My 15 Minutes of Fame & Happy Columbus Day!

When I lived in New England, this weekend was always a crazy caravan of cars (usually bumper to bumper) heading up the highways to view Leaf-Peeping vistas that would take your breath away--provided the Weather Gods had been kind and timely. There are actually up-to-the-minute Leaf Reports to guide folks to the places with the most colorful Kodak moments for their forays. To me, one of the great joys and inspirations wherever I might live is to go and experience autumn scenes with leaves changing color, Halloween displays, cider mills, farm stands, the smell of burning leaves, or walks in the woods or by a body of water. Makes for good fodder when sitting down to create with a cup of mulled cider or hot chocolate by my side.

Winning Sugar Skull News!  

 

The winning entry from the Alpha Stamps Sugar Skull Swap has been posted in their blog! This is Lorelei, Queen Mother Mermaid Crone. Her story can be found in my first blog post, and in this link to the Alpha Stamps blog, where there is also a link called Gallery where you can find all the Sugar Skull Swap entries: http://www.alphastamps.com/blog/?p=13929
 

 

 

 

 

Now, on to my other two Skulls from the Swap. Enter Harlequin:

Harlequin and Columbine...Yes, he was a rascal in always trying to spirit her away from Pierrot, but who wouldn’t for a chance to be with such a creature as she? She lit up his life and he would always employ his trickery to win her love. To see how much Columbine lights up Harlequin’s life, put him under a light source for at least 5 minutes and view in a dark place. A surprise awaits!

 

  The Cameo of "Columbine" glows in the dark after painting it with glow in the dark paint. Note: the "lace" collar isn't really lace--it's a Fence wrought iron Cupcake Holder sold by Alpha stamps! The Rhinestone-looking trim on the Fleur de Lis emblem on his hat is faux rhinestone trim. It's pretty realistic looking without the $ ouch of the real thing.

The next skull is made with a stamp designed by Michael deMeng, who I think is a genius.

Wings of Desire: (this is also the name of the stamp)

 

He saw her everywhere, and nowhere. Her scent tantalized him. He was reduced to skeletal remains. His heart felt like the only organ in his body, pounding with blood and needing to beat with hers again. It flapped against his ribcage in agony trying to escape and fly to her. He did not know how much longer he could endure this exquisite torture, but if it was his destiny he could not escape it. Karma can be a cruel teacher.

 

I enlarged the stamp image to fit the skull size. I used Caran d' Ache Neocolor II art crayons for most of the base colors. They go on like a crayon, yet are smudge-able to a degree, and when you wet them and use a brush or paper towel to blend, you can achieve some neat effects. You can either wet the crayon itself or the color on paper. They may be similar to Gelatos, but I'm not sure because I don't own any of those. I also accented with Lumiere colors from the Exciter Pack. The crown is purple wire with tiny red rose buds accented with Stickles. The second set of fluttering wings is a steel gray metallic type paper. The image that our poor tortured man is obsessed with is from some free images from the very special and talented Laura Carson over at Artfully Musing. If you have not heard of Laura or seen her artwork, do yourself a very pleasant favor and pay her site a visit. Her imagination knows no bounds and her work is phenomenal. She has been a muse and inspiration for me for a long time, and my Mermaid Skull was based on her beautiful collage images. Thank you Laura for all the art you do and share with the creative community!

 

I also want to give a shout-out to the Glitter Tart Caroline Outzs Hay, who is another Alpha Stamps Design Team Artist who dreams up fabulous art, and who helped me with a lot of questions in setting up this blog. She has the generosity of Mother Teresa and the patience of the Dalai Lama. Thanks Caroline, you're the best.

 

Have a wonderful day everyone, and Be Blessed! 

Hello, World!

Welcome!

For those of you who are not computer geeks like my husband, Hello World is a phrase known by computer programmers when they are inventing basic applications in software. This may sound easy but the steps required are mind-stretching and require a learning curve, the growing of dendrites in one's brain and practice and correction of mistakes just like any other skill one has not learned before. When the programmer has successfully achieved his goal, the computer screen will pop up those deceptively simple few words declaring, "Hello World." Well, that has been somewhat like my journey creating this blog. I visit blogs, read them, hop them, admire them, and subscribe to them, but until now, they have just been a mysterious part of the 21st century I have not personally delved into. Kinda like the Denny Crane character on Boston Legal who said, "Oh, a blob...let's write one of those blobs..." So bear with me folks. It may take a while for the magic to come about effortlessly, and for now it might be a bit of a potholey road...but hopefully charming and worth traveling down a while.

The real reason I decided to do this NOW will be revealed in a moment or two. I am an artist. I have imagined and created things and stories since I was little. I didn't start seriously thinking about "Art" until I was in my 30's. Mostly I have done painting; oil painting with forays into acrylic and watercolor, and loving to experiment with zillions of other mediums, materials and techniques that catch my fancy. Of course, this does nothing for focus or deciding which field or medium to apply one's energy to--once you get started on one thing--KABAMM--another siren catches your eye and you're off to that other thing!!

I have always loved Halloween, and celebrated, decorated and dressed up. I had been watching some Halloween swaps come and go for a few years. This year I said, Enough watching already. Time to DO! I have been addicted to Alpha Stamps and their designers, projects, and goodies they sell for years now and they were hosting a Sugar Skull Swap. The challenge was to decorate the skulls in any way and they wanted to see "how we used all those wonderful things they sell." Alpha Stamps was also offering a generous prize and the winning art would be featured in one of their future bi-weekly online newsletters. What fun! I let my imagination run free with my three skulls. I had such a blast making them!

And then I got the news that my Lorelei, Queen Mother Mermaid Crone had been selected as the winner!! Holy cow, I was (and still am) over the moon! In thinking about things, I realized how much I like to read about the artist and their process with their art piece, and started to consider putting together a blog, to be followed by an Etsy site when I get up to speed. So here I am, although it may be the longest blog post you've ever read....I felt it was necessary to introduce myself. And now to introduce Lorelei. Her story was enclosed in an envelope on the back of her head:

Lorelei Queen Mother Mermaid Crone
Lorelei lives beneath the waves with all the mermaids and mermen that live and have come before. She is the oldest in their underwater community and all revere her wisdom and wonder at her mysterious ways.

Here is the list of supplies used to make Lorelei. Don't faint! The list is not too long but have a brandy if you need to fortify yourself during this long long post!! ;0

Alpha Stamps:
-Chipboard Skull

-Artfully Musing Collage Sheets: Mermaid Garden #1 and #3

-Eyeball Cab in Setting-blue

-Tiny Real Seashells in Tin, or Seashells in Plastic Tins for different shape/color

-Large Shell (eye patch, my stash) but there are those kinds of shells on Laura’s Mermaid Garden #3

-Acrylic Bead Spray (my stash-Alpha Stamps carries the Clear ones)

-Glitter/Doodads/Starter bits sent with swap (rose, beads, confetti, etc.)

-On Skull: Acrylic Paint Base (marbled blues) and Lindy’s Starburst Spray Tibetan Poppy Teal, mixed

-On Shell Eye Patch: Lumiere from Exciter Pack: Pearl Magenta and Sunset Gold

-Accents on Fish, Seahorse, Crown: Lumiere colors(Exciter Pack: Halo Blue Gold, Halo Violet Gold, Halo Pink Gold, PearlTurquoise)

-Other Accents: Stickles: Waterfall, Starry Night, Patina, and a few that don’t have names on the bottles

-Raffia Hair: Tan which I painted with green and brown acrylic paint, then accented with spots of Lumiere
-Beaded Trim: Coral-like and iridescent, to add to hair.

Thank you for visiting! I will post the other two skulls soon. Have a wonderful day!
Happy Creating and Be Blessed, sheila