"Monster" Artist Trading Cards

For a swap at Art Forty Two.

I painted these cutie-monsters with acrylics on art paper with rub-on fleurs at the top.

Mermaid love

One of a trio of mermaids for a swap (acrylics, tiny beads, transparent overlay).

Faces: the Heart of People

I've been wanting to create this kind of character artwork for more than a couple of years now, inspired by artists such as Monica Zuniga and Kelly Rae Roberts. Here is my first attempt. A little rough on the blending (I used a combo of art pens and acrylics. I think I'll use mostly acrylics next time), but I think overall I like how she turned out and can't wait to make more. Her dress is made of vintage sheet music over which I painted.

Domino Effect

Here's a series of domino art I made in a workshop earlier this month. These were so fun and easy! I used alcohol ink pens for the color and Stayz-On for the image base. Each step was protected by a matte finish coating to protect.

Two spreads in a journal RR

Here are two spreads I did last night in artist Terri N-W's journal round robin. Her theme was Pierrot/harlequin/Marcel Marceau/jesters, etc.

(My scanner cut off the pages a little, but you can get the gist of it.)

What a cutie!

Festisite has a fun money generator. Pick your currency, upload your pic and there you go!

Postcards from around the world

The Postcard Crossing Project has been around for about three years now, but I just stumbled on the Web site through another artist's blog (thanks wackystuff!).

You sign up to send and receive postcards from people all over the world. One member just received his 1,000th postcard! The site is trying to log 2 million received postcards and is about 23,000 shy.

I just signed up because it sounds like fun -- and it's so much better than getting only bills in the mail!

Check it out:





I also put a perma-link in my right-side column.

Monica Zuniga's giving this away!

Uplifting spiritual artist Mónica Zúñiga is giving away this beautiful piece of art on canvas. Check out her blog by clicking the title above this post to find out how to enter. Or check out the link "Hands & Heart" on my artists blogroll to the right. I've been a fan of her work for a long time and recently bought one of her gorgeous paintings!

So much art, so little time...

Perhaps this time piece I created earlier this month at Jo's will help remind me to make more time for art. I'm so busy, art has taken a back seat recently to all my other priorities. Which is a shame, considering that art helps ground me and bring peace to my otherwise hectic life.



This clock is made out of a little tin lunch box -- about 4 inches by 3 inches. It was primed with Killz before I splotched on acrylic paints to give it an antiqued look. Others dabbed on alcohol inks, which I did use for the clock hands to dull some of the shininess.

The swirls and stuff are from a rubber stamp and some rub-ons. The BINGO card is a cut-out. The clock numbers are on little round pieces of wood, on which I stamped the numbers. Some artists used Scrabble tiles.
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Glad tidings to you!

Free Christmas-themed printables

Lisa Vollrath brings back her annual holiday present with The Original Printables Holiday Countdown. Get a new set of downloadable holiday images every day between now and Dec. 25 by visiting her site.

Merry Christmas!

Homicide Turkey!

Riffing on noir art for a turkey-themed Thanksgiving postcard. This one digital, of course. It's hard to glue while one is giggling the whole time. :-)


Oh, and I'll have to pay homage to wackystuff for this piece, without whom such demented alterations would not be nearly as inspired!

A Halloween chunky

Better late than never!

Stephanie Rubiano's art

she rests, originally uploaded by stephanie rubiano.

I just ADORE this artist's work. Check out her multitude of winged-creature boxes on her Flickr site. They're all amazing.

Back to school nostalgia

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Woefully behind, tonight I finally completed these (non-digital) chunky pages that celebrate back-to-school nostalgia.These are for a swap I hosted. In August. God bless the angels who keep playing every month! Retro images from 1960s and 70s advertisements.
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Halloween matchbox shrines

The outside of my matchbox shrines, closed:

A peek inside each one:

These were made for a swap, and the ones I received in return were just outstanding. So glad I tried my hand at this new altered art!

Eat, drink and be scary

Oh, I've been horrible at posting this month, and I feel awful about it. It's been a challenging month, dealing with layoffs, husband's surgery that sort of thing. I should know by now how healing and relaxing making art is, but at the same time, it's hard to find the muse when one is stressed out about other things.

Nonetheless, I did manage to create a few seasonally themed things, and that alone has started to break my stress barrier. I feel more creativity coming on!

This Halloween postcard was done mostly digitally for a LetterHeads swap.

Beauty of the Orient

ATC for swap due this week. Vintage image with transparency overlay, some shading and the Chinese symbol for "Beauty."