Karen's Muse and Musings

Every Inchie Monday

Frolic!

Another digital inchie this week. The little girl is one of the flowergirls that was in stepdaughter Maggie's wedding a few years ago. The photographer captured some great shots of the girls twirling and dancing just before the wedding. I worked in Photoshop, "cutting" out the girl, placing her on my background I created by using a Photoshop brush in blue over the green background. Added the word frolic in the font Zapfino, and I was done!

Love Is in the Air!

Just when you thought it was over and gone for the year, here I am posting a spread on Valentine's Day. It's my first spread in another player's book for the Holidays Altered Book round robin that I wrote about yesterday.

Above is the left side of my spread in Darya's book. She had started a book with a lighthearted style, and I tried to continue in that style, using coordinating scrapbook papers, diecuts and tiny buttons. The right side is shown below.

I love that image of the kissing couple, and I've been wanting to use it. On the right side, I made tiny envelopes (1.5" x 1" if they were closed) out of coordinating paper, sanded them, and placed tags inside. The tags say love, or more specifically "the love" in French, German and Italian.

Now that this project is complete, I have two more thankfully small projects to do, and then I have to get busy cleaning my studio. It's a crapalanche of the most extreme kind. Jasper is having a great time in here because there are so many papers, trinkets, paintbrushes, etc. to chew on. I have to pick up and make this place puppy-proof or I'm going to go insane. I can't wait to see what I find under the piles of stuff — maybe that rounded corner punch I was just needing but couldn't locate.

A New Altered Book

I'm participating in an altered book round robin with the CalendarGirlz group. In the past, we have purchased calendars to alter, but Kathy McElroy came up with an unique idea to alter a book with a holidays theme. The plan is to send our books around this year, and each player will do a spread for a holiday that occurs within their month. Each person chooses the holidays they want illustrated in their book. For instance, for January you could go with New Year's Day or choose Martin Luther King Day. February could be Valentine's Day or President's Day. You get the picture.

I'm behind in showing you my book. I had it done and mailed off on February 1st, but I've had so many art commitments lately that I just didn't find time to feature it here. Here is one of the divider pages for the months. They are all very similar.

Below is my spread for New Year's Day.

My absolute favorite thing about altered books is how they look standing up with the pages fanning out. Mine already stands up by itself — wondering what it will look like by the end of the year!

It has been a while since I've actually altered a book, and it has been so much fun that I wonder why I don't do it more often. Since this book was completed over a month ago, I have now finished my first spread in another player's book, and I will post photos of it tomorrow. Come back!

St. Cecilia

I just completed my skinny pages for the month of February. These pages are going to Lisa who likes cemetery images, saints, gothic anything, gargoyles, medieval, Renaissance images, angels, the Madonna/child, contrasts between the dark and the light, Marie Antoinette, historical royalty. So you can see that I had a lot to choose from, but I chose a saint and a medieval woman. The collage above features St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music. It is said that while being put to death, she sang to God. Oh, that I would have the courage and the peace of mind to do that upon my death! The actual image of St. Cecilia above is from a painting by Guido Reni done in 1606. Isn't she beautiful? I love the porcelain quality of her skin and the rapturous look in her eyes. She lived and died in the 5th century, and the violin had not yet been developed, but who cares?

For the other side, I chose an image of a medieval shepherdess. I'm assuming she was a shepherdess because of the sheep and the shepherd's staff, but wasn't she well dressed for herding sheep? She's a scholarly shepherd too, reading a book while tending her flock.

It's the last weekend of the month, and I have several projects to mail off by Tuesday the 1st. So, it's on to the next one! Procrastination — isn't it a lovely thing?

Envelopes, Bracelets and Puppies

If you follow my blog, you may recall that I recently wrote how I discovered double-sided scrapbook paper made a fabulous envelope. (Click here to see that post.) Well, that very afternoon I received a fabulous, innovative package from Lenna.

She took an entire sheet of double-sided paper, folded it in thirds, and sewed the sides closed on her sewing machine. No enveloped template needed! Then she decorated it with lots of stamping and a beautiful label. Isn't she clever?

I also want to share this bracelet my mother made. I've been meaning to post it for quite a while. To let you know how long, I've had it since Christmas!

I was lucky to receive this because my family was having a White Elephant gift exchange. (I wondered if my mother knew what that meant!) Anyway, somehow I was lucky enough to snatch this lovely beaded bracelet.

Lastly, we have a new puppy, a Maltese. He's been with us for about a month now, and he is training us very well. His name is Jasper.

As you can see in this next photo, he and grandson Bobby love each other very much.

Cosmic

cosmic |ˈkäzmik|
adjective
of or relating to the universe or cosmos, esp. as distinct from the earth : cosmic matter.
• inconceivably vast.

It's Every Inchie Monday again, and this week's theme is cosmic. I used Photoshop to digitally create my interpretation of the 2nd definition — inconceivably vast.

I've been asked what I intend to do with 52 inchies at the end of the year. I plan to mount them on a substrate to form a paper quilt and frame it.

The Best Valentine Ever!

I now know that I have the most wonderful husband in the world. In the past, I had thought it might be the case, but I wasn't sure. Now I am. Yesterday morning — Valentine's Day — he surprised me with two beautifully wrapped packages. Very surprised since I thought we were only exchanging cards. I opened the smaller of the two gifts, and it was a book of poems, The 100 Best Poems of All Time, edited by Leslie Pockell. Inside he had placed a bookmark beside "How Do I Love Thee?" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Thinking that was very sweet and romantic, I opened the second gift. This was a beautifully framed photograph of the poem. At first I thought he had purchased a print and had it framed. Imagine my delight upon discovering that he had done it himself! I discovered that after he bought the book, he waited until I was asleep one night and then photographed the poem in the book. He positioned his wedding band, standing up, in the middle of the pages, then he arranged the lighting so the ring created a heart-shaped shadow.

Here it is — the best Valentine ever!

HOW do I love thee? Let me count the ways.   
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height   
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight   
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.   
I love thee to the level of everyday’s           
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.   
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;   
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.   
I love thee with the passion put to use   
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.           
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose   
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Fishy!

That's the theme for the week at Every Inchie Monday. So far with this challenge, I've managed to avoid cutting out small pieces and making a true collage. Well, not this time, and I can tell you it's hard cutting out tiny pieces, especially when your eyes are growing older every day. Okay, enough complaining. Here is my fishy inchie.

So I cheated by letting my "dream cloud" hang out a bit. Do you think the inchie police will get me?

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Card Crazy

I've been in a card-creating frenzy this week. I made valentines for the grandkids and husband which I won't show here or I'll spoil the surprise, but I will show you some vintage-style cards I created for a swap with Lenna's Creative Swaps.

I also made some envelopes, and I discovered that scrapbook paper that has a design on both sides makes a delightful envelope. It looks like a lined envelope but without a lot of work. I don't know why I never thought of it before.

 

Lovely Day!

In spite of the cold and rainy weather, my day was lovely because of all the beautiful things that arrived in my mailbox. First of all, there were my Valentine welcome banners. If you haven't seen the other banners we've done, each of us in the swap took a letter to spell out the word welcome.

These cheery hearts will now brighten up our entry way. Next are the matchboxes altered by my talented friends and filled with tiny surprises.

from
Joanne Thieme Huffman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

from Kari McKnight-Holbrook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

from Kathy McElroy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

from Beth Bricker

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  from Sue Trump who unfortunately does not have a blog!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both the banner and matchbox swap were hosted by Kathy McElroy, and she is the best hostess ever. She always sends goodies to accompany the swaps. Anyone who sends me chocolate is my BFF. What can I say? I guess I'm easy!

Last, but certainly not least, are my charming chunky Valentine blocks from my friend Jean Carter.