Three Muses Challenge - Maps, Hearts, Wings and Crowns, Music

The Explorers

This past few weeks the Three Muses Challenge was Maps, Hearts,Crowns, and Wings, and throw in a little music. As I sat at the car dealership getting my car inspected this morning I decided to work on a couple of digital collages. I checked the challenge sites and found the past few weeks of Three Muses challenges and decided to do a combo of things from these challenges. I love maps, hearts, wings and crowns and saw this was a great opportunity. My two little ones are off to explore the world! [ps my crown is from Tumblefish Studios]

Three Muses Challenge - Birds

The Three Muses Challenge this week is birds. Create something with birds. This is one of my favorite themes and honestly quite challenging. Almost paralyzing in that there are so many directions to go.

Last chick has been furiously working on school projects so he can have a long weekend out west with his girl. He is dashing back and forth between computers and printers. I decided that I should just hunker down in the studio and create a a piece there.

I chose one of my favorite birds - the crow. I decided to do a journal page with a quote. The border I got from New York Magpie's Eyes blog. Judy was generous to allow me to use a photo of her fabric strips for a journal she is making. I took the photo and made the border strips. I love the Hawaiian fabric look. It is true - birds of a feather do flock together.

The Three Muses Challenge - Something in the Air

The challenge this week from the The Three Muses is Something in the Air. I had a hard time deciding what I felt like doing till I was awakened this morning by a rant by one of the talk radio people. It was about the loss of nest eggs, how there is much bitterness and distrust in the air, a time of unrest....etc... etc... On top of all of that the last chick here is starting to really stretch his wings. He is ready to take the plunge away from the nest. The skills to survive are being honed, that will be the fifth to leave. I am hoping the angels are keeping them all safe on their life journeys.

So, how are your nest eggs? your chicks? are the angels watching over you and yours?

The Three Muses Challenge - Angels

say a little prayer

This weeks challenge from The Three Muses is Angels. One of my favorite themes. I love to take pictures in cemeteries of the towns I visit. You can tell so much about a place by their cemeteries. Here is my angel. We all could use a prayer or two. I am praying for a better year for everyone.

The Three Muses - Mail Art

The Three Muses Challenge this week is Mail Art. They always pick such fitting themes. I found in my files this darling letter from Cora to her cousin Mabel about her hopes that Santa will come and visit her. I teamed that with the postage background and a vintage photo of a mailman and I was all set.

The Three Muses Challenge - Bottles

The theme this week for the Three Muses Challenge was bottles. I love old bottles and regularly go to the dump spot on the river to dig for them. I use large bottles to put bits and pieces of things in so they are easy to see in my studio. I also have a large collection of sand from all the beaches I have traveled to. They look so pretty in their little bottles.

This week I thought it would be appropriate to use the Mason canning jars I lust after as fairy jars. Here are my small collection of fairies. Long summer nights chasing fireflies and early mornings are the best time to look for fairies I hear.

The Three Muses Challenge - Games

The Three Muses Challenge this week is games. Games we like to play, games people play, etc. I have always loved this woman by Emma Sandys. It is called Revealing her Hand. I am sure we have all had moments in our life where we have had to put on the poker face and hold on not to reveal "our hand." I am figuring this woman likes all games. She will play just about anything and usually wins.
Let the games begin...

The Three Muses Challenge - Time

This week the Three Muses Challenge is Time. Sort of ironic if you think about it. This week in the States everyone is scrambling around getting ready for Thanksgiving which them means the holidays are right around the corner. Which of course means the year is almost over. Where did the time go. It makes me dizzy just thinking about it.

My collage is a painted background scanned. I then used various stamps to create the images. A little fine tuning and here you go.

Katie Scarlett asked me who made the little zetti fairy girl stamp. All marking on the stamp are gone and I honestly don't remember. Sorry, but I am sure their is someone out there who knows. Please leave me a message or email me if you do and I will post it. Thanks!

The Three Muses Challenge - Keys

I love the theme this week for the Three Muses Challenge - Keys. Ever since I was a child a big set of keys always invoked images of hidden treasures, a room full of mysteries and doors that opened unto unbelievable sights. Every time I would go with my Mother or Grandmother flea marketing or antiquing I would spot some keys. I usually would come home with a few wondering what secrets they unlocked.

This weeks theme sent me in a spin of ideas. I found this picture of these men earlier this week in my New York Public Library file and have been itching to use it. I figure these guys held the key to a lot of things, the railroad, the telegraph system, the postal system, banks, etc. This of course led to a whole new world. So who is your key holder?

Three Muses Challenge - Dreams

This week for The Three Muses Challenge the theme is Dreams. I have always loved this painting by Leighton and thought I would use some of the fairy images I have been collecting. It is so dark here from the storm that the street lights are on. It is raining hard. I just want to crawl up on a soft comfy place and dream. We should all have a little fairly princess watching over us while we sleep.

The Three Muses Challenge - Pairs

This week The Three Muses Challenge was pairs. We could do anything we wanted as long as it had two or a pair of something in it. How fun. I decided to use the play on words. I also have been longing to use the cute little twin boy images. Don't you know they were a handful of fun and love.

Three Muses Challenge - The Chicken or the Egg

Which came first - the chicken or the egg?

This week the Three Muses Challenge was to use a chicken in your art. I decided to work on backgrounds and I always think of eggs and feathers when I think of chickens. I first painted a piece of watercolor paper with just a simple landscape. Very fast. Then scanned that. I then added the eggs and feathers digitally. I decided to add a little chicken wire. The rooster and chicken are from my glorious book of Cassells Poultry. This was a fun challenge.

Three Muses Challenge - Hair

Mirror Mirror

This weeks TheThree Muses Challenge is Hair. Something I know a little about. My hair is at least several feet long. It is down past my waist. Yes, I know I need a haircut. Having long hair is so easy though. You just wrap it up on top of your head, or braid it, or just let it fall. You don't have to curl it or gel it or really mess with it too much. It is really blonde - yes, my real color. Here is a secret I don't tell many - I dye my hair to make it darker, it is so light it sometimes washes me my face out. I have always wanted red hair - that lush Irish red like the woman in Dante Rossetti's painting.

Three Muses Challenge - Numbers

This week for the Three Muses Challenge the theme is numbers. I have been working on a bunch of digital backgrounds and numbers was one of them. I tweaked this one a bit and added the school and the lovely Math teacher. Women like this taught future engineers who designed our road and bridge systems, along with some of those first skyscrapers. Amazing. This challenge was really a treat to work on. I can't wait to see everyone's interpretation of this theme.

Three Muses Challenge - Zlightly Zetti

Here is my entry for the Three Muses Challenge. It is to have stripes and be Zetti. Thank goodness for all of Teesha Moore's Zetti images. I have used a wide array of them in this collage. The bird is from an antique print. The background is various inks and paints on watercolor paper. It is postcard size and will probably be sent to a very good blog friend to decorate her new guest room- studio, till her beautiful new studio is finished being built.

The Three Muses Challenge - Windows

This week the Three Muses Challenge is windows. Ooh, one of my favorites, right up there with doors. I really wanted to play around with this theme. Windows can mean so much. I think we give each person a little glimpse of who we are when we see them. A window into our self. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes not. Then, the longer they know you they think they "know" you, "know" how you think, how you feel. Not so. We are forever changing. Our windows are clean, dirty, open, closed, the screen is on....

The Three Muses Challenge - Doors

This week's challenge by Three Muses was doors. Ummm. Hey that is one of my favorite images. I decided to play. The big problem was so many doors... This door is actually a stock photo of a graffiti door. I gave it a few layers added the little girl in separate outfits, a photo of a crow - I took, and some eggs and a heart. All things that tend to inspire me. Hope this will inspire you to do some digital playing.