Where The Green Fern Grows

This is the inside back cover of my AB for the ICE in Altered Books Group Round Robin...We are mailing today and everyone is very excited to get this project rolling.

This lizard image was a B&W pic from a book I got at a used book store called "Book Trader". The book title is " World of Strange Animals" and I bought the book ($2) to use as an Altered Book...but when I chose my theme (nature) for the RR on the ICE Group, I remembered buying the strange animal book and looked in it for pics to use in the ICE Group book...Only problem was that most of the pics were black & white, and you know me..."gotta' have that COLOR"...so I used my gel pens to color the Iguana and write my introduction and instructions for my book. Then I sprayed it with clear cote sealer...gel pens don't always dry real fast and can be sticky for a while...but the sealer took care of that problem. These Flamingos (on the left side of this spread) are from the same book as the lizard, and so is the big shell. I used gel pens to high light the pink in the Flamingos and I sewed and glued vintage pearls on the shell pic. I painted the whole spread with Golden Glaze, then I folded down the page to make a pocket. I added some feathers (I just love feathers, don't you?) and some beaded fringe that has little teeny tiny sea shells on the ends. There are small pink ribbon rose buds in the beaks of the Flamingos. I made some tags with the words "By The Sea, By The Beautiful Sea" and added those to the page. I'm not sure that you can see the beaded/teeny tiny sea shell fringe at the bottom of the page....but it is there... I added pink card stock to the back of the shell pic for stability because it hangs over the edge of the page. I found the pink poka-dot candle in my stash and I always think pearls look better by candle light.

This page is called bugs...the back ground paper is some of the great paper that I got at the Flax store in San Francisco...and the big red flower with the beetle came from the same book as the lizard, flamingos and shell (only it was already in color). The feathers are Wild Turkey feathers from a hunter friend of mine, he teaches with me at Rose State College and he brings me Pheasant and Turkey feathers every year...gotta love that. The brass metal leaves are from a wreath candle holder I got at the thrift store for .50....I just cut them off with wire cutters and flattened them with a hammer. I just love 50% off Senior Citizen Day at the thrift store...there are so many advantages to being a Senior Citizen....lol....really!

I Have been "Tagged".....Six Word Memoir

"It is all about the LIGHT"

"Lawanda" I have been tagged by Dawn Gold. Who is so sweet, talented and gracious. I am so happy to say that we have become fast friends even though she lives in England and I live in Oklahoma...Thank you Dawn (aka. Betty Boop)

The challenge is to use 6 words that could describe your life as you would write it in a personal Memoir. On the surface this sounds fairly simple, but it was harder than I imagined....I wanted it to reflect my progress through life and what I have tried to accomplish in my journey to the "Light". Light-hearted, En-Lightened, Light-weight, and Lighten-up.

The rules for the "Six Word Memoir Tag are......

1. Write your own six-word memoir.

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration, if you'd like.

3. Link to the person who tagged you in your post.

4. Tag 5 more blogs with links.

5. Remember to leave a comment on the blog with an invitation to play, I am tagged.

These are blogs of artist that inspire me and make me smile......

Christy... http://www.averageamericangirl.com/blog/index.php

Gayle.... http://www.gaylepage-robak.blogspot.com/

Lori.... http://www.alteredartexpressions.blogspot.com/

Patricia.. http://www.coolcrone.blogspot.com/

Kris... http://www.artoutsidethebox.co.uk/

I could list about 50 more but the rules say 5... you can find links to lots of other great blogs in the right hand collum and over on http://jewelsoftheeast.blogspot.com/

Ella's Music Tree

This is my grand daughter Ella...I had posted some of her collage art work previously, you can see it in the older posts...I am so proud to tell everyone that her "Music Tree"
collage won 1st place in the Mid-Del School District "Visions" Art Contest, and her "Flower" collage won 2nd place in it's category...Ella is in 1st Grade and this is the 3rd year in a row for her art work to win 1st place for her age group. When she was in
Pre-K and in Kindergarten she had her work chosen for a state wide exhibit...She is quite the artist.

She loves to come to "GA's" house for an "Art Weekend".... I want to tell you how I got the name GA. When my grand daughter Katlin was little,(she is now 13) her brain worked faster than her mouth, so she shortened most of her words, my other grand children all called me Grandma,(I have 7 grand children) anyway Katlin shortened Grandma to GA...and that name stuck. So, of course, when Ella (she is now 7) came along she picked up on that and now they all call me "GA" It is really pretty cool, and definitely unique. I really wanted my grand children to call me "Mammie" because that is what we called my grand mother and I always loved that name...but you know how children are? No NanNa or MamMa or Mammie for me...it is great to be "GA" Ella is so beautiful, smart and artistic. I snapped this pic of her on my porch, in her "1st Day of School Dress". God blessed us and God blessed her when He gave her to us. Ella is adopted and we were lucky enough to be there when she was born, and my daughter got to be in the delivery room with Ella's birth mother, so my daughter was the first one to hold her, and a few days later we took Ella home...now if that isn't a blessing, I don't know what is....