Three Muses Challenge: Stairs/Steps

Please click on picture for best view

Image credits: graphicsfairy, holliewood, irena alexeeva.

Inspiration Avenue: Nursery Rhymes

Our challenge this week was to use a nursery rhyme as inspiration. I used various Photoshop Elements blending techniques, filters, and color effects to modify one image, achieving two different moods. Image credits upon request.

Collage Obsession: Lust

I chose to illustrate the lighter side of this week's theme. Image credits: Photo background and parrot drawings: mine. Crowns: Dezinaworld. Yellow hardhats: Google images. Speech balloon shapes: Media Militia.

Summer of Color: Pink

This week's color is pink! The background of my digital collage is a dimensional embellished journal cover I created some time ago. I believe the image of the birds layered on top is by Graphics Fairy; I acquired it before I started keeping good records of image sources.

Take a Word: Beach

It's another beach challenge...this time my beach scene has two vintage bathing beauties, with a dazed-looking lifeguard standing by.

Image credits: digital collage studio, DaziLadi flickr collage, my own backgrounds.

Sunday Postcard Art: Gnomes

Hmmm...this is the first time I've had to incorporate a gnome into my art. I created three colorful little fellows, dressed in "zetti" style. Image credits: sherriejd, crowabout, cemerony, deviant scrap, graphicsfairy, google images.

Theme Thursday: Borders

For this challenge, we were supposed to incorporate a border or borders in our art piece. I used African-style borders from Dover designs to frame a bird sketch I created in my "critter" phase last year. I also designed the alphabet and paisley patterns you see on the bird.

Three Muses: Whimsical, Quirky, Humorous, Fun!

Image credits: vintage images, last door down the hall.

Collage Obsession (Beach Babes) and Inspiration Avenue (Summer Sun)

For this beach-themed piece- appropriate for both challenges-- I used the ocean photo provided by Collage Obsession for background; added the bathing beauties from flickr collage images; and created the sun using images from milla and sherriejd. The border is adapted from dover designs. I had so much fun creating this!!! Makes me want to leave for the beach now, rather than in mid-July.

Summer of Color: Green

I took a whimsical approach this time.  Image credits: finecrafted, artfreebies, dover, clearly vintage, holliewood, graphicsfairy.

Take a Word: Fantasy

Image credits: joessistah, holliewood, collage obsession, graphicfairy, jaquian, milla.

So-Artful Challenge: The Crystal Ball

my digital collage

original image

We were given the image of the woman gazing pensively into a crystal ball as inspiration. Other image credits: wikimedia commons, victorian vignettes.

Sunday Postcard Art: Vintage Men

The "vintage" men in these photos are my maternal grandfather, Harry Fox, and (probably) his brother, whose  name I don't know. (Harry is in the single photo at the top, and on the right side of each smaller photo.) I found the photo strips in a box from my parents' house. They remind me of the "photo booth" type pictures we've all had taken over the years. Harry and his wife Beckie came to the U.S. from Eastern Europe and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. The background for this collage is a copy of the 1930 census record that included Harry and Beckie's family. They are the first family listed on this page. My mother (Bernice) was the youngest in the household; you can see that she was 5 years old at the time this census was taken.

Flight of Fancy

I was asked to host the Digitalmania Flickr group challenge for the upcoming week. For the first time, I got to choose a challenge theme! I chose "Flight of Fancy." I've just completed an altered book with that theme, so it was still on my mind. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the others create.

My sample collage, incorporating the concepts of both "flight" and "fancy," is posted above. Image credits: holliewood, obsidian dawn, deviant scrap, dover, milla.

Theme Thursday: Summer

please click on picture for larger view

Ahhhh, summer. Image credits: Photo of diver, sky, and trees by dewittn, flickr creative commons; spirals in sky by Sunshine daisy;  shadows and water with spiral effects: created by me.

Three Muses: Postmark Paris

Image credits: holliewood, vintage prints, stampington, vinnie pearce.

Summer of Color: Blue (Twice!)

LIFE

BLUE BIRD

This is my first posting for the Summer of Color challenge. I ended up doing two digital collages and couldn't decide between them, so I'm posting both!
Note: I almost always include image credits when I post a digital collage. I use images from many sources; including my own art and photographs, and photographs taken by my husband and son. I'm not organized enough yet today to include the credits (it's Monday, after all), so if there's an image in either collage you would like to know the source of, please post a comment and I'll respond.

Collage Obsession: Boats/Ships

Another boat challenge! I guess summer is really here. The basis for this collage is a photo my husband took one summer in Manteo, North Carolina, at the harbor there. The original photo was taken during the daytime on a sunny day. I altered the colors considerably; added special effects; and blended in various background images (sources available upon request). I like the stormy, somewhat mysterious image that resulted.

Take a Word: Insects

Like many people, I detest creepy-crawlies so much that I could only bring myself to feature the cutest and least objectionable of them in this digital piece,  relegating them to a supporting role among the tulips. Image credits: vintage prints, crystal wilkerson, graphicsfairy, broderbund, stampington.

Sunday Postcard Art: Me!

Oh, that smile, always with a little bit of mischief in it. I've had it forever. I'm likely to use it when I'm posing for photos, when I'm especially excited and happy, when I'm looking at someone I love, when something serendipitous happens, when I've just created a satisfying piece of art, and...well, just about any time. My loves in life are family, friends, color, art, nature, music, movies, books, and much more.

Image credits: Holliewood.

Theme Thursday: Lots of Color!

Image credits: rubyblossom, sherriejd, holliewood.

Three Muses: Birds

This digital collage incorporates  sketches I did of two parrots who are part of our extended family: Blueberry and Kiwi. (They belong to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law.) The background design is by deviant scrap; leaf brushes by easyelements.

Collage Obsession: Time

Image credits: rubyblossom, joessistah, artefacts, JSIM.

"Summer of Color" Begins Today!

This summer I'm participating in the "Summer of Color" blog event. Here's how it's described on their site (see button link on left side of my blog):

"Beginning today - and every Monday throughout the event - we will focus on and create art based upon the beautiful, bold and luscious colors of the rainbow. We will work in our preferred medium exploring color and share what we produce here."

I plan to create my art for this event digitally (although I can't rule out using another medium once in a while if I'm in the mood--you know how temperamental artists can be!). 

So stay tuned...this summer will be filled with color.

Take a Word: Stars

Image credits: broderbund clipart, milla, eddie07, holliewood.

So-Artful Challenge: Medieval

original image

We were given the above image of a man being knighted as inspiration for this challenge. I figured there had to be a back story to this lovely picture.
Other image credits: milla, dover, last door down the hall.

Sunday Postcard Art: Boats

Poor Mr. Brambleton...
Image credits: sherriejd, dover, last door down the hall, finecrafted, holliewood, graphicsfairy.

Theme Thursday: Pink and Brown

Image credits: Kim Klassen, Stampington, Holliewood.

Three Muses: The Written Word

Image credits: grungetext, anna corba, artfreebies, last door down the hall, obsidian dawn brushes/