Colores Corona

SSS Card Kit Giveaway/Vicky Papaioannou

2015-09-08T10:27:00.001-07:00

Vicky Papaioannou is one of my favorite YouTube artists. She is very talented and her videos are beautifully produced and are always informative. Her latest video can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxP3FcPBYWQ

and she is having a giveaway on her blog:

http://www.clips-n-cuts.com/2015/09/3-cards-and-giveaway

You have a chance to win the September 2015 Simon Says Card Kit of the Month.

I know you'll enjoy Vicky's YT channel and her blog, too.

Some Greeting Cards

2014-05-17T20:49:00.001-07:00

I love to make special cards for people I love. I often make birthday and Valentines Day and Christmas cards for close family members and I forget to take photos. Sometimes if I'm going to mail things out, I'll remember to snap a pic. I don't always get to process it right away and sometimes I end up with a not-so-good photo, but at least I know what I did. When I don't take a photo and I see my work in someone's home, I often am drawn to look at it. Usually I don't even recognize it right away. OK, here are some cards:

This is the card I made for my beloved brother's birthday last year. I also made him a motivational sign for his writing area. Those are typewriters in the background. So much fun to make.

This is a bad photo, but the card was quite beautiful. I used embossing folders, spray inks, brads, Sizzix dies and who knows what else for this card for my wonderful daughter-in-law, Becca.

This was a card for my friend, Cathy. Same layout, just different color combos. The label was a velvety paper. Those aren't brads, they're pearls. I really like this embossing folder, too.

I made a card a LONG time ago when a niece was graduating from college. This is back before I sold my Cricut and got a Silhouette Cameo that I haven't even used that much, alas:

Catching Up On Blogging

2014-05-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

So sporadic...oh, well.

I am motivated to post some pics of things I've done over the last several years. I've gotten out of the habit. When I began substitute teaching quite a few years back, I thought I'd have loads more time to do artistic things. Stuff happens. I'll try to do multiple posts in the next day or two to chronicle SOME of what I've been up to--I don't always take pictures of everything I make.

I'll start with some ATC's I made for a YouTube swap hosted by Kelly Donovan. I think she still hosts a monthly swap. I get pretty carried away when I'm going to release my work into the world. I remember spending a lot of time on these.

Sometimes I keep adding touches at the end and then have very little time to photograph the finished product. Then when I go to look at the photo, it is bad enough that even making adjustments in Photoshop can't save it. Love the ATC's; hate the photograph. These were fun to make, though!!!!

I loved making the ATC holders with my envelope punch board. Also loved decorating the envelopes with long-lost stamps that I love. I buy many of my stamps in thrift stores, in FB groups or from a place in Portland called SCRAP. About a year ago a very generous person donated a HUGE collection of arty stamps from the 80's. The metal clip stamp on the two envelopes came from that haul. It's a Ken Brown stamp.

Here are some larger pictures of the individual ATC's:

Thanks for looking.....

Hugs,
Judy

Fauxdori Finish Explanation

2014-03-11T17:29:00.001-07:00

I haven't used Blogger in a long time and forgot how fussy it is. I added the pics of the Fauxdori on the post that follows this one and it wouldn't let me add text before the pics. Rather than delete and start over, I decided that I'd just do another post to explain the pics:

Several months ago I became intrigued with the Fauxdori (a fake Midori, which is the name of the Japanese company that makes Midori journals in many sizes). I printed the wonderful calendar inserts sized perfectly by Brit, Ray Blake, to fit the Fauxdori Traveler's Journal size. Blake, it turns out, is something of a legend and very generously offers instructions, tips, ideas, the aforementioned templates in many sizes on his blog:
mylifeallinoneplace.com

He also has wonderful, easy-to-follow instructional videos on YouTube. I loved this project because you're upcycling in addition to creating from scratch. I started with the insert covers which are made from file folders and which I decorated with inks, stamps and stencils. I printed a set of calendar inserts and late one night spilled water all over them and thank goodness I hadn't trimmed them yet. I worked with metric measurements--really for the first time--on this project, and fell in love with the simplicity. I knew I had some leather stashed somewhere and found some beautiful deerskin, which I mistakenly deemed too floppy for a cover. I decided to find something stiffer in a thrift store and within a day had found (for a mere $2.99) the amazing cover that adapted perfectly to my needs. I am thrilled with the results and will be adding another elastic band in the spine so that I can fit in a couple more inserts: one blank for sketching and one with lined paper for taking notes. On one or both of those I will cut the back cover narrow enough that I can add a pen loop that will not protrude when the journal is closed.

Fauxdori Finish

2014-03-11T16:49:00.000-07:00

ArtJoyStuff ATC Swaps

2012-06-10T15:28:00.005-07:00

For the last couple of months, I have joined swaps on Kimberly Laws' blog:

Kimberly Laws' Blog ArtJoyStuff

Her swaps are open to all levels and the ATC's I've received have been really cute. It's been fun to be in these swaps because I've enjoyed the themes and because the swaps are challenging without being too demanding. The theme of the April swap was April in Paris. Here are some of the ATC's I made. By the way, an ATC measures 2.5" X 3.5"--basically the size of a baseball card or other trading cards--and can have either portrait or landscape orientation.

Here are some ATC's I did for the April In Paris Swap:

I've had the photo of the 1920's lady for at least 10 years. The tiny tag is made from some vintage wallpaper I found at the bins. The tiny vintage pink rosebud with the silk petals is also from the bins. The bird in the nest letter is from the Graphics Fairy.

I made the pink flower a couple of years ago. The label is a die cut that I crinkled and aged. The clown is one of the free downloads from Graphics Fairy.


The bird lady picture is from Graphics Fairy. I embossed the edges in gold. The Paris sign is a diecut that I embossed in white. The flower trim (from the bins, of course) was bright gold originally. I dulled it down a bit with some inks.

Fairies In A Jar

2012-04-21T07:36:00.003-07:00

Is your little one still afraid of the dark, Fairies In A Jar might just solve that problem.

(I couldn't pin this from FB, so I imported the content to my blog. The original posting came from:

www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150609825792451&set=a.377294287450.157465.243999862450&type=1&theater)

Fairies In A Jar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Cut a glow stick and shake the contents into a jar.

2. Add diamond glitter

3. Seal the top with a lid.

4. Shake

TYPE ON A PATH/PHOTOSHOP

2010-05-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

My computer has been wonky lately, so I was trying to dump big files (audio and video) to maybe de-wonkify it. I'm noticing some improvement already, but the biggest gift is that while I was pruning podcasts from iTunes, I looked at an episode of Photoshop User TV and I learned something really cool: how to type on a path. I use Photoshop quite a bit for photos, but I work with the most basic tools. I love the cool things that other people do in Photoshop with graphics, but I don't spend a lot of time just playing around or even watching the great videocasts I've got stored away. Anyway, I'm jazzed because I think this will be a useful thing. I would recommend subscribing to this show through iTunes if you're interested.

And just for fun, I thought I'd throw in another corner of my kitchen.

HOME FROM WORK

2010-05-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

We had guests this weekend that I've been getting ready for all month, really. Why? Because the guest room defaults as a treasure storage room for all my finds. It was a hodge podge of assorted gems: rolls of vintage wallpaper, a cool outdoor lamp that looks like a column of sculptured marble vines, awesome ephemera torn from encyclopedias, dictionaries and magazines, vintage and contemporary fabric, vintage clothing and stacks and stacks of books. What do I do with all that stuff? Well, I sell on Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ColoresCorona

I sell to local resale stores Village Merchants, Red Light, etc.

What doesn't sell in those venues goes into huge garage sales. I'm having one this weekend:
4826 NE 15th (Alberta)
Portland, OR

I'm a collector-packrat-artiste. I love to arrange quirky beauty into vignettes and tableaux. They make me happy as I go about my everyday routine. It drives the love of my life mad because I cover every available surface, but I am obsessed.

I'm home from work today because I've had a stomach bug since Friday night. I had to lay low while our guests were here. Today I feel better, just not great yet (looking forward to that). Because I've been so busy cleaning and organizing, I've been able to only dream about being creative. I still have some wrist pain, so actually making something is a stretch, but I took some pictures of my tableaux.

Inspired by Yoko: Book Recommendations

2010-05-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

I was inspired by Yoko Ono to list books that I love. I always start with these because they completely changed my schema of the mind-body connection. In other words they blew my mind in a good way. This is the material that excites and impassions my spirit. I loved Yoko's list:

http://imaginepeace.com/archives/3365

and I've read many of the books that she recommends. It was the brain books that caught my attention and she had Louise Hay on her list also. She is such a gift to our world. Her website is wonderful.

"Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit" Joseph Chilton Pearce;
"Waking The Tiger" Peter Levine;
"Spiritual Initiation and the Breakthrough of Consciousness: The Bond of Power" Joseph Chilton Pearce;
"Evolution's End" Joseph Chilton Pearce;
"Trauma Through a Child's Eyes" Peter Levine;
"Traumaproofing Your Child" Peter Levine

Chilton Pearce is one of the great communicators of our time, I believe. He harnesses huge blocks of thought from numerous disciplines, distills and enhances it and makes it not only comprehensible, but a joy to read. My only caution: his conclusions are not always optimistic even though he illustrates the great power of the human spirit.

Levine I call a bodhisattva. He refused to accept the notion that trauma permanently cripples us and invented Somatic Experiencing, a modern form of soul retrieval.

OBSESSED WITH FLOWERS

2010-05-08T19:50:00.000-07:00

I went to my friend, Glenda's, house after my last blog post and discovered that she had a large array of flower punches. Serendipitously, I had just purchased a partial roll of some vintage wallpaper that featured pink roses and gray accents. She went off to work and let me play in her scrapping area and I punched a lot of flower shapes. When I got them home I mixed up more glimmery paint using puffy fabric paint, Pearl Ex, Diamond Glaze, acrylic paint and gum arabic and painted a lot of the punched flowers. I also painted some pages from a cook book in French and cut circles for some larger flowers from that paper. I had a lot of fun working in a range of pinks and lavenders. I used some of the same glittery Stickles-like stuff on a number of the flowers and since I had just cleaned out my pen drawer and had a Signo on my work table, I decided to add some white. I also had a gold gel pen and used that on some of the flowers.

We learned that my father-in-law's wonderful careperson, Cindy, was in a serious car accident with her family so I made her a card using one of the flowers. Cindy is a really warm and gifted woman who has worked with Herb's family for a long time. She's one of the Visiting Angels and I got to meet her when Herb's fabulous mom was in hospice. Cindy was there when Herb's cousins and sisters and I sang Christmas carols to Pat as she made her transition to the other world. Here's hoping for a full and fast recovery to Cindy, her husband and their daughter.

Twitter Is Fun

2010-04-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hey, I'm clumsy as all get out right now. I've had a flare up of some tendon problems and I'm back in a splint (self-prescribed), so typing is a bear. BTW if you have wrist or thumb problems, Jo-Ann's sells these awesome crafting wraps and braces that are really wonderful. I think they're about 10 bucks w/a coupon. They're green, so less homely than the blue velcro and fake leather splint I'm sporting right now.

I have been working almost every day, walking almost every day for 45 min followed by 15 min of weight resistance (small weights). I feel pretty good. I think the weights might be flaring me up, plus I've been on the computer a LOT more, so go figure.

I've been watching all the Prima flower and DIY glimmer mist tutorials on You Tube and I dove in yesterday and just did it all. 3 colors of glimmer mist (pink, brown and blue). If you follow me on Twitter, you'll see any video I've favorited or any that I've subscribed to. All the flower and GM links are there. I don't have much time to type right now, because I have to get out and walk before dark, but I'll link to the videos later. Besides the cool flowers, I ended up with background papers, too, because I misted the color onto the flowers as they rested on 3X5's or a notepad I keep by my worktable.

Twitter Account: twitter.com/judyfrida

Oh, quick triumph story. I sub rarely at a local male prison school. I had a group that was giving me grief and playing a lot of games (they usually want to mess with your head if they don't know you). They had an assignment, but it seemed when I quizzed them, that they knew the material they were supposed to be studying. Bored and frustrated, they began acting out. Nothing major, they just weren't on any kind of task. Okay, I said, those who want to study, grab a book and dig in. The rest of you I want over here, because I'm going to give a lesson on brain and nervous system function. (I studied Somatic Experiencing for a couple of years, have taught these concepts in this school before and have had wonderful outcomes.) Lots of griping followed, but within about 10 minutes all these guys were engaged, many asking questions, commenting and expanding on what I was saying. Amazing buy-in and wonderful info for guys who, like most of us, have some dysregulation of their nervous systems.

It's Been Years

2010-04-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

Two-and-a-half years since I blogged!!! I just opened my first Twitter account and I've run across links to great blogs, so I'm reinspired. I also didn't have a laptop until a year ago, so here I am blogging while I watch "This Is It". I will want to watch this again and again--the creative process is inspiring to watch. I'm very thankful that my arms and wrists and forearms and shoulders are in a more healthful state than in the past year. I've journeyed through long-term chronic pain episodes and learned so much. I am so blessed to have been led to somatic experiencing which has helped me make friends with my nervous system and to resolve so much. YAY!!!!!

So, in all this time away I've been making and making. I've gotten more into sewing and I've made more dolls, which are labor intensive. I made two very cool polymer clay primitive folk art dolls and one flat painted doll (which I never dressed or quite finished wigging) from a pattern from Cloth Paper Scissors. I also did a line of Frida Kahlo flags inspired originally by a friend's idea to make our own prayer flags. We did that project and out of that came this idea to use Frida images. I finally surrendered to my obsession with Frida Kahlo and stopped feeling sheepish for using her image or her creations in a huge portion of my artwork. I am about to launch a new Etsy shop: FridaKahloStore.etsy.com. I've just done a group of ATC's, a Frida pillow and some other Frida-related artwork to list in the store. I'm also going to be selling Frida-ish vintage clothing/costumes. I think it's going to be really fun.

I'll dig around and find some pictures to post. They will probably be of the dolls and a few of the flags and maybe some other things I have floating around.

This Michael Jackson music is so inspiring. The film is really entertaining. Oh, I also got a Flip and plan to make some technique videos, which might not come together until the school year is over.

P.S. A long time ago I blogged about an artist's website I visited which inspired me to use spray paint and stencils. I could never find her blog again and recently found her through someone else's post on Inkjet Transfers or some other Yahoo group I read. Her blog is called "Dispatch from LA" and I was thrilled to see that she is also a teacher. Here's the link, which I will also add to my blog roll if I can remember how to do it.

13 FRIDAS

2007-09-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

Cover of "13 Fridas"

Two posts in one day!!! Unprecedented action on this beautiful fall afternoon in Oregon. I've had printer/scanner problems for quite some time. It's really OS problems, but it's kept me from scanning recent work. I took some photos of one of my favorite projects, which I call "13 Fridas". The idea for this project originated with an altered board book years ago. I had created a stack of hand-painted papers during an artful afternoon in the backyard with Quetzal, a member of my extended family (my son's half-brother), who was 9 years old at the time. He had been generous, to say the least, with what he squeezed out of the many tubes of acrylic paint I had brought outside for us to paint with. We had all this paint left over and I wasn't about to let it go to waste. I had a foam roller and a styrofoam tray and I began rolling away on cheap drawing paper. The roller locked in place at times instead of turning, and it caused the paint to skid across the paper, creating many interesting effects. Then I began randomly dotting the the loaded roller with metallic paint; this created a repeating pattern, which I liked a lot. So after one afternoon, I had 30 big sheets of beautiful paper.

I'd always wanted to try covering a board book instead of sanding then painting to create backgrounds, so the paper seemed like a good option. While covering the first book (using glue stick), I was jazzed to see that the painted paper ended up looking like abstract landscapes or created colorful worlds behind the Fridas. I'd always wanted a book with nothing but images of and/or by Frida Kahlo. As it turned out, this book had room for 13 such images, hence the name 13 Fridas. I had the book for quite some time and always thought I would get around to scanning it. I took it to a craft sale just as a showpiece to advertise a class I was teaching, and someone made me an offer I could not refuse, so I sold it. The next one I made was on commission and I kept futzing with it until the last minute and didn't scan that one either. The 3rd one is what you see here. These are photos, since my scanner is out of commission, but I think you can get the idea. You can find my handpainted papers here.

MORE ARTWORK FOR YOU

2007-09-22T12:54:00.000-07:00

This is an altered book layout using a photo transfer on the right and some fluid acrylics and collaging. I love bright colors and I also love the muted sepias and black and white in contrast. I love the artwork used in the opening sequences of the HBO show "Carnivale". I'm not sure if I love the show or not--I do find it riveting at times--but I love the period feel they give to everything. I think they get it spot-on. I don't get HBO but I love to rent some of their series.
Another altered book/photo transfer layout. This is done with an alcohol ink stamped background. It's John Lennon, of course. It's so interesting to me to meet young people today who are total Beatlemaniacs, just as I was at their age. I'm so excited about the new Julie Taymor movie, "Across The Universe". I saw some excerpts and the performers are monstrously talented. I'm a crossover artist. I always sang. My mother and I were the go-to talent in the small town where I grew up. She was a gifted pianist and I sang. We performed on Mother's Day and for Christmas shows at the Grange Hall. I'm talking a town of 600, so it wasn't huge audiences, but I loved it. I wish, wish, wish we'd had the technology to record in those days. I would love to hear what I sounded like. I also soloed in various churches for the adult service. "Onward Christian Soldiers", "Rock of Ages", "In the Garden" and all those classics were my stock in trade for church. But the Beatles totally blew me AWAY! And John Lennon.....it was love at first sight. The thinking-woman's Beatle.
Another Frida AB layout. My fabulous partner, Herb, once said, "You don't have to put Frida on everything!" (In all fairness, this was in response to an idea I had that I could photo transfer Frida images onto a couch I was painting.) She's one of the famous Mestizas in the world and I admire the hell out of her for her art.
This is a little painting I did during my bird phase--I swear it hasn't ended yet. They say birds are the messengers from the angelic realms and the spirit world. I have had and continue to have beautiful experiences and interactions with birds. I love them. I'm actually writing a song called, "Pay Attention To The Crow".

Pay attention to the crow with the berry in her beak
She just might be an angel coming down to you to speak
To remind you of your purpose
And to help you find your path
Pay attention
Pay attention
To the crow

Altered photo. You can see more of these here on Gillian Allen's fabulous Art-e-Zine website. I've got to go mail some things that I sold at My Etsy Shop and at Boutik-A-Blog

BOUTIK-A-BLOG: PRACTICAL ODDS AND ENDS

2007-09-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

This is an incredible Mexican piece I got a few years back in a Salvation Army thrift store in Contra Costa County for 8 whole dollars. I found this on one of my many journeys to California during the two years I spent in counseling there. Those trips transformed my life and my soul. This piece I call The Ancestors. I am half Mexican, and while I am very proud of my heritage, there was some internal conflict because my Mexicano father's parenting was not nurturing. I see now, though, how the negatives in my life have given me amazing and tremendous gifts. So when I found this wonderful sculpture, I claimed my heritage in a new and powerful way. I have come to believe that I actually chose a rocky and difficult path in order to come to this place of incredible well-being in which I now reside. Pues, bienvenidos a los antepasados.
Another shelf in my dining room. All thrift store or flea market purchase.

An ATC.
This is a little collection of ATC's I did for a trade.

*******************************************************

Well, it's been way too long between posts, but I've been busy in classrooms and at my computer. I've just set up a SALES ONLY blog (Boutik-A-Blog: boutikablog.blogspot.com) as an attempt to streamline my business a little. It's definitely in its infancy, but you will find some wonderful things there. I'll have, of course, arts and crafts supplies for all you crafty people, but I plan to sell a bit of this and a bit of that flea market style. You'll be able to find vintage fabric (from what my partner, Herb, terms "the cloth mine"). Look for vintage ephemera including old photos, vintage greeting cards and wrapping paper, old wallpaper, salvaged book pages, advertising, illustrations, etc. I'll even offer vintage and contemporary clothing as the fancy strikes me. If you've read earlier posts, you know that I've dealt in collectibles, so I have things I've owned and loved and am passing on as well as things I've found just for you. Since the blog is one day old, I've listed just a few things. Some Dymo Label Makers (w/an extra roll of tape), some extra-fine mister bottles (for use in rubber stamping and watercolor) and an assortment of tags. I'll be listing more in the next couple of days as I begin to take more photos.

LONG LOST ART

2007-09-17T20:55:00.001-07:00

So, tonight I thought I'd share a little of what I call my long-lost art. These are experiments--this time with collage--that I did in years past. I go through phases of experimentation and then forget all about it. I sometimes run across the items in my studio and sometimes I'm just sorting or cleaning out my huge files of scans or jpgs and find them that way. These first two collages come from my paper bag phase. These are done on paper lunch sacks with lots of melted crayon, polymer medium and gold foiling. The images and other elements are added using Jonathan Talbot's collage method.

These two collages were inspired by those little 2-prong metal file clips/clamps that have sticky on the back of them. I had seen another artist's work in which she took little teensy scraps and compiled them into little books. She did a lot of piling up of images, textures and patterns, so it was a great inspiration. I love the way the metal works in these little compositions as a sort of anchor/organizer. I did many of these, but these are the two I like best. One of the best things I took away from a Jonathan Talbot class I took once is that one way to get your creative fires burning is to look at other people's art. He very clearly showed how Picasso, admired for his originality, actually used compositions from other paintings in his own work. It's good to look at other people's art. And it's really fun.

This is a tiny little collage using embossed fun foam as part of the frame. It ends up looking like metal when you add the teensiest bit of copper embossing powder.
I did a series of altered photos some of which can be seen on Gillian Allen's fabulous Art-e-Zine website here:
http://www.art-e-zine.co.uk/foto.html

When I went to a rubber stamp convention in Puyallup a couple of years ago, I took some photos of old buildings. I was messing around with Photoshop and placed one of the altered photos in a window as an experiment.

Hey, I'm off to bed. I stayed up WAY too late last night so I've got to get some shuteye. I have one more day with my delightful high school English students! Have a great day tomorrow and a great rest of the evening.

PRIZES from FIRST DRAWING/MORE MANTLE

2007-09-16T01:13:00.001-07:00

Sheri was our winner and the pics show just what she's getting. I tried to put things in that I might find interesting and cool. Some things are practical; some things are whimsical. It took me so long to pull out a perfect assortment that I didn't get to the P.O. in time to mail it. Monday, without fail, Sheri.
You'll see a collection of Royal Copley (like this gray and pink and black goldfish vase) on my mantle. I adore pottery glazes in colors like the Copley stuff. I love the Copley greens and golds. Yum!!!
"It's not done till it's overdone," might apply to my mantle. Here is a picture of the mantle lit up at night. I love lights and candles. I have been called a magpie more than once because I'm partial to anything shiny. I just find so many things beautiful!!!

ARTFUL OVERKILL

2007-09-16T00:49:00.001-07:00

Some photos of my house. The mantle at night; the Buddha on the buffet; a corner in the living room; a table in my entryway; a thrift store Mary in my living room. More photos of mantle in future posts.

HELLO IT'S FRIDAY/ARTFUL OVERKILL

2007-09-14T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's Friday and I thought I'd invite you to my house (past and present) to see the kinds of things I love to have around me. It's all art as far as I'm concerned, and I've always loved to create vignettes, scenes, arrangements, groupings of objects, etc., that make me smile. The top photo is one of the dining room built-in display shelves (1942 house). The second photo is a past arrangement on the kitchen counter. It's different now. The grain jars are above my kitchen work table. Then you see an old view out my kitchen window. That's been rearranged as well. Wait until I take some pictures of the mantle in my living room!!! I just heard a designer quote his mother on an HGTV show, "It's not done until it's overdone," and that applies to my mantle. When I used to entertain more, people had all kinds of reactions to my style. Oddly enough, it was often men who would really like the layering and artful overkill method I employ in my decorating. My brother-in-law, a fine photographer, took lots of shots of my "worlds". I rearrange them now and again, and I'm definitely in a shift right now. I'll document my mantle, but it might be in for some changes. I really like to see other people's "stuff", too. I love the blog posts where people show photos of their thrift store purchases. I plan to take some of those photos eventually, too.

In addition, I'm showing you (in the bottom photo) a little game piece grouping I put together for my Etsy shop. There are a few of them available as well as vintage fabric and ephemera, so do check it out. Just follow the link. Also, it was on contest-winner, Sheri's blog, I believe, that I saw the link to the "Etsy Sellers Who Blog" blog ring. I just joined and will really look forward to checking out all the Etsyites' blogs.

I subbed today at a high school and had a really nice day. I started my teaching career working with middle-schoolers, then taught expelled middle- and high-school kids, and then coordinated a behavioral intervention program for kindergarteners and first graders. Did all that for 11 years and then decided to morph a little. The subbing is really interesting. I am an even better teacher now than when I was working full-time because I've learned so much about the brain and nervous system and have worked on keeping my own vibratory field super-positive and loving. I have so much fun with kids. This morning, I walked the equivalent of a block or so from the absent teacher's parking place and just appreciated the air temperature, the beautiful trees behind the school, the fresh faces and fashion sense of the students, the polished floors and the oh-so-retro colored tile walls. I just felt so energized and so happy to be there. The day went by quickly and things went smoothly. When I can catch myself going into negative thought or judgment, I just say, "Not gonna go there." It is amazing how positive I can stay and how happy I can feel when I stay out of the ego stuff. Very fun.

So, have a lovely launch into this beautiful weekend. Wishing you all as much fabulousness as you can stand!!!

COMMENTS CONTEST WINNER/FABRICS ON ETSY

2007-09-11T09:29:00.000-07:00

Well, the response to the contest was great. I got the first 10 comments in just over a day, so YAAAAYYYY!!! In the first picture, you see my windowsill Goddess about to pick the winner's name from the first 10 comment-makers. She asked me to place them in her favorite seashell which I had to place on a cup to make it high enough for her to reach. She was so excited to pick the name of our winner:

SHERI!! OF BLENDEDCOLORS.BLOGSPOT.COM

So, Sheri, I'll email you to get an address and send you your art goodies by the end of the week.

I've heard from a couple of you that you've placed a link to my blog on yours. I'm a little nervous, though, that people aren't getting entered into the contest for the SUPER-DELUXE art goodies they qualify for because they aren't letting me know they've placed me on their blogs. If you have linked to my blog on yours, please send me a quick email or add a comment like Mercedes did that let me know she linked to my blog. I'll add the links to yours very soon.

I think this contest was fun. I think I'll extend it:
New Chance To Win Art Goodies: I will draw another name from the next 10 comments to receive a prize.

Pre-P.S. I'm not trying to scream in the following text. I couldn't get it to revert back to the size font size in the beginning of the post. I've tried 3 times. I give up.The photos you see above are some of the vintage fabrics I'm about to list on Etsy. I have an unusually large collection of fabrics from the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's and on. I get weak in the knees when I see an old fabric or a fabulous contemporary one. I use fabrics in many ways (paper bag books, altered books, tags, bags, collages, dolls, decorating) and I feel sorry for beautiful vintage fabric that I leave behind lonely and forgotten at thrift stores or estate sales. I had a giant garage sale in August at my son's house in Portland and sold off some of the lesser fabrics. I've kept the best to sell. I'm starting with the smaller pieces and will move to yardage as I clear out. What you're seeing here are eclectic collections of various sized pieces. I've grouped together minimum widths of 12" and 13", which you see in pictures. I'm also doing squares and those are in the third fabric picture (these are 9" squares). Aren't they cool? You can surf over from my Etsy link later today because I'm headed over there to list them.

Have a fabulous day!!!

WHAT'S IN THE JARS?/CONTEST!!!!

2007-09-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

Pre-P.S. Click on the pictures for a better view of what's in the jars.
Hey, I've got some readers who are asking what's in the jars on the shelves in my earlier "Shelf Project" entry. I took some photos so that you can get an idea of the sorts of doo-dads I love. I can never get photos rearranged once they're uploaded, so these are out of order, but I've included some collages I made using some of the little things I collect. The theme of this project was "Red" and I used a children's cloth alphabet book that I took apart and did lots of different backgrounds on. I did about a dozen of them. The backgrounds range from molding paste to tissue paper to lace to textured paints and all the backgrounds are painted using reds, pinks and reddish browns. I added vintage pipecleaner dolls and gave them things to hold or things to go on the walls of their little worlds. Have a lovely day, readers.

CONTESTS!!!!!
1. Oh!!!! I keep forgetting. I want to have some contests/drawings. From the names of the first 10 people who comment on any post, I will draw a winner who will receive some goodies for your artwork in the mail. I'll hand-pick some fabulous things to send your way.

2. Of the first 10 people who link to my blog from theirs, I will draw a name and you will receive an Ultra-Deluxe package of goodies for your artwork. Just send me the link to your blog when you've linked to mine and I'll add your name to the drawing. And I will, of course, add a blogroll to mine and automatically add yours!!! Yay!!!
email address: jcoronanews@gmail.com OR jcoronasales@gmail.com

HEALTH AND CRAFTING

2007-09-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hello to all you wonderful people who are reading my missive begun on a beautiful morning in late summer. The pictures show ATC's I did some years ago. Those at the top are a few from a series I did during a bird phase that is still not over. The second two are beeswax collages. I made up a lot of those as trades when I attended Artfest a couple of years ago. The bottom one is a collage made with an image of a Latina I found somewhere in cyberspace, rubber stamps, alcohol inks and my trusty dragonfly punch.

I am happy to say that I just joined a Yahoo group called Organized Studio: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OrganizedStudio/join

A word about the wonderful woman, Vickie Enkoff, who, with her daughter, I believe, started this group. She was a well-loved figure in the crafting and online community for many years and she passed away recently. Much love to her for her generous spirit and the same to her talented daughter, Melanie Sage.

In my intro at Organized Studio, I talked about how my formerly poor health contributed greatly to the creative endeavor I gently call "My Beautiful Mess". I received some very warm welcomes from group members and I'm picking up some good organizing tips and ideas from the posts. Several people there have asked how I overcame chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and the overwhelming host of physical symptoms that accompany those conditions. I thought this would be a good place to let people know some of the things that helped me transform my health so dramatically. I spent about 10 years in a very dark phase physically, emotionally and spiritually. My health began declining dramatically in my mid-40's and after a few years, I was diagnosed with FM. It was at this time that art and craft became my lifelines and I truly became an artist, so the illness brought me a wonderful gift! In the meantime, however, I was in almost constant pain with daily headaches, no energy, clinical depression and little resistance. I caught every cold and flu (15 a year at times) and also injured myself often. I lived in a fog and just limped through life.

I knew at some level that my body was sick because of unresolved trauma. Trauma can result from abuse and neglect, of course, but it can also stem from physical trauma, medical procedures, emotional upheavals such as divorce, loss, adoption, or any kind of event that overwhelms the nervous system (car accidents, falls, even near-misses). Unresolved trauma is, I believe, at the root of many, if not most chronic illnesses. I had childhood issues that I had worked on over the years, but in my early 40's I also fell and injured myself twice. Those falls marked the beginning of the rapid physical decline, but I had a feeling that my condition was actually linked to the family-of-origin issues. While there was some research early on into the trauma/chronic illness connection, I really couldn't find anyone at the time who gave credence to that idea. So, I suffered. I chose chiropractory and acupuncture over painkillers, antidepressants and sleeping pills prescribed by MD's. I had some improvement, but I was still very ill.

Finally, through what I would call Divine intervention (and I am not really a religious person), I found a wonderful therapist 600 miles away. The Divine intervention took place after a very severe depressive episode brought on, in part, by my poor health. Somehow I came out of that darkness with two ideas stuck in my head: "I can't live like this anymore." "I know there's someone out there who can help me."

Without knowing it, I had set an intention. Within a week I had the phone number of my therapist-to-be in hand. What I didn't know is that during the years of my declining health, a man named Dr. Peter Levine, was developing a trauma treatment/renegotiation process called Somatic Experiencing. The therapist with whom I connected had been trained by him and was using this as a primary modality after 25 years of work in the field. I spent two years traveling 600 miles for treatment every 6-8 weeks. Somatic Experiencing focuses on the felt sense or bodily sensations. It is an amazing process that you can read about in Levine's highly accessible work. There are books and cd's available that explain the process (go to Amazon and type in his name). It is gentle, it is fast, it is transformative. At the time I began doing this work, there were only a few therapists in my state who had the training. This has changed dramatically as more and more people experience the kind of healing I did. After my first sessions, my upper back, neck and shoulders which were chronically tight and very painful, relaxed for the first time in a decade. No more burning, fewer headaches (I rarely get a headache now--I used to take Aleve almost daily), more freedom of movement, more strength, more stamina, and MORE JOY. I did sessions for two short years and the results have been nothing short of miraculous. As you can tell, I am very grateful that the counseling and psychotherapy field began addressing the mind/body connection. I am experiencing a level of well-being I once thought impossible. I know that a lot of us artists suffer from these painful, chronic conditions. It's a journey, but a beautiful one. And, of course, SE is not the only way to get well--it's just a very fast, effective and gentle way. For more information about SE and/or to find a practitioner in your area you can go to the Foundation for Human Enrichment website: www.traumahealing.com

STUDIO BOOKCASE REVAMP

2007-08-28T19:34:00.000-07:00

I've been working away at organizing my basement, which houses my studio. It's been a big mess for years. I'm a collector and I've dealt in collectibles in the past. When I closed my space in an antique mall about a century ago, I brought home a lot of stuff. I kept adding to it and my health was poor at the time and I just lost the will to organize. I'm happy to say that I'm now well on the way to a workable space that is much more pleasant. I got inspired last week to empty a bookcase in our TV room because it was just too crowded. I knew that the bookcase would be a good place to display my beautiful jars full of doo-dads. Since it was a run-of-the-mill Dania-issue 90's black bookcase, I thought I might be able to make it a little more "me". At first I thought I might take off the cardboard backing to the shelves and put in chicken wire. My partner, Herb, assured me that the backing, even though it was cardboard, was indeed lending structural integrity to the piece. I knew this shelf would be holding a lot of weight, so I went to Plan B. I have a lovely giant roll of brown kraft paper which I thought would look nice with a smudgy coat of white paint. I used a semi-gloss cream colored interior latex on the pieces of paper I measured to fit into the spaces above and below the permanent middle shelf. Even before that paint layer, which left some of the brown paper showing, was dry, I began painting on big brown swirls using craft paint. Nice! I knew I wanted another color, and I knew I wanted this to be a bold, graphic design, so the next swirls I added were black. I so loved what I'd done that I stood and admired my work for quite some time. I could have stopped there, but gold is just too tempting. I accented just a few swirls in each section and it was just the touch I was looking for. Up went the pieces, using carpet tape to adhere. In went the shelves and m-m-m-m. I love it. It was full in just a few moments and it's very pretty to look at. I have another shelf exactly like this one in my studio and it's stuffed with books and ephemera. I think it's going to be transformed next.

LEARNING TO SOLDER

2007-08-05T18:04:00.001-07:00

How long have I wanted to actually know how to solder??????? Don't ask. How long have I had a soldering iron, flux and solder????? Oh, please. Way too long. I have tried several times to learn how to "run a bead", to "tack" and just to make the solder look unhorrible enough to not completely distract from the project. I'm getting there. I loved that so many people on blogs, in books, on craft shows, etc. would say, "Just keep trying. You'll get better. It takes practice." And while I haven't arrived at the nirvana of the gorgeous, thick, shiny, even solder I admire so much, I am certainly better than I was. Things I learned along the way:
-the soldering iron seems to have a "sweet spot" where the solder will melt and adhere to the iron so that you can turn your iron in the direction it needs to go
-many of the dark spots and sooty things that beginners experience can be polished off with nothing more than a towel
-Sally Jean Alexander is a genius. You really can solder on lace, on paper, on wood. The "Dream" piece is done on a piece of painted tongue depressor.

I was so eager to try soldering slides again that my collage is nothing more than pure "what was laying in front of me on the table". I was also too impatient to look for one of the one million jump rings I own, so I made my own out of wire since I was just practicing anyway. I was doing all this after I hurt my back while hauling something to Goodwill, so I really was using what was at hand. I've got a long ways to go but I'm getting there. Hooray!