I just completed domino books for a swap. We altered the dominoes & created the accordion style book. The inside book had to be done in a single theme, & the backside of the paper had to match the theme. Here are the ones I created:

The Themes.
1.  An Art Journal - it has several art journal techniques including blind drawing.
2.  Rain in the Hood - hand drawn, colored pencils, chalk pastels. A whimsical neighborhood.
3.  No More Borders Art Journal - another art journal type book.
4.  Fog in the Hood - a really foggy view of the whimsical neighborhood.

Here's a picture of the front of the dominoes. They are all colored with alcohol inks, & they tie closed with a ribbon. WARNING! It was said by more than one artist in the swap that once you started making these, it's hard to stop. I agree!

How to Make a Mini Domino Book

International Art Charm Day

Just to let anyone know who might be interested in Art Charms:

Here's the Yahoo Group - Art Charms

April 28 is International Charm Day - so make a charm & share it with a friend, family member, do a RACK, or just leave charms where people can find them.

There's a button at the bottom of my blog that will take you to all the info about it.

Art Charms & Swaps

I don't know how I got to it, but I located an Art Charm group on Yahoo. I've been busy joining & making art charms, & learning some wire work techniques.

These are from the Feather Your Nest swap. I love the little birdhouse beads which I happened to see & purchased before the swap was even announced. They were just meant to be in this swap!The bird's nest is handmade my be from wire, & found the sweetest most perfect pearls for the eggs.

I used a wire jig for the component holding the birdhouse bead.

I'll do a quick wire jig comparison. I purchased a wire jig called a Thing-a-ma-Jig. It was frustratingly badly designed. It's all metal. The pegs are too small for the holes in the jig, so the manufacturer included little plastic things that slipped on the backside of the peg when it was in the hole. That kept the peg from falling out, but it was still so wiggly in the hole it made my loops uneven.

It's much easier to add a peg as you need it instead of putting all the pegs into the jig at once. With this jig, I had to insert the peg, then turn it over & wrestle the plastic piece onto the peg bottom, turn it over, bend the wire, turn it over & place the plastic piece... You can see how slow a process it was. I could've put all the pegs in at once, but that makes winding the wire around the pegs very difficult. Anyway, it was just a huge inconvenience & really made the process slow & interrupted. The resulting components were never exactly even either.

Soooooo, I hunted down a better quality jig - I found the Wig Jig online. What a difference in the quality of the jig & the wire components that I made on it. There's the red one holding the little birdhouse bead. This jig is made from the type of plastic used in airplane construction - heavy duty stuff. The pegs are all metal, & they fit snuggly into the holes - no wobbling, no falling out. Just set the peg, wrap the wire, set another peg, wrap the wire. Wohooooooo! That was so much easier, smoother & faster a process. Every bend was perfect!

Here's where you can purchase the perfectly designed jig - plus you have choices of several different types of jigs - just scroll down. PLUS there are all kinds of tutorials on the site!
Wig Jigs

I'm not a salesperson for the makers of Wig Jig, but I'm definitely convinced it's the best jig available.

Zentangle Challenge ATC Swap

The challenge was to do zentangles  inside of a stamped area only, on a watercolor background. The zentangle patterns had to have shading & highlighting as well.

I used a watercolor salt technique which is sprinkling salt onto a still-wet watercolor resulting in little star-like bits on the paper.

Metal Work

Metal work! OK, this is way out of my realm, but if you don't break out once in a while...

These were made for a Wearable Altered Key Swap. You could make pins or pendants, but they had to be on the small side. These are all around 1.5" on the longest side.  The challenge was to to create a pin using a key as one of the elements. I'm short on found objects, so I sifted through all the metal elements I had in my stash.

Here's a list of some of the techniques & media I used:

Techniques:
embossed & punched metal blanks
hand-built charms & metal tassels
painted with Perfect Pearls powder
painted with Lumiere metallic paint
hand crafted a copper & resin object
resin work on 2 pins

Materials:
purchased & found keys
purchased metal objects
aluminum & titanium jump rings
beads
Perfect Pearls Powdered Mica
Lumiere paint
Glossy Accents
clear matt spray

Tools:
metal punch
pliers
small brushes

Here's the eye candy.

Closeup of the keyhole so you can see the little girl.

Venture into Pottery

 

Molded & hand built earthenware clay kiln fired.

Thanks to Lynn Belisle for her scent shards video.

Mixed Media Canvas in the Zetti Style

Zetti Canvas Mixed Media

Encaustic Wax Painting - Artist Trading Cards

Framed Canvas En Plein Air

Artist Trading Card - En Plein Air - Landscape

Walnut Oils on Canvas - Artist Trading Card

Leaves on the Water - 6"x8" Oil on Canvas

Stormy Weather Swap ATC's - Encaustic Wax Paintings

First Oil on Canvas - 18" x 24"

I've never worked in oils before, so I decided the quickest way to get a feel for this medium was to do it the Bob Ross speed painting way. I learned a LOT, some of what NOT to do, & some of what I really need to practice to do well. 

The palette knife is not my friend! I felt like a 2 year old handling it, & that's what the mountains are done with.

Another discovery - I'm a sloppy oil painter. Even though I wore an apron, I still got paint on my top, on a pair of scissors lying on the table, on the table. My brand new easel has so much paint slopped on it, it looks like it's been in someone's studeo for years & years. Ummmmmmmmm, I didn't purchase enough paint thinner, so my brushes all have a sap green tinge to them.

Will I continue to works with this medium? I have to admit, as much as I stumbled & bumbled around, I still enjoyed it. As for what the painting itself looks like? It is what it is - a first-time oil painting, so I'll just let that speak for itself. I didn't have high expectations, so I'm not disappointed. I do have a new flame burning, though fueled by the desire to paint a better picture.

Encaustic Wax Painting - Winter Pines ATC

Winter Pines

encaustic wax painting

Encaustic Wax Painting - The Pond ATC

The Pond
encaustic painting

Encaustic Painting - Take Time - Artist Trading Card

I've had this picture in my head for a while. Nothing earth shattering, just roses. I painted this picture with encaustic wax & a stylus  tool only. It's 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" - artist trading card size, but until I do another one, I'm really not wanting to trade this card.

Take Time
encaustic wax painting

Encaustic Wax Painting - Fall Glow

5.8" x 4.25"

 

Artist Trading Card in Window Greeting Card

Encaustic Painting - Spring in the Valley - 8"x10"

Well, best laid plans you know? I was going to do another abstract encausic so I could do the shellac burn. I ended up doing this rather realistic one & just couldn't ruin it with the shellac burn.

Encaustic Wax Sellac Burn - Mountain Landscape

I tried out a really unusual technic this week-end. I found this Youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mjdd7GzxViQ

I started with an abstract encaustic wax painting done on an 8"x10" clay board. I added a layer of shellac, then dabbed on shellac colored with PearlEx powder. I sprinkled on some silver PearlEx powder, then ignited the picture with a match. Once the burnable component in the shellac had burned off, I repeated the process. My PyroMuse loved it! Here's the picture. I'm not crazy about the brown spots, so I'll rub those with some PearlEx powder before I seal it. It's much more abstract after the burn process. I love the light blue just below the center - that's from the burn. They look like a field of blue flowers.

I'll be making a stop at Hobby Lobby to buy some more clay board tomorrow.

Encaustic Wax Paintings for Artist Trading Cards

By the Stream

The Rocky Path

More Encaustic Wax Painting ATC's

More Encaustic Wax Painting

Encaustic Wax Painting Controlled Landscape

Encaustic wax painting with a hot iron. Controlled landscape.

Encaustic Wax Painting

Impressionist Landscape done with encaustic wax and a hot iron.

Helping Hands to Japan - Hands To Be Auctioned Off

Winter Tree, Life is a Daily Commute & Fall Tree 
Handpainted with acrylics.

The Tree Swap

I just completed my atc's for the Tree Swap at atcsforall.com. I wasn't sure I could really do trees justice, but I pushed myself to try anyway. They're hand painted with acrylic paints.

Polymer Clay Pendants

I was challenged to do a Fine Arts Pendant swap, so I used  Christi Friesen techniques to make them. I used polymer clay, Pearl X micas & I wired in some beads.

Ranger Alcohol Inks

I love working with alcohol inks. These are my first projects combining alcohol inks with stamping using acrylic paint. Not as controlled as my later dominoes done with alcohol inks that I posted last week.

 Chat Noir Cool

 Dusk

 Night Bird

 Sunset Fauna

 Bird