TENseconds Studio

Inspiration

I'm always getting asked "where do you get your ideas?" Usually, I'm sitting in a chair with my head back wondering "what am I going to pull out of my a$$ today?" I was doing just that, when the dogs, Roxie and Mocha, decided to jump on me and lick me everywhere. This was how I came up with lunch bunch ideas for the studio. Of course Roxie had probably just been getting her drink from the toilet. That dog will drink water anywhere. 

I'm going away this weekend with Tracy Pounds and we're teaching at The Crafty Scrapper. I'm packing my camera and hopefully will remember to take lots of photos. I'll share with you on Monday. We're staying at a B & B and I'm taking all my cool Thomas Mann kits I got in New Orleans. I've got to post the pics from that trip. If any of you are every in New Orleans you've simply got to go to his galery.

Life is not measured

This was done on our Pearl Metal. Another quote that is then mounted to the back of a canvas in the center. I gave this to my friend Carolyn at Crafty Scrapper. This is kind of a Star War Intro style photo, but I couldn't get the whole thing in a straight on shot.

This shows how I textured the edge of the frame with paint and my wood fill from Terra Bella. I love that stuff, it gives great texture and can be mixed with paint. I added bits of mesh that Megan had tea dyed for another project and glued old pearls in the corner.  This was the first time I've incorporated typed text into a piece and I just added those in small frames created with some texture wheels.

This dog is driving me crazy

I came out of my studio today and found that my other favorite dog "Roxie" the Lab had eaten a box and was dropping pieces of it all the way back to her sleeping bed. This dog wants to eat everything including shoes. She was like Hansel and Gretel with the bits everywhere. I'm trying to pry the main piece of box from her mouth and she's slobbering all over the place. Of course, Megan has nothing better to do than take pictures of my "best body part" and send them to me. Fun times.

Imagine

I like to take unusual items found at the hardware store and attach metal to them. This is one of my favorite sayings done on my Rock Star Black metal. I sanded it on a rough surface to get a really nice background. Then crimped the edges of the metal cap with large plyers.

Metalized Binder Book

Mocha and Me

While I'm working I'm always getting nudged to play with Mocha. She's our official "Head of Play" at the studio. The only trouble is, once you start scratching her...you're scratching her for the whole day.

End of Year

Well, does it seem like this year has rushed by and is over in about "ten seconds". My inner clock thinks it should be October. I'm waiting for fall to come. I guess it came last week and now it's Winter. I would really like to have three months of fall weather, when the air is crisp and cool and you can go on long walks through a forrest. Of course, I would have to live somewhere that has forrests. There are no forrests in my area of Texas. Lots of dirt...but no forrests.

If it was October, I would have more time for the planning stages of our new designs. We are in the process of getting them made up and there is never enough time for development. But I do know that everyone will be very happy to get their hands on the new stuff we're bringing out.

Get the Girls checked

All of you probably know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  It was this same month 4 years ago that I found out I had breast cancer. When I found out I felt like I was in a fog and if I just kept walking it would lift and be sunny again. I kept walking but it just got foggier. So my husband, Ken, and I went to the bookstore, bought a bunch of books, and we both read them. Then after learning everything there is to know about breasts, and finding out I only had two alternatives, I decided to have a double mastectomy. They had found the cancer in only one but I decided to have the other one removed at the same time. After the surgery they did tell me they had found early stages in the other one, so I made the right choice.

My daughter, Megan, and I decided before my surgery to do a joint art project. So we used some metal mesh I had and formed it to our bodies. Then we covered it with this casting like material that you can buy at the craft store. A little paint, some collage, and of course flowers and I had my "boobalicious art". Ken thought the flowers were over the top, but it made me laugh...and trust me we all need a laugh at times when we would rather cry.

So, all of you out there in space land, get your girls checked.