Drawing Challenge [77] Mandala

What is this? A spirit being coming from a spiral of star dust. She has her hand held out in a STOP signal. What does she mean? What does she want to say? The bird heard her message and came back to earth to tell us that we must stop harming our children. We must stop. This is the plea from the universe in any event, and the spirit being came a long way to give us the message.

Painted on used tea bag paper with acrylic paint. To see more mandalas, pop by Nadine's blog where she, as the host this week, will link you to see all of the players. This is guaranteed to be a visual and exciting and inspirational time. It is one of my favorite things to do. Thank you Nadine for choosing this wonderful theme of mandala, to keep us challenged!! *smiles* Norma

Moonlight Party Under the Big Top!

I am just sitting at the outer edges of this blog hop extravaganza folks! I hope you all have had a blast blog hopping and visiting the wondrous sights and amazing creative endeavors to behold. My little booth sits at the end edge of the EXIT area, where there is a little painted canvas of my circus cat. He had a minor part in various acts under the Big Top so you may have missed him. But he is overjoyed to have been painted and to be given away to someone who wants him. If you would like this painted canvas, just leave a comment below on this post and I'll draw the name next Saturday. Here he is in his finery:

This is my first complete 'real' painting so of course I see the lumps and bumps but I won't mention them. Kitty is a happy boy. The canvas is just under 3"X5" and is painted in acrylics.

Thank you for dropping in today. To see the plethora of fun circus events for this "Moonlight Party Under the Big Top" pop by Wendy's blog, 'Bliss Angels.' She'll be linking you to all of the circus-goers!! See you soon I hope! *smiles* Norma

Cat Clown being painted [WOYWW 172]

Yesterday I started a little painting of a cat wearing his work gear...a clown hat and ruff. He is a circus cat you see. He'll be my giveaway for a blog hop (see my side bar) that I am doing. The crunch is on to complete it in time for the hop. Here's my work space:

And here's his face. I've yet to name him:

For those of you who know me, you know I love to work on used tea bag paper. Often I use india ink and watercolor and pastels and pencil crayons. But this one is in acrylics solely.

Thanks for dropping in today. I hope to see you again soon. If you want to see a whole bunch of interesting, fascinating, inspiring, wonderful, creative and charming sometimes, work desks, click on here, to Julia's wonderful blog "Stamping Ground" where there are well over and hundred...and counting...spaces for you to visit!

Drawing Challenge [76/Spider]

HALLOWEEN HAIKU decorated envelope... The theme this week is 'spider/web' and I must admit I loved this week's challenge. As I was falling asleep a few nights ago, haiku started weaving their way through my thoughts so I jumped up and wrote them down. Thankfully. As the next day I'd forgotten anything haiku. I decided to illustrate one of them:

You can see the haiku on the envelope. Here's a close-up of the stick insect with 'spidey' riding on top:

Won't the stick insect be surprised when he learns that the spider is alive. He thought that he'd found an abandoned shed spider skin and that it would be an excellent Halloween costume to go trick or treating in. Spidey was just taking a long nap and when he woke up he was being carried to someplace that had music and nice smells and singing and laughing and an amazing fireworks display. Oh what a hullabaloo! To see other great and inspiring and exciting art done by the 'players' this week, drop in to see Renilde. She is our host this week and she chose the theme.

Remember, anyone can join in the fun in the drawing challenge activity. All you need to do is sign up to let the host know you are playing along, so that she or he will be able to put you on the players' list and link back to your blog so that folk can come visit you!! Ariane always has the information about who is the current or upcoming host, and the dates, and the themes as well.

Here are the other haiku choices that I had:

*1* Jumping spiders... Like cats on a hot tin roof

*2* Spider web fishing net. Caught one!

*3* Spider and Bat; Scaredy cat friends.

I'll be giving away this decorated envelope so if you would like me to send it to you addressed to you, or just left blank so you can address it yourself, or if you want me to address it to someone other than you...just leave a comment below, and I'll draw a name out of the hat next Saturday.

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

WOYWW [171]

LAST MINUTE INSTRUCTIONS...

Today I'm showing the beginning of a little scenario I am making up, using cut paper [scherenschnitte] characters. The paper is Ingres in the colour black. It is so fine and so strong and so opaque that it's perfect for this project I am working on. Here we have 'fairyyellowbug' dressed up in a custom dyed black frock and wearing custom dyed velvet shoes. She is the master of ceremonies and is giving one of the workers last minute instructions:

Here is a longer shot because I just had to show you what else sits on my work spot this week. A vase filled with delicious glorious fall dahlias from the farmer's market:

Julia hosts this fun event every Wednesday. There's a bounty of work spaces to view and to see where people work, just go visit Julia and she'll have the links for you. There's an amazing array in which to partake!!

Thanks for dropping in today, and I hope I'll be seeing you again soon, hugs Norma, xo

Drawing Challenge: Swim

Our host Rachel has chosen the theme swim for us to play with. I'm reposting a paper doll mermaid who is swimming vigorously to the surface from the depths; I thought it would be so appropriate for this theme:

Then, while searching for 'MaryLouise' I came across another paper doll who is swimming. Here is 'Water Sign.'

Oh, and regardless of the fuzzy focus, while we are on the swimming paper doll trip...you HAVE to see my gorgeous ever handsome merman:

So there's my trio of swimmers. To see more wonderful art for this week's theme, pop by Rachel's blog to see links. Thanks for swimming by; I'll see you soon I hope! *smiles* Norma

Where I burn candles in my home...

Every morning I light the candles. Here is the most recent spot. It's of carved stone from India and is like a roadside shrine. It reminds me of a tiny fireplace. I light this for my friend and neighbour Kim who is travelling to Moscow, Rome and Istanbul for six weeks. I light this for the celebration and safety of her journey:

This is the candle I light in celebration of my creative spirit and my home:

And this candle gets lit in celebration of things spiritual. I have a variety of icons from a mix of belief systems and I kind of mix and match as it were. The wall shelf unit is old and is from India:

Here is a close up of the gang. They are all here. Hail! Hail!

There is music to listen to whilst fishing for one's supper:

And here is me and Kimmie laughing over old times. Note that we have a pet spidey with very red eyes. Halloween is coming and that is spidey's favorite time:

So my friend, Kim: Travel safe, travel smart, let your hair down and we'll see you when you get back. Meanwhile I'm keeping your garden in good shape! *smiles* Norma

Another little book made of one tea bag [paper leaf]

This one is for Ariane. Here's the back cover and I am pleased to note that I'm getting better at the acrylic gel medium transfer technique:

Continuing on, from back to front:

Here's the front cover:

It has been a joy to put this little book together for Ariane!

See you soon! *smiles* Norma

Spider Love ... Altered Rolodex Cards

I'm out of practice with the acrylic medium image transfer technique, so I allowed a bit of paper fibre to sneak into the finished artpieces. Nonetheless, here are two altered rolodex cards that I made today. One is for April and the other, for myself. Here's one side of two cards:

And here is the other side:

This has been a nice diversion from what I've had my hand(s) to lately. I'll be letting the cards flatten out nicely in a heavy book overnight. Then I'll cut the holes at the bottom so they fit into the rolodex holder, and be able to finally get April's card into the mails.

Thanks for dropping in today. See you soon, I hope! *smiles* Norma

P.S. I'm adding this post script Sunday morning, after doing a little touch up on Inanna (I think that is her anyway). Someone once said that art is just fixing problems. If I had remembered that AFTER I'd coated the pieces with acrylic medium (which is basically liquid plastic) things would have been even better in the final version. Life and art are not a perfect science. This is what I did. Tim Holtz is genius with his line of products. My all time favorite is the 'distress ink' pad which I dab on with a makeup sponge. First, I filled in spots in spidey, using a waterproof pigment pen, and then applied the 'linen' colored distress ink right over top of everything. Had I remembered to do this before I'd coated it, the effects would have obliterated the white paper fibres (must make a note to self). In any event, things are much better. I punched out the holes so the card will fit the rolodex holder and viola! Ciao!