Thursday, December 31, 2009



YEAH - My new camera arrived! It will take me some time to figure it out, but so far I am loving it. Here are some pictures of what I have been drawing lately. I took an old board book (a young child's book with cardboard thick pages), and covered it with text pages from an old book and painted gesso on top of that - and then I drew. The nice thing is if you don't like how the pages turn out, you can just gesso another layer right on top. The pictures I am drawing are not supposed to look realistic - good thing! I prefer a look that is a little "off" - not sure really how to describe it. I will continue to work at it.





I have managed to complete 7 inside spreads and the front cover. 2 more inside spreads and the back cover to go before I am finished.



I did get outside today to take some pictures, and will download and share them soon.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009



I continue to relax and enjoy the Christmas break - I have been spending time drawing and playing with photos on the computer. Tomorrow I should probably do a few more chores so that they don't pile up and need my attention once my life gets back to its crazy busyness. I am excited that I have signed up for an online portrait class from Misty Mawn that starts in January.
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Monday, December 28, 2009

Discover Your World


I have been busy drawing faces in a small book .... but I can't post them because - 1. my camera is broken, and - 2. because my scanner is out of ink. I didn't think being out of ink would effect my ability to scan and post images, but it does. The closest store to buy ink at is 100 miles away, and we won't be there until Saturday. Ink and scanning will have to wait. So I decided to work on an image I took last winter and play with it for a while.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A while ago I needed to make something - it didn't matter what, just create something. So I came up to my little studio, and painted a face on top of an old page out of a book, I collaged and stamped on it. I wrote on top of it, and added some words from an old book, and I felt much better. It didn't really matter what it looked like. I came back to the picture recently, and decided to make scan it and make a copy to make a card out of it. But when I looked closely at the text I realized I couldn't send it as a card, as the text underneath my painting does not give the loving message that I wanted the girl to portray.

Lesson learned - even when you are just creating for creating sake - take a look at the words that may show up in the background. You never know you may want to use the image you create for something.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Continue to Learn



I can't tell you how many mistakes I made getting this post to work the way I wanted it to. But I continue to learn everyday, all the time. I drew this picture a while ago.... have not managed to get to my sketchbook to do more drawing, but I promise myself it will happen soon - how soon, I don't know. I wanted to post the photograph that I used to draw this from. It doesn't look the same, and I wasn't intending it to, it was more of a reference for me. BUT then I realized that there may be some copyright issues with it, so I better not show it. I don't know much about copyright. Anyway then I had problems scanning and straightening the images etc. But here they are. This is the drawing......

and here is the painting I did with the drawing. I wasn't intending for it to look real - just like a bird with some berries and some paint and words splattered around on it. THe words say "no need to fly". I am not completely happy with the painting, but I haven't been doing much painting lately, and I think I have only painted one bird before, so I will continue to learn. I think I like the drawing better than the painting. But I have both so that is okay.

Friday, December 11, 2009

finding peace

Well... I have decided I am in a bit of a creative rut, and it is making me a bit unsettled. I NEED to create to keep me content and happy within myself. It has been a while since I have created something, and I can feeling the unsettled feeling creeping in. I think I will get out my sketchbook and do some drawing.... that will probably help get me going again. I have been busy cleaning my studio, as it gets amazingly messy during my productive days prior to sales. That is also a very creative time, and now that I don't have to get specific things made, I was looking forward to creating for creating sake, but I am having trouble getting there. I did work a bit on this picture tonight, and I think she is finished. I am not 100% satisfied with it, but I will continue to learn. I took a 2 day course when I was at Art and Soul in October with an amazing artist Misty Mawn. Some of our time was spent on painting faces with various mediums. The faces I had painted in the past were always with watercolour crayons, so I tried this one with acrylic as she was showing us at the course. I painted the face in October or November, but finished the background tonight. It says finding peace beside her face - it is more readable on the real piece. So... I will continue to look for my creative peace by doing some drawing in the next few days.
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Tuesday, December 8, 2009


Well, I just realized that my last post was something that I had already posted on a daytimer I had made.... so I thought I better post something completely different. This is an imaginary creature I created at a workshop I attended at Art & Soul in Portland in October. The class was given by Carla Sonheim. I really enjoyed it, and am looking forward to some fun creating time to create some more imaginary creatures. That is all for tonight......
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This is a collage I made and put on the front of a journal I made. I have been busy tidying up the studio after the last month of whirlwind creating. I only have a wee bits of creating time these days, so I may show you a few of the things I created over the last while before I was blogging. For today it is this collage.

Sunday, December 6, 2009


Here are the inside pages and the front of the envelope I talk about in the post below. The posters were ripped into smaller sections, and then painted on, and sewn together so you couldn't see the writing on them (now on the inside of the sewn together pages). FUN-FUN- FUN

PS. I would have liked to put both of these images on the same post, but couldn't figure out how with scanning the images to Picassa and blogging directly from there..... I continue to learn more and more each day - forever and ever I am sure... so maybe one day I will figure this out, but not today.
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As I still don't have a camera, I am having a difficult time posting images of what I have been working on . This is a scanned image of the front of a booklet, and the back of an envelope I made. Both the booklet and envelope were made from old posters that were heading to be recycled. The quality of the paper was so nice, I just couldn't let it go to the recycling bin, and so I made a number of different things out of it. The inside pages of the booklet are blank, so I wrote a letter on them, put it in the envelope, and popped it in the mail to a friend. These are fun to make, and fun to send. I love getting mail that is personal.... not just bills and catalogs!
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Monday, November 30, 2009

Time to relax?

I painted this image a month or so ago.... she was supposed to go on the front of a book I was making. (Her skin looks a bit mottled here it is a bit textured on the painting, but doesn't look as mottled on the original painting.) The book she was supposed to go on still hasn't happened, and now probably won't for a while. I am happy to say that I have finished selling my creations in the 2 sales I went in this year, and that my stock is now very low. I did very well at both sales so that is good - but now I need a break from producing to sell, and some time to create for creating sake. I enjoy doing both of these things, (creating things to sell, and creating just for me and fun) I am just ready to relax for a while. (but wait I can't Christmas is coming) I am in the process of making a Christmas gift, but I can't show that here yet.... maybe after Christmas. All I can say right now is that the project is a lot of fun!

If anyone is out there reading this blog of mine, please leave me a message..... right now I think I am just talking to myself, but that is fine too! LOL

Thursday, November 26, 2009


I am still without a camera, so don't have much to show you. The above is a scan of another daytimer I am making. It needs to get done tonight, so I better go work on it. The base is two pieces of watercolour paper with a layer of cloth tape inside for strength. On top of both the inside and outside of the book is a layer of old dictionary pages that are covered in inks and paint. I added an image I printed on vellum to the front cover and sewed it down. THe two pages were then sewn together, and now I need to sew the pages inside. So I better go.
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Sunday, November 22, 2009

delighted


It has been a long time since I have posted.... for a number of reasons, but probably best to say I have been very busy, AND my camera is broken, so can't take pictures to share. The above is a scan of a picture I made into a card, and put on the front of a address book I made. It is a photo I took that I printed in B&W on vellum and then added collage and ink and paint to.

I was delighted that I sold so many of my creations at the sale in my hometown but now I don't have very much for a big sale I am doing next weekend. Work and family life have been busy, so have had no more time to create. I do have an hour right now though, so I will try to get a few more cards finished up before busy with family stuff this afternoon.
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Friday, November 13, 2009


I have finished two day timer agenda books. The face one I made quite some time ago. The yellow one I started some time ago as well, but finished it this morning. The reason it took so long was because I didn't like it. It didn't look anything like it does now.


Underneath the final layer is layers of papers with text and flower drawings. Yesterday I painted over the whole thing - inside and out - mucked around in the paint for awhile, let it dry, added an image that I mucked around with some paint, and then sewed it all together. I like it now.


Inside I have written the days of the month - by not writing the days of the week, the book can be used for any year.



A picture of the back of the face book. I would like to make a couple more of these, but don't know if I will have time. For today, I am going to move on to making some cards......

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Yesterday I decided to make some boxes/packages that I can package jewelry in at the sales I am attending this month. I realize that this is a bit backwards, as really I should be busy making the jewelry to sell prior to the boxes.... but that is not how my creative pushings seem to work. So... I made some boxes, and decorated them by sewing some material on the top.
When you open the box up it has a piece of the matching fabric inside that the necklace will be wrapped in.
I knew I couldn't make enough boxes for all the necklaces I have made (or rather hope to finish), so I made 10 of these for some of the necklaces, and for the necklaces that won't get tangled, I made bag like packages.
These packages were made out of a page out of a old cookbook (nice heavy paper). I sewed them and tied a ribbon to them.

I think both the boxes and the packages will work great..... now I better get busy finishing up the necklaces!

Friday, November 6, 2009

My intention was to get lots of pairs of earrings made this week. But life got in the way. Daughter #2 was sick, and then I got sick. I am still not feeling well, but will try to get some of the not creative components of stuff done this afternoon.... the rest of the jewelry making will have to wait for some time and good health.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Well, it was back to work day for me today - so not much creating today. Not much creating yesterday either, even though I was at home for the day. Daughter #2 was sick yesterday, and still is today. So spare minutes have been spent with her. The book above is one I made a while ago. The book is made from used tea bags (dried and washed off of course) overtop some old text. A hand painted picture of daughter #2 walking on the ice of Kluane Lake and drawings are also on the front cover. A thin layer of paste like wax was then rubbed over the whole cover.

I am actually working on making some earrings right now... I will try to get some pictures of them on here in the next few days.
That is all for now........

Friday, October 30, 2009


This picture was the one that was supposed to go behind my title LETTING IN THE LIGHT.... but things do not always work as planned, especially for me in computerland, so for now I have a picture that is too big for my title, but I didn't want to leave it blank. I head back to work next week, so creating and blogging will not get as much of my time. I am trying not to let it make me sad. It will work out, it always does.... maybe I will give up sleep.
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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

I was busy making necklaces yesterday afternoon. I bought some beautiful silver leaf jasper and daisy jasper stone beads. I wanted to create a simple necklace that would highlight each individual stone. So I shaped and hammered some metal to hang the beads from and then hung them from an adjustable black cotton cord.

You can not really see the beauty of each bead in these pictures, but their natural designs are each an individual art piece.

Monday, October 26, 2009

I have been working on making some jewelry in my bits of spare time over the past couple of days. I wanted to take some pictures to put on my blog, but again had such difficulties getting good images of the jewelry.

So I tried putting a necklace on our lovely old carving
and kind of liked the way it looked there.
Both of these necklaces have bits of silk tied onto them. I really like texture, and the look of silk and metal together is appealing to me.
I should go clean the house, but maybe after a bit more jewelry making. It makes me sad that these images will no longer be on my camera card after I load them here. I will have to figure out how to change that.

Friday, October 23, 2009

I am having some difficulties loading images here. (this doesn't surprise me) When I load them directly from my camera card, they are then no longer on my card. So I don't want to load images that I really like and don't want to loose.
If I load them directly from an image I have scanned, then they are like the above image not sized correctly. I edit images and scans in word perfect, but these are not accepted as images for posting on a blog. I guess I need to start using a different editing program. Which for me will take some time, as I am not so good on computers.... but I will try.

The above painting is one of the first faces I painted a couple of years ago. I have tried to continue painting faces on and off since then, but probably need to really focus on it for some time if I really want to get better at it. It is not supposed to look like anyone - nor is it supposed to be realistic. The words on it say silent watching.



Here I am with a necklace that I finished today. I started it some time ago, and finally finished it this morning. I have one more week of time off to play at home, and then it is back to the real work world for me. So I better get busy with things I want to make..... and oh there is so many!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

This is the latest book that I have made. I like to make things out of whatever I have on hand... the cover uses book board out of an old text book that was heading to be recycled. I crinkled up some tissue paper that came as packing in a box, and dyed it with tea.
I then painted on a picture I took and drew and stamped on the cover, adding smudges of paint and ink.
The inside cover is decorated with the same type of tissue paper, and then the covers are finished with a coating of soft wax that I rubbed into the cover. The inside of the book has 3 signatures that are decorated with small bits of decorated paper - but you can't see that in the pictures. Wrapped around all three signatures is a stiffer sewn page that has ties on the edges. I also took a piece of tea dyed tissue paper and coated it with gel medium to give it stability and decorated it before wrapping it around the signatures and sewing the book together.

Now on to the next project.... I wonder what that should be....

Wednesday, October 21, 2009


What does one say in the beginning of blogging.... I guess I start with why I wanted to create this blog. I love to create, and am inspired by other peoples creative blogs, and thought this would be a way to record my creatings, as well as perhaps share with others. We will see where this goes.... I am trying to learn to paint faces which I make into cards and put on the cover of my handmade books. Lately I have been also using some of my photographs on the cover of my handmade books. I also make some jewelry, but a picture of that will have to wait until another day.