An Obsession with Containers

I have been consumed with containers lately. Maybe it's the push to actually get my studio together. One of the problems with putting it all together is arranging it in a way that allows me to find what I'm looking for - AND - fitting it all into a small space.

I've had these little boxes laying around forever - I just couldn't figure out what to do with them. Now I just have to figure out what I'm going to put in them.







And this one is my favorite - made from a solid pine box with gold hinges on the back. Painted with light turquoise and stamped with dark brown accents that remind me of flowers. I placed large clear rhinestones, small pink rhinestones and tiny pink marbles in the centers of the accents. The top lip has paisley gaffer tape around it and I used a white marker to free-hand white swirls and dots.

Cats & Kids

We have 2 cats - Sweet Pea and Princess.


SWEET PEA

Sweet Pea is a normal cat - she's short haired, quiet and stays out of the way for the most part. She can usually be found sleeping at the back of my closet or in the back of the bath tub. Occasionally she'll be found in a drawer someone left partially open. She never meows, never misses the litter box, never tries to "escape" outside, eats a normal amount for a cat, doesn't like water and acts, well...like a CAT.


PRINCESS

Then we have Princess. Let me tell you about Princess. She has long hair. Which sheds EVERYWHERE. She must be in the middle of EVERYTHING. She sleeps right next to my face. EVERY NIGHT. She tries to "escape" to outside. EVERY TIME we open the front door. When she finally does get out and we tire of trying to catch her, she lets us know she's ready to come back in by clawing her way up the storm door, ripping the screen off the hinges and falling into the eight inch gap between the storm door and front door.

She meows. A LOT. If you sing she tries to get you to stop by meowing. LOUDLY. She eats. A LOT. If her food bowl has less than 1/2" of food in it, she won't eat it. She'll meow - LOUDLY - and follow you around - EVERYWHERE - making sure she's under your feet - until you fill it.

An open window is an invitation to try to open the screen - with her claws. She misses the litter box. A LOT. And she kicks litter. EVERYWHERE. She gets in the sink when you're trying to brush your teeth. And won't move. When you walk down the stairs, she makes it a race and tries to beat you - by running right in front of you, psychically knowing exactly where you were going to step.

She likes to play. With her teeth and claws. She takes anything black as a personal invitation to rub up against you. She licks your hair with her sandpaper-like tongue while you're sleeping. She will only sleep under the covers. (Did I mention she will only sleep next to my face?) If you close the bathroom door, she meows - LOUDLY - until you open it. If you leave the bathroom door cracked, she paws at it until she gets it open. She is the clumsiest cat I've ever seen. She hops up on the kitchen counter and knocks everything over. EVERYTHING. She tries to run off with your food. She'll drink your coffee/milk/water/juice if you don't keep a close eye on it.

She climbs up clothes hanging in the closet so she can sleep on the top shelf. When doing laundry, she climbs in the dryer and won't get out. You pull her out, she hops back in. You pull her out, she hops back in. Doesn't matter if wet clothes are in there or not. She climbs up the front door - and hangs by her front paws - from the little window. She misjudges distances and falls. She chews on everything. EVERYTHING. She has a certain love for paintbrush handles. Especially if they have wet paint on them. Just this morning she found a paintbrush my daughter had left paint on - and while chewing on it, managed to turn the white fur on her face and front paws GREEN.

Sweet Pea is mellow and prefers to hide and come out for the very occasional loving - on her own schedule. Princess chases Sweet Pea around the house until Sweet Pea has no choice but to hiss and scratch at Princess. Currently, Princess has a scratch on her nose from bombarding Sweet Pea. She licks Sweet Pea, follows her around, and nudges Sweet Pea from sleep so she can take over the spot.

All in all, Princess is the most obnoxious cat in the universe. She's also the most adorable. Her long fur is so soft and she's so sweet. I have never seen a more loving cat.

Until this morning. I've been struggling to organize and clean up my studio. I've made a lot of progress in the last two days - accumulating eleven trash bags of things to give away and seventeen bags of trash. (Not all from my studio - I've now decided to get rid of most household things in general.) I was thrilled with my progress. I had even managed to corral the male childebeasts into helping me rearrange furniture and take out trash. There's still a long way to go - but we were well on our way.

This morning I went downstairs. I was minding my own business - I just wanted something to drink. That's not too much for a queen to ask for, right? Something caught the corner of my eye. What IS all that white stuff?

WHITE TRASH BAGS. SHREDDED. ALL OVER.

And no - it wasn't enough that she decided to shred everything. It wasn't enough that she undid all our work. And made more work for us. No. I noticed a nose-wrenching smell. (Why Queen - you can't wrench a nose...you may be thinking. You weren't met with the "aroma" I was.) Where is that coming from?? And while picking up the shredded bags, it hit me. Yes - right about the time I jerked my hand back because things that shouldn't have been wet, were.

She "sprayed" the whole lot of bags. All of 'em. EVERY SINGLE ONE. What is up with that?? How does one cat contain that much? More importantly, WHY?

Anyone have any ideas? I can live with her annoying habits. I can deal with the fact she evidently believes she is human. I can even handle her thinking she is actually a "princess". But this?? Not. I can't hang with this. And I have no idea why she did it...or if she'll do it again.

Ahhhhh There. I had to vent about it - because I'm so annoyed. I'm going to research it online - because I truly have no clue what possessed her to do this. At least she missed the new art I'd created. I have pictures that I want to post - but this came first. There's just something about cats and childebeasts. At least the ones in my house. Just look below.


This picture is perfectly representative of my life with children and cats. My middle son (who is Ace Ventura incarnate) calls me to where the cats are peacefully napping, yelling that the cats "made a GROSS mess!!!!". I come upstairs, take a quick look, mentally curse the idea of having cats, and walk off to get some toilet paper to clean it up. I'm wondering to myself why I always get the job of picking up these sorts of messes, when I hear quiet giggling...that quickly explodes into hysterical laughter. Well, two kids were hysterically laughing and one - my middle son - was cackling. Returning with the toilet paper, I'm now mentally cursing the idea of having kids - and making a note about how I can't wait til they grow up and have their own kids.

I bend over to pick up the mess and that's when I realize...Middle Son had taken a Tootsie Roll, warmed it in his hands and then formed it to look like...well...guess. He thought it was absolutely HILL-arious. As did the other two. And people wonder why I call them CHILDEBEASTS.

(Notice how he placed the mirror by the cats so they could see his handiwork...and how Sweet Pea is looking at the camera like she had nothing to do with it - and how Princess is actually checking it out.)

A Book for Invalid Cyndi

I haven't been blogging lately due to health issues...well, I haven't been doing much of anything lately due to health issues! I have been involved in a couple of recent projects and have been working on some of my own art tho - and I thought I'd share a little of it here with you.

A good friend of mine, Cyndi, fell and broke her arm a few months ago. Several of us who know and love Cyndi decided to get together and make a book for her - the results of which turned out very well. It was a great project to be involved with - I had the chance to work with some really terrific artists. I have asked their permission to post their artwork on my blog and I'm honored they all trust me to share their talent with you. The book ended up being around 30 pages - so I will post the basics here, along with a link to where you can see the book in its entirety.

The artists involved in this project were (in alphabetical order) Linda Burke, Tami Davis, Francine Domschine-Hill, Jenna Kay Francis, Norma Heller & Debra McWilliam. I also contributed (but you know where to find me!) and so did my daughter, Princess Becca.

The guidelines for this RAK were simple: Make a page (or pages) about Cyndi's injury. Cyndi had seriously injured her wrist when falling off a horse - requiring emergency surgery, all sorts of hardware and lots of physical therapy and recovery time.

I collected the pages and bound them into a book. The pages created by these artists are as varied as the personalities involved - but each one has something in common - every single page is delicious! Take a look at the work that went into Cyndi's book.


Cover by Tami Davis
* To see what Tami has hidden under this window, check out the entire book here.


Page by Jenna Kay Francis


Page by Linda Burke


Page by Tami Davis


Page by Tami Davis


Page by Francine Domschine-Hill


Page by Debra McWilliam
**Unfortunately, Debra does not have a blog or website. She is an extremely talented artist and the page she created is WONDERFUL! It's hard to see in this picture, but the arm Debra used is an arm from a Barbie - painted white - and adhered to the page. The silver pieces at the wrist represent the hardware Cyndi had on her wrist. Debra's page is so totally creative and was pure joy to incorporate into the book - without it, the book definitely would not have been the same! If you would like to contact Debra, please post a comment to this entry and the message will be immediately forwarded to her.


Page by Princess Becca


Page by Norma Heller (Contact information to follow)


Page by Queen Katherine


Page by Queen Katherine


Page by Queen Katherine



Page by Queen Katherine


Page by Queen Katherine


Page by Queen Katherine


Back Cover by Queen Katherine

It's important to note that this is NOT the entire book! To see the pages I didn't include here, please follow this link. For some reason the book uploaded backwards - to begin viewing it from the front, please start on the picture labeled "Cover by Tami". The additional pages are worth looking at!

I want to send a sincere THANK YOU to all the artists who contributed to this book and allowed me to post their work on my blog. You are extremely talented and made this a fun and memorable experience. Thank you for trusting me with your hard work - I really hope each of you are happy with the end result. I'm sure your hard work will speed Cyndi's recovery - if for no other reason than to stop the teasing!

I have several other things to post and will be adding them as I can over the next few days - so be sure to check back often!

Silly Scanning

What does an artistic Queen do with 3 kids when she doesn't have the energy to lug out art supplies but wants to do something entertaining & fun?

She gathers the kids around the scanner and follows their instructions!

It helps to understand that today had been an incredibly taxing day - and we only had a little while before the Princess went to spend the weekend with her dad. We had too much time to sit around...not enough time to get a bunch of stuff out. The kids had boundless energy...I had none. In a rare alignment of the planets the kids weren't trying to kill each other. I wanted to do something fun & creative with them, capitalizing on the brief moment of humanness they were exhibiting.

That said, I also wanted some new materials to play with. I've been wanting to try printing on my transparencies - but quickly found out tonight that the kind I have are not for inkjet printers. Oops. Now the cat has black paws from walking across the no-matter-what-it-will-never-dry transparency. The permanent kitty prints across my sheets should remind me not to try that again!

Pulling out the scanner was perfect! We came up with some really silly scans (thanks to the kid-directed poses) and I think I have some great material to work with for future projects. I have a bunch of stuff I have to do first - but I can't wait to sit down and play with these - they will provide hours of fun for altering projects!

I should probably mention that my children and I don't actually resemble circus people as these pictures would suggest...well, at least I'm not.

I will admit that I crack up every time I look at these!

I'll post the finished results when I get them done.

Printing Plates

A couple of months ago, I purchased some print foam for block printing from Aileen at Outside the Margins. I hadn't had time to play with it until now - and since I'm redoing my Funky Art Journal I decided this was a great time to experiment with it. My goal was to make up a couple of designs I can use in the book. I've used some unmounted stamps in the Journal already - but have felt stifled because I'm limited in the designs I can use to what I have on-hand. I want to add something bigger and more "me" to the Journal...so I sat down with my embossing stylus and the print foam and began doodling.

ONE SMALL BORDER & TWO LARGE DOODLED IMAGES

The idea is simple - the foam is similar to a foam "paper" plate or a Styrofoam meat tray. It is easily carved and Aileen (owner of Outside the Margins) suggests using a pencil, lollipop stick or ballpoint pen for "cutting" design into the foam. I thought using an embossing stylus may provide for crisper lines and a more defined outcome - but we'll see.

I was a little surprised at the amount of pressure I had to use to get the deep impression I wanted. Since I've never worked with this before, I may have gone way too deep and it might not produce the results I'm hoping for. My elbow is sore and my finger has a blister from the hours of pressing the design into the foam and then tracing over it again and again. I do love the versatility of this stuff and will definitely order more. I love that you don't have to lug out the carving equipment or rubber carving blocks in order to create an image. I also love how inexpensive it is - three 6x9 sheets for $4.00. (And Aileen is very reasonable with her shipping prices.) Not only is the foam a lot cheaper than the blocks of rubber ($1.25 per 6"x9" sheet for the foam vs Hobby Lobby's price of $2.29 for a 4"x4"x1/2" Staedtler Master Carve block), using a common household object to "cut" is much more convenient and cheaper than a set of carving tools.

Another positive I see for using the foam is that it's much easier to cut in a different shape/size than rubber...and it's a whole lot easier and safer to work with. Carving tools must be sharp in order to work properly - you won't cut, stab, jab or scrape yourself with an embossing tool, lollipop stick or pencil. I also like that if you make a mistake, throwing it out isn't as heartbreaking as throwing out a rubber block. You can get "dozens" of prints from one piece of foam - which is perfect for me since I tend to tire of an image after using it a few times. I also like this better than Pen Score because it IS permanent. (Aileen also offers Pen Score through Outside the Margins - just click here.)

If you have never carved your own stamps before - and aren't sure it's something you'll want to do more than once, can't afford the investment, only need one image or want to practice on something cheaper than rubber - this is a great product. Print foam will give you good idea of the work involved in carving your own stamps - and save you some loot, too.

THESE ARE RANDOM DOODLES DONE ON ONE SHEET - I STILL HAVE
A LOT OF ROOM FOR BUNCHES OF DOODLES

It is almost impossible to get a decent scan of these - since the foam is white and the doodles are just carved into it, you can hardly see it in a picture. It's very easy to see the images in person - I was surprised at how well they stood out. I will post a sample project once I have a chance to move onto that part so you can see the designs more clearly.

TWO SMALL PLATES - I DOODLED TWO DIFFERENT IMAGES ON ONE PIECE
OF PRINT FOAM AND CUT THEM APART