Bird Tag

I'm just playing with a tag today. Made a quick painting of a Rufous-sided Towhee (male) and then added a branch and nest (spanish moss) and an egg and real feathers from my budgie bird.


Tomorrow on the TAG TUESDAY blog we will be starting to post our tags with the theme 'lace' and I am testing lace made from paper. I made it with a hole punch. It's placed at the bottom of the tag and I think it may be finished. I'll sleep on it as they say.

Nice to visit with you and hope to see you soon, *smiles* Norma

Fairy Postcard fom China

Samuel a long time fan of opera in general has had her eyes opened so to speak. Here in China is opera that she's never ever heard of. It appears that she loves it!


Her post card reads:

"Dear Fairy! You cannot imagine how great it is in China!! At the park, they sing opera. Everyone is singing. And even the birds are quiet~when the singing contests (that's what it seems like) are happening~the birds listen too. I am in a place called Beijing. I'll bring you a piece of Jade. Love from Samuel"

To see more gorgeous and fun post cards from China, drop by here.

Thanks for dropping by; I hope to see you again soon, *smiles* Norma

Altered Rolodex Cards

I'm playing with the zenspiration style bird that I talked about in my last post, and have added a touch of a zentangle pattern called antidot to the bird body; to which I've also added stippling. The background shows a spider gel transfer and another zentangle pattern called heartvine. Now I've got the beginning of an altered rolodex card design so will be taking it from here as the saying goes. You can see my card planning below the card I received in the mail yesterday. This 2012 beauty was made by the talented and fabby Miss Donnalee! I love it, art friend!


As you can see, my rolodex wheel is beginning to load up with art cards. A joy to my eyes!

WOYWW: Zenspiration Bird Beginning

Earlier today I was at my daughter's house and played around with a zenspiration style bird. I just got the basic outline done with the beginning of a collage background for him to sit on.


We will see where this might lead. It's a complete unknown to me.

To see more wonderful art this day have a visit here. Julia Dunnit's Stamping Ground, a blog featuring creative works by many fabulous artists every Wednesday, and more!

Thanks for dropping in, and I hope to visit with you again soon, *smiles* Norma

Tea with Cathy

Well today really is pretty much perfect. Earlier my sister Dorothy-Anne dropped by to deliver a tray of home baked treats that she made just for me. I am blessed. Then the mail delivery person dropped off a package that I knew was from Cathy Cullis. So I sprang into action. I knew that tea time had to be made special today. I brought out my favorite tea cup, one made to mark the occasion of the coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and is dated June 2nd, 1953 and features quite the fetching picture of her. Then I laid a white linen cloth on my art table and then made my second favorite type of tea, Earl Grey. It would have been completely perfect if I'd had Irish Breakfast loose leaf tea on hand but who is complaining? Not I!


Here is an original painting by Cathy which is as you can see, a tag. She has added her famous stitching at the bottom as well. This little treasure art piece will hold pride of place on my workdesk.


My sister made for me her famous white fruitcake perfectly aged in booze, and shortbread made to perfection (firm until you bite into it whereupon it crumbles into deliciousness inside the mouth,) and lemon tarts which are heavenly. Cathy also added a couple of post cards featuring her work and really, I am so tickled to have these.


Well now I must break this reverie and get cracking on some art things I have to do. Lovely visiting with you and see you soon, I hope! *smiles* Norma

Fairy Postcard from Brazil

Our girl hitched a ride to Brazil. Oh what a happy go lucky gal she is eh? She met up with some blogger friends and they decided to have their photo taken together and ... well, I'll let the post card message tell you what happened ... It reads:

Dearest Queen~my friends and I decided to have our photo shot up on top of the mountain and just as the camera went "click" a gust of wind started to blow me away and so Sweet Pea began reciting Shelley and Sugar and I didn't know what to think! We all had a good laugh anyway. Here's a post card of our "kodak" moment in Brazil. Love Samuel

To see more fun and beautiful and creative post cards from Brazil visit here.

Thanks for dropping by. See you soon I hope! *smiles* Norma

My 'first' collage piece

Well I've started my first collage/transfer on a small 2+15/16 X 2+15/16 inch canvas. One of my favorite books "Descent to the Goddess~A Way of Initiation for Women" by Sylvia Brinton Perera features a striking black and white image on the front cover so I'm planning to transfer that image as a component of my collage. In the book (which has sat on my bookshelf since the early 80s) I found a very dried fleur which was originally a delicate lilac color so there's a hint still of that. I sewed an outline of a just-opening crocus onto a used tea bag paper sheet, and I left the long tails of thread so you can see it better. I'll cut them for the collage. There is a quote typed with my faithful manual typewriter along the edge of a very old book from France. It reads:

"Her breasts and arms ached with the beauty of her own forgiveness."

This is a quote by Meridel Le Sueur. I've a snippet of Japanese hand made paper which I am hoping will fit in. I haven't started the collage but you can see my initial planning of what will go into it!



Thanks for dropping by. To see more wonderful work by a group of fabby artists, pop by here.

See you soon I hope! *smiles* Norma

Four ladies dancing...

A quickly cut scherenschnitte tag for Carolyn Saxby's TAG TUESDAY blog. I need to make some birds today so this is a quick visit. See you soon, *smiles* Norma

My first art class!!

And what I have to actually show for it is NOT pretty. It's a w-r-e-c-k but I'm showing it to you in case you ever want to go to an art class and think you will produce something hideous. You might. I did. But it didn't kill me. Here's the thing. I wanted to learn how to do a transfer technique (from a master) and I learned what not to do and got a hands on lesson on what I should do. So when I clear my desk I'm going to make art. My own art with transfers in a mixed media visual. I'll show you when that happens. Meanwhile, enjoy my mess (the actual paper from the transfer is stuck on permanently, the transfers themselves are lost, and the colors I chose are from a world I know not of.) My muse must be having a chuckle. Here's my painting. I call it "wound" and the goddess does have a wound out of which falls a thin stream of gold that puddles at her feet.


Artist Jill Pilon gave us the most interesting and inspiring class that I could only have imagined. Except that she did it. It was fun and we learned. This was a special day for me. I felt enlightened on a person quiet level.


Artist and children's book author Heidi Etsell will be published in just over a month or so. Her painting was so gorgeous I was drooling. Here's the bones of it and can you only dream of how fabulous it will look when finished? It was rich and deep.


A close up of Heidi's work:


Jennifer Conway holding her first mixed media art piece. Jennifer has been creating fantastic smaller art pieces for a few years now (atc's and altered rolodex cards and a large variety of collage art pieces on a small scale - for greeting cards and similar treasures) and she is known for her original, fun, spunky wares. This is a leap into painting for real for her. This is what I think anyway and I say this as her mother. You know how mothers are.


A closer look at Jennifer's piece. I know she'll do more work on this as this was the beginning of it.


Here we are taking it all in learning, learning, learning, in the middle of an art class in Jill's studio. The walls were hung with Jill's pieces so we had a lot of eye candy to take in as we worked.


I recommend taking an art class. It took me many years to get the courage to take one; and if truth be told it was a Christmas present from my daughter. So to those of you out there thinking about learning some art skills, let me be the poster child of how to go to an art class and create a d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r but who also received inspiration to continue my art using the techniques I learned. And if I can do it, you can do it.

Nice visiting with you, and hope to see you soon. *smiles* Norma

Fairy Postcard from Spain

Samuel is in Spain taking dance lessons it seems. Here is his fairy postcard from Spain.


It reads:
"Hola fairy! Greetings from Spain. I'm in a small local tapas bar dining with friends. Last night when a dancer spun past me, a bit of lace from her mantilla veil fell at my feet. Now it's my prized possession. I'm learning to dance a few steps. I'll show you. Love Samuel"


To see more wonderful post cards from interesting artists click on the sidebar on top of the Postcard Challenge 2012 button. There is fun to be had!

Nice to see you again, and we'll talk again soon I hope! *smiles* Norma

Meet Betty

She is mid-century cul-de-sac and stands 4 feet tall. She came in to my life just a few days ago when I spotted her standing across a crowded thrift store. Now she stands on my work table lighting up my life. The lamp has such a presence I gave her a name. Betty.


Betty lights up my work table where I am putting together a tag which you can see is just beginning to take shape. An outline has been planned and a folded boat newspaper style hat placed where it will sit on the eventual finished artwork. This tag was made for Carolyn Saxby's blog which is chockablock full of wonderful artwork. I referred to an illustration in a child's storybook for inspiration.


Here is the finished tag.


Thank you for dropping by. To see more wonderful art by folk who participate in 'What is on your workdesk Wednesday' drop in here!

I'll see you soon I hope. *smiles* Norma

Fairy Postcards from the edge of the forest...

"I like spiders and I like nettles
because they are so hated; and because
nothing is heard in their favor
and that everything
chastens their sad desire."
-Les Contemplations, Victor Hugo

A small word about Samuel. She is a spider who was thought to be male when he was found soaking wet and still, laying in the rotting leaves along the river that runs through the Fairy Hedgepig Kingdom. Fairyyellowbug came across him when she was seeking solitude that day. She wrapped him in a dry leaf and brought him home to her studio. There he recovered with thimbles full of hot chocolate and she named him Samuel. Later when she asked him if she wanted a 'girls' name she said no, she liked Samuel. So Samuel it remains and she does not like to be called Sam for short.

She found a place to live under the Oak and with Fairyyellowbug's help, set up house. She loves the Fairyhedgepig Kingdom but dreams of travel. We have much to say about her wanderlust but suffice it to say here that she found herself a stowaway who wound up much much farther away from home than she'd imagined. Austria!

And so with that, let's begin our correspondence between Samuel the spider and Fairyyellowbug the fairy.



Darling Fairyyellowbug
If this were Paris I'd call where I am staying a 'garret' but this is Austria! I am at the top of a house staying temporarily with a lady who makes lace. My webs are never going to be the same after this! I can hardly concentrate for the smell of the pastries. Oh! Have to run now as the dinner bell is ringing. I'll write soon. Love Samuel
P.S. they will forward my mail!
P.P.S. pardon my spiderly handwriting.


To find out what this challenge is all about visit here.

To see correspondence from other players visit here.

Samuel and Fairyyellowbug will be corresponding throughout 2012. You are most welcome to follow along! As these are fairy postcards they are 3 inches X 2 inches; to get them to the regular size they just need to be enlarged 100%. See you soon! *smiles* Norma

The Spirit of Solitude

Percy Bysshe Shelley offers me not only the backdrop for this tag, but the title as well.




It all started with a visit to the thrift store. One of my favorite finds are in bags that are placed in the 'office supplies' section. There are office supplies and art supplies and sewing supplies and paper arts supplies and you never know what you'll discover along that wall of bags.
A few days ago it was this (the whole bag was $1.99):



A bag containing other stuff as well, but THIS box of 'treasury tags' and how romantic sounding is that! Treasury. Treasure. I've never heard of them, nor seen them in my life. So of course google came to the rescue and they are paper fasteners. For large things like maps and the like. Oh gosh! I've been dreaming lately of making little books with interesting fastening. So this is a push in the right direction I'd say! Also in the bag was a metal box of drawing pencils, and so when I came across this post yesterday I knew that today I'd make a tag using my new drawing pencils and the treasury tags (British made it says on the box).



I chose a wee bird hanging on for dear life to a brittle branch laden with hoarfrost and feasting on the frozen berries. It is a small robin.
Drawn on used tea bag paper with pencils, colored pencils, conte color pencils, acrylic paint and a smidge of sparkle. Here is the beginning of him.



Thanks for dropping by! To see what exciting art other folk are doing go here!