A Little Art, A Little Organizing, A Little Destruction...

Well, I have a few photos to share from the past few days.

 I got a few new paints this past week, and I had to make some room for them.  Much reorganizing ensued, and this drawer got a serious makeover!  This is the after picture, I didn't take one before!

 My new Gelli-printing plate has all kinds of potential, but my learning curve seems to be fairly steep.  So, I joined a new group on Swap-Bot called The Print Shop, and it's all about Gelli print making!  They have a swap up for some hand-made stencils, and this was my first effort.  I found some fairly thick clear plastic and cut until I raised a blister.  I drew the feather, then cut it with an exacto knife.  I made two different attempts at it, and still didn't get it like I wanted it, but I think good enough for the swap.  I will play with it some more when I can feel my finger again! :P

 My pen-friend Karen and I decided to do a private swap for a 5X7 card.  This is what I made for her.  All the inchies and twinchies (1 and 2 inch squares) are cut from my first set of Gelli prints, then I embellished them all and put them on a collage of vintage maps that I sprayed with some ink.

 This and the next ATC are both made on Gelliprint backgrounds.  I had such a great response from the first one I made with the "violets" on it, that I made these for two different Swap-Bot swaps. The flowers are cut from a piece of sheet music I painted with twinkling H20 watercolors.

 Awhile back I made a master board (large collage to be cut into smaller pieces) and this was the last remaining ATC.  I added quite a few little scraps, the "spunky" flag and some glass bead gel on the leaf, hat and little key part that is cut out of gold card at the bottom.  It was snatched right up as soon as I posted it for trade. :)

 This ATC is on a background someone sent me in a swap.  The little scalloped edge piece is the back of a note that came in another swap.  I used ink and Fancy Pants rub-ons that I bought when a local scrapbook store went out of business about three or four years ago.  Still trying to use up my stuff!

This last piece is a 4X6 post card for a Swap Bot swap for red postcards.  It has a lot of different pieces of printed and painted papers, washi tape, baker's twine, calendar photos, and all sorts of mediums applied, from crackle paint to liquid laminate, glitter, ink, acrylic paint and tiny silver glass beads.

As for the title's "destruction" here is my tale.  Today I had to tackle the mound of dishes in the kitchen or face dire consequences.  Apparently among the dishes was the cap for a jelly jar I had emptied a day or two ago.  Did you know that jar lids and disposals are not compatible?!  The disposal won, the lid is in the trash, the jar is topless (gasp!) and likely destined for the recycle bin. So sad. :(

This Week's Art

My dream of regular posts here on my blog has not really come to fruition as I had hoped, but here I am with a little art update.  Hopefully by the end of today I will have another post ready with a little garden room update, because I am sure you are waiting with baited breath to see our progress! :)

This first piece is 6X9 inches.  It started out as the back cover for the last art journal I made, but was too thick to go into the machine that punches the holes for a spiral bound book.  So, since it was already taped and paper covered, I decided to make it into something else.  I had signed up for a "letter writing project" that turned out to be anything BUT letters, and my partner in that was the recipient of this bit of collaged mixed media.  She said it was, "the most beautiful thing anyone had ever given her."  Made me happy that she liked it! :)

These six Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) are for a "jam" or "round robin" where three artists collaborate, then each one ends up with two completed cards in the end.  The first is a young man in Michigan with whom I have been swapping ATCs for a couple of months.  Great guy!  I put on the second layer, then sent them on to a pen-friend I met on Instagram with whom I am doing all sorts of swaps including both art journals I have sent off!

This is one of two ATCs (both shown below) I made for a swap-bot swap with a Valentine's Day theme.

The Facebook group I am part of (Mixed Media ATC Artists) does two swaps per month.  This one is Red or Pink with a heart.  We make three cards to swap, this and the next two are my offerings for this swap.

One of my Instagram friends is a teacher in Neosho, MO, and is doing a handmade postcard swap with several of her students 5th-8th grade.  She asked for volunteers who would be willing to swap with the kids, so I did this one. I recycled the cover of a calendar I received from my daughter who faithfully brings me all sorts of crap wonderful crafting materials. :)

This picture is my first art journal page in one of the traveling journals I am participating in.  The owner of the journal likes purple and blue, butterflies and outdoors.  It was a tremendous learning experience for me, and while it was not what I would have made had I known at the beginning what I learned in the process, I think she will be happy with it.

And, lastly, more giftings from Elizabeth (Victoria Secret packaging) turned into post cards.  I covered them with vintage maps, used washi tape, modeling paste, some new stencils, embossing powder, Dylusions inks, Stickles Glitter, some stamped tissue paper I got in a swap, embroidery floss and found letters. One is a thank you card for a RAK I received in November, and the other is for a mail art swap.

I took these postcards to the Post Office to make sure I had sufficient postage on them, and Ornery brought the boxed mail up to the counter while I was there.  Apparently there had been wild speculation among the postal employees as to who the recipient of all the wildly decorated mail was.  :)  I think they were disappointed that I was just an ordinary patron, not some Casanova with lots of girlfriends from all over the world.  :D  However, they seemed to be enjoying all the colorful mail I get.  Sadly, they don't get to see much of the wild stuff I send out!

Happy Art Swap

One of the things I have recently started participating in is a swap I found on Instagram called Happy Art Swap.  Once a month, each participant sends in 4 cards 5X7 size with original art on it.  The organizer shuffles them up and sends out three to each participant, keeps a set for herself, then sends extras to various people.  Here are the cards I made for the December #haswap.

 This first card reflects my love for the written word--snail-mail, pen-pals and the like.  The "letter" is stamped on, then I hand wrote the text.  The other little post card image is also stamped, as is the metallic embossing on the upper left and lower right corners.  The pen was an embellishment in a packet from K&Co, the stamps from my stash, and the green seal I put on with sealing wax.  There is a tiny bit of washi tape on the top of the letter--because almost every single letter I send has washi on it somewhere!

 The background didn't turn out quite like I had wanted it to, so I added the edge of the map to cover some of it up.  No problem!  It set the tone for the seaside feel of this card.  Again, the trees, and I think the letters if I recall correctly are all K&Co embellishments.  I added distress stickles glitter to the palm trees.

 This card, framed in washi tape, has a little card in the upper corner from a winery and is written in Russian.  The flowers were all white when I started, but I painted them all with twinks.  I used little rhinestones for the centers as I didn't want to put brads through the heavy illustration board that I made these cards from.

 This last one is all about the new year.  Lots of fortune cookie strips in the pocket, and all of them offer good wishes.  The words were all cut from junk mail. :)

I don't think I posted the November cards, and since they got deleted before I was able to download them, I borrowed the picture Sandie posted on her blog.  Here is the November set--my first ones ever. :)

Artist Trading Cards and a Little Update

Life is interesting, and sometimes it takes different twists and turns.  For the last several years I have been practically inseparable from my laptop.  It was rare that a day would go by without me spending several hours on it either writing, or just cruising the interwebs.  Well, I got this little tablet computer, and it has enabled me to have INSTANT access to things!  I don't have to wait for the computer to boot-up, then for pages to load, etc.  It has spoiled me something fierce!

Since I haven't figured out a really good way to upload blog posts to it yet, I am terribly behind on posting.  I have also had a hard time maintaining so many different blogs, instagram, facebook, and so on, so I have mostly been posting to Instagram--a feature that is also a great thing about the tablet is that I don't have to use my phone's data plan!

So, I have decided to merge all my special interest blogs into one, and have my Instagram, Swap-Bot, and Blog names all the same--I am orneryswife everywhere! :)  I hope to eventually get my favorite posts ported over from all my other blogs, but during the busy holiday time is not the best time for that.  For now, I am leaving up the other blogs.

Now, on to the last several Artist Trading Cards I have made.  Each card is 3.5 X 2.5 inches.
 

A friend sent me a short note on a memo that had the bird and flowers on it, another friend sent me the little diecut purple flowers which I highlighted with liquid pearls to change the color from purple stems to green. There is other liquid pearl scattered around on the flowers, and glitter around the edge of the whole card.  The background is painted with twinkling H2O watercolors.  The text is some sort of Arabic, I think. :)

This and the next one were sort of a reaction to all the Christmas themed cards I have been doing.  I was getting tired of red and green, and the whole Christmas theme, so I rummaged around through my scraps and came up with some black and white things... ideas are never far from the surface when there are such fun things to work with!

My first "New Year" themed card!  I haven't had many uses for those silver letters--I think they came with a page kit I bought a few years ago.  They fit just perfectly on the little bunting!

This background was made by another swapper who sent it to me as an extra in a SwapBot swap.  I added the flowers and the washi tape, the rest was already there.  The flowers are punched from paper, then coated with Glossy Accents to give them sheen.  They weren't dry yet when I took the picture.  The stems/leaves are freehand cut from a piece of paper with Washi Tape stuck to it.  I am really in love with the way it turned out!

This ATC was an experiment on so many levels!  I had been hankering to do a bit more paper weaving, so I cut strips from several different papers I had painted, and wove them together, then selected all the other embellishments from my stash.  The tiny little squares are from the ends of the weaving, and when they fell onto the card, I decided I liked the look and added a few more!  It looks like confetti. :)  The dragonfly is a diecut from K&Co.

This is very similar to a card I did a month or so ago.  It got rave comments on Instagram, and I figured if they liked it once... This time I added lace instead of ribbon, and the feathers are way cool, two spotted and one striped! :)  The black stem of little flowers is from the same swapper (and is the same diecut in a different color) as the purple in the first ATC in this group.  And, of course, I added a bit of Washi Tape at the bottom.

This little house ATC is for a Mixed Media group swap.  I used book pages with text in Italian, Arabic, and Russian, some punchella, (discard from making sequins) Washi Tape, and some cotton for the smoke.  For media, twinkling H2O watercolors, pen and ink, and distress ink.

Lots of little strips of torn book pages and map on this twinkling background!  I used Silks acrylic glaze on the puzzle pieces and alcohol inks on the little letters that were not the colors I wanted! I freehand cut the heart (would love a little punch in that shape!) and coated it with glossy accents.  Then I added orange glitter around the edges.  It is very colorful!

This is one of my favorites! (which is why I called it magical!)  The little flowers and dragonfly punches were from a swapper who sent them as extras with her amazing swap.  The book page background is in Italian, and painted with several colors of yellow twinks, with a little orange added it.  When it was mostly dry, I placed on it a piece of bubble wrap that had been on a dark blue piece of paper and was still wet.  The result was quite fun, and the colors don't seem to show nearly as well on my computer as they did in person.

This is the second illustration from this little book about Polly I picked up for free at my accountant's office.  He also owns a used book store and has shelves of books you can take for free at his tax office. Thank you, I believe I will!  This one I used my twinkling H2O watercolors to add the color, and I liked the way it turned out quite well.

This last ATC is from a little grouping of flowers my daughter drew for me and I painted with twinks.  It was almost too big for the ATC, but I didn't lose much of it. I placed it over a piece of paper I found folded and wrapped in plastic beneath some washi tape samples someone had sent me.  I thought it made a fine background for this!  Finally I added the little lady bug brad.