New Easter Card

Good morning everyone! Yesterday I mentioned the Easter card my friend & I were making & here it is!
This is Shadow & we put together a card with him, a bunny & a few easter eggs on a free Easter background. This will be the card she mails out this year. I was quite pleased with the results as everything came together pretty nicely. Shadow is a beautiful boy!
Hope you all have a terrific day. We're pushing 90 today but just today.

New ATC's

Well the sun is shining very bright this morning. Today's temperature..... 81 degrees!
I have a couple of ATC's for you this morning that I made last week. I have a friend coming by today
& I am going to help her make some Easter cards. Tomorrow my son & I are heading to the Merle Norman Museum over in Sylmar. Can't wait to go there. I believe they have 130 vintage cars on display as well as tons of other wonderful stuff. Their website is http://www.nethercuttcollection.org/ if you are interested in checking it out. Have a great Wednesday!

A New Paintover

Good Morning! Back to Monday & another busy week ahead. It is a lovely morning with the sun coming through very early. Should be topping out around 80 by Thursday & that sounds very nice!
I have another paintover to share this morning. I hesitated to do this particular picture as the quality of the photos was poor. The paintover does not give you a clear crisp look so I thought I would just give it a shot.
Her face came out even less clear than before but I just let it fly. Chalk it up to practice & experience. I am hoping to get my hands on some better photos to start with next time. This is my mother in 1933 in Venice, Ca. & she was 5 years old & an adorable child.
Hope you all have a creative week!

PSE Baby & California Shot

Good Morning! I have been really slacking on my blog posts! When I have other bloggers stopping by to see what's new & I have NOTHING....it's time to get my butt in gear! I really have been doing art....believe me. I am deep into ATC's right now. I just LOVE making those little things. The problem is none of them are photographed.
This morning I have this sweet little baby that was altered via Photoshop Elements & a shot that my son took driving up the coast to Paso Robles. I also tweaked that in Photoshop a bit.
I hope you all have a great weekend! 

Learning Lisa Bebi's Paintover Process

Good Morning world! One of my favorite new books is Art at the Speed of Life  by Pam Carriker. This book is so full of inspiration I can hardly put it down. The work from several artists are depicted in this book along with their technique. Lisa Bebi is one of those artists. My friend took Lisa's paintover class at ArtFEST 3 years ago & we all loved her creations. Basically, Lisa takes a black & white photograph & paint over that picture...a VERY cool little process. This is a pic of my mother from 1930 when she was about 3 years old. I also included the original photo. I was pretty happy with the results except her lips came out a bit more pink than I wanted. I will have to keep practicing! Definitely check out Pam's book..only $13.00 on Amazon & that is a steal! Happy Thursday & please keep those, less fortunate than us, in your thoughts.

Choo Choo & Brighten up that face!

Good morning everyone! I am going to have to post a little more often...I had a hard time uploading pics this morning for some reason. Blogger can be a bit of a challenge at times! This morning I have a train & a lovely face both altered in Photoshop Elements.
I am going to shoot for some ATCs this weekend. I am getting the little itch to make these again & I believe I will start another collage on a bit larger canvas.
I hope you all have a great weekend!

New Collage

Good Friday morning! Hope you are all having a great week with a lot of fun on tap for the weekend.
I am posting an 8x8 mixed media collage I completed a few days ago. I have missed having my hands in gel medium! I don't know what it is about running the brush over a piece of tisse that's covered with gel medium. I simply LOVE it! I have always loved tearing paper & decoupaging. Paper was one of my first loves when I entered the crafting world. This piece is many layers of paper...tissue & otherwise but mostly tissue. There is also several color washes & some gesso in between.  The main image is an image transfer on to tissue paper. The image transfer was done using Sheer Heaven. I was pleased with the look & the texture.
I hope you all have a marvelous weekend! 

New collage & PSE picture

Good morning! I hope you all had a great week & some fun plans for the weekend! I am looking forward to the Independent Spirit awards tonight & the Oscars tomorrow.
My first pic this morning is from my faux encaustic class with Jodi Ohl. I did 4 canvases with 3 of them finished now. It is 8x8 & has MANY layers of paper & colorwashes. I was really liking the whole process til we got to the end.....then came tar gel! UGH!! Did NOT like the way that looked at all! Mixed tar gel with a bit of titan buff paint  &spread across the top at the end. Well...I am posting this pic prior to the tar gel application. I believe I may have put too much on. I really liked this class a lot but I veered off path somewhat. Jodi does a lot of doodling & drawing...Diane doesn't! I chose not to draw what I call "stick flowers" on my canvas. Instead I used more text & did some image transferring instead. The female shown was an image transfer to tissue paper using Sheer Heaven. I am starting a new canvas today so we'll see where that leads.
The 2nd PSE image was done using one of my canvas backgrounds with a free vintage picture overlayed.
I was quite pleased with that one. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Dog Day Monday

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I have wrapped up all my OWOH obligations & my gifts went out last Friday. I was actually fortunate enough to win two items also. I will show those off once I receive them.
This morning I have a PSE pic on top & for the life of me....I can't remember who the artist was...UGH!
I used one of my backgrounds which is a tye dyed balloon. I overlayed the image & adjusted the opacity.
I like the colors. The 2nd picture is a 12x12 image transfer done with Sheer Heaven (my FAVORITE) transfer material. This is Patches & this was done for a birthday gift for my sister's best friend, Kathy.  Is this sweet guy drop dead gorgeous or what??  Hope you all have a great week!

Dexter helps select the OWOH winners! .

Good morning! My Bengal boy, Dexter, is helping me announce the winners this morning....& we can't thank you all enough for joining in this year. I ended up with 195 comments & 10 new followers. I had quite a bowl of little papers to draw from this morning. Actually the bowl was too small & I had to dump them all in a box. Now....the winners are:

Sharon at http://wildflowerhouse.blogspot.com/
Siziqu at http://suziqusthreadworks.blogspot.com/
Doreen at http://doreeng.blogspot.com/
Saskia at http://deliciousdoodlesblog.blogspot.com/
Nancy at http://butterflyatwork.blogspot.com/

A big CONGRATULATIONS to all of you!

PSE pics & last week for OWOH

Good Monday morning! This is the last week to enter the OWOH drawing. The winners will be drawn Thursday, February 17th. I've had approximatly 165 comments & picked up 9 new followers at this point so I am pretty happy with that response. I am only sad that this is the last year.
Two pics today were free images combined with some free texture backgrounds. I am quite pleased with the ballet couple....just something about the ballet that grabs me every time!
Have a wonderful, creative week everyone!

Latest PSE photo & one week left for OWOH

Good morning everyone! Wow...it's been over a week since my last post. We still have one week left on the One World One Heart giveaway.  Just leave your comment under that post (directly below) for a chance to win!  The event ends on February 17th. You also still have a few days left to jump in & participate. I am posting a PSE pic this morning & preparing for a couple of classes. One is  Fun with Faux Encaustics - Jodi Ohl  at http://creativeworkshops.ning.com/group/funwithfauxencausticsjodiohl?xg_source=msg_invite_group & the other is mini digital collage workshop with Kathyanne White at http://www.insidekathyanneart.blogspot.com/. Hopefully I will create some lovely pieces as a result of these classes. Happy Wednesday!

One World One Heart 2011

                                                          I am participating once again.

Good morning world & welcome to my blog! My name is Diane & I reside in So. California. I love so many different forms of art but some  favorites are image transfers, mixed media collage & digital art. Grab a cup of coffee & browse through my blog for a bit.  I hope you enjoy what you see!  This HUGE giveaway titled.........One World One Heart is  handled by Lisa Swifka at http://awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com/a_whimsical_bohemian/. This is my fourth year to participate in this wonderful event. This is such a wonderful way to meet new people & discover more amazing artwork. Last year I think we had around 1000 participants. All you need is a blog to join in.  Here are the rules:        Please leave your comment on this post with contact info. and the winner will be drawn on Feb. 17th.

Now...the giveaways....I am posting 5 items for this event. I couldn't do just one! Each is an image that I have altered in Photoshop Elements & then transferred it to a canvas. They are all 5x7 in size. Wishing you all the very best of luck!

Today's Ocean Photos..California Coastline

Good Thursday morning! Time to visit our beautiful ocean! These pics were shot between Pismo Beach, Ca. & Ventura, Ca. The water was just shimmering so beautifully.......reminds me of why I LOVE home. Hope you all have a wonderful day! 

The Beautiful Hills Of California

Good morning everyone! This morning I am posting some pics from our trip to Paso Robles last week. Everything is pretty green right now as we've had a bit more rain than usual. Paso Robles is about 3 hours from our main residence in Newbury Park. It is straight up Hwy 101 & it is quite a beautiful ride. If you notice....my top picture notes Santa Barbara just 13 miles away....SO....next group of pics will be the beautiful ocean. Have a great week!

Different Modes of Transportation

Good morning! WOW, it's been one week since my last post...not like me! We just returned from a trip to Paso Robles & we're glad to be back. It was a very nice drive seeing all the greenery & I will post pics of that soon.
I don't know what it is about the different modes of transpoortation, I am really enjoying the boats & airplanes. This one was a cloud picture to start with & I blended the airplane pic over that. I also always tweak the color, opacity & contrast in PSE 6. The airplane photo came from morguefile.com.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Beautiful weekend weather & football playoffs

Gorgeous Southern California weather today! What a day to watch some football games.....Go Steelers!!
This morning a I have a lovely airplane photo that I overlayed on a free fractal background & a young ballerina. I think her lovely little legs got a bit lost in this photo but I still like it. There is just something about a ballerina that I love! The ballerina was an overlay on to a textured background which came from Flickr.
Happy Saturday everyone!

Bottles on the window sill & a Ruthenian woman

Good morning! We've already reached hump day! Looks like the weather is going to warm up a bit here.
Since we are spoiled by the sun... we have a difficult time with the cold!
My pics today consist of a window sill with bottles manipulated in PSE. The background is the view of the side of a building. The two pictures blended quite nicely. The 2nd is a free image from morguefile.com of a Ruthenian woman. The background was a free texture from a flickr group.  I thought this woman had a beautiful face.......so pure looking.  I pick up so many images along the way that it is difficult to remember where they all came from.
Hope you all have wonderful Wednesday!

My New Bracelet

Good morning to you all! The weekend is here & I hope you all have a good one spending time with family & friends.
This morning I have a beautiful new bracelet I purchased last week from Lori Anderson at http://www.lorianderson.net/. This is Lori's website & you can also find her blog at http://lorianderson.blogspot.com/. Lori has been a blogging friend for at least a couple of years but this was my first purchase from her. Check this bracelet out! I was blown away when I pulled the lid off the beautifully packaged box she sent this in. There was even a little "thank you" charm tied to the ribbon...just gorgeous!
Is this stunning or what?? I can't wait to purchase another piece of Lori's jewelry....not only are the glass beads beautiful....her craftsmanship is amazing! Stop by & check out her beautiful jewelry. Thank you, Lori!

Another Photoshop Boat

Thursday is upon us & it arrived rather fast. Hope the new year is starting out well for everyone.
Today's art is actually another boat done with PSE. Funny, that I find the boats to be a lot of fun to work with yet I am certainly NOT a lover of the water & have no desire to board a boat. I do love the way this combination turned out. Photoshop Elements is so addicting, I could just sit there for hours upon hours experimenting with new things. If you have it.....I would encourage you try it out
Happy Thursday to you all!

New Photoshop Class & New PSE Image

Good Tuesday morning! It is chilly in So. California! We've had some crazy weather this week already...like snow at Magic Mountain?? That is crazy! I am signed up for a new on-line class starting this month. It is with Cynthia Powell at http://artistworkshopretreat.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-year-new-adventure-mark-your.html. I am pretty excited about this & have high hopes for learning some new things. I have taken 2 other on-line classes...one was wonderful & one WASN'T! I am keeping my fingers crossed that I haven't bitten off more than I can chew. This morning's picture is a balloon background with the boat picture overlay. The images are from  http://morguefile.com/. I really love the combination of the two.
Happy Creative Tuesday!

Shout Out Sunday...... Kelly Berkey Designs

Good morning! I wanted to start the new year with a shout out for a fellow blogger that I purchased earrings from recently. I have been remiss in not doing this before now. Not only have I purchased three pairs for myself but ordered one for a friend also. Kelly has done a couple of peace sign designs & the ones I pictured today are her latest (I think.)  Check out her blog at http://kellyberkeydesigns.blogspot.com/ & her etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/kellyberkeydesigns. She makes wonderful jewelry & as if that isn't enough talent....she paints too. Stop by & say hello to her. She is delightful!