Intoxicated by Alcohol Inks? -or- Does it look like I was drunk when I made this?

Whoo hoo! It rained! I've actually worn close-toed shoes for the past 4 days. Still keeping my flip-flops nearby, afterall this is California, but pretty soon I'll be wearing my boots or Uggs on a daily basis.

The one thing I don't like about the rain, especially the first rain of the season, is driving in it. But Saturday, I drove about an hour in the rain to take a class with Tim Holtz. He's been on the Carol Duvall Show several times on HGTV and DIY. Well, it was totally worth driving in the rain to take classes from him. Doris and I signed up for one class and enjoyed it so much we stayed for another class.
The first class was a collaged minibook with it's own mosaic lunch box. In the three hour class Tim showed us distressing techniques along with the fun collage techniques that he is known for. The book fits perfectly in the mini lunch box that we decorated with cool acrylic square pieces called Fragments after gluing various collage pieces to the backs.
That project was so cool and Tim was so funny and charismatic that we knew the next class would be fun, too.

And it was fun but way more challenging.
But the cool thing about challenging is doing stuff out of your comfort zone. And I was. We took a basic wooden framed mirror, added some words, covered it with flash tape then used alcohol inks to color the metal. I was not playing well with those alcohol inks. After a while, Tim came over looked at my project and asked "so what's going on here?" I said "I need help." He said "Yes, you do." How hilarious is that?! So true and so pathetic. Well, he grabbed a few colors and applied them here and there, told me to stick with those colors, continue blotting and twisting...and voila - above is the finished project. I would have liked it to be more in the green family tones, but I had messed up so badly before he got there that to cover up the yellow and pink tones I had created (don't ask), he had to add more brown and blue tones. I'm pretty happy with it, but you should have seen how a-m-a-z-i-n-g the other peoples mirrors turned out. Will i do it again? Probably not on my own. Would I take the class again? Absolutely! I need to learn more about those inks. Plus it was totally cool doing something outside of the traditional paper based classes. Even though I'm not completely satisfied with it, it'll go on my wall in the office and not shoved in the back of a closet. Hopefully Tim will come back to the Bay Area because I would definitely take another class or two with him again.
_

now watching

Craft in America on PBS.

Freaking amazingly talented people.

Currently drooling over:
George Nakashima
Jan Yager
Tom Joyce

I love having a laptop so I can watch tv, look something up then blog about it at the same time.

photo taken at the Celebration of Craftswomen last November.

A Friday Afternoon

I needed to get the sounds of my last movie experience out of my mind, so I went to see Georgia Rule. It was pretty good. Not what I expected, but good, simple, dramedy.
Afterwards, I walked down the street to see if the Paper Source was open yet and it was. The smell of fresh paint and paper-almost as good as coffee. Note to self, Phin and any lurking stamp club members: grand opening event on June 2nd.

Also noticed that an H&M is opening in the shopping center in the near future. V.omg-you so have to come back and visit when it does! We'll go to Sausalito, too!

There must be an event going on this weekend because there were about a half dozen chalk artists drawing on the street. It was so cool to watch! Amazingly talented!

Simple life

I haven't been up to a whole heck of a lot lately so haven't had much inspiration to write about anything. Pretty much, all I've been doing the past 2 weeks has been sneezing and trying to not rip my eyes out of their sockets. I think I may have gotten to the point where I want to see an allergist rather than just suffer through the whole spring season. Then again, I know myself well enough that I'll probably put off making an appointment so long that I won't be suffering as much anymore by then and I'll think, eh - the season's almost gone, I don't need no stinkin' medication.

I've also finally decided to take another step towards a healthier lifestyle and better eating habits. Seven years ago I joined weight watchers and I was successful with it. I never reached "goal" - a few chaotic life events, several family surgeries, work stress then finally quitting, figuring how to work at home, job instability on Jimmy's end and lots of other familiar life events we all deal with, stalled that last few pounds then ultimately the weight started creeping back on and I find myself almost where I started that July 2000. So a week and a half ago, I joined WW again, hoping to find the inspiration I had back then or at least get back in touch with the tools I need to take control of my bad eating habits. So far, so good! My very first day "back on program" was t.o.u.g.h. but the rest of the week went well and I'm still riding on that motivation train. I found out that I am a huge snack-a-holic but I'm finding treats that taste great and are workable with my plan. So far my very favorite snack is the Fiber One Chewy Bars. (I couldn't find a direct link to General Mills, this person's review sounded good to me though). I've tried the Oats and Chocolate, they are t.a.s.t.y and totally satisfy that sweet and chocolate craving. However, at 9 grams of fiber per bar, I wouldn't recommend eating more than one a day.

This is the artwork I had framed a few weeks ago. A couple of you asked about it, so here she is in all her glory. I'm so happy with how she turned out. I had this feeling of dread after I left it to get framed because I really wasn't sure about the matting (dark purple) and the very ornate frame. It's really hard to decide what will compliment someone else's artwork. Framing can make such a difference, and I didn't want to ruin her. She was made by Misty Mawn.

Humphrey

I didn't intend on doing a collage of Humphrey Bogart. This was one of those pieces that just ended up 'happening'. Now that I think about it, most of my collages end up just happening. I covered the canvas with strips of masking tape then painted it with acrylic paints. Searched my database of images. When I picked this image (from doctormacro), I may have been swayed towards Bogart since Jimmy and I recently watched one of his movies from 1940 "They Drive By Night". Once I had my main image, I picked out which rubber stamps and ephemeria to use.

Overwhelmed

Artwork created by and copyright Misty Mawn.
Only partial view of the actual piece, didn't want to infringe on her copyright anymore than I may already be. I highly recommend clicking on her link to see her amazing artwork.

I received a print of this for my bday from Phin. I stumbled upon Misty Mawn's art within the last year from blogging and art challenges. I so admire her art and style.

Thanks again Phin. I love it.