Well folks, it’s 2012!

Hello Followers,

Thank you for following me even when I have been long remiss in posting. 2012, I have so much hope for you! 2011 was a wild roller coaster ride. J was ill for almost 3 months. Then family illnesses that literally sapped the energy and vigor out of me.

I have made a promise to myself to do something artsy/craftsy every day. So far, day 2, I have done it…I’m batting 1000! I am making a promise to myself to take care of Sue, everyday, not let life get in the way all the time….

Next time, I will upload new pictures of projects I am working on…including a mixed media post card swap and a new altered book for the upcoming Marin Museum of Contemporary Art Altered Book Show in April. I have been doing a lot of brain storming and came up with my theme….don’t want to reveal too much, but the theme is “Night”. And…I am making my own book this year with signatures, book boards and more. It’s a big challenge but I feel up to it.

What I have learned in 2011 was to never try to force my round peg into a square hole. It has always backfired on me….I think I finally get it! I learned to set up boundaries that are comfortable for me and never back down if someone or something wants me to. I am still a work in progress….until next time,

Sue

“Look” The Altered Book

Hello!

Oh my goodness…I have delayed far too long for a new blog posting…I am in the final stages of my “Look” altered book. Almost ready to go to the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art tomorrow, Sunday, July 18th. I have taken several shots of the pages in progress and am going to post some of them here. I am having trouble with my computer reading my digital camera memory card so I am having to do several other steps to get the photos off the card, uploaded onto the computer for them to be available to post here.

What a long strange trip it’s been…

“Leapin’ lizards…” said Little Orphan Annie in the comic strips…I am in total alignment with this. These past 3 months since the beginning of the year have been intense, immense and life changing! We bought a new to us car and moved to a smaller house, all within 1 month’s time…and at the beginning of the month, we had no idea we would be doing this!

Wowee zowee…having to downsize is freeing but crazy at the same time! We took bags, boxes and any other container we could find of clothes, stuff and anything else we could find to charities in the area. We had haulers come and take stuff away, we dumped, gave away to friends and anyway else we could get rid of the excess, but still it took 13 hours to move only .25 mile away. And, we still have stuff around that will not fit into our tiny unit in our 4plex. Don’t get me wrong…I loved getting rid of the stuff, but it was soooooooo much work! Ugh! I don’t want to go there anytime soon again.

The good thing…we have a new to us 2006 Toyota Corolla and are saving nearly $400 per month on the rent. That rocks my world.

Now onto the best stuff…my artwork! I am still finding bits and pieces of craft materials everywhere! I don’t have my art table set up and as a matter of fact, we can’t fit our dining room table in our new place. So…we are trying to manage as best as we can until we find the perfect table/chairs for the room. I had the opportunity to go to a crop this weekend and got some good craft time in… I am in a Peter Rabbit ATC swap, so I created a little book or Peter Rabbit, with 4 atcs. Hope my partner will like this! Click on the pictures to get a close up of these pages. I am making a promise to myself to get busy with my art and blog again. These are things that truly make me happy!

page 4 and front

page 2 and 3

page 1

New ideas for altered books

I just received my Zutter Bind it All from my purchase on Ebay. I have been salavating for more than a year for it and I finally decided to buy it. For those folks who are not familiar with a Zutter…it is a binding machine to make your own books, anything from 1 inch on up to 12 inches. It punches the holes for the binding then inserts the wire coil so it is bound together. I can’t wait to use it! I have finished my book on  ” Time” some time ago ( sorry for the pun) and was waiting to purchase the Zutter to punch/bind the pages. Now I can do it!

Additionally, I have been thinking of new ideas for my altered book projects…always thinking….I happen to be a Discovery ID channel addict. I love true crime stories and how science and old fashioned police work can solve these crimes. Anyway, there has been a commercial running with interesting photographs etc. along with a voice over that says: “Look up, look down, look around, look out, look beyond, look away, look closer, looks can be deceiving, look at the details, look at the facts, look guilty, look suspicious, look at the big picture, look through someone or be overlooked, look lost, take a look, look behind closed doors…never stop looking.”   I loved that! I am going to a book on “Look”. I have started collecting images from magazines, the web etc. A work in progress….

The other book I would like to do is on the intro to the Twilight Zone:

 “You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead – your next stop, the Twilight Zone!” As I found out through my research on the web, there are several variations on this intro…I hope to incorporate several of them into my book. Stay tuned….

One more one….

Before I pack up the Christmas stuff, I made these Christmas panels, made from the same chipboard kit that the Haunted House pages were made from. Here are a sample of a few of the pages. Enjoy and Happy New Year to all! May 2010 be a much better year for all of us! I need some good karma!

The King of 5th Street

I have the privledge of living with a self appointed King. He’s happens to be a Scotsman, a court jester, a persnickitysort (sometimes), my confidant, my best friend, my friend when no one else is paying any attention to me and more. The first pix are from Halloween when Maynard G. Krebs was dressed as a court jester…unfortunately, no one came to see us! The next pix were taken today when we brought in a 35 lb. bag of new dog food. MGK felt it was his job to do a quality test on the food…with enthusiasm. It was too hilarious! Enjoy!

Quality Control Testing on Dog Food

Please come and visit me so I can kiss you!

I’m ready for my close up

Two ATCs

One of my favorite subjects is cemetary angels, as most of you know. Here are two ATCs I made about a year ago. I did not take the photos, but found them somewhere in a magazine and fell in love with them. Although the whole piece is not too complex, I really like the simplicity of them. Enjoy!

Christmas Day

Christmas 2009! It came so quick and has gone by so quick! I have had a pleasant day at home trying out new recipes, enjoying good food and being around John and Josh.

Looking forward to being able to sleep in for the next 2 days. Then back to work for 3, but off for 4 again!

Hope everyone out there is having a good day too!

Film Class

John and I had the good fortune of going to our local community college and taking a History (albeit brief) of Movies from 1893 to 1950 with a great instructor named Frako. We learned a ton, wrote 3 papers including writing your own movie and more. Can’t wait to take more classes! I made this small altered book for her as a thank you. It is 3″ x3″ made from stuff I have around. I wrapped it in a page from the Pacific Film Archive catalog with Otto Preminger movies featured.

Anatomy of a Movie

Anatomy of a Christmas Card

Hello All,

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to blog at least 3x per week. I’m starting early! I begun my creation of my Christmas cards back in October. The challenge to myself was to create the cards from virtually everything I already had at home. And Lord knows that I have enough at home for several crafters! I saw an example of the card on another card making website and “altered” it a bit…as usual.

Step One: Cut manila folders into 1″ x 2″ tags, then tea dye them overnight and let dry.

tea dying manilla tags

Step Ten: Well, there were many more steps on the way, but let’s just say, lots of mundane things were done to the tags: punch a hole, insert eyelet, colored ribbon, distress them some by wrinkling them up, etc., attach 1″ clip art, assemble card by attaching holiday papers, then vellum envelopes to the front, stamp JOY with black stays on ink, print out greeting in the inside and rubber stamp trees and stars, add glitter. This is why I started this project in October. Although it sounds like a ton of work, it was so much fun. I love the tactile feel of creating things.

tea dying manilla tags