Amity Daffodil Festival Artshow

With only two days to spare, I just finished my mixed-media piece that I'm entering into the Amity Daffodil Festival Artshow!  I'm not sure about it, really.  There are elements that I'm happy with... some, not so much.  But, that's okay.  It's a learning experience... and the joy is in the process.  It's a 10" x 10" canvas.  It shows me that I need to work on layers.  Layers are key to this kind of art and I just haven't played around enough with them.  I also wanted an old, vintage daffodil to use, instead of painting my own, but I couldn't find any that were suitable.  :(  Someone told me she'd send me some... so, if those show up in my inbox, I may do another piece.  Each person can put in two entries.  Each entry needs to have at least one Daffodil, although they do not need to be the focus of the piece.  I did a watercolor one year.... just one big daffodil... but, it was for my mom, for Mother's Day, so it wasn't for sale.  They told me at the end of the show that had it been for sale, I would've sold it!  Yay!

.I'm also participating in two Art House Co-op projects.  One is a 4 x 6 Exchange (called The 4 x 6 Exchange2), where you send in a 4x6 (needs to be able to be sent in a regular envelope) in by March 31st.  Someone, somewhere else in the world, will get your piece and you will get their piece, in exchange.  2000 people have signed up!!  (I'm glad I'm not the one having to keep those exchanges straight!!)  I'm very excited about that project!  I need to get started on it!!!  These are serious artists that are participating and I need to send my best work.  I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can handle already!

The other Art House Co-op project is this - they wanted to get a look at a common space of the people in their online community.  So, they chose the refrigerator!  We were supposed to take a picture of the inside of our frig and print a 4x6 of it.  Ack!!  Mine desperately needed cleaning, so I limited the visability.  Plus, black and white helped, I think.  So, this is my photo for that.

I'm also doing another ATC swap with my Altered Books Yahoo group and also a "tip-in", which I don't know much about.  You create an altered book spread...or maybe it's just one page... and send it to the person who's hosting.  They get the right ones to the right people (we're choosing themes, so they'll all be different) and then we fit them into an existing altered book.  I'm thinking that I'll just make a small book out of the pages from the tip-in swap, instead of adding them to an existing book.

OK.... I'd started a pair of socks for my youngest son, who now has feet the same size as mine, but then I tried to slip it over my heel, after I had about 2" done, and it wouldn't go.  :(  I ripped it out... like a dummy, I didn't check the gauge, first!!!  So, now, I have to do a few inches of garter stitch, so I can figure out my gauge so that I can figure out how many stitches I should be casting on for him.  This is when I need a good movie or TV show....otherwise, I rarely ever watch TV.. I get too bored!  Hmmm....wonder if I can talk my husband and said child out of that Jett Lee movie they're watching and into something else.  ??  Wish me luck!

       ~  Teri

My third Round-Robin book

Here's the third book that I did. The theme was "Magic". I did "The Magic of the Muses".

This was the first book (or anything!) that I put gesso on and moved it around with a "credit card" to create texture. I loved how it turned out! Then, I started putting acrylic paint on. Oh, but first I used some masking fluid to mask over some words that I wanted to keep, from the original text of the book, and not have to worry about painting over. I had a wee problem, though... I had so many layers of paint on there, that I couldn't find my spots of masking fluid! I found a few, totally intuitively. Was afraid to peel up the paint on the rest of them, just in case I was in the wrong spot... then, I'd just have a spot of roughed-up paper. :( So, I left them alone. But, it turned out all right, anyway. I was pretty happy with this one.

Oh, the magic of the muses....where would we be without them?

~ Teri

Some altered tags I made

Here are some tags I've done in the last few weeks. I love playing with tags...they're just plain, ol' office tags....so, they're not a huge commitment in time and/or effort (although anything I do like this takes me probably at least 1.5 hrs., which brings me to another topic...later) and they're inexpensive! So, it's not a big investment, any way you look at it. But, they are so sweet! I did several of them for friends and family, for Valentine's Day...that's really when I got going on them. Since then, I've done one "just because" and a couple to go on birthday gifts, instead of a card. I will show those last three, here.


This first one was for an altered-books, online friend. She is an altered-artist who lost her supplies in an apartment fire a few years ago. So, I, very secretively, asked some of the people on the altered books list if they'd want to help me out and send her some surprise supplies and goodies. There were seven or eight of us that participated and the recipient was overjoyed by our RAK. It felt great to be able to help out in that way. A pretty simple thing, really, yet so beneficial. So, this was a tag that I made, just to add to the mix, with a little note on the back.

This next one was for my newest niece, Jada, who

turned a year last August. I had her birthday gift

sitting here for months.... and finally got it

mailed a week and a half ago! (Ugh! *Bad* Auntie!!)

I figure it's even more of a surprise when you get a gift that you aren't expecting! :)

And, last but not least, is the one I did for my sister, for her birthday, which was only in October! (I did better on that one!) Oh, I should include a picture of the gift! I made her a quilted laptop case, which I also love making. I've made several of them....they're so beautiful, but pretty simple to do! (Next post.) :)

Just like these tags.... pretty simple, but beautiful and so rewarding! Which brings me to the part about taking the time to do them. I'm a firm believer in having hobbies. I think they're really important, on many levels. But, one of the things is that they are meditative.... and calming, for the most part. When you are so intent and focussed on your project, you don't think about anything else. With sewing, it's pretty straight-forward... you go through the steps as you're supposed to, when you're supposed to. So, for me, anyway, if I'm making a baby quilt, for instance, as a gift, I spend a lot of time thinking about the person/family that it's going to... and, of course, the new, little baby that will get to keep that quilt forever, I hope! With altered art, it's a little different, probably because I'm so new to it. I'm constantly thinking about which colors I should use, which elements should be added, etc.... so, it doesn't leave much time for the mind to wander... but, that's a good thing!! I'm telling you, it's cheaper than therapy!! You can only really think about the project at hand. That's why it's so beneficial in that way.

When I was taking a watercolor class, several years ago, a 76 yr. old woman, who was also in the class, told me, "It's better than counselling! For two hours I don't think about *anything* except what I'm doing!" It's so true. I can't say enough about the benefits of having hobbies.... and especially creative hobbies.

Have a creative day!

~ Teri