New Charms

I am packaging up my charms for the ICE charm swap. They've been done for a couple of weeks now, but, I like to allow them some extra time to air out, because the strong fumes from the sealant I use to coat my charms.

I'm really happy with the way these turned out... a lot happier than I thought I would be. I had sanded and then boiled the dominoes in tea, which gave them a really deep sepia coloring. The transfer is a piece of my own artwork from a small watercolor painting, and then printed out on lazertran. When I printed out the images, I realized how light in color they were... and the image was washed out by the staining on the dominoes. So I took some twinkling H20s and touched up the color a bit... they were a lot more work than I anticipated but, I'm really happy with the outcome. I also love how the pomegranate colored crystals play with the colors in the rose.

I hope that the people who receive my charm in this swap are pleased with them.

~Anne

Saturday, May 26, 2007

Alrighty! I managed to upload the pictures of my finished cream to sepia color infusion page for Gwenn... I hope she likes! This is the front of the page:

And this is the back:

The next page I'm working on is Jo's Burgundy & Deep Moss Green.

~Anne

Friday, May 25, 2007

Another short post... I am so happy to have completed my second of eleven (well, actually 12 including a page for my own journal) pages for the infusion of color journal project!

I finished Gwenn's Cream to Sepia page. This was the first one I started, but, because I needed some images from altered pages, I stopped working on the page so that I could wait for the images to arrive. It's still a bit wet, so I can't share a pic of it with you just yet... I will scan it tomorrow morning though.

In the meantime, here is a piece I worked on last year. It's on a tiny canvas (about 4x5!)... and it's called Tea & Roses:

Ha! Looking at this canvas, I just realized that I used one of the same images for the cream to sepia page I just finished! :)

~Anne

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Hello!

This is going to be a short post, as I'm totally exhausted! I don't think I slept a wink last night, my mind was racing with ideas for my color infusion project... I guess, when I go to bed shortly after having worked on several pages, my mind just gets super motivated to keep going. Of course, I can't keep going because I am working in layers with these pages, and the first layer has to dry before I can start working on the next......

I think also what got me really excited about working on these is that I finally came up with colors I'm satisfied with for the canteloupe/honeydew page (please see my previous post for my ranting about that!) and so my mind was just jumping with ideas of what to do next with it!

So, you're probably thinking, well... let me see some of these pages already! Right?

Well, I have several pages STARTED, but only one page completely finished... and it's the Black & Red page. Here is the page, front & back (respectively):

These pages are 8.5 x 11, and are intended to fit in a binder when all pages are received. I hope Judy likes her Black & Red Asian inspired journal page!

~Anne

Monday, May 21, 2007

This past weekend sped by wayyyy too fast! I think I was expecting the world to stand still after finally finishing all those fatbook pages. ha!

I've spent a lot of time on my color infusion journal project, most of the time spent has been contemplating the colors chosen by each of the artists involved in the project. For example, the page that I've finished is Red/Black. I like these colors. Simplicity. I mean, you KNOW black and red. Know what I mean?

Not like some other colors.

NOTE: for the people in this project who might be reading this, please do not take offense at what I'm about to say, it's not my intention to offend, only to vent my own frustrations at the challenges you offered with the colors you selected. Some colors offer more challenges than others!

The color combination I'm finding most challenging at the moment are canteloupe and honeydew. I mean, I cut up a LOT of honeydew melons and canteloupe melons (although, I should say for all my European readers out there, the melons I cut are actually MUSKmelons and not true canteloupes), because these are my husband's and youngest daughter's favorite fruits. So, on any given week, I'm cutting up at least 3 or 4 melons...

So, why is it that I find these colors so challenging?

I don't know. But, I'm having a time with them. Finally, I took out my pigments and started experimenting... and came up with something that looks a lot like canteloupe and honeydew - well, at least to me, they look a lot like canteloupe and honeydew. I only hope that the artist who chose these colors enjoys the page I will be making for her using the colors I crafted.

Anyway, enough of my rant!

How about some more pictures? These first two pictures are my first fatbook page I made in the Nature Theme for Robin Whittemore's auctions. These fatbooks have been mailed off to be bound, and should be up for auction on ebay within the next couple of months.

Front of page 1:

back of page 1:

Front of page 2:

Back of page 2:

I hope you've enjoyed those! Thanks for reading along!

~Anne

Wow! Nearly a whole month has passed...

since my last post! Where does the time go? I've been very busy trying to get myself caught up, but I think I may nearly be there... I got my fatbook pages off to the hostess, and my charms that are due at the end of the month are airing out after their final sealant application. I've finished all the decos I had in my to-do drawer... so the next projects I need to focus on are my black-and-white charms and my color infusion pages, as well as the gift I'm making for my daughter's birthday.

I've finished one page of 11 of the color infusion project, and have begun on several others, so that is definitely underway... so I can FINALLY say that I feel comfortable with my art commitment workload ... something I've not been able to say since before the holidays!

Want pictures? OK... well, how about fatbook pages? These pages are my TEA themed pages that I made for a fatbook my group, EccentricPastiche, is donating to Robin Whittemore.

Front of page 1...

Back of Page 1...

I made 2 different pages for this book, here are the pictures of the second page:

Front of page 2...

Back of the second page....

What I liked best about working on this project with everyone is that everyone sent their pages to ME so I got to see all the fantastic artwork! I love working in fatbooks, but I think this fatbook is going to be even more spectacular than the ones I've worked in because everyone only created one original page, rather than 30 or 40 duplicate pages... so each page is rich and textured and simply AMAZING! This fatbook, along with another fatbook (themed "Nature") will be auctioned off on ebay to help with Robin Whittemore's medical expenses. I can't wait to see the books once their bound!

OK... well, that's all I'm going to post for now, because I need to go get my daughter ready for bed! Next time, I'll post my Nature fatbook pages!

~Anne