Pretty much the way it is...

New ATC's.

I"ve been inspired lately. These are non-digital

Collage on matte board using various techniques; watercolor, stamping, ink, water color crayon, pencil, vintage images.

A Moment of Silence

In Remembrance of those who perished in the September 11, 2001 attacks 10 years ago today.

May God bless and be with the families and friends and God Bless America.

Victorian Faeries and Angels

Original digital collage using 5 different vintage images and Photoshop

Pencil LOVE - Derwent Coloursoft Pencils.

I've loved all sorts of art my entire life--and coloring  and sketching with pencils is just one of the many things I like to do. Recently, I was going through my big box of various types of colored pencils that I accumulated over the years and found some Derwent brand amongst them. I remembered that I got them many years ago, (I won't tell you exactly how long ago that was) when I was in high school art class.  I picked them up and started using them on some art I was doing and "LOVE" happened all over again. These were all so well used that I decided it was time to get some more.  So I went on a hunt from professional colored pencils--preferably the same brand.

The world seems to be in love with the Prisma Color brand. They are nice--and I have some.  But to me, nothing can compare with the velvety smoothness of my Derwent brand.  A search found that the exact set of pencils I had from long ago were no longer made, but I found a lot of references to Derwent Coloursoft brand.  The reviews were all very favorable and many preferred them over Prismacolor brand.  I found

a set of 36 on eBay for less than half the retail price (new and still wrapped in their tin) so i instantly bought them.  

I've had them for over a week now and have used them many times. I was NOT disappointed. They are wonderful pencils. Wow.  I love how they blend and layer so smoothly.  I like to hold my pencil vertically and use tiny circular strokes and shade.  I sometimes fill larger areas with a bit of "cross hatching" to give it the hint of color. The above "Home Sweet Home" is a Currier and Ives lithograph that I found on the internet. It was only in black and white, so I decided to give it some light tinting with the pencils. I think it came out lovely!

So I had to have more colors. Luckily, Dick Blick has open stock on them, so I was able to get some more shades of green (how many greens are there?) reds and purples.  And I know I'll eventually get all of them! (Which isn't such a bad thing!)

Good Morning

So lovely to see.

Link LOVE and Weather LOVE

 Newly Discovered Links that I LOVE.

Scrapbook Graphics
Great inspiration!

Djuma Safari 
Watched elephants, giraffes, leopards, water buffalo, etc. LIVE.  

Blick Art
Okay, I've known about them for a long time--never knew they took PayPal.
(Maybe I shouldn't know that!)

Road Side Projects
Lovely Paper Art

The weather finally broke the hot spell we've had all summer. Our drought has been as serious as the flooding weather in the other parts of the country, but the media never grabbed hold of it until lately. Three months of 100+ degree temps and no rain is not only hard on people, but on farms and livestock.  Get ready to know more about our drought when you pay more for beef and wheat in the supermarkets.

Roads...

Tea and Butterfly

"Sit long, talk much, drink tea with me"--Unknown

"Tea is liquid wisdom"--unknown 

--00--

Old Advertising.

I find these quite humorous!

I always love the old fonts they used a long time ago.
Even handwriting was more elaborate.

Vintage Art

Isn't she just the sweetest?

Digital ATCs (My Art)

My first attempt at making ATCs in digital form

Pinterest

I've discovered a cool website a few months ago called Pinterest. I LOVE IT. It's the perfect social website for creative inspiration!  Hey...anyone who is anyone in the creative word is joining Pinterest.

What's the big deal?  CLICK HERE to find out. On Pinterest you can create your own inspiration boards full of visual links and organize them by name or however you wish.  You can follow other like-minded "pinners" and share links and ideas.Oh...and its addicting...especially if your love anything creative.

I'm so inspired by creative blogs and I bookmark them and then can't find what I was
looking for again if I save them to my computer.  Pinterest puts everything where you
want it and you can actually SEE what interested you.

There is a waiting list if you want to join, or you can ask another member to invite you for immediate
access. Just click "request an invite" and hopefully you'll get an email soon.

4 x 4 Art Collages

I've been going through my boxes and albums of art I've done and art I've traded.
It has been a lot of fun.  I had no idea how much of it I had.