I have a rotten cold!!

Yes, I have a rotten, crummy cold. Head cold, chest, cough. Have been taking OTC meds, and it is getting better. It is my first cold all winter so I guess I cannot complain, but I hate it. Did a little work on ATC's this week, also made a Steampunk/found object bracelet.

No, there are no bits of Kleenex stuck to those charms.

The Charms--I made about half the charms above, with "Stuff" I have collected over the years.
The vintage Bingo game counter, altered Scrabble tile, the broken Brownie Scout pin, the vintage Streetcar token, silver monopoly shoe, some parts of a broken necklace, etc. The rest I bought at the local Michaels Store, a brand call Industrial Chic( each card had at least 3 charms that I either used as is or altered in someway).
I am now excited to go Antiquing to see what I can find to use. Also I bid on a couple of Ebay auctions for vintage gumball charms...so can't wait to start the next one.

ATC's--Yes, I even managed to work on some ATC's.

Grrrr--I can't get these cards side by side.

Oh well. Both contain images from TumbleFish Studios collage sheets. I also worked on some cards from an Alphabet series I am doing using copies of vintage images that I am watercoloring, etc.

READING-I have been doing a lot of reading lately. Ususally late at night before bed. Right now I am on my 4th or 5th attempt at reading "The Autobiography of Henry VII with notes from His Fool, Will Sommers" by Margaret George. I have vowed to finish it and I think I will this time. It is huge and the type face is small, but the book has been on my bedside table for at least 2 years and I am tired of dusting it -:-).

Prior to Henry, I read a couple of Bill Brysons travel books and they were so funny and insightful, though I did get irritated with his USA book, as he disparaged Americans and small town America so much, it was no longer funny.

Well, Go Make ART!!!!!

LIVE TRADES

Above are the ATC's that I traded for last week. It was the April meeting of The Milwaukee ATC Live Trade and it met at a beautiful Scrapbook store in Greenfield, Wisconsin. The day was soooo rainy but that did not dampen the enthusiasm of the ATC artists who came to trade. I even managed a couple of extra trades. Our theme was altered photographs and the majority of the cards above are in that theme. It is always a surprise and pleasure to see how different the interpretation of the theme will be from artist to artist.

Milwaukee Live ATC Trade-Sat. Feb. 28, 2009

Saturday finally arrived--I was so excited to drive up to Milwaukee again for the ATC Live Trade.
My friend Nina and I left Joliet at a bit after 7 am in order to arrive in plenty of time for the 10 am meeting. There was ZERO traffic on the Expressway so we made awesome time, thanks to my "lead foot". I do not know how to drive slow-sorry ;-(
The meet up this month was at the wonderful Artist and Display (more about that later) .
There were close to 30 people who attended the Trade this month. Not all people traded cards, one or two had only a few cards as they were new to ATC's --I think everyone had a really fun time. It is always great to meet up with the artists who attend the Trade, everyone is so warm and welcoming. A special thank you to my friend Mel, for the great card. Also a BIG thank you not only to Artist and Display for allowing us to meet there, but to Carolyn Brady for her excellent job of Moderator .
I made 26 swaps and got AWESOME cards !! Below are some pictures of the swap
These pictures are the "chat "time prior to the swap


Below are some of the cards that go into the Pot Luck swap at the opening of the trade. Each person introduces themselves, tells a bit about their card
and it goes into a "pot" which then gets passed around a second time and each person draws
a card out--Then the Trade begins


This is a picture of my binder that I brought my Theme cards
and my other cards in to trade. Our theme was Black White and Red/read all over( see my previous post)

ARTIST AND DISPLAY--Paradise. The store has sooo much in it. If you are in or near Milwaukee and do any kind of ART or CRAFT or want to--go there. They have everything under the sun and are so kind and helpful and knowledgeable.
I found a GiNORMous selection of Pens and Markers, paints of all sorts, chalk and pastels--Love the PanPastels set I got there last month--so much so I bought more colors this time-is that bad? I also bought some of the most beautiful papers--etc., etc., etc. CHECK OUT THE LINK ABOVE---IT IS A MUST VISIT!!

New cards for Milwaukee

I can't believe I have actually got my cards ready for the Milwaukee Live trade and it isn't until Feb. 28th. I had been turning over ideas in my mind for several weeks and got stuck on newspaper since the theme is "Black, White and Red/Read all over" . I finally settled on a tenative design for the card series -because I really do not like making 18 plus cards all the same- and Saturday I started out to put them together. Below is a sampling of the cards. I did end up making a few of the versions in 2's and 3's as I liked them more than others.





Check out my flickr site to see all of the cards in the series-- GypsyArt. Along with those cards are some of my newer cards and a couple of small canvas collage that I recently completed in a series called "The Secret Life of Birds".
Gotta go--til next time
GO MAKE ART!!
Lynne

CABIN FEVER

Yes, it has been over said, but I do have cabin fever. I long to throw open the windows and have a nice warm breeze flow in. Some real sunshine--not the stuff generated by reflecting off 2 feet of snow and ice. Plus, my art space in now in the unfinished BASEMENT- and it is cold down here. Save for my tiny space heater that warms my toes.
Maybe that is why some of my cards are reminding me of spring, birds, ROBINs, leafy trees, etc.
Except for my foray 2 weeks ago to Artist and Display after the Milwaukee Live Swap, I have not bought any new supplies -but have downloaded some images off flickr groups and printed them, does that count? Several sessions of creating have started with making a number of backgrounds all at once, then adding the elements that are on hand. I really like doing that.
Here is what I have been up to for the last two weeks--

YES, I do have a thing for fish....

This last image comes from my good Friend Shelly--Shelly started a wonderful Flickr group, Past Portraits and is sharing her collection of vintage Cabinet cards and photographs for use in Art work.
POSTCROSSING
I joined up at this interesting site called Postcrossing. It is basically a postcard trading site, though you do not pick the person or card you trade. You input all of your info into an account, and then a random generator puts your name out and you can ask for names to send cards to and get a random name. There is a bit more to it but basically it is that. I have sent out about 7 of my postcards and 2 have been received. I am still waiting for a card to come to me. Will post them as they come in. So far I have sent cards to Japan, Finland, Germany, Russia, China, and Canada--Wonder where my first card will come from.
Gotta get---
Stay warm, Make ART
Peace
Lynne

Milwaukee Live ATC Trade-Sat. Jan 24, 2009

Yesterday my new Friend Nina-a very talented artist that I met on Yahoo- and I drove up to Milwaukee for the January Live trade. It was Very Interesting. The meet up spot was at Bay View Book Arts Gallery in the Historic Hide House. Traveling up to Milwaukee was fast, as there was no traffic. Nina was excited as she had never been to an ATC Live trade--I on the other hand have been to three--haha!
There was a packed house and it was a bit chaotic--Though Carolyn B. did her best to supervise the trading. We met a lot of new people and the owner of the Gallery-Karen( I think-so many names so little memory space left)-I fell in love with the space itself-high old beamed ceilings, brick walls, wood floors, huge windows.
Well--I did not get as many cards as I would have thought. Many participants didn't have enough cards to go around, so people in the last rounds of trades missed out. I did make 17 trades which I will post below--

The next group of pictures is of the trade and gallery--

CONFESSION--

After the trade, Nina and I drove over to the Artist and Display store and Shopped. I have stuck to my New Years resolution for 24 days!!!!!!! But like any junky I knew that just deciding to go was falling off the resolution wagon. I SPENT!!!! I got a jar of Golden's gel matte medium, a can of Krylon Matte finish for photos and transparencies, some pan pastels and some German Scrap.
I also got two great sheets of printed paper. One is architectural drawings and the other is a print of an antique map of Paris--Which we all know is my favorite item!

That's it for now. Stay warm and Make ART!!!
Lynne
xox

SISTER TRADING CARDS

Toward the end of 2008 I decided to try the Sister Trading Card swap that I saw on The Artist Trading Card site-http://www.artist-trading-cards.ch/index.html. I thought it would be interesting to be part of a BIG ongoing swap between women artists, so I email Cat Schich via the link and asked if it was still going and she quickly emailed me back that, yes it was!! So...I pulled the 20 ATC's out of my stash and packed them up and sent them off to Cat in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Then promptly forgot about it, it being Christmas and all that goes with that.

A week or so ago I got this great envelope full of wonderful ATC's from all over the world, wrapped in a page form what looks like a vintage atlas-how appropo! Besides cards from the USA (Kansas, California, Arizona, Ohio, Utah, Washington,DC)--there were cards from Canada, Spain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Croatia.
Here is a picture of all the cards--mine is there--Little Witches-

This was so much fun and I was awe struck when I looked through the cards and there was one card-the Blue card in second row from top--from Michelle Jackson from one of the Yahoo ATC groups that I belong to . Michelle is a VERY Talented digital artist and I have another wonderful card that I traded her for.
Check it out--DO IT!!
Lynne

Some new Art for the New Year

I have had a couple of days away from work and have been diddling around with this and that and Finally sat down with my boxes and piles of leftover paper and scraps of text and photos and started making ATC's. Not thinking about it too much, just sorting through and picking up pieces that caught my eye, an intuitive, free form session tonight. Here is the result. Some I like better than others,and most have a beeswax top coat.

I tried to stick to my New Years resolution of using what I have on hand--and I did. I used some copies of some of my favorite photos and I like how they turned out.
BUT--
I want to go to Dick Blicks!!! to get some Large Canvas for some bigger collage that I have been thinking about. Am I bad??
Go make Art--
Lynne