Karen's Muse and Musings

A Thing of Beauty

When my husband brought home those precious, old baby shoes, he also brought a portrait of a beautiful woman. Unknown and forgotten, now she has a home in my studio, and she is the focal point of this arch I made for my friend, Heather. I photoshopped her with an arch we photographed in Siena — two beautiful objects combine to make "A Thing of Beauty."

Transitions

I was honored to be asked by Nancy to be the guest hostess of Gothic Arches this week. What does that mean? It means I get to pick the theme, and it's ... Transitions!

It has already begun to look like Spring here in Georgia, so my inspiration was the gradual change from winter to spring, and sometimes winter doesn't want to go! Like this weekend, it's cold and yesterday snow fell on the budding trees and daffodils in my yard. Oh, but spring will win. Eventually.

Life Is like a Photo Transfer

To borrow from Forrest Gump, you never know what you're gonna get. I love the way this transfer turned out. In fact I liked it so much I decided the page needed no other embellishment — only some burnt umber light painted around the edges.

Address Envy

Yesterday I had several packages to mail that were addressed to places around the globe. Now, I hate going to the post office, but when I'm mailing around the world, it actually becomes fun. I love the different sounding addresses — especially the U.K. addresses. Places like Macbiehill Station House or Abbots Langley or Bradley Fold sound so quaint and charming. Back at my computer after my post office trip, I wrote my friend in the U.K. and told her my thoughts. She immediately wrote back, and I could almost hear her laughing in the e-mail. It seems she had also been to the post office, and she and the postmistress had been expressing the very same sentiments about our addresses here on this side of the Atlantic!

Time to Empty the Trash

Gothic Arches has a great theme this week — trash! Our challenge is to make our arch using pieces destined for the dustbin. I began by cutting my arch from an empty cereal box, then I covered it with some of my newsprint waste paper that protects my desk as I work. The white "halo" behind Grace's head is the release paper from a matte board sticker, and the pink scrap is from a Chianti bottle.

This is a good time to share an idea I came up with recently. I've been feeling guilty about the plastic water bottles I throw away, so I started cutting off the bottoms and using them for little cups for paint or glue. I also use the caps for when I just need a tiny bit of glue or paint.

Ciao!