Keeping busy . . .

Seems I've missed a couple of days here. We went to Brookfield Zoo to see the new baby giraffe and I've been busy getting school supplies together. Been also playing around with PS making mini pages for the Nano. These are really fun to create . . . quick, easy, small and FUN!

Here are 2 so far that I like . . .

Even though the pic of Ian is pretty old, I like the way this "mini page" turned out! Like I mentioned . . . they're so quick and easy to make . . . it's addicting. I'm definitely making more of these today! Now I'll always have pics of them with me and I won't have to worry about ruining any original photographs. They're much nicer to look at than just a plain ol' photograph too!

By the way, I got this idea from Digital Scrapbooking magazine . . . in the June/July 2008 issue. This is a great magazine with some really cool ideas for digi scrapping!

Here's a photo of that baby giraffe too . . . it was taken by my little guy, Sam . . . I think he did a great job! The baby doesn't have a name yet so we'll have to wait and see.

Well, I'm off again to go play in PS!

Digital Scrapbook fever

Been thinking more about scrapbook projects and other thoughts and ideas, etc. for things to create in PS. I have these tiled patterns I created many years ago with Terrazo on the Mac. I saved them all this time and I created background papers with them. They are in 300 dpi though and I guess 200 dpi is what all the designers are now using. That is on DSP atleast.

Here's a small sampling of some of the papers I've created so far . . .

I should try to create a coordinated set in 200 dpi and get the Stuff-It program so I can convert them to zip files. Files, experiments and scrapbook elements are starting to take up quite a bit of space on the computer here. I probably should look about getting a back up disk drive as well. Well . . . I'm off to go play if PS for now!

Thoughts for today . . .

Been trying to clean out old stuff . . . in the "studio" and on the computer. Came across one of several quilts I still haven't finished yet. This one is intended to be a wall hanging or "art quilt" of a kimono.

It is on the smaller side . . . measuring 40 X 45 inches approximately so I could just stitch it on the machine. I guess I'm still not quite sure of the motifs I'd like to do so still it sits unfinished. Besides, I do have yet another quilt that is almost completed. (I still have to decide on the border I'd like to use) That one is much bigger though measuring 80 X 100 inches and the biggest quilt yet that I have undertaken. I have a picture of it here . . .

It's been sitting unfinished for atleast a year now. Since it's almost September, I'm starting to think about quilting again. I should try to finish it before that really bitter cold weather sets in. I know this one's gonna keep me nice and warm too! I do have a couple of other quilts that are still unfinished as well.

There are also 3 that I have finished and some other smaller pieces and wall hangings that I have done. I'll have to post pictures of those as well, but for now, I'm getting tired and want to wind down for the night. It's been an exhausting day . . . standing in line at the college with Ian so he can get his classes and schedule together and getting books 'n such. So . . . until tomorrow . . .

How 'bout the header ^ !

I really like the way it turned out! It didn't take very long either. This is just a small sample of some of the digitial art I've been creating lately. I'll be posting additional pictures and samples in the near future.


I've dabbled from time to time with Photoshop and have learned a few things over the past year or so. Recently, I got the digital scrapbook bug (Lot's of fun!) and came across this at the bookstore . . .



















I still have lots to learn about the ins and outs of it all, but I'm definitely having a lot of fun learning!

A New Day

I told myself last night that I would try to write here everyday so that I can get my thoughts down and get myself more organized. (I really need to straighten up my "studio" space yet again.) I came across this acrylic work that's in one of the many piles of books, papers, etc. on top of the table in there . . .

Again, I just started to play with the paint . . . here I used cream, light "sky" blue and chocolate as my base colors and just mixed variations from there. I tore pieces of sheet music and scrapbook paper and other textured papers and adhered them with gel medium. To create the first layer of texture I applied saran wrap to wet paint and let it set up. I also used a rubber stamp and even outlined some of those images with pen and pencil. Finally, I added some sand for additonal texture and because the colors reminded me of the beach. Here's a picture of the detail of the lower left hand corner. I just love the texture here!

This was painted on gesso primed 140 lb. watercolor paper and measures 12 X 17 1/2 inches. Again, the pictures don't see to be that great here, but in person, I really like the colors and textures I created.

My First Post

I just signed up for this today and want to see how it works.

I'm hoping to post some of my art work and get my thoughts about it written down so that I'll able to look back at what I did and how I accomplished it. It seems that the art I create and like is when I don't have a plan at all and just pick two or three colors of acrylic paint and start to play. That's how this painting came to be . . .

The picture looks washed out because of the glare at the top created by the gel medium used to adhere the sheet music. (Photography's not my thing really) It was painted on gesso primed 140 lb. watercolor paper and measures 12 X 17 1/2. My favorite part, of course, is the pear which you can see in detail here . . .

I really love the colors here . . . the blues, lime and yellows are one of my favorite combinations of colors of late. Crackling medium is something that I like to use to create texture on an otherwise flat surface and for backgrounds.