We’re talking a lot about taking classes this month, but here’s a great couple of reasons why maybe you should think about teaching classes too!
Debe Friedhoff sent me the following note…I can’t wait to see what Debe comes up with next:

The mermaid clock was for my hostess in Florida, who invited me to teach ALTERED ART (as if) to the middle school students that were participating in the MAKE A DIFFERENCE program.
We had a wonderful time, and I enjoyed the students one on one, and they “got it” and ran with it!
My other clock is a fantasy …read more

You may remember that Dee Henderson shared some really fun bottlecap art awhile back, including a piece that utilized a keg to make a lamp for his son. Well, Dee is back at it! This time, it’s a 5L beer keg table lamp!

Dee writes:

It’s was really pretty easy, since I didn’t have to spend hours rehabbing a regular keg- simply used a 5L Heineken consumer keg
Rather than buying a lamp kit or parts, I simply used a “junker” lamp and recycled it for parts
I painted and placed a based on the bottom, ran the electrical through the keg, …read more

Patti and I have been exchanging comments about how to best get a plain paper or photo paper image transfer to work properly. One of the conclusions Patti came to is that it’s not an exact science by any means! It can take a lot of experimenting and a lot of tries to end up with an image that you like, but OH, when it does work…
Patti was gracious to allow me to share the results of her recent experiments:

You can read Patti’s thoughts about the piece on her blog, Treasure Barn. The original post with instructions for image …read more

Did you enjoy Chris Tessnear’s tutorial yesterday? I sure did! Even though I’ve been making mixed media art for quite some time, there are always tips and tricks that I learn from other people’s work. Ideas that make me say to myself, “Hmmm…gonna be trying that tomorrow!”
Do you have an idea for a technique that you’d like to share? Step-out pictures would be helpful, but may not be necessary as long as you’ve got a good shot of the finished item and can explain how to do it simply and clearly. I’d be happy to …read more

Quilt
Joni’s Things
My name is Joni Owens. I was surprised, and excited when Cyndi invited me to share some of my collage pieces with her readers. I love working with all sorts of odds and ends. I have had no formal training (the only art classes I remember were way, way back in I think the 4th grade), creating art is something I have done all of my life in some fashion, thanks to early efforts by my mom. I love the “no wrong way to do it” part of mixed media work because some of my things occasionally …read more

I recently became aware of the wonderful work that was coming out of an online artist community known as the ABC_Alteredbookclub! My friend Elizabeth took the time to give us all an overview of what her group does, and has shared some of the beautiful art! The rest of this post are her words:
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When I was approached to write an article describing ABC_Alteredbookclub, I was both honored and contemplative. We just celebrated our fourth …read more

Basic Spirit by Isabel Besse
Isabel Besse emailed me some great additional tips to pass on to everyone! She wrote:
Hi ! I’ve been altering photos for quite a while….a couple of things I’ve found out….
The photos don’t need to be wet to sandpaper. Also, you can use a spritzer bottle to wet the photo (helps to control the dampness, and they don’t take as long to dry). You can also spritz with a bit of bleach diluted in water.
Take a paper awl to outline any images you like. I like to use gel pens or the …read more

One of my online friends from the Bead Journal Project has experimented with Speedball Speedy Cut Printing Block rubber, and has come up with an excellent fish stamp! Timaree, aka Freebird, read my grid stamp post awhile back, and mentioned that she’d been playing with the rubber stuff. You can read about how she made it and see what she made with it on her excellent blog, Freebirdsings. You can also follow her adventures with the Bead Journal Project!

Make Art Monday!
Carolyn posted a comment after I shared the instructions for making a grid stamp and told me that she had used the technique to make a unique card. I was thrilled that she was willing to share both her process and the results with all of us.  Thank you so much, Carolyn!
Carolyn created a pattern first:

This is the pattern I used to cut out the stamp, not the actual card I made…since the verse was long and had several long words as well, I felt I had to plan more not just cut holes and hope they work.

Here …read more