hello march!

the countdown begins

only 20 days 'til spring

and 39 days 'til paris!!!

yeah!

i've got mail!

all i can say is

WOW!!!

i love getting mail

and when i opened my package from

lisa jurist

(i won her owoh giveaway)

i was speechless

this is truly a wonderful

work of art and craftsmanship

even the little thank-you card

has just as much detail

you have to see it in person

to really appreciate

all the fine details

and elements

fabric, lace, trim, buttons,

beads,paper, photo, wood, sequin

hand stitching

how many layers

and to touch it!!

thank you lisa

from the botton of my heart

i will cherish it forever

encaustic class

"reflection of winter"

the "grasses" in my friends garden

and the white blanket of snow this morning

inspired me to keep it simple

please, mr. postman

please, mr. postman, look and see......

is there a letter in your bag for me?

i've been busy all weekend

making art

labels

cards

packaging

and stuffing envelopes

as part of owoh

i mentioned i would

send out something special

for any new followers

who e-mailed me to let me know
well, 25 lucky people

will be getting something soon

(depending on canada post!!)

one of the 25 "mini" pieces of art

i created this weekend

-------

"the crooked house"

encaustic on board
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i just love getting mail

and hope everyone loves what i sent!

catching up

i've been so busy with

my encaustic and owoh

that i haven't had much time for playing in ps

i've finally cough up on weeks two and three

of susan's tuttle's on-line workshop

------

above week two project one

dramatic still life

flooded with light

tinted grayscale


week three
light painting technique

pseudo-infrared technique

photographic painting

---------------

now that i know how the techniques work

i will search my photo library

to find more of my photos to practice on

i can't wait to get to week four!

--------------

above photos

mount royal, montreal

peony in my garden

me on my little woodland path

window shopping on queen st

salem graveyard

rockport, ma
see more on our flickr group

you've got mail!!!

i've been so busy the past few weeks

besides encaustic class every wednesday

and my online class with susan tuttle

OWOH has kept me answering e-mails,

blog surfing

(i've "met" some really creative people)

and making cards and art

( gifts for the winners and my new followers)

it was nice to receive this wonderful art and gift certificate

in the mail

from my friend ludgera

( thanks lu, i will be off today to aboveground!)

ludgera, who's in california

taking a bookmaking class

needed some help editing and manipulating

her photos for class

------------

above, one of the finished projects i did

which lu stitched to the burlap

and sent as a thank-you card

i loved the challenge

working with someone elses photos

it gives me a new perspective on

something i might not have considered

she sent me the photo above and below

and asked to add them together

so i altered them a bit in ps
playing with the brightness/contrast
opacity and using the b/w feature
( i tried lots of filters as well but lost a lot
of the detail in both photos)

i then decided to take it a little bit further
i added a warm carmel color
and used the "overlay" blending mode
then the text from an old postcard
using the "screen" blending mode
and finally a texture i found at
shadow house creations
and set the blending mode to "darken"


and then the finished project!
which of course i didn't stop there
for fun i inverted it,
tried on a few filters
duplicated it and added a lighting feature
and played with the blending modes again
you can go on forever!!!

encaustic class

while searching through my paper stash

i came across some really cool tissue

from 7 gypsies

architectural floor plans

i decided to use it as my background

for the above work

layered with clear wax

added the wallpaper

some oil paint

rusted door plate and key

and here you have it!

OWOH winner!!

and the winners are....................

eden clare o'meara at artful fairy tales

check out her wonderful photography

------

gaby at colorful adventures

mixed media and collage

------

lynn stevens at trash to treasure art

altered art

--------

sherry goodloe at got art?

mixed media
-----------------

thanks to everyone who participated

and commented for a chance to win

thanks to my friend martha

for making me this wonderful valentine

and thanks to my friend lennie

for "paying to forward" to me

happy V day

a great source for all kinds of ephemera

getting there

you never know what will happen

when you start working on a photo

sometimes it can be mind blowing

the enhancements, layers, filters,

blending modes, lighting effects,

adding textures and frames

but

sometimes the simplest photos

will end up surprising me the most

i found this rusted container

and thought i would use it as a background or texture

which when added to this photo

using the soft light blending mode

and finished off with a ttv frame

it became something simply wonderful

encaustic class

today's project

was an experiment in texture

and the contrast of

rough and smooth

adding the stencil was something new

so far i'm liking what i've done

i will added some rusted metal

and maybe some paper

i haven't decided what photo to use?

details from the above work

i had fun with the heat gun
i love how it looks like marble

my second project was really easy

a map layered in wax and cheesecloth

one of my photos, inverted and mirrored

and some text

i haven't decided weather or not i like the metal disc

details from above work

quite time

finally, some quite time

i started my second

on-line digital photomanipulation class with

susan tuttle

i find it very relaxing to just sit and play with

all the techniques i've learned so far in week one

susan's class is very user friendly,

with easy to follow videos and instructions

and we have a flickr group to post and see every ones work

(you may have to take the class in order to view this page?)

you can see what i've worked on here

retro technique one


the sweet spot and the blur


vintage retro technique two
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i can't wait to get started with week two
i'll keep you posted

encaustic class

yesterdays class was spent putting the

finishing touches on several works from the past 10 days

of the full moon madness

it was power tool time!

attaching all the hardware to my pieces

-------

above, i started with the background

i wanted it to look like

a rusted and painted piece of metal

just the edges

i added old book pages to the centre as

background for my photos

added photo copies of the trees

then started layering on all the texture

wallpaper, cardboard, wax,

lace and cheesecloth

finally, the hardware

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the past several weeks have been great

this surge of creativity was a wonderful ride

but now i'm exhausted and my brain-mush

time to rest up and get distracted

maybe start planning my

spring paris trip!

yes, that's paris, france!

64 days and counting

air and apartment booked

time to start getting organized

on how i want to spend my days!!!

more details to come.......

crash and burn

it's been one hell of a full moon cycle

since last sunday

i haven't been able to stop

14 encaustic pieces worked on

9 finished

5 just needing a few little touches

so tonight it was crash and burn time!

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above

a simple project

a map, some text,

a photo from my friends garden

and a stitched border

easy, peasy

off to bed