We're a little Bit warped

The day has been non-stop. My 5th graders painted and the place looked like a disaster zone. It was all spiffy for my Kindergarteners this afternoon. We're getting into the flow. I even had some of them cracking up as I was making comments about chickens. What is it about chickens that makes kids laugh?
The laughes were much needed. I had an extremely unpleasant encounter yesterday that continues to affect my mood. I decided to find some pics that bring a smile to my face.
These pics were taken at the local pool while the Chicklet was at swimming lessons. Trying to capture the movement of the water was an interesting and fun challenge. The Chicklet and I had some laughes over these.
I have an appointment for another EMDR session. I was all over the map with so many things coming up at the last one. I haven't been able to find my focus this past week although it might have been found yesterday.

I am so fed up with people and their BS. Why can't adults grow up? Unfortunately, we often have to deal with and encounter some of these folks day after day. Toxic...... Is it a wonder I am such a lone wolf?
Kids may be kids and some of them make me insane but that's their job!

After waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep for hours. It was a pleasure and reassurance to come to work this morning. It's not only a caring and nurturing environment for children but for our whole staff. I'm so glad to be a Tarver Dolphin!

Marissa

Soggy

I started raining this afternoon. The humidity was high when we woke up hot and sweaty this morning. I'd hoped we were done with running the A/C and had the evap on all weekend. Nope, I've had squirrel tail, curly hair today.
The yard will be green with weeds soon enough!
"Lake Carmen" will be at full strength in the morning. I really have to do something about the drainage. It's going to involve jack hammers and the removal of a minimum of 12' of concrete walkway from the side gate into the back yard. FUN!

In the meantime I'll be going to sleep lulled by the sound of rain. I like that. Our summer storms are usually fast, ferocious and then gone. This one has stuck around for the last couple of hours.

Tonight towers of previously ignored dishes have been washed. The Chicklet and I went grocery shopping earlier and those are all put away. Another load of laundry is almost done. There's a little less of a mess at home. Domestic diva, I am not. I'd bring Martha Stewart to tears, LOL!

God natt

Marissa

Lazy Weekend

My rear-end has put in some hours here. In fact, this is where I'm blogging from... PJ's have been the outfit of choice this weekend. Took in some R & R with the first week of school behind us.

I don't know who wailed more at the start of the week-the Chicklet who was being challenged by her homework or my kindergartners who had to spend their days away from home, many for the first time. We have all day Kinder and some of them were ready for nap. It makes for interesting teaching trying to keep them going when one or two of them tell me they're too tired to work. Be patient, I tell myself over and over!

Having 3rd and 5th graders was a thrill and a godsend. I've already gotten them going on their first projects. My 3rd graders are learning to draw different types of flowers and 5th grade has completed the first layer of a collage.

Art making has taken a back seat the last few weeks. After the intensity of Art Unraveled my studio is still buried under layers of supplies that got dumped. Not to mention a wayward feather or two that I might have missed. My bird catching canines had a "present" waiting for me on Friday.

I took my AU projects to school. There's more room to spread out but I haven't had a chance to veer in their direction. There's a list of papers I still have to turn in for work. That's what I'll be working on after dinner tonight. Oh, what fun!

It'll be a relief to get those papers taken care of. Paperwork is not a strength of mine.

Marissa

Back to work

School started yesterday. I got to my room in the morning to find a sweet little something from our principals. It's simple but it's one of the reasons I have the best administrators!


Two of my Inchie swaps are mounted. Above is the Alphabet swap and below are the Color Swaps. Both are in shadow boxes but are photographed outside the frames to reduce glare.

From top to bottom- Yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, blue, green and black/white.

Here's close-ups, but even this close doesn't do them justice. They are really little treasures!



My goal was to get them mounted to take with me and share them with my gal pals. I did get them mounted on Friday to have them ready for Sat. afternoon.

Saturday was going to be busy with a bookmaking class in the morning and going to work before heading out to meet the gals. Then I ended up working on my classroom until past 6pm and I was hungry and beat. The only pals I ended up with on Sat. night were hairy and 4-legged. I was in bed by 9pm.... Boring but true!

The plan for Sunday was to head out to the Phoenix Art Museum and catch the Chado: Ralph Ricci exhibition one more time before that exhibition closed. I'd never heard of his haute couture fashion before this exhibition but I was completely floored and awestruck by the craftsmanship of his designs. Because the work was loaned, photography wasn't allowed so I hung out in the gallery for awhile and sketched from his garments. Speechless, they left me speechless...

Took a side tour to look at the Philip Curtis paintings. The one above reminds me of Bisbee. Looking at it reminds me that I need to get out of my familiar stomping grounds and explore more. Arizona is a beautiful state. As a kid, my family went all over the place. I haven't exposed the Chicklet to as much as I think I saw by her age.
The contemporary gallery. I wasn't as thrilled by this piece as I was by the Jennifer Bartlett painting relflected on it. The Bartlett piece is on loan so the next best thing was getting it's relflection.

It was a nice way to spend the day before beginning teaching again. My energy is completely sapped. Things should get back up to speed by the end of the week.

Marissa

Made some changes....

to my blog. Very minor, but changes, never-the-less.
There's been some discussion on the Art Unraveled message board about the difficulty in reading blogs with a black background. I have to admit that I need to make an appointment for new glasses. I look above or below my lens to thread needles and look at anything in detail. Oh, I am so not willing to admit that I need bifocals!
From various design classes, I did know that reading text on a black background is harder on the eyes BUT.......... I always place art work on black backgrounds so the colors pop and lesson distraction. I played around with some lighter colored backgrounds and I just saw blah and blah and blah. I didn't like the colors of my photos. I trying out grey and might go lighter later. The font is also bigger.

Got an opinion? I'd like to hear it.

Happy Sunday!

Marissa
PS-Photos are from Downtown Phoenix

I Hit....

that wall of fatigue I'd anticipated a few days ago.
Teachers reported back to school today. My head has yet to go into work mode. The structure of meetings have begun. Yuck! My administrators are great, though. Get to the point, get it done, go off and do your work. Our staff meeting was done by 11am for Music, Art & PE. As is our custom, we took a quick lunch together. The 3 of us and our newbie PE teacher-fresh out of college and new to Arizona. Welcome!
Between straightening up my room and getting caught up with everyone's summer, my room is presentable for the district art teachers meeting in my room tomorrow. I avoided sitting down this afternoon. I was afraid the fatigue would wash right over me, so I kept moving.
Once home, I fed the dogs, got the Chicklet going on her homework and I camped out on my bed with my laptop, magazines with the TV in the background. It's going to be lights out very soon here.These images are from my wanderings downtown a few weeks ago.

Everyone asked how my summer break WAS. I answered that it wasn't over yet. I'm hoping it won't feel like it's over until the weather cools down. That's usually some time in October.
God Natt!

Melting Pot of Ideas

After the wild ride of eating, sleeping and drinking art for the last 7 days the real challenge starts now.

I have some wonderful projects from this week that resemble the work of Anne Grgich, Traci Bautista, Beryl Taylor and Leighanna Light. Aside from getting the unfinished ones done now the question is, "how do I take what I've learned and make it my own?"

Voice Lessons with Carla Sonheim included a one-on-one critique of work created prior to the class that we'd brought with us. Carla went around and was able to look, evaluate, answer questions, etc. as everyone else worked. It was interesting to hear the comments and conversations. I was sure it was going to look as if my work was busy, chaotic, just coming short of including the kitchen sink. That wasn't the case at all.

Isn't it funny what our perspective is of our own work? I am very comfortable creating in a workshop environment. I enjoy the sharing of ideas and feeding off the energy and enthusiasm. Yet, working on my own, in the studio, I am constantly full of self doubt. I often ask myself, "how is what I do any different than what's already out there?" (For one, I 'm not afraid to use a nipple from a baby bottle in my work, lol).
Those kind of doubts come up with blogging too. How is what I write interesting and engaging enough for people to read and then enough to keep them coming back to read more? But more often than not, I just write. Then I read. I'm so glad more of my friends are creating their own blogs. It's the modern version of, "reach out and touch someone..." With school starting I won't be able to get together with the gal pals much. Blogging helps me feel connected.

Here's another tidbit as a result of AU. I mentioned, in therapy, that "lovely" pit in my stomach when I was drawing with charcoal this week. That dread of drawing classes in college. Even that gorgeous guy walking on campus turning out to be our nude model wasn't enough to make me dread the class any less!

Nan, (my therapist), zeroed in on my comment and told me to focus on that, find my target, bring a piece of charcoal next time and we'll work on it. I asked, how is it that in a span of weeks all these issues are coming to a head? "It's time," she said, I'm ready for a change. Grrrrrrrreat!
Now what did I do with that !#$%&@* piece of charcoal?

So far, so good. I've made some wisecracks about my therapy this summer about how it's working. I've found myself reacting to situations differently, for the better. It's refreshing not letting myself get all tangled up and stressed out. What's the expression? "Getting my knickers in a twist..." I'm not doing that. It's a good thing.

I seem to be getting a little introspective and perhaps a tad sappy. Not my intention to go off in that tangent. I do want to make use of all the knowledge and inspiration from this past week.
In between all of that I have to figure out what to teach kindergarteners next week. They're cute but I'm better with bigger kids. They get my jokes...This will be the first year I teach all the kinder kids as opposed to only one class per year.
Plus, we made some alterations to the schedule where the music teacher and I see 3 grade levels twice a week per quarter. Then she and I switch grade levels the following quarter. I'll see Kinder, 2nd and 5th 1st Quarter, while she gets 1st, 3rd and 4th graders. I may have the grade levels a bit mixed up but it's something like that. We're hoping this will help the students retain information better so we spend more time on content rather than reviewing. It saves on prep time too. I only have to prepare 3 lessons a week instead of six.

I'm not ready to think like a teacher. I still want to think like an artist. I'm pretty lucky that I can sort of do both. I might start my older kids with an Anne Grgich style portrait. OOoooh, fun!The pics were taken at Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort last weekend before Art Unraveled. A whole different world, isn't it?

Art Unraveled-The Missing Pics

Hidden Layers with Traci Bautista-Part 2

I don't believe I shared these papers we prepared Thursday night. Above was random writing using chisel tipped Sharpies on tissue paper. You can barely make out the fine tip Sharpie poster paint marker but it's there. I didn't know what to write and I happened to have some sheets of pages torn out of a novel. I copied a sentence or two and repeated it over the whole sheet.Traci had some cool stamps and texture plates. There was a bottle of black gesso on my studio table so I threw it into my bag while I was packing my things for Traci's class. I used it to stamp on the tissue. It has a slightly more flat, chalky hand than acrylic paint. I have a date with the copy machine tomorrow to manipulate the print, (reduce it, enlarge it, make tranparencies, overlap them...)

I finished off last night's post with the view of my papers right before we broke for lunch on Friday. When we returned Traci demonstrated how she collages using papers created earlier in the day. She uses scissors to cut her shapes that are then applied to the substrate we made from papers and modeling paste the night before. (I point this out because Leighanna Light says she never uses scissors but tears her papers. Everyone has their own thing. That's so cool).

Although it wasn't part of Traci's demo on Thursday, I'd taken the modeling paste and stencils and added some dimension to my canvas/substrate. Not a problem but it made it harder to glue papers smoothly. My solution was to work around the raised areas or use tissue weight papers.

Traci's funky flowers, hearts, houses and faces are recognizable. I decided to play with color and shape on my pieces. Paint was dry brushed and highlighted some of the stencil/stamped patterns.
While I worked, I was thinking about what I wanted the end result of these pieces to be. The above piece is going to be used as a journal cover.
I'm not sure what the plan is for this one but none of the pieces are complete yet. Finishing off will include some time at the sewing machine.
I got up to take a break and look around and I feel in love with Jane's pieces. I went back to my work and took this one and made a house. The orange triangular shape was already glued down and it became the decoration for the house that grew under it.

During class someone asked how you knew when a piece was done. Traci said when we got to that part to set it aside and work on another and then come back to the first piece. Simple but true. I worked on 3 pieces at a time and would come to a point where I didn't know what to do next so I set that one aside and would come back to it. If I did that in my studio I might not get so stuck and could end up accomplishing more.

I took an intensive 2 day workshop with Traci a couple of years ago. As a result no painted paper towel ends up in the trash without careful consideration. I can't wait to let all the new knowledge germinate and became a part of my own art vocabulary.

Mini Art Quilt with Beryl Taylor-

Drool, drool, drool...that's what I do when I look threw Beryl Taylor's book, Mixed Media Explorations. I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to attend the class since I hadn't been able to find a sitter for the Chicklet but there must have been good vibes in the air and a solution was found. Thank you Linda, Andee and Ashley!

The class was quite a change from all the piles of papers and layering of paint from the previous classes. We started out with stitching on a piece of silk. My choice was limited to the red and off white I'd brought. Digging through my studio was a dash for anything red, white or black.
I'm not a quilter but grew up sewing and around sewing. The hand stitching was relaxing and meditative. After the background was stitched we worked on the edges of the fabric paper and decorating the tag. Binding was stitched around the edges, I only finished two sides before I started working on the puffy heart.

Oh my, it is a simple technique but by sequins were tiny so it took 3000 more stitches to fill! (I don't exaggerate...much). It was finished off with black bugle beads to get done and to create more visual interest. By this time I had a little company that kept asking, "Mom are you done yet, can we go to the gift shop?" On the upside, I had a helper to assist with clean up.
All the different elements aren't attached yet. There's one crucial red bead left to add to the heart.

The finished piece measures approximately 6" x 7" which was too small scale to use the dingo ball trim from my stash. What a disappointment! Beryl suggested I could keep building onto the piece by adding horizontal strips to the top and bottom of this piece, then adding vertical pieces to the sides and so on and so on, changing the scale of it as a result.

Oh good, I'm not left with having to resort to trimming my car windows with my big red dingo balls to get some use out of them. Actually that might make it easier to find my car in a parking lot. Ooooohhhhh......I get it! That's why people hang dingo balls in their cars.

That's it for Art Unraveled 2008. I'm working on another post about Art Unraveled-The Aftermath, it's really more like, "Now what?"

My last day of Summer Break is 1/2 over and piles still reign all over the house. At least I'm not horizontal-then I'd never get up! We have our first appointment with the orthodontist today. The Chicklet thought she'd get braces TODAY. Nope, doesn't work that way. I'll be happy with a happy kid after her first day of school.
Marissa

It's good to be home

Art Unraveled for 2008 is over. After 8 classes in 7 days I should be horizontal and comatose by now but I'm A-OK. I guess I haven't hit that wall of fatigue YET.

In the meantime I am still on a high from today's Funky Found Object Canvas Village with Leighanna Light. There was an earlier opportunity to take this class but it didn't work with my schedule so I've waited a long time to take it and I wasn't disappointed.

Above is my just about finished piece. The piece has layers and layers of goodies. I was so into the building and layering that I made 4 canvases but only had time to paint on the one.
Here's piece two. We started out by layering pieces of papers to cover the canvas. Next we added the forms for the buildings. The piece looks shiny and milky in parts from the gel medium we added with a palette knife. It was like frosting cake. The key, beads, metal numbers, bingo game pieces, velcro dots, wooden parrots, etc. were embedded into the gel. We also used skewers for mark making and outlining. It was sort of a blind process since the collage was obscured under the opaque gel.
Piece Three-I was going for speed with the background here and only used 2 papers. One from Traci Bautista's class and a patterned napkin. Plus my last 2 pieces measured 5" x 7." It's hard to see from the photo but the sun is made with a nipple from a baby bottle. I found 2 in Leighanna's stash of goodies and they just had to be part of a piece. Pods from ?????? were used for the sun rays. Some of the goodies I use today have been in my stash since my early days in AZ and some date back to high school. What a perfect way to use these little treasures-and a bunch of junk!
#4-Last one of the day. 7 Gypsies (discontinued) patterned tissue paper was prominent in the background with a little bit of the same napkin as #3. Leighanna shared her stash of papers and the shell, buttons, bead, plastic clothes pin, the denim round thing and the frog closures came from my goodie box. See Dad, I do use all that stuff I brought home from Mom's sewing room!

Wow, the shell has memories. As kids we used to go day trips as a family. I think I bought the shell in a bead shop in Laguna Beach.

I'm going to go backwards. The Chicklet and I had an early start yesterday. I had an 8am appointment I dragged her to and then we went out for breakfast. That warm cup of coffee was a good start to the day. I've driven by this building and been attracted to the bold shapes and colors. I finally got the camera out and took some shots.

Yesterday's class was a welcome respite from the frenzy of painting and collage all week. I took Beryl Taylor's Mini Art Quilt which was fantastic. Bird Brain here forgot to take a picture so I'll share the details tomorrow.

As tempting as it was, I didn't go to the vendor fair. With the school year starting 2 weeks later than usual, I've had to stretch my summer paycheck an extra couple of weeks. 'Nuff said...

Hidden Layers with Traci Bautista-class started on Thursday evening and continued all day Friday. By the time we went home Thursday night we had "canvases" that looked like this:
We started out with a sturdy piece of paper and spread a layer of modeling paste before layering more pieces from a variety of papers. I never knew to use modeling paste like that.
After overlapping pieces of hand made papers, tissue paper, napkins, pages from books, kitchen wipes, paper towels, legal pad papers, lace and more we set those aside to dry for the next day.
Traci then demo-ed some stamping techniques and using modeling paste with stencils for creating dimension. I continued my love affair with one of the embossed wall papers from Wed. night to stamp with. Above is patterns on patterned scrapbook paper. Below is a sheet from a legal pad.
Can you see the eye chart "Eeeeeeez?" That's modeling paste used with a Coffee Break stencil from Frenzy Stamper. That pretty much took care of Thursday night.
We started out Friday morning with paint-lot's of color, stenciling and stamping. By lunch time my work space was filled with sheet after sheet. See that spot of purple? I dug it out of the trash can. Looking at everyone's work it was funny to see each individuals' palettes. I was going for variety and ended up with my usual-vibrant red, warm yellow, teal green and cobalt blue.... You'll find the same exact colors on my piece from Lynn Parrella's class 2 years ago.

I took the above picture right before heading out to lunch. Guess what? I forgot to photograph the pieces at the end of the day. Looks like I have my work cut out for tomorrow. I'll have to write a note on my forehead-"Finish photographing AU projects"! Problem is, I don't spend a lot of time looking in the mirror. Seen my hair lately? I'll write the note on the back of my hand instead.

Tomorrow, (Monday), is my last day before reporting back to school on Tuesday. Chances are I'll be in my classroom tomorrow cleaning and prepping, (and taking pictures of projects). OR I'll be collapsed in bed-I hope not!

The Chicklet begins fourth grade-where has the time gone?
Marissa

Cross-eyed with fatigue...

but I'm still a happy camper. I wasn't sure what was going to happen tomorrow, getting a sitter came down to crunch time. I could have gotten bent out of shape about it but chose to let things work themselves out while I enjoyed the second day of Hidden Layers with Traci Bautista.

Oh, what a day! I have three pieces almost completed and a stack of beautiful, original, colorful papers to use in future projects. There's pictures to share tomorrow.

Just as we were packing up my child care issues were resolved. Whoo hoo! I get to take my class tomorrow!
With that issue resolved, I was off to pick up the Chicklet. Our plan for the evening? Find the rest of the items on her school supply list and then head out to Mesa.
I'm usually fried on Fridays but actually had the energy to make the drive and hang out. We popped into Mystic Paper-we almost didn't go get dinner because the Chicklet made a beeline to find Tucker.
I finally got her away for a bit and we walked over to Mangos for dinner. The outside tables were packed! The inside was a ghost town. Turns out it was the "Dog Days of Summer" in Downtown Mesa and the dogs took their owners for a walk. Did I take any pictures? No, but Jennifer got some and is going to post them here. Some of the dogs were better dressed than the people!
I figured I'd blog a bit while I did a load of laundry. I'm out of black pants-oh the horror!

All the above pics are from last weekend at the Wild Horse Pass Resort from my weekend with the gal pals. I took a walk outside the conference room and wandered the grounds for about 40 minutes. The sun was very strong but the shadows were great.

Time to toss clothes in the dryer.

God natt

Lake Carmen and Art Unraveled

I'm going to have to check on Carmen's meds for incontinence. We came home to a flooded carport tonight. Can't park in it and had to take our shoes off to slosh to the front door. Ok, in all fairness to my poor, old pooch, we did have a big storm tonight. In fact thunder is still rumbling and I sent the Chicklet directly to my bed. Otherwise she would have gotten up half a dozen times because the thunder was scaring her. I'm hoping there's going to be room for me when I finally wander to sink into my precious bed...

It has been a marathon. Taking today off from workshops was a godsend. I took a nice nap on the couch after taking our time this morning getting the Chicklet off to camp, then meeting the Gal Pals for lunch, and finally stopping off for workhop supplies at JoAnn's and hitting a good sale at Jerry's Artarama.

I'm halfway through 4 of my 8 workshops, (what was I thinking)? Tonight we started the first part of Hidden Layers with Traci Bautista. I can't wait for tomorrow!

Here's a run down of my Art Unraveled adventures, so far:

Monday-Painterly Portraits with Anne Grgich

I'm the one who doesn't do figurative art but Anne Grgich's work is rich and intriguing and so was the workshop!We started out by randomly collaging on loose sheets that we'd eventually add in our books. I don't this one is going to make it in at loosely 3 ft. tall.This is how we got started. Collage for visual interest. Once we did that we used paint, in this case, coffee, to begin to shape the face. Who needs walnut ink when you can paint with your coffee? I guess this is what happens when you stick your paint brush in your coffee one too many times. My book does have a rich aroma!
One of my gals in progress. My new favorite paint-Golden's Asphaltum Glaze. I'm now a happy owner of a bottle or two.Another Gal Pal. My obsessive tendency to buy patterned napkins everytime I visit IKEA does have purpose! Love that black and white. Perhaps you're too polite to say anything but yes, I am aware that these big, open mouthes are reminiscent of blow up dolls. I've got to work on that...

Tuesday-Voice Lessons with Carla Sonheim-

I wasn't familiar with Carla's Sonheim's style prior to class but by the end of class I was a fan of her whimsical work. I signed up for her class when I read the description focusing on developing our artistic style or voice.

We spent the morning doing some exercises-

Quick collage

Continuous contour drawing

Blind contour drawingCharcoal drawing-this one put a pit in my stomach. I was back in college drawing class. I like the owl, hate the charcoal. I sure learned something. I can enjoy drawing but maybe it's the material that doesn't always jive.

Printmaking-everyone made an elephant

At this point, it was time to break for lunch. It's been really good for me to drive home and take a little break from the intensity of frenzied artmaking. Plus none of my AU friends have wet noses and wag their tails in greeting.

I was glad to come home because I wanted to grab some markers to decorate my elephant. I ended up forgetting them and figured it's be Ok. How many times do you drag all the stuff to a class and then not have time to use it? Well, the joke was on me because the next part was to take one of the techniques from earlier in the day and make a series of small pieces. I chose to print more elephants but chose to collage the background first.

Some decoration has been painted and the shapes outlined but there's plenty still to do.

We also had a watercolor exercise in the morning. Mine was such a dog that it's going to get cut and pasted on/over/with, you get my drift... I watercolored on two of my five "elefantes." These will join my many other elephants inherited from Mom. That's why the elphant struck a cord with me. My Mom collected them for years.

Tuesday evening-Printing Blocks Macgyver Style with Traci Bunkers

I took a visual journaling class with Traci Bunkers last year and they are some of my most favorite pieces. (Part of my blog header is from one of those lay outs). I was pretty tired and worthless by Tuesday night but she really opened my eyes to the posibility of stamping by manipulating craft foam.

Both these examples are stamped on printed tissue.
I grabbed some random papers before headin off to class. I have a pile of scrap paper I use when I'm painting/outlining. After awhile some of these trash papers have some nice random marks. This one now has a layer of stamping.
Wed. Landscapes of the Mind with Anne Grgich

Meet the twins! Although we used some of the same techniques, the approach was different. this time we made an effort to create the features as we built up the layers of the collage foundation. Some people in class found the beginning frustrating. there were some stunning pieces in the end.

The nice things about the twins is that they can have flaws and personality and that's what makes them likable. Miss Light Blue will not get dental work. No "nip tuck" for my girls. On the other hand the emerging CHEEKY Chicklet said she can clearly see all my gray hair on the back of my head when we're driving in the car. Good G-d! Am I going to have to start dyeing my hair now? I've never done anything to my hair except cut it. Why start now? I will have to start muzzling my child, though....

Wed. evening: Marks and Symbols with Traci Bautista

More warm up exercises from prompts-Drawing an alphabet with a continuous line. A bit of a challenge in the sense that I don't write in cursive, unless I want to make many errors.Draw an alphabet with swirls at the end

Print on found papers with found objects.

Layers of written random words and stamping.

Stamping on more junk papers from my studio. I've been setting this yellow paper of to the side for a year.

Found object stamping over stamping from Traci Bunker's class the night before. Definitely an improvement. The green came from painting with a sponge tipped squeeze-able brush filled with color wash.

Aside from all the learning AU is about sharing-ideas and enthusiasm. I'm meeting friends in person who I've only til now, known online. Even better is meeting up with friends from past AU's.

Oh my word, time flies! It's another late night with plenty to do in the morning. The Chicklet finishes off camp at the Y. "Y' is for Yea!!! It just doesn't hold a candle to the professionalism and caring staff at Camp Yad B'Yad at Beth El.

The Chicklet and I have plans to finish getting her school stuff and having dinner out. We may even make to Mystic Paper for Night Out in Mesa.

Buenas Noches!

Sleep Deprived

A weekend with the Gal Pals has left me a tad sleep deprived. I was willing to make dinner but the Chicklet wants to warm up a can of soup. No argument here!

Sleep, I crave sleep but it'll have to wait. Time to unpack supplies from the weekend, re-pack and gear up for my first Art Unraveled class.

The heat continues but Summer is just about over. No more swim lessons. No more swimming in the blue/orange water. The reflection of the brick building on the water in the later afternoon was a surreal experience of swimming in copper.

Reality trumps surrealism... as the Chicklet drinks from her bowl and soup runs down her chin!

That's all folks!

(A very tired) Marissa

Every "Inchie" Matters

The Inchies were due today-All done! Whew! Above are my "Metal" inchies.

Blue-Martha Stewart packaging for the background, stamped. Painted wooden eggs.
Notion-Lace on painted chipboard, buttons.
Pink-napkin background with a painted layer of pink Stickles. Sanded and stamped bra metal, hardware with ribbon run through it.
Yellow-flocked yellow cardstock, gem brads.
Violet-1'' glass mirrors stamped with Staz-On, rhinestones
Green- stamped brown cardstock, stamped and embossed green m&m. Feeling "frisky?"
Red-Painted and stamped chipboard, silk flower leaf, glass ladybug bead.My speed0meter read 100,000 earlier this week. Not feeling too wordy tonight because I'm packed up and ready to go meet the gal pals at a local resort for the weekend. I think I'm the last one to arrive. It took me longer to label my inchies and actually didn't finish getting my name on 4 groups of them before I had to turn them in. I'll be getting my hand slapped later. But it's the Inchies that matter most and overall mine are top notch. After all the work and effort I don't feel one bit conceited saying that.

Things may be quiet this week. I'll be caught up with the Gal Pals and then I dive in head first with Art Unraveled. There are still open workshops. Sign up! Join us!