little pieces of paris

i was looking up pin-up girls for the altered pin-up girls swap on AM. i came across this picture of betty page and i think it's hysterical!



these are for an inchie swap with theme of Paris. i made the houses/buildings out of paper from a french textbook. the background are from some paper i got that looks like wallpaper. then i added layers of pastels and watercolors for the buildings and edges. then i painted on the Eiffel towers with acrylic paints. i wanted them to look like film slides from some dreamy movie about Paris.



on AFA, were doing a pick-a-theme postcard swap and one of my swap buddies chose "monochromatic nudes" i came up with this skewed-boob chick based on a painting by Michael Parkes. the nude portion is done in all aquas and lime pastels and some acrylic.

charms, skulls, and windmills

my friend amy on AM and AFA is hosting a "found poetry" swap. the idea is to pick out words from something written and transform them into poetry. about 4 months ago i came across a rural yearbook at the thrift store from 1979. i have cut most of the pictures out of it and was excited to actually use the words. so the "poems" i wrote still sort of have that western, rural feel to them.




this is my promised second set of Day of the Dead cards. these are all down in pastels and acrylics on bright blue and orange card stock. they're a little muted in this scan, but oh well.




i woke up on saturday and wanted to work on something. as i was perusing the AFA threads in search of things i needed to work on or would want to, i came across a charm swap. i've got a box of beads and bangles that i need to go through, so i figured "what the hell?". i made these charms by layering large sequins on a jump ring and then adding a bead and charm that said "inspire" on another. i really liked how they turned out and i'm looking forward to making more in future swaps!

yaaaaawwwwnnn

on AM, my friend Wanda is heading up a new monthly challenge series where we have to either copy, imitate, or tweak a master artist's work. this month is Andy Warhol and i decided to do one of his famous people prints. i was going to copy is "john wayne" but instead i ended up tweaking it because it looks nothing like john wayne.

mine:


warhol's:


uncanny, right?

also, i finally finished my page for the Steampunk Round Robin journal swap i'm in! nick and i were in new orleans on friday for a friend's birthday and needed to kill some time. we went into their barnes and noble and found lots of old books on sale. it seems like a lot of their libraries donate books to them, but whatever happens i was able to score a wonderful book about the 1910s and 1920s and it had loads of photos. i love cheap books with lots of black and whites! so this page is for LandOfNOd's journal:



another monthly challenge on AM is the birds challenge. this month it's an ATC sized piece featuring a peacock. i did a watercolor background and drew the peacock and tree in pencil and pen. it's pretty simple, but i might add some more oompf to it when i get home today.

stuff i've been working on

this is basically going to be a post for me to place pictures of everything i've been working on.

3 zentangles made for the August challenge. i'm not really sure if i follow the rules to zentangles because i make a design/pattern instead of just doodling. oh well!




on AFA, we're working on making an inspirational tag book - basically, everyone submits 13 tags and the hostess is going to make a flag book from them. this is the process she's following i do not envy her having to make so many books! bellow is part of my sets of flags. i'll post pictures of my book when it comes in!




on AM i'm a part of circle journal with a nature theme. this is my first journal swap ever and i'm really excited. this is the first page i've made for it and it's going to my friend Corrie. she requested her pages be 4" x 4" with some chunky things on the right side. i used a couple of things i received in the prize package i received for winning the july art contest. on the back side, i drew some stylized waves and added a hint of color to them.




my friend kati on AFA is doing a part II chunky bird swap, the original swap was held over on AM. i think i made 4 or 5 birds for that swap and i've made 8 for this swap. i can't wait to see the returns i get and then turn my entire set into a garland or a mobile.




Bird Set 2




Day of the Dead ATCs for A.M. - be on the look out for another set for AFA. i can't resist a Day of the Dead swap!




Butterfly Inchies for A.M.