Background for Misty

Well I've finally watercolored a background for the Kylie pictures for Misty. I've put 3 coats of Clear Tar Gel overtop so hopefully the transfers will be better with the slightly less bumpy background. I like the extra sheen it gives to the background too.

Redo for Damon

I hate the glare of glass but here are closeups of the redone pictures for Damon.





















I finally found the black vellum cardstock and replaced the white vellum with it.
















I like how it looks much better so now I think I can finally mail it to him. Here's a pic before I put the glass back on and the original 'finished product'. I definetely like the black with it and used a gold gel pen to write on it. Now to get to the post office to mail it......

Finished Picture for Damon

Ah yes you may say, but Kim, your sister's birthday was LAST month so how is it that you have finished your brother's birthday present first??? Well the answer to that question is easy, his project was less 'let's try this technique out' and more 'this technique has been proven to work'. So that is why Damon's present is only a matter of a mere week+ late where Misty's is....well, just add a month to that......I hope he likes this.












I took color pictures I had taken at Christmas and settled on the sepia (much warmer looking than the black and white copies were).
I wound up using the excess that I had cut off for framing each individual picture and added it to the other pic for an inside border. I'm pleased with the effect. I wanted to use a cork background (saw it in a Quilting Arts or Stampington magazine) and used the original vellum sheets I had chosen for each and cut them down. All of this was placed in an all glass frame. I had thought about a black frame and I'm sure that would look good too but the only ones I liked were way too small for what i wanted to do. The little scrolls are paper doodles that are covered in pearlex and then embossed and set with the heatgun. I printed out each of their names and their meanings along with short memo about each on vellum paper. The only thing I may possibly change is the vellum if I can find a white or gold vellum pen and use black vellum instead.

pics of Tim

I'm working on pictures of Tim and Damon and have been trying different layout designs. I think I will go with the 3rd one which is the background in 1 & 2 only copied onto vellum and then layed over a orangy art paper.























It used the gold cardboard mat and I've added some papers in orange and yellow to it.




















The vellum will be trimmed down to alleviate the white and a small portion of the underlying paper will show as a small border.

pics of Damon

Okay, I've tried different backgrounds and am going with the darker background printed on vellum and over a yellow background. The vellum will be trimmed and a small portion of the art paper should show as a tiny border.



















I like the leopard print for the mat as the vellum is pretty much the same color all over with only a slight difference in tones which is pretty negligible to see.

















The black mat was pretty but the overall effect was pretty monotone. I like the orange and white textured papers with it.



















I'm still planning to do some sort of embossed cut outs for both pictures before framing them in plain glass frame. I hope they like them!!

Caterpillar

This little caterpillar is munching on the Italian Parsley in one of the containers out front. He's a tiny little guy.

Poor Wibby

Poor Wibby....Doug occasionally likes to harass Wilbur and here he has dressed him in my tee shirt. Wilbur was happy with the attention until he tried to walk when he got his legs caught up in the shirt tail. He's such a good boy.

Wednesday at Rachael's

We had a playday at Rachael's on Wednesday to work on our tomes. Rachael came up with the idea of making cabochon faces for her and BettyAnn's fat lady pages and I made one for my mermaid page that I'm using instead of the dreaded fat lady. Rachael working with the clay.













Our clay embellishments after they had baked and cooled.














Rachael's cabochon on her fat lady.

















BettyAnn messing around with a skeleton head for her fat lady (which she isn't going to use).















My painted mermaid without her head.














My mermaid with her beaded top and the start on her beaded tail.

Washington, Georgia

BettyAnn, Rachael & I were up early on Saturday morning heading for Athens for the Plying the Arts 2006 presented by the Peachtree Handspinners Guild and the Lyndon House Arts Center. We decided to take the back road up Highway 78 and to stop and noodle around in the towns on the way there and home. Our first stop was in Washington, Georgia where we stopped at the East Square.

City Hall building.


















The Purple Palette where the owner regailed us with stories of the local artists whose art was for sale. Very interesting pieces with reasonable prices and friendly service.














Tree in the center of the square with a close up of the plaque dedicated to the Wilkes County Courthouse.






























Confederate Monument in the middle of the square.



















Several shots of the Fitzpatrick Hotel. It is quite grand and stately. I just love the old buildings!!


















































JT Lindsey building.














Older home on the way out of town with an old truck in the garage and a closeup of the gazebo part of the house.

Rayle, Cows & Crawford

Our next stop was to an outdoor flea market in Rayle where Rachael was able to find a skeleton keychain. BettyAnn and Rachael both have Halloween birthdays and their interests while both varied and unique, often skirt along the bazaar.

BettyAnn at the first garden center of the day.














Okay, Rachael thought BettyAnn & I were both nuts (which mostly goes without saying) when we said we had never seen cows swimming (except on tv).














We had to turn around (part of noodling) and park so the two of us could get pictures of the cows.














We stopped at The Art Place in Crawford, GA. It is a neat little shop full of an ecclectic assortment of art and very friendly people.

Plying The Arts, Athens, Georgia

BettyAnn found the flyer for Plying the Arts which was presented by the Peachtree Handspinner Guild and the Lyndon House Arts Center in Athens, Georgia.


This was a piece of yard art that we found intriguing. We are waiting for Rachael (who recently finished a welding course) to start making wonderful pieces to put in her yard (and hopefully her friends yards too...hint hint).


















We roamed the halls and checked out the vendors, fondling wool everywhere we went. BettyAnn and I came out with a bag stuffed with goodies each (of course my bag was ever so much smaller than hers was)......

Downtown Athens

Since we were already in Athens we decided we'd noodle around a little bit (noodling is what we call checking out anything that seems noteworthy or investigation worthy - it entails turning around and changing directions frequently). Well the first words I heard were 'oh no, they have bulldogs here like the turtles in Atlanta' (more or less the quote from BettyAnn) followed by an immensley large sigh from the backseat (Rachael). Well if you have followed my blog at all you know that my motto is 'see turtle, photograph turtle, blog turtle'....the same may now be said of bulldogs. These are the few that we found. Not all are at an optimal angle, but there is only so much one can do and drive at the same time.















Our first mission was to find the Art of it All aka Athena Jewelers.











Rachael and BettyAnn posing with the frog out front. Have I ever mentioned Rachael's fear of froggies? (that should get an email or two).....We checked out the bead store next door too where BA & R found a few treasures they could not live without.
















A picture of the building and tree directly across from Athena's (you can see the reflection in her store glass).














We never did find the entrance to find out what this tower actually belonged to, but I was able to at least get a picture of it. Yes, I am old building weird.