A Page in the Bee Book.....

                               

Blogger is not cooperating.... It loaded my pictures backward...sigh... I've just finished a two page spread... in the Bee book for those of you who know and those of you who don't.. Its an Altered Book i'm making ... my first Altered Book and the theme is 'bees'... So i wanted to show you from left to right but i guess we'll go from right to left...lol  

Now i like bright colors in this book and gold and glitter ... Problem is alot of that shine doesn't want to show up in pictures... Above i'm showing you that the one pinwheel will turn and show you the quote 'be happy'.. Every page in the book has some 'be' quote.. 

I just keep adding details and i may add more yet as the mood hits me... The colors are so dull looking... but i can't figure out how to brighten them... So just now in real life... these are BRIGHT!

If you look close you can start to see the little gold embossed bees i put all over the page... That was so much fun... I don't have alot of experience with embossing so it was a fun challenge for me.. I wish you could see them better.. Most of the other pages in the book have large bees on them this is the first one with the small bees.

There's washi tape and that tape you use when your doing sheetrock...  molding paste through a stencil.. The background is pages from a dictionary that i fingerpainted watered down acrylic paint over it so you could still see the text.. .. 

Magazine images .. images cut from old cards. I just had a blast ! The book pages are a couple of pages glued together with Matte Medium.. These little tags slide in and out . I took paper towel tubes and flattened them, cut to size and glued them between 2 pages of the book and it gave me little slots to slide the tags in and out.. really fun to figure out and do.. 

Have you ever made and Altered Book?  I've enjoyed this so much that its one of the crafts i plan on continuing as i get older.. I love to cut images out of magazines and such and glue them down and this is just such a great outlet for that... I hope you've enjoyed your Bee Book Tour.. If you don't remember the Bee Book tell me and i'll make a post showing you some of the other pages i've done...                                                                                                                        I've filled out all the info for the Stock Show and Rodeo.. Thank you to everyone who helped me decide what drawings to enter in an earlier post... I'll make a post showing you everything i've entered... then you can wait with me to see if i win anything.. lol I don't turn them in until March 27th and it will be April 1st or later before i find out anything... Thanks for stopping by! Hugs! deb

Food Wednesdays!!!

 

Hi there!!! 

I'm joining Kathy over there at Hummingbird Studios at the Lake every Wednesday for Food Wednesdays!!  or... I'm gonna try.... I have to admit and apologize to Kathy that today is not my best effort... i hope to do better in the coming weeks... BUT on a freezing day in West Texas this is what i got... this is supper... and i promise you its warm and yummy... So i'm not cookin' tonight.. Hubby is curled up on the couch under a warm blanket with his nose in an adventure book... hope he's adventuring somewhere warm... I've got my booties on with a heating pad at my back hopelessly lost in the craftroom for the remainder of the day ... i hope...  Hope your warm where you are.. with a full belly... Thanks for visiting! I'll be around to visit you!! Hugs! deb

Decisions.... Decisions.... Decisions....

 

Just a quickie post..... I need your help...  The Art and Craft Department of the  StockShow and Rodeo is having their competition starting April 1st through the 17th. But i have to have my Entry Form turned in by Mar 12 so some decisions have to be made... I can only entry 2 of these colored pencil drawings. I'm having a hard time deciding which 2...

Now i will warn you... not to get your hopes up . As a rule whenever i have entered a drawing in the past it has not done well...  But... I like to enter... i like to put it out there. I like the idea that people are seeing my art... I'd like to be a little fly on the wall to hear if people comment... good or bad... I just don't think i'm the judges 'cup of tea'...

I wish i'd given you better pictures to make your decisions with but the lighting wasn't very good.. All of these are a little brighter than they seem... The judging criteria is :  Composition/Design, Technique, Creativity/Originality, Overall Effect ..... Sooooo....?  I've thought about cutting the hand out from the background and just putting the hand in a frame but that would lose the quote.. is that good or bad... Any input would be appreciated... Gotta pick 2! Thanks! Hugs! deb 

Color.......

Apparently in these winter days i need some COLOR in my life... I have never played with watercolor before.... I have to tell you i had a BLAST! My camera is not handling the shine well. But let me tell you about them... 

They are 6 1/2'' square and 1 1/2'' deep wood panels. They are from a Hobby Lobby end of season 90% off sale... I think i paid less than a dollar for each of them... Yeah it was one of my jackpot sales. I thought maybe i could find a way to paint on top of them and tadaaaa! I did! 

In this case i glued water color paper to the wood panel... then just had a blast with mixing colors and just letting watercolor do its thing... Then i outlined each section with a Sharpie marker making some lines thick and leaving some thin and putting a black circle in the middle too like the middle of a flower... Then the nerve wracking part..... 

I wanted them to shine like jewels.... Sooo i covered the watercolor with Gel Gloss Medium.... No doubt about it ... it was tricky... I did make a few PostCards as experiments to see if it would work.. It will work. The trick is not to make more than one pass with your brush. If you do you run a high chance of smearing the watercolor or even pulling it up... So i added a little water to the medium to make it flow better and used a generous amount with each swipe... 

So for the most part i got away with it... Any little smears... well... just say .. 'I meant to do that' lol ..  *Mental note... if you put the gloss medium over the gold it will dull it down so save the gold for last!

Then i outlined everything with a goldleaf pen making sure to leave some black showing. I think the black added dimension and interest... I think more time spent adding thick and thin lines would have been nice too.. but i was ready to move on the next artsy/crafty adventure.. 

 These will look like little jewels on my wall.... I know the perfect place... over the garage door...Color only lives in small little niches in my home... the craft room ofcourse... and the little foyer off the kitchen where you have the option to go into the garage or laundry room or pantry... I feel the need to keep color contained.. as the rest of the house is pretty much neutral colors... But bright colors makes my creative heart sing... You?  Hope your having a great week!  Blogger is misbehaving for me this morning... Hope it all works out when i push Publish...Hugs! deb

Chili , Art and Goats.............

We are just coming out of a deep freeze here in west ,central Texas... A good excuse to make a big pot of chili... I'm pretty sure we all have our favorite chili recipe but if your interested in mine let me know.. 

Hugging a wood burner can also keep you warm... Here's some pics of my latest project... I'am just now putting the person's name on it.  Its a Birthday present... i sure hope he likes it..  He's an 82 yr old rancher that among other animals he raises water buffalo... 

This is my first time not just burning a silhouette... This time i tried to shade etc.. I think it came out ok.. It was a learning experience for sure... Half the battle is knowing when to call it done.. Really enjoyed this though... I had no idea i was going to enjoy wood burning so much... Have you ever tried your hand at wood burnning?  I have several more projects in mind... so stay tuned!

Stock show is in town!!! Didn't they just pose so beautiful for me?? Such Sweethearts..  We took the grandlittles to see the animals.. It was a hit... The oldest Autumn(3) got to pet them and tell them all 'Goodmorning!'  lol just adorable..  Then as we were leaving she'd say 'Goodbye!' and one would 'BAaaaaa', she'd say 'Goodbye!' again and 'Baaaa' would come back to her.. It was hilarious but maybe you had to be there...Normally our stockshow and rodeo and art/craft competion are all together but for the second year now they have separated it all in hopes of keeping the crowds down....  So i don't have to worry about my art/craft entries until mid March...  I hope your having a good week.... See you soon! Hugs! deb

 

How About More House????

 

It's past time i show you more house!  I'm sorry if its a little jumbled.. I'm not the best tour guide.....

The kitchen before and ..... 

.... the kitchen after... i forgot to get a picture of the island but i

will show you next time... I actually have a dishwasher... which is a 

new feature for me... I've always washed by hand... except for when we lived in California... I think i used the dishwasher 5 times in 3 years...lol  I'm getting better at using it more often now... Kathy in AR knows i suck at loading a dishwasher... :)

Off the kitchen is the Master Bedroom... um... yeah... that tiger has been with me everywhere...hubby won him at a carnival...  he's traveled to CA and AR and now back to TX... he's developed quite the 'don't mess with me' expression on his face...lol ! The blankets on our bed are from Korea.. the one on the bottom is 40 years old! Hubby got it on his military tour forever ago... and the top blanket a nephew had his military tour there a few years ago.. 

My weightlifting area... The mirror we found at an auction in Arkansas... it was a hideous shade of turquoise and had a crack in the frame... which we repaired and i painted it oil rubbed bronze and dry brushed it with copper... LOVE it! 

Now if you'll just step into the master bath.... I'm going for a beachy vibe in here.. bedroom was suppose to be beachy too but with the tiger theme being an integral part of my life i'm thinking its going to end up jungle....lol I like themes in some rooms do you?

The Master bath has double sinks , a tub... and his and hers closets...

And a stand alone shower.... please excuse the mess.... 

Well there... i'd say we are halfway through! We'll do the other half of the house next time... OOOoooo that means the CraftRoom!!! Hope your enjoying the tour! Thanks for stopping by!  Hugs! deb