And the winner is...

Sending out congratulations to...

Sherri from Like Words Together who is the winner of the Playful Pods Series of stencils from Artistcellar and created by Chris Cozen.

and...

Nan G from Froggy Designs who is the winner of both Chris Cozen's DVD Acrylic Painting: Color, Texture, Value as well as Chris' new book, written with Julie Prichard, Acrylic Solutions: Exploring Mixed Media Layer by Layer.

My four pieces created with Chris' Playful Pods stencils are now available for purchase in my Etsy shop.

Pods 1

Pods 2

Pods 3

Pods 4

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Stay tuned for another giveaway later this week on The Altered Page

Chris Cozen: Double Giveaway

Chris Cozen Stencils Blog Hop

Thrilled to be kicking off the blog hop celebrating the release of the newest line of Signature Series stencils from Artistcellar: Playful Pods from artist and author Chris Cozen. 

This four-stencil set includes designs based on the coolest pods I have ever seen. 

Excited to explore these new stencils, I decided to use all four stencils in four different pieces. I felt so inspired by the designs in these signature stencils that I chose to use materials that are anything but signature for me: pan pastels and watercolor paint. The color palette reflects the beauty of spring.

To celebrate the release of Chris' stencils, I am sponsoring a giveaway. All you need to do is leave a comment on this post, including your email address, to be eligible to win one, four-stencil set as pictured above. Comment by end of day on May 18th, at which time I will chose the winner randomly.

But wait. There is more. North Light Books and F+W Media are also providing copies of Chris' new book written with Julie Prichard Acrylic Soultions: Exploring Mixed Media Layer by Layer AND a copy of Chris' workshop DVD Acrylic Painting: Color, Texture and Value. So a second person will be chosen at random to win both the book and DVD.

I am just one of the many stops on this blog hop, each of which will be having their own giveaway. I hope you are able to take the time to visit everybody!

5/12 Artistcellar
5/13 You Are Here

5/14 Mary Beth Shaw 

5/15 Maryjo McGraw

5/16 Jane LaFazio

5/17 Pam Carriker 

5/18 Jeanette House

5/19 Chris Cozen

Australia: here I come!

File this under Dreams Do Come True:

G'day mates. I am over-the-moon excited to be part of the first Downunder Road Show sponsored by the amazing Art is...You duo Sallianne McClelland and EllenPurtill-Legare. I will be joining a special group of artists - Kecia Deveney, Michael deMeng, Andrea Matus deMeng, Sue Pelletier and Lesley Venable in Australia in August 2014. To all my Aussie friends - more info to follow on my blog and on the Art Is...You Australia website.

The Sweater Children

Do you know about the sweater children? They are the creation of artist and friend Don Madden from Fully Flummoxed. 

If you do not know the story behind this powerful work of art, take a few minutes to read about it here.

In addition to the children in this piece, Don made about 60 more.

He recently decided to share these with the world and has sent each child to people all over the world. The brief: leave them in public in a secret place in hopes that somebody will find them and give them a good home.

I was lucky enough to get one and placed in on a bench in Central Park in NYC.

Looks like this story does indeed have a happy ending as days later, he had been found!

The Golden Owl

Early in 2010 two teenage brothers, Doug and Barry Beeglecomb, discovered a locked chest hidden behind the boiler in their basement. Keeping their discovery a secret, they snuck it up to their shared room and placed it deep within the recesses of their closet, under piles of dirty clothes. Curious as they were, they waited one whole week until they were finally alone in their home one night. Using a mallet to break open the already loose lock, they were amazed to find a pile of yellowed papers and file folders, underneath which laid a velvet-wrapped object. With eyes wide open, this was the night that they discovered the Golden Owl.

The Year: 1891

The Place: Hibou, Delaware

The Secret: The Order of the Golden Owl

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This piece began with a handmade, background page created with pan pastels and acrylic paint on watercolor paper. I was going for the look of vintage, marbleized paper.

I then die cut and embossed six windows into the paper.

I shaded around the embossed edges with a pencil and hand-smudged each line.

I picked up a set of name plates at a flea market many years ago and attached one to the base of the paper using adhesive and brads.

I added a finishing touch to the edges by adding some dye ink and cutting curves into each corner to mimic the curves of both the cut-out windows and the name plate.

I dug into my very large stash of vintage tintypes and selected a group of guys. Looks like mustaches and beards were all the range in the 1890s.

I adhered a tintype behind each window and backed the whole piece with book board cut to size.

Finally, I inserted a caption into the name plate that was printed out on my computer.

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Supply List

Spellbinders Paper Art Supplies:

GC-001 Spellbinders^TM Grand Calibur® Machine

MD1-013 - Spellbinders^TM Media Mixage® Rectangles Two Dies

Preferred Promotional Partners: Imagine Crafts Inkblushers sponge

Other: vintage, tintypes, book board, watercolor paper, pan pastels, acrylic paint, dye ink, marker, pencil, vintage name plate, brads, adhesive, paint brush, scissors, guillotine paper cutter

Workshop Recap #2

Thanks for joining me as I recap my recent adventures teaching on the east coast. Post #1 can be found here.

The next stop on my journey was "up north" at Ink About It in Westford, Massachusetts. Lisa and Lori, the owners, gave me the warmest welcome and this is what I found when I walked in the door...

I taught my two-day, Mixed Media Memoire workshop and you know that good art is happening when the table gets messy. 

Another amazing group of talented and creative students.

Two weeks later I headed to the "deep south" and taught for a second time in a month at The Queen's Ink in Savage, Maryland. But on my way down, I made a pit stop and met Patti, the owner of The Queen's Ink, in Baltimore at the American Visionary Art Museum.

This is an extraordinary museum that focuses on outsider art. Cameras were not allowed inside but even the outside of this museum is photo worthy!

The outside of The Queen's Ink is also quite photogenic, as it is located in Historic Savage in a refurbished mill.

Inside the shop I taught Mixed Media Memoire one more time. And once again, I was welcomed with open arms!

For those of you who also visit my Facebook page...this is the typewriter I have been highlighting.

I love this venue and the Mixed Media Memoire workshop as well. I continue to be amazed that no two books are ever alike at the end of this class.

Thanks for coming along with me on my east coast tour. Not one to discriminate against coasts, I am about to embark on a 2+ week art adventure on the west coast. Details here. Stay tuned...

Workshop Recap #1

The last few months has been filled with travel for me, as I went both up and down the east coast to teach a series of mixed media art workshops. With so many stops, I am going to break this into 2 posts.

It began back in early March when Roxanne Evans Stout, Elizabeth Wix and I taught a workshop together called The Need to Tell Stories at Little Bird Creations Studio in NYC. You can read more about this workshop and see many other pictures here.

Later in the month, I headed down to The Queen's Ink in Savage, Maryland where I was treated like a king by the owner Patti and the whole crew.

The Queen's Ink is an incredible shop that has their products set up in mini-displays.

I taught two classes at The Queen's Ink. The first was a one-day workshop called Box of Dreams. The class was a lot of fun and the finished projects were creative and totally unique.

The second class I taught at The Queen's Ink was a two-day workshop Mixed Media Memoire. This was a new workshop and I could not have been any happier with how it all turned out.

Two weekends later I headed out again. I taught my Mixed Media Dossier at the Guilford Art Center in Guilford, Connecticut. What a beautiful place.

I usually take way too many pictures but at Guilford I ended up taking too few. Here are the shots that ended up on my camera roll.

To be continued...