Scott's Antique Market - Atlanta GA

Just a teaser photo from the Scott's Antique Market in Atlanta GA last weekend! One of 3300 booths......same booth had barkcloth and other yummy vintage fabrics.

White acrylic again...

I should probably start a new section of my blog called Late To the Party. I know I'm not the first to come up with these ideas that solve a lot of problems I run into while creating, but when I say I'm self teaching, I really am.  I have a collection of technique books and magazines, some tutorial vids, and I love reading art blogs.  But since I'm an experimenter at heart.....that's the most fun about creating for me..... I don't take time to dig out those wonderful sources when I'm in the middle of working on something. Some things I remember.... more I do not. 

 I was putting the finishing touches on my latest submission for Stampington GreenCraft publication.  GreenCraft is about repurposing, upcycling, recycling and using what ya got already, and combining any or all of the above with one's creativity.  I prolly held 20 or more items up to the piece I was working on and nothing was doing it for me.  Finally I grabbed a bunch of silk leaves I'd found at a thrift. The theme hit perfectly; the loud autumn colors did not. So.......you guessed it.... out came the white acrylic, brushed on front and back of two leaves, let dry a bit, then wiped off enough paint to leave behind a subtle, understated embellishment......perfect for my piece.

White gesso and white acrylic (cheap cheap cheap craft white acrylic) are becoming my best friends at my worktable.  Right there next to my toothpicks!

I'm Still on White Acrylic

Fun from the last weekend. The bases for these tags were hand punched Christmas cards, a pine bough from one, metallic gold from the another. And tiny scraps of paper left from cleaning off my studio worktable  And white acrylic craft paint. 

The coiled "bead" under the fern (dried from my yard) is a piece of hand stamped metal where the "N" ended up backwards.  I have yet to learn how to use my metal stamps correctly and not get those "N"s backwards!!  Urghhhhhhh  So, rolled around a tooth pick and a little alcohol ink, I have a bead.  Yayyyyyy, for salvage.

To Tone Down Gloss

Do you have a same aversion to glossy papers that I have?  On their own I truly love glossy papers, but I don't like how they work in most of my mixed media projects.  Sanding takes away a lot of the gloss, and sometimes that is the look I like. Other times it's too distressed and leaves tell-tale trails I don't care for.  All the small paper bits used in these tags are upcycled from papers destined for the trash can.

White paint or gesso is a great "de-glosser".  Yesterday, my usual worktable clean up involved using leftover papers and objects to create my fav mixed media past-time, tags.  Of course, and always, using manila folders tossed at the office, I hand punched the tag shape, then using glue stick, covered over a dozen with some leftover wrapping paper from Christmas morning. 

Dabble some white acrylic paint (cheap is good) or gesso onto your improvised acetate palette (from blister wrap of course) and use your finger to dap and spread out the paint or gesso on each tag until you get the look you like.  I prefer to use a light finger and not to cover the entire tag.  Let dry and you are left with muted, flat colors like I love.

                              Can you spot the tag with the original paper?

I finished these out by adding glittered green stars created from building up layers of a freebie blotter board-like paper my sis saves for me. I'd not found a good use for it because it is very very absorbent, reminds me of the old blotters we used when writing with a fountain pen in the "old days".......some of you prolly don't have a clue what I'm talking about.  An odd piece gets stuck among some really great mat board she gives me, and being a hoarder, I saved it even tho I didn't care for it.  But one experimental day I realized it makes a great built up embellishment.  If I punch a star from paper or cardstock, I punch 2 more from this board and quickly and painlessly glue all 3 together to create a great 3-D embellishment.

These tags are finished of with a crackle rubber stamp randomly placed, and metallic copper ink glazes the edges. The green stars were covered with green Stickles glitter glue; now we need some holes punched and some ties...........and I have a start to next Christmas in my etsy shop, whyte

Jude Hill.........

I was planning on sharing her quilted artwork and I will.  But when I opened her blog this morning, this popped up and I've decided to start with this link to Jude's blog  Spirit Cloth               ....Love it!

Thank you for permission to share, Jude.  Your art is peaceful and calms me.  It is wholesome and spiritual.

I've quilted and I've embroidered.  Not much.  When I learned techniques and piecing, I learned from a teacher who was a purist about hand stitching instead of machine; all her piecing and quilting was by hand.  I appreciate both hand and machine, but I'm afraid her influence was lasting and heavily impressive.  When I stumbled upon Jude's work, I was hooked, of course; elated to find her YouTube vid using an overcast stitch to piece instead of a running and hidden stitch!  Oh yes, thank you for giving me permission, Jude!  I should remember to fear rules.

Enjoy some eye candy, stitchers.........and then visit Jude's web site, Spirit Cloth  for more to soak in.

December tags

Well, I've been away long enough to see Blogger is offering a new design and set up.  I was going to post some Christmas ho ho's but I think I best be reading up a little, I can offer a photo or two of just some simple stamped tags I created recently.

I think many of us repurpose our greeting cards into new tags; for the last couple of years I've also used that part of the cards that have no font or design and a tag shape hand punch to keep a stash of nice, sturdy,  blank tags on hand.

Nothing exciting about the designs, just some of my fav clear stamps, using embossing ink and embossing powders on the tags. I love the cyan tags with the white embossed design.

After lots of collage and mixed media, sometimes simple is just so nice and easy........and very elegant. Don't toss those greeting cards, if they are glossy, use Staz-on ink or just stamp carefully with the embossing ink, powder and the heat set you need for the powders will work well.......allow an extra long time for drying.  I let mine dry overnight.

Car Problems. I Want to Share This!

No photos today.  I have to share an experience from this week and hopefully it will benefit others.  My 1999 Yukon, which will be mine until its death or mine, started leaking water and antifreeze earlier this week.......trip to car hospital for a new radiator, hoses, serpentine belt, (oh heck, why not, it'd been sounding whirly twirly for quite some time), fuel filter, coolant flush, 20,000 point check, tire rotate because car hospital said I was in extreme danger (seriously, that's what they said) and about $1000 later I'm the proud owner of a rehabbed gas-sucking clunker (it's paid for folks, what can I say).

After work, DH and I drove to pick up my now-all-better Yuke, and while I was in giving the car salesman (after hours, service people are sitting down to their suppers while the car salemen are still selling) my pla$tic, my better half starts silently signaling me in "uh-oh" animation so I step outside to see what's up.  My Yuke has two air conditioners....I don't know why......it just does, front and back.  The back is blowing out heat.......not just uncooled air.......heat, hot, just short of flaming, muy caliente.  Front A/C vents fine.........cold.  We left without the Yuke, requesting an inspection the next morning to figure out what went wrong with the A/C.

Next day, my wonderful, favorite service rep of years calls and she has her own version of "uh-oh"  She just says "uh-oh". They'd pressure tested my A/C, lines, condenser, compressor, or whatever they pressure test, and I have leaks and I'm low on freon..........for a start.  Now.......I've always felt comfortable with her, but without going into detail, there were more than a few tips the day before that not all might be hunky-dory in her service world right now, ummmmmm like uhhhhhh she said I could die in a horrendous crash without new tires when my tire man, just a few weeks ago, said I had at least another 5,000 miles.  And I went to him to buy new tires; does that sound like bad tires?! From a tire salesman? 

There's just something that doesn't feel right about a car that goes in with a happy A/C and a few hours later and a lot of servicing rolls out with a hot A/C, no? I mean, I know there are some spooky coincidences on this earth, but I was having trouble with this one. And in 2009 the condenser, switch, hoses were replaced and freon (or whatever they use now) was replaced so it's not like I don't realize the A/C in an 13 year old Yuke can't be sick.

6th sense told me that the Yuke and I needed to leave. So we did, and crap, on the way home the front A/C starts heating me up.........slowly but surely. So now I'm getting mad. I arrive at the office, my boss starts getting as mad as I am (he gets his car fixed at some undisclosed location that even the Secret Service is unaware of, backyard garage, communication by hand because of language barrier, but cheap cheap cheap) so he spends time online just looking for my engine and A/C manuals, comments etc.  And here is what he found that you all need to know because it appears to be exactly what happened to my Yuke A/C.

After finding similar A/C issues in Yukes and other cars, sometimes while playing under the hood, the car computer can shut down the A/C cooling.  There were several solutions involving fuses, the battery or just an order of shutting down the A/C controls and the ignition.  This is what he found in the Edmunds car forums as a suggestion:

Make sure HEAT /AC OFF positions, start vehicle.
Turn vehicle OFF.
Disconnect ( - ) negative battery cable.
Remove HVAC / AC fuses ( you might have fuses under dash and hood ? )
Let vehicle sit 30 minutes.
Connect ( - ) negative battery cable, start vehicle for few minutes.
Turn OFF.
Install HVAC / AC fuses.
Start vehicle.

I am not a car mechanic, my better half is not a car mechanic, my boss is not a car mechanic.  I hereby disclaim any responsibility for screwing up your car if you try this. But, it worked and has stayed working. This evidently re-sets your car's computer which evidently communicates to your A/C it's ok to start blowing cold air again.  My DH did more research after learning about this and it appears not only do mechanics know this but gleefully take your green bills to "repair" your A/C.  I must say we must give this a serious test by driving the vehicle for many days with the A/C blowing, which in FL is not too difficult.  If indeed, I have no freon, if I have leaks, or my A/C is shot, I'll be the first to come back and say I was wrong.  But this is evidently not an uncommon scene. So it's worth sharing the story if it can save you the aggravation of a A/C service fee for nothing. And we all know A/Cs truly do leak, get sick and die so all car mechanics out there, I'm trying to keep your jobs for you too.  We do need you........the ethical and honest ones.....all of us.