Monthly Archives: April 2013

April 23, 2013 · 8:07 pm

Face Fascination

Bird-Eyed Woman

I am a lifelong doodler of random shapes and patterns. I’ve always incorporated my version of animals and words randomly throughout my doodles. Up until about a couple of years ago, I only doodled with whatever ink pen I happened to have on me. Most of my doodling took place in meetings, while waiting, or while I was on the phone. Sometimes I’d doodle to entertain my kids.

I can look at one of my doodles and approximate how much time I had to kill by the size and progression of the doodle. I kept quite a few over the years because they happened to be on ephemera that I filed away. I never had plans for them and I never used them for anything up until a couple of years ago when I made a big life decision and took early retirement from my job. Suddenly I had time to be creative for more than a squeezed in hour or two at a time.

I discovered Copic Markers and began doodling on purpose. I did lots and lots of my “normal” doodling but I started coloring them in using bright and vibrant color! For some reason I started placing a hidden blue eye in every doodle. I’m sure a psychiatrist would undoubtedly have a heyday with that fact but in my mind it was something fun to do. I used to love the hidden pictures in Highlights magazine when I was a kid so this is my version of that. The first face I drew was a take-off from the hidden blue eye idea.

Blue-Eyed Roses

I am also a fan of symmetry so that happens quite a bit in my doodles. After the first face doodle it was GAME ON and I did more including the Bird-Eyed Woman at the beginning of this post. Here are a couple of others.

I went to Egypt in 2010 and I think I was still channeling Cleopatra.

Cleopatra Blue

Garden Girl

I did the Purple-Haired Girl first and then gave her something to look at.

You gotta love a good garden right? TFL!

Art Out With Your HeART Out!

8 Comments

Filed under Doodlydoo, Musings

Tagged as blue eyes, Copic, doodles, faces, katyoparty, tribal

April 21, 2013 · 5:03 pm

Springtime in Colorado

My little solar-powered art shack is cozy and warm inside but outside it is another story. We got about 14 inches of snow (in one day) last week in our area. My art mascot, Sophie (lower left), loved the trek out to the art shack and she spent considerable time tossing snow into the air with her snout and generally tearing around like a mad dog.

This is the rain chain my husband put up a week ago when it was in the high 60s and low 70s. As it turned out it was a bit premature to put up the chain and the rain barrel but it did form the most awesome ice formation. I love nature’s art!

This is me dancing in the snow! I love the way the snow formed a “hat” on my hair and filled my heart with fluffy beauty!

I’ve been trying to learn how to add video to my blog so let’s see if I’ve figured it out….

2 Comments

Filed under Musings, The Art Shack, Video

Tagged as icicle, katyoparty, natures art, rain chain

April 15, 2013 · 10:22 pm

One Woman’s Trash Is…..

Upcycled packaging

Hello! Hope all is good and right in your world. I’ve been off creating in the art shack for a few days. Working on several different projects. I thought I’d share one of them today. As you may know I enjoy upcycling things into other things. This is a trash to treasure project I made last week. Literally–trash. I’m sure you can’t imagine that I would have a love of art supplies of all kinds.(wink wink) Well this project is made of art supply packaging that would normally end up in the recycling bin or trash. See if you can recognize some of the elements.

The background is distressed, inked, and painted cardboard packaging. The flowers are made out of the cut out hearts and their centers are made from the plastic shell packaging.

The hearts used were cut out of stuff like this.

The brown “rack” for the words is also gessoed and painted plastic packaging shell.

Upcycled packaging

The “medallions” were made by molding the plastic shell packaging and then pouring Ice Resin into the molds. The resin pieces were then inked and misted to give them an aged look.

In the picture above I used the cellophane package as an embossed background for one of the medallions. I colored it with alcohol inks and some Lindys Stamp Gang mist. The bow is made of part of a mesh produce bag tied with scrap ribbon. The words in my Word Garden are also cut from packaging and are backed with brown paper bag and they are removable. Don’t ask me why on earth I made them removeable??!! Just because.

I hope you enjoyed my trash to treasure Word Garden. TFL!

Art Out With Your HeArt Out!

2 Comments

Filed under Mixed Media Mania

Tagged as heart, katyoparty, packaging, trash to treasure, upcycle

April 10, 2013 · 3:32 pm

Layout of the Week

I had a fun surprise yesterday morning that made my day! I enjoy being creative with mixed-media art, scrapbooking, beadweaving, cardmarking, encaustic art, doodling….suffice to say if it’s artsy and/or craftsy then chances are I will love it. I belong to the forum and gallery community at Swirlydoos.com. I entered a layout in a challenge there recently and yesterday found out it was selected as Layout of the Week. There are so many creative and talented people who do beautiful work at Swirlydoos so I am honored to receive this accolade. Here’s the link.

http://www.swirlydoos.blogspot.com/

TFL!

Remember, today is a perfect day to Art Out With Your HeArt Out!

4 Comments

Filed under Mixed Media Mania

Tagged as grungy, katyoparty, Swirlydoos, vintage chic

April 10, 2013 · 1:55 am

It’s All About The Mojo

Embossed metal tape with patina and bling

I am in the midst of a bout of mojo mania. Oh how I love that state of mind! When you feel like you really ARE the master of your art and when you have an abundance of creativity. Everything seems to work together and comes out looking exactly the way you planned it in your head. Every little “what if?” turns into a happy accident. When mojo is in the house it is fun from start to finish. When mojo is in the house the sun shines a little brighter, the paint is creamier and more vibrant, the mists are mistier (is that even a word?), the ink is richer, the texture is so cool it makes you want to reach out and touch it. When mojo is in the house the color combinations walk hand in hand without effort. When mojo is in the house the decisions are seemingly preordained and everything FLOWS.

I’ve learned that mojo is a capricious commodity. Here today and gone tomorrow (or if you’re lucky in a few months). Mojo does not care if you are in the middle of a project. Mojo does not care if you have a deadline or a goal. Mojo does not give one shit. Mojo has its way with you and then heads on down the road. When mojo decides it’s over you have to hand over it’s suitcase, give it a peck on the cheek and walk away. Try to have some dignity about it. It’s not anything you did or didn’t do. It’s not about you–it’s about mojo. Don’t worry–mojo will come back to you. You keep doing what you do and Art Out With Your HeArt Out.

Liebster Award

Art Out With Your HeArt Out has been very lucky to be nominated for the Liebster Award by The Howling Mad Cat (http://howlingmadcat.wordpress.com/) which is a delightful blog. Thank you, Ellie!

The Rules of the Award

1. Post eleven facts about yourself.

2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you and create eleven questions for people you’ve nominated.

3. Choose eleven bloggers to give this award to and link them in your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them.

5. Remember, no tag backs.

11 Facts about Me

1. I play pingpong left handed but I play golf right handed.

2. I have a serious MilkDud addiction.

3. I love to read memoirs.

4. I listen to sports radio while I do art.

5. I love organization.

6. I think folding laundry is therapeutic.

7. I am a backyard beekeeper.

8. I go barefoot as much as possible.

9. I adore expensive bars of soap.

10. I walk my dog nearly every day.

11. I drink a gallon of skim milk a week.

Questions to answer from Howling Mad Cat

1. Do you have any pets? Yes. One crazed fox terrier mutt named Sophie.

2. What’s your favorite pasttime? Reading and making art.

3. If you had your choice, where would you live? I would live on the beach in a tropical locale.

4. What’s your favorite snack or dessert? Milk Duds

5. If you could play any musical instrument, which one would you choose to play? Piano

6. What’s your favorite animal? My crazed little Sophie.

7. Do you prefer walking, running, or swimming? Walking

8. If there was one thing you could do if money were no object, what would it be? Travel the world and spread peace.

9. Do you prefer serif or sans serif fonts? Sans Serif

10. Butter or no butter on toast? Butter all the way!

11. Have you ever cried while watching a film? Oh yeah.

Questions for my nominated blogs to answer

1. Mayo or Miracle Whip?

2. What’s your sign?

3. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

4. What is your motto?

5. Who is your favorite author?

6. Does Santa wrap his presents or leave them with no wrapping?

7. What do you order when you get Chinese takeout?

8. What is your dream car?

9. Would you rather cook or clean?

10. Have you ever made homemade ice cream?

11. Do you collect anything?

Nominated Blogs

1. http://studiojanine.net/

2. http://shannongreen.blogspot.com/

3. http://www.swirlydoos.blogspot.com/

4. http://bongodogblog.com/

5. http://notquiteold.wordpress.com/

6. http://thekeytomyart.wordpress.com/

7. http://wildwomancommunity.com/

8. http://lynneforsythe.blogspot.com/

9. http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/

10. http://mslibertycreations.blogspot.com/

11. http://dailydoseofarti.wordpress.com/about/

How Hard Can It Be?

For the past few days I have been stretching the boundaries of my comfort zone and trying some new things. Specifically, I have been making short videos for YouTube. A few months ago I started watching tutorial how-to videos on YouTube. I started with videos made by the design team at Swirlydoos.com. I love their style and their monthly scrapbook kits and their videos.

Well if you’ve ever been on YouTube you know that once you watch one video on YouTube they suggest about a bazillion more that you might like. I happened upon some made by a woman named Shannon Green of Houston, Texas. Some of her videos are tutorials about various artsy projects but a great many of them are show and tells about her shopping hauls and her art projects and things she gets in the mail. I just love them. She has a great sense of humor and loads of creativity. If you put her name in YouTube you will find her videos.

Another of my favs is StudioJanine–she is an artist in Germany and does some very cool and fun art journaling videos. She does some videos where she talks and some that are watching her do art journal pages with a peppy musical soundtrack. I enjoy both kinds.

Back to the point of this post–I was recently sick for a week and in between coughing fits I watched A LOT of YouTube video tutorials. I thought to myself–I can do this. I have things to say and things to show and I love telling people what to do. I’m going to make a video about something and put it on YouTube. So I took my husband’s Flip video camera and my iphone and my digital camera that also has video capabilities out to my art shack.

I had a mini tripod I got somewhere so I put the Flip video on it. Good. In all the videos I watched I saw a few basic angles used by the video tutorialists–mostly shooting from overhead and looking down or shooting from the side and sort of above. I had no idea how I would get my camera overhead so I went for the side shot. I quickly realized that I did not have the area to put my camera to the side and get it far enough away to view the right spot. hmmm… I made an executive decision to shoot from the front and at a downward angle so only my hands would be on camera. I balanced my little tripod on my paintbrush holder and held it from toppling forward with a crystal dish full of bits and bobs. Oh yeah I’m almost ready to roll! I decided to do a show and tell about a recent project. Okay good. When I went to power on the video camera it dislodged from the paintbrush holder and it toppled forward onto my project. No biggie–set it up again. Start again. I quickly realized I had no way to see if the camera was set up and if my project was in the frame because the screen was facing away from me. Even by standing up and trying to look around the back it was an impossibility–my eyes could not bend that way. Well hell. Oh what the heck–just film some and then check it. Okey dokey. Lights, camera, action. Lights??? How about light. Light as in one light. My clip-on lamp. Oh whatever–I’m sure it’ll be fine. So I proceeded to stumble and fumble and stammer my way through telling about my project for a few minutes.

When I viewed the playback gaaaa– I realized that my camera angle setup was waaaaay off. Only about a third of my project was visible in the frame. The audio was clear and a good volume so my halting and stumbling description was clear as a bell. Drat. My light–well who would’ve ever dreamed that one light bulb could create such a blinding glare on only one side of my surface?

Back to the drawing board. I decided to use my digital camera which also has video capabilities. Got the behemoth on the mini tripod. Got it balanced on my paintbrush holder, yada yada yada…action! Played with the light a bit. Turned on all the other lights in the room and shut off the lamp–nope that doesn’t work at all. Put down a white sheet of paper under my project piece–that seemed to help. Placed my project into the filming area differently so it should be in the frame. Alrighty then. Well, I didn’t stumble quite as bad during my show and tell spiel. It helped that I had just been through it five minutes before. When I did the playback I wasn’t quite as mortified as the first time. The lighting was better up to the point that I forgot what the white paper was for and moved it out of the way. My project was mostly in the frame.

Take 3. I decided to try my iphone but it doesn’t have the little screwy thing so it can’t go on the mini tripod. That’s okay because I am now pro at using my paintbrush holder and other crap on my desk to balance stuff. Okay–maybe not–because my iphone will not stay put. Or maybe it’s trying to off itself to avoid being part of this video debacle. Okay–change in plans. I decided to do a handheld video tour of my 8’x12′ art shack. 29 minutes. This was probably way more thorough than would be interesting to anyone including me. I never knew there was so much to talk about in that small space but talk I did! I documented every bit of everything. It was good practice. I have a whole new appreciation for anyone who has anything to do with making videos. I can’t believe I was so naive as to think all you had to do was click a button and whammo you have a quality video.

A couple of days later I ordered a Sony Bloggie HD video camera. I’ve done three videos for YouTube. They are far from perfect but I’m learning more with every one of them. I figure if I wait until they are professional quality I will never post anything. If you would like to view my film masterpieces on YouTube just go there and put Katyoparty in the search box.

Til next time….be brave and Art Out With Your HeArt Out!

4 Comments

Filed under Musings, The Art Shack, Uncategorized

Tagged as humor, katyoparty, tutorial, video newbie

April 1, 2013 · 2:22 am

Healthy Easter Wishes

Easter colors!

Isn’t that a beautiful Ikebana composition? It was made by an artist from The Sogetsu School in Denver, Colorado. I attended a home and garden show a couple of weeks ago and there was a huge display of many, many Ikebana creations. There were also live demonstrations. This was my first exposure to this beautiful art method. During the live demonstration there was a narrator who described the process and techniques as the artist worked on their composition. Sometimes it was a pair of artists who had to work in tandem to create the piece; one holding while the other anchored or twisted stems and blooms. The narrator also spoke of the meditative quality of doing these arrangements. I was only able to spend a few minutes watching and listening to the demonstration because I was with another person who wasn’t quite as enamored of Ikebana as I was but I really enjoyed it and I plan to learn more about this ancient art form. I snapped a couple of photos of arrangements I thought were exceptional.

Beautiful weaving

I have been a little under the weather this week and it was a reminder to me that “if you don’t have your health, then you don’t have anything”. I wish you a healthy (and happy) Easter!