Donna B Miller

Purple Poetry and Inspiration

When I was in elementary school, I had two favorite poems, and they were both about the color purple. 

THE PURPLE COW
Gelett Burgess

I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.

GRANDPA DROPPED HIS GLSSSES
Leroy F. Jackson 

Grandpa dropped his glasses once
In a pot of dye,
And when he put them on again
He saw a purple sky.
Purple fires were rising up
From a purple hill,
Men were grinding purple cider
At a purple mill.
Purple Adeline was playing
With a purple doll;
Little purple dragon flies
were crawling up the wall.
And at the supper-table
He got crazy as a loon
From eating purple apple dumplings
With a purple spoon.

While I am happy to say that my taste in poetry has grown a little more sophisticated over the years, my love affair with purple has never passed. I was so excited to get a chance to play with Tumble Fish Studio's Shades of Purple kit, now available at Deviant Scrap.

My first piece was a digital collage, Seeing Purple.

The second is a little ATC brought on by spring fever. Every year when it starts to warm up, I want to put on my hat and fly away to exotic places (or at least to Gatlinburg.)

And the Winner Is...

Congratulations, Cathy Calamas. You are the winner of my Paper Traders Blog Hop prize package. The envelope journal and ephemera package will soon be on their way.

And a big thank you to all who visited my blog during the hop. It was fun meeting you. As we say here in the South, "ya'll come back now, you hear."

Mail Art: My First Love

It was Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine series that made me fall in love with collage and mixed media art. I loved the bright colors, the exotic characters, and the wonderful, grungy stamps. I wanted to be the kind of artist who could create magical stories out of ephemera and color. It wasn't long before I was pulling up Photoshop on the computer and attempting to recreate Bantock's techniqes digitally. 

If you are not familiar with Nick Bantock and his work (or even if you are), be sure to check out the video here.

That was over seven years ago, and since then I've explored all types of art, both digital and traditional. But I keep coming back to mail art. It truly is my first love. That's why I was so excited to see that Deviant Scrap is celebrating National Letter Writing Month with a quick mail challenge.

Here's the postcard I created. Sign up before April 3o to play along. 

Credits: Tumble Fish Studio's Journaling Pieces 1 and 2, Viva Artistry's Fairy Tale, and Nancie Rowe Janitz's History Bits brushes.

Follow Along for Fun and Prizes

Paper Traders First Annual Blog Hop

About six months ago, I discovered the wonderful Paper Traders Yahoo group. Since then, I have been learning new techniques, making new friends, and participating in a variety of art swaps and challenge. Now it's your turn to discover what Paper Traders has to offer.. Follow along on our first annual blog hop, and get to know me and a few of the other group members better. See our art and get a chance to win some nice prizes along the way. And, if you are inspired by what you see, consider joining the group and participating in our swaps and challenges.

The blog hop runs the entire weekend, April 19-21, 2013.  Start at the Paper Traders Art Blog and follow the list of participating members:

Paper Traders Art Blog

Bockel24

Art and Soul

Sunshine,Lollipops and Butterflies

Creative Solace

Art Beckons

Scrap Panda

Creative Musings

A Surcee Life

Textile Delights

Stamp Gram’s

Glenda’s Art Escapes

Fairy Rocks

Each member will share a little bit about herself and offer either a handmade art piece or other quality prize.

The Giveaway

I'll be giving away this lovely handmade envelope art journal and collage pack to one lucky winner. I learned to make the journal while taking a class from Terri Kahrs at the online 21 Secrets Workshop. The collage pack includes the beautiful Indian Summer papers from Basic Grey, one of my personal collage sheets, and an assortment of ephemera and tags.

Just leave a comment below to enter the random drawing. Enjoy your journey, and come back to visit soon!

 

Where is my Mind?

Blame it on spring, but my head has been in the clouds lately. I just realized that I had neglected to post not one, but three, pages that I created as part of my creative team duties at Tumble Fish Studio.

The first is based on a theme that I keep returning to. I call it my Garden Girl series.

Credits: Tumble Fish Studio's Shades of Green kit from Deviant Scrap.

This one is just a piece on nonsense that I came up with when I saw the hair tonic image next to the fish image as I played in Photoshop.

Credits: Tumble Fish Studio's Shades of Green kit from Deviant Scrap.

And this last one is a tribute to the old movies, and the beautiful women who wanted to be stars.

A true story: I have two great aunts who ran off to Hollywood to become movie stars. As their older sister explained, "People told them they were beautiful and they believed it."

Credits: Tumble Fish Studio's Méliès-ish kit at Deviant Scrap.

 

The Grumpiest Fairy

We're trading art journal pages over at Paper Traders as part of our monthly tip-in project. Each participant chose a journal theme back in January, and we're taking turns completing spreads for each other's albums. When we get our spreads, we insert, or tip in, the pages into our own journals.

For April, I completed two pages for Pam using the theme of Fairies. I think this may just be the grumpiest fairy ever. 

Credits: Tumble Fish Studio's Etcetera, Miscellany, Spring Junque, Crazy Legs, My Picks, and Autumn Junque kits

Feeling Grateful

Don't you just love it when others recognize your work? I know we shoud do art for ourselves, but a little pat on the back never fails to brighten my day.

Yesterday's I am a Book page was featured on the Gallery Standouts blog. And Down by the Sea, a two-page spread I did for an art journaling swap at Paper Traders was selected as an April Gallery Standout at Deviant Scrap.

Down By the Sea is a mixed media art journal page using collage, paints, gelatos, and stamps. Images are from Tumble Fish Studio's Summer Junque and At the Beach collections.

Pages That Make Me Smile

Maybe, it's the fact that the sun is shining, or that I cannot get away from the sound of birds chirping. It might be that I had a wonderful spring break, playing with my grandson. Or, perhaps, it's that I am finally getting over the aches and pains of winter. But, whatever the case, my art journaling pages are suddenly filled with bright colors and encouraging words.

I am in my happy mode, so don't be surprised if you see fairy wings soon. Here are a couple of digital art journal pages that I completed this weekend.

Credits: Beth Rimmer's Artful Scribe, Rucola's Funky Soul, Crowabout's Bits, Borders and Parts, and Tangie Baxter's Big Fat Mess overlay and DoDo font.

 

Credits: Crowabout's Funky Junk and Odd People & Borders, Holliewood's The Collector, Maya's Striped Legs, Beth Rimmer's Junque Journal, Denise Docherty's Get Organized, and Tangie Baxter's Gnat font.

Too Many Journals!

Seriously, I have to stop. I am addicted to art journaling and art journaling classes. I'm currently enrolled in the Brave Girl's Club Body Restoration class, Tangie Baxter's Art Journal Caravan, Julie Shahin's What If Every Art Journaler Read the Same Book, and Paper Traders Tip In and Art Journal challenges. Plus, I am still finishing up Tangie Baxter's Gypsy Diaries and the Brave Girls Club's Life Restoration classes. 

A smart woman would give up some of the classes, or at least put them on the back shelf. I guess I am not a smart woman. I just keep plugging along, abandoning one project for weeks to work on another, and then coming back to it when the muse strikes.

Here is a hodge podge of what I've been working on.

I finished the cover for What If Every Art Journaler Read the Same Book. We are reading SARK's Fabulous Friendship Festival. This is cut-and-paste on an 8x8-inch chipboard cover.

Credits: Graphic 45 Cirque papers, Tumble Fish Studio's elements, Basic Grey buttons.

I've completed a couple of new pages for the Art Journal Caravan. They're both digital.

Credits: Tangie Baxter, Rosey Posey and Captivated Visions Shine from Within collection.

Credits: Julia Makotinsky Art Fusion; Tumble Fish Studios Divas and Miscellany; Tangie Baxters AJC 2013, AJC 12 Parcel 10 and AJC12 Parcel 19; Holliewood Art Journal 2; Rucola Bad Student; Captivated Visions I Believe in 2nd Chances; and Christina Renee Purty Buttons. The font is brother bear.

I pulled out the paints, and practiced my lettering for this art journal spread for the Paper Traders' One Word Art Journal project. This month our word was Simplify.

And, finally, here's a spread for the Paper Trader's Tip-In Project. We're creating spreads for other member's journals. Back in January, I worked with the theme Trees.

Using Pinterest to Enhance Creativity

Oh, Pinterest, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I LOVE Pinterest, and I spend far too much time on the site, jumping from category to category. But even I have to admit that while the site can be a tremendous resource for artists, it can also be a little overwhelming.

Consider the words of a friend of mine who posted on Facebook: "I signed up for a Pinterest account today. I have no idea what I am doing or how it works. A few of you have already sign up to "follow me" but, I think I should tell you... I AM LOST!"

Don't panic, dear friend, help is available. And, once you know the basics, you'll be amazed at all the ways you can use Pinterest to enhance your creative life.

Pinterest allows users to upload, save, sort and manage images, known as pins, into collections known as pinboards. You organize these boards into categories so that pins can easily be organized, categorized and discovered by other users. To learn the basics, I recommend the tutorial at WikiHow.

Saving trees. Getting organized. Before Pinterest, I had bulletin boards, file folders and notebooks crammed with pictures, articles, and tutorials that I had copied from the Internet and printed out. Now I simply hit the Pin It button whenever I find something that I would like to reference again. Because I categorize each image as it is pinned, everything is beautifully organized from the get go. No more fumbling through stacks of paper for that photo that I misfiled.

Getting Inspired: I use Pinterest to find inspiration when my mojo is missing. I keep Pinboards with my favorite art journal pages, craft projects, artist trading cards, color combinations, etc. When I set up my new studio, I used Pinterest to get ideas, and when the project was completed I posted the photos to inspire others.

Discovering New Artists. I also follow artists and other pinners who are interested in the the same topics that I am. How does this work? Simply, go to SEARCH and type in the name of an artist or a topic. When you find a board that you like, hit the FOLLOW button. From that point on, you'll see anything pinned by that person on your Pinterest home page. Because pins link you back to the original post, you can click on them to discover new blogs and new artwork.

Sharing your work. Pinterest is one of the fastest-growing resources on the web. And, it's full of peope who love to create and purchase art. By posting your art and linking it up to your blog, store, or Etsy site, you can increase traffic and create new customers.

Making New Friends. After a few months on Pinterest, don't be surprised to discover that you have found a new soul sister (or brother), someone who seems to share your tastes and interests to a surprising degree. Don't believe me? Then explain the follower who shares my passion for digital art, art journaling, Paleo recipes, and party planning. 

Do you have a Pinterest account? Leave a comment, and link us up so that we can follow you.

You can check out my pinboards here.