Collage Contessa

New Blogs, Drawing, New Art

2008-07-21T09:28:00.013-05:00

I've been trying to get back in the swing of things since vacation. Catching up on blog posts, emails and stuff like that. Several new people visited my blog in the last month and I'm so happy about that. It is a whole new list of blogs for me to visit and share with you!

New & returning Blogs:
Artwords Clan
Ilka' Attic
Pattiedmon
PrimitiveWoolen
Beth's Babble
The Artistic Diva
Creative Flutter
Easily Amused Hard to Offend
KrissiSandvik (She's such a sweetie, awarding me the yellow award above and the honor of being in her blogroll.)
Swell Designer
Rhonda Stamps
Lind Art
Mystele
Earthtone Studios
Poppy Cat
So Distressing
Then & Now
Inara Scraps
Miz Katie
Kerryland
Mama n Jack Jack
Sweet Repeats
Bag Lady's Art
The Art Sook
In The Tree Top
Scrapping Away
Heather's House

Also, I found this drawing, ends tomorrow night. I thought I would share. The quilt is to-die-for! Go enter. Hopefully one of us will win! Enter here.

Book reading update: I'm working my way through the following books if anyone cares. lol What are you reading this summer?
Thursday Next in First among sequels (4th in series) - Jasper FForde
The creative family - Amanda Blake Soule
Junk beautiful - Sue Whitney
Semiprecious Salvage - Stephanie Lee
In this house - Angela Cartwright
The Art of Personal Imagery - Corey Moortgat
Plush you! - Kristen Rask
Vintage Vavoom

Last of all. I received a certain scrumptious sumpin sumpin in the mail this past week from The Crafty Chica. Something I can play with. Can't be more specific than that but I'm uber excited and can't wait to share what I'm working on! Stay tuned.

Remember, you can follow me on Twitter, for all my nonsense and art related posts. You know you wanna know about all the mundane unimportant things I'm doing and saying! lol My Twitter

Idiosyncrasies & Quirks

2008-07-21T09:00:00.001-05:00

Idiosyncrasy: \ˌi-dē-ə-ˈsiŋ-krə-sē\ noun - a: a peculiarity of constitution or temperament : an individualizing characteristic or quality b: characteristic peculiarity (as of temperament)

Quirk: \ˈkwərk\ noun - a: an abrupt twist or curve b: a peculiar trait

What are yours? Do you have a lot of quirks? Are you like me and need to ask others 'what are my quirks?' I'm sure people will tell you, in fact, I think my family was suspiciously overeager to tell mine. lol My family told me many, including that I pick my lip when I think, I have to unpack in a hotel no matter how long we're staying, and I like Chipotle (not sure that's a quirk, but the kids say so.)

This week's Creative Therapy challenge is: Create art around one of your quirks/idiosyncrasies. Remember, you can participate in the challenges too. There is a random prize given out EVERY WEEK. Kick start your art and come play along!

After I looked up what 'idiosyncrasies' and 'quirks' meant (so I could be clear), I explained to my children and asked them mine.
The very first thing they both said was 'you make lots of faces.'
I said 'What?'
'Like that!' they laughed.
Okay, so I do. I'm an expressive person. I use my eyes, mouth and gesturing hands to convey what I'm saying. I don't do it on purpose, its just how I'm built. My teen says I can change my persona just by making a new face. I guess I'm creating myself over and over again. I see some of the same expressions in my mother and now my littlest daughter is becoming a carbon copy of me. Both my kids and I are big eyerollers, grimacers (is that a word) and exaggerated shock face showers. It's just how we roll.
I wouldn't want to be any other way.

Techniques: My favorite little trick on this piece I learned from Corey Moortgat's book 'The Art of Personal Imagery'. I swipe painted the background aqua, around my head. Let it dry. Then I randomly dry brushed olive green over that paint. Then I took a big paintbrush, dipped in water and flicked it onto the paint. I waited until the paint was dry and then wiped off the water, removing the top layer of paint where the drops were, revealing the bottom color. Love that.

Beach Postcards

2008-07-19T13:00:00.002-05:00

I brought this big bag of art supplies to use while on vacation. Didn't spend much time with them really. I need to remember that every time I go somewhere. As much as I 'want' to use them, I probably won't. I did manage to collage 3 postcards and draw 3 postcards for family. I sent them from St. Pete so hopefully my fam gets them soon.

The collaged cards use scraps, paint, stamps, images from brochures from our trip and ladies from Altered Pages collage sheets. The sketched cards were fun to do, although drawing isn't my thing. I found images of a boat, beach chair and lighthouse and sketched them. I cut the postcards to shape before I left, glued a Florida map piece on each and rubbed Antique Linen Ink pad all over to age them.

The last day we were there we had a bit of time before we checked out. DD decided to make a note for the maid, to put our tip in. I sat down with her and my supplies and drew the postcards you see below. DD also picked some flowers off a bush to give to the maid. I thought it was a pretty sweet thing.

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

2008-07-17T14:30:00.001-05:00

Coming home from vacation there is always that let down. That feeling of 'I should be doing something' creeps in your subconscious and pounces on your nerves. While on vacation, you have that 'ehhh, we can do something or we don't. Doesn't matter. We're here to relax.' I want that feeling at home or at least some of it you know? Trying not to let the subconscious control me. Not going to make a to-do list either. It's like a mini guilt trip list. I'll either do things when I think of them, or not. Not gonna bog myself down with busyness.

Yesterday, 1st day home I should have done lots of things. But didn't. Bags were mostly unpacked, no grocery shopping done (ordered pizza.) Needed a shower, needed to clean my art desk already. Instead I think I opened mailed, paid bills, watched 4 episodes of Lost (with DH) and took 2 naps. lol DD watched TV half the day and I refuse to feel like a bad mother. We're just catching up I guess. Today we're slow moving as well but hopefully I'll get my patootie in gear soon.

Here are the final trip pics to be shared.

Sunday was spent at the pool and watching people fly their windkites. DH found several beautiful shells on one of his beach walks. We bleached them and brought them home.

Monday everyone was sun shy. Teen DD got a burn and didn't want to step foot near the outdoors. We spent half the day laying around. DH and I finished Lost, Season 1. We promptly ordered Season 2 from Netflix so it would be waiting on us when we got home. In the afternoon we ventured back to St. John's Pass for more Cherry ice cream and some shopping. Then we headed into St. Petersburg to check out the pier. It's a beautiful location to see far out into the bay or whatever we were looking over. DH and little DD went to the small aquarium on level 2. My friend Paula, told me about the Cha Cha Coconuts restaurant on the top level so we had dinner there. Very eclectic dining area, plus we could see the water. As we left the pier, we saw the sun was setting behind the buildings. So we missed seeing it set over the water but I think this was just as beautiful.

On our way back to the hotel we saw gorgeous buildings in St. Pete. This one caught my eye (I may use pieces of it in art sometime.) We headed down to the end of the St. Pete Beach island and found this little concrete pier jutting out into the water. The waves were crashing up against it loudly. So beautiful. We met lovely people fishing off the end of the pier. Beautiful ending to a beautiful trip.

Our last day was eventful. We spent a couple hours in thrift stores, buying little things. I came home with yet more trim (yes, I know I didn't need any, but it was cheap!) and old hankerchiefs that my mom and I collect. DD came home with lots of shoes. Like she needs more shoes. *eyeroll here* What can I say? She's a teenager.

Our flight out of Tampa was delayed several hours. The airport was shut down due to yuck weather but our flights were smooth. I met a lady who was about 82? She was born in London and came to America on a boat in 1946. She has lived a varied life. Met Eisenhower, danced/partied with Robert Taft (grandson of William), married 3 times, 5 children, has a granddaughter trying to make it in movies. I hope my lifestory someday can read like a book, like hers does.

4 day Vacation Update

2008-07-10T00:19:00.017-05:00

Warning - this is a photo laden post. Full of pics from our vacation.

P.S. Don't know why this showed up as 'Thursday's Post' but it was written on Sunday.

Every time we walk down to the shore I can just feel the people laughing at us and saying "oh here come those newbies, the pasty white people.' lol We are so un-tan compared to all the people there. Although after this week I'm sure we're starting to fit right in. Almost all of us got a bit of shoulder & back burn. I think this is part of the initiation process into the cool tan people's club.

I am surprised and a little bit shocked to see all the walks of life here. We have 80 year grandmas in bikinis with speedo clad hubbies. The largest family staying at this hotel speak fluent german and flawless english. The newest arrivals speak french and dd (who is studying it) has been sidling up near them to see if she can interpret anything they say, just to see if she knows anything. It's like a big ole' melting pot isn't it? We are most surprised to discover that the majority of people we see on the beach are not speaking english. Maybe this is because of our economy right now and the price of gas? Everyone is home taking 'staycations'. I'm so glad we were able to secure tickets before the price hikes otherwise we wouldn't be here either.

** UPDATE: Found that a Twitter friend (her blog) belongs to a group having a Staycation Workshop. If you need a kick in the pants artwise this summer, you should go play along. It's free. **
Here's the first week's challenge
Last Friday's Challenge (week 2)

On Wednesday, after a morning at the beach, we spent the afternoon at St. John's Pass. It's a boardwalk next to a drawbridge. Lots of lovely stores to shop in.

We had visited there 2 years ago but most of the stores were closed then, because it was September.

We ate ice cream at the fudge shop and Alex and I discovered we love Traverse City Cherry.

They're opening a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Restaurant.We're hoping its opened before we leave Tuesday but we're not sure.

Our anniversary dinner was spent at Crabby Bills with fried clams, hush puppies, king crab and more. We could see the beach from our table. Heavenly.

The sunset was a little lackluster compared to the night before but anything is preferable to what we see from back home.

Thursday dawned gorgeous and bright. See how the beach melts into the sky? Alex was not ready to wake up I think, because she kept trying to sleep in the pool chair. We spent the morning in the pool and the afternoon out. We tried out a few malls, watched Wall.E which was a cute movie and then took in the Dali Museum. Dali's paintings are so interesting. Makes me want to paint. Dinner was Gigi's Italian Restaurant. Best Ziti I've had in a long time.

Friday we swam the morning in the pool. The afternoon we just chilled in the hotel with lunch, and TV (DH and I are working out way through the first season of Lost so we watched a bit of it.) It's an addicting show. We spend each evening before going to sleep watching a couple episodes. Something new to bond over I guess.

We decided to go look at 'Florida's Largest Bookstore' or so it claims. It's a great new/used store with wonderful unique books, especially older books. I was in the arts section for quite a long time. The only thing the store was missing was current magazines. And I guess a coffee shop because we felt the need to find a Starbucks after we left there. We're such a spoiled country aren't we? Green Tea Frappuchino anyone?

Dinner was a collective trawl of fast foods and grocery stores. Everyone wanted something different.

Yesterday was just the prettiest overcast day. We spent the morning on the beach, and then it started to rain around lunch time. We headed in to leftovers and secured a table near the pool. It's a day of turnover for the hotel so we saw lots of new tenants. Most seemed to have unruly children so the pool was crowded. We stayed up there all day, eating dinner off the grill (steak and brats yum!) What a wonderful day. One of my favorites so far, just sitting around doing nothing. Read a lot of my book 'Something Rotten', a Thursday Next book by Jasper Fforde. I think its the 3rd or 4th in the series. The sunset was one of the prettiest yet. I don't think we've missed a sunset since we've been here. It's my favorite part of the whole beach experience.
(the first couple pics are of the clouds. They're so vibrant and uniquely shaped. I've been practicing my drawing lately and the clouds here make me want to draw them!)

I've seen so much down here that makes me want to do art, paint, draw, collage. I guess all experiences can contribute to your artistic endeavors. Okay, I'm sure that's enough pics for now. Family is waiting at the pool for me. Guess I should throw on my swim suit for another burn in the sun. I'll be back later for some art from my trip.

Friendship Art

2008-07-09T12:59:00.006-05:00

Remember when I was talking about my art room organization? I invited friends over two Tuesdays in a row and we attacked my ribbon. My friends worked tirelessly for hours. My dd helped me finish up and label everything another day. Now I can find everything! I'll have to post pics of the ribbon when I get home.

I decided to make something for my friends & dd to thank them for all their help, plus their friendship. I made them these 6x6" plaques. I used paper I no longer liked from my giveaway pile (perfect to paint over) and swiped it with paint. Inspired by Kathy's Flickr (see her Art Journals), I came up with these ideas. I used some vintage trims, ephemera, rubons, buttons, stamps w/ink, pen, string. I stenciled on the letters and numbers and all images are from Altered Pages. I also used my notebook type punch (see the sides?) I bought from my lovely Stampin' Up rep.

I handed the plaques out at our July 4th picnic (thank you for inviting us Trisha!) Everyone seemed to enjoy them. DD hung hers on her door.

We've just finished lunch and now we're off to locate a boogie board, floaty device and possibly some ice cream.

Day 2: 20th Anniversary

2008-07-09T09:46:00.007-05:00

Waking up to the sun, surf and beautiful weather makes me wonder yet again why we live in the middle of the country instead of here in Florida which we love. DH could just as easily get a job here. We say this everytime we're near the beach! lol

DH woke up this morning, our 20th anniversary, and went running. He said the beach was full of runners and it was hard not to try to keep pace with someone. He's training for the Disney Marathon happening in January. So I guess we'll be coming back to Florida in 6 months. Yay us! At that time we'll be staying in our favorite rental house and hitting the Disney parks since his marathon is run through them. He's running with my father. It will be an accomplishment for both as dad has run a marathon before (9 yrs ago) but DH has only done a 1/2 so far.

Since it's our 20th anniversary today, we're thinking of going back to the restaurant we loved so much last time we were here... The Hurricane. I remember the clam chowder being the best I had ever had. Or maybe we'll find a shack somewhere that serves awesome food. Either way, dinner is going to be wonderful.

Time to hit the beach. DH is frowning at me because I'm on the computer instead of sitting out in the sun. Gotta catch me some rays. I'll be back later with some artwork I made before I left home. Here's a piece I gave DH for our anniversary (before we left home.)

Toodles!

Day 1: Paradise

2008-07-08T21:41:00.006-05:00

Our vacation is finally here. We're in paradise in Florida.

I'm uber tired since we were up at 345 am for the drive to the airport and a 6 am flight. Thankfully I made it through both flights without throwing up. Kids did well too. Our hotel is just gorgeous, we've already spent a day at the beach, saw the sunset and picked up shells.

Kids fell asleep early so DH and I took a walk on the beach alone. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is our 20th anniversary and he wrote in the sand. Isn't he a keeper? Enjoy the pics. I'll be back again with more, and I have some art to share I haven't had a chance to post yet.

(Bear with me, pics are a bit off since I didn't bring my editing program with me and had to download a freebie. Still learning how to use it.)

Catch Up Post - Book Club, Winner, Giveaway

2008-06-30T11:00:00.009-05:00

Gosh! I do get sidetracked sometimes! I'm realizing there are several things I never got around to closing up, commenting on or whatever.

I seriously dropped the ball on my impromptu, newly formed 'Virtual Jane Austen Book Club'. I did in fact finish the book but never really came and discussed it with others. If you finished it or just had ideas to share, I'd love to hear them. I will be reading Persuasion over the summer. Care to try joining me again?

Remember this piece I made for my Etsy store (custom orders)? Well, I forgot to come announce the winner and send out the item. I drew a name a long time ago but you know how it is. Life got in the way. Sorry to everyone who was waiting with bated breath. lol
The winner is...
.
.
.
.
.
.
RICRACSALLY!

I'll be contacting you for your mailing address and will get the little purse out to you pronto. Oh, and I still have not cracked open the package holding my phone's disk for music. How sad is that! I plan to work on that this summer though. Thanks for all your fabulous suggestions. Some I had never heard before! Oh by the way, where do you get all your music? Do you download, buy all the CDs? I was thinking 'where will I get a lot of these songs? Just wondering.

I'm still accepting ideas for the piece from this post. The right saying or word just will not come to me, so I asked for suggestions from my readers.

So far I've received these:
Three's A Crowd
There's a Time & A Place for Everything and Everyone
Rise & SHine
'I Can't Hear You! La la la'
The Three Sisters
You Can't Make Everyone Happy
Some Will Always Do As They Please
Look For the Good In Everyone, It's There
There's Always Room For One More
The Early Bird Catches the Worm
ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZZZZ
Three Of A Kind

I'm leaning towards a couple but I could use some more ideas. Help! If I pick your saying you'll win a baggie of collage goodies, or pick the corset tags or altered bottle from this post.

In a totally unrelated 'I was right and you were wrong' notion, DH got a ticket over the weekend. I just had to laugh. When you get off of the highway near our house, I've sometimes seen policemen sitting in between the bank and the auto parts store, just waiting for someone who didn't slow down after coming off the highway. I tell my DH this all the time reminding him to slow down. He insists he's never seen a policeman there at all and he comes home that way every day from work. It's gotten to be a joke with us now. We'll be getting off the highway and I'll say 'I don't even need to tell you what I want to tell you, you just know'. Or I'll comment, 'Do we need to have 'the talk'?' and we'll both laugh. DH came home on friday and announced, 'I got a ticket today and you're not going to believe where.' I said, 'NO WAY!' I thought he was pulling my leg. But nope. So I just had to officially say 'I told you so.' I don't get to say that near often enough. ha

Please check out my Etsy stores. I've listed all recent canvases and art there, as well as new supplies and items for sale. Would love to work on a custom item for you if you would like. Let me know.
Collage Contessa (art work store)
Collage Curiosities(art supplies store)

Good Girls & Night Owls

2008-06-29T11:00:00.004-05:00

(9 days until my beach vacation. Woo hoo!)

Saturday was another good day for art. My neatly cleaned art desk is no longer. But that's okay. I pulled out things I haven't used in awhile; metal letters, number stamps, asian papers, pressed flowers and oil pastels which are my new favorite tool again.

Good Canvas
9" x 12"
Saying is by Longfellow I believe: 'There was a little girl, and she had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. When she was good, she was very very good, and when she was bad she was horrid!'

The girl just looked like she was thinking mischievously. Used a variety of acrylic paints, oil pastels, stamps, ink, glitter glue and more. Not sure you can see the depth and layering in the background with tis picture, but I tried. Heading to Etsy sometime today.

Night Owl Canvas
6" x 6"
This little cutie was inspired by an image I saw in a book once, where a head was collaged out of different papers. I'm into the owls lately so the canvas screamed for an owl instead. This was also a challenge to myself to work with colors I have not put together before. I'm not a fan of purple, as my friends/family will tell you. I have almost an unhealthy dislike for it. I wouldn't let either of my girls be dressed in it nor paint there rooms in any shade. Gag me with a spoon. However, I like how this came out. The colors meld well together.

I used fluid acrylics to achieve the background and layered vintage papers, book pages and asian origami paper. Pressed flowers, rubon letters and 'tattoo' on the right. Oil pastels and white pen. Heading to Etsy as well.

I would love to hear what you think about the pieces I've made recently. Trying to do things without dwelling on them too much.

'Day To Myself' Work

2008-06-28T17:00:00.006-05:00

(ATC made for the TGIF weekly challenge at Altered Gypsy - Tinkling H2Os, stamps w/stazon, Oil pastels on the edge. All created on watercolor paper, with an Altered Pages image.)

Gosh, I love having an organized studio and time to play in it! My dd was gone all day Thursday at a friend's house so I had a day to myself! YAY! I woke up, straightened some of the house and then sat down to create.

My friend Kersten recently mentioned Prima flowers and what was all the 'hype'? They used to be all the rage, especially when I was scrapbooking. I think they still are but after awhile, they are old news as so many products tend to go. There's always some latest and greatest that tends to take the center stage after awhile. Anyway, because she mentioned them, it popped into my head to use a handful when I thought up the TREE piece. It was good to pull them out again and play.

Lovely As A Tree (poem by Joyce Kilmer)
9" x 12" canvas

I've had this magnetic frame around for at least 1 1/2 now. It was a project for a Design Team I was on at the time and I decorated it with the products provided in the kit and have always hated it. The first pic is what it used to look like. Bleck! So I finally ripped all that off of the frame this week and painted it aqua. I got out my Tim Holtz 'Antique Linen' Distress Ink pad REFILL bottle. Put a dab in a paint pan and brushed it over the aqua paint to distress it and the papers I collaged on top. The flower petals are a sticker of an old seed packet. I just cut the petals out of it.

Cherish Magnetic Frame
9" x 11" size (pic opening is 4" x 6")

I completed a third piece you'll see soon. It's for an upcoming Creative Therapy Catalyst. The 2 shown pieces are heading to my Etsy store as well as a necklace I made awhile back with Altered Pages image, and the 'Who Me' owl canvas shown in a previous post. I'm still taking suggestions for the title for the OTHER owl canvas (someone will win a prize) so don't forget to go here and comment.

Studio Organizing Tips

2008-06-27T09:00:00.004-05:00

Yeah, so I'm not the best person to make this list, considering I'm always organizing, filling up, messing up, purging and then organizing my studio again. However, I've been organizing yet again and a few things have popped into my head that seem to work. Tell me your favorite tip for organizing, maybe it will help me too!

Studio Organizing Tip #1
The Pen is mightier than the sword. Keep a notepad and pen at hand so you can jot down creative ideas you think of while organizing. I have this terrible habit. When I think of a good idea, I sweep all the piles I so neatly organized, on the floor, combine them, whatever; just so I can create the idea I came up with. Write the ideas down until a later time.

Studio Organizing Tip #2
The right music can make all the difference! There is nothing like singing into my scissors; belting out some Def Leppard, Cher or The Beach Boys while I'm organizing. A friend on Twitter turned me on to Top 50 songs of the year of your choice. Just go here and choose your favorite year and get singing and cleaning! (I have it set to 1988 right now.)

Studio Organizing Tip #3
Items organized in clear or tinted containers are used more often. But then you knew that huh? When you see it, you remember you have it and you're more likely to use it. I have beautiful blue glass Ball jars I collect specifically for this purpose. They store all manner of things, thread spools, pompoms, clothes pins, etc... I also bought milky clear drawers & containers for storing everything else (see below.)

Studio Organizing Tip #4
Separate things down to the smallest detail. Okay, you might be more patient than I am. But when I think of sifting through 3 big containers of mixed buttons looking for the perfect pink button, I'm gonna quit. Or the big apple basket holding all game pieces/items? I never end up searching for the bingo chips I want. My buttons are now separated into 4 clear embroidery thread holders (some shown here w/my bead & flower boxes.) The game pieces are now in 4 containers on my bookshelves.

Studio Organizing Tip #5
A place for everything and everything in its place. All those clear containers you're now using to store your stuff? I have found if you STORE IT NEAR YOU, you'll do much better. Before I figured this out, I was storing things neat on bookshelves behind my chair where I work and I would pull out drawers and bring them to the table, and soon I'd have an avalanche of drawers, paper, stamps, and ink. My friend Krissi from Twitter says she is a failure at putting things up right away. I am too but at least now I know where everything goes and can put it up quickly. I use ink and paint the most so ink hangs right above my desk. Paint was on a lazy susan on the desk (and in 3 containers) but I've since bought the paint carousel (seen above.) I'm in love with it! Stamps and ephemera are very close seconds as to what I use the most, so ephemera is on my left, stacked high in 12x12 pull out drawers. Stamps are in the same type drawers, right in front of me above my desk on shelves. Buttons, small flowers & beads I use a lot as well and used to keep them in metal containers or baskets or stuffed in a drawer elsewhere. Didn't work. Now they're stacked right in front of me where I can reach them.

Studio Organizing Tip #6 (or 5b)
Convenience is everything. Let me tell you, I hate taking more than a step or two to do something. I don't want to pull my heat gun out a drawer, unwind the cord, crawl under my desk to plug it in and keep it on a heat resistant tray thingie for when its hot. I now keep this handy dandy long metal cookie tin to the left where I work, plus there is a power strip (on the desk top) next to it where I can easily plug everything in. In the tin I keep essentials I hate searching for: a bucket holds all scissors, wire cutters, pliers and exacto knives. Next to it in the tin are decorative scissors. In the back of the tin is the heat gun, dremel tool, hammer and my trusty clover iron. I also keep my tall tower of jewels and sequins because there just happened to be enough room.

Studio Organizing Tip #7
Be Energy Efficient. Ef·fi·cient. Pronunciation:\i-ˈfi-shənt\ - productive of desired effects; especially : productive without waste. I'm usually doing marathon organizing. I go all day, every waking hour until I fall in bed exhausted. I don't like to piddle around doing bit by bit, seems like a waste. To be efficient with your energy; Set aside the amount of time you want to spend organizing. Only take bathroom & drink breaks (don't play around on the computer. Twitter is my downfall.) When you break for lunch/whatever meal, give yourself a 1/2 hour to rest and surf the net or watch TV. Then back to work. Don't stop and sit to do time consuming things, like tearing articles out of magazines or organizing buttons. Don't do that in the middle of your energy. When I get to the end of my day, I will gather a time consuming/sitting organizing chore and sit on the bed and do it. One night I caught up on my TV shows while I breezed through 30+ mags I've had sitting around to pull out articles and pieces to use in art. At that time, I was tired, so standing and organizing wasn't a good use of my energy. Sitting but still working was.

Best Organizing Tip
Two heads are better than one. Or three or four, including their hands. To finish off my art room so its ready for consumption, I invited my closest friends over (aka: the friends who won't fault me for my less than perfect house) for a 'Ribbon Organizing Party'. Personally, my ribbon is one of my biggest headaches. I love ribbons, trims and laces of all kinds but I have amassed so much its now shoved into a big garbage bag and another big blanket bag. Can't really use it that way. I promised my friends free lunch/drinks, a looksie through my art room (some had warned me they would be stuffing their bras with stuff they wanted to steal), and plenty of freebies from the stuff I'm getting rid of. This was a great ending to my organizing endeavor (or is a great way to start it if you need help with the whole process.) Plan a party, invite people over. Make it a big deal to finally be done. And give it all the way, the stuff you no longer need. There are others out there who haven't conquered their clutter bugs yet and will gladly take stuff off your hands!

(I only took one pic while they were here, they were sorting through my giveaway boxes. The rest of the pics are: 1-friends, 2-sorting aftermath, 3-some progress made from hours of work, 4-work still left for me to do, 5-some of what I finished last night watching Numb3rs first season on DVD.)

Extra Little Tips:

1 - Keep a bin or box nearby to throw in items that you're tired of. Give or throw away. Or, address several padded or priority mail envelopes to people you know might like the extras you have to get rid of, or someone who might need a little 'pick me up' this week. Fill with your extras & mail.
2 -Pop on a top. I tend to put big Rubbermaid bins under my desks to hold things like mat board, packing envelopes for order shipping, etc... But I find that having them in large OPEN boxes is bad. When I'm looking for a quick place to shove something, it invariably ends up under the table in the top of one of those open boxes.
3 - Keep a Rolling Cart. I have my most used items in mine: pens laid flat, paint brushes and adhesives. glitter pens & staples, alcohol inks/rubons, dymo labler, large punches, small xyron & refills, batteries (for camera), wheel stamps & rolling handle. I can wheel it to wherever I'm working at the moment.
4 - (this is still on my list of to-dos.) Make a detailed list of everything you own, feathers, metal stripping, chipboard, fluid acrylics, etc... Alphabetize it and put locations for the items (especially if you have lots of drawers.) This saves you lots of time looking AND reminds you in a glance of what you have to use.

Tips shared with me by Twitterpals:
CollageArtist (Claudine Hellmuth) - "I organize all my papers in the 2 gallon ziploc bags, divide them up by color and then throw all the bags into a giant bin!"
Tsoniki - "Use what you have! Use baskets, containers, shelving units. Group like with like of course."
Little Pies - "My 'studio' is a kitchen. I vacuum my kitchen counters frequently.. because I have a constant haze of flour everywhere." ** Vacuuming sounds like a good idea to me! **
brendapinnick - "I keep my paints organized by color in galvanized steel, long oval planters from IKEA."

More info:
100 Thing Challenge - can you do it?
Organization blog: Cool Organizing
Art Room Organization
Organizing Your Artist Space Book

Etsy, Ebay, Craigslist Oh My! Coupon Too!

2008-06-21T14:14:00.004-05:00

** COUPON: Mention this blog post or my bulletin post about my recent Etsy, Ebay & Craigslists listings and I'll give you 20% off anything you buy (excluding custom items.) Mention my listings on your blog and I'll make it a 25% discount! **

(all canvases show are available in my CollageContessa Etsy store.)

Summer is a busy time and as such, I don’t tend to post a lot of items for sale. However, we’re going on vacation in a few weeks so I thought it time to get some items up and on to new homes! Take a look if you have a moment.

Etsy:
Collage Contessa Etsy Shop (vintage items listed, jewelry, new custom collage work available.)
Collage Curiosities Etsy Shop (new ephemera collections, collage sheet special still going on, new supplies listed.)

I’ve also listed items on Ebay and will continue to do so all week. Some art work going up further in the week.

Right now its items that need new homes: (ebay seller acct: homeschool-of-fish)
Homeschool-Of-Fish Ebay Store

And, if you’re in the Kansas City area and like to shop on Craigslist, you can find my items right here:
http://kansascity. craigslist. org/search/sss?query=kcny2

I have a few painting/collages I’m willing to do custom pieces around.

One is listed on Etsy:
Custom Southern Belle Canvas

The other is seen below and would be priced similar to the one above. Contact me for further information.

Creative Therapy Catalyst

2008-06-16T09:00:00.004-05:00

I'm loving my stint as a Creative Therapy Designer. It 'forces' me to create, even when I feel my muse is gone, that I have no talent or that I just have nothing to contribute. Thanks to all those who commented on my posts when I was feeling down and out, and slightly depressed. I've had suggestions to just walk away and do something else, or read art mags to get me going again. But I think I've realized that art is a part of me. I can't just turn it off. However, I can and have let all the stresses of other things in life get in the way and steal my joy. I'm feeling better now. I'm taking my time, doing some things that 'need' doing so they can get out of my psyche and I can concentrate on art again. It feels so good to not be 'forcing' the creating right now.

This week's catalyst is: '1 Lesson To Teach My Children'

There are so many lessons to teach my girls; God is your rock and your answer, Make sure others treat you well, Money isn't everything, Don't talk to strangers. Yet I think the one I talk about the most with them is: Be Happy where you are. Here. There. Wherever you are, whatever job you're in, situation, life, church, etc... be happy. Be happy with what you have. Now I know I'm not the best example of this, I have times that I'm just not happy. But I think if you're always waiting for what is around the corner, the next job, next pay raise, the next sale of your art, the next time you lose weight, the next boyfriend, the next thing you can buy, the next place you'll live - to be happy, you're never gonna even come close to being happy. All I can do is teach them this, and pray for them every day.

While I was creating my Creative Therapy catalyst, I played around with a matching canvas to hang on the wall. The sentiment says, "Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature." (6"x6" canvas)

Canvases were painted with fluid acrylics. When I was working on my last piece for Creative Therapy, I used a canvas to wipe off my excess Golden fluid acrylics. That gave me a lovely background which I used for the 'Be Happy' canvas. Then I used the same liquids and painted the second canvas. I also added strips of paper scraps, spanish book pages, stickers and more. The saying and words on both are either stickers and/or rubons.

Did you enter the drawing from Saturday's post? No? Go enter!