Message in a tiny pillow :)

This is a picture of a 3 x 3 sewn pillow that is one of three that I am working on. It's called a Friendship Pillow as part of an art exchange I am in.

The reason it's called Friendship Pillow is that it holds a very special message INSIDE the sewn pillow that is supposed to offer comfort to the recipient and make them feel that they have a friend who is always thinking about them.

I was a little hesitant to participant, in this swap, because I don't sew very well but I love the person who is offering the swap and she inspires me SO much and encourages me to try things that I'm a little shaky about.

The thing is to create the pillow, stuff with polyfil and before sewing it to close it, insert the comforting friendship quote inside.

I decided, for my pillows, I would use antique handkerchiefs for the fronts. I will share pics of the other two in future. I found this to be a very special art exchange and quite meaningful for the recipients and myself. I cannot wait to get my returns! Fun!

Love, Marilyn

Are you ready for some football????????

I discovered a significant advantage of digital art particularly on a laptop computer. Today is Sunday which means football on TV most of the day. Now; I don't mind football especially when my team is playing (Dallas Cowboys). By the way; they kicked major butt today by beating the Rams 35-7-woohoo!!!

After the Dallas game, I was getting a little "itchy" so decided to get my laptop, bring it in the living room while my husband watched the football games. I think you know where I'm going with this right? :)

I started playing around with Photoshop Elements, practicing my lessons, and discovered that I can work on art right in the living room and appear somewhat aware of not only the football games but my husband as well :)

This is my latest digital collage during football today! Score!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish everyone a good rest of their day and a safe and happy upcoming week.

Love to all........................Marilyn

More Photoshop practicing.................

I try to work on a little bit of Photoshop Elements each day. Perhaps because of my short-term memory and not wanting to forget what I'm learning :)

But; I'm becoming more and more comfortable with the layers concept and having fun with it.

I like the fact that I can use some of my art stash and scan images, papers, even lace and such to create elements for a digi collage.

I don't think I'll turn to digital collage as a constant as I can see where I would miss the tactile part of creating collages as I do with the hands-on approach to a collage on canvas, ATC, Little Fat Book page; whatever the substrate. I would also miss not incorporating rubber stamping.

But, it's a new area for me to explore, and I do enjoy the little strides I make in trying to work with Photoshop Elements. I love the fact that you can edit photos and alter them to your liking then using them in artwork. I have quite a collection of old black and white photos that I will enjoy altering and editing in the program.

Thank you all for visiting my Blog, your lovely comments and support mean so much to me.

Love to all..........................Marilyn

Halloween Fun.............ATC's :)

I can't say that Halloween is one of my favorite subjects but when it comes to art, I decided to give it a go. :)

This is a picture of ATC's that I did for an exchange with a Halloween theme.

My very favorite inclusion, in my art, is beeswax so I decided to add some to the bottom two ATC's.

I came across these sweet images, in my art stash, and they really helped me have fun with Halloween :)

I hope everyone has a great weekend. It has just cooled off, here, in upstate New York. We've been experiencing some very unseasonable temperatures. We broke a record on Wednesday. It reached a whopping 93 degrees! Love to all.......Marilyn

Photoshop Elements 5.0.....another baby step :)

Well; I'm getting there - slowly, inch by inch or should it be pixels by pixels?

These are my recent projects for Photoshop Elements 5.0. I'm taking an online class from http://www.joggles.com/ and it is really great. I had an opportunity to attend an open Digital Scrapbooking workshop, last night, conducted by Doris Castle. I decided to go and this is just what I needed.

Through Doris' guidance and observing others, in class, I was actually able to get layers!! It's only taken me about 4 months! :) I even was able to blur edges on one of the images along with coloring in some areas. :)

I decided to sit down, this afternoon, and do some practicing and I think this is the only way I'm going to get this. There's so much to this program but I am not going to give up and finding when I make little steps, like this, I just got so excited, I had to share.

I named the one piece, First Day of My Journey, as this was the first time that I sat, alone, and actually got layers!! Whew! The other digi collage I named Butterflies are Free and I decided to try my hand at an overlay layer with a low opacity (music sheet scan)!

Love you all........................Marilyn

The wedding...........................

These are some beginning pictures of a very special wedding that my husband and I attended over the weekend. As in previous posts, I shared with you, that I had the opportunity to create wedding invitations for the happy couple, Nicole and James. Well; yesterday (Sat., Sept. 22) was their day and they are now husband and wife; Mr. and Mrs. James Doig. The wedding was held in Manchester, VT at a beautiful B & B called The Wilburton Inn. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, the colors of autumn, on the trees, were just starting to turn. What a beautiful setting for their wedding. I thought I'd start with some pics of the grounds including the wedding trellis and area. Nicole's Mom gave Nicole away. My son was best man and there will be more pictures to follow. I just wanted to give you all a little "starter" feel to the wedding.

Photoshop Elements homework ....baby steps

These are pictures of my first Photoshop Elements homework pieces.

I enrolled in an online Photoshop Elements course and I am finding it to be much fun. This was an exercise using a black and white photo and using the Paintbrush tool; getting comfortable with choosing foreground colors, and adding text.

I also added a Filter touch that is called Rough Pastel and it was instant love.

I just had to share with all of you! Please feel free to use image(s) in your art!

Have a great weekend ahead........Love to all, Marilyn