put it off along with everything else.
Anyway, I've made a cute decorator throw pillow upcycled from a rice bag.

I got a buncha cool ricebags from my friend Patricia over the summer, and I figured I'd either make a tote bag or pillow out of them - the pillow seemed easier and quicker (and just all around more doable with my limited patience and sewing skills)

This one was a practice run with the smallest of the bags - and while I could have gone the "Super Easy Cheaty Route" and just stuffed it as-is with fiberfill and zipped the sucker closed, I didn't! I cut off the top portion with the zipper and handle, re-sewed around the entire perimeter with a straight machine stitch, filled it with polyfill, then sewed the top shut. It's a bit wonky (Unstraight Threadlines! hello, good buddy!) and the top is kinda "rustic" with it's ravelled edging, but I think it turned out cute enough for what was literally a 20 minute top-to-bottom completed project. Including the 5 minutes it took me to rethread my sewing machine, which I still have to haul out the manual for cuz that's how often I use it :D

I ran outta polyfill so I only made the one, but since that was my goal, I'm happy :) And I plan to do a bit more involved of a job on the others and might even use pillow forms on them - we'll see!
Let's hope this is the start of a nice, productive, creative roll for me ...

LATER!
~ gem ~

Hi Hey Howdy

2011-10-12T11:44:00.004-04:00

Sooooo ... 10 months later ...
Yeah yeah whatever. I'm still working on it.

I did however start and kept current with the 365 project, so the year hasn't been a total loss. I'm on Day 120 of 365, and haven't missed a one - so there.

Anyway. Today's goal:MAKE ONE THING.
And nope, this blogpost don't count ;-p Catch ya later with a photo of said thing! You betcha!

xoxo gem

Gem Says: Start Over

2011-01-08T23:28:00.004-05:00

Gem Says: Start Over
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Soooo. Hello.
Happy New Year!

We don't even talk about last year anymore, that hideoderous and horrible thing - it's sooooo last year ;-)
Onward & upward!

Lots of personal goals and fun things on my to-accomplish list in 2011. One of which was to not just all the time look at other people's art, whether photos on Flickr or fave'ing stuff on Etsy or following fun bloggers. But actually purchasing real-life handmade original ART. I have some prints, and a few paintings traded with other artists, and a lotta ATCs and PCs and other lovely swap-art - but do you know? I really think this piece is my first actual boughten original art. Ya know, you see someones pictures and ya maybe even follow their link to their Etsy or Artfire or wherever page, and maybe ya even fave-save it, but you never go on and BUY the thing?

Well, that's what I usually did. I'd make excuses about the price or I didn't NEED it or gosh, I'm an "artist", I can and/or should just make one like it myself (boy thats a big one for me, and you know? I can and should but I never DO.) So anyway along came Aimee of MazerDesign, who I've followd randomly for awhile on Flickr, Etsy and Facebook, and she shows up with this lovely little 6x6 collage painting and it fairly SHOUTS at me "Hello? It's Me! I belong with you!" and it was like right before New Years and since I'm all about "This is the Year!" "The Time is Now!" and I had Christmas gift money I was told in no uncertain terms I was only to spend on MYSELF, and I went straight to Etsy and I bought that little painting, like literally within minutes of Aimee listing it. It's titled Emerging, and it's my goal and motto for the coming year, though I'd say in my case it's RE-emerging ... from my artless, craftless, avoidance-bound existance of 2010.

So, thank you Aimee! and here's to 2011,
with more blogging, more arting - both creating & buying, a 365 (did she just say? ... yeah she said it ...) loads more photo shoots, revisiting my own Etsy dreams (including oddly enough a shop based solely on 6x6 paintings which I adore completely and another reason Emerging was like, so meant for me) and just basically starting my 2nd life ...

Peace out, homies {heart}
~ gem ~

Yumbombs

2010-05-21T10:22:00.004-04:00

Yumbombs
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Here's a super quick, super easy SUPER yummy food recipe. If you don't like this you might be an alien! (Vege-vegan friends, just add something in place of the meat! and you can still eat ...)

Went to my inlaws for a brunchy type visit and mum-in-law made these biscuity potato-y cheesy ham things and I was all "Slaaghhh!" (thats drool-laden foodie speak for - "Wow, these are delicious!") so the next night we decided to make them ourselves. Here's the recipe I found online that most closely matched them: Ham Potato Puffs - and I didn't follow the directions exactly - didn't measure any of the ingredients, didn't use the parsley or garlic powder, and the only biscuits I had were the "jumbo" kind - which made them a bit too bready, so - the next night we tried again, cause there in fact WAS leftover mashed potatoes from the 1st batch (imagine! leftover mashed potatoes! I know thats the whole point of the recipe, to use up leftover stuff, but still. I don't remember hardly evvver having leftover mashed potatoes. Unless it was like, the day after Thanksgiving or something) Anyway.

Day 2:
I used crescent roll dough in place of the buttermilk biscuits and added some cooked chopped bacon to the potato mixture. Still didn't measure anything, just dumped all the ham cheese & bacon into the mashed potatoes - ALSO! I added a pinch of salt & pepper this time - and than scooped spoonfuls into the muffin cups, in fact I made sure to fill'em real full, as ya can see from the picture. THESE were much better than the first batch - a bit tastier with the added salt, and definitely better with the smaller amount of bread outer shell. I would try next time with the smaller (regulr) size of buttermilk biscuits though. What I love is this is soooo easy and ya really don't have to fuss with measuring - just dump all yer stuff (I'm thinking you non meat eaters could add broccoli or any other chunky veg you like - I'd just cook it first before adding) into the potato mix, fill your pastry-lined muffin tins and 20-25 mins @ 350* you are eating some DEElish lil yummies. Both days we had ours with a mixed green salad & sliced tomatoes. I'm thinking they'd made nice appetizers in a smaller, minimuffin format too, yeah?

SO! Get with the mixing and enjoy what I now refer to as Cheesy Potato Bombs =D

xoxo
~ gem

Most Determined Deco, Ever.

2010-04-06T17:50:00.003-04:00

Most Determined Deco, Ever.
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

So, once upon a time I played with a fun group af mailartists over at a site called Nervousness.org {heart} ~ I haven't been there in a really really long time, and as far as I know it's not nearly as active as it used to be, blahblahblah, etc and so on.

Anyway here's the story: A pink & brown themed deco was travelling around Nervousness to be filled with art and then sent back to it's owner (who was a friend of an Nness friend on another mailart site, or something) - the gal before me on the list had an accident with it - whereby her toddler daughter snatched it off the desk and brought it to her in the shower = utter ruination! SO. She makes an entirely NEW pink and brown deco to make amends, does up her page inside and sends if off to me. I make my page:

And mail it on May 29, 2007 from a postoffice here in Florida to my galpal Pequad in Pennsylvania. Pequad was so named for her love of Kewpie dolls, and I had added a supercute Pequad Fairy to the back of the envelope, and I was SO excited waiting for her to see it! Only ... she never saw it, cause a few weeks or so go by and we all start wondering: "Hey, where's the deco?" "Hmmm I dunno, I mailed it on x-date, it should be there by now!" "I haven't got it yet." "Oh, craps - guess it's lost."

So now I sit down to make yet a THIRD deco for this poor poor chica who probably is thinking my Lord what was my friend thinking sending my deco off to these nitwits?" and I'm all boohoo 'cause Pequd's never gonna get to admire my lil tribute to her, and I'm just sure there's an evil mailman holed up somewhere with stacks and stacks of our long-lost artwork surrounding him in his bunker of madness, plotting his revenge on mailartists worldwide.

New deco is made, sent yet again to Pequad (though I don't think I bothered with the envelope trappings this go-round) and it was rec'd just fine and last I heard/kept up with the updates on the original post it was in Australia. So I don't know if that one ever even made it to dear Denise, the intended recipient.

Cut to, today April 6, 2010 ~ I see the mail on the counter & there's a yellow bubble mailer, I'm not expecting anything (hmmm?!) so I check it out and first thing I see is a big Return to Sender sticker, marked "not deliverable as addressed - unable to forward" - flip it over and PEQUAD FAIRY! hellloooo! I definitely remembered the envelope, if not what was inside it. I was WAY surprised when I read the original postmark date:

and doubly surprised when I see the recent post office cancellation stamp of March 23, 2010 - from HONOLULU, HAWAII! How d'ya get off track from Florida to Pennsylvania by way of Hawaii!? And why does it take 3 years!? It's a bit wrinkly and some of the Sharpie writing on the front has bled, though the address is still perfectly readable (and as far as I know - valid - it's where I sent my makeup version) so I really have no idea why it was marked undeliverable - but everything was intact! It's a mailroom miricle!

So, now I'm thinking I'm just gonna send it on to Denise myself, and let her decide it's fate at this point, yeah?

x0x, gem

Corkboard Project

2010-04-03T13:38:00.002-04:00

Corkboard Project 5
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Hi Hello Howareya?!

And yes this is my first blog post of 2010, so Happy New Year as well!
(I'm so lame. and full of shame. and take the blame!)
Anyway I worked on this lil project last month and wanted to quickly share it with you ...

I had an inspiration board hanging over my sewing area - only it wasn'y very inspiring. Plain 'ol wooden framed, cheap mass market cork message board - nice size but corkboards always piss me off due to the fact theres hardly any cork on em! it's like a millimeter thick layer then ya hit particleboard - bah! altogether maddening. I also tried those "cork only" squares that supposedly you can attach right to the wall with doublestick tape? Uh, no. ya can't. I hate that stuff, anyhow, but it was a nice thicker piece of cork, SO! one day I decided 'Hay! Why don't you combine the two?" - and here is what I did:

1) Since the original board was rectangular and the cork squares were, well - square - I had to cut them to fit. Ruler & craft / utility knife were a must!

2) Since I'd be cutting and attaching the cork squares to the wooden framed board and there'd be a buncha ugly seams leftover, I decided I'd also go ahead and cover it with fabric and edge it with ribbon, too. This would also make it way easier to reattach my button collection to the outer edges of the board (through the fabric ribbon instedda into the cork - brilliant!)

3) I went with a nice piece of better quality red felt for the backing and I have this FAB wide roll of B&W striped fabric ribbon to use for the edges, and decided to also add a second coordinating ribbon (B&W polka dots, narrower width)

4) Used plain ol hotglue to attach everything as it was really the easiest, most secure way - plus I'm super impatient, so - yeah. Cut & glued the cork pieces onto the board, within the framed edges - and cut my red felt large enough so that it would wrap just around the back edges, making sure to pull it evenly tight at each side as I glued it down.

5) Cut lengths of the wide striped ribbon to fie the edges/sides and running a thin line of hotglue tacked those down, mitering the corners so it looked nicer. Since it was striped it was pretty easy to keep it straight & even (though I didn't get it 100% on the top edge, but hey! that's how ya know it's handmade with lovvvve, heh.)

6) I ran a length of polka dotted fabric ribbon around the entire edge of the board in one piece, just putting a quick thin line of hotglue and keeping it stretched taut as I pulled it round. That's it!

Reattached my buttons and hung it back on the wall.
Happy fun project, that's ready to hang more inspiing bits upon <3

Have a hophop Happy Easter tomorrow, friends!
XoX, gem

Today Is ...

2009-10-24T18:15:00.003-04:00

Today Is ...
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

... the first day of the rest of your life ...

Yes - big fat whore posting of my current destash boxlot of paper sCRAPs listed on eBay. {bid.bid.gobidNOW} See, I've been collecting up all the random-mess-ness from my desks and stash spots and adding them to this Priority Mail Box in order to send them away to another home, and clear my space so I can create again! It's mostly good stuff, I just need it outta mah face at this point so I can move on! 'Cause all I do now is stare at the piles and have no motivation to figure out what I was trying to do with any of it. So I got the urge to purge, and it's coming right along :)

I thought that was an appropriate chipboard quote to include, and once the box is completely packed to the brim it'll sit right on the top so when the lucky recip opens'er up they'll get a nice message to boot :)

Blogiveaway Winner #1

2009-10-11T08:27:00.001-04:00

Blogiveaway Winner #1
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Yeah yeah, I was late drawing and did it this morning.
Congrats to LIZ B. on winning the totebag and keychain, and to runner-up winner Jennifer P. who'll get the other pink totebag.
Thanks so much for playing, everyone!

~ gem ~

BoxTops for Education!

2009-10-09T09:18:00.002-04:00

BoxTops for Education!
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

beepbeep! drive-by posting before I head up to school to help with Pride Day ... But while I had shool on my mind - here's a shameless request:

Anyone who would be willing to collect these little BoxTop coupons and send them to me, I would greatly appreciate it! and will even send you a small piece (at least 4"x4", probably collage) of original artwork in return :) I have 2 collection deadlines - the first is OCTOBER 30, so I'd need those here by Oct 28, but you can collect & bundle all you can save until mid February and I can turn those in for the spring collection. Save'em up and when ya have a nice batch contact me (here or through Flick'r) and I'll get you an address to mail them to.

Even better would be if you want to sign up to support our school via the website - you don't have to be local or have a child in this school! So it's a perfect way to help especially if your own children are grown or you don't have any who are doing the BoxTops for Education thing. Just go to www.btfe.com and sign up & support Liberty Middle School (Orlando) - there are some great online shopping partners including Oriental Trading Co and Barnes & Noble, where we get a portion of sales our supporters submit by going through the BoxTops Marketplace.

THANKS!
XOXO gem

ps ~ can ya tell I am a newly appointed coordinator and still in that early-on gung ho idea phase? :D

Paper Alpha Project

2009-10-06T10:00:00.002-04:00

Finally! A new post, and a "new" project :)
Follow along if ya wanna make something similar (not that ya couldn't figure this out on yer own, I mean really. How easy could a project BE?)

Paper Covered Wooden Alpha Wallhanging

STEP 1

Choose your letters and papers. I'd wanted the word CREATE to hang above my artspace, and my kids got me the letters for like my birthday or Mother's Day (LAST year.) and so I already had them here. Mine are white-painted wood and about 7" tall. If you've been to the craft shop or discount store you KNOW they have a dozen styles to choose from, so just get whatever size or type you like! Then I collected up some semi-complimentary scrapbookpapers, but you could use bits from your scrapbox, vintage book pages, wrapping paper - whatever!

STEP 2

Apply adhesive to the FRONT of your letters. I used gel medium, but you could use whatever type of glue ya want - even a gluestick. Yep. Gluestick.

STEP 3

Lay your letter facedown on the paper - I'd precut mine to about the size of the letters, and lined up at least one edge, just to make the cutting easier and to not waste too much of the paper. You can also hold it up to the light and see if you like the "arrangement" of pattern on the letter and if not scoot it around - if ya use repositionable glue - that, or figure your approximate placement before applying glue. I didn't care so I just went with the "however it lies" approach :D

STEP 4

Press down real good! You want your paper to be really well adhered to the letter, so make sure you press out any bubbles & wrinkles, and really get the edges good too.

STEP 5

I had a sort of assembly line process, so once I did the previous steps for each letter, I stacked'em up to let them dry. I actually let them dry/cure overnight, but not for any benefit - I just ran outta time to work on them any further the 1st day :D But yeah, they should be completely set & dry before ya cut.

STEP 6

Cut away the excess paper. Now, the way you do this is kinda up to you & however you find it to be easier. I used a craft-knife and laid the letter flat & facedown on a cutting mat, and trimmed around the edges. I found it to be a little hinky 'cause the wood was pretty soft and my blade kept digging into it. So on some I tried using scissors on the edges, and the blade to cut out the middles (like on the A and R) - I say it's your choice because no matter how you trim the paper away, you are still going to have to do the next step:

STEP 7
(for which there is no picture cause I was so busy and focused on it I forgot to take one.) But you need to sand all the edges now - both to remove any leftover hangy-bits of paper, and to sorta age the edges a bit (if that's a look you wanna go for). I used a foam sanding block - I think it was actually a nail file thing for fake nails, but it works great cause it's flexible and can mold to the shape of the letters plus it's got a few different "grits" of sanding material. So anyway I just used that to rasp off whatever paper was uneven or leftover along all the edges of the letters. I also took this time to reglue any loose paper along the corners and edges. There weren't many 'casue I'm a pretty good gluer :-p

STEP 8

Now you can skip this step if you want, like if you used really pretty coated or fancy papers or something - but I went ahead and sealed mine with some acrylic sealer - I used matte finish here but you could go gloss or spray it with glitter or whatever the heck!

VOILA and FINI!
You are now ready to hang your fab new motivational phrase (or kids name or house numbers or whatever you made!) on your wall - go for the funky haphazard "drive a nail and hang the letter" approach or do the anal retentive thing and use a laser level and snap a chalkline (hello! - waves to all you Type A's out there - hehe) All I really ask it that you #1) don't wait a year to complete this super simple project like I did, and B) ENJOY IT!

*plus I dig that if you mess up or just wanna do a different look later- you can just yank'em down and recover with something else! Like you don't have about 169 pounds of random scrapbook or saved papers lying around to pull from. You know you doooo. And they're just sitting there. Mocking you.

SO MAKE THIS CRAFT. TODAY.
or at least this weekend ;-)

xox, gem

* Blog Giveaway! *

2009-10-04T12:31:00.003-04:00

* Blog Giveaway! *
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Hubs brought me home a few new grocery totebags the other day, and I thought since I:

A) haven't blogged ANYthing in EONS and
2) it's October, and breast cancer awareness month,

I'd do a lil bloggity giveaway for ya's!
Just comment here once and I'll put ya in a drawing to receive this great pink reusable fabric tote, and a super pretty pink heart keychain. Link this giveaway on your own blog (or Twitter or Flick'r or Facebook or wherever ya post!) and be entered twice!

Random drawing on Saturday, OCT 10th!

A reuseable tote (good for the environment!)
Pretty in pink to show support for Breast Cancer Awareness
FREE = my own personal stimulus package ...
Awe, just lookit me, being all damn kinds a helpful :D

Hearts, gem

Is That A Kitten In Your Pocket, Or ....

2009-07-06T10:29:00.001-04:00

Is That A Kitten In Your Pocket, Or ....
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

:D

I know! Don't laugh at me! Y'all know the whole deal where there's these strays in the n'hood I've been trying to catch. And my favorite little grey one stays here all day and spends most of the morning inside now. But it's a bit of a battle between him & Weezer and Tonka (who REALLY seems to have an issue, which is weird.) Anyway!

Last evening my oldest comes in and says to me "hey come see this", and he's riding his bike and tells me to come to the end of the driveway, so I assume he's gonna show me a biketrick. Only when I get to the end he's laughing and I look down the sidewalk to see my youngest walking home, holding SOMEthing. and I start to laugh too 'cause I realize it's a freakin' KITTEN! and a totally different one than any of the others we've seen. I know. I KNOWWWW! Even poor Mr Gem is at the point where he just looks at us (me, mostly) and shakes his head and walks away :D

So we're all sitting out in the garage/driveway, watching "my" grey kity and playing with this munchkin (who seemes to have a wee bit of a cold or eye infection - hence the squinteye, here), and up walks the MOM and heer OTHER baby - HAHA! It's like wacky cat central or something. Only mama was mean (or - maybe just mad that we snatched away her baby) cause she kept hissing and chasing away my grey kitty which was pissing me off. Eventually they left and he was still sitting on the window ledge in the morning, so -shrug!-

So anyhow. This lil doodle is living in younger son's bedroom (quite comfortably, I might add) until we figure out what to do with'im. Hehe.

xoxo gem

Goodwill Friday ~ May 2009

2009-05-15T12:02:00.001-04:00

Goodwill Friday ~ May 2009
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

ACK! I missed posting in April. Boooo. I was hoping to at least manage one post a month, sheesh. Anyway.

I went out this morning hoping to find a small occasional-type table or bookshelf sorta thing to put in a small hallway of ours. Didn't find THAT, but I found THESE! :D

Pink textured plastic coated paper box (a For The Cure pink ribbon item) -
it's made for hanging file folders. I NEEDED this, really!

Small linen covered trinket box - the little blue pulltab? The whole inside is lined in that color. This may end up a lucky parcel container.

DICE CUBE! the coolest! It's actually a game box - it contains all the pieces for like chess and dominoes and cards etc etc - that stuf'll be repurposed for altered art projects and etsy ... I'm keeping the box (I actually have a small collection of dice, so it's perfect)

Scrabble and Uno RummyUp games - for altered art pieces and etsy ...

Uglyass shadowbox and small gallery style frame - will be repurposed for my own art crap. (It's seriously hard to find decent shadowboxes here!)

Glass fishbowl. I dunno. I'll put stuff in it. Probly not fish.

Cute white beadboard boxy container thingy (will hold rulers or scissors or other ARTifacts) Currently holding a 3pc wooden utensil set - brand new and nicely made.

Wooden beadboard scalloped edge peg shelf. AWWWYEAH, kid! Two things about this - first it will be repainted white (they painted it blue and IGGG, they did a terrible job) - I have a THING for white beadboard these days apparently - also ... there is a sticker on the back that says it's from HomeGoods ... Now, the past week I keep seeing these ads on TV for HomeGoods, which I guess is like a discount decorating store or something ... but I don't know where there is one (I've looked it up since, there's 4 within 20 miles of me.) Anyway I thought it was funny that's where this shelf came from -shrug-
OH! and it has a plate ledge! Which are handy for propping skinny canvases, actually.

-=whew=-

Oh wait! I also got a decent size 3-drawer plastic bin system and a pair of cute jean shorts - both brand new and both Target surplus merchandise. WHEEEEEE!

My Sunday Sucked

2009-03-23T08:40:00.001-04:00

At Least He Looks ...
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

This is just soooooo ridiculous.

We're walking Tonka 'round the neighborhood yesterday noon ...
On our way back home and starting past my neighbor's driveway - WHAM! outta nowhere Tonk takes off towards neighbor Steve who's out working on his front walk ... I am hanging on for dear life and KNOW what's rapidly coming - which would be me on the ground (mmmm, concrete - so comfortable!) and my head into Steve's car bumper (yeah that was pretty bad) - and this lovely image was the result. Which actually here doesn't even look all the bad but consider it also extends partway down my calf, as well as where my hip smacked the ground, the heel and wrist of my hand is all cut and scraped, the back of my shoulder bruised, plus a knot on my head and cut on my ear.

Now a couple things: Number one, I have no idea WHAT made him go after the neighbor like that - he does bark at him through the fence, but really in the "who are you, what are you doing, what's going on?" kinda dog way - and I was pretty much face down so I don't even know if he was happy or teeth bared or what. Stuart thought it was just freak timing of us passing by right as Steve stood up from some pruning and caught Tonka's eye as a threat? So uhhhh, yeah - thanks so much for "protecting me" by dragging my ass up a concrete driveway and into the back of a parked car! Wheeee! Danger averted! Good dog!

And secondly - I normally do not have so little control over him! Yes I am about 115 to his 130-140 and it does sometimes take all my body weight to reign him in when he wants to pull (and I've figured out ways to maneouver the leash to have a better hold, etc) but this was completely unexpected and I had no time to react other than to try and keep up. At which I clearly failed ;-) And thankfully Stuart was with me so he was able to get ahold of Tonka right away, and he didn't do anything ...

But my poor neighbor! Like I said, I couldn't see what Tonka's demeanor was, but if you saw that big beast thundering toward you I'm sure you'd be more than a little concerned, even if he was smiling! He kept asking "are you okay are you sure you're okay?" and came by later to check on me again, and I felt soooo bad. Like, Hi? I'm the idiot who couldn't keep her dog from charging at you, yet you're telling me I shoulda just let go of the leash and how you shouldn't have even been outside and then it wouldn't've happened? Dude!

So now I am very stiff and sore and the scrapes all sting and of course after the whole freak Natasha Richardson ski accident I was all paranoid I wasn't going to wake up this morning (and I said many prayers of thanks everytime I did wake in the night - you better believe it!)

BUT! the bruises are gonna be something to behold, I tell ya!
*ooOoh the colorrrsss*

So yeah - Happy Monday!
~ gem ~

Oh and I fully admit to being a bit of a drama queen, I mean it's not like I need freakin' skin grafts or anything! But still. *makes pitiful pouty face*

Another Day, Another Dog Tale ...

2009-03-12T13:45:00.003-04:00

I'm Just A Basketcase!
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

But yeah, it's about the same dog ;-)
And turns out he's a 10 month old purebred Bichon ...

Anyway. To continue yesterday's (Flick'r) story ... we left off with me serendipitously running into DJ's owner on a walk during the morning, and I was awaiting her to come by and pick him up that afternoon ... And just to fill in even more of his backstory (which I'd learned from the "birthmom" on Monday and it was confirmed by Miss Shelby yesterday)

See, Original Owner had to sell him because she had other pets (including DJs brother, and if I remember correctly his mama too) and Deej and the brother didn't get along ... He was picked up by a nice girl named Miss Shelby, who was buying him on behalf of her boss, as a companion for his elderly mother. Miss Shelby is her caretaker. This was Saturday, and (this is the part I don't really know much about) he somehow got out/loose in the middle of the night, then I found him around 9AM Sunday morning. Our neighborhoods are not that far apart, but he had to come past a really busy street to get here, so =whew!= is all we can say about that!

And Miss Shelby DID post lost puppy notices immediately, I just never saw them (hint: Craigslist = great place for lost pet notices! It really hadn't occured to me to look there)

So unfortunately, even though I'd FINALLY! found the proper owner, Miss Shelby let me know that her boss (the elderly lady's son) was wanting to REsell the poor little guy, because it turns out the lady was scared of him (I guess he barked at her and was a little too jumpy) and they weren't going to be able to keep him. Even Miss Shelby said she wished she could take him but with 3 dogs of her own, well ... I said I'd be happy to keep him until they were able to either find a new owner or decide what to do, but as much as I liked him, there was no way I could buy him (and any of you who've read Tonka's story know I already have a Very Expensive Pet and just could not justify paying for another dog I wasn't even in the market for to begin with!) It really wasn;t even alot of money - the guy was only looking to get back half of what he'd originally paid, but the bottom line is Mr Gem's patience was already at it's limit with me this week (bless his big'ol let-me-have-my-way-without-complaint HEART!) so to lay out money for the dog woulda been a Not Very Smart Thing for me to do ...

blahblahblah ... So he spent another night and then Miss Shelby called early this afternoon to say she had some folks that wanted to come look at him, and could she arrange to come get him - I'd given him a mini bath just this morning so at least he was pretty clean and dry ... I packed up his food and some toys that had become his faves while he was here, and when she came & got him I just said to please call me and let me know how it goes, and that he was welcome back if he didn't go to a new home right away (which, come on, I knew he would! Look'it'immmm! Awe! hehe)

AND! ding!ding!ding! We have a winner!
She actually stopped by just a few minutes ago - before I could even knock the story out, geez! - to let me know an older couple took him home and they said he'd be the only pet and a very spoiled little dog and they understood what a rough week he's had and that he'd probably be sad for a little while but that was okay ... So yeah, I'm a little bummed he's gone but also very YaY! that he's going to a nice home, and I'll be honest - that pup was wearing me O.U.T! so I'll be glad to get back to my regularly scheduled life now ... right after a NAP.

Oh and also, just so you know ~ Miss Shelby was incredibly apologetic and extremely grateful to me and felt really really bad that I was so burdened by the responsibility for this pup all week (and she was more than miffed at her bossman for the whole convoluted mess which was basically dumped in her lap) - but like I kept telling her - It's all good! I just wanted to do the right thing (like I'd hope someone would do for my dog) and hey! I got to spend a few days playing with a supersweet, cute new puppy! She did drop off an Outback giftcard to thank me, and while that SO wasn't necessary, I thought that was a really cool and nice thing to do ...

So - Final Kisses and TUMMY RUBBIES for DJ
(or, whoever you are now!)
Buh Bye, booboo! And for Pete's sake, stay put! :D

XOX gem

Doggone It!

2009-03-11T07:45:00.003-04:00

:sniff: Why Don't You Call?
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Okay, so the story goes: I saw this little white blur run by my driveway Sunday morning, trailing a leash ... Watched & waited to see if it's people came running after it, no one did. I went and checked it out - found this dude sitting at the end of a neighbor's driveway ... I'm always worried about lose dogs getting hit on our street, so after finally cornering the muddy lil sucker in the cul-de-sac I brought him home (asking a couple neighbors on the way "Is This Yours?" or "D'ya Know Who's It IS?") ... Bring him inside to the many eyerolls of my husband and children ... he has no ID except for a rabies tag - call the 800-number and the nice recorded man tells me to try calling back during business hours ('Cause you know. Most dogs prefer to lose themselves Monday thru Friday between the hours of 9AM and 5PM)

So I take some pics, make some signs, hang them at the entrances to our neighborhood, figuring he must be a dog from the 'hood ... 8PM rolls around and no calls, so we crate him for the night ...

Monday Morning!
Call my vet to make Tonka's bath appointment and "oh by the way I found a new dog ya think you can scan him for a microchip or run his rabies tag, hmm?" - yes to the chipscan, but no to the tag since it's not through them ... but try calling the LOCAL numbers for that vet clinic and they should have the info (ding! duh!) ... 4 calls later (all of whom said "You know it might be easier for you to call our corporate number" and I'm all yeahhhh maybe if they were OPEN before 10 am our time...) Anyway. 4th call = score! Tech tells me his name is DJ and he's a Bichon and here's the name number and address of his owner - HOORAY! (and also, hmmm - 'cause I'm thinking that's kinda alotta info to give out, but I'm not a weirdo stalker or anything so it's okay. I just figured I'd hafta leave MY info and THEY'D call the owner, but what do I know ...) First thing I do after hanging up is say: "DJ! >perk< is that your name? Are you DJ? Hi DJ!" .... *Oh and a little interesting sidenote here - a few years ago we adopted a puppy from one of the groups that run out of the Petsmart on weekends - sadly and unbeknownst to us at the time - he had parvo, and he didn't even make it a week. I was devastated. His name? DJ. So was I meant to be the one to find this particular lost dog? Maybe. Though I tend to overanalyze kooky kosmic things like that ....

ANYWAY! I'm all YaY DJ, we found your Mommy, let's call her! Which we do and I leave a message 'cause no ones home ... We wait hopefully all day for the callback (in the meantime I've taken down the found dog signs, right?) and finalllllllly at like 6PM I get a ring "Hi this is Mz You Found My Dog calling you back, do you still have him?" and I say "Yup, he's laying on my lap right now!" and she laughingly says:
"You want'im?" and I reply with some laughter of my own "Ohhhhh Noooo, you don't WANT him!?"

So. A very nice and informative conversation later I've learned that this lady sold Mr DJ to someone in our neighborhood THAT Saturday, but she doesn't remember their name or info, etc and she's all worried "should I come get him?" etc - I guess she had to sell him 'cause she has some other pets, including DJ's own brother, who he doesn't get along with ... So I say well, he seems to be doing okay here and I'm fine with keeping him and I'll put the signs back up and work on trying to track these folks down ... just keep my number and if they call YOU, pass my info on and we'll go from there ... That was ? ... right, Monday night ...

We are now at Wednesday morning, and 2 new signs, 200 printed flyers (which were hung on as many neighbor's doors as we could manage yesterday, the rest hopefully today) an L&F ad in the classifieds and NO CALLS later ... he sleeps at my feet as I write this update :) Poor lil dooder.

I'm getting concerned because he seems to be getting Very Attached to me (and vice versa, to be honest!), and while I'd happily keep him, he is a bit like having a toddler in the house and it's wearing me out! Plus Mr Wonderful Husband has been extremely patient, I just don't know how much longer that's gonna hold ... Now, I do have 3 people in mind who I think would want him, and if that didn't work I know my vet would be able to find him a GREAT home. Lastly, I'm sure his original owner would come get him if it came to that ...

SO! The saga continues, be sure to tune in to see what happens next on "The Days of Our Dogs" ... haha!
and - Happy Wednesday :)

~ gem ~

ps ~ I know what's bothering me most is that he is SUCH a sweet little dog, and in the 3 days I've had him? I've not seen even one sign or ad or anything for a lost dog matching his descrip ... I don't get it ...

Tonka Update

2009-02-25T15:42:00.003-05:00

Tonka Cookies
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

I haven't given any new news on Tonka in awhile and figured I'd squeak in my February blog posting at the same time ... So!

He's doing great! We started him on immunotherapy for his (outdoor) allergens at the beginning of the year - a specially prepared mix just for him, which I administer(ed) in gradually increased dosage injections every other day during the "loading period" - YES! I actually was able to do the injections myself! I didn't think I'd be able to (and Mr Gem cannot, as he is EXTREMELY needlephobic) but Tonka's such an easygoing guy he made it quite easy for me. So we are currently on the every-10-days timeframe from the second, more concentrated dosage vial. And so far so good - once we got the dosage up and then went to the more concentrated formula, he did have a slight recurrance of hotspots and itching, but we've kept that pretty well under control with Benedryl, and we did some pulse antibiotic therapy just to be sure he didn't come up with any infections. I am also trying to be meticulous about wiping him down, especially his paws! with babywipes when he comes back inside after walks or playing in the yard. He is also pretty limited as far as being allowed outside. Which is HARD, especially for such a big dog, and one who was used to being outside, all. the. time. But it's for his own good, so I try to limit him to about 10 minutes of "laying in the sunshine" time then I call him in :)

Sorta cool thing happened, too - Mr Gem actually met the former owners a couple weekends ago - really randomly! He was walking Tonka around the outside of our neighborhood and this couple pulled up in their car ... Said they were on their way to church and saw the dog: "where did you get him" "what's his name" etc ... and when he told them Tonka - they were like "Omigosh, it IS him - he used to be our dog!" - See, the vet couldn't say what had happened to Tonka after they'd turned him over to them (which made sense, 'cause if he'd been put down or something you wouldn't wanna have to find that out, you know?) but when they saw him out walking they had to stop and find out if it was him ... They were very happy to learn he'd been adopted and said that he looked wonderful and they were so glad he was in a great home and being taken care of so well. They had originally adopted him from a shelter when he was 2 years old, and he just ended up outside all day because they both worked. And with all his health issues they just weren't able to care for / afford him anymore ... SO! It was nice to give them some closure/relief, as well as for us to know that Tonka wasn't either upset OR overjoyed to see them again - (that was the first thing I asked about!) - Daddy said he just wagged and sniffed like he would have with anyone else, so it was nice for us that he seems to know he's really "home" now ... But isn't that funny, meeting them outta the blue like that?

And so the other thing we have to do is make homemade dog treats ... Tonka cannot have any commercially made cookies, snacks, chews, etc - so I researched some homemade dog treats online and found one I thought would work - doublechecked the ingredients with our vet and with a few minor adjustments to the recipe, I've come up with my own version that works perfectly for Tonka!

TONKA'S COOKIES

3 C oat flour
1/2 C oatmeal (old fashioned OR quick cook)
1 TBSP oat bran
2 TSP baking powder
1 1/2 C milk
1 1/2 TBSP blackstrap molasses

- Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
- Mix dry ingredients in large bowl
- Mix wet ingredients until smooth
- Add wet to dry and mix together to form dough - if it is too wet just add a little more oat flour (I knead small batches on the table and just add flour as needed)
- Roll the dough out to 1/4" thick and cut with 3" dog bone cookie cutter ... You can also make larger or smaller bones or alternative shapes, just adjust the rolled thickness accordingly.
- Bake the bones 45-60 minutes for the larger ones, less for the smaller - until they are lightly browned.
- Turn OFF the oven, and let them finish drying - overnight, or until crisp and firm - they should not move when you press on them.

*The original recipe called for BARLEY flour, and the addition of 1 1/4 C of peanut butter. Our vet said we should leave out the PB, and I found oat flour to be better than the barley, so I changed that. I also cut the milk down to half a cup, and replaced the rest with water. I've also made it with all water with no real difference. I've made them in bone shapes, heart shapes and even with a round biscuit cutter, I just adjust the thickness and cooking/drying times if needed.

OH! And if ya wanted to, you could eat them yourself, obviously. I mean, they aren't GREAT, but they're not terrible either :D

That's it, I gotta run - the laundry's calling! and I've been screening all day so I think it's on to me now ;-p

~ gem ~

Happy New Year and ...

2009-01-15T10:50:00.004-05:00

16 Facts TAG GAME
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

here's a little bitta fun factoid stuff about me. YES. I'm cheating by using a Flick'r post as a "new blog update", but - deal with it. I'm busy.

Not reallllly, but I'm hungry and making noodles for lunch, so ...
Repeat of info on Flick'r:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tagged by Shanda Panda for the 16 Facts meme ...
Here's my picture (taken Jan 14, just for this post) & response:

1) I am 37 and am still afraid of the "Thing Under the Bed" - I cannot have any part of my feet go under the edge of the bed and will still occasionally leap into bed from across the room when I get the feeling "it's" there.

2) My most hated housework duty is cleaning the scrambled egg pan. ewww.

3) I have man-hands, ala Sarah Jessica Parker or Kyra Sedgwick.

4) Shortly after the birth of my 2nd son and when Mr Gem was living & working on the other side of the state while I stayed behind with the boys & sold our house, I drank an entire bottle of wine one night by myself. I then promptly sacrificed it all to the Porcelain God. I have not had even a sip of wine since and cannot stand the smell of it to this day. That was in 1997.

5) I was never the girl who dreamed of her wedding day or even having a family. I always imagined myself living the Bohemian life in Paris, drawing and painting by the edge of the Seine ... *and yet, I am happy with the life I got ...

6) I have colored my hair for fun since I was 12 and discovered Sun-In - I am really not sure what my true haircolor is anymore though I suspect it's called "Squirrel Brown" :D

7) As a kid, I actually had a dalmation dog named Spot - so cliche it's original!

8) My middle name is Lynn. pffft.

9) My hub & kids' initials are SAP, NAP and JAP. HAH! I dunno, it makes ME laugh ...
I guess that's not really a fact about ME, huh?

10) A few years ago we got a puppy and he died within a week. I slept with his collar under my pillow for 2.

11) I have never had a broken bone. =knockwood!=

12) I still have windshield glass embedded in my forehead from a car wreck I had when I was 18. Sometimes it comes to the surface and looks like a Bindi.

13) << I've worn contact lenses since I was that old. I learned I needed glasses in the 3rd grade when they did eye tests at school, and I ran out of the office/clinic crying.

14) I LOVE brussels sprouts!

15) I have to drink my milk with ice so it's really cold. Also if I use a colored plastic cup it usually has to be blue, 'cause that makes the milk seem whiter/milkier - I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT use a yellow cup for milk! NO! that's peemilk! (I dunno. My brain just makes weird associations)

16) My closet is color co-ordinated, right down to matching hangers. Don't believe me?
Check it out ...

17) I do not wear lipstick. The picture above is me with lipliner pencil lightly applied over lipbalm, and then swabbed off. That's as far as I go.

18) HAHA I just remembered it's only 16 facts! durrrr -eyeroll- *geeee, do I like to talk about myself, I dunnnooo ...

That's it, then! Hope you enjoyed :D Thanks Shanda for the tag, and since I travel in very small circles, I will probably tag alot of you that have either already done it or already been tagged by "one of us" --- so don't feel bad if ya don't wanna or can't do it! it's all good :)

♥, gem
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Christmas Clothespin Card Clips Craft

2008-12-10T15:56:00.002-05:00

Christmas Clothespin Card Clips Craft
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

This may be my one any only blog posting for December, so may as well make it a holiday craft post!

This is for a fun, fast and VERY easy (and cheap! Hello?!) holiday project that you can do to create a nice display for all your holiday greeting cards. I saw this in Martha Stewart Living magazine, December 2008 issue in the Good Things section ...

Basically you take some wooden clip-style clothespins and some scrap wrapping paper (or any paper you want ... I co-ordinated by using wrapping paper that matched my Christmas decorating color scheme for this year: red & white) a good gluestick, a sharp craft knife and a length of ribbon or cord.

Slather one side of a clothespin with the gluestick, place it firmly down on your wrapping paper (on the backside, obviously, so the pattern is on the front of the clothespin) let it dry a bit, then cut around it with your craft knife to trima away the excess paper. Repeat on other side, and for however many clothespin clips you'd like to make. String a length of ribbon or cord wherever you'd like to display your crads, and start clipping 'em on up!

Merry Christmas!
xox gem xox

YES WE CAN, and Yes I Did!

2008-11-04T09:29:00.005-05:00

YES WE CAN, and Yes I Did!
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

** HAPPY ELECTION DAY, USA! **
Please, please, please - if you have not already - DO get out and VOTE! I know the lines may be long and tedious but it will be so worth it at the end of the day. Please don't let this opportunity pass you by, don't make excuses or rationalize why you can't, won't, don't need to, etc ... JUST GO DO IT.

Then wear that sticker Loud ' N Proud!

I am done, I early voted last week. But I have errands to run today and I am wearing my I Voted sticker because it's a badge of honor and priviledge. I am sooooo emotional today, all teary and excited and nervous (I was watching the CNN video of the Obamas voting in Chicago and I just started bawling. I'm the biggest crybaby.) - so incredibly hopeful that this is going to be the start of the turnaround of our nation. Not just economically, or with our global-community standing, but - HUMANLY, too. I really feel Barack Obama is the one destined to put us back on a course of greatness - I truly think he has what it takes to not only lead us forward as a nation, but inspire us as a PEOPLE. And I hope you do too. So!

Go Rawk that Vote, yo!

XOXO gem

Found Fridays ~ Oct 3, 2008

2008-10-03T10:06:00.002-04:00

Found Fridays ~ Oct 3, 2008
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Revisting the 'ol "Found Fridays" concept I posted about almost one year ago ... See, I'm one of those weirdos who sorta collects random things she finds along her way throughout her day. Little lost toys, things in books from the library, funky old rusted metal things from streetside, other people's grocery lists left in shopping carts or forgotten on store shelves (I am always SO curious to read what other people have on their lists! It's so dorky.), basically any little thing that catches my eye. I'm like a magpie or something "Oooh, shiny thing BAWK, must get SQWAWK, snatchgrabstuffinpocket"

So this is the small batch of stuff from this week:
1) Blue plastic circus horse thing from a parking lot
2) Palm tree bling medallion from a neighbor's driveway
3) Bluejay feather from yard
4) Little pink size 1 baby shoe by "Koalababy" found on streetcorner
5) a purple plastic "G" (for gem, natch!) found in parking lot

Sometime, someday, somehow they'll all end up in a piece of art ...
or maybe they'll just be languishing in a basket or bowl with other found items ...

Well! take care and have a great weekend!
~ gem ~

Tonka's back!

2008-09-25T14:28:00.005-04:00

Tonka's back!
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

So, this is Tonka :)

He is a 5 and-a-half year old, 130 pound American Bulldog (mix - Mastiff, maybe? I mean, he's HUGE.) and we just adopted him. Here's his story:(sit still. it's a lonnng one.)

Tonka had been living at our local vet's office since July 25 (2008), as much of his back-history as I know is that the owners had to give him up because they couldn't care for him any longer ... I think they had kept him as an outdoor dog, and he has severe allergies which caused him to scratch alot and of course those areas got infected. He also had a hematoma (collection of blood under the skin of the ear flap) which the vet had to surgically remove. He has about a 2" scar there now, but it's okay! He is allergic to: Corn, Soybean, Beef, Chicken, Duck, Rice, Pork, Lamb (HIGHLY allergic to lamb! baaa!), Potato, Pea - all kinds of weeds, a few trees, a couple types of grasses, some dust mites, penicillium, cockroaches, black and fire ants, and of course; fleas. WHEW! So he MUST be kept as an indoor dog (a main reason I think he wasn't quickly adopted.) not to mention the superclose eye you have to keep on his diet so he doesn't have a flare up. He's on a special RX vet pet food made from mostly oat flour and kangaroo (Um. I know. I'd never heard of such a thing either, but there ya go. Bring on the 'Roo meat!)

Anyway, we got a newsletter email went out from the vet's on Sep 9 saying that they had a couple dogs needed to be adopted. Tonka sounded pretty cool, and since I got Weezer, the boys had been wanting a dog, so I called and got more info on him. When I heard he weighed 130 lbs I was like "Ohhh. Wow, that's big." and pretty much thought that was the end of that. I called Mr Gem up at work anyway and said "Hey! You wanna 130 pound Bulldog?!" ... After a bit of a laugh he said, Well, sure let's go look at him, at least. This was a Friday, and his next day off was Sunday (when the vet is closed) so we wouldn't be able to go see him 'til Monday. Well that didn't work for me ; ) so I called'em up and asked if they'd let me have him over the weekend; figuring that would give us all a chance to meet him, see how he did with the boys, the kitty, etc ... They said sure! so I went and picked him up before the kids got home from school. And I have to be honest. When I went back into the kennel and got my first look at him? I was thinking: Oh. GOD, no. He's Gi NORmous. And I really though about saying "nevermind." But I'd said I'd take him and when we went out in the yard area to "meet" he was really playful and sweet so I thought Well, he deserves at least a chance, right? ... And he hightailed it for the door when we went out and LEAPT! into the backseat of the car, and sat there as happy as could be on the 5 minute ride home. They gave me a bag of his special food for the weekend, and said if there was any trouble just bring him right back.

Not only was there no *trouble! but he was downright AWESOME! He got along with Weezer (the cat) who was completely intrigued by this super big walking fur thing, they played and pawed a bit but nothing worrisome (a 5 yr old dog and a 5 month old kitten, I mean come on!) - he signaled at the door to go outside no problem, he didn't bother at my neighbor's Labs when they came out, just kinda sniffed and peeked at them through the fence slats, then pee'd on the boards and went on his way. He didn't dig or jump up on the fence, - we had kids, teens and people in and out all weekend and while he woofed a few times at cardoors or people coming up to the door, he didn't jump or bark or bother anyone once they came in, let them pet him and scratch his ears and everything. My 11 yr old who is the one I was concerned about not being comfortable with such a big dog took to him immediately! With hugs around the neck and they went out and ran (Tonka gallops, actually) and played ball and chased had a fun time. He slept at the foot of our bed at night (on a Blues Clues blanket on the floor) and oh yeah ~ he SNORES. heh. Everyone seemed real happy, we all loved him right away! and he seemed quite at home from the minute he gallumped in the door.

Then we got serious and discussed it, and realized exactly what it would mean to take on this animal. He has the special diet, right? Well it's food that costs $75 a bag, and he goes through two a month. And it's not for a few months while his skin clears up then he can have regular food. It's FORevER. Plus this breed is prone to hip displaysia, and his size and age means he may be getting into that stage where more health issues will be coming up. We decided we just couldn't afford to keep him. Sigh. So we were pretty bummed on that Monday when we brought him back. Everyone at the vet understood, and appreciated that we'd given him a little break away from the kennel at least ... We did also offer to foster him for awhile or even just take him on weekends now and then until they could find an owner.

Sooooo. About a week and a half goes by ... Now understand, I am the impulsive, snap-decision, just get-what-I-want-when-I-want-it type, and Mr. Gem is ... NOT :D But I got the feeling he was hoping I would go back and get Tonka myself - he really was the perfect "Daddy Dog" if you know what I mean by that ... Mid week I started doing a bit of number crunching with our income, regular bills, where could we cut, etc - and realized (though this was actually something I already knew, pretty much) we are Very Wasteful $penders, and actually would be able to manage his food bill and normal vet visits, and even pet insurance if we thought that would be worthwhile - IF we would just make some changes in our spending habits as far as groceries and impulse buys, etc. Which we really needed to do anyway. I felt good about my plan, and was barely able to keep quiet! but I did ...

Tuesday, Sep 23:
I called Stephanie (adoption coordinator at the vet) to ask after Tonka and see if he'd been adopted yet (I was SO SURE he was gonna be gone! I almost didn't wanna call and find out) He had not, and she said he was probably only going to be with them another week, then they'd have to see about getting him in a rescue group. I said "Hold that thought. We very well may be coming to get him. Can't promise, but if hub goes for my new budget plan, we'll come get him tomorrow" - She also told me that he was back on antibiotics, beeeeecaaause, there actually WAS a teeeeny bit of *trouble when we'd had him over the weekend - see we ordered pizza one night and when the box was put in the fridge apparently it blocked the door from closing all the way, which no one noticed until doggy was there and snarfing up something off the floor. Seems he managed to knock the box down so some pizza slid out - he probably got two whole slices down before we got him outt there. Sooooo. We did tell them this when we brought him back and I could tell they were really concerned about it and I fel soooo bad! We'd been so careful with everything else - the garbage can, the cat food, making sure no one left food laying out anywhere ... it was just one of those stupid accidents but I still felt terrible knowing we'd set his recovery back by several weeks ...

Wednesday, Sep 24:
After the kids went to school I casually asked hub what he had planned for the day. Nothin, really. Well, says I - why don't we run to the bank, on the way back go pick up your dog, then maybe you could clean the pool when we get home ... Eyebrows up he's all "What's that? Dog? Excuse me?" - so I explained the plan, that Tonka hadn't been adopted and wouldn't be there much longer. He was tentative (so normal.) but agreed it looked like we would be able to do it - not easily! but not to the point where we'd be strained, either. YaY! I called the office and said Hi it's me, we decided we're gonna come get Tonka ... She said "Yeah, they've been expecting you to come today" (hehe. I guess I'm pretty transparent.) - So after we ran our errands, we went to the vet - filled out the paperwork, had his records transferred over to our account, got a goodie bag filled with his meds, special shampoo and wipes, some wet food so we could make "meatballs" to put his pills in, plus the rest of his dry food, and some flea treatment as well. Then they brought him out and we were so happy to see him, and I guess he was happy to see us - he came and flopped down on the floor and laid there, then ran out the door when it was time to go!

The kids were VERY surprised when they got home and saw who was there!, and very happy and glad to find out we'd be keeping him, even if it meant making some sacrifices ... He's SO worth it <3

(I'm giving up my craft store trips, if that tells you anything. I mean seriously, at this point I think I can craft-shop right in my own house, so I'll be fiiiiiiine!)

Anyway that's the *START* of the story of Tonka ~ expect many more pictures and tails (harhar) to come!

~ gem ~

Collage Play with Crowabout

2008-09-03T09:06:00.005-04:00

Collage Play with Crowabout WEEK5
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

I recently joined an online collage-challenge group:
Collage Play with Crowabout ~ Nancy Baumiller's Flickr group for weekly collage challenges. She supplies us with a collage sheet of random images once a week on Saturdays, and we have until Friday to complete a collage piece of our own using those supplied images.

We're supposed to use at least three of the images in our own piece (though ideally you'd use them all in some fashion), and any other images or mediums are not only allowed but encouraged. I've seen many people use their own imagery in both handpieced paper collage as well as many wonderful digitally produced pieces - however these are my own self-imposed rules for my weekly pages:

1) Must use each & every image Nancy suplies (whether in whole or part)
2) Must use ONLY those images! no other printed or found images or items
3) Tools and media allowed such as paper punches, paints, markers, pens, chalks, etc.

Thought I would use this past week's page to do a step-by-step procedure posting on how I create my pages, which I am doing in a 10" by 7" spiral bound journal book. And here we go!

First thing I do of course is print out Nancy's collage page, on a letter size page of plain white cardstock. I usually adjust the brightness and contrast a bit in Photoshop first, so that the printed images are clear and bright. Then I color my page background, using either watercolors, pastels (chalks), art crayons, or - as in this case - direct to paper inking. I just randomly apply color in two to four shades, contrasting or co-ordinating depending on my whim of the day:

I then cut out all the pieces as they are on the page, and start figuring out what can become what. At this point I don't usually have any idea for an overall page theme or design, I just let it come to me as the individual elements work themselves out. Right off the bat here I see the two orangey striped triangles as legs, and as I try to incorporate a character or figure into all my pages, I know that's where I will start. I cut out bits and pieces until I've created these folks:

I like'em! but now what? Originally I'd intended to use the partial clockface as an umbrella, but once the figures were done I decided I would make it into the arch over the top of a doorway, which led to the idea of having the couple welcoming the viewer into their home. This is where I used the leftover sliver of home interior image and the large wood piece to create the doorway and door. I didn't like the blue BG showing through, so I painted behind that with a mix of ivory and burnt umber craft paints. Though it now looks as though a waterfall is pouring through their entryway - eyeroll

Now my page theme is taking shape ~ I see the cracker images as headstones, so I cut them smaller and add a bit of the text imagery for the "names" , and I decide to stagger them along a path of some sort ... I used the chickenwire image as a fence, and drew in my own path, utilizing my horribly disjointed sense of direction and perspective (is it a tomb tree? a funnelcloud? Jack's beanstalk, or what?!) to make a pathway meandering through the couple's yard, littering it with the dead along the way ...

Finally I add my *handwritten text (PITT pen): "The Bailey's Welcomed Everyone to Stay ... Permanently ..." to show my charming couple inviting you to enter their home, 'cept you don't realize there's only one way out and it ain't the way ya came in!

I also outlined everything in white Signo gelpen to help it standout - and I ink all the edges of the individual pieces with shades of brown before they are glued down to the page, using either Sharpies or inkpads, depending.

Now, I love the couple! and I like the "story" behind it, but overall I don't care for the entire piece as a whole. Yes, I AM my own harshest critic, but don't feel you have to comfort me or boost me up! - 'cause while I am definitely hypercritical, I am also usually my own biggest fan and that side tends to win out in the end : )

*One of the group members had asked for input on how everyone was doing their hadwritten journaling on the pages, and this is what I sent her, thought I'd included it here too for anyone else interested in my own lettering process ...

Take care now and havva GREAT day!
~ gem ~

-------------------------------------------------
First, get some good gel pens and markers (I like Signo gelpen in white, PITT ink pens or ZIG Millenium memory book writers, and of course SHARPIES - note the new Sharpie pens, they are fine line Sharpies in black or blue ink but no bleedthrough on your paper ...

If you look at my 2 most recent Crowabout collages, they both have lettering I did freehand right to the paper. And you can really tell the difference between those and the previous 2 which I did in my USUAL manner of writing, which is:

1) After the collage is done, I write out my text on a piece of scrap paper until I get the exact wording I want.

2) I take a thin sheet of writing or drawing paper (or tracing paper if need be) and lay that over the section of the collage that will be journaled on, drawing an outline of the basic shape of the area in pencil. Then either using a ruler or freehand (depending if I want say, curvy or shaped lines of text) I mark out my lines -

3) I practice writing my text block (still in pencil) on these lines until I get it layed out evenly and spaced how I'd like. Once I'm happy with it -

4) I carefully and LIGHTLY draw pencil guidelines on the collage itself. Then I copy the text from my practice page onto the collage in pencil, (just by eyeballing it, making any adjustments if need be) and once I have THAT done and am satisfied it's exactly how I want it, I go over the lettering in my choice of pen or marker.

5) Gently erase all the pencil marks including the guidelines (this can be a bit tricky if your BG is in say chalk or pastels like alot of mine are!) and then go over the letters again in your pen/marker, this time adding little flourishes or thickening the edges, etc ...

6) Accent with another color marker or outline in contrasting ink, whatever you want and TaDa! you've handlettered your page!

I know it sounds like alot of work and while I don't do EVERY page like this, it is how I prefer to do it (but that's cause I'm a nitpicking perfectionist so take that for what it's worth), but I think you can see the difference in those pages where I have done my method VS freehanding it all the way ... all in all it's at the very least good practice at lettering so that eventually you'll be able to just write away directly to your pages :)

Hope that helps give you some idea of how to go about it and that you see not all of us are supremely talented at journaling and handlettering - we gotta work at it! (though I do envy those who can just straight up write the page out freehand and have it look all font-perfect, grrr!)
-------------------------------------------------

Meet ... Weezer

2008-07-30T11:19:00.003-04:00

Meet ... Weezer (shhh)
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Sooooo ...

We got a cat.

Saturday at PetSmart was their open adoptions from a couple rescue groups ... this little guy was from Alley Cat Orphans and is about 3 and a half months old. Originally he was named Mason by the rescue group, but we renamed him Weezer once we got him home - due to the fact that he had a cold! and his lil sniffer was making a weezly noise.

He went to the vet Monday to treat the cold and make sure it wasn't pneumonia,etc ... and turned out he had earmites, too! Poor baby ... he's on antibiotics and an antihistimine for a week but he's doing well and is just so super sweet ...

So watch for more Weezer as time goes on!

~ gem ~
(and there. I've posted for July. hah!)

ROY G BIV MOSAIC

2008-06-13T17:54:00.001-04:00

ROY G BIV MOSAIC
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Here's what I did with my day.
Originally I was just going to make mosaics for the 7 colors, plus a rainbow one. Then I decided "hey wouldn't it be fun to then make a mosaic OF the mosaics?" so I had to add a second rainbow mix to even out the squares for a 3x3 tile ...

Welcome to my obsessive, compulsive, wonderful world!
Enjoy your stay! :D

~ gem ~

ps: These were made with the mosaic maker from fd's flick'r toys buncha fun time wasting geegaws. Kiss the next couple hours g'bye ...

Beanbag Bunch

2008-05-24T12:13:00.006-04:00

Beanbag Bunch
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

So! Remember that sewing machine I got for my birthday - LAST YEAR!? Well I finally, finally got around to getting it out and learning how to operate it (in the most basic of basic ways!) In the past year there's seriously just been NO time, and even LESS space for me to go about learning to sew on this thing - especially as I am one of those spreader-outter, leave-it-in-place-while-working-on-it-until-it-takes-over-the-kitchen-table/diningroom-kidsplayroom,etcetc type of artist-crafter. But I just finally decided that the only way I was going to learn to use it was to assign myself a project that needed doing, and that had a specific purpose and more importantly, a DEADLINE.

That project turned out to be my volunteering to sew a batch of beanbags to be used during one of the games at our 5th Grade end-of-year class party. (see previous post regarding THAT li'l shindig ...) I bought the supercute fabric from Jeanelle at Charmpacks and a big bagga beans (pintos, if you really need that info), looked up a basic "how to sew a beanbag" tutorial online - and awaayyyyy I went! I did sew a test bag first outta some scrap fabric I had here (the yella one, there on the bottom), which came out well enough that I was comfortable moving on to the good fabric - Oh, precut squares, how I adore thee! So no, they aren't the neatest most perfect beanbags ever (hehem, do NOT look too closely at those top seam edges, thennkyewww.), but I made them my very own self, and completed (one of) my promised projects for the games committee, AND learned how to sew a little bit on my long-lusted after sewing machine. Whatta proud, proud day for me :D

'Cept now of course my kitchen table is filled with piles of fabrics and wads of thread and scissors and a rather nifty appliance that most certainly does NOT belong in the kitchen ... Welp! SEW WHUT! Nobody ever said eating AT a table was the law or nothin'! :D

Later, ya'll - I got about a million things to do still (wanna help me paint some 6' tall saguaro cactuses? Meet me in the garage!)

~ gem ~

Please Read This If You Post Images Online!

2008-05-17T19:23:00.004-04:00

Just straight-up linking you to Claudine Hellmuth's blog posting to save my fingers and before I pitcha fit ...

~ gem ~

Badges?

2008-05-08T11:22:00.001-04:00

Badges?
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Posting this as my (legitimate, yet) cop-out reason for why I've been virtually invisible and unable to make let alone upload images of, or post stories about ART for the past several months. See ...

Our elementary school throws this "5th Grade Luncheon" each year - a big themed bash for the graduating 5th graders - their last hurrah as gradeschoolers before they move on to big bad middle school. It's completely funded and "produced" ('cause BELIEVE ME, it is a production!) by the PTA and parent volunteers. And as I have a 5th grader, I volunteered to help with this year's event back when we started school in August. There are committees for Fundraising (I offered to chair -?!- the Friday ice cream sales during lunch group - which means I have been trapped in an elementary school CAFETERIA selling ice cream to K-5'ers for 3 hours every Friday for the past 14 weeks ... oooooohhh, goooodtiiiiimes ...) Entertainment, Food, Games, etc ... Many of us on more than one committee, and you'd be surprised at the number of parent volunteers we have considering there are almost 110 5th graders. As in, how FEW there are ... well, don't get me started on that rant, so just nevermind ...

Our chosen theme this year is the 'Wild West" (last year's was "Survivor") and it has been a little wild getting to this point - but we're getting it together and it's looking good! A little less than a month 'til the party (June 2), and yesterday was Reveal Day - where the kids get to find out what their party's theme is. They did a scavenger hunt around campus - clue by clue eventually leading them to the cafeteria, where we were set up to hand out their invitations to the party: Part of this process was each student getting "deputized" by the principal - and therrrrre's where my 120 sheriff's badges come into play! Really I only used about 112 of them, but it was still quite something to handwrite all those names on leeeetle teeny labels ... luckily I actually enjoy stuff like that so it was no trouble. And I only messed up like 4 of them - and not by smudging or shaky handwriting, but I was working of the registrar's classlists and some of the kids don't go by their "formal" names, so unless I knew the kid personally, I had to go by what was on the list. But I was there, Sharpie in hand, to fix any mistakes or add any kids I missed, so it was all good : )

And blah blah blah - moral of the story is - TREASURE your PTA Moms -n- Dads-n-Teachers, 'cause they do so much more than you can imagine! I've only gotten involved in a heavy-duty capacity this year myself (I was always a more behind the scenes at-home-work, class party type helper), and I'm amazed by what really gets accomplished by these people. It really does take a tremendous amount of time and effort.

And I'll be SO happy when my commitment is OVER.
C'monnnn, summer vacation!

See ya when I see ya!
~ gem ~

Spring Has Sprung!

2008-03-20T11:52:00.003-04:00

Hibiscus Bud 2
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Happy 1st day of Spring! (though here in Florida it's felt like a mix of spring and summer for weeks now)

The the breeze is blowing, the buds are blooming, the bumbles are buzzing, the chimes are chinging, the birds are chirping and busy building nests, and it's gone from rain showers this morning to what looks like it's going to be a clear sunny day. We planted some flowering vines and bushes in the side yard last night just in time to get them a good soaking today ... The kids and I are going to seed-plant some sunflowers and TRY our hand at some zinnias in that plot as well. Will get pics of it and updates along the way ...

The beautiful blossom above is actually a peach colored hibiscus from the front entrance, but the image summed up my feelings for this first day of sweet, sweet springtime ... I actually managed to carve out a scrap of time today to get my art on, which has been slim pickin's for quite some time now. And I intend to basssssk in it! So you enjoy your day too, whatever it brings you!

~ gem ~

Ok, Who Hit the Hyperspeed Button

2008-02-04T15:45:00.000-05:00

on 2008? As in: How in The Hell is it already February!?

I seriously cannot deal if this is how fast the year is going to go by, and me having not remembered any of it passing. It just doesn't feel right, at all. An' I don' like it, nope!

BUT. I have managed to finish up a few things - I finally! mailed a long overdue care package to a fellow artfriend from Nness who needed cheering up ... My painted BG papers and rubberstamp images for a Yahoo group swap (that were due in Nov. Yeah, I'm a leeeetle behind shedju-uhl) are ready, but I still have to complete some decos that need to mail with them. Sigh.

I still owe a "PIF" from this very blog, that I said would be going out last month - not ready. I have a new series of zetti-inspired creepy eye collages that are totally stalled about a quarter way in since I've had no time to work on them. I need to do a major artroom cleanout, or I will never even find them - or anything else I need to work on. I owe my son a long-promised workday of listing some stuff on eBay, or at least a how-to lesson so he can do it himself. I have not taken and thusly, not uploaded, any new pics to Flick'r in soooo lonnng (and that makes me soooo sad) -and- I have three major family birthdays coming up at the end of the month - all within about a week of each other! plus I'm heading up the ice cream fundraiser at my youngest's school which puts me in the cafeteria every Friday during all lunches. (Yeah, WHAT was I thinking when I signed on for THAT? Answer: I clearly WASN'T.) eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

In the good news column: I HAVE sold three prints of my collages: two on eBay, one on Etsy (my 1st ever Etsy sale, w00t!) - and intend to get some new ones listed really soon, the plan is to start focusing more on Etsy listings since eBay has disappointed me too often of late.

Thats enough updatey for this month - I meeeean, today ;)
See ya next time, and hopefully sooner rather than later!

~ gem ~

ETA: Almost forgot! My mom got me a Roomba for Christmas and while I used to look at them and smirk thinking "yeah, riiight" - Oh.My.God. if itsn't the best thing ever, I lovvvve it! It's been sweeping up my tile floors the whole time I've been working up this post. All hail ROOMBAAAAA! Shweeeeee!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T17:34:00.000-05:00

Pop-in posting (a day late, 'natch) to wish you all a happy and healthy New Year ... Our holidays were wonderful, things slowly returning to some sort of normal, though I've not worked on any new art since well before Christmas ... looking sooooo forward to when I can back at some creating.

But while I'm on the subject, here's a little something art related - a fellow Flick'r friend is embarking on a neat project for the coming year:
A Million Letters - sounded cool to me and I'd love to see her meet that goal, so please send your postcard or letter and feel free to pass along the link to friends and family! Join the Flick'r group too, if you're so inclined ...

That's all from me for now, back later when I got ... somethin'!, Anything!
Here's to a great 2008!

~ gem ~

Dollhouse Deco

2007-12-05T13:01:00.000-05:00

"Where oh where did November go,
oh wherrrre oh where can it beeee?"

Welcome to "the Season", I guess. sigh. This will probably end up my only post for December, so ... anyway! On to whatcha came for:

Here's the most recent deco booklet I had the great fortune to work in - made by the wonderfully talented Arrow for Pequad, and currently making the rounds over at Nervousness.org ... It's a beautifully crafted dollhouse themed deco and while I usually shy away from posting other people's work, I really wanted you to see the front cover of this deco (I did ask the maker for permission first, of course!):

It's got great layers of textured and patterned paper, and there's real eyelet curtains in the windows! How cool is that?! The front doors open to reveal two sets of blank pages, for the artists to work on, which are also house shaped. The recipient for this deco, Pequad, uses a Kewpie doll image alot in her work, and it's also her icon/mascot on the Nness site, so that was my starting point for my page idea: I was going to make a Victorian inspired house and somehow incorporate little "pequad" dolls (sidenote: I remember once she told a story about how she got her user name and it involved Kewpies and how her family calls them pequads - for some reason that I forget now. Anyway that always stuck with me and so whenever I see a Kewp I automatically think "pequad") I took a sheet of patterened scrapbook cardstock weight paper that I thought looked wallpaper-y, and aged it a bit with an acrylic paint wash, then did the same thing with some scraps to make floor dividers:

I printed some vintage images of household furniture and items in greyscale - and in an effort to be unique I decided I was going to make my page interactive, so! I made little pockets on some of the furniture pieces: The chaise, chair, cushion, bathtub and even the hatbox in the attic all have little pockets to tuck the dolls into. Actually the seat area of the chair was too small for a full usable pocket so it has a strip across the front that will hold the doll in place. I made the pockets by printing a double quantity of images and once I had cut the item out I then used the second matching image to cut the pocket section from, and glued it down to the full piece, making sure to leave space for my dollies to fit into! And that brings us to:

I wanted this deco page to be very personal to the recipient, so - I actually have in my possession an old vinyl Kewpie doll that I took pics of (I got it awhile back cause I planned to make something out of it, came in extra handy for some printed projects ... ) and I used those as my dolls. What you don't see here, because like a dolt I forGOT to take pictures of this! GRRR. - is that I made a backside image to the dolls as well, mmnhmmm, with their lil beehinds showin' - then I sandwiched them together with a length of ribbon in the middle that would later be attached to the page so you could put the dollies in the various pieces of furniture, but not lose the dolls. Cute, right?! I added wings that I painted with iridecent paint (yep, those have backs too), and then as a final touch I made each dolly a crown and a party hat - one to wear, one to keep up in the hat trunk in the attic.

Once I had all the pieces done, I glued the other end of the ribbons to the backside of the room page and added a top layer of text weight paper just to cover the ribbon ends - then glued the whole thing down to the blank page in the deco booklet. (Waiting in between steps for all the glues to dry & cure, of course!) I wanted this to be a special page and I feel really lucky that I got to start the deco off, so now all i hope is that she likes it and that all the little interactive bits hold up and work as I intended ... and I know it looks a little weird with the doll's feet disappearing into the chaise, but it was the best I could do! :D

Oh yeah! And after all that, know what's my favorite part of the deco? The last-minute addition of the framed family photo in the "Parlor" - it was originally going to be an old cross stitch sampler but luckily a more creative idea surfaced before I glued it down ...

Later, I got another project I gotta get back to, so maybe I'll have something new to post in a few days after all! Seeeeeeyuh!

~ gem ~

AFC Pink Inchies

2007-10-30T10:08:00.000-04:00

Here's my first step for the process of a new project I am currently working on: Pink Inchies - created for a charity art auction for breast cancer awareness via Art For Cures, which is run by the super talented, ever-creative, fount of seemingly endless energy Renmeleon (Ria) ...

I started with a 9x12 sheet of 140lb watercolor paper I prepped using my salted watercolor BG technique, using some metallic pan watercolor and a bit of red-pink tube color that I watered way down and used as a wash on parts of the front as well as the entire reverse of the paper, to give just a bit of color to the back of the pieces instead of leaving them white (I don't feel a piece is really finished unless I've done something to the back as well, so most of my paperart work will usually be arted on both the front and back in some way)

We're supposed to be using Ria's "collage 88" technique, in which you collage your entire work on one single 8.5x11 paper then cut it up into 88 inchies, and then add any embellishements or whatever. Which is actually the way I normally do a set of inchies anyway (paint, collage, etc an entire BG sheet, then cut the squares, then add "extras") I'm just using a larger sheet of paper, which should yield more inchies, right? Yeah well, we'll get to that later ... So I start collaging (now remember the color theme of this project is shades of PINK, with some minor black, white or silver the only other colors allowed) with pink shaded papers from my stash (some KoolAid stained sheet music and papertowel bits, some tissue paper and pink mulberry scraps) - and here's where I make a mistake right off the bat.

I end up almost completely covering my beautifully textured shimmery pink watercolor background! I shoulda (coulda, woulda) collaged on the BACKSIDE that had the plain pale pink, and let the pretty side be the reverse which would show nicely under the backplates but! Oh well, too late now, yeah? So I was kinda GRR'd about that for a bit but let's just move on ... Once I finished my collaging - and yes that last picture is it, I didn't do a whole lot of collaging as far as the actual design, more just a buildup of the background - I decided against any rubberstamping or doodling on the whole (though I had originally planned to splatter paint a little bit at this point, to help tie all the collagy-ness together a bit better - but, well, I just forgot. Woops.), so I went ahead and proceeding to the cutting them up stage:

And here's where mistake number two rears it's head. From a 9x12 sheet of paper I should get 108 individual inchies (88 to send in for the swap, plus a nice batch of extras to provide the host some more material for the auction goods) But for whatever reason, the last 2 strips or so do not come out to be a full inch wide. Did I make a mistake and cut a tenth of an inch too big on some earlier strips? Is the trimmer in need of a new (whatever the little rubber cutty-strip piece is called? and the answer there is YES, it is. I think I have maybe one good edge left on it before it's totally shot) Can I just not measure correctly? (also a yes.) So anyhow I'm left with approximately 94 inchies all told and not even all of those are compleeetley 1" square (grr.) so I just barely squeeked in my 88 pieces from that sheet. And here they are, remixed in no particular order:

So that takes care of step one - step two is the addition of my "goddesses" and any further embellishments and doodly funstuff. Which I need to get a move on with since these are due to Ria pretty much by week's end (!) And I'll post that process later ... maybe ...

~ gem ~

Watercolor BG with Salt Technique

2007-10-22T11:29:00.000-04:00

Finally getting this how-to done! Although the actual process pics and pages I am showing you today were made back in May, I am just NOW getting around to them ... but I am working on another piece right now that started with a "salted" watercolor background paper, so before I post any tutorials for that one I figured I better get the steps for the background technique posted first ...

I always use watercolor paper for these, but I will use anything from the nicer 140lb coldpress to just a sheet from a cheap discount store watercolor pad. I typically make these background papers in batches of 3-6 pages at a time in maybe one or two color variations, on days when I am bored or don't have any other pressing projects to do. (Some days just scream "make backgrounds!" you know?) Then I have a nice stock of papers to go to when I need to start a new project later. (I also do the BGs for several pages in my journal books at the same time, since I already have the stuff out. It's nice to open the journal and have a whole bunch of pre-colored pages to work on)

I assembled the supplies I'll be using and laid them out on newspaper:

Sheet(s) of watercolor paper
Assorted watercolors - tube paints, watercolor cakes in regular and metallic (Coloriffic Metallic Shimmering Watercolors are a poor-mans Lumieres / Twinkling H2O's!)
Paintbrushes - I'm using the 1" hardware store nylon bristle type for the tube colors, and a smaller half inch brush for the cakes
Pan of water and small spray bottle of water
Cuppa salt! I only use kosher salt (the kind you cook with) though probably sea salt or any course salt would work too. You can try table salt but I think all you'll get with that is some pretty sandpaper ; ) WHICH! could be cool in a project too, so - I dunno, try it!

I start by wetting my entire sheet of paper by spritzing with the spray bottle then spreading it with a brush. I apply my chosen colors either straight from the tubes onto the paper or (in the photo shown) by using the pan colors that have been pre-wetted. I just randomly add color with the brush in an abstract fashion, sometimes adding a bit more water, and letting the paints run and bleed into one another until I have the mix and coverage that I want. *With the direct from the tube method, I squirt small dollops of paint randomly about the page and then work them together and into the paper with the brush. I usually let this stage get jussst this side of dry, then I take the spray bottle and spritz a bit to add droplets that will bleed and blend the colors even more. THAT itself will add little waterspots (you can vary them by applying the spray in a fine mist and larger splat-drops - sometimes I get it dowright wet, just depends on my mood really) and if you want you can stop here and let it dry and that will be a very fine BG paper.

But I like to get a much more marbled, waterstained effect so this is when I add my salt - while the paper is still a bit damp - just sprinkling small handfuls all around, 'til I'm satisfied with the amount. The salt crystals wick up the remaining "pools" of water, along with some of the paint pigment, in whatever little spot they were sitting. Wait until the paper is totally dry, then brush all the salt off and voila! what's left behind is a neat bunch of little dotted areas where the salt "ate" the paint & water, giving your page a dappled look, and refining and melding some of those areas where your paint colors met and maybe didn't look so blended before.

Here's the end result on the pages I made that day, including one in a journal (that one I didn't salt but used alotttta water in the paint and just let it pool up together - came out pretty cool)
Be sure to click on it to view it at fullsize so you can really see the details.

This is my ALL TIME FAVORITE page background making technique, and I hope you enjoyed reading it (or at least understood what I was saying!) and are ready to get out your art supplies and make some BGs of your own ... Have fun painting!

~ gem ~

Piggy Bank for the Cure

2007-10-08T10:55:00.001-04:00

Piggy Bank for the Cure
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

I took this photo last week specifically to upload to the Passionately Pink for the Cure group at Flick'r:

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Yahoo! will donate $1 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, for each pink photo added to this Group from October 1-31, 2007 up to $50,000! This donation will be used to fund breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment programs.

Pick your Pink. Play Your Part. End Breast Cancer.

The group is already at just over 30,000 photos, so I would like to urge you to take a pink pic and put it up, please! Full details are available at the Flick'r group page. Thanks!

~ gem ~

Soured on Swap-Bot

2007-10-07T13:56:00.001-04:00

WARNING: RANT AHEAD - DETOUR UNAVAILABLE.

Sooooo.

Swap-Bot decided to change / update some of their policies, one of which being that you now have to have a permanent and unchangeable username to log in to your account, rather than the old way which was you had a "display name" tied to your email address, and I dunno I guess that was changeable? I wouldn't know 'cause I originally signed up as gem and never even thought about changing it.

No big deal right? Except for the fact that the notice for this (and the few other changes) was posted to the Swap-Bot blog YESTERDAY and implemented some time this morning? Or overnight? I'm not sure exactly when, I only know that by the time I arrived at maybe 10 AM my time I was surprised to find this out (on my log-in screen, no less -- there was no announcement on the home page, and unless you make a habit of reading the blog or forums daily before you log in you'd never know about it until signing in), and

-moment of panic set in-
tried to claim the username gem
DENIED >> that name has already been taken
slump.

Normally something like that doesn't bother me too much - gem is a kinda common nickname around the 'net and I'm more often quite surprised when I manage to snag it than not - BUT. My major problems in this instance are these:

The timing from posting of notice to implementation : No real heads up given that this would be happening, most places give you quite a bit of advanced notice when they are going to be making major changes like this. And this IS a major change -- anyone who has been online any length of time knows full well how attached people get to their screen names and how difficult having to "reinvent" themselves with a different name can be. BOO to Swap-Bot for missing the boat here. I could be less bummed about it if they would have said a week ago "Hey people, on or around X date we will be making this change. If you want to secure your current name, please be sure to get here early" etc etc blah ... If I'd missed out because we all knew and I just didn't get in in time thats one thing, but because it was sorta a sprung-on-you thing, I wasn't even aware until it was too late. And that brings me to the other part, which almost bothers me more ...

I've used the name gem on Swap-Bot for over a year - since I first signed up. The person who now has PERMANENT claim on the name gem previously had a very similar name - I know this because we were both just in a blog link swap (not as partners though) and they also just as recently added me to their contacts in Flick'r. So, they were certainly aware that I went by gem over there, and I am not saying they "stole" "my" name since I obviously don't own it (I'm not that egomaniacal) but it came off as pretty rude / inconsiderate to me, someone who'd been there 6 months less and who very recently had some kind of contact with me, to have swiped the name out from under me, just 'cause they happened to get there first (see reason #1). Well, thats what it feels like anyway: swiped, stolen, hijacked. 'Specially since this person has a very cute Flick'r name that could have been used instead. SIGH.

It's just I am very heavily tied to this name and identity -- it's really pretty much become my name since I sign every piece of art and every posting and all email and online correspondance with it. And it's really who I am online. So, it kinda hurts to have it taken away in such a ... sneakish feeling manner. Glad I saved a little memento before they got everything updated:

I am now "gemgirlart" at Swap-Bot, not that I intend to be joining in any new swaps for the time being, I need to soothe my hurt (lets be real, huh?: mostly angry) feelings - besides, there's other places I can trade at where I'm still "me" so - their loss really, not mine. -wink-

~ gem ~

RANT OVER, ROAD CLEAR AHEAD!
-= waves ya on through =-

UPDATE, MONDAY OCT 8
Well, what a difference a day makes! I received an email from Rachel at Swap-Bot this morning that my username there has been changed back to gem ... She explained that they worked together with the other member and changed us both back to our previous names. How this came about I really don't know as I did not email Swap-Bot requesting anything be done about it - either they or the other member initiated it I guess based on this posting or the one on the S-B blog ... Either way I am really grateful to both parties, and I think it was just the right thing to do in this case. I stand by my complaint that the original process was badly organized, but the fact that Swap-Bot stepped up, unasked, and fixed this just proves what personal dedication they have to the site and their members. So thank you VERY MUCH! All's well that ends well, etc etc yadda.

*and for anyone who might be thinking "geez, get a grip, it's a name on a website for cryin' out loud" ... Yeah, I know. But like I said earlier, this IS who I am online in my little corner, so it actually matters to ME. Like I related to Rachel in my email reply, to me it felt much like if I'd logged in to my eBay account to find the name I'd used and built trust and recognition into for years and was still currently using! was suddenly given away to someone else, all because I didn't get up early enough to find out about it? Blindsided, to say the least ...

And with that - have a good day!

~ gem, again ~

Found Friday - Oct 5th

2007-10-05T20:08:00.001-04:00

Found Friday - Oct 5th
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

Been thinking of doing something weekly for the blog, and for some reason all the things I randomly found this week kept getting added to a pile on my kitchen counter, so -bing!- I got the idea to post my weekly treasure trove. (Don't you pick up all the random weirdliness you see lying on floors or on store shelves or on the street or in a book or wherever?) Eh, it's somethin' ta do ...

This weeks findings were kinda small:
A tiny black plastic toy gun my son found while I was cashing a check at the grocery store customer service counter ... A downy feather found on the trunk lid of my car after I got home from the grocery store (different day, different store) ... *I also found a really cool but weird teeny tiny NEON green spider crawling along the rubber gaskety piece of the trunk when I opened it, but even on macro none of the pics came out clear, so he don't count.
Cool leaf I found on the front walkway - it was this perfect little fall leaf shape and I liked the speckledish coloring, but it got way dry after I brought it in and it sorta flaked out on me ...
And my favorite one: a postcard I found in one of the books I checked out at the library today - they're the best for finding cool things in! This is was from Bridget (?) to Aveen hoping she's having fun on vacation (I guess?) and the front is a Disney scene from Sleeping Beauty ... if you can read the message it tells the significance of that. I don't know why that stamp on an envelope edge is stapled onto the postcard, but it's a cool stamp, so - good! *But using a Liberty stamp (currently 41 cents) to mail a postcard? yeeeesh. I buy the Lib's, sure - but I'm not using them as regular stamps yet. I'm waitin', like a smart girl. :D

And so now, I am off to read one or more of those library books.
G'night!

~ gem ~

Pay It Forward

2007-10-01T13:04:00.000-04:00

I've participated in PIF projects at other swap and mailart groups (PIF = Pay-It-Forward, which, in the arts & crafts world is basically: one person offers something up, maybe a small artwork like an ATC or deco or some type of supplies or scraps ... the next person to post claims it then offers their own 'whatever thing' to the next person, and so and and blahblah ) but this was the first one I joined via a blog, and I really like the idea and also liked Sparrow's art and lucked out that I was the last comment to snag hers :)

If you want the breakdown (and I knowww you do) I'm PIF'ing it from Sparrow's Tree, who got it from Blissful Mama, who got it from Not Cherry Pie, who got it from Danielle, who got it from Lori, who got it from Katie (whew!) and I'll pretty much stop there because Katie posts alot and I just couldn't track down the exact PIF thread in her blog ... I don't "know" any of those gals, but have a look at their blogs (AFTER you finish reading this, please, thank you. hehe, 'cause I get sucked away easily too, that's all ...) They all seem to make pretty cool stuff and have interesting things to say ... Anyway! onwards ...

First three people to comment to this post and also pledge to PIF themselves, will get some kind of handmade something from moi within one year (they all say that and I think it's kinda funny, but really - knowing how projects can go, it IS nice to have the leeway, haha!) I promise I'll try to be timely even though it's not my strong suit. And that's it kiddos, see ya later!

~ gem ~

Zetti Postcard Process

2007-09-27T12:24:00.001-04:00

Zetti Postcard 6 (Mine)
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

I just finished a set of postcards for a Zetti-themed swap at Swap-Bot and thought I'd share my process step by step, so you can see how easy (and fun!) it is to make some really cool art. I originally made 5 cards but I am documenting the process on the 6th card (the one I decided I had to make and keep for myself 'cause I was getting very attached to the others and feeling like I didn't wanna send them off ... ) I added pictured of each step, like I usually do - I tried to keep them small here but click on them to view fullsize and see the details better. So here we go!

I start almost all my collage pieces - but the Zetti-inspired work specifically - with a handpainted background paper. Whenever I have some extra time with no projects going on (or I'm just bored & in the mood to make BGs!) I make a batch of handpainted papers so I always have a stash handy for other projects - most are watercolor or acrylic washes on watercolor paper, the kind I make using the "salt" effect. (If I haven't posted a technique tutorial on that yet, I will try to get one up soon). I cut the paper down to size for whatever I am making, in this case 4x6 cards for a postcard swap. I build my layers starting with the base (the cut-down BG paper, prepainted) then add some rubberstamping, usually with a large background or text-block type stamp, or a foam stamp in one of those architectural designs (fleur-de-lis, gothic crosses, whatever looks cool at the time). I switch off between using ink colors that coordinate or contrast, depending on my mood. Here I am using a golden yellow chalk ink and a large harlequin BG stamp:

Next I move on to the collage pieces. I work with alot of different image sources - from vintage image CDs or collage sheets I have purchased, vintage photos I've found or bought and then scanned, magazines of all kinds: high fashion mags are great for interesting faces and eyes, plus the clothing has cool patterns for turning into crowns or hats or even new "clothes" for your collage person; I love using fishing magazines for fishbodies and eyes; garden mags for birds and butterflies - even junk mail gets saved if it has cool images I can use later. Another great source for images, especially vintage ones is in the Flick'r groups. Now, I don't mean go into Flick'r and just use anyones images whenever you like - I am talking about specific groups that are set up for this and allow access to their images for use in artwork (alot of times they are public domain images that people have uploaded, but please read all the rules of whatever group you join before ya just download & print, mmmkay?)
So! In this case what I've done is cut out some ladies heads from fashion mags and then worked on finding new eyes to go with each face. I look for ones that give the face some odd character or an unusual expression (TIP: turn the new eyes UPSIDE DOWN, it gives them that real weirdly creeped out effect), even if they are too big for the head, you can either leave them if you like that look, or trim them to fit the face, whatever you want. Cutout a bunch of eyes and mix and match them to the faces until you get the perfect one (You'll know, it's the one that grabs your attention and makes you say "Yep, that's it!")

After I get the faces done - eyes chosen and glued down, faces cutout and trimmed down if need be, I sometimes edge them with ink or a Sharpie - then I move on to the bodies. I like to use fish or bird bodies, or cutout some kind of random body-blob shape from a magazine page (look for cool patterns on clothing, textured-y backgrounds like hair from shampoo ads, a blue sky with some clouds, whatever!) I decided to go with text background (from an old Jules Verne biography thats in French) for the vintagey look of the paper, the texture of the text, - it's interesting in itself but still with a sorta neutral nature that will let the rest of the collage stand out. I cut them into triangular shapes and gave the pieces a bit of color with a chocolate brown dye-ink pad, just randomly swiping it around a little and edging all the sides real good. I attach the heads, and look: my little beauties are starting to take shape!

At this point I have my final layout pretty much set; once I get the basic collage shapes done, I can see what their sizes are in relation to each other and I take a minute to arrange them on my background, moving them around a bit, maybe flipping or turning the BG paper to see what looks best. Once I have it in my mind how they'll be going onto the page, I can add the other elements - this way I can make sure I keep everything sized right and in balance. So! I work on finishing the bodies now, adding wings or arms or legs ... I use alot of butterfly wings!, I know! but the trick so they don't always look the same, is to maybe only use half the wing, and just on one side of the body - or, turn them upside down - or, add two pairs together ... you know: be creative! I made a pair of wings out of a dog's ears from a magazine ad (he was a ... what's the one? Papillon? and doesn't that mean butterfly in French? HAHA! figures ...) Also mascara ads are great - the "swipes" from the wand, you cut them into the right shape and tada! black & white striped wings, hooray! Anyway here's what they look like so far (and yes I work a bit messy. It's okay.)

Time for some accessories - if you're a fan of Zetti you know a big part of that is usually the incorporation of crowns and dunce-cap style hats. Now, not everyone likes those and that's cool - I don't think they HAVE to be included to be considered Zetti, 'cause you're supposed to do whatever comes to you creatively and not just stick to some set of "rules", right? Right now I do add them 'cause I DO like them. But you do whatever ya want, ya herr me? Look, see: I gave one gal a headband instead (cause I really loved her red hair and didn't wanna cover it all up)

Nowwwww were starting to look like something, here! In between steps I always put the figures back in their places in my layout, to keep testing if I still like it that way and make sure everything is fitting together well. In this case I actually found something I wanted to change (see if you can spot it in the next picture!), so I made that adjustment and then when I was sure everything was just how I wanted it, I glued the collage pieces down to the background. By the way I am just using a glue stick for all this work, in case you were wondering. And my current favorite is this Extra Strength glue stick by Elmers - it's about an inch wide, goes on sooooo nice and smooth, has excellent adhesion, and - IT'S NOT COLORED BLUE OR PURPLE! (well, actually if you really look at it, it's got a very faint blueishgreen tint, but ... nothin' like those creepy blue or purple ones. ewww.) And now that my pieces are glued down, it's time for the finish work:

What I do is gather up some assorted markers and gel pens - metallic, glittery, opaque white gelpen, neutral brown Sharpies to edge things for shadow effects, pinks for cheeks & lips and maybe even blue or green for eyes and random highlights of color. Then, ya just go to town! Add accents to eyes, eyelashes, paint in cheeks or lips or eyes, add color or lines to wings or hats, add jewels to crowns - whatever you think might look good, probably will! For these cards I went a step further: I scanned a copy of this card I made here (since I am keeping it, no one will get to see this one) and in my image editor I lowered the opacity to about 25% then printed it at 4x6 size, and attached those copies to the back of the cards. It's clear enough to see the image but faint enough that I can write my message and the addresses on the back of the cards and they're still readable. Very last step is to press them flat and make sure that back print is well adhered, I put them in between layers of wax paper and put the whole bunch under a stack of books at least overnight. And since these are postcards that will actually travel through the mail, I will finish them by sealing them with a coat or two of acrylic sealer and let that dry/cure before mailing. The final version is the top-right image up there, the one I have in my Flick'r.

Well! Hope you liked reading my card making process, but what I really hope is that you were inspired to go right now and make your own Zetti collage creation! You can use this technique for postcards, ATCs, 4x4 art squares, journal book pages, decos, pretty much anything you wanna make a collage on or in! So, have fun and see ya soon!

** by the way ~ if you viewed any of the Zetti postcards in my Flick'r, you should know that my two favorites were #1 and #2 ... they came out just a little nicer and brighter, and that's because I started those on a smaller piece of handpainted BG paper, and when I got to the rest I didn't have any more of that exact paper so I had to use a piece that was similar - but it was lighter so those just don't pop as well as the first two. Jus'saying ...

~ gem ~

OH YEAH! and the part I changed in case you didn't catch it - the gal on the far right - I had to change her wings out ... the first pair just weren't working with the rest of the piece once I got that far, so I swapped'em for some yellow one and put them both to one side. Muuuuch better!

SuziBlu, I Heart You

2007-09-25T12:34:00.000-04:00

Heya, quickquickQUICK flyby posting ~
(Zetti postcard steps coming later in the week, just no can do today)

So I was wandering around over at Flick'r, and through some collage group that had a companion website of it's own, I found a link to this gal: SuziBlu - and I had to run right over and share her 'cause She.Is.The.Most.Cutiest.Thing.EVER! Watch ALLLL the videos. Right now!
Save her blog in your faves!

Okay, seriously - I am not typically one of those people who finds it hard to get motivated or inspired or am too afraid to make art ... I do some kinda art practically every day, any time I can. I don't run out of ideas or desires to try something new, or something old in a new way. But even I was comPLETEly inspired and motivated and just generally excited about making art by this snappy lil chick. Something about her entire attitude & presentation is just irresistable.

So for anyone who STILL thinks they can't make art - you'll really enjoy the journal making videos, go watch'em again and then go do art!

~ gem ~

Red, White & Black ATCs With a Twist

2007-09-19T17:36:00.000-04:00

Pop-in posting before dinner, 'cause I just finished a new mini set of ATCs and wanted to get them up here before I forget ... (I've kinda been rationing out my Flick'r uploads because I keep hitting my 200 image "free account" limit, and having to delete stuff. A PRO account is on my Christmas list -already- ... think I can hold out 'til then!?) so I'm posting more stuff here for now.

Alot of my previous swap partners know I realllly like to use the red, white & black color scheme in my Sharpie doodle art. I recently did a whole slew of ATCs like this for trade at ATCards.com and after a couple batches I came up with a slight variation on my usual "doodles in a box" format - instead of a rectangle I make a freeform shape, then apply the same process I normally use to complete the design. THEN I cut the shape out, and using popdots I attach it to textured black cardstock for the ATC base. Here's the four I did this afternoon:

Hard to see the 3D nature of the cards here, and my scanner has been doing a really bad job on these lately (overlighting the scans and showing every minor imperfection which I can't even see with my naked eye) - so as we all like to say: "they look much better in person" :D So enjoy! and now I hafta go get with the gettin' ...

~ gem ~

Klimt ATC Project

2007-09-18T10:27:00.000-04:00

As promised, here is the process breakdown of the ATC project I just finished for a swap at Nervousness.org: "Klimt; 9 Easy Pieces II" ... The hostess provided the players with a downloadable background page divided into 9 ATCs, and watermarked with a major portion of the Gustav Klimt painting "Tree of Life". Players were to interpret it however they saw fit, with the end goal being an entirely new "whole" artwork once all the pieces were swapped and we reassembled our returns. I know not everyone went the same route, but I decided to keep as close to the original as possible as far as shape and overall design. I worked off an image of the original painting from a book I have here at home, Klimt: Life & Work by Susanna Partsch.

I started by printing the downloaded BG onto plain white cardstock (took a few tries to get it sized exactly right) and used a regular old yellow marker to trace the outlines of the tree and branches. I kind of reversed the tree and background colors from the original painting (Klimt's tree is a darker golden brown and the BG is a creamier pale gold/tan, also the ground is a dark brown in his and I used red.) for no other reason than I needed to see the tree form and the details while working, but also wanted it to be easily blended away into the finished piece. I then cut it apart into 9 seperate ATCs and moved on to my next step: Torn tissue paper collage. I used yellow, light orange, red and some aqua tissue paper for this and just randomly tore bits and glued them down with some gel meduim - I wasn't even really following the original painting at this point but just filling in and adding depth and texture. The red paper was very opaque and didn't bleed like I expected it would so I limited how much of it I used.

STEP 1:

After I papered as much as I wanted (I didn't bother with the skinniest tendrils of the branches, just left them marker-yellow for now since I'd be painting it later.) I moved on to painting in the background, using a mix of acrylic paints (I like to use regular ol' craft paints) in assorted browns with some antique white and metallic gold. I did the same thing with the tree and branches using yellows and golds.

STEP 2:

The next part of the process was the longest and most tedious (though that tissue paper section got on my nerves after awhile, too) - the addition of all the little details on the tree and ground. I did a mix of collage and painting here, but mostly collage, using random papers out of my scrap box. EVERY PIECE was handcut, except for some of the stars and circles - they were punched. Though one of my circle punches wasn't sharp so I had to trim the edges anyway -eyeroll-. My original idea was to use an assortment of magazine cutout eyeballs for all the tree accents, but in the end I used those only on the little mushroomy lookin' dudes. I mostly followed the watermarkings and the image from the book, though I did add or change just a couple things. A few dabs here and there of paint to finish off some of the details and to meld other places together, and I was done with the bulk of the piece. All that was left to do was add in some highlighting on the background (mixture of whites and light gold paints) and then I outlined the major sections of the tree and ground with a white gelpen.

FINISHED PIECE:

I tissue paper collaged the reverse and added an info backplate, then scanned'em and packed 'em up for shipping. Like another participant mentioned on her Flick'r page (I know! check hers out, right? how cool is that?), I too wish I had thought to keep one of my own pieces back so it could be part of the final work, but ... who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and get one back in my returns!

Anyway, that's basically it - I had fun on this one even though at times it was tedious work (I managed to score a shoulder rubdown during the last night I was working on it - all bunched up I was!) and I REALLY look forward to seeing the returns and just how they're all gonna fit together.

Have a day, now!
~ gem ~

Bucket O' Fun

2007-09-11T15:46:00.001-04:00

Wanted to quickly share a few deals I got in the Dollar Store section of my local SuperTarget - they've had scrapbooking supplies stocked recently and while I don't actually scrapbook, we all know they are great for a wide variety of other altered art projects like ATCs, decos, journals, etc, so I tend to snap stuff up when it's a decent price. Here's today's haul (each item was $1):

The cute yellow bucket ~ will be used to hold markers
100pc container of felt flower stickers ~ 3 shapes in hotpink, purple and moss green
Mini alphabet rubberstamp set ~ woodmounted, about 1/4" ... the PERFECT size for ATCs and decos
2pk of embellishments in fun test tube containers ~ one set has multicolored jewel brads and flower shaped jewels in blue & green - the other has the same flower embellishments in pink & green and a tube of regular flatbacked jewels. I like that you get the embellishments, plus cool tubes to use in another project later! BONUS!

~ gem ~

Birdhouse ATC Set

2007-09-09T22:45:00.001-04:00

Birdhouse ATC Set
Originally uploaded by gemgirlart

I just wanted to write a quick note about this set - done for a swap at ATCards.com, and for the life of me I don't know why I decided to not only DRAW the birdhouses, but draw from scratch, thinking up the images myself. That's like my worst type of art to attempt (I can draw okay enough if I copy a photo or recreate a "still life" setup, but straight out of my head is super hard for me) So yes, I know they look pretty juvenile, and the perspectives and proportions are all weirdly off, but - I am NOT going to let it bother me. Can ya tell.

-=teethclentched=- I am soooo not bothered by that upper addition to the white birdhouse that is just sort of ... floating behind the main part. Whyyy would I be irritated by the altogether WRONG shadowing of the birdholes? Don't care. So what. They're fiiiine.

ANYWAY: Quick-sketched the shapes with mechanical pencil then outlined and colored in with regular old colored pencils, using a Prismacolor blender to sorta meld the colors a bit. I actually LIKE the colors, and yes the horizon lines are off-kilter on purpose but I think it works. And there ya go. Hopefully whoever gets one will be quite happy to overlook it's shortcomings. Like I am. Sorta.

'Later!

~ gem ~

Ibex Ryhton project

2007-09-09T09:39:00.000-04:00

Haven't had time to post anything new in the past few weeks since kids went back to school (you'd think I'd have MORE free time with them away all day but it's been back to back appointments and errands with hardly time to breathe in between!) Anyway, here's one I've been meaning to post all summer - since school let OUT at the end of last year in fact.

James had a project to do for reading class that involved them selecting a piece from the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art online gallery, and writing a report on it, as well as recreating the artwork. He chose this sculpture from the Ancient Near Eastern collection - we thought it was really interesting and didn't look too impossible to sculpt a replica. We worked with some plain white modeling clay and used an empty plastic water bottle as a form since it had almost the exact shape as the ibex's body. He sculpted & painted it and it turned out great (even though parts of the body had to be retouched several times due to cracking, and the legs had to be made a bit shorter & thicker in order to support the piece) but probably the best part was during the weeks we were working on it, there was an episode of Planet Earth that featured a short bit about ibexes, and also one day I noticed a posting by a Flick'r friend of mine - of a sketch she did of a similar Iranian rhyton from a museum she was visiting. Pretty cool to be able to relate these random snatches of info to an actual project we were working on at the time.

All the artwork the kids made was displayed at school the rest of the year and I was bummed to think we wouldn't get it back, but! turns out on the last day of school they did get to take their artwork home. Only problem was - as much as he KNEW I wanted that sculpture back (I'd been asking about it almost daily the last couple weeks of school) what does my son do but shove the thing randomly into his backpack (!!!) and didn't even tell me ... of course the horns were both broken off but luckily were swimming around loose in the bottom of the bag. I set it aside to be repaired and then summer promptly got away from us, so I only tackled it like the week before school started up again. ANYWAY! Here it is, with horns reattached and a fresh coat of paint - and compared to the original version from the Met's website photo (ours is the second one, hehe):

Not too bad for a 4th grade project, I thought! and one of the more interesting ones they've gotten to do - and now it sits proudly on my shelf, my very own piece of ancient sculpture. Take that, Met!

So thats all I have time for today, have a good one ...

~ gem ~

Bookstacks - July/Aug 2007

2007-08-10T16:17:00.000-04:00

I saw this done on another Flick'r member's page and thought "Hey! I like that!" so I decided to keep track of our own reading log the same way ... I only just started with the past few weeks' library hauls, so I am bundling all of those into todays post. There were a couple interim visits I made but didn't get pics and I've already returned those books (I'm usually a quick read!) but here's the few I've recorded so far.

JULY 20, 2007

Top to Bottom

Devil's Footsteps
sorta mystery thriller for my 13yrd old son

PS2 Arena Football
Simpsons DVD
Simpsons DVD
(eh, it's summer)

Cabin on Trouble Creek
!SCORE! This is on my 10yr olds summer reading list and you KNOW how hard it is to get a copy of any of those at the library. You know. Like, DURING summer ;)

The Jane Austen Book Club
I think I recently read a magazine review of this, so it caught my eye

Making a Movie in Premiere Elements
This is for my 13yr old who's recently started "filmmaking" and just got the Adobe program

Idiot's Guide to Altered Art
I have way better books than this here at home, but thought I'd give it a look for kicks

Making Creative Cloth Dolls
THIS book looks realllly cool, and I mean has ALOT of how-to's and photos and super neat stuff inside. It may end up a double-checker-outer

The Miniature House
The library had a small (hehe) miniatures display that got me to check this one out

The Kidspace Idea Book
- This ones just for lookin' at

JULY 25, 2007

Top to Bottom:

Michael Crichton's The Great Train Robbery -I got this one for my take-to-jury-duty read, and finished it about 3/4 done while I was there for the day. Pretty good story.

Mabel Riley, A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril & Romance
(pre-teen/young teen) Historical fiction, I loved this one!

How to Buy A Home When You Can't Afford It
I grabbed this in passing when I saw it on the shelf, I didn't read too much it as I just wasn't in the mood to really settle in a "learn" anything yet.

Your Travel Guide to Renaissance Europe
(sort of a kids history book, pretty cool) I was planning on using this as inspiration for some Medieval / Ren artwork ...

Art (kids book)
A kid named Art who makes all kinds of ... art! Cute, colorful.

Wake the Dead (kids book)
Kid who is making so much noise he "wakes the dead" then has to try to get them back in the ground. Fun illustations, a LOT of "dead" puns.

Italian Renaissance Art
Another intended inspirational volume ... I ended up getting sidetracked with another project so I just browsed through the pics and never did anything else ...

The Decorated Journal, Gwen Diehn
I loved The Decorated Page, and hadn't seen this follow-up before - lots more tips and suggestions (including how to make your own book-sewing frame out of an old book) LOADS more beautifully photographed journals and pages - I will probably end up buying this one.

Everything Crafts - Rubberstamping
Kinda ho-hum, wasn't very inspiring (and the color photo pages were not in any sort of order that matched the instructional pages.) Badly laid out overall, I thought.

The Frog Prince Continued, Scieszka/Johnson
Wasn't as good as some of the others but it was cute. I think I just prefer Lane Smith's illustrations, but I didn't care for this story either, really. (I know! I'm not exactly the intended audience!)

Squids Will Be Squids
Probably my favorite Scieszka/Smith book! It's their take on an Aesop's fables type of book - Great illustrations and some really funny little story bits. "Straw & Matches" was so funny, I loved that one most but they are all good.

AUGUST 10, 2007

Top to Bottom
(will add "reviews" after I read these)

Van Gogh
A pictorial biography ...
Pretty good, really concentrated not just on his works but works of his contemporaries at the time & in whatever place he was currently living/working

Understood Betsy
This was a good story - young girl who lives with spinster aunts gets sent off to live with other "less desirable" relatives after an aunt takes ill - I've been reading alot of tween/young adult books lately especially in this pioneer/frontier genre. Really liked this one!

The Midnight Horse
Sorta mystery suspense set in the late 1800s(?I think) - not bad.

Misty of Chincoteague
(I'm on a kick of rereading childhood faves right now)

Marie Antoinette
I dunno if I'll make it through this one, but I've wanted to read a Marie bio ever since I saw Marie Antoinette the movie - which I loved! though no one else did ...
FINI! Boy it took me all the alotted check-out time to read this one but it was worth it. Really detailed, involved retelling of her story from the marriage into France until the very end. Hard to keep names straight (especially when they had like 5 names for each person what with all the random titles) but I was glad I stuck with it.

The Decorated Page, Gwen Diehn
Had to check this out after reading the follow-up Decorated Journal ...
I'll end up buying both of these I'm sure

Leonardo DaVinci
another pictorial biography

That's it for today ... now I have to go do a quick run-through housecleaning before I can settle in with those newest books (ahhhhh now, now - you know you do it too when you realize how late in the day it is - and you've done nothing much around the house - and it shows ... plus I usually feel like I hafta work before reward!)

Happy Reading!
~ gem ~

Alice and Sara

2007-07-31T20:00:00.000-04:00

This turned into a knock-it-out-this-afternoon project for two reasons: One, I was waiting to find out if I am required to show up for jury duty tomorrow (and possibly longer) so I wasn't sure I'd have any spare time later in the week to work it - and 2 - it started storming pretty bad which meant shutting down and unplugging all the electronics (including computer and TV) so I figured I may as well sit down and do this! even though I kinda wasn't in the mood ...

Another mailart project for Nervousness: a pair of ATC pocket decos that are traveling together, you make an ATC and slip it in the pocket, in the end the recip's would get back an adorable booklet with 4 ATC's inside. Mine was the last spot, so these will be heading home when I'm done, and I didn't want to keep them any longer than I really had to.

First off, the decos themselves were so neat! Really delicious pale colored & patterned cardstock that was sewn into a little 4 pocket booklet that tied shut with thin ribbon. The ATC blanks were already included (matched the deco paper!) and while I originally planned to do something completely different, once I saw the blank and the previous artists' cards (that were all very pretty and vintage-y and matched the colors of the deco) I knew I was gonna go ahead and keep to the same theme so it had a nice cohesive look.

I started off by stamping a decorative design onto the front of my blanks (I chose to use the harlequin printed side) with a foam stamp and sand colored ink. Then I added texture by lightly spattering with two colors (antique white and victorian green) of acrylic paint. I chose two ladies from a page of printed vintage images in my stash and tore a random page out of an old paperback for some text. Turned out it had two different girls' names -score!- so I tore off thin strips and painted over all the text but the names, then arranged them onto the cardback and glued them down. Looking at them afterward I feel I should have anchored the girls' images somehow, but ... didn't! and can't now. Added a row of paint dots down the side and edged the cards with the sand ink - signed the backs (which were striped and perfect as text lines) and they are enveloped and addressed and as soon as I stamp them they'll be set to head out in tomorrow's mail ... which is a good thing ...

'cause I DID end up pulling jury duty. GRR.

Judicially yours,
~ gem ~

Altered Art Folder

2007-07-29T16:32:00.000-04:00

This is a Very Long Overdue PIF gift for a gal at Nervousness. She graciously sent me nice batch of clear wax crayons at Easter-time (I use them as resists, mostly in background-making) and I promised I'd make something for her in return. And here it is kneedeep in summer and I've only just gotten myself together and finished this up.

I got the idea from a how-to posting at Lisa Vollrath's site Go Make Something (you will need to register to view most of the stuff there, but it is free and SO worth it) I have a box FULL of old AOL CDs - ones in folders, tins, etc - so I had no problem getting my supplies together: AOL folder (I tossed the disc, as I wasn't going to alter it as part of my project), cardstock - I used a plain beigey brown, inks including Ranger's Distress Ink in Walnut Stain, and a handful of my favorite rubberstamps.

First I seperated apart the AOL folder and traced onto my cardstock as shown on Lisa's site, and cut out the pieces, gluing the two sides together (but leaving the flap part open for now) Then I applied a light colored (sand) ink pad directly to the cardstock to swipe some color lightly all over, on both sides. Then I used the same color to rubberstamp my images in a random, collage-y fashion, until all areas were covered. I used the darker distress ink to stamp some accents inside the section where the pocket would be, along the back edge, and I stamped a frame type image and some text onto a scrap of the cardstock to make a title embellishment, which I glued on to the front cover. At this point I used the darker brown and distress inks to ink all the edges of the folder (make sure you fold it up and check all the sides!) Then I glued the inside flap over to create the pocket, and after it was dry I stuffed it with some handmade ATC envelopes and a couple other goodies - all soon to be on their way to beehive in New York.

It was a fun way to both try a new technique and fulfill an ART-trade obligation!

Now go sign up to that site and, as Lisa says: Go Make Something ...
I'm getting ready to Go Out to Dinner, myself - so see ya later!

~ gem ~

Pink & Brown Deco, Redux

2007-07-26T17:08:00.000-04:00

This poor, poor little deco. So here's the 3rd remake of this themed deco that's currently going around Nervousness and is TRYing to get home to her owner! - The original was accidentally ruined (involved a toddler and a shower - never a good combo, yeah?) so that artist replaced it with a realllly nicely done design and was the one I worked my "Garden Party" page in. I then mailed it off to next player 'round the end of May and it still has not arrived. (Florida to Pennsylvania. Not exactly a haul.) Since it was lost on my watch I offered to make a NEW replacement, and this is what I came up with:

I'm not super thrilled with my deco-making of late, which is why I am on a self-imposed break from making & decorating - other than the ones I already have lined up. This one however was an emergency makeup deco, so therefore doesn't count. :D It's made with scrapbooking paper covers, 2 shades of pink cardstock for interior pages, sorta "postbound" style with brads, and a rubberstamped image on the front (which, is upside down.) for the title text which is P & B in letter stickers.

~ gem ~

idiosyncraticATC

2007-07-08T10:29:00.000-04:00

:::idiosyncratic ATC unison:::

Okay, this was a semi-fun, mostly difficult ATC project put on by blueness over at Nervousess.org ... I've never done one of these "supply packet" projects before and I felt like a challenge (plus they had one last spot open, PLUS the hostess and I share the same birthday, weeee!) So yeah, let's do it!

Here's the basics: Hostess sends an envelope full of arty scrappy supplies (roughly the same pieces to each player) including the back/blank - which you then use to create an ATC. The rules are - you MUST somehow incorporate a part of each different item supplied. And ONLY those items. No outside papers, paints, accents, pens - NOTHING. Only tools may be used such as glue, scissors, paintbrush and so on. Sounds fun and easy right? HAH! until you see the amount of stuff stuffed into that envelope and realize you now have to design and assemble an actual piece of art using ALL these things, none of which were of your choosing. Teabag? Match? Excuse me?

:::the supplies:::

1 random dictionary page (I got bf - Biedermeier)
2 page from vintage stamp collectors price guide
3 half sheet of printed vintage images
4 various tissue, mulberry, paper scraps - 5 pcs
5 Queen of Spades playing card
6 rectangle of cardstock w/pinked edges
7 used (public transport?) access swipecard
8 teabag, match, scrap of foil-tape, film negative
9 scrap of mylar type paper (silver on one side, black on the other)
10 postage stamp, piece of flower stem?, 2 bits of novelty yarn
11 baggies of: embossing powder (pink) and acrlyic paints - the silver was fine, the gold was dried
~ plus there was the project note and the card image to be used as ATC backing

And here's what I did with all that:

First I distressed the original card image with a sanding block - I really wanted to keep as much of the original image as possible, just toned down - then used the teabag to teastain all the papers except the cardback, playing card, swipecard and mylar paper. I painted the edges of the postage stamp with the silver paint and adhered the embossing powder to it (now, I don't emboss so I tried using an iron to "melt" it - it didn't look any different than if I'd glued it, so ... hope it holds!) I cut stars and a half circle out of the foiltape and dried gold paint with a paperpunch, and attached these to the filmstrip piece. I tore and layered some tissue & mulberry paper onto a pocket I'd cut from half the teabag, and added a band of the mylar paper to the top, then glued that whole piece to the bottom of the ATC ... I added the postage stamp, the flower stem, a hand cut from the playing card and a couple more star cutouts to the card, as well as bits of text from the dictionary page and one of the vintage image pages. For the record: I'm kinda ticked about the direction HRH's head is facing and I LOATHE the embossing powder but -eh-- whatever. Front of card is finished.

For the second part of my pocket ATC, I took the already teastained bit of plain paper and tore the ends to fit, then layered the other bit of mulberry paper, a small scrap of cardstock (which was left intact & completely as-sent other than I teastained it) plus an image from the stamp guide page - added the filmstrip section to the top and tied the two yarn bits through the holes on that. Flipped it over and added the pinked cardstock (again - altered only with teastaining) to which I glued a fun bit of instruction cut from the swipecard, which reads: "Conditions of Use - Insert this direction. Please keep dry/do not fold." Then I added another section from the playing card to the back of the ATC as well as my FAVORITE text section (the one I knew I'd use right from the start) a bit from the swipecard that read "Not For Resale/Non Transferrable/Void If Altered" and signed & dated it ~ gem 07-07-07 ~ VOI and LA! we are finished! Hooray!

ohhhhhh yeahhhhh ... what ABOUT that MATCH?
Well my original plan was to complete the card then strike the match and sorta burn the edges to give it a real old "I've survived some shit" feel ... but the match burned SO FAST and the card just wouldn't take (you can so barely see any singeing right at the edge on the back where it reads "Not" ) that I ended up just using the burnt matchhead like charcoal, and edged parts of the pocket tag. I smudged it in though, so it's pretty much only visible in person, sorry!

Only things I used other than what was supplied: PPA glue, gluestick, shaped paperpunch, scissors, sanding block. *And a lighter to light the match - that might be cheating, I dunno - but I don't have matchbooks here and tried to strike it on a bunch of other surfaces first, none of which worked, so I hadda improvise.

Anyway I'm not thrilled with this one as a whole, though I do like some of the parts - mostly the tag and the back of the ATC, but I did REALLY enjoy the process and the creative stretch I got -- and am totally looking forward to seeing the other submissions!

~ gem ~

Mermen, Merfolk!

2007-06-29T20:01:00.001-04:00

Recently I was in the process of making a little Mermen themed deco for an Nness friend when I came across a want in the Deco PIF (Pay-It-Forward) thread for a Merfolk themed deco ... since I was already doing one, I thought - why not another?
The original idea came about when I was making some new handpainted background papers one day and really liked the aqua-y blue green pages I turned out, they seemed just right for a mystical sea creature project ... didn't wanna make yet another Mermaid themed booklet, so I decided to make a Mermen one instead!

Mermen deco ~ handpainted cover papers with metallic watercolor paints, collaged merman -vintage cartoon image of a king or some royal type figure, with real life fish bodyparts from a magazine, coating of hologram glitter paint for shimmery scales effect- Art Deco style letter stickers for cover text

Merfolk deco ~ this scan is of the interior cover page and front of artists blank pages ... Same metallic watercolor painted background papers for the covers, same method of collage for the "merfolk" as above ... I added divider pages made from discarded map papers (tried to go with ones that had mostly water area showing) in between the blank artists pages, and added a different merfolk figure onto each of the map pages ... The front "Artists Welcome" map page I made by typing text onto a transparency sheet, overlaid on a scrap of the cover paper and attached with small brads, then that whole piece was glued down. In my desire to add an artistic element to the dedication page inside the front cover, I glued down small transparent & iridescent star confetti all around the edge - I used jewel glue and weighted it down to press flat & adhere while it dried, but I noticed after scanning that a couple had popped off anyway. I reattached them and covered the whole page with acrylic sealer (which made the gel pen bleed some, dargghh.) and I don't know if that will be enough to keep them on but lets XfingersX that it does! would really be disappointed to find out it arrived all ... de-starred.

I liked that they were both a bit different take on the typical "mermaid" theme, and I hope the recips like the decos they got from me and they come home filled with really fun, unique bits of art ... I think this is going to be it for me for deco making just now ... I have a few more to work some pages in as soon as they come in, and a BUNCH that need to be sent back off into the world to be worked in by others as soon as I figure out who I should send them to ... but me, myself - I'm really deco'd out these days and think I'm gonna be doing more ATCs and getting into that sewing machine ...

Seeya!
~ gem ~

Art Journal Letter

2007-06-18T13:41:00.000-04:00

So, sadly - one of the players in the Artist's Bakers Dozen swap at Nervousness got flaked on - I offered to send a new package on to her and that entailed creating another personal letter in art journal style. Here is the finished product (I posted the background layout on Flick'r prior to adding my text ...)

- be sure to view full size -

Basic watercolor wash on sketchpad paper ... stamped on with some random foam and rubber stamp flower images (this was a fairly old BG paper I dug out of my stash, I wanted a lightweight paper as opposed to my usual textured watercolor paper) then I added some images - magazine clipping and vintage bird drawings printed on the computer, with a little acrylic paint wash added around those - the textlines and accent outlines in white gel pen, and finally my journal text in fineline Sharpie. I took my content cue from the imagery I'd created, and related a quick little (multi)bird story from my own life. I tend to be short and sweet with any of my journalish projects, so even though this was technically supposed to be a full-on "letter" (and I could have rambled on a few more bird things but ran outt writing space on this one) - overall I'm calling it a success.

Oh and I haven't gotten a chance to sit'n sew yet ... soon, I hope!

~ gem ~

Da NaNa NaNaNa, Ya Say It's Ya Birthdayyyy!

2007-06-14T22:59:00.000-04:00

... well it's MY birthday too, yeah!

I'm trying to get this typed and posted before midnight so it get's timestamped while it's still actually my birthday, but my hand is swelling up & hurting so we'll see ... (dogbite - not fun) ... Anyway!

I participated in a couple swaps at Swap-Bot recently and wanted to show the results; one was a Gemini Birthday swap which yessss even though my partners ALL sent my packages early, I did wait until today to open them. I have Extreme Willpower! Here they are, in no particular order:

PACKAGES AWAITING ME!

All were excellent, thoughtful, well put-together packages and my swap partners really took care to read my profile and sent things perfectly suited to me - I loved EVERYTHING! So big thanks to them for making today a super special day :) I'll be trying to make the rating rounds tomorrow, at least before the weekend's over ...

Next stop: ATC MEGA SWAP! It's a week past the mailing deadline and I ended up with 18 out of 20 cards ... though at least one person sent 2 cards, so we'll see if those missing ones show up later. But for now ...

I REALLY WAITED TO OPEN THEM ALL TOGETHER -

And here they are, at last! Really nice looking set of cards altogether, don't you think? I stacked the envelopes largest to smallest, then opened them and layed them out in that order - kinda funny how batches of similar hues/colors ended up together.

Fun swap, I'd totally do that one again sometime. And finally - a completely unexpected surprise from my family - as usual I requested "no gift" and as usual they ignored me ... I hope I didn't ruin their excitement or fun in giving it, beacause I REALLY DO LOVE IT! but I realllly didn't want them $pending the money on me like that. But they did and there ya go. So anyway, here it is:

I KNOW, RIGHT!? It's great, I've casually mentioned wishing I had a sewing machine now and then (gee, they really DO listen, whatta ya know?) but I certainly didn't expect one. It's not the biggest fanciest thing ever but it looks pretty darn cool to me! I can't wait to get started using it, but since I'm a total sewing novice it's gonna take some time before I'm posting any of the "Makings from the Machine", I'm sure. I can also pretty much guarantee a cutback in paperart stuff as soon as I learn how to work it, since I tend to get completely 1track for a time when it comes to new arenas / projects / etc ...

Bedtime now - I'm so tired and my hand hurts real bad. But otherwise it was a super duper birthday (even without cake or the song) and hopefully thats a sign for how this "new year" is gonna go ... which is what I'm doing right now! Going!

~ gem ~

Deco Diatribe

2007-05-30T09:28:00.000-04:00

This is my page in a housewarming deco for a Nness'r who moved recently (or - recently when it was started, anyway) It's about 4x4 and super cute - I love the artwork done for the covers! When I signed up I immediately came up with an idea to make a mini piece of art to hang on a wall and include the text "Home is where the Heart Is" with an emphasis on the "ART" part of heart ... So when it arrived here's what I did:

I made a tiny piece of abstract art on watercolor paper -gel pens this time -> hah! NOT Sharpies like ya thought!- and cut out a little frame ... The background image is actually a photo of the recip's own home, I snagged it from her blog ...hope that doesn't come off as really weird once she see's it!... the "string" on the art is from a wallhanging that was already on the wall there in the photo.

Okay, now theres two things I'm ticked about with this one (what?! only two?! harhar.): I wish I'd NOT added the white colored in areas to the lettering - at the time it seemed like ti needed something cause it just wasn't standing out - but afterwards it just looked ... messy. And while originally I thought I was balancing the text better by laying it out that way - NOW I know I should have left the "ART" part standalone on that section of wall above the artwork. Hold your finger over the word 'where' in the pic and you'll see what I mean. I HATE when the better ideas come AFTER the work is done - RAAAR! **And yes, I did consider reprinting a new BG picture and removing the art and redoing it, but it was 2AM and the glue was holding (for once, of course) and I was afraid of ruining the entire thing. So OH Well.

ATC Mega Swap @ Swap-Bot

2007-05-21T10:23:00.000-04:00

Okay! Finally have my sends ready for the ATC Mega Swap over at Swap-Bot. My original idea for this project when I signed up was to do one single art piece and then cut it up into the 20 required ATCs, and send those out. Kinda like a "One Part of a Whole" puzzle type thing ... Anyway to keep it more manageable, I ended up doing 2 seperate pieces that were 17.5" by 5" - which got me 10 cards on each piece. I kept it simple by doing my usual Sharpie Abstract background, but did one in my favorite Black, Red & White "fill-in" theme and the other I just randomly colored in with metallic markers in a green, purple and blue palette. And here's how it progressed:

STEP 1
I randomly drew lines in black Sharpie marker, bisecting and looping and dividing until I was satisfied with the overall layout and individual sections. Did the same for second piece.

Step 2
Then I started inking in my spaces, adding little designs - stripes and lines, bubbles, dots, squiggles, hearts and stars - my usual arsenal of random abstractyness. I just go by a mantra of "fill the space" when I do these - it's seriously the quickest and easiest method I know of creating original, fun looking art - and no "talent" required! I usually prefer to leave some whitespace, especially in this particular color scheme. Here are the stages of this process:

I then repeated the process for the second piece, only without the added design elements - I simply filled those spaces in with solid colors to give it a sort of stained glass effect. I also had to re-ink the black border lines on that piece, as the metallic markers dulled the ink whenever I strayed outside the margins. Which was often. Sadly, I didn't continue my photo documentation past the early stages on that one and have no finished piece to show (Roops!)

Last step was cutting them into the 20 individual cards, attaching a backplate to each with the swap name and the number of the piece as it corresponded to the original it came from (1-A1, 2-E2, etc ...) then getting them into their envelopes, addressed & stamped and ready to roll!

I added images of the full size pieces to my Flick'r page: 1 (red&black) 2 (metallic), with an approximate breakdown of which individual card came from what section (was kinda hard to get those note boxes to just the right size, plus I'd already sealed up the cards by then and couldn't doublecheck the actual card "contents") , so my partners can have a look at where their own card started out ... though the stained glass piece is a bit sad looking since I didn't photo it as a finished piece before I cut them (what can I say?! - kids are set to get outta school this week and I been a busy mama with all the end-of-year activities and running around and stuff. I was lucky just to get the ARTWORK done!)

Anyhow - that's it ... Just thought ya might like to see what went into creating my ATC Mega Swap submissions ... and I hope you like'em, those of you who got one!

Happy swapping!
~ gem ~

eta: Oh yeah, 2 things ... Number 1 - the PINK envelope in the mix there is a "WINNER" that I randomly chose from my partnerlist, they will get a new, personal piece of artwork made by me once they email me with their theme and choice (ATC, 4x6, 4x4 or deco) ... AND secondly ... I have steadily been recieving my ATCs from this swap, but as I said from the start - I'm holding off opening them until I either get all 20 sends, or a week or so after the swap date passes. No kidding!

My cards rec'd so far [5/21]

Journal Style Letter

2007-05-04T10:31:00.000-04:00

So, I'm in this swap at Nervousness right now and one of the items we're to send our partner is a personal letter in journal style. I don't really like to write so I kinda agonized over this and waited til the last minute to finish it, but here it is:

The paper is handpainted with my standard BG technique (see previous posting) and then collaged just a bit with some magazine and computer printed images, plus some vinyl stickers - lines were added with an acrylic paint wash. The writing was done in Sharpie (after many attempts with PITT pens, Flairs, ZIGs) - the Sharpie just let me work alot faster, and it didn't turn out TOO bad, even with my horrible hodgepodge mess of handwriting (I've always envied those journal'ers who had font-perfect writing!) Accents were added with my new favorite! White Gel Pen - and I colored in some of the letters (which I wasn't crazy about afterwards, but -eh- I can nitpick anything I've made to death so may as well just stop now). Anyway it's done, it's true to what I was feeling when I wrote it, and hopefully will speak to the recipient in some way.

Now I gotta jet - summertime is upon us and the end of the school year is SO busy I can barely keep up ... just gotta tough it out a couple more weeks then sweeet sweeet summer ... ahhhh. Love it!

~ gem ~

Easy "Watercolor" Backgrounds

2007-04-15T17:19:00.000-04:00

This is a short tutorial on how to make a "watercolor" style page background with a wax resist design. I do these in art journals or whenever I need a colored BG, but fast. The supplies you'll need are: A piece of paper (I prefer watercolor), or a journal with decent paper, 2-5 different colors of dye based ink stamps, a clear wax crayon, a spritz bottle with plain water, and newspaper or other protective surface to work on.

Start by using your clear wax crayon to make a design on the paper. I have a stash of Easter egg color kit "magic crayons" that I use just for this purpose. It will be hard to see your design, so I usually stick to abstract swirls and random squiggles. You could always try colored paper I suppose, but keep in mind that will alter your ink hues too. Then choose your ink colors - in the examples here I used Rubber Stampede's dye based inks in the little single serving size pads. Here's where you need to work quick: Spritz the paper lightly with water so that the entire piece is just damp, then apply the inks directly to the paper (DTP) by rubbing and swirling them around until you get the coverage that you want, blending them around and on top of each other. You will instantly see the design appear where the wax crayon "resists" the ink. Then I use the spray bottle to spritz droplets of water onto the paper, randomly and using varying pumps of the sprayer (from fine mist to large splats of water) to further water down the ink on the page - and once they dry completely the effect is pretty cool:

Closeup detail from same page:

And thats really it - you can add as much or as little (or none!) water as you like, and you can leave it as droplets like I did here, (I did it in layers with a fine mist on the bottom - letting that dry - then dropping larger splatters on top of that) or use a damp paper towel to wick up some of the drops and remove even more of the color. Or use the same to smooth and blend the colors further - up to you, just play around with it! Of course how yours turns out will depend on the paper and / or inks used (some papers will suck up the ink too fast or other dye inks will bleed through and not blend as nicely) but it's such a quick and easy process you really can't go wrong, so just try everything - at the worst you'll end up with a bunch of scrap BG papers to use in collages and other altered art stuff!

Thats it for today - I do have a different background making technique I'll post another day - it's my main "go-to" style when I need to make BGs for use in ATCs or art squares or 4x6 collages or whatever ... so 'til next time!

~ gem ~

Postcard Project

2007-04-02T11:48:00.000-04:00

I joined this postcard project over at Nervousness at the beginning of the year - got my "blank" card a week or so ago and set out to alter it this morning, using the "prompted collage" technique I learned about from eliza-jane, who I think learned it from artsymama and so on and so forth (like I have time to backtrack to the absolute origination of any tip or technique, YAH!) but I really like this process as it's sooooo easy and fast - you can knock out an ATC or 4x4 or postcard or even bigger piece in like minutes (depending on how long it takes any one elment to dry or set, etc ...) but you still feel like you really stretched you creativity and went outside some of your normal borders. So it's nice especially if you find you get into a sort of rut doing the same process and elements again and again in your artwork. (Then again I'm bad about putting back and re-fishing around in my prompt can if I don't get the element I want at the time I want it, heh.) Anyway. On with the show!

Goal here is to take this postcard:

and alter it into my own piece of art, then send it back to the host who will collect them all and then exhibit them in a local arts center. The only prep work I did to the card before starting the process was to lightly sand off the glossy topcoat (as seen above) and then I pulled out my first prompt:

PAINT I have a new bottle of acrylic paint in the shade "Passion Punch" so I used that, just dry brushing it randomly across the front in horizontal strokes.

Next was PATTERN so I found a similar hued piece of scrapbook paper with a wave pattern and glued that down along one side.

Then came STAMP, so I used my trusty swirl rubberstamp and dipped it into some antique white acrylic paint and randomly added the swirls. Here we are so far:

The next prompts I pulled were SCRATCH - using an opened paperclip I scratched some straight lines throughout, especially over the original qutoe text. Then I got CHARCOAL and edged around the patterned paper - and right there is where this piece really came together for me, I think:

After that came SMUDGE (well, wasn't thaaat lucky?) so I smudged the charcoal with my finger to work it into the paper ... INK was next so I took my black StazOn pad and inked the edges of the card (something I have to do to almost everything I work on, habitually!) then for SURPRISE I used a shaped punch to add two openwork stars through the patterned paper. SPATTER was next (I explained this in another art piece description on flick'r, but "spatter" wasn't one of the original prompt words in the list I copied - I took the typo patter to mean Spatter but it was actually supposed to be patterN ... So I just left them both in. It's just art - you can still do what you want you know.) Anyway I love paint spatters on stuff so I was happy to see this one turn up, though I did make my paint mix just a tad too wet here. Lookin' good so far:

Only one prompt to go (I usually stop at ten) and what do I get?
TEXT - not so bad I think ... I go and pull the entire quote for the Plath-itude that was on the front of this card when I started, print it up in a nice little font and cut it out - ink the edges, and before I attach it realize the white paper is too stark so I lightly sponge some of the leftover spatter paint mix onto the text, then re-ink the edges, then attach. And BAM! just like that it's ruined!

So now I DO NOT like that final piece on there, and only added it thinking it would "tie" the whole thing together with the original underlying quote and the full quote on top (plus the fact that it mentions writing and after all this is a postcard ...) I don't like how large the text field is (even though I used a real small font and the lowest possible point size) or the angle at which I placed it. Shoulda just used the last part of the quote, but ah-well! It's done now. I brushed a topcoat of satin varnish on as a protectant (mostly for the charcoal) and now it's pressing flat so I can mail it tomorrow. YaY. Here's the final, finished card:

Oh and while I was working on this I noticed my son's clay art project for school is cracking as it's drying (yeep!) - but - thats another story for another day!

See ya :)
~ gem ~

A Hot Mess

2007-04-01T15:18:00.000-04:00

Working on some swap art this weekend - ATCs and decos mostly. The April Showers ATC swap at Nervousness is due soon and I finally sat down to make my cards today - I usually work intuitively without any real plan or idea, but this time I came up with what I thought would be cute idea for the theme and didn't figure on it being so hard to get the idea from brain to paper.

Plan was to use a paper drink umbrella and add "rain" in the form of embroidery floss and beads. Well it turned into a hot mess, real quick - the umbrella part was okay but I'm just not great at sewing and then the beads wouldn't fit over the needle (these were choice 5, I think) and so then I got pissed when it didn't happen and I added the handle & cap in Sharpie and thaaaat made it better, yes? -sarcastic eyeroll faces here-

Anyway. I went another route which turned out okayyyy, but I just get annoyed when I have the perfect idea for a project and then for whatever reason can't manage to pull it off in the exact way I envisioned it.

~ gem ~

Day 1, Post 1

2007-03-30T12:34:00.000-04:00

This is my 2nd blog (I think I eventually-finally deleted the 1st one which was just one of those rambling "on my mind" type of things, but it was hosted here somewhere too ...) eta: FOUND IT - gemBlog, The Original

And (anyway) I am starting this one with the good intent of posting my art related things, whether that's How-Did-You-Do? tutorials or updates on projects or just images of the day - I've been reading alot of other artist's postings and really like the changes made to Blogger since I had my old one, seems alot easier & more intuitive to use and thats NICE ...
Bio, Backstory, links to my other crap, etc and so forth - on the way! as soon as I get time.

For now - have a good one :)
~ gem ~