One Hour at a Time

I find that I get grumpy when I'm not creating something. However, there are weeks when I can only squeeze in an hour per day. This was one such week.

 Hobbies/Personal Interests ATC Swap:  I incorporated 5 things that interest me: hands, clocks, the color red, vintage images, and poetry book pages. I really do need to stop trying to color the lips of these ladies. It fails me every time, as I don't have a red pen that doesn't bleed. Thus, they take on the look of little children who've been drinking Kool-Aid or the crazy ladies in the movies who put on their lipstick in a psychotic way....

 This was my faithful companion this week. He was feeling under the weather. I'm not sure why. Perhaps he ate something he shouldn't have. Perhaps he is just getting older.

 I participated in an elephant swap. I found a foam elephant puzzle for $1 at Staples and instantly decided it would make a good tool for my Gelli plate. I stamped the image and then used a white Signo gel pen to clarify the pieces.

 When you participate in art swaps as I do, you know it's a faux pas to send anything naked. That is, you have to jazz up the envelope. Yet I've been busy, so lately, when I have any time at all to work on my Gelli plate, I will often use envelopes to clean the plate surface. This gives me envelopes with a little color or a little pattern. However, even that seemed to minimal, so I added a handful of collage elements and felt instantly better about sending it out to my partner.

 I made this for a mermaid swap. The body began life as a coloring book page. I then used tracing paper to ascertain the shape of Gelli print paper I needed to make her scales. I added a rosy cheeked vintage image and tons of collage bits and pieces. With the exception of her hands, which are the balloon-ish cartoon-y hands, I l ike how it came out. I even like her chubby belly.

 I got lots of interesting mail this week too. One swap partner sent me a selection of crouched (or is it knitted?) items. I'm most enamored of the red flower and the neck wrap. Red is my favorite color, and I think wearing both items at the same time would be quite fetching. And her swap couldn't come too soon, as it is freezing outside.

 I participate occasionally in collage collaborations. You send out a textured background, and then 3 or 4 ladies add to it and eventually send it home. Honestly, I can't remember what the background looked like before it left my hands, but this is what it looks like now. I like the scroll background and the moon elements best.

 I also got this in the mail. It's a set of 10 Halloween-themed ATC (Artist Trading Cards).  Many many people participated in this, and I imagine it must have been quite a task to sort through 400+ cards.

 I got this from Texas. My partner made me mermaid-themed items. She suggested that the larger item would look good as a journal front, and I will likely do that when I have some time.

 This is another collage collaboration. In this case, I am the final person to add to the collage before sending it home to its owner. On the back of the collage, the original owner requested that someone add a lady to the piece, so I will see what I can do. I'm also pretty sure those red moon and star elements won't stay red and that I will use some black pen to clarify the tree branches.

Finally, I participate in an online art community that provides participants with weekly prompts. This week's prompt asks people to incorporate leaves. I used one leaf I made out of a Gelli print. I used various painted papers in my stash. Finally, I have this childish side that likes to imagine there is an artist who hand-paints each and every leaf, so I couldn't help but try to visualize that artist. Don't you love his expression and his giant ears?

Not bad for working one hour a day on art, yes?