Speaking of Turtles...

This is the spread I ended up doing in the Turtle book this month. Since we are focusing on techniques, I thought that a simple pull-out tab would work nicely with the turtle. I decided to do a spread illustrating a scene from the Aesop Fable about the Tortoise and the Hare. I have to say that it was the background (scrapbook) paper that bought this whole spread together. I was struggling with how to make the background. At first, I thought I would gather sand from the beach and glue it to the page for my background. However, when I dug up this particular sheet of scrapbook paper, not only did it look like sand, but there was a path going across the page! I immediately visualized the race course where the tortoise takes the finish line "by a neck."

When you pull the turtle's neck out, the moral of the fable is revealed: "Slow but steady wins the race." I reprinted the fable in the foreground on vellum. And just for fun, I added the silhouette of the rabbit's head and ears to show just how far behind the tortoise he was.

My Final Inspiration Card

I bet you've been wondering where I've disappeared to...well, my computer went on the blink and it's only now that I've been able to get it up and running agin.

Now that's not to say that I haven't been busy creating art! I've had lots and lots of projects keeping me busy this past month. Where do I start?

Let me first share with you my final inspiration card which was inspired by my friend, Sox. One day, she generously shared with me several wonderful ideas for what to do in an altered book whose theme was "The Turtle." She was at no loss for turtle ideas. One of her ideas had to do with this vision of a turtle having to carry his whole house on his back. That image sort of stuck with me and I ended up making this inspiration card for her--as a tribute to her turtle idea. She received the card today and thought it was rather cute. I think he is too!

Spring Fairies Are Still Flying

Juniper Iceglow

Moth Willowwand

Nettle Rainbowglow

Fruitpip Reedfilter

Feather Hailwitch

My Spring Fairy collection is growing! The delicate flowers and beautiful colors of Spring continue to inspire me to create new fairies. I received an order to make four original fairy creations and mount them onto greeting cards so they could be displayed. Great idea!

Making More Fairies

Feather Goblinglimmer

Petal Goblindancer

Bindweed Elfdancer

Fairies are perfect for Spring, Easter and Mother's Day! Here are some beauties from my new Spring line.

A Special ATC Swap

One of the visitors to my blog invited me to exchange 5 ATCs with her. Though there was no theme, I decided to do a "black & white" series. I created the first card using the arms and hands off of a Coke Zero can. The hands were reaching for a basketball (probably for Final Four) and I thought I would cut out the hands from the aluminum can and use them in my ATC. I overlayed a transparency so that you won't cut your fingers on the sharp edges.

The second card is a simple iris fold. I was going to use phone book pages, but alas, where have all the phone books gone? I pulled out a book with Japanese text (kanji) and used those pages for my free-form iris fold. I finished it with a simple black frame. What a challenge to do an iris fold in such a small space!

The third card is a fairy I created especially for my ATC swap partner using her name, Gentle Saturntree. Isn't that a wonderful fairy name? Her fairy lives in bold city places and wears colorful stripey clothes like a bee with pale pink wings. It wasn't easy making a fairy small enough to fit onto an ATC card!

The fourth card is a corset. I love using this template and I just happened to have one in black, white and silver in a size that would fit onto an ATC card. Perfect!

The last card is an image of a tree branch in winter. I glittered the branches and added a small pink butterfly--a sign that spring is not too far away.

Inspired by More Fairies

Buttercup Elfwitch

Meadow Elfwand

Ahhh, we are now heading into the homestretch of our inspiration card swap. I continue to enjoy making fairies for people. For these two inspiration cards, I reduced the size to our 4 x 6 format (instead of my usual 5 x 7). They are made specifically with the recipient in mind!

Flat Stanley Heads Home...

Well, Flat Stanley's Hawaiian journey has now come to an end. He has fond memories of his travels in Hawaii that he will take home with him to Peoria. ALOHA Flat Stanley!