Last Minute ATC

I decided to do one more ATC for the batch to send. This one had the pink/purple colors I like and that remind me of fairies and all things mystical. Now I have to rush off to the post office and send these things off.

We had a small earthquake here this morning at about 5:30 a.m. My husband and I weren't quite sure what had happened. It sounded like something rolling down the roof, and then it sounded like thunder far off. The bed made a shuffling sound; it's hard to describe. I thought my cat had gotten up inside the box spring again and was trying to get out. That's what it felt like; like something running loose under the bed.

Then, awhile ago, at about 11:30 a.m. I was up here on the computer and the desk started swaying left to right. My monitor was tipping toward me a little. The house literally shook. The windows rattled. I headed downstairs and then it stopped.

I saw on the news that a 5.2 earthquake hit Illinois this morning. No word yet on this most recent tremblor. It was stronger than the one this morning. We don't usually have earthquakes here. I hope this isn't going to continue.

My ATCs are Finished

Here is the first card I did. I liked it so much that I'm sending out two of them! I used various digital scrapbooking kits and other elements from my collections. I liked the way it turned out and the colors are some of my favorites.

The theme of the ATC (artist trading card) swap was There is Magic in the Air and I naturally thought of fairies, since that is where my mind is artistically at the moment. Here is the second card. It's very similar to the first, but the background is different. I'm also sending two of these.


Here is the third card. This is something totally different from the first two in colors and it's more of a three dimensional card. I liked the graphics and the purple (my favorite color) really stands out in it.

Here is what the back of the cards look like. Under the words created by I stamped my name in a fancy alphabet stamp set I haven't used for awhile. I forgot about it, and now will have to start using it again.

Well, now I just have to get these things in the mail. I will get 4 in return and will post them here when I receive them. I'm trying to stick to all of these deadlines. I have also started on my next digital altered book. The book I have to work with is called Romantic Castles and Palaces. I'll play with the title and as I progress will post my work here.

More to come later...

View at Castle Ruins

My next digital altered book will be about castles and this little lady will be in it. I loved the photo of the castle ruins and decided to embellish it a little. I'm still working on the night forest picture. That one is a challenge. I'm not as adept in Photoshop as I'd like to be, but I'm learning and these little exercises are good practice. If you click on the picture you can see the larger view.

I think I will incorporate some of my little fairies into my ATC cards which I have to get completed this week. Procrastination is my middle name! The theme is Magic in the Air, so I'll have plenty to work with. I have to mail these off, though, so I need to get on them and leave my little fairies for a few days...

Just thought I'd check in with my latest little lady. More to come...

Forest Fairies

Here is my latest addition to my fairy series. I found the paper and the bling all from Madame Mim and Milla Designs. I have amassed quite a gallery of ball-joint dolls' heads, bodies, hair, etc. and am able to mix and match them to create my own dolls! I just loved the face on this one and found a body that seemed to suit her fine.

My problem was what to clothe my dolls in once I had them created. I found a website that sells designer gowns and this one looks like it suits my lady nicely. I was able to size it down for her after a bit of manipulation. Seems to fit her fine now.

I'm having a good time with this series. I'm still working on the night forest one I mentioned in my last post. I can't quite get the right body for my doll head. Still looking. More to come...

New Projects

This is what I've been working on the last couple of days. I am still playing in Photoshop and now I've tried to bring a little magic into it. I just love fairies and mystical creatures! This is my attempt at merging real photos with magical elements and still have them look realistic. I'm not quite there yet, so this is my experimenting ground.

I am going to do another digital altered book, and yes, the next one will be about fairies and other mystical beings. There will be plenty more where these came from. I've been reading about the techniques that are used in trying to achieve this kind of artwork. I have alot to learn, but I'm coming along.

I also want to make a traditional altered book along the same lines. Wait until you see the next installment. You are not going to believe this next page. I still have to get a few more elements, but I have a good idea of what it will look like. Think about a magical forest at night and the creatures that inhabit it! That's where it's going.

More to come shortly.

Butterfly Fantasy

Update: My digital altered book has been added to this website! Click on the link at the sidebar to the right in the blue box under My Digital Altered Books and check it out! You'll notice I changed the front cover just a little. I wanted a little more color to pop out. I think it was an improvement. And yes, there will be more books to come!

Today I was playing with my favorite image of the little fairy girl. You will see her in my digital altered book in a few places. This beautiful background watercolor was a freebie given by Ratmomma, a member of the Artella website. She had a bunch of freebies on her website which can be found at http://infinitevisons.blogspot.com/ . Check them out!

I am in a springy, playful mood today; probably still giddy from finally finishing that book! Now I move on to my ATC swap and must find some backgrounds for those cards. This project is not digital. It will be done the old-fashioned way: real paper, matte gel, cutting, etc. But I really enjoy that, too, so I'm looking forward to going through my stash of papers and other objects. The theme for this swap is magic. That should be pretty inspiring and I've already got a few ideas in mind.

I want to get outside today, so I'll keep this short. It is a gorgeous day; a continuation of the warmest weekend we've had so far! I want to get out there and enjoy the sunshine and maybe take a few pictures.

More Pages of my Digital Altered Book

I wanted to include a couple more pages of my digital altered book before I move on to my next challenge. The page shown above is from the inside cover of the original book. I wasn't too thrilled with it, so I used one of my own digital papers to cover it up. I did like the shading of the blush color at the bottom of the page, so I kept that in. The paper I used blended perfectly with this color. Here is my altered view of the above page. This is the inside page when you open the cover:

I think this is one of my favorite pages! I got the zig-zag stitches (which happened to be the exact color of my paper) and the same cherish words I used on the front cover in a digital ephemera pack from http://www.cottagearts.net/. I scanned the definition of cherish from my dictionary and enlarged it and pasted that in. The back cover of the original book was just the bare blue-green color. I added these digital enhancements:

I really like the finished look of each page. I should be receiving the URL for my completed book sometime in the next couple of days. When you click on that link you will be able to turn each page with your mouse. The pages actually flip back and forth like a real book. It comes complete with the sound of a turning page.

I am already looking for another one to do. All of this information can be found at the Artella website (see the link in my sidebar) in their Artella Shops. Just click on the icon for their shops at their main page and you should be able to find the link for their digital altered books there. The deadline for the digital altered book contest at Artella is tomorrow at 6 pm Eastern. Soon after that all of the entrants' URLs for their books will be posted at the Contest forum in Artella. I can't wait to page through everybody's entries. Now I have to get serious about my ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap. I have to create 5 of these and send them off. I will get 5 different ones from other artists in return. Artella has a forum for swaps. Check it out for details.

Nothing else new to report today. I see that my lilac bush is sprouting little buds. Hopefully it will bloom this year. Last Spring we had a late frost and it didn't get the blooms it usually does. I can't wait to take photos when it decides to bloom. I see the daffodils are finally starting to come up. We have beautiful blooming trees in the Spring here. As soon as they start to flower I will post the pictures. Sorry for the spacing in this blog post today. For some reason the formatting is not working.

My Digital Altered Book Cover

I am almost finished with my digital altered book! I just have one more internal page and the back cover to finish and then I can submit it to Artella for their book conversion software.

OK, here's how it works. The image you see above is what you get to start with. I happened to pick this book because I liked the title. There are about 30 titles to choose from, so you can usually find something you would like to work with.

When you get the digital kit, you get a front cover (like the one shown above), a back cover to match, and eight pages from inside the book. These are all taken from actual books that the copyright has expired on. All of the images are in jpeg format and you can alter them however you want. All you need is an image editing software package like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

You can find tons of digital ephemera kits online at scrapbook sites. They are very cheap (about $2). You can also create your own ephemera by scanning objects like ribbons, frames, whatever you can imagine as a decoration, on your scanner. Then, save the images in a png format to make them transparent so you can place them into your pages. Any ephemera kits that you buy will usually be in png format for this reason. You can change the color of your ephemera using your Hue/Saturation setting in Photoshop. You can also alter the size of any frames, ribbons, etc. so they will fit your images perfectly.

Here is my "altered" front cover:



I liked the title of the book because of the dolls reference. My idea was to translate this into our kids, a.k.a. our "living" dolls. The pages on the inside of the book are all altered with my own digital papers and all of my own family heirloom photos. The ephemera on the cover was all purchased from http://www.cottagearts.net/, except the little heart at the bottom. That came from Artella shops.

The photo above shows my mother's little brother, David, as a baby. He died shortly after this photo was taken, I believe. She named my brother David after him. As for the photo on the right, I'm not sure if that's him. Maybe my sister can comment on this one.

As you can tell, I'm really excited about this little project. When I get the completed book converted into a digital book I will leave the link posted here on my blog so you can "turn the pages" and read my book! Artella has the rights to these creations, but I can post my link here and you can still view it. I'm under the gun to get this finished, though. I am entering the contest on the Artella website. Hopefully there will be alot of entries and books to thumb through when these are finished. The deadline is Sunday at noon.

If you would like more information about this project, just click on the Artella link on my sidebar. It is explained in much more detail there. I just wanted to post my progress on this. I will let you know when it is finished.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

This is my favorite picture of my mom. She would have turned 68 today. I miss her so much! She died four years ago April 4. It's hard to believe it's been four years; they have gone by so fast. She loved to go to Florida every winter. In this picture she is tanned and just looks really happy. I love looking at this photo.

I have tried to keep busy today, working on different projects. I'm making some progress on my digital altered book, but have a lot more to do before the deadline of April 6. I will check in on my dad later tonight and see how he's doing. We all just cope the best way we know how.

I just wanted to honor her birthday today and tell her I love her. So, Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Hear Me Roar!

Well, this is my theme for these past couple of weeks: frustration! Actually, this is a photo of my cat, Beanie, yawning, but it looks like she could be roaring. I'm in a cycle of frustrating ups and downs and I figure it has to break sometime soon. Maybe the fact that it's April Fool's Day will break the spell. Who knows.

All I can do is keep on plugging along and hopefully all of these disappointments and obstacles will go away. I am making progress on some fronts, though, and it's always good to keep your positive energy out there in front of you.

I am almost finished with my first mini-art quilt. I am still making some adjustments using Photoshop. But you have to know when to let go and move on to the next project. I like to keep tinkering with photos and backgrounds and colors, etc. but that usually keeps me from finishing something. I have learned a few new techniques and can't resist applying them to my photos. However, I must focus on finishing this piece!

Also making headway on my digital altered book. That is turning into a more complex project than I thought it would be when I signed up for it. When it's complete, I will post its link here.

So, I have allowed myself this brief intermission to ROAR out loud all of the frustrations of the past couple of weeks and now can get back to work.