All Things Altered

I was inspired by a doll I had seen on Etsy of an art doll out of found objects.  I love the vintage feel!  She had used a single piece of wood for the body and for proportions I wanted to use, I had a couple of children's blocks that I glued together. The neck is a vintage spool of thread and the head a smaller vintage child's block.

 

The front of her body is covered in vintage medicine bottle labels from a Tim Holtz scrap book paper.  I adorned her with scrabble tiles and jewelry hardware.

 The better sides of the blocks I let show through.  An old folding ruler and a child's vintage toy silver ware knife became the legs.  One of my old favorite worn out brushes became one arm while the other was made from wire, buttons and springs.  I drilled holes to attach the limbs and worked with fun wire as it is much easier on your hands.  The wings were from a dragonfly I had found at a yard sale some years ago.

I had a metal medallion that I had bent in half and used brads to attach her crown piece.  Her face a vintage photograph and some old lace.  I used an old bobbin and some metal bead spaces for the limbs so that they could swing free for her to sit or be fully upright.  I have had thoughts of adding a screw eye so that she could be hanging if one wanted her to.  She was a lot of fun.  I have enough old blocks to make at least 3 more dolls later on.  I will have to hunt yard sales this summer for more old limbs that would work.  

I also did a challenge piece for a swapbot group.  We were to use this photo of the sailor boy altered on an ATC.  I knew I was going to put some thing different in his hands and what came to mind was a bucket full of Carona bottles on ice that I had on a placemat from a Mexican restaurant. LOL  Then I ran across this mermaid tail and seahorse, so the rest fell into place.

I almost didn't reduce it enough to fit on the ATC!  I used fish charms and some metallic stars for embellishment.  Anyone want to try the challenge?  I would love to see what you come up with!  

  I had found a funny image to add to the back of the ATC. I think it's hilarious!

I love how people can be so creative to come up with some unique photos.  Here's another one that I found while doing a search.

A shark was used and digitally altered to make up this crazy new species!

apparently this photo and the woman with the fish eyes can be downloaded as wall paper on your computer!  

I prefer for my cats to be pretty tame though! So in the jungle, the mighty jungle... the lion sleeps tonight!

(Azlan my little "dandy" lion who's fur is starting to grow back.)

Dominos...And I Just Don't Mean Pizza!

I have seen some lovely domino books, so simply had to try one myself.  Aside from my hands being painted copper and being stuck up with glue, it was a lot of fun!

Except for the images that I recently purchased from Cemerony, I had everything else in my stash.  The little tatted center piece was made by my friend, Peggy. (Note, the images I chose had to be cut down an inch to fit)

I also had this wee little stamp from Stampin Up that was the finish for the back.  If you would like to make one, there's an excellent tutorial and more examples at Artfully Musing.

At the same time, I purchased some new images from Cemerony for a circus themed swap.  I couldn't resist doing entertainers and circus freaks with mix and match body parts.   I will have to make myself some coaster size ones to add to my chunky circus book that I had started earlier.

Then I managed to make a few chunky blocks for a Tim Holtz swap. (Sorry for the poor lighting)

Remember the puzzle pieces I made awhile back?  This one needed more to it so it sat in my unfinished pile before I added some changes to it.  This was before:

This is after:

She will be traded out in my paper doll group.

And I had a couple of photos of Honey that I wanted to put into an ATC. I couldn't resist putting glasses on him. lol

Our poor Honey cat was missing for two days.  I was getting pretty worried.  We all hunted for him and just by chance, my step son, Rob opened up the old house next door and there he was!  Poor guy, I suppose he was a sneaking in the work shop when Rob finished up.  He was very hungry and sure was glad to see us! 
I couldn't help but to add this funny LOL cat photo of the way things could have gone, if he had been there for awhile. LOL

Well I am off to my studio to clean up my mess from all of this artful activity.  See you in another chapter!

Head in the Clouds

The theme for the shabby chic group on the artists nest is wings this month, so I ran across Gustov Pope's 1895 photo that seemed rather angelic to work with.  My sheet of unmounted rubber stamps with moth, butterfly, dragonfly and angel wings that I had purchase earlier were eagerly waiting for me to try on other things. The stamp wouldn't fit my required 3 X 5 card, so I had a brain storm to make them 3 D!  I stamped on scrap book paper and glued them together to be reversible.  With an exacto knife, I made a slit at the shoulders to tuck the wings in and fold forward. I love the effect!

I used a light blue pan color to add a tinge of blue to the sky and a slight acrylic wash for over the head to lighten it. I adhered the photo to water color paper.  At the top and bottom, I let the water color paper show through and used a light wash of copper color box ink.  The gold swirls were pieces that I did on my cricut and then painted them gold as well as accents in other areas.

The wings could be closed and put into a ring book binding.  I may do this again with some crackle glaze, something that I have yet to try. I know that Tim Holtz has a paint that does some small crackle.  I am also thinking it would be cool to do some bat wings on a piece for Halloween!

Wings And Things/WOYWW

This week I have been playing with wings!  I am thrilled with my new rubber stamps that I had purchased on ebay that had several different wings that are unmounted. On my desk you can see I am beginning to work on a face that I have sketched out of a girl and will add wings to her and I finished several cats and cat fairies since Easter.

I have played with some cat zetti themed ATC's from photos I have taken of cats.

The cat is Dante', my niece's cat placed on a vintage boxer photo.  The black ring is actually a paper end from a prewound bobbin.

This is a photo of our little Bisky baby on a vintage child's body.  You usually find her with her tongue sticking out.  Here, I turned her eyes turquoise, but her eyes are actually golden yellow.

This hot lips is actually our cat, Boa.  Boa named after his feathered boa tail.  Yes, I said HIS, as he is a male cat, but sure made a cute girl here. lol

Miss copy cat is our cat, Nova.  As I was painting stripes on her to be more zetti, the idea hit me to make a lamp look alike.

Besides doing ATC's, I have made some cat fairy designs for a chunky page book exchange.  I have yet to add some jump rings and charms or ribbons to them.  I even noticed after the fact that some are missing some tails! LOL  I guess I was just too eager to post this new cat series.  It was too fun coming up with these new characters.  I couldn't resist adding the cat teeth of which our Boa cat laid on my desk and proudly modeled. lol   The cats were sketched out on scrap book paper while the background is painted in acrylics on bar coasters.  I used versa magic chalk inks and a piece of construction dry wall tape for the dots.  It's actually smaller holed than punchella.

I've named this cat  Dexter .  He's the WTF fairy.  He happens to be around no matter WTF happens!

The cat's name is  Digby, He is the cat fairy in charge of sprinkling magic fairy dust so that cats are ensured cat naps during the day.

This cat's name is Jean-Clawed.  He's in charge of ensuring that cat claws are nice and sharp!

This fairy cat's name is Prissy.  She's in charge of granting finicky tastes.

This is fairy cat, Dash.  He grants the cats speed for chasing small rodents.

This is Pouncer, the fairy cat in charge of birds. He teaches the skill of jumping, of which they occasionally bring home a trophy.

I could draw these forever, but for now, I have to finish off the backs of the cards and get some ready to send off in the mail.  Luckily I have kept a few for myself to make and add to my book.

If you wish join or to see what are on other work desks,  check out Julia's WOYWW.  I am sorry to say that I have missed the past couple of weeks, but seems I am making up for it now.

Happy Easter!

This year, my husband's birthday falls on Easter, so we have more to celebrate.  We had a traditional ham, mashed potatoes, asparagas, rolls and carrot cake for dessert. Two days later will be my daughter's birthday. She already picked out her gift as she wanted to adopt one of our cats after her beloved Murray was put to rest.  She chose Cheddar but renamed him Rudy. Not that there is lack for any cats around here, but I miss him already!  I dressed him up as Rudy Rabbit. lol  

When the kids were young we use to decorate eggs.... you know the kind, the ones that you used tablets and vinegar.  Now there are so many different choices, from sparkles, swirls, camo, pearls and others. 

One of my all time favorites I love are the ones with the Pysanky designs.  I had a lucky find last summer at a yard sale.  I found 6 Ukrainian Easter eggs and paid $1.50 for all of them!  Aren't they beautiful?  

The seventh one that I am holding in my hand was actually made by a friend who is Ukrainian and practices the art of pysanky. Much like quilting, they are a labor of love!

I ran across this display of the eggs in a vase.  Really cool as you can really see the designs much better!  I did a search and was so "egg"cited to find so many different ethnic styles, colors and  designs.  

One should never put all of their eggs in one basket:)