Er...Excuse me for a moment

While I switch gears from Frilly and Feminine to...

My Ink Blot Experiments

To Pop and Bold, art that is! As I mentioned before, my artistic tastes are ALL over the place! On my particular journey every medium is fair game. I had been playing with the idea of ink blots for a while and finally made the time to do it. This will most certainly be the easiest technique you will ever learn and definitely the most Freeing and Fun! Check out the latest issue of Somerest Studio for all the details and how to's.




In case you're curious, L*E*D is the name of my husband's funk band! Once you create an ink blot you can conduct further experiments upon it in Photoshop, that's how this lovely orchid color was achieved.
I created" happy hands" for my mischievious little "Brownie" by color copying my own, reducing them to the appropriate size and gluing them directly onto the ink blot.

After you get the hang of it, be more deliberate of ink placement to create fantastic faces and creatures!
It's really irresistable, you can't eat just one!

Heh, heh!

Diamonds on the soles of her Shoes

I HEART Shoes! Old ones, New ones, Tall ones, Flat ones. Baby shoes and tap shoes, ballet shoes, dolls shoes, pumps, sandals, slippers, house shoes, fried shrimp, shrimp kabob, heh, heh. There are even very famous shoes like the Ruby Slippers, Cinderella's glass shoes and the Wicked Witch of the West's shoes all curled up under a house! I read somewhere once that the average American woman owns at least 30 pairs of shoes. That means I'm waayye past my limit! I found this wire shoe at a thrift store and thought it a perfect base to decorate. I've always liked that line from the Paul Simon song, "She has diamonds on the soles of her Shoes" don't really know what it means but it's a Feast for my imagination. So with some old glass lamp parts, millinery feathers and flowers, a torn robins egg blue cocktail dress and a bit of thread and glue, all assembled together to create my version of the magic slipper. I have a very large collection of my embellished shoes and will post them from time to time. Meanwhile you can check out this book which I participated in, A Closet Full of Shoes (see sidebar), it is a very unique kind of craft book, giving many fantastic ideas in which to embellish what else but SHOES!

And the WINNER is!

This has been BIG BUNCHES of much FUN!
Your positive energy and excitement is something so WONDERFUL to be able to share in!
Now as I brush off the DUST BUNNIES! I had to chase that little stinker Juliette, she ran right under the bed with the winning ticket and promptly started to chew it up, I didn't count on that! It was still legible though, and the WINNER is LOLA ENCHANTED!
Stop by and visit her ENCHANTING blog!
Thank you ladies for all your kindness, your thoughtful words have inspired ME in return! I wanted a novel way to announce the winner of my little raffle, something very special for all of you ARTSY SOULS!
So here it is!
Congrats and THANKS AGAIN!

An Egglette's Anniversary!

Ok, here we go! This is my ONE month anniversary! And in pure appreciation of all you wonderful ladies out there, I would like to give you a very personal glimpse into my wacky little world, and raffle away one of my funny little creatures I call Egglettes! I know silly name, a cross between Omlette and Eggo! Any who, I've been fascinated with all things Humpty Dumpty my whole life, and as you now know when I can't find something I want, I just whip up a few of my own! Then one turned into two and 2 into 3, and well, you know how that goes! I now have quite the motley little crew, Suzette, wearing a giant cotton candy pink bow, Coquette, sits in a crackled English saucer with a silver spoon by her side, and then theres Omlette, in his tin measuring cup cap and his pal Rocquette, in his cookie cutter chapeau... I know, sounds nuts, BUT there's more! Baby Babette rides along in a tiny green wicker carriage, while Alouette scoots by on an old iron tricycle. And Hamlette, with his long curly lambs wool locks and blue velvet tricorner, perches atop a burned out wood pipe throne, and last but not least, Bumpy! Again, I KNOW, don't ask?! (now there actually are a couple more, but who can keep track)?!
They are painted wooden eggs with porcelain arms and legs. Some one of a kind (mine) and some one of a few (yours).
And BUMPY, which we will raffle off, has a TALL burlap ice cream cone hat with pink felt dots and sits upon a yellow and black stripped wooden box.
Everyone who leaves a comment will be entered to win, I'll write each name on a bit of paper, fold them up, toss them into the air and the first one my little puppy Juliette picks up and runs off with (and she will) is the WINNER!! Be sure I have contact info for you. We'll pick the winner on Monday. GOOD LUCK to you all, ( I Love this part)! and thanks for stopping by!

I've got a SURPRISE for you!

I just adore all the wonderful, exciting giveaways you girls do! Makes me feel like such a kid! I love the "picking the winner" photos! Thrills me to pieces! So in keeping with that notion, I'd like to join in all the fun! Stay tuned for a little egg shaped character to make an appearance very soon!

An Homage
I cannot accurately express in words the absolute thrill I get when I see the wonderful art you ladies create and I'm especially honored to see all the different interpretations you have come up with incorporating my elements! I am truly living my dream, thanks in large part to you. And so without further adieu, here are a couple of those unique interpretations...from my Aug. 7th post
Journal cover by Mary at Across the Pond

Paper doll by Lilla Le Vine who lives in Hawaii
Thanks so much for sharing these with me!

A Round Peg in a Square Hole

In order to be artistic the oh so precious quality of extreme sensitivity is at once a curse and a blessing. For you cannot possess one without the other. They simply go hand in hand. Therefore at those inevitable times when that mischievous little muse has departed and negative thoughts or depression drift your way, be secure and take solace in the fact that just on the other side of an artistic dry spell awaits a Big Red Flush of Creativity( herein referred to as BRF). Once again, the two go hand in hand! Now, you know it's true! It's happened to me and it's happened to you!
In April 2005 my first book Fanciful Paper Projects had just been released, truly exhausted from the whole process leading up to that event, I fell into a bit of a dry spell. When my BRF came it came big! I filled an entire sketch book in just a few short weeks! This paper dress was one of those ideas. Created for Somerset Wedding Vol. 2, all I can say is "Thank goodness for those little spells"!