A Bit of Art, Some Chatter and Dead Rodents

I'm here! Not that I've actually gone anywhere worth talking about....Guess you all are not going to get a post everyday. Thank goodness you all didn't hold your breath, aye?
I have some art to show you all today. Shock upon shock. I don't think the muse is quite done with her vacation. She showed up for a marathon drawing session at 3 in the morning when I was fixing to go to sleep and stayed till around 7 that morning. Those ATCs made during the marathon are dated 4 october 2010. I've not seen her hide since then!

Enjoy the Art Show

(if that's what you want to call it)

An Arch in the Desert

ATC

3 October 2010

markers on recycled cardstock

Day #250 365 Project

Anita's Big City Whirlwind

ATC

8 September 2010

markers on recycled photo album paper

similar to watercolor paper

Day #251 365 Project

Anita's Big Train Adventure

ATC

19 September 2010

markers on recycled photo album paper

similar to watercolor paper

Day #252 365 Project

Anita's Bird Adventure

ATC

8 September 2010

markers on recycled photo album paper

similar to watercolor paper

Day #253 365 Project

Anita abuses her hair with changing the color and style. She's a fashionable girl though so it doesn't matter to her that the hair on her head isn't really her own, but that of a wig. I drew only the backgrounds in these Anita cards on the 8th of September. Anita herself had been drawn like 50 times about two years ago. I should gather up all the anitas I can find in my picture files and do a post about her fashion sense!

Annabel's Orange Osmobile

ATC

Markers on recycled cardstock along with collage of a girl's basketball team in an orange osmobile. All images snagged from Google Images.

4 October 2010

Day #254 365 Project

Bird of Paradise Flower

ATC

5 October 2010

Markers on recycled cardstock.

I lied. The muse has been back since the 3 a.m. marathon.....

Day #255 365 Project

Blue Jar

ATC

5 October 2010

markers on recycled cardstock

Day #256 365 Project

RW, Lue and all the boys had come to supper on the 5th. I made chicken noodle soup. Was a fun night with all the kids...we made ATCs.

In The Pink Zone

ATC

4 October 2010

markers on recycled cardstock

Just Takin' it Easy

ATC

4 October 2010

black sharpie on recycled cardstock

Day #257 365 Project

Pink Elephant @ 3a.m

ATC

4 October 2010

markers on recycled cardstock

Day #258 365 Project

I took six markers plus a black one to my room with me thinking perhaps I could coax the muse back for a bit of drawing. She obliged nicely. I really need her to come home for an extended length of time cause I'm still 20 Days behind!

I really like to challenge myself with a limited array of color choices. Sometimes the choice of colors works out and sometimes it doesn't. I kinda like the combo in these cards.

the Tiger Jacket

ATC

18 September 2010

markers on recycled cardstock

Day #259 365 Project

Trees in the Afternoon

ATC

4 October 2010

markers on recycled cardstock

I've not counted two of these in the 365 Project just because I haven't. I have a lot of cards not counted in the project that I could techniquely count for this year....I'm not sure why I can't jump that hurtle and just use them....my stubbornness coming out I guess.

The muse will return and I can then get some more cards made to catch up with the project. That's the plan at any rate.

Nothing much happening here. Still living with the old sofa. Not sure when the change with that will take place. Soon, though.
Lola has begun to catch rodents like they are going out of style. I found a dead rat in the driveway, a headless mouse on the kitchen floor and another unidentifiable rodent puked up on the kitchen floor when I came home the other morning. She'd been a busy cat whilst I was gone! She had another mouse earlier this evening. I saw it's corpse while she was batting it around the kitchen, but I've yet to locate its whereabouts since I last saw it. She may have eaten it, but I doubt it. She likes chewing their heads off! She's an excellent huntress! I only wish she wouldn't bring them in the house! Not all of her catches are made in the house, though she does occasionally nab one that has moved in temporarily.

Fred is still Fred. Not the brightest crayon in the box.

I have to get up early in the morning. No later than 7:30. The baling machine will be here, along with the man who operates it. Not sure which of them I'm most anxious to see....I'm quite ready for the junk pile to be gone. Time to start a new one. We won't be getting quite as much for this pile as we got for the last one though. There's not a vehicle in it, just a bunch of metal scrap...everything from a transformer can full of steel food cans to a swing set Sammy and I hauled back from Agra....Will be good to have it gone and the baling machine here!
You all remember to throw some smiles out there and give out a hug or two as well.
I'll try to keep that advice in mind myself!
Peace
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It Is MONDAY Morning!

I am fighting flies this morning. I HATE FLIES! I know they are useful creatures, but damn! are they annoying!!!! I'm not looking forward to cold weather, no. Not at all. But one good thing about cold is that the flies disappear and I do not have to deal with them then.
Why we have a fly infestation, I do not know. There are three of them vying for the rim of my coffee cup. I've covered it with the postcard I got from the doctor's office the other day.
Doc wants to see me for a medicine review and a general check up. I initiated the medicine review. Need to go give blood sometime this week...before Friday. I have to go see a different doc on Friday. They're going to check on my hemocrit numbers to see if the polycythemia vera is under control. If it isn't, I'll have a phlebotomy. No biggie. I'm hoping the numbers are where they should be though...would be so much easier not to have to drive back to Hays to have one!

I don't have any art pictures to share today, though I do have more art done since the last post! I plan on getting those ATCs scanned this afternoon sometime. Today you'll see some of my fabric paper made since the last post with art in it. Tomorrow you'll get a picture show of art. Least you will if all goes according to plan. I might even get some more ATCs done today too. Who knows!

Thought I'd share some of my newest pictures of the critters and other things with you. Better go let Fred in first though. He's standing at the front door barking.
I made quite a few sheets of paper during September. I've started a book. A blank book that still needs to be sewn together. I'll show you all the pictures of it once it gets sewn together. I still haven't located my needle. I'm afraid I'll just have to use a different one and hope it works out alright. I do have a rather large stash of needles, just need to find one that will work.
At any rate...here are the latest sheets of fabric paper.

This is a stack of papers laying on my work table in the cutting room. I mostly used pages from an old spanish workbook and gauze material for the fabric part. I've run out of gauze so I am on the hunt for other suitable material. Though any material will make fabric paper!

I spary painted the paper layer with black paint, let it dry and then added a layer of glue to hold the red glitter on. I really really really like how this one turned out! I will be making a book cover out of this sheet.

Apparently I was in the mood for red! This one isn't near as pretty in person as the previous one! I painted over the paper part with cheap red acrylics, letting some of the words/pictures from the paper show through. It was dull. It wasn't at all exciting like the color red should be. I tried to rememdy the dullness of the paint by rubbing the entire surface of the paper with stuff that is generally used to shine up tires on cars. It gave it a nice shine! Not sure if it will hold up or not though....Not sure what will happen with this sheet.

It really doesn't show at all in this picture but there is blue glitter sprinkled all over this one. I wasn't pleased with how this one turned out.

Again I used the spanish workbook pages and then sprinkled stars cut from magazine pages all over it. This one will be turned into a book cover.

This one is the spanish workbook pages with purple glitter sprinkled all over it.

I don't think think I'll be doing spanish workbook pages with glitter on them any more. They just look too plain. And this purple glitter is some chunky stuff, vintage, found at a yard sale with a bunch of other old glitters and some paint.

There will be more fabric paper in the future.

It's kinda quiet around here without any kittens wrecking havoc. I took them over to RW's house on Saturday and they took both of mine and 5 of their own kittens over by Kirwin to live on a farm. Lola doesn't seem to even care that they are gone and the other critters haven't even noticed the kittens' absence. I kinda miss them though.

These are the last pictures of the little guys I'll ever have. This one looks so sad.....He really wasn't at the time, he was full of it that day!

Here's the other little guy.

They loved that stool in the cutting room! They also made that mess you see on the floor.

No more kittens to terrorize my house.....

I went to Munjor with my sister and her boyfriend to watch her son's band play at the bar over there.

We had a good time that night. I was the designated driver that night. No booze for me! I drank coca cola while the others had beer.

The boys rocked the bar!

Justin, my nephew plays the harmonica and sings lead vocals. Brandon is on the drums.

Nate plays rhythm guitar and does vocals as well.

Levi plays lead guitar. He really doesn't know all the songs they sing but he 'faked' it really well! That isn't hard for Levi to do though...fake it. He's an excellent guitar player! He will learn the songs and the band will just get better and better! He's a good asset to the band. He just recently joined.

They call themselves Black Dawg Shuffle.

Lola laying in the hallway where the dog usually sleeps. She must of got there before he did.

Fred isn't a very bright dog some days. Here he is with stickers on his head after rolling around in the grass. We have an infestation of stickers as well as flies this year! I pull stickers off that dog every single day! He leaves them on the carpet in the house and I always have to wear my shoes inside lest I step on one of his castoffs. He wasn't too happy about me pulling those stickers out of his face.

And there's Lil A with Aunt Susan in the back seat of RJ's van on our way to Wichita so Susan could go see the doc over there to get a treatment on her feet. She has neuropathy in her feet. Hopefully this new treatment will help her out with the pain in her feet.

I'm listening to my sister Jeanny ramble on on the telephone.

You all have a wonderful Monday. Try to make the rest of the week a good one.

Throw some smiles out there and be good to one another!

Peace

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Hello

Hello Readers!

I'm assuming I have readers.....I like comments! Leave me on if you are reading, please. I don't bite! I'm really rather easy to get along with!!!

I didn't have a hell of a lot to say in September! Not sure I'll have a lot to say this month either but who knows! Maybe I'll post everyday this month! (Don't count on it though! ;) )

The art muse went on vacation and has just yesterday returned. Wasn't even yesterday technically. Three this morning she showed up demanding I do some art. I don't have pictures of the art done at that time but I'll show them to you as soon as I get them scanned. I did 5 ATCs this morning.

I have been making a LOT of fabric paper. All through September I made fabric paper. I think I have about 15 sheets or so of it now. I made a chunky page out of one sheet of it. I don't think I ever scanned that chunky page though....I'm certain I didn't. What the heck was I thinking? It's gone now! I sent it off to Georgia on Monday of this week. Guess you all aren't gonna see that one. Can't believe I didn't take a picture of it!

I'm in the process of working on the little book pictured in this post. I've lost my bookbinding needle though so it will have to wait to be sewn together till I can find another needle that will work properly.

I tried an experiment with the blue fabric on the backside of the fabric paper. it is a t-shirt weight material. Actually came from a long sleeved woman's shirt. The paper side of the fabric paper is from an old Learning Spanish Workbook. Nicely aged paper! The book was from the 1960s, I think. I don't recall ever having looked at the copyright page before I started using it for fabric paper. I'm afraid the copyright page is long gone! Half the book is long gone!

I did the abstract designs on this book cover in markers. The top picture shows the front of the book, the bottom one the inside of the book covers.

I'll show you all the finished book once I find an appropriate needle to sew it all together with! That's the page block in the upper right hand corner of the pictures. 16 signatures of 5 sheets of copy paper. The book is going to need a button closure of some sort. I'm thinking a large dark purple button with natural jute tie. We'll see what the muse wants to do when I actually get it sewn together. The button will be the last thing sewed on.

I have a few little books to sew together....really need to find a good needle to do that.

Not much been happening in my world.

I went to Wichita with my sister on Wednesday. Got to see my oldest boy, his wife and the younguns. That Lil A is growing like a weed! And Brenton gives the best hugs!

Was good to see them all!

I miss them terribly some days....and Terah tells me the same is true of all of them.

Took the last two kittens over to RW's house this afternoon. They are going to live at farm/roofing company outside of Kirwin. RW and Lue will deliver my two kittens and their five kittens in the morning.

This coming week will be a busy week for me. Ma is going to show up and there will be work to do! I'm getting a 'new' couch and chair for the livingroom. The couch is already here but it's in the garage for the time being. Ma is giving me a recliner! I'll be spending some time in that thing, reading! Ma gave $8 for my new couch! LOL I like it! It's a dark brown number, I'm thinking 1950s vintage... it's in great shape for its age! The recliner, I think, is green. I'll be able to put the curtains back up too! YEAH! Had to take the livingroom curtain down cause there were kittens hell bent on tearing it down!

Hello--Looks Like You're Going to See Some Kittens!

I know I've been away for awhile. There's not much happening in the art world at my house. Been making some fabric paper and working in my junque journal but there are no pictures of either to show for that. There ARE pictures, they just aren't in this post cause art is the farthest thing from my mind these days. My muse ran off to an island oasis and is sitting on a white sand beach drinking margaritas enjoying her long vacation. She'll come home soon enough.

She dang well better!

I am way behind on the 365 Project.

:(

2 whole weeks behind.....

I only have four kittens left now. An elderly couple with a little girl came and got 2 of the kittens better than a week ago. There have been no more bites for kittens since then despite the fact their mugshots are plastered on the bulletin boards in town.

One of the little orange guys went and so did his sister, Fluffy.

I was out taking pictures of the kittens in the backyard when that fool dog began acting silly. He's just rolling around in the grass having a gay old time!

I believe this is the little orange one that went to live with the elderly couple and the little girl.

Sitting on the back steps.

He looks so worried....

Holy Terror! Don't let the cuteness fool you!

Fluffy here also went with the little orange one. Fluffy wasn't quite sure what to think of the flash on the camera. She jumped like this all the time when I took her picture.

Again, don't let the cuteness fool you!

I had to take the curtains off the window in the livingroom cause these little terrorists attacked it and bent the curtain rod. My sofa has exploded. There are weapons of mass destruction at work where kittens reside! Alebit they are S-L-O-W in their destruction, they are lethal!

Someone, please take these kittens off my hands!

Here is a little orange kitten sitting atop Fred while he lays on the kitchen floor. Yes, I know...that floor really needs a bath! Kittens are messy little critters...worse than children.

Under the propane tank in the front yard.

Under the front porch steps.

There's a spy in the background! That's Stripes back there. She's an ornery little turd! Whitey is under the propane tank. I gave them temporary names cause I have to call them something. I call the two orange ones, Little Boy, cause I still can't tell them apart.

It is a very good thing that the Good Lord didn't grace me with twins cause I wouldn't be able to tell them apart!

This is my Mom's cat, Charlie. He's about the same age as the other kittens on this page.

Not much happening in my world really. Nothing worth yapping about anyway. Been going through crap out in the burnt house in preparation of a yard sale this weekend. I got enough ready to say I made an honest effort at it, but there's twice as much crap yet to be gone through if it's to make it into the sale this weekend.

A daunting task. I really don't have my heart in it.

All is well though. I'm content. Nothing major brewing that I know of.

As I always say, If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.

Life is good. Working fine!

I do hope your's is as well.

Peace

831

Fabric Paper Tutorial

I'm going to show you the steps to making fabric paper in this post.  I'm going to show you how I make it anyway. Others make it somewhat differently. Just means there's more than one way to skin a cat, er, make fabric paper!

:)

First thing you're going to need is a sheet of plastic big enough to make a sheet of paper on. I use the front panel from a 40 pound bag of dog food. That makes my finished papers approximately 20 inches wide and 30 inches long. You might not want yours that big. The bigger the finished paper, the bigger your workspace will need to be.

You will also need some type of fabric material. Muslin is what is recommended but ANY thin fabric you may have laying around WILL work! Cheese cloth, printed cottons, gauze bandaging...anything thin. Doesn't matter what color it is. I use gauze bandaging that I found at the thrift store. If you use a printed fabric make sure you turn it over so the wrong side is facing you. That way the back of your finished paper will have the print of the fabric on one side.

You're going to need some paper. I have used many different types of paper on a single sheet of fabric paper so it does not matter what paper you use. Magazine pages, envelopes, newspaper, junk mail, bills, whatever kind of paper you have laying around will work. The more colorful, the better. Or you could do like I did on the blue sheet you'll see later in this post and use all one type of paper. I always put at least two layers of paper on each sheet of fabric paper made. I try to stay away from using cardstock weight paper. I keep it separate from the other paper.

You're going to need a bottle of school glue. PVC glue. Plain old white Elmers Glue.

You'll need some water to mix with the glue and a bowl or some sort of vessel to hold your glue mixture. I mix my glue approximately 2 parts glue to 1 part water, heavy on the water. I have heard that the glue will work thinned even further than this. I've yet to try it thinner though.

Feel free to experiment! That's the fun part!

Gather all your materials together somewhere you can spread out. Make sure you've cut or torn (or both) your papers into smallish bits. 3 or 4 inches.

I make paper out in the burnt house in the room that used to be my bedroom. There's a big stack of particle board out there taking up most of the room and I commendeered it as my work station.

I've mixed my glue. I ran out of Elmer's and mixed Tacky Glue with the remnants of the Elmer's. Didn't seem to make any difference in the drying process.

Pour a blob of glue on your plastic.

You need a good sized brush to spread it all around. Or you can use a credit card to spread the glue. Either way works. I've done it both ways. With this one I used a brush though.

You're going to lay your fabric over this layer of glue. My fabric comes on a roll. I need three lengths of it to cover my plastic sheet. You do not have to cover the plastic sheet if you don't want to. You're going to peel that plastic sheet off when the paper dries.

When you get your fabric down on the plastic, give it another layer of glue. You want the fabric saturated so your paper bits will adhere.

All glued up and ready for the papers.

A shot of my paper stash for fabric paper making. I had paper stars all over the place from the last sheet of paper made before this one. All the papers showing came in snail mail, dictionary pages and stars punched from a magazine. It took me about half an hour to punch an entire magazine. I have enough stars to make 3 sheets of paper, lots of stars!!! And it was therapuetic to sit and do it!

The picture below shows the junk mail torn/cut into smallish bits.

Some of the things in the box:

magazine inserts

envelopes

copy paper

notes

 raffle tickets

tissue paper

you get the idea....

When I go through the snail mail in the livingroom, I put all the 'good' stuff in a drawer in my desk and when that drawer gets full, I go through it and sort it into its proper place. This is the box that gets the crap too good to throw out, but useless for much more than collage fodder and not really suitable for it either.

Don't dilly dally once you've put a layer of glue onto your fabric. Start slapping pcs of paper on top to cover the fabric. I don't overlap these papers, just put them down side by side and cover the fabric. It really does not matter the order...just slap them down! Let your hands do the work and put your mind to some other task.

Keep at it till you've covered the fabric with paper bits.

The next two pictures are out of order. When you get this layer of paper on, the edges are gonna be sticking up. When you fill in the gaps with fabric showing, you're going to glue down the edges while adhereing the smaller bits to cover the fabric.

Now we need some smaller bits of paper. I just tear them to fit as I need them. You want to glue everything down as you go along. So put a layer of glue down over your first layer of paper, working in the little bits to cover the fabric showing through.

You can see the gauze sticking out between the pcs of paper. You want to cover all that up with more paper and glue.

We've covered the whole thing with paper. No fabric showing through. Only the edges should have fabric showing, not out in the middle. If you find a hole you missed, glue another piece of paper over it.

another shot.

I was interrupted when I was making this sheet of paper and this is as far as it got with the pictures. After I put that last layer of paper and glue down, I put some gold glitter glue over the whole of it. It turned it a nice yellow color.

Then I walked away from it. It's probably dry by now. That was two and half days ago.

Here are some finished sheets of paper before they were cut down to more managable size.

This one has a layer of gold glitter glue and splotches of paint as it's last layer. If you're going to put paint splotches on your's go easy on the paint. I put it on way too thick.

this one has more magazine pictures, newspaper flyer pictures and the like than any of the other sheets I've made. I put black and blue glitter all over the last layer of glue. This is my least favorite sheet made thus far.

Junk mail, security envelope insides, magazine pages, yellow tissue paper, ect. gold glitter glue, lavendar colored netting and turquoise colored sewing thread snippets make up the last layer. This paper is quite thick. VERY sturdy!

The netting on this could be used as the backing fabric. Use only tissue paper to cover it...many possibilities!

dictionary pages, junk mail, magazine pages, ect. paint splotches as the last layer.

This one could have used another layer of glue before the paint was put on. Not all of the last layer of papers are glued securely. It will work though.

blue security envelope insides, junk mail, the strips are cut from a clip art manual. I put three layers of paper on this one. The last layer is the clip art manual strips that were laid in a loose pattern across the paper. Last layer atop the glue is neon pink glitter, and gold glitter.

I cut the strips from the clip art manual pages on my guillotine cutter some time back to weave into sheets of paper. Weaving paper is very time consuming!

Blue security envelope insides, both layers of paper....then neon orange glitter, blue glitter and gold glitter

I almost cut this one before I took its picture. That's why it has a slice cut into it. I really like how this one turned out.

this paper was made with black security envelope insides and other junk mail. I spray painted it black after I got the fabric all covered, then sprinkled the stars all over it. There aren't quite that many stars on it now. A good many of them didn't stick to the glue under the spray paint.

You can do anything you want to produce your own fabric paper. There are no rules in art.

Just have fun and see what you can come up with.

What can I do with my fabric paper?

Lots of things!

book covers

backgrounds

wrap a gift in it

use it for wallpaper

What will you do with it?

Make some and let me know!

I really haven't decided just what to do with mine....gonna trade some of it in a swap and end up with more that I'm unsure what I will do with!

give it a try and them come back and tell me if it worked or not.

If anyone has any questions, please ask in the comments and I'll try my best to answer correctly. I'm sure my instructions are not the clearest!

Thanks for taking at peek!

Be good to one another! It matters!

Peace

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