Fun and Easy

Hi there. Today I wanted to show you something I made a while back ago but never posted on. It's a mini ATC album that I created using a trading card album I purchased at Dollar Tree.

This is the album before it was altered

And this is the album after

Sorry the pictures aren't very good. I took them with my phone. It's such a big hassle to get them from my regular camera to the computer.

I used Tim's Crackle Paints, Grungeboard elements, and stamp. I love that stamp sooo much. You can find it at Stampers Anonymous along with sooo many more gorgeous stamps. I also used Tim's hammer to bang up the brads for a more rustic look.

This album is so easy to make. All you need is some gesso, joint compound, crackle paints, and some visual interests

Anyway, that's about all for today. Hope everyone joins the challenge. It's a good one this week. See previous post if you wanna read up on it.

Have a great evening everyone!!

New Art to Share

Hi everyone. Hope everybody is having a good weekend. It's super hot here in Arizona right now and we're all just trying to stay cool. I made a few new things. My nephew's birthday is coming up in June and instead of making a card, I made a canvas piece instead. His theme is "super heroes" and he loves Spiderman, so I thought to make him a Spiderman canvas that was vintage and nostalgic. I sure hope he likes it. There's not much more to say so here's a look at what I've been up to lately.

Here's the Spiderman Canvas


Here's a piece I made entitled "Parisian Bingo Hall"

And here is the canvas piece I made using the image for the
Weekly Wednesday Challenge. I told ya I was gonna do it too!!
Can't wait to see what you will make!!

Printing On Fabric -- It Really Works!

Okay, I said I was gonna go til tomorrow but I've been playing around a little and decided it was time for me to try to print onto fabric. I've been a little weary to try it but I figure, what the hell, just do it. So I just did it. And it was the easiest thing ever. I taped my fabric piece down to a piece of printer paper and put it in facing the correct way. I adjusted my printer settings and pressed print. Voila! It's done. And it came out perfect!

If you're going to try this too, do make sure you have a piece of paper underneath your fabric no matter what. Not only does it support the weight of the fabric and ease it through the printer, it also absorbs the excess ink that bleeds through the fabric.

I would also recommend using a lightweight fabric opposed to a heavier one only because I'm afraid it will get jammed in the printer and cause you some unnecessary tugging and cursing. Lol.

Overall it was easy and the results speak for themselves. Sorry about this photo, as I took it with my phone (trying to avoid the annoying task of taking the photo with my camera, then taking out the memory card, then putting it in the memory card reader, then downloading all the photos) and it doesn't produce the best results. I'll be sure to post a photo of the finished project once it's underway and to my visual satisfaction. Until we meet again.....

Loving Tim at 4

She could possibly be the youngest Tim Holtz fan I've ever known. Or maybe she's just my kid....lol. Yesterday I was making some more grungepaper flowers for the swap and Breana came in and asked me if I needed help. I told her I didn't but she could play if she wanted. She asked me if she could stamp. How awesome! My little munchkin wanting to stamp. At 4! So I got out some stamps for her, you know, the ones you usually give your kids...the ones that aren't super duper expensive. The ones they can't ruin?!?!??! Lol. Well, she obviously knows better because once I gave her the "cheap" stamps, she said "No, mom, I don't want those ones. I want the ones you use." So yeah, I gave in and let her use them. She must be watching me when I stamp because she knows just what to do AND how to clean the stamps afterward. My fear was gone. Lol. After she got her stamps of course she needed ink. I told her I had some ink for her and I took out the (once again) "cheap" ink in all sorts of colors and gave it to her. She said, "MoooOOmm, this isn't the right kind of stampy ink!" and I said "well then what do you want" and she came out with this, "you know what kind I need! I need the Tim Holtz (she pronounced it Holes, lol) Stress Ink!"

I laughed hysterically! How does my kid know all this. She must be spending too much time with me watching you tube videos. Lol. This made my day. And just so you see her in action, here's some photos after I gave her the "good" stuff...

I <3 GrungePaper!

So I'm participating in this fantastic swap in my All Things Tim Yahoo! group. Requirements are, you have to make something out of grungepaper. Flower, ATC, Twinchie, etc...
I'm making flowers. I chose to do 6 for 6 and I can't wait til it's all done and over with so I can see the other ladies' gorgeous work. I just started today and have 3 out of the 6 done and that took up one whole sheet of grungepaper! If I would have known that it goes so fast, I would have bought another pack. Looks like I'm gonna have to. Geez, it's already 2AM and I'm still sitting here. I'm gonna have a hell of a time getting up in the morning....guess I better make this fast. I'm posting up a few pictures of my latest creations....including the 3 grunge flowers. So take a peek and tell me what ya think...see ya in the AM (the "real" AM)

A soldered collage coaster of my little Breana when she was 2

the back of the coaster

strawberry cone tag

3 of the 6 grungepaper flowers for the ATT swap

The Importance of ART in our Challenging Political, Social and Economic World- AZ Commission of the Arts Essay

The Importance of ART in our Challenging Political, Social and Economic World
Natalie Tynda
2009

Art in it’s definitive label: the products of human creativity; works of art collectively; "an art exhibition"; "a fine collection of art"

In whose mind did Art ever become something ordinary? In whose mind did one think Art could be considered “products” or “collections?” Art is a gift from beyond our mentality and we should treat it as though we would never see it again. Like magic.

Everyday in this troubled society there is Art. The skyscrapers we pass as we walk down the streets of New York. They are mere symbols of tiring, hour by hour labor. That’s what most of us see. But to the hands behind the structure, they are an example of the love we all bleed into our Art. These people aren’t called architects. They’re called Artists. As are the minds behind the memorials and honors that are bestowed upon the lost and cherished. We should not even refer to it as Art, but as a divine collaboration between us as beings of this beautiful world, and the Heavenly hands that touch our souls.

Often I ask myself how the bearers of our society handle the daily jolt of life. The constant criticism. The agonizing defeat of a battle gone awry. Even the pointing of a misunderstood finger. I can’t help but think of the fallen soldiers of before. The veterans whose lives were sacrificed for the country they fought so hard to protect. I think about the young children who lost their fathers. I think of the thoughts that crossed their minds. They saw the green of the grass. The blue of the sky. A puffy, pillow like cloud. The Art of life. They gave it to us. The Art of gratitude. One may think the meaning of Art is stationary to it’s meaning but think you mustn’t. For the Art of life is in everything. If it was not, we would be empty. No green of the foliage to entertain my pallette. No blue of the sky to provide my muse. No sacrifice of the troop to humble my existence. Where would we be without Art?

If you’ve ever experienced the raw life of a Native, or the colorful dwelling of a tribe you can see the Art that spills forth from their very breath. Their movements in a fire dance evoke artistic spirituality. Their war paint smeared with loyalty and pride. Rapture in it’s highest. I’ve begun to think this is no coincidence.

Art affects us all in ways we often do not even recognize. The economic struggles of this moment in time seem to weigh in on most of our lives. We forget to stop and see. We ‘see’ in literal terms of course, but I mean really SEE. Opening our eyes to what we still have might be hard when we are struggling to facilitate what we do not. We need to reclaim our happiness and remember that we still have this beautiful Earth to inspire us. When I reach down to dip my brush into burnt umber, I breathe a quiet breath reminding me of the origination of this hue. The tall evergreens. Filling the landscape with bark and beauty. I can scour a garden to refresh my forgotten memory of the texture a peony may bring. I can take my memory and transplant it onto canvas and relish in the nature of my Earth, the muse.

Pushing the Art away from the soul makes existing a lot more forceful and cruel. A youngster whose main difficulty is communication, can benefit from Art in a substantial and beneficial way that no other social experimentation can account for. The healing of the mind and the heart has forever been impacted my Art in it’s every form. From paint, to ink, to dance, to music. It is all Art. A suffering child that has the opportunity to dunk his beautiful fingers into a pot of sunshine yellow and smear it on the crisp white paper has given himself a taste of joy. Something he knows he can look forward to no matter where he may lie or what path he may follow. Sunshine yellow will always shine upon him. No matter what this world may become, or what the stars may spell, we will always have Art. We will always have Sunshine.






Copyright 2009 Natalie Tynda

AZ Commission of the Arts > http://www.azarts.gov

Freestyle ATC Swap

So I don't know if I mentioned before, but I was participating in an ATC swap with my Yahoo! group "All Things Tim". Tim Holtz that is. I tell ya, if you've never been introduced to Tim Holtz's techniques and products, you don't know what you're missing! He's got the best grungified stuff out there. I am absolutely OBSESSED with Distress Ink! I am definitely a hoarder of anything Tim. I just got 3 of his new masks (concerto, flourish, and timeworks) and haven't made anything yet but I'm looking forward to it. Anyway, getting back to the main subject...I participated in my first ever swap and am waiting to see if the swap hostess has received my package. It's gotta get there by the 1st of Feb. so I crossing my fingers that the mail doesn't lollygag. I loved making the ATC's. It was so fun. I'm a horrible technique experimenter. I learn something new and never try it. I have no idea why either. So I actually tried some new stuff and loved the outcome. I only had to make 6 so it was good for me and wasn't overwhelming. I will definitely participate in more swaps. I just can't wait to get the return ATC's! There's 26 of us participating in this one so who knows what we'll receive and from who. I hope the recipients of mine enjoy them. Anyway, I'm gonna be heading to bed. I've posted a photo of my ATC for you to see. Hope you enjoy ♥

12 Tags? 2 for now....

So Tim Holtz has started his 12 Tags of Christmas again and I have been joyously checking in every night to see what he has come up with next. The girls over at ATT (no not the phone company, AllThingsTim Yahoo! Group) have already started theirs and are already on tag 4. Well, I happen to be a procrastinator and I also enjoy spending most of the day looking at others' work. I started with day 3 for some reason and after that one was done, I did day 2. Don't ask me why I skipped 4 and went backward but I did. It was fun nevertheless. I don't have much to say for tonight so I'm just gonna post the pics and probably go to bed. Nighty night all and hope you like them.

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 2 My Rendition

12 Tags of Christmas-Day 3 My Rendition

Alice

Hey there everyone. Today is definitely feeling like a good day. Not that anything spectacular is going to happen, but it just seems like a nice, serene afternoon. Christmas decor is being put up finally. I've actually gotten off my lazy butt and did something productive. Lol. I believe I said something yesterday about coming back to post a project I just finished and of course, I never made it back. How typical of me right? Anyway, I have it now. It's a little piece I thought of while thrift shopping the other day. I was looking for some children's books and came across Alice in Wonderland. I absolutely LOVE this movie and the book had some great black and white images in it. So of course I scooped it up along with some other stuff. I knew I wanted to make something with the book so I decided on a canvas piece. I decided on a blue color scheme and it just went from there. I used acrylic as well as watercolor crayons. It worked out quite well. After all the book pages were glued down it got a layer of beeswax and it was dusted with perfect pearls. So in my opinion, it turned out just the way I had hoped. Crazy and fun. Hope you guys like it, and don't be shy....gimme some input :) Oh! Before I go, I just wanted to tell you guys that I am #2 on www.arnellsartcollection.gotop100.com! Yes, there's only about 30 blogs on there but I'm a little joyful about being #2 right now. Just below Pam Carriker! She's fantasmic! If you're a mixed-media artist, you should definitely go sign up and get your name out a little more. I'm like a giddy little dork. Hee heee.

I'm Still Here

Wow long time no see huh? Welp, I have been busy busy with painting my art room and redecorating it a bit, as well as getting things ready for Thanksgiving. Mine was good. We had a somewhat stress free atmosphere and the food was great. 13 people total was very large and the table just about fit us all. I didn't take any pictures because, well, nobody likes having their picture taken so there's absolutely NO full family photos of us all. I'm not going to run around the house with the camera when everyone hides their face so I guess I say the hell with it. They'll wish they did someday. Well, no, I can't say I didn't take pictures....I did take a few photos of Noah and the kids and visa-versa. That's all though. Since all that is over until Christmas, I have some free time to blog and create. I really need to catch up on holiday decorating though. I only have one garland out and a few knick knacks here and there. My grandpa is going to start putting up the Christmas lights outside sometime this week. I can't wait until it's all done and we can be all warm and cozy with our cocoa and Christmas cheer. I think out of all the holidays, Christmas inspires me most. I love vintage Santa images and clip art of children playing in the snow. It's all so festive. I started some more holiday inspired art and thought you'd like to see it.

Vintage Santa on a mini canvas with grungeboard and beeswax

Denim fabric ATCBeeswax Christmas collage on canvas

Now these next 5 photos are of a Christmas card that I am sending to someone special so I can't reveal the whole thing. That's why there are little peeker pics so you can get a feel for it. Once the card is received, I will post a pic of the whole thing.





So there it is. My little bit of joy that accumulated to 5 overnight. I swear, by the time I realized what the clock said, it was already 5:00 in the morning!! Not to mention I had to get up at 6:45 to get Jimmy ready for school. It didn't work that way though, lol...he ended up getting out of bed a little late due to mom's long night. And I only have myself to blame. He wasn't late though, he just didn't have as much time to play on the playground as usual so it's all good. Anyway, I will be back probably tomorrow if not later tonight to ramble on about.

P.S. the Jalapeno burger from Carl's Jr. is immaculate!! It's the most delicious thing ever! (for now atleast, lol)

Artistic Cheer

I've been feeling a bit strange lately and thought that I needed some artistic therapy to cheer me up so I made this Christmas tag along with this pendant. The pendant square is from 7gypsies and all I did was glue my paper to the backside of the square, as well as gluing the butterfly onto the paper. I put some glue on the inner rim of the square and then sprinkled micro beads all around. After that I filled it with Glossy Accents and let it dry overnight. The weird thing is, is that the Glossy Accents crackled. And no, I did not accidentally use Crackle Accents. Either way, it came out nice I think. As much as I'd like to have Tim Holtz's Christmas stamps, my LSS doesn't carry them and I'm not about to pay shipping so I deal with what I have. The dangling beads were originally clear but I wanted them to have Christmasy colors so I covered them with alcohol inks. And that's it. Gonna get ready to run to the store so I'll check in later. Bye!

My White Christmas

So living in Bullhead City, Arizona most of life means no snow. If I want snow I don't have to travel very far though, although I'd rather do without. I'm not one for the cold. But I do think that snow is beautiful and oh so festive. It's the ultimate Christmas scenery. I've had this little wooden fence thingy for a while and have been waiting to get an idea for it. Today was the day. Since Christmas decor is scattered through my house, the idea popped into my head for this little project. I am quite pleased with it and so is Breana. She's so proud of herself that she helped out. She definitely loves crafting and cooking. So here it is. My little snowy scene. BTW, the pictures do it no justice (hee hee).

Hi everyone! So I definitely had a productive weekend. I spent a good majority of the day snuggled up in my craft room. Inking and painting and sanding and all that other yummy stuff we love to do. I bought this little shelf thing (not really sure what it is) at the Salvation Army a while back ago, knowing I could do something with it. It has sat in my craft room for quite some time until I got a spark of creativity and went to town on it. I decided I wanted to turn it into something similar to a shrine. Not actually a shrine, but something similar. You get it. Right? Anyway, I got an idea so I went with it. I used some pictures out of a vintage Vatican painting book and made that my main focus. All the rest emerged from there. So in my opinion, it's a faith derived piece. Something meaningful. I plan to hang it in my livingroom and put a candle and some other little knick-knack on it. Maybe a Virgin Mary statue or something. Anyway, here it is. Plenty of mixed-media here.

Vintage Snowman

Good Morning everyone! I had quite the busy little night. I got my newest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine and on the front cover was the most beautiful snowmen I had ever seen. I was instantly inspired. I went into my, as the pros say, "studio" and rummaged through some tid-bits until I found the perfect items to use for my Vintage Snowman. I was so overjoyed once it was done that I ran around the room trying to decide who to show first. Lol. Ahh, the joys that Christmastime will bring us. I had a great time and now have a gorgeous decorative piece to show for it. I definitely HAVE to make more. I just have to find some different sized glass bottles. So to express how wondeful I think it came out, I have some pictures for you. I do hope you enjoy him as much as I do. Until next time.....

Layout Time

I was a bit bored this morning and decided to make my friend Shannon a digi layout. I used everything from Christina Renee Designs although the "Ultimate Art Collection" is no longer available. So if you liked the stuff that much, maybe you could contact her and see if she could help you out. Anyway, this post is gonna be short. Just wanted to show you what I've made.

Late Night

Good morning guys! I woke this morning about 6:30am a bit groggy from the night before. Well, it wasn't really the night before, more like a few hours prior. Can't you tell by the horrid mess on my work table? Lol. I was up making some Christmas tags. Can you believe it's already that time???!! I still vividly remember last Christmas. I had a lot of fun making these.

OH! Before I forget to tell you.....go listen to the song "Where I Stood" by Missy Higgins. It's wonderful and I'm loving it right now. I'm sure I'll play it out like I do with every other song. But isn't that the joy of music?

Anyway, back to the main subject. The tags were sooooo fun!! Other than the fact I wish I had #8 tags instead of #5. The #8 is bigger but they don't sell them in stores. None here anyway. I'm gonna have to order them in bulk. Do I really need 1,000 tags? I guess so. I also wish I had some company while making them. Noah loves what I make but he doesn't really enjoy the process of actually making them. Lol. I don't blame him. I don't enjoy walking around Home Depot for 2 hours so I don't expect him to like to sit and watch me make my stuff. It's kinda nice sometimes to be alone though. Nobody can see your secrets or your creative process. That's something I like to keep cherished in me. I like to hear people ask, "how'd you do that??". It's very rewarding. So I decided to post some pictures of the tags. I will also post pictures of some of my creations, but that will be for later. I still haven't made that tutorial either. Thanks for reminding me Shella. Lol. I will. I promise. But for now, my photos.

Titled: Attic Santa


Titled: Rockefeller Christmas

Well, there it is. Hope you enjoy :)