Freebies #26 - French Embellishments

The Eiffel Tower

A little 3 d for this week. Be sure to print this on card stock or some other sturdy paper. Gently score the tabs where they meet the tower. Use a strong glue or double stick tape to adherre piece together. Stand back and enjoy.

New Book Marks...zetti style

I am in a bookmark swap in one of my groups. We are to make five bookmarks, four can be anything and the last has to be a doodle. I made the first four and a couple of extras last night watching the end of Amazing Grace. Lovely rain storm last night. Really got me in the mood. I haven't been in my studio in a few days and it felt good. I will work on the doodle bookmark today.

These were made from a piece of card stock. I first painted and inked the card stock with random colors on both sides. Then I wadded up a piece of plastic wrap and dunked it in a puddle of gold paint and applied that. I let everything dry and then cut the card stock into six pieces that were 2 inches by 6 inches.

This was an anything goes for my glue group. I had all these leftovers from my Zetti eggs. I decided to use those leftovers along with some scraps from my scrap box. The words are from my "four Letter word" series. I haven't added the fibers yet at the top. I am thinking red, pink, and orange. We were not allowed any embellishments as these are to "lay flat."

Digital Collage #15 - Tree Quote

A tree from my mountain trip, an old window and a favorite quote. Every year my boys and I have planted trees. Every place I have lived since college I have planted trees. Some of the first are huge, others have been lost to storms or development. Those that live on must have such stories to tell.

Blog Giveaway

I don't usually blog about giveaways. There are so many of them - all wonderful. I just happen to be enthralled by the PMC jewelry of Lora Hart from Such and Such blog. Her stuff is lovely. I like the new line she has started called The Bower. It is very romantic and looks very antique. Any hoo she has a give away through 5:00pm tomorrow pacific time. I want to thank Joanie Hoffman for the heads up on this as she had posted it on her blog. Good luck to all.

Digital Collage #14 - Lady Clare

I found some time this afternoon "in between" to do a little art work. I made this digital collage using a damask image for the background. I can not remember for the life of me where I got this. So, if any one knows who to credit let me know. The tree and crow are stamps from Michele Ward. In fact her love of red and black sort of inspired this. The saying is a stamp from Darkroom Door. The focal image of the girl and the white deer are from a painting entitled Clare by John William Waterhouse.

Mr. Waterhouse is one of my favorite pre Raphaelite painters. He was in the club. He was also one of the more prolific painters of his time. He was really into painting female fatales. Awhile back I posted another one of his paintings as a freebie. Someone had left a comment wanting to know who some of these artists were. That really got me thinking. So many of the images we use we love but haven't a clue as to who photograph them, or who painted them.

With this in mind I decided to do a piece of art with some of these images and talk about the artist every week or so. I hope you enjoy my collage "Lady Clare". So this week it is John William Waterhouse... read on.

The Art and Life of John William Waterhouse

The Crystal Ball

John William Waterhouse was born in Italy in 1849 and moved to England with his parents. His father was also painter. John was encouraged by his parents to paint. He attended and became a member of the Royal Academy of Art. He was in the pre Raphaelite group of painters. He liked to hang out with the likes of Arthur Rackam and several poets. He painted at the Primrose Studios. He married Esther Kenworthy. They had no children and kept their private life - private. Consequently very little is known about him.

John was enthralled with female fatales such as Cleopatra, Ophelia, Circe, mermaids and nymphs. He started a series of paintings of Ophelia but died in 1916 before they were finished. [Andrew Webber Lloyd owns one of his Ophelia paintings.] Because he enjoyed his privacy his models are not known. However he did do several portraits of friends and through word of mouth enough work to sustain him. Most of his time was spent painting the women he loved. I love is paintings. If you live in England there is a big exhibit this year of his paintings at the Waterhouse Museum. I believe 90 of his works will be available for viewing till 2010.

Ophelia

Windswept

Egg To Do's

This is the season of eggs. I have a small egg collection. Mostly ostrich eggs, and other bird eggs, some decorated eggs. A Very humble collection. However, I have a friend who has an outstanding egg collection. Each year I hunt for the perfect egg to give her - that she does not have. In my quest I ran across these and thought they would be fun to share.


These are eggs by a Slovenian artist by the name of Franc Grom. He punches holes in the eggs to achieve these wondrous designs. I wonder how many he broke before he got it down pat. They are truly incredible eggs.


This gentleman, Volker Kraft, from Saalfeld, in eastern Germany, has been decorating this tree every year with his wife for forty years. I want to tell his wife, Christa, he is a keeper. The tree is magnificent. I am hoping they leave those eggs on year round. What fun the children must have who live nearby. There are over 9,000 eggs on the tree.

Digital Collage - Beauty

Thought I would do something with one of the weekend freebie images. The saying is a I Brake for Stamps stamp. The background is an old rose print and a postcard. I love the girl and her large hat.

Art by Another...Digital Collage

This digital collage was done by Stacy of Stacy Growing. She emailed me about this and was sweet enough to let me put it on my blog too. The background photograph is actually a photo I took and was one of many free images on my blog. Stacy's collage really speaks. This is where the whole piece tells a story and she has done it well. Stacy is from Texas and her King Crow wears a ten gallon crown! Just love it.

Weekend Freebies

These are my little holiday gifts to you. I hope you all have some quality time with those you love. These charming ladies have one thing in common - roses. A small bouquet of images...for you.

Four letter Words - Grow

Fruit Dip

One of the nice things about spring is the promise of fresh food. One of the things I find myself craving is fruit. Maybe it is the opening of the farmer markets, the berry picking farms, more sunlight I don't know. I just know that is how I feel. This is an extremely easy yet tasty little dip for fresh fruit. I like to keep a bowl in the frig for snacking.

1 package of instant vanilla pudding
1 cup of milk
1 cup of sour cream

Mix all ingredients together in bowl. Chill. Serve with fresh fruit.
The nice thing is you can use low fat milk and no fat sour cream to make a relatively healthy dip.

Friendship Sustains through Tragedy..

Like many of you I have been following the tragic events in L'Aquila Italy. One of the AP photographs that really struck me was this photo of these four women huddled together to stay warm... One with her little foot poking out of the blanket..Sitting outside their apartment building wondering where do we go now? What do we do? They represent just a small fraction of people touched by the earthquake. Life seems pretty good to me...I hope we can all stop and give these people a little prayer of hope.

Guess Who Had a Birthday?

My Chinese take out fellow told me today is Buddha's birthday. Celebrated in most Asian countries - particularly Japan - today. How about that? I never thought of Buddha having a birthday so I googled it and sure enough today is the day. So, I ate my spicy shrimp with only garlic and mushrooms with yummy peanut noodles, meditated a little afterwords, and made this collage while sipping my new green tea. I am hoping Buddha is asking for peace in the Far East. No more people shooting things at other people. That would be a great birthday present for him.
Hope you enjoy my collage.

Digital Collage #13 - Simple Times

After my walk this morning I had the need to create. I found some old images and decided to combine them and see if I could not make one whole picture. I love the little girl with her large hat. The elegance of the doll and the crudeness of the log cabin sort of play off each other. I am trying to teach myself how to tint photos. Getting the right hue and brush on the computer has a definite learning curve to it. I did manage the little forget me nots though.

Just a Quick Thank You

Beatrice

I just wanted to say "Thank you" to everyone who was so kind to leave me a comment and kind thought for my speedy recovery. I am felling so much better. Still a slight thud going on in my head, but not the "I am pulling the top of my head off and my eyes are rolling around" I felt for most of last week. It is amazing what some of these "super" drugs can do. I can see why they are not to be used indiscriminately. They really are a miracle.

Last week I felt like Modigliani's painting Beatrice. This week more like Matisse's Le Musique. All of your thoughts were really up lifting. I appreciate it more than you know. I tried to email or post on most of your blogs last week. If for some reason you didn't hear from me it was beacause I couldn't find a way to get in touch or I honestly I was resting and lost my train of thought. It felt like a bad case of the flu with out some of the gastric problems. Please know I was touched by each and every one's good wishes and kind thoughts for me. Thank you.

Le Musique

The Back Door

Freebies #25 - Egg Makers

I have always loved this image. It reminds me of going to the petting zoo with my kids. Our play group went and one of the mom's gave her daughter some corn to feed the chickens and the chicken almost pecked the tip of her finger off. Let's just say my son looked at farm animals a little differently after that day.

This is from Cassall's Book of Fowl. It is a fantastic book with wonderful images. I love the way the hen is looking at the butterfly here.

A little french illustration of fowl. I like the simple lines and poses of the birds.

Everyone need to have a chart of a Rooster.

Aren't these great feathers? These should be fun to play with.

I love this pair of chickens. The feathers on their feet are wonderful.

Hope these come in useful. Enjoy!

Quote - April

Images of Spring

Cherry blossoms in my front yard.

Two views of a beautiful clematis in my back yard.