Karen's Muse and Musings

Stone Angels

If you follow my blog, you probably know how much I love stone angels. So, when I had free choice of subject matter for my friend Debby's skinny pages, I gladly chose angels.

Our skinny pages are 4" x 8", and I find these proportions very easy to work with.

This round robin has been a long one, beginning in January 2010 and ending April 2011. Now that it's coming to a close, I have mixed feelings. I'm sad it's almost over, but I'm elated that soon my entire book will be complete, filled with artwork from my 15 friends who participated along with me. I'm also excited that in a couple of months I will be able to share all of the wonderful art within my book with you.

Every Inchie Monday — Maudlin

MAUDLIN |ˈmôdlin|
adjective
self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often through drunkenness : the drink made her maudlin | a maudlin ballad. 

I must admit I thought I knew the meaning of this word, but I did not. I was thinking it meant something more like macabre, dark or sinister, so it's good to learn the correct meaning. It wasn't an easy word to illustrate, but I decided to go digitally this week and recycle a digital artwork I did a while back.

I love this stone angel, maudlin as she is. She is located at the historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta.

So much to do, and so little time!

I've been feeling very stressed this holiday season. I should start earlier with my preparation. I say this every year, but I don't do it. Therefore, I get stressed. My jaw hurts from clenching it so tight, and my shoulders are permanently hunched, I think. I've finally decided to try and let it go. If I don't do everything that I think I need to do before Christmas, so what? The world will keep spinning, and life will go on.

But ... if you have been wondering where I've been and what I've been up to, here are some photos to answer your questions.

Here's my tree decorated with the cones I made. Thanks again to Nancy Maxwell James of the PaperWhimsy design team for the inspiration.

This handsome gentleman is my great grandfather.

And this beautiful lady is my great grandmother.

These are the Christmas dresses I made for granddaughters Leighton and Kathleen, finally mailed off to Arkansas yesterday. I mailed them priority, and I am praying they will get there by Tuesday at the latest.

And here's 2-year-old Bobby peeking in while we're taking the photos of the dresses. He keeps me hopping on the 4 days a week he is here, but he is a joy to have around.

I have also complete some knitting projects, but since they are gifts, I can't show them now.

With all of the hubbub and stress around here, I just keep reminding myself that Jesus is the reason for the season. And deep breathing, lots of deep breathing!

More Tags!

I am not one to do multiples. In fact, I usually hate it, but I love the little tags I did the other day so much that I've been making more. With the pink in the background, I was thinking they would make a lovely touch on a gift for a new baby girl. So I made more to have on hand.

Realizing I may need a gift tag for a baby boy, I made some in blue.

 

I put 23-month-old Bobby to work helping me with these tags. Some grandmothers probably give their grandchildren bright primary colors to paint with, but not this grandmother. (At least not this day.) Bobby and I painted with coffee! The first step on these backgrounds is to paint watercolor paper with coffee, so I let Bobby do it. He loved it! He was so pleased with himself, proudly telling Dub-dad (that's Warren's grandpa name) and his Mom all about it. But, darn it, I didn't think to take a photo of him while he was painting. I'll definitely do it next time.

The Muse Is in the House

Well, she's still here. At least I think so. Hope you think so too when you see the two collage cards I created today.

I just love that little angel. I call her Angel at Rest. Do you see the words of the hymn below her picture?

Who could resist this little guy? Yes, he's a guy, an adorable image from PaperWhimsy. Toddler boys used to wear pretty little dresses. After keeping grandson Bobby on a regular basis since he was 3 months old, I understand the practicality of a little dress every time I have to change a diaper. (Note: Bobby does not wear dresses. His mom has always dressed him like a little boy. I'm just saying how convenient it would be just to lift up a little skirt rather than fooling with pants every time he needs a change.) The words here come from Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses".

I'm mounting these little collages onto greeting cards. I thought that would be a good format for them so I could sell them either on Etsy or perhaps at craft fairs or art shows. We'll see. I might just keep them for when I need a card for a special friend.

About my cryptic message on my last post (see it here), no one has figured it out yet, so I'll reveal its meaning. As I was working on the bird collage, I was humming that beautiful gospel song, "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" which was inspired by Matthew 6:26 and Matthew 10:29-31. The numbers 40-6-26 stand for Matthew, the 40th book of the Bible, and of course 6 is the chapter and 26 is the verse.

"Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (Matthew 6:26)

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." (Matthew 10:29-31)

Dare I say it...

I think my muse has returned! (Knocking on wood right now.) For months now, I would fulfill my obligation to create my skinny book pages each month, but that was it. When finished, I would leave my studio not to return until the next month — well, almost. This time it was different. I wanted to jump right into another creation, and here it is.

Birds! Are you surprised? There is a cryptic message here. The numbers 40-6-26 are a code to something that has a special, spiritual meaning for me. Can you figure it out?

Also, just a word about the fragment of a hymn behind the birds. The hymn is "The Rock that Is Higher than I" (text by Erastus Johnson,1826-1909), and I found it flipping through one of my old hymnals. The words that caught my eye are "O then to the Rock let me fly, to the Rock that is higher than I." Every day of my life I am glad I have a refuge to turn to, a source of comfort and strength much higher than my mortal being.

Now I am anxious to jump into another creation. I can scarcely believe it.

New Year, New Round Robin, New Inspiration

A couple of years ago, I was involved in so many round robins and swaps that I became overwhelmed and, eventually, burned out. When those commitments were over, I refused to sign up for any more. Guess what I found out? Without those commitments, the muse went bye-bye! Now, I'm not going to over-commit again, but I've learned I need the pressure of a couple of swaps to keep my inspiration. This year, my Oh My Gothic group is doing a Skinny Book Round Robin, and I'm very excited about it. The size is 4" x 8", and I love that tall, vertical format. Each of us has chosen a theme, and the page above is for Caryl's "The Essence of Dreams" theme. In describing her theme, Caryl said she welcomed stone angels, and that was good enough for me. Here's the reverse side.

 

Gothic Arch Shrine

Well, I'm a day late and a dollar short. This was the previous theme for the Gothic Arch challenge — I thought it ended today, but yesterday was the final day. I'm sneaking it in anyway. This week's theme is regal ladies, and I think the Madonna is definitely regal. That stamp, The Saint, by Stampington & Co. has long been one of my favorites.

Do you see the hymn in the background? I recently stole borrowed rescued 3 old hymnals that were no longer in use at my church and were probably bound for the trash. I brought them home and showed them off proudly to my husband who really didn't quite get my excitement. To me, they are a treasure.

T-H-A-N-K-S Book, Page 3

Continuing with my Thanksgiving book, this is the "A" page. I'm enjoying putting this book together more than anything I've done in a while.

I like how the background turned out looking like very old wallpaper, so here's how I did it. I started with a piece of inexpensive yellow scrapbook paper. There was a faint woodgrain pattern on it, but that's not really important. I stamped Layers of Color Fleur Heart stamp all over using VersaFine sepia ink. I created the pattern by repeating the stamp vertically down the page. For the next row I moved the stamp down about halfway to make another vertical row. Then I went back up to the original position for the third row and continued this pattern until the entire paper was covered. I dabbed little bits of Ranger Distressed Crackle Paint in Walnut Stain here and there, and then finally rubbed some Distress Inks (Scattered Straw and Vintage Photo) on with a sponge.

Another Peek

Here's another page of my Thanksgiving book. For each page, I'm using a verse from the Psalms  and featuring a letter of the word T-H-A-N-K-S.

Rubber stamps used in this and the last post are from Layers of Color.