Been over a decade since I have written here, so thought I would jot down a few lines.  Where to start. I am going to be starting Medicare next month (yes I'm that old!).  I left the Art Trading Card site I was on for a while and just went back this year. I am now a host for swaps and loving it.  

I moved to South Dakota in 2018 and bought a house and a car. I sold the house in October 2024 due to property taxes being so expensive so now i'm living in an apartment. It isn't horrible and isn't great. We'll see how things go.

MACE

ATC's on the Brain!

Dang! It has been awhile since I posted here.  I've been working mostly, and have been piddling with ATC cards.

I joined a 1960's Television swap.  (Della has 2 slots left for anyone interested—due in Feb).

I love Leave it to Beaver.  All these years later I still try to catch an episode daily. :)  For the swap it had to be a collage card and have a character from the television show with a quote.  This one is Eddie Haskell with his usual compliment to June Cleaver.

I loved watching Hogan's Heroes growing up, and like most of you hated Colonel Clink and loved Sergeant Schultz.  I almost portrayed Schultz instead with his "I see nothing...I know nothing!"

 

Out of all of the cards, I think this one turned out the best.  I just recently started watching Dr. Who. I am presently in season 4 and hope to get through the series.

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I also belong to a few round robin groups.  One is a hand-drawn only group, and the other is pretty much anything goes. The premise is that there is a 1st 2nd and 3rd player.  Someone starts, theres a middle man (LOL) and then the last person finishes it up.  I made this set last nite as a starter.  I'm going to send it off to someone.  After I get it back I'll post how it turned out! 

This set is for the hand-drawn group.

Besides the endless geometrical boxes and cans I used to doodle all over my school work, snoopy had a prominent position.  My teachers were always griping about keeping my papers less "sloppy" :)

For the CCRR group

I still had snoopy on the brain when I made this one last night.  Both of these sets will be added on to by 2 other people.  I can't wait to get them back and post the finished projects!  See you then!

Matt's Short Visit November 2014

My blog, my rules.  :)  My son is visiting for 2 days.  A few pictures from his visit.

Just so there is a little artwork included, he made the heart for his fiance' :)

I LOVE SUSHI!

Wasp Trap

So I constantly have wasp problems here.  They seem to be all over the place and sometimes get into my trailer.  Now that the first freeze is approaching and they are probably gone for the year, I came across this neat, quick, wasp trap. (Thanks Roku)   I'll have to try it next year.  Mine is going inside my house though, not outside because I don't care if the wasps are out there.  They do serve a purpose in controlling the populations of other insect chains like caterpillars, and the like.

Anyhow, pictured below is the little trap that I made. You take a water bottle and cut the top part off, remove the lid and invert it.  It fits nice and snug.  Then you can decorate it or not.  You put the bait (something sweet) inside the bottle and wait.  It really works too.  I saw how many were in the bottle on the demonstration.

Mountains

So I spent my younger years growing up in Fort Collins Colorado.  I always marveled at the huge mountains (I still do).

There was one specific mountain that had a huge A on it.  I asked my mom what it was for and she said it was an A for Aggies.  My young mind always thought Aggies was the name of a supermarket.  In reality it was named after the Colorado State University Aggie Ram which was adopted by the school in 1959.  My dad was attending the school to get his PhD in Electrical Engineering.



I have fond memories of the five of us traveling to the top of the mountain by car and in shorts and tee-shirts having snowball fights with my brother and sister.  My mom could dish it out too.

I can't draw (or paint) mountains as well as I vision them in my mind, but that doesn't make them any less breathtaking.  Today I spent the better part of the day working on this envelope (cover) for one of my buddies in the art cover exchange.

Its the first time I have attempted a snow scene.  Of course I have my usual barbed wire fencing I have been putting on almost all of my artwork for years.

Watercolour from today

So today I did what I said I was going to, and painted a picture on 8 x 11 watercolour paper.  It went okay, and I was pretty happy with the end result.  I can't just paint because it is still pretty unfamiliar to me, so I draw it first and then paint.  I couldn't get the shadows quite right, but for the first full drawing not on a 3.5 x 2.5 inch atc card I think it came out okay.  I used an old  art cover exchange cover I had by ACE 160, Gene Berryhill to get an idea for what to draw and paint.  Anyways, here is the end result:

I still have a lot to learn about watercolours, but I'm hooked.

Distressed ATC Cards

So this has been a quiet week as far as art goes.  I've still been doodling in my art journal every night, but not been doing a whole lot of other artsy stuff.

I've always been a fan of distressed looking stuff.  I guess that is why I love old barns so much, especially the ones with the paint peeling off, big holes in the sides, etc.  My sister and I went shopping for something to put her television on a year ago.  I was loving all the faded distressed stuff.  She hated it! LOL ... She likes the bright unblemished wood colours.  I know how distressed inks look on wood, but I wanted to see what they would look like on watercolour paper.

Yesterday I got out my distressed inks and made the backgrounds for several Art Trading Cards that I'll be sending to people to finish.  I think they came out okay. It will be interesting to see what they do to them.  Part of the image got cut off by the scanner; that's why they look smaller.

Tomorrow I plan on trying a "real" watercolour picture.  I've been doing washes on small ATC cards and envelopes, and I'd like to see how it looks on real paper.  On my wish list for Christmas:  an easel so I can do a real picture justice :)  I'll do my best on the table and see what happens.  I think if I pick up the image and rotate it, I can get the wash to work.

It was fun going to Hobby Lobby this past week and helping my sister to pick out a frame for a drawing I did that my mom called dibs on for Christmas.  My half of the gift was the drawing; my sis had to frame it.  I think I got the easy end of the deal.  It came out great.  I'll take a picture of it after she opens it for Christmas.