September days…

“We are like the spider

We weave our life

and then move along in it

We are like the dreamer

who dreams 

and then lives in the dream

This is true for the entire universe.” ~The Upanishads

OXO see you in October OXO

the tallest handmade book in the world…

Alicia of Altered Bits is at it again with a really brilliant idea … pop on over to read all about it here AND it’s all for a very good cause too!

tea and buttons with the girls

last Tuesday I had the chance to spend time with art friends at Dot’s lovely home in the country …

the focus of our gathering was buttons…

something I am always drawn to…

here is a sampling of the inspiring pieces Dot had already created…

she sent me home with a blank elastic cuff to play with…

hers clingled so nicely…

I was sipping delicious Raspberry Green Tea

around her table covered in a gorgeous quilt that she had rescued…

she patiently instructed us in how to weave our buttons and generously shared some of her special button collection too…

here is just one of the gorgeous things she has made…

Dot does so many things and SO very well too…

a true creative genius…

the frosting on the cake for me was a trip to her hen houses…

the girls as she calls them (and a few guys too) got very excited as she led me down a beautiful woodland path…

when I got home we enjoyed the freshest egg omelet ever as some of the eggs she collected were still warm…

our son said he could taste flavors he had never noticed in eggs before…

Dot is not only talented but has a really generous heart too…

she made me a beautiful portfolio out of lovely chicken fabric that someone had sent her from The Netherlands …

her reputation for being the egg lady has spread far and wide…

she knows how tickled I get around hens…

for me it is a chance to step into a world I normally would not get to witness…

as you can tell it was a very special visit and I have only shared some of the highlights…

time spent with art friends…

tea and treats…

so much eye candy and sharing …

I was really happy to be able to join Dot, Janet and Leslie for this gathering…

all such talented and nice people…

for more fun places to visit pop on over to Kimmie’s Art in Red Wagons

* * * 

a little update on my Magpie’s Nest TOO giveaway blog…

my first winner was the lovely and talented Gio in Italy…

last chance to sign up today for three giveaways …

those winners will be announced on 28 September …

items are being added all the time

listen with your heART…

a few more pages in my “How It Works” Encyclopedia art journal…

the image of the mechanical man on the right was the only thing on these paint scraped pages for the longest time…

the vintage lady popped up and my pages evolved from there… I stapled the gauzy piece of fabric on the left side…just because…

now for some colors that I do not often go to…

paint scraping pages way ahead of time gave me the chance to stretch out of my comfort zone a bit…

hair has played a fairly prominent role in my life off and on for many years …

on my wedding day it was my veil … long and down to my waist…

I got it all cut off for Locks of Love about eight years ago and kept it no longer than shoulder length for a good many years … ok this feels like TMI … guess I felt I wanted to explain about why all of the altered hair shots at the bottom of my journal pages LOL … enough said … it is getting long again … it can help keep me warm this winter…

wishing you a happy September Equinox however that fits into your neck of the woods

“We lose our freedoms at the altar of fear.” – Kahlil Gibran

Paper Stacks a Plenty…another Seth Apter Collaboration

Seth of The Altered Page is at it again …

ever the master of art collaborations he put out a call to post photos showing our stacked journals

… papers

… handmade books and more …

the bigger the pile the better…

I must admit the pictures above show just some of my creations…

in talking to Mr Magpie about paper stacks…

he took a few paper photos too…

it seems piles of paper play a big role in our lives…

the other evening we rescued the paper bits below after having a bite to eat…

we found we only needed half of the heavy duty paper napkins provided and the paper doilies are always too good to pass up… a wonderful collage ingredient…

many thanks to Seth as always for joining the on line mixed media art community together…

I am looking forward to visiting all of the Paper Stack Project participants linked on Seth’s blog here

…95 participants and counting…

box of delights tea…

Judy Domec really outdid herself in decorating the box full of goodies that I won in her round robin traveling tea cup event…

she said it was her first art mail attempt…very well done Judy…I know your box delighted lots of people all along its journey…

I truly did not want to open it right away as there was lots to read and enjoy…but

finally I did open it while sipping some delicious Chocolate Pu-erh and munching on a Madeleine … a container of those jumped into the grocery cart the other day which hardly ever happens…

here is the lovely line up of treats that I won from all around the country…

thank you Dawn …

thank you Lori …

thank you Amy …

thank you Jill …

thank you Halle …

thank you Pat …

thank you Kimmie …

thank you Judy …

how did I get SO lucky…

wishing you all a very happy T Tuesday from rainy Virginia…

you can visit Kimmie at her Art in Red Wagons for links to lots of these talented artists along with other fun people to visit too…

the beating of my heart…

inspired by Dawn’s September art journal challenge…I decided to get busy…

I have been in a journaling mood lately…

jumping from one book to another and another in a bit of a creative frenzy…

my How It Works encyclopedia (1970′s) pages have been glued and paint scraped with just a few spreads completed so far…

each page measures approximately 10.5 x 8.25 inches (26.67 x 20.95 cm)…

the last thing I did in this journal was a farewell spread for  Wednesday Stamper here … still missing you Mittwochstempler!!!

Dawn’s challenge this month is to “add an inclusion (something stuck to the middle of a spread that you can see both sides of when turned over) or a tag” … as it happens I have had these pages in limbo for a long time…

imagine a scary face/eye and lips in that outline of the pages sticking out…

see where the nose would have been…

covering it with circle graph paper really helped things open up for me…

I used some Graphics Fairy and Tullulah images to create transfers with Citra Solv and tissue paper …

Love how those turn out each and every time …

quick and easy and dreamy…

I was very honored recently to be linked in Citra Solv’s Artist Gallery here …

on the left side of my spread I used the original that I made the veiled lady tissue transfer out of …

I am saving the actual tissue paper transfer of her for another project …she’s way off to the left in the photo above…

both pieces have a very nice look and feel to them …

the heart chart that I have running across both pages is from back in 2004 when I some heart testing done …

I guess it is my EKG (not 100% about that) …

glad I thought to ask for a copy…

here is a closer look at my inclusion …

a photo of our son Alex not quite two years old hauling a big plastic watering can around the garden popped up at just the right time and that is when my pages really became extra meaningful to me …

this was not where I thought these pages might go …

what a little nature boy he was …

my Mutti knit the hooded sweater he was wearing …

the dangling tea cups are free images from Dover … they added nicely to the open tea tag I glued onto the page…

I used the tea string to tie them on …

it will be fun to see what Dawn has in mind for her October art journal challenge…

LaWendula’s Paper Swaps…Art Really Does Help Heal

*a LONGish post with lots all wrapped into one*

LaWendula recently hosted another fun paper swap…

she has been connecting the mixed media blog community for quite awhile now with her imaginative and fun swap ideas…

this one was quick and easy…

just fill a standard size envelope with bits of paper and mail to your partner…

 my swap partner Frances…

who does not have a blog for me to send you to…

sent me some really lovely bits from the UK … so much goodness in one envie … thank you again dear Frances!!!

LaWendula (LW) and I swapped some vintage papers and did I ever get inspired when her big envelope arrived…

she included one of her really special handmade books (4.5 inches square) ready to alter … I could not wait to get busy…

as some of you know my sweet German Mother/Mutti died suddenly in February of this year…

she lived just an hour away so we got lots of one on one time together…

I sure do miss her and have not been able to find words to express my broken heart overflowing with feelings…

using lots of bits from LaWendula’s latest gifts (more than I can really show you in photos) and a few bits I had on hand…

here is what came of some of it…

with a couple of pages still left to decorate…

I will show you LaWendula’s BEFORE book pages and my AFTER altered pages below…

her  pages looked so nice I hardly wanted to cover them up…

I was not immediately aware that it would even be a book about my Mutti…

a bit of German curtain netting (I have some of my Mother’s tattered lace curtains) under the word Liebe = Love …

a piece of torn map …

a glowing candle surrounded by Edelweiss … a flower that has myriad meanings in our family …

LaWendula’s tag was lovely on both sides…felted wool on this side…I glued on the cardboard seashell from her goodies…

I like the way LW stamped page numbers on her gessoed magazine pages…as it happened the number 3 fit perfectly in the torn yellow paper I glued to the right edge…

my Mom’s name was Josephine…her family called her “Fini” …

I amazed myself at the meaning in these pages…

it wasn’t until the second day when Mr Magpie was looking at my little book again that we realized why out of 12 little calendar pages that LW sent in a strip … I must have picked apples for this page…

my Mutti made THE best apple strudel always with me in mind…the ends were my favorite with a little more dough folded there…

such beautiful pages LaWendula made … you can see why it was hard to cover them…

I dove in anyway…a woman possessed on and off all day Friday…

these pages really did come together intuitively…

I noticed that sometimes I like creating with a little noise in the background…most often television…funny as I used to not be much of a TV person…

LW’s sturdy dressmaker form called to me but I did not spend any time thinking about why and added some stamped text to it …

my mother was an excellent seamstress and creator of stuffed animals and dolls and more…

the only thing I added to pages 4 and 5 from my stash were pieces of Tim Holtz tissue tape...

in looking for a tissue tape link to embed for you above…I came upon Tim’s blog post with some amazing ideas for this tape…

Love that …

maybe you will need some afterall

Estivalia … let me know

playing with LaWendula’s pages was very healing…plenty of tears fell with some smiles from sweet memories too…

I actually surprised myself in that I was able to “go there” as the grief from my Mutti’s loss is pretty fresh…there are days I cannot believe she is really gone…

the little flowered flap on the left is a copy of my Mother’s fabric autograph book from the early 1940′s onward…

LaWendula included some super German library cards...I thought it very fitting that they focused on *Play* one of my favorite things (Spiel Spiele Spielen)…

so glad I took photos of each of LaWendula’s beautiful pages “before” I got busy…see the perfect brown “frame” on the left…

isn’t that German postage stamp on the top left precious…it says “With Good Wishes” …

my Mutti passed along her wanderlust to me and my little sister …

our boys called her “Omi” a German fond term for Grandma …

years before my Mother passed away we had a conversation where she told me she had lived a good life … little did I know just how comforting those words would be … I will continue to feel very close to my sweet Mutti …you can check out some of LaWendula’s precious handmade books here…

for not having words … I certainly managed to tell quite a lot…

there is so much more to tell about my dear sweet Mutti …

she was definitely one of a kind…

I added a little paint to the back page but could not duplicate LW’s beautiful colors on the other side of her sewn tag…

I wrote “Love is the answer” and glued on the black and white strip of shiny fabric from my art table…

if you actually read all of this post…well you are amazing … the word count (WordPress provides that in Draft mode) was pretty high …

vielen vielen danke liebe LaWendula … you touched my heart again and again … you always ROCK!

one last thing…if you haven’t seen my sweet and talented friend Margaret’s super giveaway you’ll want to run there fast as you can … tell her I said Hey OXO

…good enough

while clearing out some old catalogs I came across the image of a chair in front of the window and a lady in her flowing turquoise dress…

the words “I AM GOOD ENOUGH” have been pinned to my inspiration board for a very long time…

the images and words came together nicely for this spread…

a piece of coral ruffled fabric on my work table added nice texture and interest to my pages…

along with rub ons …

some liquid pencil, acrylic paint and inks…

a little rubber stamping and black and white doodle pen accents…

thanks to Sandy in Germany for the butterfly inspiration…

I have been playing in this Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia made into an art journal since March of 2009…

there is a little more room to go until my journal is filled…

here are some of my pages…

if you click on one and keep clicking it will take you to the next and the next…

it is fun to see most of my pages in one spot here instead of scattered on various blog posts…

also want to share this  from StoryPeople

“Awakening”

“In those days,
we finally chose
to walk like giants
& hold the world
in arms grown strong with love
& there may be many things we forget
in the days to come,
but this will not be one of them.” ~StoryPeople

new giveaway items are being added to my Magpie’s Nest Too blog all the time...

feel free to comment on as many as you would like for a chance to win

National Honey Month

September is National Honey Month…

ambrosia…

nectar of the Gods…

honey existed before man as evidenced by fossils from 150 million years ago …

honey collection can be traced back thousands of years as depicted in ancient cave paintings …

did you know it is used for wound healing…

  it is a natural energy booster…

 a skin moisturizer…

a natural cough suppressant and that is just the beginning of what there is to know about honey…

I like adding it to herbal teas…

today I am sipping a delicious and delicate herb tea that I brought back from the beautiful Einseideln Monastery outside of Zurich Switzerland…

it is called Münsterschwarzach Klostertee St. Benedikt Sieben-Zeiten-Tee (St Benedict Seven Times Tea)…

the organic ingredients are sage, ginger, lemon balm, spearmint, valerian, rose petals and primrose flowers…

“sage stimulates and will preserve your health…Ginger warms the body and increases the vital energy center… Spearmint aids digestion… Valerian brings calmness and promotes concentration… Rose opens the heart… Primrose is new beginning and light… Melissa awakens the spirit and brings hope and joy…”

I even got a second cup out of the same teabag ahhhhh…

be sure and visit Kimmie over at her Art in Red Wagons for more tea stops…

I also invite you to come see the new offerings on my Magpie’s Nest Too giveaway blog 

9.11.11 A Day of Remembrance

hopefully this month’s quote from my “Angel Spirits” The Art of Sulamith Wülfing 2011 Calendar will bring a little comfort on a day where the right words are not easy to find…

a day even harder than every other for anyone that lost a loved one ten years ago…

“When you feel the need to unburden your spirit, know that I am always with you, dear friend.  I am the recipient of all your secrets, and I hold them fast in the chambers of my faithful heart.  Confide in me, and receive in return comfort and tender love.” ~Soul Confidant, September 2011

I have shared the quotes from this beautiful and inspiring calender here each month and thought I would show you Sulamith Wülfing‘s artwork for this month as well…

she was an amazing artist…

artwork of Sulamith Wülfing “Soul Confidant”

Sending Peace…Love…Light to each of you today and always OXO

September local “what do U see”…a five-letter word…

this swap involves using as many ingredients from each different package as possible…

adding some bits of our own as we see fit…

here is what I had to play with…

I started by gluing two of Lisa’s red print calender pages together adding gesso to both sides…

did some rubber stamping and added torn strips of the double sided papers from her ingredients…

layered some fabric from my stash and tissue paper…

I smooshed the champagne cap with a wooden mallet for a deco at the top left…

I made a copy of her sweet family photo at the beach and was tickled that a Trader Joe catalog on my work table had the perfect words to add as a conversation bubble…

torn that way quite by chance…

for the back I used the chocolate wrapper stitching it to create a tag to slip in an envelope I had handy here …

I thought adding the envelope and tag would help give strength to the pages…

“Summer” was also torn from…

yup… you guessed it…

the Trader Joe catalog…

 another fun and challenging project!

my new blog…Magpie’s Nest Too

for now will be a giveaway blog and a place where I share Freebies…

with a little fine tuning and thanks to Jill Ruth & Co. my Magpie’s Nest Too blog is now open …

I put the second blog together back in September 2008 thinking I would share my photography there and forgot that I made it private to begin with…

over the coming weeks I will be giving away some of my old books there...

all you have to do is comment on the specific blog post for anything you might be interested in receiving…

overseas visitors are most welcome…

feel free to sign up for as many different books as you would like the chance to win…

they all need a good home…

winners will be chosen by random generator…

tell your friends if you think they might ‘need’ a new book or more…

no rules…

so far I have THREE giveaways listed …

with more to come…

 come on down and leave a comment for a chance to win…

“The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.  The rain makes running pools in the gutter.  The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night And I love the rain.” ~Langston Hughes

as it turns out some areas are getting too much rain here…too bad there is such imbalance in weather patterns lately…Texas sure could use some of the rain we’ve had the last three days

more than tea…

on weekends I enjoy coffee with Mr Magpie…

we have a favorite coffee shop within about 25 minutes walking distance each way…

this past weekend was a federal holiday here in the states which meant a three day weekend…

on our Monday visit there they already knew what we wanted…oh my!

a grande half caff cappuccino for me and a vente real deal for the Mr…

we like asking for REAL mugs instead of paper cups which cannot be recycled…

that way we stick around and get to do some people watching and take a nice little coffee break…

we often split an egg salad sandwich and one of these yummy salted sweet caramel bars …

I have plans for those brown papers …

instead of a cookout or a party or going to the pool before it closed for the season we have been clearing out a bit …

stuff…stuff…stuff …

so much in fact …

I will be having some giveaways soon to see if some of the books I’ve collected over the years might be useful to someone else …

more on that in future posts…

footnote update: click here for my first magazine giveaway

wishing you a Happy Tea Tuesday even though I had coffee and it feels like Monday…

the school children in this area go back to school today…

I still remember the feeling of needing to get to bed at a decent hour because early mornings came around all too quickly…

I tip my hat to teachers and all of you who have children in school while still making time to nurture your creative side AND blog too……..

for more blog stops visit Kimmie’s Art in Red Wagons

she’s a lady…

with a falcon…

what a lovely surprise while digging around on my art table to have the lovely Duchesse de Bourgogne Belgian beer label peek out at me…

she didn’t come off the bottle easily as I recall with lots of soaking and picking…

Mr Magpie is ever patient with those sorts of things …

for the record I would never sell this collage or use it for anything other than personal use…sometimes I find images on packaging irresistible…

I made this just for me feeling a little Autumnal with shades of Edgar Allan Poe in the September air…

a random piece of copy paper was my canvas…

Love it when everything comes together effortlessly with no question of what to add next…

our youngest son reminds me that is called FLOW…

I even had the large unmounted ART stamp from Ma Vinci’s Reliquary handy …

it fit so well at the bottom of my collage which measures approximately 6.5 x 7.5 inches (16,51 x 19,05 cm)…

the scrap paper I used was so flimsy even after slathering paint and gesso and more onto it I had to glue it onto some light cardboard to stabilize it…

I often make things because I feel moved to with little thought to the outcome…

no sketches…

just play and layering…

this lady speaks to me…

“No one could suspect the intricate mysteries of her heart.” ~Kim Edwards, The Memory Keepers Daughter

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

time AGAIN to thank my sweet and very talented blog friend Estivalia of 365 Drawings for making it possible to add another widget to my sidebar…

it is ALL thanks to her that I have any widgets at all!!!

I am doing a bit of clearing out and came across some magazines …

LOTS of art magazines…

one was in a special envelope so I had to stop and take a look…

back in Nov/Dec 2006 I had a couple of my ATCs published in an ATC Gallery from an Inky ATC Antics article by MaryJo McGraw in Altered Arts Magazine…

that was about ten months before I started blogging…

I thought I would add it to my little lineup on my sidebar…

many many thanks once again dear Estivalia you ROCK!!! OXO

Citra Solv Transfers on Tissue Paper…

here are some laser images that I used to transfer onto plain white tissue paper with thanks once again to The Graphics Fairy …

since trying Citra Solv transfers on fabric yesterday I knew I wanted to give the tissue paper technique a whirl too…

I photographed my tissue transfers on top of old atlas pages so you could see the sheerness you get even before gluing anything down…

the bees nest melted into the heavy blue painted card stock seamlessly…

I was excited to glue my transfers onto book pages and really like the way the text shows through…

I used Golden’s Matte Medium…

but any good glue stick would work…

I put the glue on the paper not the tissue…

much easier that way…

the Matte Medium does leave the papers with a fine finish and feel…

in reading more of the Citra Solv artist’s site I found out that when ironed the FABRIC transfers can be washed and bleached with no damage or fading whatsoever…

perfect if you were going to transfer onto a white t shirt I guess…

it bears saying again…

playing with Citra Solv is best done with lots of fresh air and latex gloves are a good idea too…

* * * * *

WordPress slipped a little surprise near the top of my sidebar…

not sure why I even noticed…

maybe I was searching for something…

here is what it says:

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

I wish they would just make a blogroll that updates like most of you have on your blogs already…

I always have to check people’s blog lists to find out who has updated their blogs…

that really is the only thing I can see that WordPress could improve on..!