One Yellow Rose Digital Collage

I was creating this piece for my Mom, whom we found out has cancer. Initially I created it with just the flower, but then decided to add a little magic, and the fairy and turn it into a digital collage. When I'd finished all that I realized that it would also just happen to work with the Gingersnap Creations blog color challenge, Soft Yellows and White. So I decided to enter it into that challenge.

Yellow roses have special meaning in our family, as does the phrase, "Never Apart in Heart." We sign our emails, letters, and cards with NAIH as a reminder that no matter how far apart we may be, we are always together in heart. So even though I can't physically be with my mom right now, I am with her, always. And thankfully, doing anything creative helps to keep my mind off of difficult things. So this art is for you, Mom.

I Love You.

Always.

NAIH

Timelss Beauty ATC

Time for another challenge at the Gingersnap Creations blog...this time it's a supply challenge and we had to use RIBBON somewhere in our creations. So this Timeless Beauty ATC is my creation for that challenge.

This Altered Art style ATC is a mixed media piece, combining paper, ephemera, ribbon, a vintage photo, and digital graphic elements. It definitely has a sort of timeless feel to it, don't you think?

Blood on the Dance Floor Collage

These creations were inspired by the DANCE challenge at the Collage Obsession blog for this week, and they're now a part of my ever-growing collection of Michael Jackson Art. If I hear or read the word, "Dance," Michael is usually the first thing that comes to my mind. So he was an obvious choice for my subject matter for this great challenge.

Blood on the Dance Floor is one of my favorite MJ songs, and one of my favorite of his short films. There's just something about it I love, musically and visually, so I love when I can incorporate it into my digital art too.

My Favorite Fairy

My husband got me the new Paint Shop Pro software for Christmas, and I finally just got to start playing around with it. I had an older version on my laptop, so I am already familiar with the basics of PSP (though I am by no means a pro). I haven't gotten to explore the new version in depth, but I wanted to take it for a test drive. So I decided that my granddaughter, Destiny is always the perfect subject. I had lots of fun turning her into a fairy, and then putting my new little fairy into two different surroundings. These digital collages are the results.

I love my  little Destiny fairy in a jar. The photo I used is from last Easter. I need to play around with some newer photos. :) But I loved in that dress, so I figured I'd just use it again for experimenting in PSP. I sure had fun!

Smooth Criminal Magic Art

I haven't been participating in too many art challenges lately so I decided it is time to get my creative juices flowing again. This week's challenge at Collage Obsession couldn't have come at a better time. The theme for this week is a Song Lyric...so I chose one of my Michael Jackson favorites, Smooth Criminal and created a digital collage around it.

Michael Jackson defined the word "Epic" where pop music and music videos are concerned, in my opinion. He blazed a trail and set the standard in what once was a very boring visual medium. And Smooth Criminal is a perfect example of his epic creative genius. It is MJ, and the Bad era, at its visual best. It not only showcased a great song, but it told a story, as all of Michael's short films did. I never get tired of watching it...and my grandson now loves to watch it with me. He especially likes the MJ  anti-gravity "lean." Such an epic MJ moment.

And so the legend lives on. :)

Time with Grandma Collage

This is yet another Christmas gift I made this year (OK, well it's last year now). This is a paper collage piece that I made for my mom using a vintage photo of her and my great grandmother.

This is made mostly with scrapbook paper and stickers, but I used a clear acrylic clock stamp as well, along with a brad for the center of the clock image. And when it was finished I framed it in a black frame for Mom. Just another little special photo memory captured in time. :)

These Are Our Hands

I wanted to make something special for my daughter for Christmas this year, and I also wanted it to be something that would be from her children to her. I got inspired by something I saw on Pinterest awhile back that involved scanning kids hands. So that is what I did, and this is what I turned that scan into with some digital magic...

I altered the color and layered in some digital art to create this piece. Then I sent the final image to the CanvasPeople website and had them print it onto canvas and frame it. It turned out even better than I expected, and my daughter seemed to really love it. I also included with it the following poem (which I had my grandson write out on the card):

These are our hands

You used to hold

When we were 8

and 2 Years old.

I had so much fun creating this for her...even if it was incredibly challenging to get two little hands to hold still long enough to be scanned--especially since my scanner software was acting up that day and we had to do it 3 times before we got it right! But it was well worth it in the end.

Twilight Bitten Art

I made my sister, Chantele a special Christmas gift this year. Being that I'm the one that got her hooked on Twilight (the books, and the  movies!) I decided all her gifts would be vampire related this year. I got her a Twilight shirt, along with the entire first season of The Vampire Diaries on DVD. That show is my latest vampire addiction so I figured I'd send it to her and see how she liked it. But I also made her this special Twilight-themed framed art I've called, Bitten.

This is made primarily from scrapbook papers that have a Twilight theme. I also added some ribbon and gems, and a Bella and Edward photo from the first movie in the saga. She loved the gift and I was so happy to make something special for her. Now maybe next year I'll need to make something related to The Vampire Diaries. :)