Light of My Life

I am Sooooo proud of myself! Normally I use my Creative Memories Storybook Creator (and all its fun features) to create my digital art, but I have this nice graphics program (Paint Shop Pro Photo X2) that I paid good money for and yet, I have barely used half the features it offers! So today, (as if my Christmas tree is going to take itself down) I started playing around with my PSP and explored some of the features that I've seen others use (and have drooled over) and lo and behold! I DID IT! :-)

It took me all...day...long, literally - I think my butt is molded into this chair - but the above is the result. I used vector layer, and rastor layers, and beveled (which I've done before but I love the effect it gives!), and finally but finally figured out how you use shadows in this program, the only one of which I actually kept in the finished product is the text, but at least I know how to do it now!! I played with the paint brushes and textures, and I think I have a good handle now on "layers"! YIPPEE!

Anywhos...the original pic is one I got from Ava's mama in a photo session they did at home. This was one of my favorites - gotta love that smile of pure joy in the lights! She truly does light up MY life! :-)

NOW I can go to bed! :-)

My Mantel-less Mantel

Not to mention I have no fireplace either, but that doesn't stop me from decorating the shelf above the TV like I would as if I had a mantel! (I had considered buying one of those DVDs that show a fireplace burning...:-)

The framed pictures showcase my family through the years - these were all pics used in Christmas cards/letters - starting with the first Christmas we spent in this house way back in 1986, when my baby girl was just over a year old. Ending with my grandbaby's first Christmas pic from last year. And this year, with Ava just over a year old, it feels like we've gone full circle! Not that we're stopping! Oh no! We'll just have to start that circle all over again!

12 Days Diva Tree

My little fiber optic Diva Tree is happy, happy now that all the "12 Days of Christmas" gifts are hanging in and around its branches! I couldn't resist arranging some of the artsy tags and gift-wrappings as well! This has been the most fun swap! Can't wait to do it again next year. But I may have to get a bigger tree!!! :-)

On the 6th Day of Christmas

And here are the Gifties that were my contribution to the Altered Art Divas "12 Days of Christmas Swap." I mixed them up when I packaged them so who got what colors is a total surprise to me, too!

The tags that were attached to the packages...

The ornaments...

Second image is the backs of all the ornaments...

It's been GREAT fun opening amazing gift after amazing gift each day! I can't believe I didn't do this last year, but count me in NEXT year! :-)

12 Days of Christmas

This is just a sneak peek of my contribution to the Altered Art Divas "12 Days of Christmas" gift swap. I'm Day 6, which occurs on December 6th, at which time eleven other Divas will open the gift boxes shown, and at which time I can post the gift inside.

Sorry, no peeking before then! :-)

Among the Autumn Leaves

Just a little quickie from some pics my son sent me when they took Ava for a walk among the autumn leaves. The golden sun shining on the golden leaves with her golden smile just begged to be arted!

Little Sammie Pumpkin Head

Every year we put out our headless pumpkin man, Sam, on our front porch swing. Well, Sam got wet in his off-season home (the corner of the garage) and rotted on us. After a brief funeral over the garbage can, we went on a quest for a new Sam. Goodwill, our usual stomping grounds for all the "good" stuff, was sadly lacking in adult-sized overalls, offering up only a size 5 in children's, so sometimes you just have to go with what there is, and voila'!

Little Sammie was born!

Little Sammie even has a pair of personally custom crafted "altered" shoes!
And to ensure that Little Sammie does not meet the fate of Sam, Sr., Little Sammie will live in the basement in the off-season!!

Pumpkin Moon

Playing around with some pics when we took Ava to Vala's Pumpkin Patch. They had these cut-outs, and I think we've found her calling! She was so tickled when Daddy held her up to look out the peep hole at the rest of us other poor souls who were on the other side!!

Perfect Day

Just a simple collage from last weekend, which we (we, being Lindsey and me) spent up in MN with my beautiful little grandbaby, Ava. Omigosh, is she really 14 months old already???

We never really have any "plans," so to speak, when we go a'visitin'. Heck, I'd be happy just to sit and watch her sleep, eat, and play all day! Which, come to think of it, is pretty much exactly what we do! :-)

But we did take our Elmo coloring book and crayons with, and Grammie and Ava joined forces and colored a page together, the results of which are now adorning my refrigerator door. And we pulled out the little yellow rubber ducky out of my purse when it was bath time. And, we took a couple hundred more pictures! LOL! What can I say...when you have such appealing subject matter to photograph...:-)

Reflective Ava ;)

Once I was into my program again (and also due to the fact that I got my dates wrong on the Ridge Cemetery Tour that I thought was today but is actually two weeks from today and I had nothing else to do...) I started playing around with the filled letters again. This time I cut and paste and flipped them around and use the opacity button to create reflective letters. Ended up doing something similar with the background papers, and, it seemed to work! I like it anyway...:-)

The Magic of Bubbles

Still obsessed with the bubbles pictures, I created this a while ago and sort of forgot I had done it until I pulled up my program again and browsed through my finished projects and saw this and thought, "Wow, that one is cool!!" LOL!

Bubbles and More!

Nothing like a new technique to sidetrack your day!

I watched a Webinar last night for Creative Memories Storybook program, and learned a simple, yet fascinating technique in which you can add text under a picture (or anywhere around it, actually) and have the text become part of the picture! Cool beans, huh??? :-)

All you do is create the text, then line it up next to the picture (or as I found out, it doesn't necessarily need to be touching the photo). Select both the pic and the text, flatten them, then fill the image area with the picture. It's sooo fun to see what you can do with it!

Here's what I was doing till just past one in the morning! LOL!

I could have positioned the above photo a bit better,
but it was my first attempt,
and I was too excited to get to the rest of the pics!!
Did the one above,
then decided to use try a different take on it...

I couldn't decide which of
the Bubbles I liked the best...;)
So the next trick is to pull myself away from this 'puter before I find myself pulled into playing around with this even more...!!!

Torn Pages - Summer Breeze

So I was playing around with my Creative Memories program with a new technique (torn pages) that was so darn simple I can't believe I couldn't figure it out for myself! And, in the process of testing out the procedure, I got a bit carried away and started playing with other buttons I've not used utilized much, such as switching out paper, the shapes button, and using textures on the papers. I'm not sure what this is...? But it was interesting!! At least I found it so. Hope you do, too...:-)

Ava Art - Session in Fingerpainting :-)

The budding DivaArtist-in-Training wasn't sure what
to think upon the first touch of fingerpaint.

But it wasn't long before she dived in with both hands!

"Like this, Grammie??"

Didn't take her long to be awed by the colors and feel ...
my little artist-at-heart...;)

Though she wasn't thrilled with making handprints
on the mat for her newest creation....

So we did the next best thing, and did the feet! :-)

Look what Grammie did to me!!

Can't decide whether she's thinking, "Why ME???"
Or, thanking the heavens for fingerpaint!!

The End Result:
"Ava Art"
(This is the second piece she created;
the first one went home with her ;)

"Flowers in Grass"

So you'll have to indulge a very proud Gramma here. :-) But this is the very first piece of Ava Art for my refrigerator! Done in Crayola, with the beating of the crayon on the paper technique, this piece was completed in the past week by 11-month-old Ava. Clearly she shows an aptitude for the art world! Junior Diva in the making!! :-)

American Made

Couldn't resist doing a "4th" bit of (digital) art, seeing how long it's been since I've done anything even halfway creative of late. Maybe this will get me back in the swing of things. And what better inspiration than our little Ava!

Happy Gramma's Day :-)

Just a test

Just testing to see how my new browser works!

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Happy Spring!

Yes, it's been Spring for a bit now, but I just found this new toy to play with! Make sure you click on the arrows in the middle of the pages to turn them! :-)

Make a photobook - it's easy!

Happy Easter!

My Little Irish Lassie

So it's nearly St. Patrick's Day, and having married into an Irish family figured I'd better do a St. Paddy's Day page, with, of course, my darling little granddaughter (who seems to be the subject matter in most, if not all of my art of late...LOL!).

Digital, again - haven't pulled out my 'real' art supplies yet - I used freebie images offered by scrapbookflair.com

At first I thought I got a titch carried away, but then again, it IS St. Patrick's Day, and you can't overdo anything!!

So here to the Irish in everyone!

"May you always walk in sunshine.
May you never want for more.
May Irish angels rest their wings,
right beside your door."

Love Bug

So it didn't take long to make my favorite picture (so far) of my cuddly little Love Bug into art! :-) Again with the digital collage. I had wanted to play with "real" papers with this one, but I am in the process of revamping my art space and everything is all topsy-turvy, and inside out, and upside down, and frankly my computer images are much better organized than my actual ones! LOL!

The Love Bug itself was "cut" out of the digital background papers and layered to create the Bug! I love the way you can change the opacity of the papers to make them look like vellum. It would fool me if I didn't know it was done on the 'puter! Then again, I'm easy....:-)

Oh, and to give credit where credit is due, I stole the "Love Bug" idea from my friend, Angela! Thanks for the inspiration on this one, toots!