ROULIER'S RUSTY RELIQUES

KOOL KREEPY KREATURES

Hey this little freak accidently showed up on my drawing table this morning I must have accidently finished him last night. Wow-w-w I should get a better light or quit drinking the brews!!!!!

KREEPY KEWPIES BEFORE AND AFTER MAKEOVER PHOTOS

This week I'm working on kewpies. I have one finished and need to do one more so they can go home to their new families. Thought it would be interesting to compare the before and after pictures. I was not smart enough to take a picture of my first one and then the finished picture, a little too much holiday fun I suspect, so the kewpie is a bit different in the after picture. But this is the general idea of what I start with and what I end with, we are all artists here, right, I think you get the big picture. I used a rusty saw blade, a cigar box lid and my ceramic kewpie and this is the fabulous finished piece which I have changed already. Man, I can not leave stuff alone I need to get this wrapped....geez.

A COUPLE OF ATCs AND A TIP

Hey, these ATCs  are something I've been working on this holiday, they are from old photos. I'm  really having fun with the old photos right now.
Be sure to say a little prayer of thanks for the people who gave their lives so we could have our lives and our freedom, after all, this is why we have this holiday.
Okay for a TIP IT MONDAY TIP: here's my tip: relax do what ever it is that you like to do as long as it is NOT work but FUN!!! That includes you workaholics.......I mean it.

CREEPY COOL STUFF

Isn't this just too cool, just got it and can't wait to work with this skull. Hey when I get stuff like this I only want to know what kind of bone it is not the particulars like, where it died, how it died and how the person I got "it" from got "it". If you read my about me page you already knew that sooner or later you would be seeing something like this. BTW for those who are curious this critter is a rabbit. Notice how I didn't say bunny, would have just grossed some of you out too much, would have made it too sypathetic, we want clinical here.

SECOND TO THE SAME IDEA

From the same batch of pictures as the previous post, same general idea and theme. Boy it's nice today, I feel really-y-y lazy but got lots going on, so-o-o-o........
Just pick-up my kewpie dolls from being fired, now I can do the fun part which is painting and embellishing!! Put up picture when I'm finished.

Little something I made the other day on a 4" canvas. I love this photo which came in a huge batch I picked up at an estate sale because all living relatives had died. I felt sad about this ending so I decided to make some art with this family's photos. So in a way, their memories would live on.

NEW MATERIAL PIECE

Here is a perfect example of over worked! I printed on the muslin, I transfered onto the muslin, I sewed on it, and I stained it. But still I kinda like it in a weird sort of way! I love the idea I'm going to do more. BTW we had huge storms last night it was raining sideways, wow how different for this place.

TIP ME MONDAY (cash is fine)

Okay I've had several people ask about the ATC's and how I did them (you probably know who you are) so I'm going to explain on "TIP ME MONDAY"!!! This cute image was given to me by Bernie to use. I took the image and made a transparency out of it. Use a printer with water soluable ink. First lay the transparency down on your background, don't glue anything yet. This image is dark so I only put a postage stamp behind these ladies which didn't work that well, I didn't think. The background is painted with gesso to hide most of it because it is so dark. I overstamped with Staz on ink with a script stamp. Use Staz or another ink that's permanet...kinda important if you don't want the whole thing black!!! I painted the card with Liquitex matte medium liquid, put my transparency down and used a credit card to burnish. Then my secret....I put  a heavy weight on the whole thing and left it alone for about 15-30 minutes, hint... leave the area if you have to, or work on another one. Later after you've had some choclate to steady yourself, peel the transparency off and you will have a really cool image which won't be perfect...okay.....that's the point. On this one I inked the white areas, took my prisma colors drew back in, hightlighting the whites and darks. You may notice my failed attempt to lighten a bit behind the girls.....hum. Now a little info here matte medium doesn't set up as waterproof as gloss (or maybe I didn't wait long enough) but I spray...now...with matte sealer. Because matte allows you to work back into the piece where gloss does not. I used rub off numbers. on their cute little tummies...cause I love them, you do what you love. I will show an example of putting ephemera behind the piece deliberatly to create an effect. E-mail me with further questions on my super secret process!!! On this one she
had a lot of information behind her so I placed  ephemera below to hightlight both heads, transfer image (well glue your ephemera first, you knew that right). Colored pencil is on the blanket and her face, the rest is ink. Then sealed. The one below is ink on edges and twinkling H2O's dapped on the bow, the ephemera colors her dress nicely, inked edges and sealed. Thanks again to Bernie for the girl and dog image. The one below is clip made into a transfer. Think dark and light when stamping and coloring. Be sure to show off your experiments!! I wannna see them.

HUMMMMMM SPINNING WHEELS

Okay I'm still fooling around with my blog trying to figure it out. Many thanks to those who have visited and those who have left comments I don't quite have a handle on this yet so please bear with me.
Talk about a lightening bolt, a very good friend from art school just contacted me after seeing me on the web somewhere. I have noticed that things come together for a reason and you need to pay attention. I'm not much of an artsy fartsy air head with all the new agey stuff but this sort of thing, I have noted in my life, happens for a reason.
Dying to start some new projects got another used sewing machine, did I mention I can't sew, but I can put random stitching on art work I've got a couple of ideas.....
Got to get this typepad thing running smoothly....!!!!! My wheels are spinning....!!!!

NEW ATC'S

I'm looking for some new ways of doing the same old, same old. I have always been interested in doing a whole series or two or three of items to explore different ways of achieving new looks for old themes. I love the gel medium transfer method for a couple of reasons you don't get a perfect image, I love the painterly quality of it, I like surprises, sometimes you get something very cool and other times nothing much to write home about. On these I'm using matte liquid medium over gesso and stamps (using Staz On ink). I'm also using the same method for some altered postcards some of which came out very well and others......well, I wasn't happy with the results.