Whole Lotta Artin' Goin' On!

Hello Readers!

As the title suggests, there has been a whole lot of artin' goin' on! 

The Valatart over at AFA is in the last stretch as I type. Still another ten hours to go but I've bowed out as the muse  has gone to warmer climes...either that or I'm just too dog-tired! 

There's a surprise at the end of this post. I amaze myself sometimes.

There were little books made and traded.

Kid's Memory Game heavy chipboard tiles serve well as little book covers. 

These are 2x2 inches square. They have 15 lined pages which I acquired from an outdated Day Planner Refill Calendar from 2007. I paid a quarter for it, unopened.  It works well for pages for little books.

I did not draw the pictures on the books.

Out of the three of these, I like the dinosaur best, then the bird...is he a robin or a thrush?

I have two more of these little books ready for sewing. You'll see those another day.

All of them were sewn with white crochet cotton thread.

ATCs played heavily in the muse's endeavors this weekend.

40 Hearts

ATC

markers on cardstock

Blue Damselfly

ATC

markers on cardstock

Green Dragonfly #2

ATC

markers on cardstock

Benny Lapping

ATC

markers on cardstock

Carrying My Heart

ATC

markers and acrylic paint on cardstock

Eddie's Triumph

ATC

markers on cardstock

I got the inspiration from a political cartoon about republicans and Obama's healthcare plan. I am not a republican. I am an independent. I think they majority of politicians are a bad lot of liars and crooks! I just like elephants!  I've no clue why this one's name is Eddie. That was the first name that came to mind upon completing it.

Flaming Heart Tattoo

ATC

markers on cardstock

Heart in a Tree

ATC

acrylics and marker on cardstock

Keith

ATC

markers on cardstock

(I channeled my inner Picasso)

Maynard's Magpie

ATC

markers on cardstock

Mrs. Harris

ATC

markers on cardstock

Mrs. Walb

ATC

markers on cardstock

Orange Ladybug

ATC

oil pastels on black paper adhered to cardstock

I really need to practice with those oil pastels!

Sad Mr. Shug

ATC

markers on cardstock

Zombie In Love

ATC

markers on cardstock

Zombie Love

ATC

markers on cardstock

In the middle of drawing all those ATCs, I took a break to make a printing plate out of a CD.

I don't think the Eagles ever envisioned their Hotel California album to be used in this way.

It worked, kinda. Not the CD, it went through the house fire six years ago....nope it was beyond dead! The technique worked! It needs some tweaking on my part. 

To make a CD printing plate you take a sharp tool, I used a wood working gouge.... a darning needle, a craft knife, anything sharp will work. You draw your design on the printed side of the CD and scratch out the design with your tool of choice. I tried a darning needle. My needle may have been too small....it didn't work as fast as I thought it should.

I tried two different colorants for the print.

The brown is craft acrylic paint, thinned somewhat. It worked a lot better than the printers ink I used on the other one. The green ink was just TOO thin....my paper, orchard paper, may have been too absorbent for the ink as well. The great thing about this is that you can use the CD you've carved into over and over again. My prints aren't quite clear because I didn't scrape enough. You have to get grooves in that CD so it acts like a printing plate! My grooves weren't quite deep enough in some spots. 

I'm going to play around with my leaf CD and see what other papers and colorants will do.

A CD is, I think, 5 inches across, so these would make great backgrounds for chunky pages. They'd be even better if one could get a good print! That's my goal.....a good print! 

To clean my CD I just washed it with dish washing detergent in hot water.

All those little hearts I sewed for the Valentine Project were not used for the finished Valentine Gifts. Not sure what I will do the 22 I have left.

These ended up being magnets. That's a red glass flat marble with the red ribbon glued to the backside of the marble and magnet attached. They aren't my favorite project of the year so far!

And FINALLY, we have arrived at the surprise!

What? Mr. Kitty still looks just like he did the last time you saw him......

I was preparing for his final painting when that fool Billy cat decided he needed to sample the paint water. That cat ALWAYS samples the paint water! Doesn't matter if it's clean or dirty, Billy has to taste it. Just to be sure, you know....Sure of what, I'm uncertain!

I shooed the cat away and finished gathering supplies. Then that fool Lola cat came along and tried to steal my painting rag. She sat on the seat of the chair at the end of the table and reached between the table and the back of the chair to snap the rag that was hanging over the back of the chair. I fought with that cat numerous times to keep her from running off with my rag! It would start sliding ever so slowly down the back of the chair and I would grab ahold of it and play tug of war with Lola! Made the painting go slow at times.

Mr. Kitty has gotten a bit of a makeover though, don't you think?

He's not done though....

AHH, now he looks a tad better!

Overall, I'm quite pleased with him!

He still needs whiskers.

Viola! 

His whiskers are glued in with Elmer's School Glue. I gave them all a hard tug after the glue had dried for a couple of hours and it would take a really hard tug to pull one out of his face! 

I took my needle tool and poked holes in his cheeks to stick the fishing line in. 

I still need to give him one last coat of spar varnish and he is ready to go.

I probably ought to put my signature on him as well.

Thanks for hanging in there with these picture filled posts. Some folks would rather have words than pictures...but I'm a picture kinda girl  and this is my blog so we get pictures! 

Someday I may learn to take excellent pictures.

Till then they aren't going to be excellent pictures.

I'm rambling.

I need some sleep.

You all be good to one another!!!

You know it matters that you be good to everyone you meet!

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human spirit.

Peace, my friends!

Happy Valentine's Day!

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