The Grease Burner

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From the book...

Heard a good book lately?

Everyone enjoys a good book. And we love to share our favorites. We let our friends read our favorites and then we discuss them. But have you ever shared a book simultaneously. You know, like reading the same passage at the same time. that is kind of difficult and brings to mind all sorts of images of bodily contortions. But you can enjoy the same passage if you listen to it. I a referring to audio books of course. We frequently listen to books while driving. Our favorites are mystery novels. During the listening we can pause the compact disc and talk about the events described and maybe guess the final outcome of the book. I suppose you could call this active listening. Listen to a book on your nest long drive and share it as you listen!

PASTE POTS

Recently I've been smitten by the collage bug. I guess as children we cut and pasted to make those posters for school.So, back to childhood with a twist. I'm a painter, primarily, with most of my work in watercolor. Moving into doing some collage works puts me into a new arena. It's so much more tactile or touchy feely. It's fun to CUT an TEAR. To smear paint rather than meticulously apply it to a finite space. So I did my first collage. in my collage book. (a 25 cent relic from the library) I'm using Elmer's white (diluted) as an adhesive. The label was scanned shrunk and printed. I've put them in a book for....well, I like books!

Valentines Day

Every year I make a Valentine card for that special someone in my life. This year was no exception. Instead of a new idea, I resurrected one from the unused idea file. I wanted to do something interesting, surprising, and, perhaps a little risque. Also, I wanted to stretch myself a bit creatively. That meant that it would not be a simple card. I have long been a fan of pop-ups and paper sculpture. And, of course, words and pictures have to work together. I decided to use the readily available blank greeting card that comes with the correct size envelop. I also knew that the surprise element would be photo of me in the buff!! I took several photos using the timer function on a battered Olympus digital camera. Then used Photoshop to place the image of a Valentine heart on the photo in a strategic place. I printedd theis image out on glossy photo paper and left a border around the image reminiscent of a commercially produced wallet sized photo. Via a search of the Internet I found the exact image of a lady's purse. I combined the visual elements of the card on the computer and printed it out on the blank greeting card. Using an craft knife I made an incision for the photo. This almost almost finished the project. I glued a piece of card stock to the back of the card so that the photo would not fall through.