It's in it's in!

Recieved word just a few days ago that my mini book DID make the cut, and is one that will be featured in the Jan/Feb issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine! Can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

I'm a finalist!

I got a notification the other day, that I am a finalist in the Cloth, Paper, Scissors Mini Book Challenge. It's the first time I ever submitted anything to that particular magazine, so I am pretty excited! It's less than 4" wide x 5" tall, and all the pages were illustrated by me. I had so much fun developing my own fonts for this project.

You can check out the Cloth Paper Scissors editors blog here:

Here is just a peek at the book I sent... Hopefully more later, they asked I send it in to them for publication consideration.

Moon Pies, Friends, Barbeque, and Art!

A Man and A Moon Pie... It all started with a 9 hour drive south to see Anne Bagby demo at The River Gallery in Chatanooga. (If you are in the area- I can't encourage you strongly enough to go see this wonderful gallery and Anne's unique work! The texture and depth of the pieces will blow you away!)

Knowing we were heading south, we called up our friend Kathy, (another awesome artist) to see if she could meet us for the day to see Anne's show. She and her hubby hopped in the car and we were thrilled to spend a fun afternoon with them exploring the Bluff View Arts district of Chatanooga with them. It was absolutely STUPID HOT! Our car read 103° and I believed every degree of it.

Our 1st stop was The Original Moon Pie Store. They used to give tours at the factory, but because of some silly laws somewhere they can't anymore, so they did have an interesting video about how the pies are made.

I never DREAMED there were so many varietys of Moon Pies! I knew about the chocolate originals and Doubles, and I had even seen the banana flavor, but peanut butter, and mint, and organge, OH MY! Minis and Doubles and singles and cartons!

Kathy couldn't resist the sweet siren song of the Moon Pie Originals.... Here she is buying dessert before we go to lunch!

We walked across the street to a yummy smelling barbecue place, and were not disappointed in where our noses had led us! Sticky Fingers Smokehouse had several interesting things on the menu that had us curious. Kathy's hubby tried the deep fried corn on the cob for us. He gave it thumbs up! I wondered how it didn't come out popped like pop-corn! All of us enjoyed our meal, the portion sizes were huge! I felt guilty about leaving alot on my plate, but in 100° + weather, it just wouldn't keep!

We walked outside and wilted, but bravely decided to walk to the gallery. (Because a kind local told us it was only a couple blocks away.) He failed to mention it was STRAIGHT UP HILL! He did mention an elevator, but the only one we found was a sealed little plexiglass booth with no air or electric and it looked like we would bake to death before reaching the top! It was an interesting walk among the impressive old homes, and we saw alot of wonderful architecture.

We began seeing wonderful sculpture, and knew we were closing in on our destination.

As we entered the cool air of the wonderful River Gallery, all of our senses were delighted! There was sparkling water and lemon, delicious smelling pumpkin appetizers, wondourous art for the eyes to behold and sculpture that begged to be touched! Hand created windchimes and drums were enchanting to listen to their different tones. All this, and we hadn't even gotten past the front room!

Through the doorway they had a wonderful space set up for Anne to demo in, and she was mezmerizing the crowd as she worked. She explained her methods and had her hand carved stamps on hand to see and feel.

After chatting with Anne a bit, and viewing the entire gallery twice, and making a purchase, we took our leave back out into the heat, and walked along the river. Beautiful breezes made it feel like it was only 100 instead of 103!

As we walked back to the car, we made one last stop for a mega box of Moon Pies! All in all, I think it was truly one of the most perfect days enjoying life and alot of the wonderful things it has to offer!

By the way- did you know you can microwave a Moon Pie? Says so right on the wrapper. We did. Now we are sorry we didn't buy 2 mega boxes of them!

Sale on Goodies for my friends!

Many of you who have taken my classes know how much I am IN LOVE with my friend Aileens Color Mist sprays, and in how many ways I use them. I just thought I'd let yall know that she is having a SUPER sale right now! She's got tons of other cool cool stuff too- browse around- she's got so many cool ideas and how-to videos you'll find yourself bookmarking the page!

***15% Off your order at http://www.outsidethemargins.com/ use coupon code "summer" at the time of check out.***

C'mon...the kids got new school supplies...don't you deserve a few new art supplies?

Art And Soul, here I come!

I am so excited, I'm about to burst with happiness! I'm so pleased to tell you that I will be teaching at the 2011 Art and Soul in Hampton, VA! Registration begins August 15, 2010.

I've made so many nice friendships at Art events like these, so if you are planning on being there, please stop by and say HI!

Thursday April 28, 2011 you can find me enjoying...
A Fluid Romance

Fall in love with Fluid Acrylics! As we explore the allure of layers using both physical and optical color blends, you’ll discover the subtle differences between transparent, translucent, and opaque paints. While building your paint and collage story on canvas, you’ll learn sexy tricks to easily put your own marks, sketches and artwork into the painting. I’ll share how to see if something will work out before risking what you have already done. We will delight in bas-relief and appealing textures. We will explore the attraction of using wax oil crayons, oil based markers & stabilo pencils with Acrylic mediums. You’ll learn veiling techniques to help give your paintings a deeper charm and an aura of mystery. We’ll play with stencils, stamps, rub-ons and hot foils. We will focus on freeing our inner artists, and learn skills to rebuff the dreaded Artist Block. Secrets to successful compositions will be revealed. Our finished charismatic canvases will be rich with juicy colors, individual dreams and glamorous mysteries. We will adorn our art with final kisses of 3-D ephemera that will pull the viewer into our artful embrace.

On Friday April 29, 2011, we'll dive whole-heartedly into... Event Journals Extraordinaire!

Ever been so thrilled about an event that you want to create a spectacular journal to commemorate it in a special way? Excitedly gather your supplies and sit down to begin only to find your muse missing? Want to journal on the road, but the thought of packing supplies daunting? Stuck as to where to begin? THIS is the journal class for you! Plenty of tips, tricks and visual aids, before and after, sample pages, and ideas for journal prompts will be given. We will work on background techniques, and as you paint, Kari will discuss all things journal! Beyond just composition and color, she will show you her actual working travel journal kit, give you lists of what sorts of things to collect and include in your journal, as well as how to attach, insert and incorporate them! You will learn creative places to find images, quotes, ephemera and background materials. Your inspiration well will overflow with cool techniques that can be made with simple household materials, and multi-tasking mediums! During the day we will also discuss studio storage methods for our journaling treasures, with actual photo examples.

Oh HAPPY DAY!

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY Day here! Two brand new puppies! Mini Cavalier King Charles Spaniels. The little girl is the ruby and white one, and the little boy is the tri-color one. The are always on top of each other, touching somehow. Even with a huge yard, they run side by side. They sleep on each other, and if you are petting one, the other must get in on the action too.

Just a few pictures of the days adventures. Can you see the enormous smile on Mike's face???

New Classes, New projects

The Happy Bird Sings Journals

I've been sort of quiet here lately, as I'm still limited on computer time. However, I've been putting finishing touches on some of the new classes I will be offering! Since a picture speaks a thousand words, I'll let you see a sneak peek!

Event Journals Extraordinaire!

That's all for today, my computer time is up and my arm is throbbing, so I'll post more in a day or so! I'll also post the locations of where I will be teaching these classes as more information becomes available.

Garden Fairies Abound...

I' ve had so much fun with this new class I'm developing! Hard to believe these little creatures started life as a clothes pins, tin foil & floor wax... These are my most recent class samples. They gave me so much joy creating them. I was particularly fond of the new process for the wings I've come up with. I'm in the midst of writing the class instruction booklet, but as I am limited to 10 minutes a day on the computer, it is taking me awhile. Luckily, I have a good hubby who's helping!

The Eroded Diva

As many of you know, I've been participating in the Erosion Bundle Project. (More detailed post on that to come.) A very dear group of online friends -The Altered Art Divas- are doing a special round robin. The Fabulous Kris Henderson organized not only The Erosion Bundle Project, but also, this Eroded Diva adventure. She created the most awesome box structure to set us off on our journey. Yesterday brought my turn to add to the deliciousness.

I love repetition and hidden meaning in art, so I added some antique music snips from my bundle to several different locations throughout the piece. (I think art should sing to your soul!) I added music snips to the brass butterfly, with an eroded red gemstone on top. More music snips, an old watch part and an antique rhinestone went to the top left hand corner, with red raffia- all from my bundle. I believe it was Di Gilligan who first added the red paper flower to the piece as the accent punch color, and I loved it, so I repeated it throughout the piece as well.

I added some more music snips, red raffia and watch sprockets, with antique millinery flowers to the puzzle pieces.
I carefully removed the center insert to work down below the little peek hole in the top right hand corner. More music, and since currently I am FEELING like the ultimate Eroded Diva, I placed a small mirror to look back at you. Another watch sprocket on top, and then I put the insert back in. The SUPER talented Kathy McElroy had it just prior to me, if you would like to see before and afters...

Studio organization

I'm out on the injured list, with the back thing being messed up discs now. I'm resting, and still having to deal with my collarbone/arm issue so my computer time is still limited to less than 10 minutes a day. I feel very cut off from the world without my daily computer contact among friends.Anyway, I can't lift anything, can't drive, can't sit or stand for any length of time. So I'm trying to find things I can do to feel "useful" and "productive." Our friend Nate gave me this cool antique cubby thing last Christmas, and I've been wanting to use it in the studio. It's spaces are long and narrow, and required some thinking as to what I could store in there. I spent a little time sitting on pillows and wrapping my longer ribbon snippets onto foamcore pieces that fit in the spaces perfectly. I couldn't be more pleased with the way it turned out. Now I can look at the color family without having to root thru a whole big drawer of jumbled pieces. Some time ago, I had begun wrapping my little short snips around wooden clothes pins and storing them by color family in clear "paint" cans.

I am always in search of the best way to store my treasures....anyone have any unique ideas to share?