Comfort food, freezing temps and metal tape....

It was -14 degrees this morning at 7:00AM but then it warmed up to 7 degrees! BRRRRRRRRRR! Tonight I made creamed chicken and veggies over mashed potatoes.......warm comfort food!

I got to spend a little time in the studio today working with a somewhat new medium for me.....metal tape also known as furnace tape. It comes in a roll that's shiny silver metal on one side and is sticky on the other side when you remove the paper (don't confuse it with silver colored duct tape which is a dull color). I've used it on a project before and then tucked it away in a drawer but was inspired by Jack and Cat Curio's art. They make the most amazing collages!

Here are a few ATCs I made with the metal tape. I cut the bird image, crown and heart out of chipboard and glued it to the base of the card then I covered the whole card with pieces of the metal tape pushing it around the shapes. I then used 3 different colors of Ranger alcohol inks to cover the area around the birds and the crown and heart. I used red alcohol ink on the crown and heart. Pieces of paper were collaged onto card. I used a black Sharpie marker to go around the images.

The skull and crossbones is a foam piece that I covered with dimensional glaze and black glitter.

Next post............ special give away! I'd better get to the studio and finish it!!!!

Altered Valentine Tin

Special Delivery Altered Art Tin

I created this tin for a Valentine Tin Swap I hosted over on Flickr.

This little guy is raised from the background by a tiny wooden block behind him. Little 2 by 2 inch canvas........With the canvas hanging in the tin........

Without the canvas hanging on the button hook......

Top of the lid of the tin.....

Snowshoeing!

We got hammered with about 12-13 inches of snow on Friday night and Saturday morning. Bad for the roads.......good for snowshoeing! I went today to a park near my house and snowshoed for about an hour. Click here to see the kind of snowshoes I have. Now my body feels like.........hmmmm.......how can I describe it? I know.......do you remember those old washing machines with the wringer that squeezed the water out of the clothes? Well, it feels like my whole body was squeezed through one of them! I'm afraid I'm going to be one hurting puppy when I wake up in the morning. But, it was worth it to be out in the fresh air and I snapped a few pictures of the beautiful snow blanketing everything. I hope you enjoy the pics!

Every now and then "look-up", it's amazing what you might be missing!

Looks like the fence posts are wearing little white snow hats!

Just 3 more months until these tiny buds burst forth into leaves. Hope springs eternal. I've walked past these trees many, many times and never noticed the carvings in these trees....
I guess my perception was heightened due to the lack of oxygen going to my brain while snowshoeing because here's another one!
I hope you had a nice, relaxing Sunday! It's going to very cold this week with a high of 11 degrees on Thrusday and 9 degrees on Friday! BRRRRRRRRR! Stay warm wherever you are this week!

Ebay Offerings!

Well, it's official, I've discovered a new obsession.......making art paper dolls! My newest doll is a tall drink of French water named........get ready for this..........."Oooo-la-la" and she has a pet pink pug (say that 3 times) named, what else.....Pierre! She holds Pierre and he's removeable. Oooo-la-la wears a rhinestone choker and Pierre also has 2 rhinestones on his collar. Arms and legs are moveable. She is available on Ebay right now if you'd like to own her for your Valentine collection or your "pink" collection.

The next doll is a tribute to the glittery blue and white season of winter in all of its glory! She is known as "The Snowflake Fairy" and measures 8 inches tall. Created from chipboard, cardstock, decorative papers, glitter, stamps and gems she is one of a kind! You can find her on Ebay!

An Artsy Paper Doll

I'm in an art paper doll swap over at Flickr in the MAD MAMMA group. They are a crazy bunch of fun gals! I was inspired by vintage Pierrot photos and postcards over at Debra's website, Hop Hop Jingle Boo. Her name is Bebe Paisley Pierrot. She is a departure from the classic Pierrot as she doesn't have the big ruffled collar and a more stylish frock and hat!

This is the art tag that goes with the doll.........

To me clowns are creepy but Pierrots are kind of cute. Here is the story of the Pierrot:
Pierrot is a character of mine and Commedia dell'Arte, a French variant of the Italian Pedrolino. His character is that of the sad clown, pining for love of Columbine, who inevitably breaks his heart and leaves him for Harlequin. He is usually depicted wearing a loose, white tunic. The noticeable feature of Pierrot's behaviour is his naïveté, he is seen as a fool, always the butt of pranks, yet nonetheless trusting. Pierrot is also portrayed as moonstruck, distant and oblivious to reality.

She's a tall drink of water, about 14 inches high.........

Blue Skies, Cold Temp and Chocolate Covered Strawberries....

I have but one word for you today.............. "BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"

Today Gary and I took advantage of the bright sunshine and took a ride to Pymatuning Lake. I was a cold (30 degrees) but the sunny made it so much more tolerable. I think there is a simple, desolate beauty to a large body of frozen water. What looks to be a gray trail in the ice is really a pattern in the ice. This where the channel is and it melted and then refroze causing what looks to be like a trail.

The bottom part of this picture is where the ice melted, the wind blew the chunks of it toward the shore then they refroze causing it to be bumpy. In the sunlight it sparkled like a million diamonds but you can't see it in the photo.

Here's my honey in front of a little house by the dam wall. It was built in the 1930s as part of the WPA Project. Maybe that's what we need again. There is a very long stone wall that's amazing. Gary's grandfather worked on it. He said that if you were Italian then they made you cut stone even if you had never cut stone before in your life!

Hmmmm......what could be behind this door?????

This is the "Spillway" at Linesville. In the summertime there are huge carp fish that people feed. There are so many that the ducks walk on the backs of the fish. Today they must have been way under the water trying to stay warm and conserve energy!

I thought this was a cool picture of the frozen froth at the spillway.

Gary looks cold..........

So we came home and I made white chicken chili and chipotle cornbread and chocolate covered frozen strawberries for an afterdinner treat!

I hope you had a good Saturday!

Mini Valentine Journal and WIP.....

Well, in the first and second day of the new year I've been creating and cleaning.....actually I cleaned first because my studio was so cluttered that I couldn't find anything! After I cleaned I made this small Valentine Journal. The inside pages have small stamped Valentine and Paris images. There are 16 pages and 3 mini envelopes. It's in the Very Vintage Valentines Shop right now.

Now on to WIPs (Works in Progress). No this is not a butt! Ha! It's the beginning of a Valentine man sculpture.

This is another Valentine man I'm working on. I still have to do the body but you can see his legs beside him.....he's going to be tall!

Now for the before and after pictures of the studio. Pretty messy, eh?

Ah, much better! How long do you think it will stay clean?

I even got the top of my paper cabinet cleaned! Gary made me it last summer and I love it! This summer he's going to make another smaller bank of cabinets to set on top of it.