Digital Whisper Christmas Celebration

Digital Whisper is having a series of daily Christmas themed challenges.  First was an Angel ATC trade and a Christmas Tag, Round Robin Christmas Scene, Christmas Flowers and more.
Here is my Angel ATC and tag:

12.1.11 A Paper Castle

I've only shown my work on this blog - after all it's supposed to be all about me.  But, this morning I saw a paper castle done by an art student in Tokyo and I'm blown away by this!  It took over four years to make, has lights and a moving train and because that isn't enough, it was exhibited at Umihotaru, which is a service area in the middle of the ocean between Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture.
For whatever reason, I can't get a photo to appear on this blog, but it's definitely worth taking a look at the link below!!

http://tokyobling.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/a-paper-craft-castle-on-the-ocean/

11.28.11 Headaches and Happy Holidays

It's been over a month since I last opted - I don't know where the time is going - it's almost Christmas!
Could explain the next set of ATC's - headache is the theme.  Most use elements from Deviant Scrap with a few papers from Paper Whimsy.

And to not be a total downer, I have a Happy Holidays collage.

10.23.11 More Halloween

Some lovely faces from Paper Whimsy gone bad.  I joined a Halloween Flip Book swap through PaperTraders Yahoo Group - we made three "pages", .three heads, three torsos and three feet. These are each 2" square

10/13/11 Men of Magic

Both of these digital collages are using elements from Deviant Scrap  - Odd Magic, Gothic Fairy Children and Male Persuasion.  I'm still working on shadows and trying to refine these collages.  I'm enrolled in the online Fantasy Style Workshop through Deviant Scrap - it's a really good course, but I'm a little stuck on masking.  A lot stuck actually....

9.24.11 It's feeling like Halloween

The Halloween (and Christmas!) decorations are already in the stores - so I got the inspiration to do some creepy digital work.  Most of the elements are from Deviant Scrap with some vintage photos of mine.

9/10/11 Vintage Circus Mini Book Swap

I'm hosting a swap through the Paper Traders Yahoo Swap group - first time I've ever hosted. I made the five pages , then used an awl to make three holes on the sides and tied them together with string and alphabet beads.
Here are a few samples:

8/26/11 Self Portrait and Vintage School Memories

I'm a member of the Art Journal Caravan through the Scrapbook Graphics site and the challenge this month was to do a self portrait.
And, at the Paper Traders blog, the challenge was called "Vintage School Memories".  I did one, and then another, and may do more!  Both have elements from Deviant Scrap and Paper Whimsy and some scanned vintage ephemera. Yes, it's me in the first one.

8/19/11 Planes and Trains

 

This is the third Steampunk inspired collage for Gingersnap Creations titled Planes and Trains.

The bulk of the elements are from Deviant Scrap, with a vintage ticket that I scanned in and an old photo of my grandfather.

7/28/11 Vintage Swimsuits

PaperTraders -Art blog has started accepting digital art for their Challenges.  I got a little carried away and made three collages with digital elements from Deviant Scrap.

7/24/11 AlphaStamps Halloween Giveaway Challenge

Alphastamps has a really cool challenge starting - check out this page for information and to order your kit.


Win the fabulous Hocus Pocus Halloween Kit  and have your art featured on the Alpha Stamps’ blog! 


Enter up to 3 of your original designs into the Halloween Giveaway Challenge!
 

7/18/11 Crowabout Studios ATC Challenge

I'm a member of Digital Whisper and there is a challenge this month using Crowabout Studios digital kits.  Two members will be featured in the next Deviant Muse magazine.  Here is my ATC-

7/17/11 Gingersnap Creations #2

Here is the second steampunk collage as a visiting artist at Gingersnap Creations using digital kits from Deviant Scrap.

7/12/11 Visiting Artist

I am very happy to say that I am a Visiting Artist this month on the Gingersnap Creations website.

There are four challenges this month - I just finished the last one yesterday.  The theme for the month is Steampunk and here's the first collage.  I used digital elements from Deviant Scrap , which is my new favorite website to visit.

On the Road

6/19/11 Catching Up

I just finished a few digital collages, but am not able to post them until July.  I've been asked to be one of the guest designers for Gingersnap Creations for the month of July, which is awesome, but I have to wait until then to post the collages.
So, in the meantime I finished Lenna Andrew's Little Book Swap - I made three books and forgot to take photos before I mailed them out to her, so mine and all the rest are on her site.
I do a lot of swaps through Swap-Bot and finished the two below.  (yes, I actually have pictures of these)

For this first one -Retro ATC, I used an ad from a vintage magazine.

Vintage Ladies ATC  

5/27/11 A Few More Digital Pieces

I've bought some more digital elements from Paper Whimsy, Deviant Scrap, and Itkupilli's Etsy shop.
So, these collages are combinations of some of the elements.  Next thing I have to do is figure out drop shadows.  I think they're easy, just beyond me right now.

The elements and background are from Deviant Scrap Digital Kits and the figure is from an Itkupilli collage sheet.

Antelopes, butterflies, girl and vine are from Paper Whimsy.  Grunge Brush Kit from Scrap Girls and background is two different patterned papers I scanned in and adjusted opacity on.

Background and elements are from a Deviant Scrap Digital Kit and the figures are from an Itkupilli collage sheet.

Elements and figure are from Paper Whimsy, the background is made of two different patterned papers that I scanned in and adjusted the opacity on, and the green vine is from a Deviant Scrap Digital Kit.

5/5/11 Deviant Scrap Digital

I ordered some digital kits from Deviant Scrap and have been playing around with the elements and some photos of my nieces and nephews.  I'm getting the hang of layers, but there's no subtleties here yet.  I need to figure out shadows, feathered edges, color changes/corrections and a whole lot more.

4/16/11 Digital Collage

I've been struggling for awhile to learn Photoshop Elements and it's been a series of baby steps.  Some forward, some backward.  Anyway, I was reading Somerset's Digital Studio magazine and saw the article by some designers at Deviant Scrap, so I've ordered a couple of their kits and did this collage.  As a bonus if you buy the Spring 2011 Digital Studio magazine you get a coupon for a free download kit, which I think I'm going to use for my next collage. The girl is from Paper Whimsy, another sie with wonderful vintage feeling images, both digital and on paper.  It's still really rough - I know what I'd like to do to finish it, but for now it is what it is.

4/15/11 Little Books

Lenna Andrews has another swap!  Her swaps are always well organized, the other artists are great and she gives tons of ideas, inspiration and instruction.  This one is the Little Book Swap and since I love making books and participating in her swaps it was a no brainer.  The books have to be at least 1" on each side, but not more than 5".
And, it's a perfect excuse to spend some money at Michaels and Archivers - I'm taking my niece there tomorrow.

3/26/11 A Little of This, A Little of That

I've spent the day working on another set of pages in my altered book from Lenna's course  (4 Artists 4 Ways) and once again trying to work with Photoshop Elements.

I also managed to get three collages done in Photoshop Elements using images from Paper Whimsy.

3/19/11 Another Page

I finished another page in my Altered Book from the 4 Artist 4 Ways class with Lenna Andrews.  I haven't had a chance to start on Lisa's lessons yet - maybe tomorrow.

3/13/11 The Weekends are Never Long Enough

I thought I'd get more done this weekend- I'm taking the Artful Pages class and this week was led by Lenna Andrews and focused on altered books.  I cut some pages out, attached pages together to make them  thicker and started painting.  The book was titled Five Days in Paris and I decided to use gold and blue paint which I applied without much thought for the first layer - I just wanted to cover the pages.  I remembered a book of black and white photographs of Paris that I had so I started cutting that up and also went through some images from Artchix Studio that I had.  I took about 50 pages at the end of the book and glued them together at the edges and when that dried I cut a rectangle out of the middle of the page.  I'm still looking for a few charms or metal pieces to put into this niche but right now there's just some images.  Below is a photo of the open book and then a close up of the page with the niche.

This was fun and the directions were great  - Lenna has a way of making everything seem easy.  She gives lots of options and lots of techniques to try.  I'm hoping to work on more pages this week - maybe a little glitter will find it's way into this book..........

3/6/11 Artful Pages - Journals

The second week of the Artful Pages online class was hosted by Hope Wallace Karney and focused on journaling.
The first lesson was about facing a blank page - something familiar to all of us.  She suggested the prompt of One Word that sums up your childhood and then using the letters of that word to add descriptions and help with the journaling.  The second lesson was on Secrets and Wishes and making pockets, tags and inserts.  The final lesson was about Following Your Heart.
She offered lots of images to download, but after I started the One Word from childhood I decided to continue with family images for the rest of the journal.
I haven't added the journaling to these pages yet so I thought it was a good time to post - before I reveal all my secrets.

I still need to finish some of the letters on the second page and fill in some of the empty spaces.

The photo on the right side is actually a pocket that is attached to the edge of the book page so it can flip out - there's a green tag inside.  The rectangular photo on the right page is attached to the inside edge with tape and also flips up in order to journal on the back of it. 

The last page isn't exactly the layout suggested in class - I attached a piece of paper on the left that would flip up and a pocket on the right that is only attached at the spine that also has tags inside for journaling.

Lenna Andrews is the artist hosting next week's lessons and it's about altering books - I can't wait to get started.