two down, three to go...

I finished my two atcs for Sophia's swap. The only stipulation for the atcs was to use one or more images from Chrysti's Collage Images Flickr group. The swap was set up where you would know to whom you were sending your two cards, but not who was sending you theirs. Is it considered a round robin? I'm not sure. Anyway, my atcs arrived in the mail a few days ago and they are so cool (I'll post pics later this week). The atcs I made for my recipient went out in this afternoon's mail...just under the wire.

one down, four to go...

I finished the cover and my two pages over the weekend and have shipped it on to Ontario and the next participant. I enjoyed working on my pages, but have to admit, I was sort of intimidated by the whole thing! I hope it all stands up to the other contributors work!!! It's like critique day in my art classes all over again with the stomach butterflies and whatnot. I am happy with what I put together, especially the cover, and I guess that's what is important. Right? Right.

sign-ups are closed...

for the Fairy Tales and Fables ATC/Mailart swap. Thanks to everyone who's joined in on this one. I will be sending out an information email this afternoon so keep an eye out! I've had a few sets already arrive and WOW, it's going to be another great swap.

because sometimes you just have to avoid the task at hand...

I should be folding laundry and doing dishes and supervising my children more closely at the moment, but I'm not. I should be working on the mile long list of deadlined projects that are making my chest tight because they are not done, but I'm not. Instead, I've spent the afternoon making another mermaid. Because I want to.

You see, I had to at least start on her today, because if I didn't, I'd likely forget about her all together and then I'd have that nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me, "You've forgotten something really cool. Don't you wish you'd written the idea down when you first woke up?" I've been terrible about writing stuff down lately. Much to my own chagrin.

Anyway, I took a dollar store ceramic doll (Thanks, Kim!), primed and painted it using the same colors I used in last week's Try It Tuesday technique (mainly because the bottles were all still sitting out on my desk), painted her eyes and mouth and sealed her. Then I dug through my fabric stash for some good tail fabric and came up with a piece of batik I'd bought back in my high school days when I worked at Cloth World. My plan is to do some embroidery and beadwork on the tail and to find some interesting yarns and fibers to make a wig for her. Then I have to decide how she'll be displayed...suspended from wire so as to float? or leaning in a stand made of wire and clay? For the time being she'll have to sit in a cup on my desk while I get back to the tasks at hand.

the goings on of late...

Over the weekend my husband's parents were up for a visit. The girls did a lot of shopping and the boys went to an air show. Since then I've been making cards by the truck load...I hope people want to buy them because otherwise, you're all going to be getting random handmade cards from me for the rest of eternity! Here's a sneak peek:



and a close-up of the little labels I made for the card packaging:



I've had a few sessions at the torch with some good results (I finally figured out how to encase a bead properly! Yeah for me!). I would love to show you some pictures of all those beads, but they have new owners already and those new owners have secret bead hiding places that I only come across occasionally. I do have pictures of two of the beads that I made into pendants for a special order recently. I will definitely be making more of these (but probably without the ribbon clasps):



Caleb has been in rare form lately. Naps are a huge battle point for us right now. He NEEDS a midday nap in order for us to be able to tolerate his presence come six o'clock in the evening. He does not WANT to take a nap midday. In fact, there isn't much he WANTS to do these days. "Caleb, pick up your blocks and put them away." "NO!" "Caleb, stop throwing things over the banister." "NO!" "Caleb, don't be so rough with your books." "NO!" Can I just say I seriously effing hate the terrible (miserable, stinky, rotten, bratty) twos? Because I do. A LOT.

We have some days where he shouts "NO!" at me so many times I would love, LOVE, to wrap duct tape around his head three times and place him securely in a closet for the rest of the day. Don't go calling CPS on me just yet, I wouldn't ever actually do it ...there are witnesses, you know. But the thought is certainly satisfying...as is a nice cold beer (or five) at the end of one of these days. The good news is he is always a cute boy and usually a very sweet boy.



This picture was taken a few days ago on one of THOSE days. He'd been sitting on the stairs around 5:30 or so griping to anyone who would listen (which was noone) and the being ignored was just too much. As I'm sure you've noticed, he's also smack dab in the middle of the phase where he likes to draw all over himself. Yesterday was the first day (allow me to repeat that, THE FIRST DAY) this month Caleb did not draw on his person. And I think the only reason for the hiatus is the fact that the day before he found an errant RED sharpie marker and went to work on himself so with the ink still there no need to reapply, right? I guess.

Logan has been doling out his fair share of resistance too, don't get me wrong, but he's not as persistant as his brother is. Logan is more interested in other things than to be a total bullheaded little brat 85% of the time. He wants to watch me when I polish silver pieces or make glass beads or sew or whatever I'm working on. But only if it means he can wear the suggested/required safety gear.



Logan starts "summer school" in June for his speech therapy. I think he's more excited about where it is than the who or the what. He'll be in a program called Ready, Sound, Go! at UNT (where my sister-in-law and I both went to college). From what I've read about the program it will be the perfect thing for him this summer...should give him a jump start for kindergarten in the fall.

Back to work for me...still working like a madwoman to get things made for Dog Days (due date June 3rd), still have a cover and two pages to do for my round-robin journal (due date May 29th), still have ten recipe cards to make (but the stamp is almost finished!) (due date June 21st), still have some ATCs (due date May 30th) and a postcard (due now) to make and mail off!

heard today: the logan edition...

in a loud, not crying or upset, but very matter-of-fact voice: "Mom! Mom! I just hurt myself." "Where did you hurt your self?" "Right here [pointing to his right shin where he had scratched the skin pretty nicely] and then one of my man-boobs too."

The end.

try it tuesdays: week one

I'm sure by now you've heard about Try It Tuesdays weekly challenge. If you haven't, go now and find out about it, because not only do you get to try out a neat art technique every week, but you also have an opportunity to win cool prizes too!



This week's challenge is a background painting technique. I found the technique to be quick and easy as well as very adaptable. Naturally, I couldn't possibly just follow the instructions given to me, I had to go off on a tangent...instead of canvas or water color paper, I chose to use some textured clayboard. I chose Folk Art 640 Light Periwinkle for my base coat, Folk Art 933 Heather for the middle coat and Folk Art 406 Navy Blue for the final wash. I ended up watering down my paints to an ink consistency which is not what I wanted at first, however, serendipity stepped in and I decided to splatter alcohol across the surface while the final color wash was still wet. It made for an interesting pattern but did not dry exactly the same. I painted a second layer of the dark color wash, blotted areas up with a paper towel and then spattered different areas with the dark color wash.

After it was all said and done, I was (am) very pleased with the outcome. I am still going to give it whirl on some different foundations just see what I can come up with though. Should be fun! To see more of the technique executed, click here.

illustration friday: angels and devils

I had to scan the line drawing at 75 dpi because a certain two year old, who shall remain nameless, shoved my scanner off my desk not once, but twice a couple days ago. I don't know if the first time was on purpose or not, but the second time was an accident as he'd hurriedly tried to pick the scanner up and place it back on the desk before I could get around the corner to see what had happened. Only, in his haste and looking over his shoulder he didn't push it back far enough on the desk and it slid off again. Oy. Thank goodness scanners are relatively cheap to come by these days. Anyway, 75 dpi is the only way I can scan anything without having weird striations and moire all over the image. That ought to teach me to put my things away when I'm done playing with them!

In keeping with the theme, here are an old Illustration Friday submission and the doll that followed, both from June 2005.

when we last left...

Lynn was having his boulder blasted into dozens of baby boulders, I was whining about not having any time to make anything (but I did make my little flower sprite stamp and notecards for Regina's swap), and not much else was happening out of the ordinary.

Well, fast forward a couple days and we find Lynn passing gravel like a champ, I've had a momentary lapse in judgment (of time and space) and applied for a booth at the Denton Main Street Association's Dog Days of Summer celebration (which is JUNE THIRD. What was I thinking?!!) and Caleb woke up Monday morning with his left eye swollen shut.

I took Caleb to the doctor first thing and she surmised it was "possibly" some kind of bite. She wrote him a prescription for amoxicillin and gave me instructions to administer Motrin and Benedryll and also on what to watch out for for the rest of the day. We took Logan to his class, picked him up and then went to lunch and ran errands. All seemed okay. Caleb went down for his nap and then woke up to his eye swollen shut again, pinker, with the swelling expanding beyond his eyelid, toward his nose (that area between the side of your nose and your eye? His was swollen up even with his eyelid.) and the pink was travelling under his eye. So, freaking out, I call the doctor again, she says to bring him back in pronto. We do. She looks him over again and tells me, "we're going to give him a shot of Rocephin (a super antibiotic) and it really hurts. We're going to split it into two syringes so it won't hurt as much." Two shots later and some seriously heart wrenching sobbing, Caleb was back to normal. Except for the residual (feigned) moans of pain...pitiful, I tell you. He wanted to be picked up and carried out to the car until he realized his bum would hurt and then he insisted on walking "like a big boy because my butt's hurting me."

I am happy to report the swelling is almost gone, still lots of pinkness, but he has six more days of antibiotics to take so hopefully by the weekend he'll be all better.

Logan has been such a champ through all of the medical drama we've been having here at the Lyons' den. Thank goodness. He's been very busy reciting his phone number and address, writing his name and writing groups of letters together and asking, "what does this spell?" I asked him to draw a picture to include in his thank you note to Aunt Patty and he drew a self portrait. I love it!



I also managed to make a stack of notecards, carve a new stamp (for more notecards and collages) and take an inventory of what I already have on hand to sell at the Dogs Days of Summer. I still need to buy a table and tent! I don't have a sign! We have company coming this weekend! Yikes!

flower sprites...

I finally decided what I wanted to do for Regina's note card swap. The theme was Summer Celebrations and I couldn't decide which way I wanted to go with the theme. That is until my little flower sprite came to mind.

I carved a stamp from the sketches I made of her and then stamped her a gozillion times on different types of paper to see what looked the best for my purposes. I ended up going with some paper from a note pad I bought at Barnes & Noble two or three years ago. It's really great paper: smooth on one side, a nice tooth on the other, and little flakes of mica embedded all about the page. Once I had enough little sprites stamped out, I colored them in with my PhotoTwin markers, ran them through my Xyron sticker maker, cut them out and then assembled the cards. I dusted each card with a tiny bit of Pearl Ex for some spritely sparkle, stamped each envelope and then stuffed each set in its own poly bag.

To see each of the five cards I made for the swap, click on the image or click here.

it's mine, all mine...

I just bought one of the cutest frames ever from Seattle collage artist, Corey Moortgat. Check out her work here and her blog here. You won't be disappointed!

so...

The last few days have been interesting. Monday night around 8:30 or so Lynn began having abdominal pain followed by vomiting. Lynn has a very high tolerance for pain, mind you, so this pain had to be significant. He went on for two and a half hours with the abdominal pain and the vomiting before he agreed to go to the emergency room. Can I just say thank God for little brothers? I called my brother, Nic, at eleven o'clock or so and asked him to come stay with the boys so I could take Lynn to the ER. He was here within a handful of minutes. We made it to the ER where they poked and prodded Lynn, took blood samples, and a catscan. The catscan showed a NINE MILLIMETER kidney stone had just entered his right ureter. He told them on a scale of 1 to 10 his pain was a five or six...for a calcified stickerburr that could realistically be annexed as the fifty-first state. I'm pretty sure anyone else would have been unconscious. They kept him overnight for observation and a second catscan to make sure the stone continued to work its way down the pass.

Tuesday was relatively uneventful, just tons of phone calls back and forth to doctors and family members. This morning he is at the hospital awaiting his extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. Hopefully, it does the trick and makes things easier for Lynn. If all the delightful tales we've heard so far are any indication the worst has yet to happen. Keep your fingers crossed for him. And us too, I don't imagine he's going to be all that pleasant to be around while passing the stone fragments.

swaps, swaps and more swaps...

Do you have a little free time on your hands? (Ha! I know. Free time? What the hell is that?) Perhaps you need a gentle nudge creatively? (Yup, from time to time a little nudge is appreciated.) Wouldn't it be nice to have some FUN mail every once in awhile? (Of course it would!) If you answered "yes" to any of these questions then I know of a couple of swaps you can jump right in on, right this minute.

Moki is hosting a new carved stamp swap.

You know, the first one was loaded with super submissions and the last one was absolutely delightful. The next one is sure to be even better. Go on over and sign-up today. There's plenty of time to get started.

Next, of course, is my newest ATC swap with the added bonus of mailart! The last two swaps were really fun, lots of great submissions. This one promises to be even better. It even has its own button this time! Really, it's a two-fer swap. You'll open your mailbox to find a delightfully designed envelope and then you'll (carefully) open the envelope to find three fabulous little pieces of art. Can you beat that? Well, an envelope stuffed full of ten decorated recipe cards might beat that...but it will be a close call either way. You should probably just sign up for both so you can be the judge (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

I also signed up for Regina's notecard swap. I caught it at the very end of signups and didn't have a chance to post it here, but I suspect there will be another swap announced in the near future, so keep and eye out! I'm really looking forward to this swap as I am a total stationery junkie and there are a ton of great artists playing along. Must get to work on my cards tomorrow for sure.

And on top of all that, the journal for the round-robin I am participating in arrived on Monday. I've spent the last couple days staring at it, wondering where to start and what to do. It seems a daunting task as I have a really talented bunch of artists sharing this journal with me and I do not want to disappoint! Time to get out my sketch dumps and rifle through them to get the ideas cooking.

inspire me thursday: let's go digital

I like to work digitally. Especially when I'm short on time or can do without making a mess. Working digitally makes fleshing out an idea a breeze and I think I probably accomplish a few more projects than I normally would because of it.


original version

So I get an email this morning from my Mom with the subject line, "Just a suggestion." I open it and the gist is fix the contrast on the face to balance the piece. Of course she was right...(I seriously can't think of a time in my life when she was wrong). Honestly, I knew it needed to have a darker contrast when I was working on it last night. I just could not get it right without messing the whole thing up! That's what happens at two in the morning: normally simple tasks become concepts too hard to grasp.

At any rate, the change took all of fifteen seconds to accomplish and what a difference it makes. Another bonus of creating digitally...the mistakes are easier to correct!

I've had this idea brewing for a little while now. I want to make a set of four of these collages, one for Logan (also a Monday's child), one for Caleb (a Wednesday's child), and one for Lynn (a Saturday's Child). I've recently started collecting L's to display along the walls of our stairwell and want to incorporate family photos as well. I think this will be a cute way to do it.

As is normally the case for me, I will be working on one project which will spur ideas for three other projects. This mock-up for a night light shade is one such spurred idea.



My plan for this particular night light is to do a fabric collage of sorts. Hopefully I will have time to work on it in the morning. Another idea I had tonight is to use family photos, specifically one's kiddos or pets, and do fabric collaged night lights as Mother's Day gifts. Will have to see how this first one turns out before I get all crazy on the idea.