Art Has Occured

Winter Reared Her Ugly Head, I Made ART

Hello Readers!

My old body is still in rebel mode, working at a snail's pace. I'm sure I'll survive though. I've not much energy when it comes to moving about on my legs but sitting at my desk is doable. Winter has gripped us again. Snowed about three inches the day before yesterday. The snow was all gone when I got up yesterday. it is still quite cold out though and my old body doesn't like the cold.

Enjoy the fruits of my creative harvests.

I discovered Zines awhile back and have made another one! I think this is number 7. There will be more zines in the coming weeks. I am working on a book using the instant book concept for the pages needed for a sewn book of the alphabet. The letters are all drawn out, just need to finish coloring them and make a cover for the book and sew it together! I love making little books!

And technically....zines are little books!

This one is the Smile Zine! Markers on orchard paper. I did a no-no with this one and almost did it in! You see that gap up the middle of the lower center? I trimmed the pages. Don't do that! Fold it carefully the first time so your pages match up! I very well could have cut the pages right apart! This one is just quotes and drawings.

Home Is Where Your Heart Lives

postcard

aka Heart's Home.

Collage on orchard paper adhered to thick chipboard from a box that originally held stationary. 4x6 inches. I drew the green trees in marker on the orchard paper. The green strip at the bottom is part of an envelope an ATC trade came in. The house is two different greeting cards that ATC trades came in. The door is security envelope paper. I wrote the text on scrap paper and cut it out. The hearts are velvet christmas ribbon made with a punch. I sealed it with acrylic varnish so everything would stay put.

Old Gregg

ATC

markers on cardstock

I had never heard of Old Gregg till yesterday when I was searching the Active ATC Swap threads over at AFA. I watched the YouTube link provided. Old Gregg apparently inspired me .... zombies aren't really my

'thing' but I must admit, the video I watched of Old Gregg was pretty funny in spots! This is probably the only Old Gregg drawing I will ever do though.

Looks like I was in the land of 'strange fellows' yesterday.....

Charlie Samples, Captain

ATC

markers on cardstock

I surf the net when the muse is awake, looking for inspiration. I look at a great many pictures of a great many things on a daily basis. I type a word into google images and thousands of pictures emerge. I do not recall which word I had typed into google images when I came across a collage made from an antique photograph. The artist had put a pirates hat on the gentleman. My pirate looks very little like the gentleman in the antique photo, but I kinda like how he turned out. I named him Charlie Samples because, for some unknown reason he reminded me of Charlie Samples. Charlie has been dead for a few years now, I'm sure. He was an old man who lived in the nursing home where I worked back in the early 80s. I always liked Charlie. And I've no idea why he popped into my head when it came time to give this drawing a title.

There appears to have been strange girls there as well....

Bovina Goes Island Girl

ATC

markers on cardstock

Searching google images again with this one. I ended up at a picture of a painting done in the 1840s by an Englishman in Morroco. I forget who that Englishman was or who the lady in the painting is. Doesn't matter. .My bovine-looking girl looks little like the lovely lady in the painting. Their poses are where the resemblence ends. I figure the more ugly people I draw, the sooner those people won't be quite so ugly. Practice. Practice. Practice.

Smoking in the Green Room

ATC

markers on cardstock

I was, once again, surfing the net when I came across an ad from the 1920s on a site for something or another. I get lost on those surfing travels! She inspired me though.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

Most of my drawings are done with the help of photographs. I have to have something to look at to draw things that are recognizable. I can draw without visual aids, but the drawings done with them are so much better.

Cheers Drink Recipe Zine

Orchard paper with markers.

The drinks were all found with google images. I have plans to do a few more zines in this size of more drink recipes. Then I'll sew them all together into a little book. Recipes were found on the internet as well. I've not tried any of them so I can't vouch for their goodness.

Pink Flower Frog

drawing for a book cover

markers on chipboard

The chipboard this frog is drawn on started out life as a gift box. Gift boxes make great art material for a lot of reasons. The best reason though is that they are usually stark white on at least one side. The perfect medium for a marker drawing! This guy was found on a surfing expedition. I was at some site selling something or another....I want to say they were selling art supplies, but I may be wrong on that. It was the frog that caught my eye! My frog looks little like theirs other than the pose he's taken. The flower is mine...came right out of my head, no visual aids needed! This drawing is already glued to a checker board cut to 4x6 inches. The drawing is a tad smaller than that so there's a black border around it on the book cover. I'll be sewing this book together in an hour or so.

I have two books that need sewn together....even more than that if you count the notepads still needed for that endeavor. Sewing books is on my agenda.

I shall return another day with more art!

Oh, to lead the life of Riley...er....Fred.

Be good to one another!

Peace

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I leave you with a picture.

March Came in like a Lion

I've been busy with art and very little else. My old body is in rebel mode and most days I am using the cane to get around. Enjoy the artwork! I'm still alive and kicking so all is good regardless what the old body thinks!

Here's a few magnets made in the month of February. I kinda got off track with posting what's been made so the list today, is long!

Magnets all involve a key of one kind or another. We have cork, polished cabachon and a plastic pendant on the left hand one. Real sea shells on the middle one. Stamped image, black ribbon and polished gemstone cabachons on the right hand side. All of the keys have been spray painted black. Two of these have been painted with irridescent glitter paint as well.

Cardboard Cover Journal

This journal was FUN to make! I still have another that needs sewn together. It is made from TRASH. There is no other way to put it. Trash is the main ingredient in this notebook. The covers are thick corregated cardboard and the pages are made from junk mail.

The fun part was putting the pages together. This notebook is 8.5 inches x 11 inches. To get sheets of paper wide enough to fold in half to do the coptic stitch to sew the book together, I had to make paper. To make the paper, I took junk mail that was clean on at least one side, or almost clean and glued them together to make one big sheet of paper. I did this over and over again till I had 25 sheets of big paper. Then I had to cut them down to 11 x 17 inches. Some of the pages are covered in text, some have large swatches of blank space. It's a book designed to put all kinds of things in. A scrapbook if you will. You could draw in it, paint in it, collage...whatever your little heart desires! It has a total of 50 surfaces to pretty up! And there's also the covers to pretty up. I sewed it with candlewicking thread.

Little Brown Book

This book isn't very big. 2.5x3.5 inches. I have to redo this book. Even though it looks perfectly fine in that picture...it has come apart at the cover page in the front of the book. I didn't sew it quite right and when that happens, the book falls apart! Not a disaster... a learning experience!

Seems to me I showed you all this one, but my memory has been failing me of late.

Tree book is made from some kind of fiber board covered with russian text pages and markers to draw the trees. It has I forget how many pages...probably around 75...that's a nice number of pages...it is sewn in the coptic stitch so it lays flat when open. I do believe it has copy paper for pages.

Wool Cover Book

This book turned out so nicely! The wool cover is cut from an old woolen skirt I bought at the thrift store for next to nothing. It has 15 sheets of watercolor paper for its pages, sewn in the pamphlet stitch with candlewicking thread. That's a big brass button sewn to the wool cover as a closure. This one is about 9 inches by 6 inches.

WIP brown fish plushie

Brown fish now has some yellow ribbon sewn around his tail end part. He's not finished yet though.

Magazine rings Basket

This one was a pita to put together but I do like how it turned out! I used florist wire to wire all those rings together. Next time I think I'll do something different. Ma gave me some little zip ties to try but I know there are not enough there to do an entire basket out of. I took the sticks that I had made in abundance for the boxes you all saw some posts back and squarshed them and rolled them into rings. This project was hard on the hands! To judge the size of this basket; the paper cutter is 16 inches square.

Brown Glitter Book

5x4 inches, japanese stab bound with gold cord. It has parchment paper for pages. Easy little book to make, but quite impressive with that wonderful glitter paper!

I went on a drawing spree earlier this evening.

Answer Man

ATC

pencil on cardstock

Eddie's Cousin, Sid

ATC

pencil on cardstock

Sheep Martin

ATC

I did this one way back in Feb on the 18th. Markers on cardstock.

Tiny Tree of Life Pendant.

I was talking to my sister Jeanny on the phone when I made this one. I'm not pleased with how the tree branches turned out. I need to watch the tutorial video again. This one is only about an inch across.

She was talking about making earrings and the idea of a TOL on earrings appealed to me. I didn't know if one could make them smaller and be successful or not. I had to try.

Japanese Stab Bound Notepads

These guys are made from junk paper mostly. I save all junk mail that is clean on one side. These little books are a mixture of all kinds of paper! Most is clean on at least one side. All is clean enough to jot down a note to yourself or another. I made these small, 3x 2.5 inches, so one could carry them easily in a pocket or a handbag. They have roughly 50 pages in each. They are sewn with a variety of different fibers, just whatever happened to be handy. I have every intention of making 60 of these in the next week or so. There are 34 in this box.

And 10 more in the wings. I've cut enough paper to continue with these without having to cut anymore paper till I've made around 20, counting these in the picture.

I cleaned off my desk in the livingroom the other day. I have a terrible habit of leaving snail mail til another day. It piles up and I end up with a boatload of stuff to go through. That always involves newspapers and sales ads. I do not subscribe to a newspaper. Where did these newspapers come from? I took my stack of papers and folded some of them into sticks for weaving. These two baskets are the result.

I covered the entire basket, inside and out with clear packing tape. This basket is about 10 x 7 x 5 inches. It is a very sturdy basket! I like the design the newspapers give!

This one is about 3 inches square and about 4 inches tall. It too is covered in clear packing tape. The big basket was much easier to make than the little one despite the fact it only took 4 sticks to make the little one!

The other day I was organizing things in the cutting room and came across a magazine my sister had given me sometime last year. It was a motorcross magazine with thick paper and colorful illustrations and graphics. I cut the pages into 8 inch squares and made origami pouches out of them. Not sure just what will happen with these pouches, but something, somewhere along the line!

YouTube is my friend! Another tutorial that taught me something cool! Marbled paper made from chalks, water and cardstock. I see japanese stab book covers.

I'm still, even with all this stuff, behind 2 days on the 365 Project. I need to remedy that!

Thanks for stopping by today! Make  it a good one!

Peace

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