Lu Hai and the three-legged toad

Title: Lu Hai and his 3-legged Toad

1 in a series of 4 designs done for an Asian-themed exchange on ATC’s FOR ALL.

( The link here goes directly to my Gallery, there , to see the rest )

There are many versions of this theme of the good luck and riches toad and his human companion.

I chose to combine 2 Ming Dynasty images of the story I found in the Smithsonian Museum online; the main image is shown here, untouched and as as I downloaded it.

Quite the fun challenge to “clean it up” a bit - left some of the bottom stains in for effect - and frame it with a colour-changed border of a Chinese silk painting I got years ago.

My intention was to print it - and other Asian designs I did - on silk, but found the silk version of light art works much muted; ( nice for Lu Hai- but not the others ).. even with more saturation and set to best printing mode... and the darker prints were just too dark...AH me!
Cotton dulled all prints
Mulberry paper worked well with the darker, but soaked up the lighter!

So with Epson pigment ink and on Epson photo paper it remains!

Vintage Lace

I loved creating these ...and I love the result!

These are the digital copies - the ones mailed for the exchange are of fabric.

Printing the images on silk fabric for inkjet, and adhering them and the lace with sheet adhesive worked very well!

Can't wait to see what the mail brings for me!

Exquisite Corpse

Meet Geraldine 

( not the transvestite one from Some Like it Hot - before that )!

A 3 part image to be mixed-and-matched in a swap called Exquisite Corpse.

She was inspired from a photo of an early stage and screen actress named Geraldine Farrar; done with cp/fine line marker and metallic pen on Bristol.

Her pose and attitude reminded me of a Mucha model, so I followed his lead in the decorative detail, though substituting silver for his lush gold.

Newest ATCS Traded

Thought I"d show what I've been up to, Art-wise, besides digital -work.

I've been in a series of exchanges over at the ATCS FOR ALL Web-site over the past few months; shown above are some of them!

I quite like the set-up of the ATCS FOR ALL trading site... you join a swap -  numerous varied themes are always on the go - and usually have a time limit of 6 weeks to 2 months to complete either 3 0r 6 pieces of art to swap for...3 for 3 or 6 for 6.

The host master/mistress chooses what they consider like for like effort &/or ability wise.. after having been in a fair amount of swaps now I can say that I think generally, the host decisions as to how to swap OUT - whom to whom - are fair, more than not.....You send in to them, and they swap all received cards out to the other traders.

The prime  advantage for me is because I am only making a limited amount of cards within a discrete time span - I usually opt for 3 for 3 -I feel I personally end up actually doing BETTER WORK...it keeps my initial interest fresh and alive!

I truly believe that attitude works both ways; affecting other participants as well!

Time To Leave

TIME TO LEAVE was created for the occasion of the first year anniversary The Three Muses Challenge site.

The sailing  ship is actually the BLUENOSE, a yacht of considerable racing fame for Canada...if you've ever seen our dime, it's on it......the girl a shepherdess from a last Century British Victorian painter of pastoral scenes.

My husband commented it must be a ship of crazy seamen going full tilt from such a shallow harbor.....but I reminded him looks can be deceptive; especially if you're starting to experience a sea-change, of sorts , as I think this lass longs for!

Happy May Day , one and All!

TITLE:   Reader Rock Gardens

SWAP:   Vintage Spring/ ATC'S FOR ALL

I researched Historic Houses in the Calgary area from at least 85 years ago to make the sources Vintage. Calgary was only declared a city -of 4000 souls- in 1884; so most Vintage homes are of the 1885-1925 era.

Couldn't help throwing in a famous cowboy's homesteader's cabin about 150 km from Calgary, though!
I also tried to match the era of the house with flora and fauna that would likely have either naturally grown or been planted in the area at the time.

THE HOW:

I designed the cards digitally in layers; then printed the underlying house layers on adhesive cotton that went over a base of a green floral print which I had distressed.
A layer of waxed paper went under a transparency printed with a floral overlays.

Constructing a card that way is quite new to me; so I've learned a bit from the experience..know better what to do next time around!

AS OF APRIL 30, 2010 , THERE IS STILL SNOW ON THE GROUND HERE...WE WERE HIT BY A SLEET STORM THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY, AND SNOW YESTERDAY MORNING!

THAT'S CALGARY!

HappyTomorrow-is- Earth Day, Everyone!

Quaking Aspen Forest  in Early Spring / main imagery from land near Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, others from the US and Canadian Forest Services, and in the Public Domain  /  Digital work of 19 layers

Originally created as one of my cards for the Magical Air Elements swap at ATC's For All