Make It Take It

There will be a Make-It-Take-It this Friday night over at Stampin' From the Heart hosted by yours truly! Here's a sneak peak at what you'll make. As always, we'll be creating one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Backgrounds are painted and worn to create a weathered look. All parts of the art dolls are pre-cut and ready to be assembled. You need not bring any supplies. I love these giant tags and so will you! They make great tag cards for that special someone - just stamp or write a message on back. For those who can't bear to part with them, they make great works of art to add to your gallery.

Hope you can come out and play with us cause it'll be fun! You can make up to three tags and each one is $5. Karen sells the giant tags we'll be creating art on and you can buy some to take home so that you can make more amazing backgrounds in the colors of your choice AND she sells acrylic paints too! The fun runs from 4:30 - 8:30, no sign-ups necessary. Looking forward to seeing you!

Linda

Blues Be Gone!

BIG thanks to those who've sent me healing wishes regarding my blue feelings last week. I appreciate your supportive words and am deeply touched by your concerns and/or advice. I'm doing a lot better and am looking forward to jumping back into my journaling groove. Here are a couple pages I worked on last week as I was going through my meltdown. You'd think with all my journaling skills I'd be able to maintain, huh? Oh well, it most definitely helps to keep me out of serious trouble!

Emotional Crisis

TAKE NOTE, Life is full of crisis. I had a meltdown at work today while alone at work. The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of a major project. Not to mention extra-curricular mish-mosh that occasionally comes my way. So today seemed like the perfect day to let it all out and it wasn't planned. I was sitting at my desk during my break time, all alone, and then it happened. The radio was on and a song from my childhood played. I haven't heard it in ages! My dad had the album and we used to hear it playing on the hi-fi quite regularly. My grandma had it and she played it on her hi-fi too! It's a Mexican ballad that was sung by Eydie Gorme but she wasn't singing it today. Believe it or not, it was being performed by Kenny G!!! LOL! My sister mentioned that she had heard this version a couple months back and it brought back all kinds of memories for her. Well, although it was Kenny G and not Eydie Gorme, I couldn't help myself. Right there and then as soon as he began to play "Sabor A Mi" I broke down and sobbed. I pictured myself at my grandma's house with cousins running around as this song played. I pictured myself kneeling in our living room cutting out paper dolls or playing with Colorforms while this song played in the background. Then it hit me that my grandma's gone and that my dad is struggling with physical and mental ailments. It was too much for me. The music was so beautiful and sad at the same time. I knew this would be my blog of the day and I had just the right journal page for this. My sad girl tag that I placed on my golden page. PERFECT and so fitting! BUT, I was not prepared for what I saw next. The words on her dress read, "Life is full of crisis." I have felt this for the past two weeks and then I read on and see the words "last two weeks!" It's as though this page was waiting to be "felt" and shared at just the right moment. And so it was.

Isn't She Lovely

When I think of Frida, I see rich colors. Deep blue, bright orange, sunny yellow, lime green, fushia, terra cotta....

My mother is the one who introduced me to Frida. After that, I was hooked on her art and story. A future artventure of mine is to assemble a book of some kind that pays tribute to Frida by using vibrant colors as well as altered photos of my favorite artist. File this under near future.

Chinese Artventures

"Gung Hay Fat Choy!" In honor of Chinese New Year I've posted pics from The Asian Chronicles - a workshop I once taught. The accordion book was painted in Sunset Gold Lumiere paint and embellished with ephemera gathered from a summer jaunt in China Town. I love pouring through the little dark over crowded shops looking for found treasures. Yes, I always feel like a tourist in a foreign country when I'm there. So much culture and so much to bring back home.

ChaChaChaChanges

Whether you like it or not, change happens. We can't help the aging process that it brings about. I don't want to go back to being a kid cause I'm happy where I'm at now. Even if I looked better 20 or 30 years ago, I'm glad change has happened to me regardless of my age. I'm saddened though at the change that comes about with aging parents. I still see them the same as when they stood tall and strong and I didn't have to repeat myself twenty times until they got it or heard it. LOL! It isn't until I look at old family pictures that the change kind of aches. The strong man that could once crouch down and get up without blinking in pain now needs a cane and forget about crouching. Are you crazy?! LOL! Yeah, that's the kind of change I can wait on or do without. In the meantime, if I can still walk fast, remember my name and where I live, see well enough not to kiss the wrong person, and clean and powder my coochie without any help, I'm doing A-OK no matter what kind of change I'm going through!

Seven Artveturous Day Left In January!

Where has this month gone? No wonder I can't get anything done. There isn't enough time in the day for my artventures which makes me feel guilty for those three faithful viewers who may look for me. Maybe one now. LOL! Well, here I am with one page I worked on this week! Click on the page if you want to do some serious reading! LOL!

Notice how blue this page is compared to the ones above? Same page, different look. It all has to do with when I shoot the pics. If I get home too late in the day and loose the natural light, I'm out of luck. Turning off the flash to avoid glare is my other option but the color takes on a different shade. I'll share some more pages I played with this week, tomorrow. Trying to stay true to my artful resolution of squeezing in a little art each week - at least three times! I'm finding it a little challenging this week due to work issues. Read all about it soon!