AEDM Day 7- Red leaf- 400th post

Wow i was surprised when I looked at my stats for this blog to realize this is my 400th post.

I also realized today that when I signed up to do Art Every Day Month yesterday that since I am in the hospital I don't have access to my scanner so I could post my artwork.  However there are other types of artwork that I can create because I do have my computer and my photos. 

I had signed up to do a new note card swap on Swap-bot which was a scavenger hunt for three themes  on three cards.  The themes are leaves, red and nostalgia, so I went on a scavenger hunt through my photos to turn into cards.  I have a purchased Georgia O'Keefe (love her art) card with one of her leaf paintings on it which I will send, but in going through my photos I found this wonderful red leaf photo to edit.

I edited it to look more like a note card drawing and that edit is on the top of this post.

I also found this photo which fits the nostalgia theme, it was already edited, but one that I love.

Or maybe I'll send this one- which I also edited earlier but love the way it turned out.  What do you think?

When I get home I will be able to print them on textured or lightly patterned card stock to finish this art project.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Blessed to be busy

Busy, busy, busy.  In the last week or so I have accomplished more than I would normally get done in an entire month (if I was feeling good that is).  Sometimes in the pressure of having lots to do in a little time we forget to remember the joy of service and the blessing of  having the stamina to accomplice what needs to be done.  I captured some of what I have done on my camera, but most of what I have done just doesn't show. 

 I've been washing the dog every 2-3 days due to his skin infection coming back.  This is done on a 70# dog with a water resistant coat.  Since it is medicated shampoo; it stays on for an minimum of 10 minutes.  then it is rinsed and lotion applied while he is still wet.  I then I have to bleach all his bedding and his harness.  It really is a big deal and a lot of work

Then Laura had to move with her family and start all over, so I went through all of my basic things (towels, dishes, beds, bedding, dressers, shelves and just about anything and everything you could possibly need). I found what i could but that also meant the dresser, desk and shelves had to be emptied and those things contained therein had to find new homes around our  house.  Her boys now are sleeping on the beds Laura used when she was little and they have a dresser and desk that Laura also used.  I then looked at thrift shops to gather what I could there.  Next came Wal-mart  and Amazon.  Her brothers drove up to her new home and delivered what we had gathered.  I've also been gardening in the morning while it is cool.  Since Laura wants some houseplants, I have been trimming my container gardens and rooting the trimmings on my kitchen window sill.  I also got my winter greens area of my garden ready to plant tomorrow.  I've also replanted some of my herbs so they are ready to come inside when we start to get frosts.

I also made up some photos and printed them on magnetic paper to send to the people who I visit from church.  I put my name and phone # on them so, if they ever wanted or needs to call me, it would be right there on their fridge.The thing i am most proud of is on the collage at the top.  Last year our church's women's organization made totes and filled them with personal products for the local women's shelter.  I found then that I really loved making totes and designing not just the look but designing them to suit a specific purpose.  When I saw a swap of A Tote and a Note on Swapbot; I jumped at the chance to participate.  I really enjoyed this swap and designed this just for my assigned swap buddy.  She does cross stitch so I designed the tote to fit.  It was large enough to hold a good sized hoop and project book or magazine, but was narrow enough to hold it upright.  I included pockets on the inside and out with some long enough for scissors and rulers.  I added a clear pencil case so that the threads could be stored and seen there.  I also added hooks so the case could easily be taken out and some other hooks to hang things like things like keys on.  All this was done with scraps and leftovers from other projects.

Swapbot has been real good for me, allowing me to be creative in multiple ways and I am learning to meet deadlines.  If I am ever to go back to school or start my own business this is definitely a skill I need to develop.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I have been up to.

Enjoy

☺☺☺Johnina☺☺☺

Art swap revisited

This is the mail art that I received today.  What a fun collage.  What a delightful surprise that it came from Brazil.  Of all the foreign countries I could gotten Brazil was perfect.  My son sent two years on a mission in Brazil and speaks, reads, and writes in fluent Portuguese so no translation problems.

I also got lots of loot and since I have been thinking of doing some mixed media art, these will be a great start.

These are a few of my favorites.  I love the little skelanimals, so halloweeny.  I delight in haloween decorations, books, and crafts.  To show my eclectic side I also love bookmarks and collect them; I also love Shakespeare and getting a bookmark of Shakespeare and in Portuguese is just to cool.

This is what I sent out this morning on the swap 'Send a letter, get a letter' off of Swapbot.  The sticker on the envelope and the sticker sheet I sent are all made from my photos.  All of the other items came from suggestions on my partner's profile and of course the Halloween theme paper came from my love of Halloween.

This has turned out to be lots of fun for me and I hope you

ENJOY

♥♥♥Johnina♥♥♥

PS: there was no entries and therefore no winner of my second giveaway so i am going back to the rules of the first giveaway (I had 60 something entries), but would like some ideas of what to give away.  More mail art, stickers of my photos, photos of mine with magnetic backing, a print of one of my photos (suggestions please) or any other craft that I could produce.  Any ideas would be appreciated.



Art swaps

Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved to color.  She loved to turn the black and white paper bright with color.  She colored carefully; making sure that all her strokes were straight up and down and always kept within the lines.  However she never showed her pictures to anyone; as there was always some kind of mistake.  Sometimes the crayon would slip a little and venture outside the lines or maybe the strokes were not quite straight up and down or a little space left uncovered.  So in spite of her love of the bright colors; she kept the books to herself never showing them to anyone.  It wasn't as if it would have done any good the books wouldn't have been shown off any way.  There were no pictures on the refrigerator at her house.  She continued to learn on her own; always in the privacy of her room.  She learned to fill in with circles so the stroke marks wouldn't show up as much.  Up and down strokes just didn't look right.  She then discovered how to curve her strokes to follow the lines of the drawing.  Experimenting with combining markers and crayons came next and she became more and more pleased with her finished pictures.  However she still kept them to herself, hiding them.  Hiding them because of the little gremlins who were developing inside her; telling her of her mistakes and telling her that her improvements were really failings because she should have known better.  Then she learned how to paint and a whole new adventure started for her; it was short lived but a step in the right direction.  One day she showed the paintings to her teacher who put them on the bulletin board and soon she had her own spot to display her paintings.  With a new teacher and a new year this stopped and she went back to keeping her art work to herself.  Once again hiding what she was learning.  This went on for years, while her little gremlins inside kept pointing out her mistakes and asking why try, if there was always mistakes and never acknowledging the progress being made.  Soon she was doing less and less art.  But the artist inside her kept trying to sneak out past the gremlins, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not.  As she got better and better she started to be noticed for her art.  Sometimes the artist inside would make it past the gremlins and she would share and be accepted.  After years and years of this now as a grandmother she is learning to love to share her art even in it's imperfection.  She is still learning not to listen to those little gremlins.  Instead she is learning to listen to the pleasure it brings to her to share, the compliments and pleasure she sees as others enjoy her work and the small voice that tells her she is making progress.

In case you couldn't tell that little girl was me and sharing my art now brings me great joy both on the Internet and in person.  I recently found an art swap site (http://www.swap-bot.com/) that I have joined.  It is free and they have various avenues in which to share your artwork.  Some are for newbies and some are for more experienced individuals for which you must qualify just by doing a good job of keeping your commitments.  I picked a mail art swap and the above is the envelope that I did.  They also asked to include something in the envelope, since I am best known for my photography I sent a photo with a letter.

I am looking forward to receiving mail art from the person assigned to me.  I plan on doing more swaps and maybe you would like to join me and know the pleasure of sharing in a new way.

Enjoy

♥♥♥Johnina♥♥♥