Flowers & Butterflies Multi-Media Piece

This this my first true Mixed Media piece. Created the background and added the texture with modeling paste. Then painted with acrylic paints and Glimmer Mist Sprays - I didn't like the result.

So, I wiped it all off (rubbing alcohol works great for getting most of the acrylic paint off, even when dry), and started again. Took painting it 3 times before I liked it.

Then added the painted swirly leaf chipboard, the flowers, and the saying. The upper right corner looked empty, so I added the 3D butterfly.

Detailed Photos

Judy

Creativity Multi Media Piece

This my take on "Collage in Squares" as taught by Marta at Maremi Small Art . She used squares, but I decided to use circles.

This was made on a Canvas panel, with circles cut from assorted scrapbook papers.

I torn apart a sheet of Stamperia Decoupage Imagine LOVE ART Rice Paper to fit in the spaces between the circles.

Lastly, I shaded everything and added some Quote chips from the Tim Holtz - Advantus Quote Chips Idea-Olo Theories set.

Detailed Photos

Judy

What is luck?

Luck, there is all sorts of luck, good & bad. I think, for the most part, we create our own luck, good or bad, by how we approach life.

Sometimes luck that at first seems bad, in the end turned out to be good luck. That is how I look at my stroke – It was bad luck that I had the stroke, but in the end it changed my life in so many positive ways.

Mike & I quit smoking the day I had the stroke, we had talked about wanting to quit, but we kept putting it off. Life said “You will quit NOW”. Who can argue with that?

It brought my family closer together – from my brothers to the extended family, we are closer now. It brought all the kids closer to each other and I think closer to me too. Heck, even Helen has come a bit closer to me too.

I think that the biggest positive change is how it brought Mike & me closer. I mean we were close, but we were sort of plodding along with no goals ahead of us. Now we have bought a house again, we are making plans for making improvements to it, and generally looking forward.

I’ve come to know that my “email buddies” are very important to me. They are one the reasons that the first thing I wanted to be able to do is use the computer again. Granted, I not only needed to learn to use the computer again, I had to re-learn where the specific letters were – nothing like having to hunt & peck & try to spell at the same time.

I now truly realize how much my “studio” and my “crafty stuff” means to me too. I thought that I lost the ability to create scrapbooks, and that really depressed me because I had not finished my Dad’s memorial album. But again, I wanted to get back my crafts, and a year after the stroke I finished the album and presented it to my Mom & the rest of the family.

I’ve learned just how strong and stubborn I am, how determined I can be to get my life back as close to what it was. Things have changed, I have changed. Some of the things that were important to me before my stroke have become less important. I didn’t think that having a cat and being responsible for it was important, now I have a furry friend that brightens up my day.

So Luck – it is what you make it to be, what you want it to be. Good, bad or indifferent, it exists and it affects our lives.

Suggestion & requests for files always welcome.

See you soon!
Judy
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