Love and Romance

 Love and Romance at Inspiration Avenue

We've had a lot of that lately, especially with our upcoming

Tags from the Heart tag swap. We can't get it out of our minds!

{Friday (January 25) is the last day to sign up for the swap,

just in case you want to know!}

When I think of romance, I think of that dreamy city, Paris.

When I think of France, and a theme for a piece of art,

I often think of Marie Antoinette.

This is a collage I made for the weekly challenge at IA.

Marie is gliding through the garden at the Petit Trianon

to meet her lover, the Swedish Count Axel Fersen.

It's ungodly early in the morning and the fog and dewy grass

are dampening the hem of her dress. But no matter,

she probably won't wear the outfit again anyway. . .

Why so early? Well, to avoid prying eyes that watch

everything she does. Not that Louis would care much

about her love affair . . . it's her enemies at court who criticize

the smallest thing she does. There are already rumors, but

what would they say if they knew it to be true?

The Petit Trianon

Imagine! Wouldn't you love to have this as your little getaway!

“The Petit Trianon, a three-story neo-Classical château 

was originally built on the grounds of Versailles in 1762-68 

by Louis XV for his mistress Madame de Pompadour. 

Louis XVI gave it to Marie in June 1774, a few days 

after he became king, when she asked for a hideaway. 

("This pleasure house is yours," he told her.)” [source]

King Louis XVI

Count Axel Fersen

Count Fersen orchestrated the last
desperate attempt at escape for the royal family when
they were imprisoned by the leaders of the French Revolution.
Of course, the disastrous attempt failed and
both Louis and Marie went to the guillotine in 1793,
Louis in January and Marie nine months later in October.

Don't miss the other Love and Romance entries
at Inspiration Avenue!
I'm barely making it in under the wire this week,
so I'm off to add this to Mr. Linky!

Joy in the Post Blog Party and Giveaway!

We'd like to share . . .

 

the joy that came in the mailboxes

of eight bloggy-artist friends last year

from April through November!

So we're having a blog party complete with 

a  giveaway  to inspire you to start your own

art journal swap! At the bottom of this post

you will find links to the other 7 artists’ blogs

and info on how to  win  an art journal and

lots of goodies to inspire fun and creativity.

But first, I'll share the beauty that awed me

when I opened up my journal (the journal which flew

all over the US after making three stops in the UK).

The eight journals:

My journal:

Here is what I found inside!

from 

Lisa (the Priti One):

from Angie:

from Kat:

from Lisa (the Wright One):

from Tammy:

from Kim:

 

from Stephanie:

also from Kim:

 There you have it!

We had such amazing fun sharing our

journals and creating something

in each one as they arrived at our doors.

My journal is truly a treasure ~ I love the art inside

and I love that each page reminds me of a special friend!

In fact, we had so much fun that we've already

begun the next one ~ with the eight of us plus

adding one more lovely friend this time,

Gemma.

I hope you'll visit the other 7 blogs

to see each unique journal:

Priti Lisa

Angie

Kat

Lisa W

Tammy

Kim

Stephanie

Ahem. I mentioned a  giveaway  didn't I?

So sorry to make you wait this long!

This art journal and plenty of juicy goodies

will be given away to one lucky winner.

Leave a comment here and on the 7 other blogs.

Tell us what you like about art journaling.

Maybe you're inspired to try a journal swap?

It would be awesome if you were to gather 

some artsy friends and start your own Round Robin! 

In fact,  rumor has it , the prize 

will not be given away by random number

selection, but to the person who is most 

interested in starting her/his own

journal swap! More details are on

Priti Lisa's blog.

I hope you've gathered some inspiration here

and on the other 7 blogs. . . if not to start

a journal swap, then to begin (or continue)

creating in your own art journal!

Have a beautiful weekend!

Come join the Tag Swap!

Do you love to receive surprise goodies in the mail?

(Silly question . . . of course you do!)

Inspiration Avenue is having a tag swap!

It's eazy peazy! 

All you have to do is head over to Inspiration Avenue to sign up,

make 3 tags,

send them to 3 people,

and receive 3 tags back in the mail from 

3 more people! 

Which proves that good things come in 3’s!

Tags are fun and easy to make ~ 

here are 3 tags I made last year for a journal swap:

This is one I created digitally and then printed to make a tag:

 (I used this for a bookmark before I started reading on my Kindle.

I still miss seeing it everyday ~ the one bad thing about eReaders ~

no bookmarks! )

These were also created digitally from vintage photos and 

embellished with ribbon and a scalloped border after printing:

(The digital images for these tags are available in my Etsy shop :)

So whether you create art with paint or prefer to make digital creations,

it's fun and easy to turn it into a tag!

I hope you'll head over to Inspiration Avenue and join the

Tags from the Heart tag swap!

Sign ups are open until January 25, 2013!

Stencil Test Drive!

Starry Night Stencil

I was so excited when Jessica Sporn asked me to participate in 

the Stencil Test Drive! She has created a new line of stencils 

(available at Stencil Girl Products). When she asked which stencils

we would like to "test drive", I was drawn to the stars and swirls

of the Starry Night stencil.

Before deciding on what to create for my test drive,

I had to play a bit with the stencil...

I love the stars with the swirls inside!

 

I sprayed the stencil with paint and then blotted the paint-y side

on a piece of paper and the images showed up with

a delicate outline. Kind of cool, and I colored them in with marker.

 

In the end, I decided on sort of getting two birds with one stone,

and did something for Fall Fearless and Fly as well,

a challenge I've been wanting to participate in, but haven't had the time.

The Headline prompt was Future Imperfect and the color prompt was yellow.

There was a quote by Friedrich Nietsche, but I decided to use 

one I like by Salvadore Dali.

I just had to use the stars with the swirls inside!

Part of the prompt were these words: What is different about your life now than what you once expected it to be?  How is the way it turned out perfect or imperfect?  If your future turns out differently than you imagined in the first prompt, could it still be perfect?

Part of what I would not have imagined years ago was that 

I would be living away from my family for close to 20 years now.

So I included some family photos. Not being near my family

certainly makes my life imperfect. But as Salvadore Dali said, 

“Have no fear of perfection ~ you'll never reach it.”

Kind of makes you feel better about things not being perfect.

There are 3 other artists who selected Starry Night for their test drive,

Judy Shea, Natasha May, and Revlie Schuit.

Drive on over and see what they've created!

And visit Jessica's blog as well for her wonderful art

and to see all of the Stencil Test Drives as they happen!

Thank you, Jessica, for allowing me to be part of the Stencil Test Drive.

I'm looking forward to the next one!

Hello 2013 . . .

Well. I've finally managed a blog post, the first since December 17.

Is anyone still out there?

If so, I promise to do better with posting. 

Not a Resolution, because I don't believe in them,

but a plan to put more thoughts and art onto these pages.

Pantone's Color of the Year for 2013 is

...wait for it...

Emerald

I'm not sure I like a Color of the Year.

The year is too long to dedicate one color to the entire time.

But Pantone, being all about color, will have their say, I guess.

I've got some projects coming up that I'm very excited about!

One of them is the Stencil Test Drive using Jessica Sporn's

new stencil designs. I've been asked to create something using

her Starry Night stencil. I love stars and swirls, and the stencil is

full of them, so it will be tons of creative fun.

My blog post featuring the art I will create will be on January 10.

Eek. It's right around the corner!

Sometimes when I'm stumped for an idea, I create a crazy background

and go from there. Hmmm . . . I do see some Emerald green in here.

I'm planning on creating more Art this year. My Muse deserted

me for a good part of 2012, so I've decided to just go on without her.

Who needs her fickle, simpering self flitting around 

dictating what I should or shouldn't do, anyway?

I would like to enter more art challenges this year, 

which will involve more time, but we'll see how it goes.

Since I won't be catering to my difficult Muse, 

things should move along faster. Right?

At Inspiration Avenue, we'll be hosting a Tag Swap soon.

I'm super excited about that since tags are awesome.

I hope you're excited about the new year!

2012 had some good things happening, but a lot of bad.

Wouldn't it be awesome if the world could make a brand new start!

Of course, all we as individuals can do is vow to do our best in 2013.

“Write it on your heart that every day

is the best day of the year.”

 ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson