busy busy busy

last night, we were supposed to watch Gran Torino because we rented it a week ago. but, in our own defense, the college world series did take up monday, tuesday, and wednesday nights. plus, the kickball all-star game thrown in for good measure. yesterday afternoon, i started working on my cards for the What's My Style challenge on AFA. this challenge consisted of being put in a group and then you have to duplicate them. it's really hard, like going shopping for a gift only to realize you've started shopping for what you'd like. so here's my group's cards:



from top left to bottom right, AFA users - Camcas, Katilady, Original Youth, and Amyfaerie.

also, last night i finished my Frankenstein card that i promised to AFA user: Coop. he's creating a giant collection of atcs featuring the classic monster. his gallery is here: http://apatchworkofflesh.blogspot.com/ . in return, i am getting a super awesome jimi hendrix ala day of the dead card!!!! here's frank:



he's made from acrylics, image transfer, and embroidery thread.

last night, i also worked on a PIF skeleton chunkie page that i was supposed to send out ages ago. it got lost in the shuffle of packing and moving, but it's all sealed in an envelope and i forgot to scan it. :( oh well.

tonight i am finishing the rest of my What's My Style? cards for the hand drawn/hand painted group. i've got one down and three to do.

the rest of the weekend includes softball practice, a birthday party, and a softball triple header. it's going to be a hot one!

some stuff

i finally figured out what to do with my magician from an earlier post. i'll make him my letter G postcard!!! taahah!



also, this morning i worked on my green, black, and white inchies. naturally, my scanner has dulled them, but really they've got a lot of lime green going on because they were colored with a blue and yellow highlighter. i went in with a green crayon to shade and dull them a bit.

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i've always wanted a succulent garden or at least just a center piece. i'm thinking that saturday morning might be a good time to go to the nursery and pick up some plants. i'd also like to plant an herb garden, as well. one of the big "must haves" for me and a house is a place for me to garden. which if nick and i buy my aunt and uncle's house - that would be taken care of. she has a wonderful and perfect sized greenhouse. right now the only plant i have is the orchid that nick got me for our anniversary. it's doing well and i've managed to keep it alive for almost a month now! only there are no more buds and i don't think it's going to produce anymore. but there are five beautiful flowers on it now. i'd love a greenhouse full of them!

this is what i want:



is it too much to ask for?

Weekend Work

besides the ARC skills day, a softball game, and nick's basketball game our weekend was really relaxed and slow. we had a date night on friday and went to dinner and saw UP in 3D. that movie actually made me cry. TWICE! shheesh pixar. but we napped a lot and slept in. he watched football and i made art for some swaps. the first one is for a hats/crowns inchie swap over on amusing muses. i found this book at the thrift store that's from '79 and it's got oodles of pictures of farm life and whatnot. so i made a series where i don't draw my own people, just alter what i have. and here they are:



i think they turned out fine. well, with the exception of my wonderful ability to layout things on the scanner.

next, i worked on cards for an AFA swap that i could hardly resist. hooray for loteria cards! these are more on my style compared to the inchies above.



i made a set of loteria cards about a year ago on AFA for an edward gorey swap. i took his style and his cats and turned them into loteria cards. it's actually one of my all time favorite sets that i've made. this one was my favorite out of the four:



i also got a jump on my mini atcs so expect those to be posted in the next couple of days.

it's a Frida Friday!!!

over at atcsforall, i'm a part of a frida swap and it must be hand drawn/hand painted. the cards were due in her hands today. ooooooooppps!!!! so after i finished moving in all of my stuff to the boys' house, watched the last half of Big Fish, and ate dinner: i sat down in my new studio space in our bedroom. i decided to go with watercolors because i haven't used mine in ages. ages, i say. so i put on some jams and came up with this set:



also, on amusingmuses, this week just so happened to be F postcard and frida does start with an F so i kept the ball rolling and made this:



she is more detailed because the card size is bigger. i used some of my new sumi ink or her, as well. all of the fridas i made last night start off with watercolor and then i inked the details. i highlighted and low lighted using pastels and crayons. yes, i use lots of crayons. then i went in and added some gold touches to all of them to give it sort of a latino, religious guild feeling.

i know that i'm happy with pieces when i realize that i don't want to let them go. that i feel i want to make more because i'd like to keep some of these for myself. oh well.

oh! and almost right after posting my fridas on AFA, i was asked if one of them could be used in the July ArtTrader magazine! what!? how sweet is that?

ooooooooooooo

so, one time in a pinch i screened a shirt for the Red Stick Roller Derby and it was brass knuckles. they were knuckles with RSRD written in Old English in the finger holes. ever since then, i've had an affinity for brass knuckles - i have no idea why. so what did i see today? this:



i think this soap is the shit. of course, it makes no sense because after a couple of uses all the thin sections will just fall apart, but i love it regardless. buuuut! you could plop these into a regular rectangular soap mold and pour new soap around it in a contrasting color. then it would be sturdy and set in to something.