Creative Every Day 2009

This has been one heckuva year. We moved across country, bought a house, watched the economy go bust, watched friends lose jobs, homes & family members. In my own home we have dealt with drug addiction (son's), rehab (son's), a new dog (life savior), a new job...and the list goes on and on.

On the upside, we voted in a new, and dare I say, biracial president who is MY AGE!!!!!! He's not perfect (smokes cigarettes), has kids with allergies (they're not perfect either) and has a wife with big hips! You just gotta love that family.

As for art...I felt like I was losing my Muse. She was getting darn sick and tired of doing art for everyone else, so she has taken many a holiday. It has caused me days in my studio feeling frustrated and depressed. When I needed her most, she bailed!

Many of my Round Robins and Tip-Ins are coming to an end in the next month. So I decided to make a New Year's resolution that I can live with. I'm going to take on the Creative Every Day 2009 Challenge (see link at right). I'm going to do it for ME. I'm going to do it to get emotionally, mentally and physically healthy. I think about all that I have given up and done for others this year while I have gone to hell in a hand basket (figuratively, that is).

Click on the link if you feel you want to do something for yourself this year. It doesn't need to be art; it can be photos, poetry, a list...anything. But it should all be based around a WORD that will be your guide for the year. My word is

RELEASE

I need to release my anger at my son. I need to release my resentment from my early "retirement" from a job I loved. I need to release my sadness from moving away from close friends. I also need to release my creative soul; I NEED to be free of the things that upset me the most...RELEASE them and let them go somewhere far, far away.

I'm typically a very upbeat person, so I can release positive energy when I want and release that negative energy when the poop hits the fan. But I just love this word...RELEASE...rolls off the tongue like a wave in the ocean...

So join me, won't you? Let me know if you decide to do this. I think it will be a positive trip for all of us. Pick that word or theme. Do something positive for yourself. Be Creative Every Day!!!

Have a happy, healthy and creative 2009!

Love,
sandee

Happy New Year!!!

May all your dreams come true!!!

W and X Pages

We're coming to the end of our ALPHABETICA Tip-in Swap. This month I had to make Mimi's W and X pages; her theme is Vintage Birds. Do you know that there are hardly ANY birds whose names, English or otherwise, start with the letter X!?! It took me an incredibly long time to find something. I sure hope she likes these pages. They were a lot of fun to do; birds are one of my favorite subjects to work with.

Genesis for Gina

I have a tremendously hard time with anything religious. I have not a clue why. Maybe because religion is such a personal thing, or maybe because it is difficult for me to translate what has actually been written in the bible. I don't really know.

Gina in my Altered Art Swap Yahoo Group has a Bible Stories themed journal. She is a fairly religious person and I really wanted to make her something that she would love. I chose Genesis because it really is the beginning of everything. I just hope I did it justice, and I sure hope that Gina likes what I made for her.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

I hope you spend it with the one's you love most!

Blog Giveaway at Cart Before the Horse!

Jo James at Cart Before the Horse is having a blogaversary giveaway:

http://thecartbeforethehorse.blogspot.com/2008/12/100th-post-and-giveaway.html

Her work is absolutely amazing; you may want to go over and check it out!!!!!

Paul McCartney and Wings

It is absolutely FrEeZiNg outside. We had 15 inches of snow since Friday and it is absolutely gorgeous. But today, the wind was blowing and the temps were real low. I decided to stay inside and get some art done!

I've been humming Beatles songs all damn day! These pages are for Judy in my Alphabetica group. Her theme is "Beatles Songs"; problem is, there are no Beatles songs that start with U or V! I used 2 songs from Paul McCartney and Wings. I chose Uncle Albert and Venus and Mars. with the owners approval, of course!!!

Card for a Friend

There is a friend in one of my Yahoo groups who just had surgery. This is the card I made for her. I hope she's getting bombarded with goodies from her art friends. I'm sure it'll make her healing time go a lot faster!!!

I'm ready for 8 Crazy Nights!!!

For those of you who celebrate, have a great holiday. For those of you who don't, find a friend who does. The food is ALWAYS great!!!

Thank you Marva!!!

Marva at Purplepaint's Muse just bestowed upon me this loverly honor!

..."This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY -nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers, who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

Wowsa!!! This is quite something. Now I have to pick 8 people...this is going to be a challenge and I need a little time to think of this list! I want to reach out and give it to people who are not just "my friends" but to others who really fit the bill and may be unknowns.

Thanks so much Marva for thinking of me!!!

Been Making Gifts Like a Wild Woman!

The only good thing about this economy is that it's forcing me to make holiday gifts! Due to the lack of TIME I usually buy gifts for Hanukkah and Christmas. However, since I moved to Connecticut, I haven't been able to teach, so I've been watching my pennies. I have spent the past 2 weeks making gifties for my friends.

This is a little sample of what I've been making. Looks simple, doesn't it? However, I painted and stamped the background paper and that took forever. I love making my own background papers; makes them seem all the more personal!

Image is compliments of Lisa's Altered Art!

Don't ya just love giveaways!!!

Susan Tuttle is having a contest giveaway of her new book on her blog. You can link to it here:
Susan Tuttle

I'm always amazed how people can create art and get a book published. Wouldn't that just be an amazing thing? To see what you do and how you do it in the hands of 100's (really 1,000,000's) of artists! What a great retirement gift that would be.

If you're interested in purchasing her book, you can get it at Amazon. I'm sure it is AMAZING!!!

Keep Rivka's Flame Alive

I know that most of you are aware of the heinous crimes that took place in Mumbai. So many innocent lives were lost because of the selfishness of a few. What was so devastating was the assassination of Rivkah and Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, simply because they were Jews.

After spending three weeks in Israel this summer, I've come to a point in my life where I have embraced my Judaism even more. Especially after visiting the Holocaust Museum at Yad Vashem. Why people have to be so cruel because people don't worship the same religion is beyond me. Isn't there just one ultimate higher power?If you are Jewish, please keep the memory of Rivka and her husband alive by lighting Shabbat candles every Friday evening. And if you are not Jewish, please pass the link below (Keep Rivka's Flame Alive) on to your friends who are. Please do not let these innocent people pass on without acknowledging what they gave of themselves in India.

Keep Rivka's Flame Alive

Shabbat Shalom...

29 Days of Giveaways!

Chrysti of The Altered Abbey is having a huge giveaway. Please go to her blog here and post your comment. This is such a generous thing to do with our economy being in the state that it's in. I think I'll probably do a giveaway for my 300th post! That should be coming up rather soon, I do believe!!!

Mickey and Judy

Peggy's theme for one of her journals is Famous Hollywood Couples. Of course, this Tip-in Swap is almost over and I'm one of the LAST people to do this theme. It took me FOREVER to find a "couple" that I liked!

I remember watching the Andy Hardy movies as a kid. When I came across these photos, I knew that this was the couple for me!!! I tried to make the pages look old-time scrapbook; like when we were kids...you know, the acid infused yellow pages with the photo corners??? Yeah, that kind of scrapbook!

Lisa Vollrath Countdown Giveaways

As we approach major holidays, Lisa Vollrath at Go Make Something always does a countdown giveaway. She just asks that you hyperlink to the site so that others can go there as well.

You can find her giveaway here; have fun with her free collage sheets!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

May you all be surrounded by loving family, good friends and great food!

Circles and polka dots!

What a fun piece to make! Megan in my Mixed Media Madams group had a theme of polka dots with a round 8 inch in diameter circle as her base. What a great change of pace. I even found polka dotted flowers in my stash! Sure hope she likes them!

There's a red piece of thread across the bottom photo's face. I didn't realize it until I was done uploading everything. Oh well.....

Finally, a new post!

These ornaments are for a swap in my Zetti Zoo Yahoo Group that my friend Beth is hosting. I love Zetti; I'm just not very good at it. Beth's Zetti is fabulous and if you would like to see for yourself, you can find Beth's work by clicking on her name.

What do you see when you close your eyes?

There are themes that are easy and then there are themes that wreck havoc with my muse!!! Peggy's theme in my Mixed Media Madames group is "What do you see when you close your eyes?" Now...I see the inside of my eyelids for the most part. I'm not a vivid or lucid dreamer. When I first started this, I was thinking Fall colors and leaves. Trashed it. Then I was thinking birds and flight. Trashed it. Then I started something silly. Trashed it. I had a whole lot of nuthin' for a month!

Today my muse played nicely. I just put together the things that I love like the wings and eyes, with the colors that I know Peggy will love...her blues and greens. I'm a MUCH happier camper!



Hope ya like them, pegster!!!

New blog header...AGAIN!

I think I'm getting better at this blog header thing. As I download more images, I'm able to play a little more with it. What I really want are digital vintage images of people. Anyone have any suggestions?

Queens for Caryl

This month I had Caryl's "Queens" book to do in our Alphabetica group. I had the letters S and T. I chose the names Sofia and Titania, a) because I liked the names, and b) I loved their meanings. I googled both and this is what I found:

Sofia/Sophia ( Greek for "wisdom"). I changed the spelling because I liked the "f" spelling better than the ph :o)

Titania was the name of a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. In Shakespeare's play, she is the queen of the fairies.

New Art!

I made these 2 pages for Tamara in my Altered Art Swap group. Here theme is "Home Sweet Home" and she loves the color red. She also wanted circles! OK...so, how do I accommodate my darling friend?

The background paper is hot press water color paper that I spritzed with color mists from Outside the Margins and then covered and pressed with bubble wrap. Gluing just didn't feel right so I machine sewed just about everything to her pages. The left side is meant to be less decorative than the right side.

Sure hope she likes them!!!

7 Random Things!

I was tagged for seven things about me by Megan ~

The rules:

1. Post the rules on your blog.

2. Write seven random things about yourself.

3. Tag seven people at the end of your post.

4. Pass on the tag.

Here are my 7:

1. I really want to visit Maine.
2. I LOVE cold weather and mulled apple cider. Warm weather makes me ill!
3. I really want to learn how to bead correctly. My charms could use some help!
4. I love meeting my online art friends. It feels like we've known each other forever when we do.
5. I've always wanted to own a Jaguar (the car, not the animal!)
6. Although I love to visit big cities, I'm happiest at the ocean or in the woods.
7. I love going to the local coffee house to listen to Bluegrass music!

These are pretty darn random. Now to tag 7 people...
1. Barb
2. Joanne
3. Sanna
4. peggy
5. Marion
6. Elizabeth
7. Deana

Have fun!

Playing with the header again!

At some point, I'm going to REALLY figure this program out. In the meantime, I'm having fun just playing. I'm getting there!!!!!

Happy Birthday Beth!

My darling friend Beth had a birthday last week. I didn't want to post these until she got her package in the mail. I sent her 4 face stamps and this heart. She LOVES the color purple and she LOVES hearts. I combined the 2 for her.

Hope it was super duper darlin'!

Arches for Judy...

These 2 arches are for Judy in my Altered Art Swap group. She didn't have theme, just a color preference of blue and brown. Hope she likes them!!!

Updated Atumn and Crystal

Autumn now has wings. Big thanks to everyone who had suggestions...you all rock! But, I found the easiest of solutions. I found this silk "rosebud" that I had received from a friend. I took it apart and sewed one of the layers on, using a button to hide the stitches. Voila... Wings!
This is Crystal and she is for a friend. She likes the combo of Blue and Orange, so I thought I would make her in those colors. Sure hope she likes her!!!

Now don't laugh...

I have a dorky photo editing program that drives me nuts! I can't for the life of me figure out how to use it. This was what I came up with for a blog header!!! Now, I'm on a learning curve so I'm sure I'll get better at this!

Meet Autumn

Autumn is my newest addition to my doll family. I used a silk leaf behind her head. I tried to tie small sticks together to make wings, but I kept messing it up. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do it EASILY?

Q and R

Well, here's a challenge for ya! Make pages that go together for the letters Q and R when Keys to the Universe is the theme!!! I swear, I picked my brain, my husband's brain, my friends' brains ( and this was not easy!) After a month, I was finally able to sit down and work this out. The pages are for Heather H. in my Alphabetica group. In sure hope she appreciates them!!!

Halloween Ornaments

I've been a member of Creative Chix for a long time, but I never participated in anything until now. I decided to do the Halloween Ornament Exchange. It's 3 for 3. I had so much fun making these. It's a terribly rainy and gloomy day today, and the kids were at school and then either at work or at friends. I had the glory of a studio day, loud music and all!!!!!

They morphed!!!

These arches are for my sweet peggy. Her theme for this Gothic Arch tip-in is Walk on The Wild Side. I started out with a mermaid theme using the flat version of the doll I made for her (a few entries earlier). I painted the paper, made white bubbles, inked and re-inked. And then...it was as if my Muse and I started drinking and she had me go in a completely different direction when I was most vulnerable. Naughty Muse!!! So, the pages are not so wild; I'm pretty sure peggy will understand!

Barb's little babies....

The theme for Barb's Mixed Media Madams tip-in book is Vintage Children. She wanted colors of the rainbow as her background. The pages are front to back, so I was able to make them completely different. The images are from Lisa's Altered Art

"When Logic and Proportion...

have fallen sloppy dead...and the white knight's talking backwards...and the Red Queen's "off with her head!" Remember what the dormouse said...."Feed you head...Feed your head....

FEED YOUR HEAD!!!!!"

How many times did I see Grace Slick sing that live when I was growing up; had to be at least 7 or 8 times.

These pages are for Judy whose theme is White Rabbit.

Queen of "Sol"

You know how you can't get enough of something sometimes??? Well, I'm that way with these dolls! Meet "Queen of Sol". I love this color combo and have a lot of fabric in these shades. Sol was also made with ribbon scraps and her crown is a LARGE sequin that I had purchased a bazillion of many years ago!

If you click on her, you can see the details.

Meet "Boo"

This is BOO. She is my very first art doll. I always drool when I see everyone's art doll and I knew I had it in me to make my own since I'm a quilter! But unfortunately, I'm one of those people who needs either a kick in the butt or step by step directions in order to attempt something new. I think it's because I still don't see myself as an artist; bizarre, isn't it?

Paper Whimsy Witch Arches

I had so much fun making these arches. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so when this swap opened, I had to join. This swap is 3 for 3. My girlfriend, Eliza, who has a wonderful sense of humor. She loves mixed media (but doesn't do art) and she found the piece below and bought it for me. In fact, she loved it so much that she bought the same one for herself! I couldn't stop laughing when I opened it. I just love it and wanted to share it with you. BTW...the artist's name is Erin Smith.