2008: All Bound Up Neatly

One of my favorite things to do at the end of the year -so I'm a little behind- is to bind all the fat book pages I've collected during the previous year, like the one-page-per-month, all-original-art 4" x 4" page swap from one of my art groups, Chubbyville; extra pages from Art & Soul, ZNE, Itty Bitty Book Club and other swaps, gifts and the like. It's fun to bind the year together from start to finish. I started with The Year of the Rat January page by Lois Paolo from Chubbyville and decided to use clear acrylic covers -okay, took the easy way out. Still I've got a beautiful book of all original art from my art friends for 2008.

You can see my 2007 book here and here and all the pictures of my fat book pages to date in my Flickr set here. It sure seems like the 12 months between these two books went awfully fast. I have some incredible, one-of-a-kind books that I never tire of looking through, with themes like Halloween, Marie Antoinette, pink, Blythe, Birds, Dolls, prom dresses and more.

Charming, charming, charming

I guess I was feeling charming at 3 in the morning, because I woke up early yesterday/Friday, to storms, licking cats and a noisy water softener (again) and decided it was high time I assemble my charms from the ZNE http://www.zneart.com Castle in the Meadow charm swap last Sunday in Detroit. The bracelet in the bottom pic is the result. All but three were made by ZNE members in quantities of 25 each for the swap. The green glass rings, ruler bit cut for me by Kris of Retro Cafe Art Gallery in Indy http://www.retrocafeart.com and baby moon by Melanie of Earthenwood Studio http://www.earthenwoodstudio.com I added later. The soldered charm in the very middle, the Scrabble 'G' is by Donna of Bonnie Blue Denim http://bonniebluedenim.blogspot.com who was nice to enough to make everyone a charm with personalized initials, so mine has an 'S' on the back.

Immediately above my ZNE bracelet is the nautical charm bracelet I also made Friday morning, this one for my sister-in-law. It has procrastination all over it, since she had given me four charms from Michael's in late March and asked me to make her a bracelet like the one I got from Kat of Altered Kat or Great Musings on etsy and here http://alteredkat.blogspot.com. That one is the turquoise bracelet in the second photo from top. It has over 50 charms on it, so trying to make her four charms into something like that took me awhile to pull together. In the end, I used little glass fish from Debbie/Oh Kitten at Chubbyville, glass beads from Laurie of Loud Life on etsy and Living Out Loud http://loudlife-laurieblaumarshall.blogspot.com and also the mother-of-pearl charms from my Altered Kat bracelet. Who says I can't make nice and share?

And finally, in reverse order, the top photo is a review of my Art & Soul Hampton charm swap. Yes, there is a charm bracelet in there somewhere, along with 32 unique, hand-made charms.

Home Sweet Home or By The Sea?

Home Sweet Home or By The Sea? I'll take them both! Maybe someday my home sweet home will be by the sea. I'm a bit fond of Myrtle Beach. The sweet houses, top, are the 11 luscious receipts from Jeri Aaron's House Row Swap http://artfulgathering.typepad.com. I made my artist's dozen to send while in Myrtle Beach, in fact, on vacation in April and blogged about them here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/04/thinking-about-home.html.

I had almost forgotten about them when my package arrived from Jeri. I received great houses, from (top row, L-R) Virginia Madison, Jan Love, Sue Day, Kim Newberg (a fellow shabby sister), Susie Cazier and Anita Edmonds. In the bottom row (L-R) are Gloria H?, Gwynn Thoma, Susan Tidwell, Liane Ceglar and Gerdie Fisher. Many recipients are talking about adding hinges to make a folding screen-type display or mantle piece. Sounds like a great idea to me. I can't bear to put these away and not display them. For more eye candy and more houses, Jeri's blog is really a treat. Visit her older posts, too!

The 'By the Sea' page is a 4 x 4 I made tonight for the Chubbyville group all original page swap, hosted by Debbie Metti. I will mail this one off and get a different one in return. I am keeping all my monthly original receipts and other random 4 x 4's, and I will bind them into a book at the end of the year. My "Song of the Sea" page has a removable tag that can be used as a book mark. I attached the copper starfish charm and seashell with silk cord, after drilling a hole in the shell (and burning up a drill bit). Who knew seashells were so hard? I guess that explains how they survive for thousands of years. See you by the sea........

Be There, or Be a 4 x 4

It was kind of a weekend for squares, as I spent most of my time making 4 x 4 book pages for The Artists of Chubbyville on Yahoo! All Originals Page Swaps for February and March. I also contemplated my covers for my 2007 Fat Book of all original pages by me and other artists. The book looks great with all the danglies, and I can't wait to photograph it. I found some cool pink paper beads on etsy that will be just perfect for spine danglers. I have been saving them for about six months for the perfect project, and this is it.

My page at top, entitled "Chaos," pretty much represents me trying to cram all of my projects into two-day weekends (whose idea was a two-day weekend anyway? Oh, yeah, well....). I mean, geez, how can one possibly sleep in, cook those good weekends meals, go out a bit too, shop, clean, pack for the coming week, tend to ebay and etsy (both buying and selling), get caught up on reading (just finished Sue Grafton's 'T'-excellent), read all the latest art, fashion and gossip mags, email, blog and have any time left to breathe? Eep!

The birdy page is "Birds of a Feather should Feather Their Nests Together." I could elaborate, but I won't!

The two top and the bottom pics are a self portrait for the ZNE Artists and Poets group http://www.znepoetry.com/. I'm likin' the front, and its zentangle-ish feel. I HATE writing descriptive stuff about myself, which anyone who knows me will not believe. But, it's true. So there's my words for all the world to see, in no particular order, mix and match.

If there is enough interest we will make a fat book out of our 4 x 4 self portraits.

And speaking of fat books, which I guess I am in depth, The Arte du Blythe group on Yahoo, which I now moderate, is fixin' to do a Blythe fat book swap as well as an auction copy for charity to support artist Bernie Berlin's no-kill animal sanctuary, A Place to Bark (see blog badge at right) http://aplacetobark.blogspot.com/.

Not one of these fat books is top secret, proprietary or closed; just give me a shout if you want more info to join! You can be square, too!

The Blog Heard 'Round the World

Okay, well France is around the world, right? A Flickr observer messaged me in French to ask if he/she could put my Mona Lisa card above on her blog. So, naturally, I was delighted and was able to suss out what was being asked, and peck out a passable "tres bien, merci." So, a little college French finally pays off after how many years?

Turns out the blog is dedicated to Mona-philes who alter art with the famed one's face. A quick visit to http://papou.blog.lemonde.fr/ will turn up Mona in The Scream, The Kiss, cross-eyed, well-endowed, smoking, biker chick and much more.

My card even got a couple of comments, which I had to resort to Google translate. Apparently, one reader thought Mona looked a little sad for a greeting card. Apparently, some people believe Mona can have different expressions- what a concept!

In any event, Mona also has her US followers, with a Flickr group dedicated to "jocondophiles" as well. A trip to http://www.flickr.com/groups/manyfacesofmonalisa/, to which I already belonged, will give you Mona as E.T. (my new fave), Mona as Robocop and Mona as a Bond girl. The group's current contest is to place Mona squarely in the middle of Mardi Gras. This happens to work well for me, since I am hostessing a fat book page swap for Chubbyville http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chubbyville/ in February with the Mardi Gras theme. So Mona will get a workout. Hmmmm....Mona in Flashdance....yet another idea. Poor girl! Was she smiling or smirking?

By the way, my card was made by stamping a Tim Holtz image of Mona onto a transparency and affixing that with brads to a piece of background paper with another piece of paper with the word "create" and typewriter key stickers to spell "art." Merci beaucoup.

Happy Chinese-y, I Mean Cheesy New Year!

Just a little ridiculous humor for my Artists of Chubbyville on Yahoo- All Originals January page swap with the theme "Year of the Rat." It made the home page here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Chubbyville/.

I was having trouble getting an idea until I saw the picture below, as I much prefer cats to rats. And certainly cheese rates right up there with cats. I understand our hostess this month was born in the Year of the Rat and likes rats, and apparently fostered one, although I don't know that story. I hope she will find humor in my page. Don't want to be sent packing from Chubbyville! Chubbyville is part of altered artists on-line and deals with 4 x 4 pages for fat books. I am about to bind all my pages for 2007, and will have to post pages of my first fat book soon! It also happens that I participate in 4 x 4 Friday, which is a weekly challenge to make art that is 4 x 4, so sometimes my pages can do double duty for that!

Imagine and Believe, 4 x 4 Friday

I created this 4-inch by 4-inch book page, front and back for the weekly challenge at http://4x4friday.wordpress.com/. The challenge was to create a 4 x 4 piece of art using blue and silver. Being active also in The Artists of Chubbyville on Yahoo!- a fat book group, I always like to make my 4 x 4's into double-sided pages so I can swap or bind them later.

Like blue and silver, I like the contrast of "Imagine" and "Believe," and I certainly think you can do both. As well, this is no commercial for anything. I say: Believe Whatever Works for You. But, the little turquoise cross charm came in a swap from Dale http://dalemclain.blogspot.com/, so it seemed perfect for this once I had drawn the earth.

Peace on Earth to everyone.

I Own a Gorilla and a Mirror

Well, actually, no one should 'own' a gorilla, but my little donation went in with the $500 raised in the Altered Art Obsession and the Artists of Chubbyville raffle to allow us to adopt Umushikirano, better known as Rano, a 14 year-old silverback from Beetsme's group, one of the main groups of mountain gorillas monitored by the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International.

And on top of that, I won a wonderful sea mirror with lots of beach glass made and donated by Jeanette Coates. There were lots of great pieces of art up for grabs, and other great artists who donated cash and/or supported the auction on their blog. All for Rano. Thanks especially to Rita Bellanca for coordinating everything and mailing all the prizes out and covering the shipping so that 100% of our funds could be donated. Besides sponsoring Rano, a significant donation was made to Wildlife Direct, founded by Dr. Richard Leakey.

Rano was born in 1992 to Fuddle and has two sisters (Mawingu, 25, Taraja, 7) and two brothers (Bilbo, 28, and Joliami, 19). Both brothers are also lone silverbacks whose current location remains unknown. Rano can be recognized very easily by his nose which has a distinctive cut. His kindness and easygoing demeanor allow trackers to get good photos of him because he seems to always be ready for a photo opportunity.

Rano is now what is known as a lone silverback, in that he has moved away from his natal group. He has been making attempts to form his own group since then. He managed to garner two females to join him for a short period of time but soon lost them to another group that ranges into the Congo border.

DFGFI lost contact with him between 9/06 thru 4/07 but he's back.Rano continues to be monitored and allows a great opportunity for the DFGFI staff to learn more about the fascinating lives of mountain gorillas. Fascinating work that would be!

Blythe Obsession Comes in Handy

The 4 x 4 Friday challenge this week was "lace," so I thought why not incorporate my newest obsession of Blythe dolls since they are so sweet. The pictures are from a paper fan sent from Tokyo with my first Blythe, Lilly, aka Star Dancer. The fan was distributed by a Japanese hair coloring company (for real peeps, not dolls), but they used Blythe images on all of the packaging. Think Clairol Nice 'N Easy boxes with Blythe heads instead. Anyway, to make a long story short, here is my page, and now I've got to hop on over to Wordpress to link it. 4 x 4 Friday gets participants from all over the world, which is cool. Blythes are much more well known in Japan and the rest of Asia.

4 x 4 Theme Friday: TREE and a Very Zetti Christmas To You and You and You

It was another busy night in artland....the theme from 11-16 for 4 x 4 Friday was "Tree," so here you have my "Tree." I got the idea from an article by Cherl Hussman in Somerset Studio magazine about "newsies." She uses newspaper or book pages with text to cut out basic shapes for card-making and collage. My tree is going with the red "package" to the Chubbyville All Originals December 4 x 4 page swap. The tree is for hostess and birthday girl Debbie Metti. Meanwhile the package is for the theme "Memories" and opens to reveal a 1962 Christmas scene and old color photo of someone who was then two years old.

The Zetti style ATCs, and you just have to appreciate Zetti style to even begin to understand these, are for a swap in Monroe, MI next week. I'm going to meet up with some ARTchix in person: Jade, Vonda and Coral at Crafts 2000 to do a Zetti Holiday ATC swap. These are two of the three cards I made. Looking forward to meeting these talented ladies in person!

A Productive Night!

I think I was so excited to register for Art and Soul (and not have the checkout hassle that some registrants did) that I was inspired to head directly to the studio. I don't think I moved for four hours. And, although I only have 5 ATCs to show for it, I am happy with them. One is for a swap with Dana of Fairy Dusted Mermaids (shhhh!) and one is for a birthday goody for Debbie Metti (shhh!) in the mailing with my Chubbyville December fat book page of "Christmas Memories" which she is hosting. These are all made with background papers from Shabby Cottage Studio, and as a design team member I say "get yourself to SCS!" My mini giftie bag and ATC are featured! Order a dozen or two.

I also spent some time on my four ornaments for the Pink Christmas Ornament Swap and planned my snowman for Viv's Snowman Swap. So, I am winding down on my holiday to-do list. Maybe I can finally get some stuff on ebay and feed my habit(s). Speaking of habits, here's a pictures of a cute button bouquet I found on etsy and a new mosaic from Flickr.

Art and Soul, look out! I am registered for Acrylic Glazes, Landscapes of the Mind and Drawing Blast- and what a blast it will all be! My instructors are Carla Sonheim, Ann Grgich and Diana Trout. "Art By the Sea" is the theme for 2008. It will be like a mini-vacation to the beach. Counting the days!

A Good and Crafty Weekend

Saturday started early, and I was going to pull the covers back over my head until I remembered it was Stamp Camp weekend. Cris http://sassafraslass.blogspot.com/and Angie of Creative Cottage put on a free three-hour card-making fest for those in their monthly Stampin' Up order group. So I went to North Webster to see what they came up with. We decorated candles by melting tissue paper on them, and we made some great Holiday cards.

I followed this with a trip to the local rubber stamp store to see Jan here http://www.stamp-n-toys.com/, and then to the antique mall for a quick peek. I came home with a Lamb Chop (as in Sherrie Lewis) and another printer's tray to embellish later. I figure Lamb Chop is nearly extinct now, and for $3.50 I felt like saving her. I have become rather attached to dolls, books and figure from my childhood- a sure sign of growing old.

The drive through the lakes, past Tippecanoe, Irish, Sechrist and Barbee to North Webster was absolutely beautiful with the sun on the trees, and of course I forgot my camera! I figured I'd go back Sunday, but today has been very wet and gloomy. A good day for sweats and potato soup for sure! And a nap. Always a nap.

Between all of the that, I finished my cottage for http://thelittlebluebirddiaries.typepad.com/Lil Bluebird's Charming Cottage Swap for my partner Priscilla at http://sweetremembrance1.blogspot.com/. It is due Dec. 1, but there's not very many weekends between now and then, and weekends are reserved for art.

The chipboard papier mache cottage, seen here, has wallpaper, flooring, curtains, a rug, artwork, a bottle brush tree with non-working lights, and the outside includes German scrap, background papers, a wreath with "lights," spray snow, tinsel, liquid applique snow and glitter. It does not have a fire extinguisher.

Fire extinguisher? Yes, while heat-setting the liquid applique snow I accidentally set the flocked wallpaper and the tinsel garland on fire. My little cottage was smokin' and not in a good way. Back to square one. Anyway, now it is done and drying.

On to my mermaid swap, pink ornament swap, snowman swap, 4 x 4 Friday Face challenge and Chubbyville 4 x 4 Holiday Memories book page. I bought a Zutter book binder, so I am looking forward to putting my pages together into my first fat book.

Here's a look at some great Flickr photos from my contacts. More info here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12448123@N07/1971134265/. Happy Sunday! My Betseys are on the way from Sadie Lou http://craftilyeverafter.blogspot.com/, my Star Dancer is on the way from Tokyo. See her as Zelda here at the cutest blog ever http://adventuresofmolli.blogspot.com/. I don't have to be me 'til Monday. Thank you, country music.

Ga Ga for Octopi. Blog Explains it All.

So much is going on; I wish I were an octopus. Or a General. As in "yes, ma'am" and "right now, sir, ma'am." That would mean I would have little helpers, like art elves, to help me get everything done for the shows, swaps and contests going on right now (not to mention holiday gifts!) Gifts? I thought it was still late summer, or at least early fall. And now I have to contend with all my clocks "falling back" tonight, thanks to Daylight Savings Time.
This is nothing new to most of you, but here in Indiana we are only about one year into this new plan which we haven't had since 1972. And back then, all I cared about was boys, or maybe Barbie dolls. But I think it was boys.
So, not only do I have to remember to change all my clocks, I have to figure out what time it really is (okay, so I've already butchered three pop songs in three paragraphs - if anyone can figure out what they are and send a comment, I'll send you an art goodie). The reason I have to figure out the time is that of our 33 clocks, watches, cell phones and computers, we've got a spread variation of 17 minutes and about that many different times going at the moment. But enough about that.
Here's a little sneak peek of a garland I am making for Heather http://www.xanga.com/brezomayo in the Ga Ga for Garlands swap. I think I like it so much, I need to make myself one. I also have a groovy swap with Dale at Sea Dream Studio http://dalemclain.blogspot.com/, and an ATC swap with Debra L. in TN. My ATC shown from my Zettiology group, "Believe in Art," is the one I am sending her.
Not sure if I am supposed to blog about this yet, but no one said it was a no-no, so here goes: some of my artwork was chosen by ARTchix Studio http://www.artchixstudio.com/ to appear on the pet faux postage sheet that will be sold in the studio to art lovers all over the world! This is really my first hard copy publication, so I am very honored and excited. ARTchix truly does reach all over the world as it is based in Canada, and the Yahoo! ARTchix group I am in has members from Great Britain and Spain to name a couple spots. Here's a sneak peek at one of my five submissions. I don't know what was chosen. This is one I doodled.
Another one shows sweet Larry, who is a little sick and is at the vet this weekend. He's only 3 and so loveable and is having a lot of urinary and digestive tract problems. But Dr. Carla Carlton says he should be as good as new soon. I went to visit today. He does not like the barking dogs there and burrows under his blanket. I wanted to steal him away home, but I know he needs fixed up. Lester is missing him. Lester was on a pet faux postage stamp submission also.
I also am finishing submissions for Somerset Studio and the Faerie Zine, so where are those art elves for packing and shipping? Next up are four ornaments for the Pink Ornament Swap, and I am starting with bottle brush trees for my base. Shown here is the most adorable ornament ever, and she is headed straight for my house (along with five hot pink-headed sisters) for my white tree. Sadie Lou Hartmann makes the greatest stuff! You can find her on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=94357 or here http://www.flickr.com/photos/craftilyeverafter/, but you can't have my Betsy!
My other upcoming projects are a cottage swap wherein I will make, paint, decorate a tiny little whimsical holiday house, and a snowman ornament swap. I'd like to get more stuff done and off to ebay to support all my viscious art habits (more on new ones later), but the elves and the octopi haven't shown up yet.
Don't forget to read the post below to help my Chubbyville group save the gorillas. Please.

Take a Chance on Art; Help Save the Gorillas

Altered Artists Online and one of my online art groups, Chubbyville (fat books, not fat people!), are hosting a giant charity raffle this month! Raffle tickets are on sale now. The drawing will be held at the end of November.

Go here: http://aaocharities.blogspot.com/ to check out the incredible art prizes. More will likely be added before the end of the auction, so check back frequently! Raffle tickets are only $2 each. Best of all, its all for a good cause!

The chosen charities are the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI) and WildlifeDirect, both of whom are working tirelessly to save Gorillas. DFGFI is dedicated to the conservation and protection of gorillas and their habitats in Africa. See: http://www.gorillafund.org/

WildlifeDirect was founded and is chaired by paleontologist and African conservationist Dr Richard Leakey, who is credited with putting an end to the elephant slaughter in Kenya in the 1980s. Go here: http://www.wildlifedirect.org/blogAdmin/gorilla/. Both the DFGFI and WildlifeDirect are responding to the immediate crisis in the Congo, where at least 9 mountain gorillas have been killed this year.

PLEASE HELP SAVE THE GORILLAS. HOW TO DONATE: Entries for the raffle will be accepted until NOVEMBER 24TH 2007. All donations are accepted via Paypalby one of my fellow group members Rita B. Please use discodog01@hotmail.com as the recipient email address.

Let's Get Some ART on this Blog

Okay, enough cupcakes (even though those seem to get a lot of comments). I have been gone a lot and not able to make art or post art like I'd like. So enough of that. At least the mailman brought me some art! I received this gorgeous handmade 4 x 4 book page (front and back shown) from the September page swap in Chubbyville, home of fat books. The creator was none other than published artist, fellow ZNEr and fellow Midwesterner Debbie Metti. Swap hostess Jan Roberts, also published herself in 1000 Artist Trading Cards, was kind enough to send me some bonus copies of other pages since I am new to the group and only had one page for my book so far. Those are shown also. They are highly embellished copies and quite nice. I also came home with some great new reading with hot-off-the-press issues of Somerset Workshop, Sew Somerset and Somerset Memories- all eye candy for sure.