Zebra quilt

This was a gift for my friend Jane's birthday. Poor Jane - I've known her for probably 10 years and have forgotten her birthday for 9 of them, so this is long overdue. Anyway, she's got a "thing" about zebras. I found a close up of a zebra's face on photobucket of all places and appropriated it since it was not going to be for sale.

It's made out of white velvet and the black is actually just sharpie marker. It seemed appropriate to me to notice from the picture that a zebra has both black (bottom - black thread) AND white (top - eyelash yarn) eye lashes. It's a wonder he can see at all with those long white ones. I couldn't find a black or a white fabric that looked good with the velvet and since Jane also has a "thing" for red, I found this red velour that I figured would be a nice touch with the velvet. I had a devil of a time getting it on, though, even after stabilizing it, so it's not quite straight.

Making Postcards

I've had a drawerfull of half finished, barely started and in-pieces postcards for months and when I was going up to Beth's, I decided to go through it and take these UFOs up and get them together. This is only the first group that I've finished - there are probably at least this many still waiting for finishing attention. And since I've sworn not to put them back in the drawer, finished they will get. The AAQI will get a batch of new postcards!

Ahhhhhh, I'm home!

There is nothing like going away for a bit to make you appreciate your own space! When Tom dropped me off at the train, he made a joke about now I've experienced surburbia, I'd be glad to get back to the city. I said that this was not suburbia, this was the wilderness! I do enjoy public transportation, though - you meet so many nice people. A man held the door to the shelter open for me to get in with my suitcase and he and his wife and daughter were people I would never have met normally. Yet, while we waited the couple of minutes for the train, we chatted about the weather and Metra travel. Then this nice man lifted my suitcase onto the train for me! So there are also a few wierdos on most trains, you an just ignore those...like a dog - if you don't look at them they won't bother you.

Except Beth and Tom's dogs. VERY persistent! I can't say I will miss them, but they really weren't bad dogs. They're just DOGS, and I'm not overly fond of dogs. We did have fun playing in the snow this morning, though.

When I got off the train in downtown Evanston, I just couldn't stop grinning. People, lights, traffic. I love it all.

And I had a ton of fun mail - well a ton of boring stuff and some really fun things from One World One Heart, an invite to a studio opening, a card from my cousin Carol, a DVD I bought when blog hopping during OWOH and one I won. Oh and a cross stitch pattern I also won during OWOH. And my Chinese Brush Painting ATCs from a swap. All in all a very cool welcome home!

Cool tree bark

This is a picture of tree bark that Beth took while in Hawaii.

This is what I did to it using PSP's kaleidascope special effect tool.

Pretty cool, huh? There is bound to be more than one quilt or mixed media piece in that one picture...

They are arriving home today and I get to go home tomorrow! Should have some mail fun waiting for me as I won a couple of OWOH giveaways! Can't wait!

Art-ography #21

Two in one day - this fabric is stirring my creative juices. This is another piece of my sister's hand dyed fabric with a rose picture I took last summer layered on top.

Art-ography #20

This is a combination of a gorgeous piece of fabric from QST, an altered angel from Dover and an angel quote from quotegarden.com.

Art-ography #19

Background is an altered photograph (mine) of a flower garden in one of Chicago's parks. The "ladies" are an altered Dover royalty-free image.

Art-ography #18

My brother Mark was driving me into town from Mom's condo one day and I made him pull off the road and stop so I could take this picture. It was gorgeous in real life, but (as photos often do) was a bit flat on the computer screen. I started playing with it, and while this wasn't what I was aiming for, I liked it enough to keep it. Here's the original photo:

Dog Sitting

I'm here in the wilds of damn-close-to-WI land dog-sitting for my sister and her family who left this morning for HAWAII! And, of course, it had to snow here last night, just to underscore that it's winter here and they're going to HAWAII. A car passes on the road beyond the stop sign now and then and the dogs get up to bark at something stupid like a snowflake now and then, but otherwise it's quiet . . . VERY quiet.

OWOH Winner . . .

. . . is Patty! We've already been in contact and I'll be mailing the padfolio today.

This was wonderful fun and I've met wonderful people! My only regret is it got so HUGE I wasn't able to get through all the blogs. Will keep on trying, tho!

Art-ography #17

I'm involved in a workshop to make backgrounds using mixed media techniques. Then we scan them and use them in a digital piece. The background on this is the green. It's made by mixing green acrylic paint with embossing paste and then spreading it on a piece of lutradur. Then I pressed an embossing plate (leaves) into it and let it dry thoroughly. I'll do more with the background - this is just the digital part of the assignment. The cactus is a Dover royalty-free image - I removed the background and then filled in the pieces.

Art-ography #16

This picture was taken by my niece, Caitlin Wiessner. As I played with it in PSP I got some unusual effects and ended up keeping them.

Art-ography #15

Same process (basically) as #14 below.

Art-ography #14

This was a picture I took in WI last summer of Lake Wisconsin between two buildings. I'd read a new technique for taking a photo to sketch and then another that made it a WATERCOLOR sketch, which I liked even better! It's about 6 steps and a lot of fussing around with levels, but I LOVE the result!

Chinese Characters for ME!

I must be going through an identity crisis, LOL - first candy hearts (see next post), now Chinese! Actually, this one has a real purpose - brush paintings are traditionally signed with a "chop" which is a stamp of Chinese characters. Handmade chops are very expensive - but then I found AsianBrushArt.com who will make you a digital file for much less. This one says Diane Did It or I can use the first three characters and just have Diane. I'll have total size flexibility. I can flip it, run it through my printer on a transparency and transfer the image onto any painting I get done. That is, of course, assuming I get a painting done that I deem worthy!

Isn't this fun! Click on the image to go make your own!

TenTwo Studios

Lisa Vollrath of Ten Two Studios is hosting a printables holiday countdown. She is revealing a new printable each day from Feb 1-14 as linkware. Be sure to check it out!