Altered By Me

"Using art to personalize your Daily Window Bags" Have you all had a chance to stop by the Daily Window Bags website and check out the awesome bags? Did you see how great they look with an awesome piece of designer art in the window? I am sure if you did stop by you probably would love to have one of those bags for yourself. And what better way to get your hands on one them then to win one? Who might be interested in this challenge?   Well if you are a mixed media, altered art, art journaling, art quilt, collage artist, card maker or scrapbooker this challenge is perfect for you.  I bet you probably have lots of art work that you have already created that will be perfect for this challenge! And even if you don't have something already made I am sure you can whip something up in no time. I told you a bit about the Daily Window Designer Challenge the other day. Now I am going to tell you how easy it is to win one of those awesome bags for yourself or as a gift for som...

Here is a little sneak peek of some altered bottle caps I am working on for a swap on the Paper Imagery Designs Ning site. The bottle caps are recycled and colored with Alcohol Inks. Little circles of dictionary pages are glued into the center of the cap. I can't show the finished product cause I don't wanna ruin the surprise for the rest of the swappers. Well they are still wet and drying any way.

I love this little kewpie image from Paper Imagery Designs . The kewpie images can be used for almost any theme.  I have some new PID images to play with and I managed to find some time to create a couple of small pieces of art. My arty time is very limited these days. I am helping with my two young granddaughters during the day. One is 7 months old so all of you mothers out there know how hard it is to do anything when babies are this young. Here is a 4 x 4 I made   And here is an atc to I made for the PID weekly challenge And for all of my readers that are enjoying my natural dye experiments I am dying some fabric using an herbal tea. This first batch of fabric has not been treated with a mordant. After it soaks for a couple of days I am going to dye another batch of fabric with the same jar of liquid using material that has been treated with alum as the mordant.    I am hoping to get a real dingy vintage looking maroon but the fun part of these experime...

There have been a few things that I have been working on the past few months that were for publication and I haven't been able to share them. Here is a sneak peak at a couple of pieces of art that I've done for the Daily Window website. If your not familiar with Daily Windows bags click on one of the icons at the top of this post or the link and you can see some of the great handbags they sell. These bags are a great way to showcase your artwork or to even show off pictures of the grand kids.     This second piece is a little different from what you are use to seeing from me. I have worked with fabric on and off for years. I even did the quilt thing for a while. I recently scored a bunch of vintage lace and trims at an estate sale and couldn't wait to do something with it. Another fabric piece I made has been accepted for publication but you will have to wait to see that. I'm so excited I can't wait for the book to come out.   Both images used a...

Technorati Tags: Altered Art , Mixed Media , Collage , Paper Imagery Designs , Challenge , Gothic Arch I had so much fun making the Gothic Arch for the weekly challenge at the Paper Imagery Designs Yahoo group I decided to make another one. The image is from Paper Imagery Designs . I also decided to share the before and after of my background piece. I loved the background piece before I added my elements and why I decided to cover it up with cheesecloth I don't know. But while I was in my artistic zone I thought wouldn't that look cool with some dyed cheesecloth on it. So I pulled out a baggy of dyed cheesecloth and cut up some strips. Then I took my little mini misters full of dye reinkers and pearlx and hit the cheesecloth with a couple of squirts. At first I was only going to add the cheesecloth to the left hand side. But when I was trying to lay it on the side of the arch to see what it looked like I didn't care for the way it looked. Finally...

The weekly challenge over at the Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group for this week is Gothic Arch. The image used on my arch is Mia 112 Check out the Paper Imagery Designs Blog to see more art work done using the beautiful Paper Imagery Designs images. Thanks for stopping by! Arlene

Here is an ATC that I made for the whitewash challenge on the Ranger group. I used the new Inkessentials white opaqued pen. I am really loving this pen! The image is Mary Beth from Paper Imagery Designs. Isn't she the sweetest little thing you've ever seen? Thanks for stopping by! Arlene

Hi all I've been having a lot of fun with the Paper Imagery Designs image sheets. This weekend I added an element that I don't have much experience with. Transparencies. Take a peek at this atc I did using one of the Paper Imagery Designs ATC House Transparency sheets over a PID image. I love this image of Isabella she is from sheet # 148. I have used her on a few pieces of art. Check back a few posts to see her used on a 2 x 2 background. The house transparencies are available in either plain black, like I used above or colored. Check them out. There are a few other transparency sheets available. I am so loving my new bottle of Ranger color wash. Here is another atc I made using the color wash on the background. I also used my new Adirondack Pigment Ink pad and embossing powder in eggplant. The image is Tessa from Paper Imagery Designs.

Here are a few ATC's that I've made this past week. I really like the way the little angel turned out. The images are from Paper Imagery Designs . Have you had a chance to check out the new Paper Imagery Designs yahoo group ? Lori & Melissa have been having trivia contests almost every day and the prizes are free image sheets. Someone from the yahoo group will be the lucky winner in an up coming contest of 24 original one of a kind ATC's. Each of the designers, there are 6 of us along with Melissa & Lori are creating 3 atc's for this special prize. So if you don't want to miss out on a chance to win an awesome prize pack of 24 atc's go over to the group and join. See you there! Have a great weekend! Arlene

Inchie are some the the cutest little pieces of art I have ever seen. I am amazed at how those tiny little images can make a little 1 x 1 background come alive. Here are some of the inchies I have made using the new Inchie image sheet from Paper Imagery Designs. Check out the image sheet and while your there hop over to the blog where you can see some great art work made with PID images. Arlene

Usually each of my blog posts is accompanied with a picture of a piece of art that I have made. Well today there is no picture. Sorry to disappoint. It's not that I have nothing new to share but at the moment I have no scanner and can not find my digital card reader. Read below. For the past week I have been staying at my oldest daughters house. We live out in the country and have to depend on a well to furnish the water to our home. Well the well is dead. Not a good thing since it costs roughly 8 to 10 thousand dollars to drill a new one. My husband who can pretty much fix anything has not had much luck with fixing this problem. At the moment we don't know if the well has dried up or there is something wrong with the pump. Since my husband is self employed and does most of his jobs 25 to 30 miles away from our home he does not get home before dark most nights. It is impossible to work on this problem in the dark so here I sit for another few days until he can get out to the ho...

I have been a busy bee this weekend. I finished up a 5 x 7 canvas board I had been working on last week. At one point I really was stuck with this piece so I have a great feeling of satisfaction now that it is finished and I am happy with it. Check out Princess Emily and let me know what you think. Her royal image is from Paper Imagery Designs My next little project for the weekend is piece using Bella. If you read my previous blog post you might remember that I said I had a few more ideas for her. This is the first card I have made in years. Bella was perfect. She is another image available from Paper Imagery Designs I am so happy with the quality of these image sheets. They have added a bunch more to the site. I can't wait to get a couple of their new inchie sheets. The grand opening sale is still running!

Here is an atc that I recently made. I just love the eyes of this little girl. On this atc I placed a butterfly for her to stare at. I've got a few other ideas where I plan to use her. The image is from Paper Imagery Designs check them out. During the month of May they are running a grand opening sale.

I am honored to announce that I have been chosen to be a member of the design team for Paper Imagery Designs. Please take a minute to check out the site. Click on the image above to go right to the site and be sure to bookmark it. There is a grand opening sale running for the month of May. Buy 2 image sheets and get 1 free. The images are great so run on over and check it out! I'll be posting some new projects soon using these beautiful images.

Here are a couple more pages that I have finished. I am not real sure of the correct terminology, whether I am making an art book or an art journal. When I think of an art journal I think of pages that are collaged but also include some type of journaling. I don't do that. That is one of the reasons that I quickly lost interest in scrapbooking. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I find it too hard to express myself in that way. Then I start trying too hard to work my page elements into something that goes along with the journaling. It ruins my creative feng shui. I know some of you will understand completely. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If as I am working on a piece I get a feeling or some meaning comes across then I will try to fit some kind of text into the piece. This works much better for me. Or my background will have a random piece of text that suddenly goes perfect with an image I have dug out of my stash. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here is a perfect example of what...

I’ve been working on a little something lately for my own pleasure. I’m not signed up for any swaps and have plenty of arty time to work on something, just for my own pleasure. I came across an article in an issue of Somerset Studios from last year and I just fell in love with an art book by Celine Navarro. That’s one of the things I love about the magazines. I get to meet talented artists by way of their articles and then go check out their blogs .Celine’s blog is The Green Frog’s Studio . Check it out if you get a chance. I came up with my own way to bind my pages together very similar to the method she used. I’m not finished yet as this is a pretty big project for me. My book will contain 7 pages, decorated front and back making a total of 14, 5 x7 pages to collage. I’ve participated in bigger swaps but because each of my pages will be different it's taking me a bit longer to complete. Click on the picture for a closer view. I'm not sure if I am going to leave the victorian...

Free Vintage Images! I bet that got your attention. Like most crafters and artists that work in mixed media art I am always on the look out for free images to use in my art work. Yesterday I was surfing around looking to see if I could find anything interesting and came across a relatively new website MissMary.com . There are gobs of free things to download along with her extensive collection of vintage clip art for sale. Be sure to check out her link for free downloadable collage sheets. This past Saturday I went to another ATC swap at Betty's Stamp Pad. I am so glad my mother in-law decided to drag me to that first swap. I have met some very nice people there. I think it is great to chat with like minded people, don't you? This is a picture my first attempt at a 9 by 9 ATC layout. I am not sure what the correct " name " is for one of these. So if you know please leave a comment. I would love to see how other people do these to get an idea. One of the ladies at th...

Linda from Italy said... ""I like it. and the flowers are made by hand with black pen? Your work is collage or has transfered images in it? thanks and compliments."" By the way I loved your Alice in Wonderland collage. Here is the link for anyone interested in checking it out. http://clochart.blogspot.com/ Hi Linda thanks for reading my blog and asking a question. The flowers were made by stamping black stazon ink with a flower stamp on top of a background I made and cutting them out. For the background I used Ranger distress inks on a sheet of music. I smeared the ink pads around and then spritzed with a water bottle and let dry. All of the images are collaged on to each page of my journal. Added Feature . I'm not sure how many none english speaking people visit my blog but I have decided to add a translator to my blog for those that do visit. I know I apprecitate the feature when I run across an artists blog in another language that gives me the option....

Back in the November/December issue of Cloth Paper Scissors I saw a technique that I knew I had to try. The article was written by Katie Kendrick . Using plain old card board recycled from boxes and cheesecloth ( see previous post on my major score of cheese cloth ) she created a beautiful mixed media journal. The old world feel of her journal called out to me. Pictured above is my practice piece I made following her instructions in the article. I pretty much flew by the seat of my pants without any theme, making each page as I went with whatever I had on hand. Some of the pages I love and a few of them I could do without. Over all I am pleased with how it turned out. I've got a theme picked out for the next one and am busy collecting items to use. My practice journal is small, 5 1/2 inches by 2 3/4. The next one will be a 5 x 7 and I will have more room to create in. Here are a few of the pages. Have a Happy Easter!

I've had a great two days this week scoring supplies and just had to share with you. Thursday I ran into my local Joann's to see if I could find the latest issue of Somerset Studio. I had a 40% off coupon I wanted to use before it expired. For a couple of months I had a project in mind that required some cheesecloth. The last time I bought some to use for cooking it cost an unbelievable $4.99 for two little squares. So on a whim I go back to the fabric department and ask if they have any cheesecloth not really expecting them to have it. So the very nice lady working the cutting table says, sure it over here and I follow her to the area where thread and notions are sold. She points down to this huge box and says here it is. The box is about 38 inches long. Knowing how much I paid for that tiny little pack I bought a few years ago I just knew I couldn't afford it. I tell the lady thank you and pick up a box and open the lid to see what it's like. Well it's cheesec...