Meet Audacity

Got a new art doll collaboration starting up! Art Doll Cool-Aberration 2010. This time there are seven of us participating and we'll wrap up in May.

Here's Audacity, my doll start, and her travel journal. Audacity is a paper mache form built on a stick, not quite 7" tall. She's sporting an old decorative metal hardware piece.




Her journal is also paper mache and 7.5" X 4.5".





I'll be sending Audacity off to Mary Anne in Canada very soon. Can't wait to get my first doll from Yvonne in Texas!

Here Goes Nothin'!

I joined The Sketchbook Project 2011. While waiting for my sketchbook to arrive, I started stressing badly over having joined. Didn't have any ideas for pages (the ones I had when I was thinking of joining had all flown the coop), couldn't believe I'd spent money on joining something I couldn't do (I'm not a sketcher or a drawer), etc. I'm just coming out of a loooooong creative block and I felt like this stupid idea of mine was gonna throw me right back into it.

Well, thank goodness I got past that. It's only a silly little sketchbook and a few measley dollars. It's supposed to be fun. So I'm just gonna fill my pages with whatever strikes my fancy at the time. My theme is "Coffee and Cigarettes" and, since playing in the sketchbook is something I do while drinking coffee and smoking, I figure anything I come up with falls into my category. :)

So here's the first spread I've made for my sketchbook.


It's mostly watercolors (watercolor crayons, which I love) with some pen, magic marker, and cut & paste. I used all my fave colors.

Bravura's Journal

Bravura's travel journal turned out as wonderful as Bravura, herself. It arrived home chock full of art and treasures right to the very last page!

When I sent it off with Bravura last June, my journal cover looked like this.


Bravura came home all purples and greens. So I decided to redecorate the journal cover to match. Mary Anne was kind enough to send me a button like those she used on Bravura's cape.



This shot shows the journal with some of the fold-out pages showing.


If you wanna take a look at all the entries in Bravura's journal, check out our project blog here.

This has been a great round robin project. We managed to stay on track and finish on schedule, and everyone did really nice work on every doll. Thanks so much to my fellow collaborators: Barb, Mary Anne, Karma, Em, Jeanne, Robin and Yvonne. I had a blast and Bravura will be cherished keepsake and reminder of the fun this has been.

More Shudayra

Shudayra is all ready to continue her journey. If you're interested in viewing her artist-by-artist progress, check out our Art Doll Cool-Aberration project blog.



I added an eye bead and 3 sand pebbles from Topsail Beach, NC to Shudayra's rune bag.


And here're the entries I made to her journal.




Next she's off to visit Barb in NY. Then she'll be returning home to her mom, MA, in Ontario.


Bye bye, Shudayra!

Brooch Impression

I really like the way this tag turned out.

It's not real obvious in the pic, but the horse sticks out like bas-relief. I took a small square of watercolor paper and soaked it in warm water for a couple/few minutes. Then I sandwiched it in paper towels to remove the excess water. Took it out of the paper towels and laid it over this brooch. (I removed the pin from the brooch first so it'd lay flat.)


I kindof pressed and molded the paper around the brooch for a couple minutes and then laid it aside to dry.

Next I lightly sprayed a couple coats of Krylon glossy clearcoat to each side of the embossed tag, letting the Krylon dry between coats (it dries really quickly). I did that to seal the tag so I could paint with acrylics without wetting the paper and losing the impression. Then I painted it and added the little text labels.

The tag has been incorporated into Shudayra's journal which I'll picture soon.

A Royal Farewell

It's almost time to say goodbye to The Queen of Hearts. She'll be visiting Barb in NY next. (Good luck, Barb!)

I've finished her journal. Jeanne made little booklets for each player which she'll bind together into a book at the end. Here's my booklet in it's entirety.






I'll miss the Queen, but I'm excited to be getting Robyn's doll, Camille, soon.

Hmmm... Interesting

These are kindof cool.
I was practicing background techniques for journals and altered books, and when I was examining the results I noticed these images hiding within.

I took a pencil and started tracing out the images and here's what I found. I can't really draw a lick, so I was fascinated that these scenes just popped out at me from within the backgrounds.

There's a loiterer in a dunce hat smoking outside the hotel lobby in this one. See him?

(P.S. I smoke, so the dunce hat has nothing to do with being a smoker... :) )

Cheap Stamps!

I don't own any stamps and I'm too cheap to buy 'em. But I like 'em. So I've been making some by cutting the design out of craft foam sheets and gluing it to cardboard. You can't get a lot of detail, but I still like 'em and they're ultra cheap! Here's what I've made so far. Pretty basic.

And here's the stamped images. These are kindof messy 'cause I was trying to hurry and use only one hand. I can get really nice stampings with a bit more effort.

You can draw or trace the design on paper in pencil and then transfer the image onto the foam. Just lay the paper face down on the foam and rub with your nail or a spoon to transfer the pencil image to the foam.

Pretty Covers

My friend, Joy, decorates the covers of all her sketchbooks, journals, notebooks, etc. Everywhere you look in her shop/studio are beautiful collaged, painted, and altered book covers. I just love that. So I decided to decorate some for myself. Here's my first - a collaged and painted 9" X 12" spiral bound sketchbook done in a garden theme (since it is that time of year!). This is the front.


And this is the back.

I likes the front bestest.