An Artful Gathering

Friday Play Day

Last Friday a few of my friends dropped by for a small play day.  Candy, Susan, and Ellen joined me for a "Christmas In July" fun filled day.  We had a nice Greek salad, Kugel, and a Southwestern dip - a well-rounded variety of foods for sure.  We spent quite a lot of time chatting - there were so few of us that we were able to really interact with each other.  We created a whimsical snowman; a mitten; a glass ornament filled with shredded paper, a reindeer and jingle bells; a Christmas card; a small notebook that we decorated the cover; and a star beaded ornament.  Here is my project:

It's Been Forever!

It has been absolute ages since I've posted to my blog - but I'm once again trying to get back into the habit of a post a day.  So take up the chant for me - " A POST A DAY - A POST A DAY!!!!!!!

My friend Shelly Wood is having her first year "blogaversary" and giving away all kinds of goodies today.  Go visit her blog and wish her a Happy Blogaversary.  http://shellyraewood.blogspot.com  .

I've been slow to recover since the Artful Gathering Art Retreat, and don't seem to have accomplished much personal art since then.  I am gearing up for another art retreat at the end of October.  I'll be teaching my Gypsy Lore book at that time and still have to put the kits together.  Thank goodness the book is already done!!  If you are interested in reading about or attending this retreat here is a link:   http://artful-gatherings.blogspot.com - the Smoky Mountain Retreat is listed in the upper right corner.

I have just completed a Book of Days written by Miss Laura Lee Middleton (she's the main character in my story).  I enjoy so much creating books around a story that I've written.  I'll take some pics of this today and share them with you tomorrow.

Bye for now ~

Gesso Transfers

I've had over 3 months to complete half page tip ins that I'm swapping with others - I am NOT very knowledgeable about transfer, just have never tried it but a few times.  I was chatting with someone and she mentioned the gesso technique as part of teaching a class.  Since it was her class, I did not ask anything about it but a bell went off.  For almost two years now I've used a lot of gesso in my art.  Lots of times I paint my surface with white gesso and add book pages to it.  As it begins to dry I pull the book page away leaving some of the page behind.  I realized with a bit more work I could create a decent transfer.  Here are my first 3 efforts - when rubbing the paper (as luck would have it) it seems to rub away at the very spot you don't want that to happen.  But I do plan to work on this technique some more.

 

 

 

Our Vacation

Wow, I've been in San Antonio with my girlie girls.  We hit the highway last Friday, checked into the El Tropicana around 4:00 pm and then the fun began.  Of course it was extremely HOT every single day we were there - over 100 and up to 107 YIKES.  We visited the Alamo - it's such a beautiful building to me but this time the reverence inside the building became much more obvious to me.  We bought "stuff" at the Alamo Visitors' Center - I have a western Christmas tree and picked up new ornaments to add to my collection.  We rode the boats on the Riverwalk - the kids loved that!  We ate at the Hardrock Cafe on the Riverwalk and the food was extremely yummy!  We bought tee shirts, teddy bears, bandanas!  We went to the Mercado and ate at La Margarita with a seranade by the Mariachi band - again, the kids loved it.  We went to La Villita and spent more money.  We relaxed by the pool every evening.  We learned quickly how to hail a taxi but we also took the trolley and a water taxi.  We came home on Tuesday, exhausted!  But it was a fun fun vacation - a memory maker for sure!