Just when you thought you were going to squeak by winter with no more snow, since the freak storm in October,that is, and being one of the driest winters on record………… this happens.
…but I know who’s enjoying it the most…..
.. and it’s still snowing… Enjoy.
Judy ♥
Yes Yes, I’m here. I was only gone a minute, wasn’t I?
Wow.. what a couple of crazy weeks, I tell you. Between working my day job and surviving the New England October snowstorm with no electricity, I have been completely un-creative. I’ve lost my MoJu (get it? instead of “mojo” MoJu for Judy?). No?
Just when we were enjoying our New England Walk, a freak Nor’easter hits us like we never expected.
I took a few pictures to capture what was going on.
The night of the storm, outside my front door in the flower garden:
Kind of pretty at night like this. You can see my roses peeking out from the blanket of snow. We really didn’t get a lot of snow.. about 6″, but the weight of the snow and the leaves that hadn’t fallen yet, is what did all the damage.
As we drove out of town, we took a couple of pictures along the way.
This is only a couple a SEVERAL trees that obstructed our roads. Lots of wires were down on the roads also.
Check this tree out. We actually drove underneath it which was probably not a good idea.
Many towns were out of power for about a week… and I believe that most have their power back. The roads are still a bit messy and it’s disappointing that they are still not entirely cleared yet. This is only the beginning of the season. One can only hope these towns have their acts together and prepare for a tough winter so we can avoid another outage.
But, really, this is nothing compared to the devastating and tragic occurences that have happened in other parts of our country and around the world. I am grateful that this is all that happened. Just because I could never be a pioneer woman, doesn’t mean I can’t whine about it.
Well, Dixie doesn’t care.. she’s just glad to be home sleeping on her warm pillow… what a life! Love the tongue.
Before the storm hit, I was able to get in the studio to create a few hand-made embellishments.
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If you follow my blog, you know how I just enjoy making these. I love to manipulate them to make them my own. You can see that I added cheeks to the faces. I have many molds that I made when I first began working with polymer clay about 10 years ago. I recall bringing wads of it with me wherever I went and when I saw a cool texture, I’d impressed it and carefully take the clay home to bake. Yes, my family thought I was coo coo.
I probably won’t post for about two weeks now as I have a business trip coming up and then a week off to prepare for Thanksgiving at my home this year. HELP! I plan on getting in some studio time after the holiday since it will be a long weekend. No Black Friday shopping for me…. no sir eee.
Thanks for your patience, everyone, and for stopping by to see if I was still in existence.
Judy ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
My husband and I went for a long walk today. It was just gorgeous out. I decided to take my camera with me and take YOU along too.
The colors this years are not the greatest, but remember saying that last year and then two weeks later, it was vibrant. But, we had such a harsh summer with the heat, that the trees got a beating. Did I say that last year too? Check out last year’s posts HERE and HERE – wow pretty last year.
Ok, ready? C’mon.. bundle up.. it’s chilly and keep up.
Let’s start out heading down the road from our street… take a left..
I’m trying to get the effect of the “tunnel of trees”. Are you feeling it?
There’s a little color, but no bigness here…. keep on going.. I tried to get some bigger trees…
I just love that this back hoe is just sitting there for years, nature growing all around it. Don’t you wonder why someone left it there… Isn’t John Deere missing one?
Ok.. that’s better… close up next…
Let’s go down the road some more here.. we’ve only just begun.
And.. look what I came across.. tried to shoot a short video…
Ahh.. wasn’t that nice? Thought you’d like that… c’mon there’s more…
Crossing over into the next town… my feet hurt.
That rusted horseshoe has been there for months, untouched. I thought about grabbing it to make something out of it.. but it seems to belong there.
The honor system.
.. and there’s another piece of equipment.. an old tractor. I think it actually works.
You with me still? I know it’s a long walk, but don’t you feel good? My feet hurt.
Oh, and look who took a quick top to check us out. Cute.
I know, I know.. there are a lot of pictures… I’ve really cut some out too. Hang in there with me, please.
Now, this tree is the same one in my post from last year. Look at the difference in the colors. Maybe it will pop in a week or so.
Once we get over this little hill, I have a surprise for you… watch..
It’s Laverne & Shirley (I actually just made that up..I don’t know their names). They were never out this summer on my walks.. but so glad they came out for us today.
..and I took a little video for you
Enjoy that?
Ok, let’s turn around and go home…
It’s getting there…
..and there you have it… you just did about 4 miles. Thanks for joining me. I wish the colors were more fantastic for you this year, but it gives you the feeling of our Fall season right now. I hope you enjoyed it. Now go relax and drink your water… My feet hurt.
Thanks for walking by.
Judy ♥
I’m sorry I’ve been gone a little while. I’ve been buried in work and snow. This week, I was beginning to feel like an eskimo in an igloo. We got hit with another snow storm this week. Ok, the snow is pretty…..for December… but this is enough. I think it will finally thaw out in June.
Take a look and see what I mean? And this is the pretty stuff.. the town and cities are loaded with banks and banks of snow. No place to walk, no where to park in some cases and the streets are narrow. Nuff of the complaining now… enjoy some pictures.
Back deck…
From the back deck to back yard… I can hardly see my grill.
Here’s a pretty one that hubbie took…before the storm…
All all my feathered friends did not mind the snow storm at all… I caught some really good pictures of them…
some played see saw…. (Titmouse and Woodpecker)
some played peek-a-boo… (Juncos)
some were anti-social….
Then some come together to socialize… they love that tree.. that’s where they all gather and chat…
I’ve been invited to an art day with some friends tomorrow. I really need this.. I’ve been in an art rut… Know what I mean??? Work, family, life is just taking priority lately and I need to get a grip of it and get in the studio. Not that I’m going to make my family last priority, but a little “me” time is due. I don’t think anyone will come to me and say “honey, mom, we till take care of everything today, you just go relax and do what you want”.
As for my art rut, this is a discussion that I’ve had with some of my artist friends lately about kinda going “dormant” for a while, brain takes a vacation, chilling out. Eventually it will come back. It will, won’t it?
Have you ever had that happen… Blank stares at the canvas, at the art table and at the page?
I have signed up for some fun “me” workshops. I AM going to put time aside for myself. There, Ive said it and “it’s in the books” (as “Uncle Buck” says).
In the meantime, I’m still fiddling (as in very little) in my little sketchbook for the “Sketchbook Challenge”. Here’s a few pages to share.. size 5″ x 3 1/2″…done with fine black marker and watercolor paints.
The theme for January is still “Highly Prized”.. and I consider MY TIME.. the time I create, to be highly prized.
More art soon… pray for no more snow and thanks for stopping by.
Judy ♥
It’s been raining here in Massachusetts for two days. I secretly like the rain and I work in a home office so I don’t have to leave if I choose not to. I am fortunate, I know. How I wish I could just play in my studio listening to the rain pitter patter against the house. A very comforting sound to me.
We also had our first frost this week.. it’s always a milestone to see the evident while layer of coldness on the grass. The frost that has to be scraped off of car windows. Brrr.. winter is coming; that’s what it says to everyone..so get ready.
Here is a couple of pictures of frost on my roses and hydrangeas.
This past weekend.. the strangest thing happened.. all of a sudden a huge flock of black birds (not crows) descended on our yard.. I mean hundreds of them.. I ran for my camera and caught this:
Front yard above
Backyard
Attacking my bird feeder. …. and then they were gone… never to be seen again. Did someone tell them there was a free buffet or something? Strange, don’t you think? A sign.. or nothing?
I’ll be back in the studio next week and I take a few days off of work and enjoy some art play. I’ll be posting some new works in the works.
Thanks for stopping by.
Judy
Last year about this time I did two posts on the beautiful Autumn that we had… you can see the posts HERE and HERE. Well, that was last year. This year is a different story. I have no pictures because the colors are dull this year. The summer was so hot for so long, the trees just got too stressed and couldn’t generate enough chlorophyl. I guess that’s like us really isn’t it.. sometimes? Dontchya think? Let’s hope that next year it comes back in full force with beautiful backgrounds.
Speaking of backgrounds… I wanted to show you a very cool technique that’s been shown here and there using CitraSolv. It’s a degreaser used for household cleaning.. well, check it out HERE. Then check out the CitraArt HERE. Pretty darn cool if you ask me.. go ahead ask me… .. It’s funny you should ask… Yes, I thinks it’s so cool that I made a mixed media canvas collage with it.
Let’s start from the very beginning.. …(wait do you hear Julie Andrews?) Sorry.
I looked all over for a bottle of Citra Solv.. nothing in the local stores even though the CS website listed the retail store locations. So, I finally found a bottle at Vitacost.com. Citra Solv works well with the National Geographic magazine pages the best, as it is contains a clay coating used for the crisp images the magazine is known for.
Moving on….
Here are the steps I took to make my Citra Backgrounds. Start with your bottle of Citra Solv and a Nat Geo magazine. Now, you may want to work with a window open or go outside.. it’s not a terrible smell.. just a very STRONG orangey odor. I got sick of it after a while.
I put my CS in a small plastic spray bottle instead of using a brush. I thought it would be easier to spray. I started to use a small plastic “solo” bathroom cup and a brush to spread it on and this is what happened…
Ummm.. apparently the plastic in the cup did not agree with the CS. However, this plastic spray bottle is fine…
Let’s begin… can you stand it????
Open the magazine to some colorful pages and begin to spray. Spray, turn to next colorful page.. spray, next and so on… now don’t be stingy with the liquid.. if it’s drippy that’s ok…
See how it begins to “melt”.. oh so fun.
Spray all the pages you want and close the book and let it sit for a while.. at least 15 minutes.. if you don’t see a change when you open the page.. spray some more and close the mag… some pages are better than others…. BUT oh look and see some of my results…
Do you see where I have the pencil pointing above?… I saw a face in that blotch and I started to enhance it further. Look for images and play.
Above, I started to rubber stamp and play with the face.
So, there you have the way to make the Citra Backgrounds. Now, let me show you how I applied it to a new mixed media canvas piece.
I started with a blank canvas, put down some fluid acrylics, letting each layer dry. Then on the far right I put a large strip of heavy acrylic paint.
I let it dry then put my heat gun to it really close. This will make the paint react with the intense heat and start to bubble… I got this technique from Gary Reef. You’ve heard me mention him before.. such a love; you can see the video HERE.
Look at that beautiful texture. I’m excited now. When you are happy in bubble town, let it cool down (that rhymes, by the way).
I painted the white with gold acrylic paint and heated it again causing more bubbles… and then another layer of gold…
Once the paint was dry and cooled, I put random ripped masking tape over the gold.
Then painted it red then pulled the masking tape off revealing the gold underneath.
I DIDN’T LIKE IT…I needed to tone down the red.. just wasn’t working for me.
So, I painted the gold over it…..
Close up below.. love the texture…
OK… let’s get on with using the Citra Backgrounds….
So, here you can see the citra pages on the left and going up and on the top… Did a little rubber stamping on them and “antiqued” with some brown shoe polish around the edges.. On the bottom is a ripped resin music page. It’s coming along, but still needs some lovin.
Ah Huh…. one of my favorite techniques.. pushing molding paste through stencil… Here, I tinted molding paste with black acrylic paint.. and mixed to make a black paste.
A little boo boo on the top left of the fleur-de-lis. I’ll need to let it dry and redo that section.
Below is a picture after the fleur-de-lis was done and I added some gold trim along the red strip, hand made polymer clay embellishments, ribbon and gold paste that I rubbed over the molding paste design. People, I’m just in love with Inka Gold waxy paste by Viva Decor. I can’t get enough of it.
Here is the last picture I took. At this point I’ve added, black tissue paper, black stenciling, fabric, lace paper and I blinged up a boring metal pendant. However, I have to admit.. I know it’s not done.. it still needs a final image above the music paper. It’s look very royal.. maybe a queen? Beeswax? What do you think?
I had so much fun creating this piece. Hope you enjoyed the post and tutorial as much I as enjoyed creating it for you. I’ll show my final canvas in my next blog post.
Thanks for stopping by.
Judy <3
Hey Blogsters..
Well, let me tell you about my workshop last weekend with Kelly Kilmer.
First, if you ever get a chance to take a class with the Kell-ster, you have to. A fabulous artist and person. Makes you want to pull up a couple of comfy chairs, grab your favorite liquid consumption and snack (why do I always have to include food?) and chat all night long.
The weekend was held at a private studio… AND.. thank you Susan, for hosting us.
Being my first class with Kelly, I was a bit nervous to learn how to make/bind a book, but I felt immediately at ease with her and following her instructions was a breeze.
Ok.. let me stop the chit chatting and get to some pictures, since you’re all so impatient.. geesh.
.. and here she is our fearless leader…. and I do mean fearless.. hey she’s from LA, what do you expect…. just kidding, Kelly. She is originally from the Bawstin area.
Let’s get to the journal pictures…
This would be my front cover… and my few pages below, top.
and another couple of my pages…
Ok.. screeeeech…let me stop for a second.. and show you the decorative tape that Kelly brings with her for her students…
.. and I have a feeling this isn’t all of it… My name is Kelly Kilmer and I have a Tape Addiction. Now, this is the kind of addiction I want to have.. where do I sign up?
Moving on to MORE delicious art…
So, there you go.. a fabulous weekend with Kelly Kilmer. A great experience for me. I definiely made some new friends that I will keep in touch with.
And here we are all journaled and focal pointed out.
(I hope I was able to capture a page or two from everyone’s journal; if I missed anyone, I apologize).
Fun, fun, fun… I need a nap.
Thanks again Kelly.. please don’t be sad to see us go.. we feel the same way.
Hey Blogsters…
We are enjoying the 50′s here this weekend. How nice to have the sun shining down on me when I was out for my walk this morning. It may be a tease for now, but we’ll take it. As they say in New England.. “if you don’t like the weather… wait a minute”.
About 5 years ago I started making mixed media customized wooden art letters for family and friends. The look on their faces when they open the gift and see their own personal initial that has been decorated with them in mind, is the most satisfying feeling you can imagine.
Here are some letters I’ve made over the years; they are proudly hung in each of their homes.
This is just a few of them. They are all made with each individual in mind. All (except one) here was made for my adult nieces and nephews. I’ve put some found objects that mean a lot to each of them. For example… a key from my father’s basement from years ago.. or a my mother’s old jewelry. They’ll now have a piece of their grandparents with them forever.
Most of them have copper tape running around the outside edge. Take a closer look and you can see the details of the decorative paper, found objects, stamping, embossing, old and new jewelry and, of course, polymer clay.
If you need a creative gift for someone, consider making a Love Letter.. it will go a long way and anything made from the heart will never be forgotten.
Thanks for stopping by.
Judy
Next up…. Painting Pottery
Hey Blogsters:
Well, right about now, I am sick of the cold here in New England. But, on a good note, the daylight is around a little longer now. I shouldn’t rush it. Time goes by too fast enough as it is.
I’ve finished my Mirror Frame that I did for a special family couple of their two children. I hope they don’t read this post yet, as I haven’t given it to them.
The size is 10″ x 10″. I put something in front of me while I took the picture so there would be no reflection in the mirror.
The frame is made from wood (purchased at craft store), covered with 2 layers of tissue paper applied with Golden Gel Medium. Once dry, I painted it with Golden’s Fluid Acrylic Carbon Black.
The squares are made of chipboard, they are about 1 1/2″. I used Claudine Hellmuth’s Sticky Back Canvas for printing my pictures on. I gathered my pictures from my photo software and put them on MS Powerpoint, making sure they were the same size as the chipboard. I always use MS Powerpoint for printing and arranging several pictures on one page and in one place. Once I practiced printing on paper several times to get the right size of the squares, I felt confident to print on the SB Canvas.
Cut the pictures from the canvas. Before you stick them to the chipboard, I used a black paint pen to paint edges of each chipboard square. Burnish the picture to each chipboard. If the canvas spilled over a little on the chipboard, I just used a craft blade and self-healing mat to trim to size. Sandpaper around the edges to sand down the tiny “burrs” of the canvas. With a make up sponge wedge, I pounced the sponge on a StazOn black ink pad and just went around the edges of the picture to give it a shadow’y (is that word?) look. Important: At this point I laid out all the squares on newspaper in a well ventilated area and sprayed on a matte sealer; I used Preseve Your Memories (PYM) spray. Great stuff!
Before you glue down the pictures to the frame, I took silver acrylic paint and went around the edges of the frame and the mirror with a sponge. Now, the squares are ready to be glued down to the frame. Arrange the squares to your liking and glue down with strong glue; I used Weld-Bond.
In the top left hand corner of the mirror, I made a tiny polymer clay heart and after it was baked and sealed, I wrote the word “love” on it. Glue to mirror with strong glue; I used Liquid Nails.
I hope you enjoyed this small tutorial. Give it a try. Nothing beats a handmade gift - made from the heART.
Here is another playful piece I did in my studio.
I was playing with some colors on my palette paper. After I was done, I swirled and smooshed the colors around for a cool background. If you think about it, palette paper is made for wet paints, so why not recycle the pages to put in your journals, etc. It takes a lot of wet media abuse.
As you can see, I just doodled with white paint pen. Then I took some scrap tissue paper and glued a 1/2 face size to the edge. Painted that with Golden’s Titan Buff Fluid Acrylic paint; let dry. Then just played and drew a face and painted it. Nothing serious at all.
Let’s call her……..um…..Fiona………. I put that doodle in her hair. I think she’s looking at it saying… “she really just didn’t put that in my hair, did she? That is so ugly.” She hates it, I can tell..
Thanks for stopping by.
Judy
Hey Blogsters…..
Happy New Year. How long do we have to say that to everyone we talk to? I think 2 weeks is time enough, don’t you think?.. and then that’s it.. alright, well, maybe just a few more here and there.
So, I hate the word “resolution”. It’s sounds so demanding. YOU WILL RESOLVE TO GET THIS DONE. How about just making promises to yourself? Do things that you know would make you feel better and make you feel that you really have accomplished something. Something that you know wouldn’t have happened it you just didn’t nudge yourself a little bit harder (or as they say in Boston.. “hahda”).
Course, my first thought is be more healthy and fit. Ok, I said that one, so let’s move on to fun promises…. be more creative and do more art. Ah, that feels like a promise I can keep for myself. Reorganize and clean your studio/workspace (ok, so maybe not so fun); donate what you don’t need anymore; give them a new life – you’ll feel the new energy surround you after you’re done.
One of my promises to myself is to learn how to video tape and load those videos on to YouTube or even in my blog. With the help of my 15 hr. old daughter, of course. It can happen.. it WILL happen.
Being creative just makes me happy. When I’m working in my full-time job, I want to be in my studio. When I’m not working, I don’ t get in the studio like I want to. Why is that? I own it, I know, my fault. Ok.. I have a family to think about, yes. Another promise – get in the studio; make more time and get in your creative bubble.
I’m keeping Melodie Beattie’s book next to my computer and I’d like to share another excerpt from her “Journey to the Heart” book.
“Let Your Creativity Blossom”
“Allow your creativity to blossom. For too long you have held back. For too long you have limited your natural creative learnings and talents….. You are creative. You have a creative self within that wants to play, wants to be let loose, wants to create. Set that part free! Let yourself play – with life, with work, with projects. “
“Creating brings you into harmony with the universe…. yourself and the rhythm of life.” – Melody Beattie
How perfect is that? Very calming and freeing, to me, when I read her meditations.
Tell me what you want to promise yourself this year?
I’ll leave you with this beautiful winter early morning scene from the back of my house (not enhanced at all). Love the teal sky.
Thanks for stopping by!
Judy
Next up… mixed media mirror frame.
