Do you have an old photo album around the house and wish you knew something more about the people in it? What are their names? How are they related? What were they like?
I have a very old photo album I found in that attic. I don't know if the people in it are relatives or if someone in my family thought it was super cool and picked it up as a garage sale. I find it really interesting to look it over on a rainy day and imagine what they might have been like. 
I chose several photos from the Lunagirl Edwardian Gothic digital collage sheet and decided to experiment with the idea of giving them a story.  A vintage Nancy Drew book was used as the base and Golden Matte Medium strengthened the vintage book pages. It worked really to preserve the delicate look of the pages and provide a substantial surface for the paint and collage elements. 
I'm on the Lunagirl design team and the challenge for October  is  "Gothic". Its really been a lot of fun! The challenge is open to create in any media and is open through the end of the month. 

This mixed media collage is inspired by Lunagirl Edwardian Gothic digital collage sheet and the fact that my roommate thinks that moths are the souls of dead people. Yes, moths are surrounded with a ton of international folk lore associating them with death. An Edgar Allen Poe story, The Sphinx, was inspired by moth lore.  
Maybe my friend doesn't really believe it, but she does say it. She says it when the moths are looming around my brown rice and when they are hovering around my treasured vintage cashmere sweaters. At that point, if she isn't in the room, I admittedly will do away with them in one way or another. They can go the easy way (cooperate and go outside) or the hard way. Either way, it was much easier to accomplish before she started hounding me about how they are souls of the dead. 
If you are interested in finding out more about moth lore (tis the season, right?) I highly recommend this beautifully written post by Stu Hovath on Unwinnable. 

What can you do with a big jar of vintage belt buckles from a yard sale? Other than make a lot of belts (very cool but lots of work). I figured I could use them as bezels and make pendants. A pair of wire cutters made quick work of the center strip and then I just filed it down a bit. I used my metal punch to make the holes and it worked perfectly without breaking a single one. So much easier and faster than drilling. Because this was an experiment (don't you love experiments?) I grabbed some little things that were closest to me. 
A word on resin: I used EnviroTex Lite, but I think that IceResin would be a better choice for embedding "floating" items like the watch face because it is more clear. Ice Resin comes in a great little two part dispenser like epoxy now so its easy to mix up just a small amount. The EnviroTex has a slight vintage/yellow cast which can actually be useful in certain projects because it gives a more "antique" look. When I don't need a really sturdy resin I "cheat" and use Diamond Glaze because there is no mixing and its water based. Its great for a shiny topcoat/sealer or bottle cap/scrabble pendants, and safe for older kids to use. 

I've just joined the Design Team for Lunagirl Vintage Images and created this altered Altoids tin for the October challenge "gothic". Lunagirl is running the Gothic challenge during the month of October and its a really fun way to express your creepy creative side in any medium. 
​First I covered the tin on all sides with the Lunagirl Gothic Black backgrounds paper. Then I added the monument and text from ad in a 1928 National Geographic. The wonderfully creepy girls are from the Lunagirl Edwardian Gothic image sheet. I covered them with a sheet of mica and used black photo corners. A coat of Diamond Glaze finished it off and sealed it.
One of the best things about making altered tins or boxes is that there are so many surfaces to work on. I'm not sure what I'm going to put inside yet, but I'm thinking of a tiny story book inspired by the photo. 
In "real life" this case looks quite a bit thicker (3/4") but looking at this photo I can see that this technique could be used for some amazing iPhone cases. I'd substitute resin for the Diamond Glaze so it would hold up better with daily use. 

The text in the middle comes from an invitation to a meeting for a local artist's group, the topic was "how to promote your work". The postcard is from the 80s. I didn't go, but I stuffed it in a box where I save envelopes, stamps and postcards. 
I still don't know how to promote my work, but its really fun to share online and to discover artists who inspire me. Today I discovered Emily Klein, a mixed media artist, art journal maker and teacher. I was searching "art journal" on Google and her page really spoke to me. She doesn't rely on cute birds, flowers or faces or even inspiring slogans -- her pages are really cool! I'm thinking "maybe I could do an art journal". Thanks for the inspiration Emily! 
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I'm always looking for cool vintage images to add to my mixed media art & jewelry. I have a huge collection/archive. Huge. Really huge. But sometimes when I'm making jewelry I need a really small detailed image and Luna Girl has a great selection. I'm challenging myself in a new way by joining the Luna Girl Design Team. I'll be creating mixed media jewelry and art that will be featured on their blog. The theme for October is "gothic". I know I'm going to have fun with this one! 
To make this necklace I:
1) Found a photo I liked, glued it on cardboard and copped it off with ice resin.
2) Cut a rectangle slightly longer than my photo from a sheet of 24 gauge copper and wrapped it around the photo, overlapping the top and the bottom. 
3) Punched two holes in the bottom and the top of the metal wrapped photo. I used tiny screw and nuts to attach the bottom. I used 16 gauge wire to attach the top.
4) Used Glue 6000 to glue on a the vintage rhinestones. 
5) Attached the pendant to the necklace using a piece of 16 gauge copper wire. 

Did you have a mentor when you were young? Someone who encouraged your creativity and you fondly remember to this day? I have a kind of "anti-mentor" and I kind of fondly remember him. I failed art every year in high school because I refused to follow instructions. I just kept taking art, kept failing. I know that sounds kind of silly because it seriously impacted my GPA and my chances of getting into college let alone art school. But I had bigger fish to fry! 
What were these bigger fish? I had to prove that I was committed to the creative process and my principles! Never compromise! I had to follow my muse, go with the flow, express myself. Rules? What rules?  
Because I have a big high school reunion coming up this weekend (ugh!) I'm pondering "if I had to do it all over again, would I do it differently?" No ... I'd do the same thing! Foolish. maybe, but I'm still an impractical impulsive free spirit. I found a way to get a scholarship to art school and yes, I even graduated. I teach art now, and I'm a very different kind of teacher, more like a collaborator and co conspirator. 
What I learned from this teacher is if I really care about something I'm willing to fully commit and take risks. I learned that I had courage to stand up for what I believed in ... and yeah, that smoking cigarettes in the girls bathroom and general mayhem may not be some of my proudest moments but they are some of my fondest memories. 
The drawing above was not done by one of my students or by me when I was age 6. It was done by me this week. Why? I'm reading a book called "Making Marks: Discover the Art of Intuitive Drawing" by Elaine Clayton. A quote from the cover claims this book will "facilitate intuition, releasing the mind to discover new ideas, creative inspiration and unexpected solutions". Basically its a license to doodle. Its too early to say if doodling freely will change my life, but I do know we we had a lesson like this in school I would have participated and really enjoyed it. 

This is probably the last Friday I'm going to celebrate "Drink & Dunk". Its a traditional activity that takes place at/in the bay, at night, accompanied by a good friend, live music and some alcohol. Bathing suits are optional because there is no one else in the water. Safety first! Its only about 3 feet of water and we always get a ride home. 
The amount of alcohol depends on the temperature of the water and the air. At the beginning or the end of the season (late May to late September), or on rainy nights, a shot to tequila is sometimes required. Most Fridays its just optional.
One of my very favorite things in life is swimming at night in the bay. Its a truly transcendent experience where I feel like am part of the water and the sky, in a place I grew up on and have a strong connection to. Someday soon I will take the last dunk of 2015 and I will look forward to the first dunk of 2016 nearly every day. 

Why does the prospect of stepping up to my table to create every day scare me? Every day? I was hoping that by now (day 21 of my art every day challenge) I'd get a little bolder. A bit more confident. I was hoping that the structure of showing up every day would make the process of creating art easier. That hasn't happened yet.
I'm just as anxious and as much of a procrastinator as I've always been. The main difference is that I'm letting my anxiety be my excuse any longer. Its become more like the process of jumping into cold water that actually isn't so cold after all. Once I get started and get involved with a project I'm able (most of the time) to feel comfortable and get into the flow.