1ST ART IN A CARTON CARTON DONE

Who knew altering milk and juice cartons could be so fun. This was the first one I altered and I did it because I am in the Art in a Carton Swap (see details in post below). After I painted the carton this awesome, kind of antique blue/gray color, it resembled a color I had seen in an old house I was in when I lived in Virginia for a couple of years. I then found some old wallpaper patterns and created the same "wall" on all four sides of the carton.

Then I thought, okay, now what to do with the walls. Having the photographers itch all the time, the first thing I thought of was that a wall needs a picture and these walls need vintage pictures.

I was finally able to use that old picture of Natalie Wood I discovered in one of my grandmother's old frames. On the three remaining sides I put pictures of vintage women I have been collecting over time.

I discovered the cutest little gold brads, some round and some square, and I also found some matching gold wire. The two of them made a perfect combination for wire to hang a picture with and the "nail" in the wall.

I'm really excited now to get started on creating the things that will go inside the carton. I have to make two more to fulfill the swap criteria, but I have a while to do that as I am still awaiting my original carton from our hostess. She has a lot on her plate and I like that I am going to have plenty of time to get the three cartons and their insides ready to ship.

TIFFANY'S SPREAD

I can't believe how quickly I got into altering Tiffany's book. In her likes and dislikes she mentioned she liked the sea and, well, anyone who knows me knows the sea is in my soul. This was SO much fun to create. I made a sort of door on the top of the right hand page and when you open it:
it reveals calm seas, with gentle waves creeping up to a sandy shore. Ah, it takes me home just to look at it. I'm working on a second 2-page spread in Tiffany's book and am very excited about it, but you'll have to wait a bit to see it.

BOARD BOOK FRAME

I love to make things out of childrens' board books and my sister-in-law's birthday is coming up, so I thought, hmmm, what do you get the person who literally has everything? Well, you don't, you make her something. So I decided to make her a frame because the three foster kids she and my brother have right now are getting ready to be permanently placed in New Mexico and I had taken a great picture of them a while ago that she loved, with her son and daughter and my son in a totem pole line up. The photo on the right is one that I took of my niece Sarah. I put the two together because Sarah is the one in the picture on the right who you can only see the top of her head, that, plus she's our resident princess.

FOLLOWING IN MY FOOTSTEPS

I am SO proud. Last night my son, Brice, came to me and asked if when I went to work the next day, he could borrow a few art supplies. WOO HOO - he's never asked me that question before. I was stunned, shocked, excited and happy, but most of all, curious. He has been watching me for a long time as I alter my books and I always ask for his opinion. He always has something nice to say and comments on how fun the process looks, especially the carving part.

To know my son is to know that he likes crosses. We are of no particular denomination, we take a little wisdom from all walks of life, but he has always been attracted to crosses. I think he wears like 9 crosses on his neck every time he goes out the door. So he had the idea of decoupaging the cover of the book with pages of another book, and then layering this big cross on top. It's very shiny.
When I opened the book I was so surprised at how original he was with this. He carved out a small square for each of necklaces and painted the whole thing black. He then took my gold pen and wrote the Our Father prayer around the edges of the square. This is just awesome. The other cool thing he did was split the book into two layers. What you see here is the top layer. If you lift that up, there is another layer beneath that to house more crosses (which undoubtedly he will acquire). He says he will carve the squares in that at a later date. How original is this? He just came up with it and went for it. THAT'S MY BOY!!!! What can I say - he makes me proud and ecstatically happy every day of my life. (Sorry the pictures are so blurry - I wasn't wearing my glasses and it was late at night).

MY SON IN THE SUN

I just caught sight of the most awesome image just now. I am going through some weird allergy seasonal thing so I wasn't feeling great this evening. I went into my room and booted up my laptop on top of my bed. Next to my bed there is a large window and I keep the blinds open during the daylight hours to suck up all of the light I possibly can. As I was typing away, I looked out the window at the block wall of the house next door and I saw a shadow on the wall of something moving up and down. I then realized that my son was in the back yard, out of sight, jumping on the trampoline. What I was witnessing was his image caught in the sunlight and cast upon the wall of the house next door. I watched this shadow for a long time, thinking to myself how lucky I am to be the mother of this fabulous human being, who so wants to help other people all the time.

His birthday was this past weekend and although things didn't go the way he had hoped in every direction, he still just said, "Oh, that's okay." He is so able to adjust to change and heartache and just let it be "okay." God, how I envy that. Gazing at his playful shadow having such a good time on the trampoline, I realized just how beautiful life can be and how we take so many things for granted. I decided then and there, that "things" just don't matter in life. The only thing that mattered to me at that moment, was the beautiful soul casting that wonderful slide show on the wall next door.

ART IN A CARTON

I just discovered, thanks to my good friend Rho, a blog called Art in a Carton. http://art-in-a-carton.blogspot.com
The idea is that the originator, Susan, will make up 52 cartons, i.e., old milk or juice cartons, with cool art supplies and goodies in them. It is a three for three swap and inside the initial carton we receive, there will be three addresses to send out three of the same types of cartons to, that we make up. The carton, as I understand it, is the actual box that the items will be mailed in. The cartons are to be decorated on the outside before they are mailed. I'm sure I'm not doing the description of this wonderful project, justice, so click on the link above to find out what it entails. It's really a fab idea.

MORE RECIPES

Another trip to the thrift store, and I found another lonely metal box. This one however, was the 4x6 size, as opposed to the box below. Instead of the old green color, this box was slate gray and came with a great set of alphabet tabs.

I love to collage and decoupage, and I thought about what this box wanted, as a recipe box, for its new appearance. I came up with the idea of running off copies of my grandmother's recipe book, which thankfully the pages were already yellowed, and decoupaging them onto the box.
The cool part about the way they actually laid out, is that some of the recipes are still able to be read entirely, and I can just make them just reading them off of the box.

On the bottom I used some clear glass rocks for feet. For the handle I found a beautiful gold drawer pull. I sprayed the inside black and the whole thing was sprayed with lacquer to finish it off. I spent the day organizing my recipes in my new, 4x6 original recipe (no pun intended) box.

POOR LITTLE METAL BOX

While at the thrift store the other day, I stumbled upon this poor little metal box, you know, the kind that used to be all sage green and had no feet. Well, this poor little box was so rusted on the edges and I just felt so bad for it, I had to bring it home and make it into a useful, wanted item. I stared at it for awhile, and lo and behold, it told me it always wanted to be a recipe box. Well, I just couldn't refuse the little thing, so I painted it black, and added some wooden feet and pretty decorations.
I happened to find these little wooden rolling pins and I thought, how cute are these. So I painted them gold and red and glued them on top. Well, the little metal box went crazy with excitement and begged for more. So, I added a wooden piece to the front with the name of the box, and used some dowels plugs for a top handle and some feet. The little box was so happy then, that it told me to stop working on it and find it a home. That part I haven't done yet, but I was so glad I could make this little one feel new and useful again.

FATHER'S DAY

We had a great father's day bash at my house today, with my mom, my son, my brother, his wife and my niece and nephew. We made a huge breakfast and made "omelets in a bag", which was fun for everyone because essentially the kids got to crack their eggs, put them in the bag, add the ingredients they wanted in their omelet, and put their name on the bag. I dropped all the bags into a large pot of rapid boiling water, and presto, 5 minutes later, instant omelets that were fun to make.

My brother is the only male in our family right now who is with us here and he gets to be our "token father". I got to celebrate father's day as well because Brice has no father and no grandfather. I am both mother and father to him and my mom is both grandmother and grandfather, so it was really a fun day for everyone. We are so out there, I love it.

One thing I love about my niece Sarah, is that she loves the camera and she is willing to pose for me at any time, and does a great job, at only 11, at following my every direction to pose her. I think she may already know her future calling. This one's going up on the photo wall.

10-ITEM SWAP CREATION

Here it is. This is what the ten items Stacy sent me in the RoundRobinExpress 10-item swap (See post below), decided they wanted to be. This was so much fun because from the 10-random items Stacy had laying around her studio, she now gets back a box, not only to keep her treasured items in, but a box made with items she chose.




On the back of the box, I used a large, brass hinge to keep the top and bottom always together. I used the "open" knob Stacy sent on top of the lid to open the box. I mean, it just had to go there.
On the top of the box I used the chain Stacy sent, along with her small star fish, (the "open" knob) and the little glass vile with the cork, that I put gold dust in and sealed. Don't want her spending it all in one place (*grin*).

Stacy also sent a playing card, the King of Hearts if I remember correctly. I really couldn't think of anything to do with the King of Hearts, but I liked the back side of the card, so I turned it into a back drop for a small, vintage pin up.

The texture of the inside and outside of the box is shiny and smooth as I used a collage medium on top of gel medium and it came out brilliantly glossy.

Stacy also sent a small CD that was previously some advertising ploy. I inked it with aqua ink and sprinkled it with pearlesecent embossing powder, which embossed very nicely. It really sparkles. To the top of that I added an "enjoy" dot. I also added four marbles for feet.

I have to say it is hard to part with this piece. I am hopeful that Stacy will love it as much as I do. I really had fun creating this one.

COLLABORATIVE BLOG PROJECT - YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN ARTIST WHEN...

I woke up this morning and was getting ready for work and it dawned on me that each day I am using the phrase, "You know you're an artist when..." so I decided to compose all of the reasons to fill in the ... If you are interested in contributing reasons to the list, please leave a comment with the reason and I will add it to the list and post your name and your blog next to it (just your name if you do not have a blog). When all is said and done, I will put it together in an attractive, matted and framed, art form and mail it to all interested participants.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE AN ARTIST WHEN...

1. You wake up in the morning and have to wash or scrape the paint off of your hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, cheeks, hair, and other body parts before you go to work.

2. No matter where you are or what you're doing, you're brain often drifts off into thought about how best to position that odd little trinket you found at the thrift store on the piece you're working on.

3. You've given up shopping for clothes because shopping for art supplies is much more fun.

4. You just can't seem to find a reason to throw away the lid to that empty frozen juice container because you know you will be able to make something out of it one day.

5. You'd rather have a gift certificate to the local thrift store for your birthday, than anything else (which I actually did this year - I was so excited).

6. You find yourself wanting to get up early on the weekends, just to yard sale hop and find inexpensive objects to alter.

7. There's still glue on your forearm from an art project you finished two weeks ago.

8. You've started the same project 3 times and it STILL doesn't look right.

9. Somebody throws something away and as you grab it out of the trash with a gleam in your eye they ask, "why in the world do you want that...?" but they stop, shake their head and just walk away! lol (Submitted June 11, 2008 by Rhonda "Rho" Gregory - http://justrho.blogspot.com/)

10. Even your [work] reports have watercolor and ink borders. (Submitted June 13, 2008 by Tiffany Leary - http://crazydaisy-tifscorner.blogspot.com/)

ANSWERS TO 20 QUESTIONS - Parasols, Pink Lemonade, & Polka Dots Swap

HERE ARE THE ANSWERS TO MY 20 QUESTIONS
FOR THE PARASOLS, PINK LEMONADE & POLKA
DOTS SWAP - - - - - - -

1. What is your favorite Summer Drink(s)? - I LOVE pink lemonade. For some reason it quenches me more than regular lemonade, even though they're really the same thing. I also like sun tea after it's brewed all day and then poured over ice.

2. What is your favorite Summer Activity? Gardening. I love to have my hands in the dirt!!!

3. If you could spend a lazy afternoon reading, what would be in your hands? Currently it would be any craft book on altered art.

4. What is your favorite type of craft/art medium? I can't say that I have a favorite, I love them all, jewelry making, home improvement, vintage art creations, but I guess I would have to say, altering books and other objects right now.

5. What is one art/craft supply you absolutely have been dying to have or try? This may sound odd, but I have never tried working on any type of canvas. I've really been anxious to buy a small canvas and paint something but I have no craft stores around here that sell them.

6. What are your favorite colors in our 'rainbow sherbet' theme? Pink, lime green, yellow, orange, aqua (or blue) - In this theme it would be aqua and blue. Outside this theme it is green, purple, and black.

7. What is your favorite sweet treat? I'm addicted to Necco wafers. Especially the orange and brown ones.

8. Are there any craft or art supplies you would NOT be interested in receiving? No, I love them all.

9. What is your favorite song today? Actually, today I was listening to Bob Marley's "Jammin" while I was working out. If you mean pop music and here and now, anything by the PussyCat Dolls.

10. How do you 'pamper' yourself during the hot summer days? I like to lay in the pool on my floatie chair with a wine cooler and one of those little paper umbrellas in it, while reading craft books.

11. Do you have any kidlets or pets? I have a 15-year-old son (the light of my life) and an angora Siamese cat, who is 14 years old. ( I love the term kidlets - never heard that one before).

12. What is your best potluck dish for summer get togethers? It might not be considered a dish really, but I love to make a Waldorf Salad to bring to potlucks and recently I've been taking them for lunch while trying to lose weight. They're cool, tasty and healthy.

13. If you could take a summer vacation anywhere, where would it be? To the coast of Oregon, Brookings Oregon, to lay on the beach.

14. Describe your decorating style. Does that say anything about your personality? Very eclectic. A little of this and a little of that. One thing I have a lot of is marble. I love marble table tops and counter tops and pretty much anything marble. Maybe that means I'm hard and cold *grin*, or maybe it means I have expensive taste.

15. What are your initials? KDM

16. Why do you like to join swaps? I like meeting new people, shopping, creating things to share, and getting stuff in the mail from the actual post man, not the virtual post man.

17. You have 25 dollars to spend just on you for a little treat. What do you buy? ((you can list more than one thing) - a quarter of a tank of gas - just kidding - I would buy art supplies and photo paper and any and all thrift store finds. I love thrift store finds that you can incorporate into art or make into a great piece of furniture.

18. What's one craft supply or art supply you absolutely can not live without? I cannot live without gel medium lately. I love that stuff.

19. Who's the last person you hugged? That's easy - my son - 3 minutes ago.

20. What's your favorite number and why? I have always loved the number 13. I have the best days on Friday the 13th and most numbers with a 3 in it, seem to be really great for me.


To my partner - I hope any of this helps you. I will be stopping by to read yours when you have it up. Looking forward to getting to know you.

10-ITEM SWAP ITEMS

Well, the RoundRobinExpress 10-Item Swap Creation is on. I just received my partner, Stacy's, items in today's mail, and by coincidence, she just posted that she received mine. The rules of the swap are that we each have partnered up and each set of partners swaps 10, very random items with each other, makes an original creation using these items, and then returns the creation back to their original owner. So basically we get our items back, but in a much better form. We have ten days from the date we receive the items, to mail back the creation. We are all excited and everyone seems to be having fun so far.

The Round Robin altered books are going great as well. There are just some beautiful two-page spreads going into these books. When we have finished, we are surely going to have a beautiful piece of collaborative art to treasure. I already have a spot picked out on my wall for when I finally get it back into my excited hands.

BACKYARD PROJECT

I got busy this weekend on a project that has been long overdue in the execution. My neighbors, Tim and Bob, have a stockpile of discontinued tiles and they let me go through them and pick out all that I wanted for free. They are really sooo wonderful. I love them so much!!! I happened to have some left over grout and mortar, and even found some leftover grout sealer from past projects. My backyard steps are now the envy of the neighborhood (well, at least the three neighbors that have seen it so far - *giggle*). It's great to look out my back door now and not see two, gray, concrete steps that blend in a bit too well with the pavers.

If you ever want to do a project like this one, you can generally talk your local tile and/or flooring store, into letting you have their old samples and leftovers from past jobs. Sometimes they charge, but in the past I have been able to get permission to go through the "scrap" in their warehouses. One person's scrap, is another person's treasure. In this case, thank God for good friends.

A DAY IN THE LIFE

My son and I went on a nature walk, photo shoot. I found the most interesting cactus in bloom. I particularly love the shadow in the upper right corner of the picture. It reminds me of a cartoon character, but I can't remember which one.

Things are going great on my Yahoo group thus far, and I'm busy creating things for my friend Kimberly Terlouw's birthday, which I will post pictures of soon.

My books are coming along just fine. I have two completed, one being edited and still writing the third one. To say the least, I am busy, but it keeps the constant insanity that lives in my mind, concentrating on good and creative ventures.

I took my son to Willcox this weekend for his 4-H Spring Fling. I am so proud. He took grand champion in the favorite foods division, for which he prepared his favorite dish. This was his table setting:

and he did all of that himself. He even looked up the napkin folding online to find the fleur de lis fold that he chose. Talk about your proud mothers. I was beaming from ear to ear!!!!

ROUND ROBIN EXPRESS - NEW SPREAD

I just finished my 2-page spread in Rho's Book, on the Yahoo Groups' RoundRobinExpress ongoing Altered Book and other items swaps. We are having so much fun over there. Right now we have 8, very creative and enthusiastic women. We are a fabulous group.

This spread was fun because Rho, like myself, loves vintage pin-up art and because I'm having so much fun with matting photos lately, I decided to matte this awesome find-of-a-photo in a sepia-toned, velvet matte, that my friend Andy gave to me when she donated her "scraps" my way. She is an AWESOME picture framer/matte cutter/ artiste, by the way!!!! I then used my new scruffed up checkerboard background stamp on the other side and added many embellishments to the piece. I hate that the camera doesn't show them all, but if you use your imagination...

I've been soooooo tired lately due to my allergies and this heat/wind thing going on with the weather. I used to try to blog every day or every other day, as I vowed to myself that I'm not going to turn into a once-a-week/month blogger, so I'm still hanging in there.

I am doing a circle journey (journal) back and forth with my friend Kimberly T., in California (a cool mail blog idea that was introduced to me by my good friend and sister chick Dawn (jeez I mention her a lot. She's gonna think I like her a lot or something - *grin*)). I got home today to find a large package in the mailbox containing her next installment in the journal, along with fabulous goodies and belated birthday wishes and presents. That sure perked up my afternoon. It's been a long, hard couple of weeks. Is anyone else having those lately? I have a feeling it's a lot to do with the weather. I think I'll go lay in bed and read her journal entry before nodding off.

Signing off for now, and please always remember and don't ever forget, it takes one to know one, but only you can prevent forest fires (See? I'm right out there in left field.)

PARASOLS, PINK LEMONADE & POLKA DOTS SWAP

I just signed up for the Parasols, Pink Lemonade & Polka Dots swap, hosted by Sweet Goodness Swaps. I love the Sweet Goodness blog. She really has so many great ideas and fabulous swaps. This will be the first swap of hers I've joined, but I've been admiring for many months. If you want to check it out, go to http://sweetgoodnessswaps.blogspot.com/.