Under a Canopy of Stars

Under a Canopy of Stars
Originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

I've been making a few postcards to send lately. I like the 4"x6" size. You can see the back here. It's almost as much fun to do the backs.

Art trouble is right. I have had so much to journal about with my son getting married last week and I haven't done a page. I finally made myself do one last night. This seems to be a recurring thing with me. Everytime something exciting happens that I particularly would like to record in my journal, I don't get the pages done.  

Postcrossing

post card
Originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

I discovered Postcrossing - The Postcard Crossing Projecta few weeks ago. I've always been interested in getting mail from people in other places, and I like sending mail art, so I decided to give it a try.

I didn't realize until I visited the weblog of Paulo Magalh�es who is responsible for Postcrossing that it is a really new project. He just started it in July. It's really grown in that time.

Yesterday I discovered a Flickr postcrossing group where people are showing the cards they send and receive. Most of them are purchased, but I've put that I'd like handmade ones and I'm hoping.

This is the first one I made which was sent a couple of weeks ago to Spain. So far it hasn't arrived yet.

Studio Friday ~ Lost and Found

PA040418
Originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

This week's Studio Friday topic is lost and found. I was working away about a year ago on the altered book for my swap. I had done most of the pages and printed out the journaling and photos that group members sent me. Somehow they disapeared into the chaos that is my art room. I didn't really worry about it too much because I figured that I could just print them again.

I got busy with back-to-school and lost momentum on the project. Then earlier this year my hard drive crashed and had to be reformatted. Now I couldn't print the photos and journaling out since they weren't on the hard drive anymore.

Finally, a couple of months ago, I was cleaning my art room and I found them. They were in a pile of something completely unrelated. I got started again on the swap and completed it!

Aggie Collette Birthday Book

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Originally uploaded by Crazyquilter.

I finally finished a swap that I've owed for a year and a half. This swap was through one of the first online groups that I joined. We have shared our lives and love of dolls for many years now.

I was supposed to make a birthday outfit and accessories for an American Girl doll. I wound up making an altered book all about the birthdays of the members of our list and the birthdays of the different American Girl dolls.

I also knitted an outfit for the doll. This is one of the pages from the book. To see the rest of the book go to my Flickr account. This link will take you to the cover. Just click on next to see the other pages.

I received my set of 15 Caran D'Ache crayons on the third. It was great having more colors. I've discovered since then that they spread better when they are warm ~ makes sense. 

I haven't been doing much in my journal this month. I did finish my September calendar, so I thought I'd post it. I haven't even started one for October and the month is a third over. 

I'm not sure where this came from at all. Sometimes if I do two spreads in an evening, the second one is a lot different from my normal pages. If I have normal pages that is. 

More playing with my Caran D'Ache Junior crayons. I liked these so much I finally broke down and bought a set of the NeoColor II's from eBay. They came yesterday and I played with them for the first time tonight. The photo of that page didn't turn out, so I'll wait to take one in the daylight. The leaf stamp is new too. It's a foam stamp from Wal-mart. 

The left side of this spread is my version of a Marc Chagall painting.  

More play with my new crayons. I'm loving the way they blend and the colors that I can get with them. I'm having a difficult time finding pens to write on them though. 

Another page in Maya's journal. I finally got some Caran D'Ache water soluable crayons thanks to Lara who found a Junior set at Tuesday Morning for a dollar. I had fun trying them out. I'm starting to get more comfortable playing in this collaborative journal. I just let go and played in it like it was mine. 

This spread is in Maya's journal. I had paint left over from doing it on my wax paper that I use for a pallette so I used the same colors in my journal. They turned out quite a bit different.  

Aren't these ladies great? I found them in a decorating magazine. The found text reads: Priorities Change. So many times in my life I've seen that happen. The text that I wrote is mostly about my sweet granddaughter.  

I collect...lots of stuff. This was a fun page to do. After I finished it I thought of adding old stamps and printouts of book covers. The photos are all of my family. I was the recipient of most of my grandmother's photos and those of two of her sisters along with my uncle's. I love using copies of them on my pags. 

Another page using bits and pieces that were left on my art table after other projects. The top of the magazine image of the lady was used on Maya's journal. I love looking back at pages done like this because they bring back to me all the other pages that the scraps came from. 

Another spread in Maya's book. This was one of those that just sort of came together with absolutely no planning. I just started grabbing things laying on my art table. The definition highlighted in red reads Christian love; specif. loving all men as brothers. 

This is my first spread in Maya'sjournal. She is working in the journal I made last month. One of her pages was an "about me" page. I thought that was a great idea, so I made one too. The bits and pieces that I added don't really have much to do with me except for the tiny photo of me when I was four. I thought later that it would have been a good idea to put things that related to my life in some way. I guess these are things that I picked out that appeal to me, so in that way they do relate to my life. I enjoyed painting on the pages of Maya's journal. The paper is more absorbant than the Mead composition books that I normally use. Quite a different experience. 

I haven't finished all the writing on this one, but thought I'd better post it while I had the camera home. I don't seem to be able to remember to bring it very often lately. I am so worn out by the end of the school day that I just get out of there as quick as I can. I don't have a prep period this semester and it's wearing me out. I just keep telling myself that I'll have a double one next semester. 

This one is a little more to my liking. The men in the boat came from a magazine and the rhino is a Durer engraving.  

I'm not too thrilled with this page. I liked the colors together at first, but it really doesn't do much for me now. Maybe it's because it was a big long list of stuff I wanted to get done on Labor Day and I didn't get much of it crossed off the list. 

Clippings from Wednesday's paper. 

Finished version of my August calendar. Most of the pages were done a couple of days later. I wish I would get back into the habit of at least writing on my calendar page daily. I didn't think about this looking like a chalkboard until after I went back to school. 

Compostion book journal. It has a quote by Jasper Johns and the Merry Pranksters signboard. 

The last one I finished in the collaborative journal. It reads: A hurricane hits with all its fury, but the worst news is the human cruelty. Images and reports of looting, snipers, rape and horror in the wake of Katrina. 

Another spread in the collaborative journal. The left page was one of the vintage pages that I made the book with. It was fun adding the color to it. 

This spread is in my collaborative journal. I was supposed to send it out yesterday, but I took the address and forgot the journal. I'll have to wait to send it til after Labor Day now. I hate it when I do things like that.