Winner of the Giveaway!

The Winner of my
Blog Giveaway is
pamela e. mohon!
Hope you enjoy the goodies
and have a colorful and creative autumn!

Jolly Halloween

Thank You to all who stopped by and visited my Halloween Blog Party!
There's still time to leave a comment and be in the drawing for the giveaway.
I will randomly draw a name for the Jolly Halloween calligraphy sign (below)
and the ATC's on Oct. 31st. I will announce the winner here, so check back!
Your comments are so appreciated and give me joy...
Have a colorful, creative autumn!

Jolly Halloween Blog Party!

WELCOME
to my Halloween Blog Party!
I'm so glad you stopped by...
Many thanks to Collage Diva for the invitation to join the Soul Journal Halloween Blog Party!

The Jolly Halloween sign above, in watercolor and calligraphy, and the three Halloween ATC's, will be given away to someone who leaves a comment at the end of this Blog Party entry. Please leave a comment and your email address. I will randomly draw a name by Nov. 1st and contact you via email.

Come in...
enjoy the Art, crafts, and colors of the season!

Pumpkin Head Jack, the paper doll, is hanging out
with his buddy, Skinny Legs Squash.

A vintage-style cat and pumpkin grin as you walk by...
they're painted on paper mache' boxes.

Jack is happy to spend time with
the Country Angel doll and the Crow & Goblin Queen atc's.

The Art dolls are joining the party too...
painted & stuffed "cocoon" dolls on each side of the clown paper doll.

Jack has lost his ghost costume!
He's dancing around the candles...
good thing they're not lit right now...

In another dark corner---
Don't worry if the drawing doesn't make sense...
it's surrealism.

-W-I-C-K-E-D- tags

The Egyptian party girl is wearing her party hat...
a witchy woman is lurking in the haunted house
with a bat and a raven...

Do you think the paper doll realizes that she
could be in danger?

Egyptian party girl...

Swirls and glitter...
Do you believe in MAGIC?

Mini-pennant tag...

BOO!

It's turning into a black and white Halloween...
Art journal pages, acrylic and collage.

behind an elaborate wrought-iron gate
swirls turbulence of...?

...a darker time...the origins of our quirky, fun, Jolly Halloween are thought to be from the Druids' observance of Samhain...

If Druids Spoke From the Dusts of the Past...

Beneath my feet, layers of time passed,
scented by dry leaves and rich earth,
they cushion my way as I walk
in misty darkness.
The sacred oaks embrace my Druid sisters and I
as we approach the hidden place of our secret rites.
The clouds discourage the moon's silver swath
as she welcomes our worship of her glory.
The Seer whispers to our mother, the earth
who birthed all mysteries
and cradles the graves of the dead.
We are priestesses of life,
believers in the cycle of the seasons.
The music of rustling leaves
floats above us in the violet darkness
as the hour of midnight approaches.
The creatures of the night search for prey
and the owl glides through the vapor of the night.
The flight of birds on the wing
points us to primeval prophecies.
We are one with the forest and honor
the gods of sun, moon and earth.
Our praise of creation is here recorded
on the stones of our alter.
--DBC

Enough of darkness...come into the light...!

Embrace the future
Learn from the past
Enjoy the present!

Thank you to all who visited!
Please leave a comment so I will know you stopped by...
leave an email address with your comment to be entered in the giveaway.JOLLY HALLOWEEEN!

Jolly Halloween Mail Art

Here is a postcard I sent to my friend Lou...her art is awesome and she shares her enthusiasm and joy of creating with everyone. Visit her blog at Metamorphosis.

****

Halloween is coming quickly and I'm looking forward to the Halloween Blog Party that I will be having on Oct. 26, 2008! Stop by to see Pumpkin Head Jack, an Egyptian party girl, Druids from the past, and other enticing goodies! It will be fun and I hope you will join in! If you would like to participate in the Soul Journal Halloween Blog Party on your blog, just click on the spooky red icon on the top right. I also recently visited a mysterious and extravagant blog party on Vanessa's site, and you can see the sights at A Fanciful Twist. Jolly Halloween!

Art Journal Pages

Art journal pages in mixed media collage: scrap paper with columns of numbers, watercolor, images clipped from magazines, and drawings in gel pen. Inspired by Go Make Something challenge to create something using a face. Since I love to just make up these women, this was a natural process for me...I've been doing it since high school. One of my friends called them "princesses." Maybe they are Barbies...I am not sure where they come from...maybe they are the girls I always wished to look like...

Mail Art!

I love receiving Mail Art, and I was delighted to find this postcard from Diana in the midst of bills, advertisements, and political propaganda...so refreshing to find art when you least expect it! Diana creates beautiful dyed papers that she has for sale through her website, and I believe this postcard was created using some of her paper. I love the tiny white dots that she's added with gel pens...really makes the design POP! Thank you Diana.

Halloween Blog Party!

COME TO MY HALLOWEEN PARTY ON OCTOBER 26TH!

I will have vintage-style Halloween art & decorations to share, and maybe some spooky things as well...if you want to be a part of the Halloween fun, visit Collagediva.com to get the details, or click on the spooky red Blog Party logo in the right margin.

I have not done a blog party before, but I understand that a list of participating blogs will be posted, and then on Oct. 26, you are invited to visit the participating blogs to enjoy the fun! I am looking forward to seeing everyone's decorating ideas and autumn art. Also, I am going to have a GIVEAWAY --I will create some Halloween art to be given to someone who leaves a comment, a random drawing...

So visit my blog, Art Beneath the Cottonwoods, on Oct. 26 to see Art Journal pages, ATC's, vintage Halloween paper dolls, decorations, recipes and other treats. This will be so much fun! I hope you will join me...
Have an artful day,
Dianne

Mini Collages

The cover of my Mini Collage Book: some of the first "inchies" I created.

These collages were created in an index card spiral notebook. They are small--3" x 5".
The idea (which I read about and can't remember the source) was to use the spiral index cards to take along with you and make mini-collages wherever you are. It doesn't work that way for me usually, though...I like to use paint, and that's not always so portable. I end up doing these while I watch TV in the evening. Painting while you wait for your doctor's appointment might get a bit messy...but the small size does make the work go faster and you can finish one pretty quickly. I have taken this with me on weekend trips, along with painted paper scraps, scissors, glue stick & pens...well, you get the idea.

I used a glue resist technique on the page above. Apply white glue to the page in lines, any pattern, and let dry. Raised edges form when the glue is dry. Can be painted over with acrylic or watercolors as long as you don't use too much water and cause the glue to soften again. I also added a little pen drawing in fine point marker.

Colored pencil, fabric, pen drawing, images from tissue wrapping paper.

Photocopies of images of men and a boy. I think this needs
a caption, but I just haven't come up with the right thing yet.
I'm open to suggestions!

Stamped image, (above) tissue paper, acrylic, copper spiral, and beads

Tissue paper images added to the acrylic painting.

Collage on Index Cards

There is some organza fabric over the painted tissue paper in the collage above, which doesn't show up well in this photo...it adds a little sparkle.

Mixed media: fabric, acrylic, marker, watercolor, magazine clippings, hand-carved stamping, miscellaneous embellishments.

Saving the tiniest scraps of paper and cardstock that have been painted or stamped, gives me plenty of material for these collages.

Buttons and linen fabric added to the collage above.

Awakening: art journal spread

These pages were first painted with acrylic paints. The faces are from cardstock cut into oval shapes and then glued on. The silhouette figures were drawn in black permanent marker, and then the faces were drawn in. Swirls and curlicues were added to the background with a fine point black pen.

To create the "found poem" text, I browsed through an art magazine, writing down words and phrases that caught my fancy and conveyed a joyful idea...

Impressions of August

This was a challenge for Artgang Ohio to use polymer clay in an Altered Book spread. The button-shaped pieces of polymer clay were made from impressions of old buttons from my grandmother's button jar. The background is acrylic paint over gesso. Circles were stenciled on, flowers from tissue wrapping paper were applied in opposite corners, and hand-carved stamping in green acrylic was added. The clay buttons were also painted in acrylic, layering yellow, tan, and black to highlight the textures. Words were added in brown Sharpie marker...things that remind me of the month of August and the sweet days of the end of summer.