Technique Tag Book

About a week ago I received my tag book from the Creative Swaps Technique Tags Swap...
All of the tags are beautiful and include directions for the techniques used!

From Laura Hummel in Maryland:


Yvette Snowden, also in Maryland:


Lisa Mallette, studiorose, in Florida:


Lenna Andrews, creativelenna, in Florida:


Marianne Baugher, ruffhavenpaper, Maryland:



Sue Stout, who also lives in Missouri (like me):


Kitty Mitchell in New York:


Rena Matus in Connecticut:


Joy Meadows, fifisdaughter, Ohio:


And my tag, which Lenna used for the cover of my book...


...and I imagine she did the same with the other tag books--making each person's tag the cover of their own book--what a fun idea!

Thanks, Lenna, for a wonderful swap and for your time and care to make it so!

Lenna is hosting a new swap for mail-art if you'd like to give it a try. The details are here. I'm looking forward to it. Mail Art has intrigued me for some time and this will be the perfect opportunity to jump in. There are already over 40 artists signed up and it will be great to see what others create.

Marilyn

Creative Swaps - Technique Tag Book

I met a lot of wonderful artists in the "Your Vintage Gluebook Online Class"...including the lovely Creative Lenna!


One of Lenna's blogs, Creative Swaps, is where she hosts amazing art exchanges--what a find! And lucky for me, sign-ups for the Technique Tag Books Swap had started when I got there.....decorate 10 tags using a particular technique(s)--all the same or each one different--and include directions for the technique(s) on the back of the tags. Then receive back 10 beautiful Technique Tags from other artists--I love this idea!!

I was inspired by a post on iHanna's Blog---"Paint with a Plastic Card".

Using the plastic card, I started with a layer of gesso on both sides of the tag:


Then I added Golden Fluid Acrylic (Raw Sienna) to the front, also with the plastic card. I sprayed a light mist of water onto the paint, let it stand for a moment, then scraped it again.


I added a second layer of paint, repeating the process, this time with Golden Fluid Acrylic (Green Gold).


When the tags were dry, I placed a Tim Holtz Mask (Flourish) on the tag and rubbed Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) around the edges of the mask using a blending tool.


To finish, I added a rubber stamped image with StazOn ink (Timber Brown).


The same paint technique was used on the back of the tag, but green gold for the first layer...


...and Lumiere Pearl Turquoise for the second layer. This time, after spraying the water, I blotted it with a dry terrycloth rag instead of the plastic card. All that was left to do to the backs was add the written technique instructions.


Decorating the envelopes (the actual pages of the tag book) was optional but I was on a roll and had a good mess going already so I started with a layer of gesso to both sides, gold gesso--from Mary who kindly shared some at one of our craft days.


I dry-brushed a metallic blue to the edges of the envelope...


and a metallic red in one corner.


I used white gesso to stamp a swirly design and text around the edges...


and StazOn Jet Black for two more rubber stamp images.


And ta-da, a really fun project!


My Technique Tags are on their way to Lenna and I can now look forward to seeing the completed tag books--I know they're going to be wonderful!

Marilyn

Ten...

(a) Ten snowmen dancing? (b) Ten gingerbread men in need of baking? Or (c) Ten medical play dolls waiting? Ding-ding-ding-ding.....yes, C is the correct answer!

A group of us at church have been making Medical Play Dolls for a local children's hospital. These dolls are used to help hospitalized children express their feelings. The poly-filled fabric dolls have a blank face and body to allow the children to draw on them.

Apparently, the hospital uses about 50 of these dolls per day and was completely out when the group leader contacted them. We worked on the dolls some at church (which was especially fun) then took some home and we'll finish up any that are left this coming Sunday.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Another set of ten...

"I Heart Zines"



From the time I mailed off my swap package of ten zines, I started looking forward to the day when the box of zines from ten other swappers made its way to my doorstep. It arrived on Christmas Eve and what an incredible gift it is!


"Oddball Charm No. 6" by Alma Stoller, whom I consider to be queen of the zine!


"Greetings" by Emily S. Pruitt


"Time Management for Creative People" by Rose Momsen


"Angels on Fire...a Zine of Art Sundries for the Eccentric Artist" by Stephanee


"Gang of Happiness...a know-how manual to create and construct creatures making you happy" by Beate Knappe, complete with a quilted cover!


"Stationary and Envelopes Zine" by Lisa Schramek and Shalene McCollum


"Shape" by Deborah Boschert


"Gypsy Dreams, Paper Trails" by labluegypsy


"Gesso, Issue 3" by Sally Duncan


"Workbooks - the Zine" by Secret Terrabite

Am I going to be in reading/art heaven for a wonderful while?!!

Marilyn

In the Pink Artists Drawing, Everyone Wins!

For a donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure through The Pink Artists Drawing, Part 2, my name was entered...and drawn for one of the amazing 63 prizes gifted to the Prize Wheel by 63 equally amazing artists!


Specifically, an incredible mixed media piece, "Sailing Through It" by "Nikki" Lee Anne Ghilain, (Sun Soul Art Thoughts)!! It's gorgeous and I can't thank Nikki enough for her generosity!!

***************************
So, this is what it's looked like around here for a couple of days...

(Image from DryIcons)

Oh so dreary! But before the cold rain moved in, it was sunny and warm and I gathered up a few of the autumn leaves from our yard.


I decided to scan them...


...although, I'm not sure what to do with them.


Maybe you have an idea? Please feel free to use them:)

Marilyn

Can You Really Have Too Much Fun?

On Tuesday, Shawn and Bethany and I drove to Karla's lovely cottage for a craft day. Actually, we met Mary for lunch first--Mexican food, mmmm--then to Karla's and Beth arrived a little later.

It was the perfect craft day! Lots of chatting and laughing and lots accomplished! I worked on tags for the Sweet & Sinister swap...



a n d



Mary was very nice (and generous) to bring book covers for us to use for collage projects...like this one and this one that she put together--doesn't she do beautiful work?! Then, in no time at all, Karla turned two covers into a beautiful piece too! Amazing!

I also took my gluebook to work on--the one that I started on a craft day back in April, inspired by Mary's gluebook. I didn't get to it on Tuesday but I finished a page yesterday. This is what I have so far...






This is such a fun project and I really don't know why I don't play with it more often. Maybe I'm too busy swapping, hmmm...also fun! What's a crafter to do?!

Marilyn