The Lost Muse

Ever have those times when you just can't create? In other words your muse is ran away? Well this week it happened to me.  "Oh Muse, Oh Muse where have you gone I cried. What have I done to make you run. Then just as I cried out I found the first of many clues she had left behind. She hadn't left me I had just bee neglecting her!

 

 

My Poor Muse

  Oh,  how many ways I had neglected HER.

 

 I had expected her to just be able to give a masterpiece in the spur of a moment and if she didn't show up just when I expected I ignored her. Then there was the time when I demanded she produce the perfect first draft. Oh goodness have you ever done that?!!  What a bad, bad girl I am for  surfing the web looking for ideas when I should have been more committed in spending time with her. I had ignored her all day on so many occasions, and hadn't taken the time to  write down the excellent phrases or ideas she had whispered in my ears so many times!  And when I  finally did sit to “work,” I  use the excuse she wasn't helping and got mad at her. After pondering on the whys of her absence I thought,  had I just expected so much of her? Had she gotten to tired of being neglected that she needed a break from ME!! Oh Muse, Oh Muse what must I do to get you back? I can't do this without you, I need you!

 Well, after looking long and hard for my sweet muse I found she had indeed left a few clues that I had not seen. Clues that had been there all along when I finally took time to be still!! Ever heard the phrase " Be still and know"? Well there is much more to that than we realize and when we just take a minute to be still and quiet all of our nonsense expectations we can come to know that our muse hasn't left she has  been there all along. We just need to " Be still and know".  Know that when we quit focusing on creating a finished product and start having fun creating it,  she will join in. When we create a safe and comfortable routine for her, she feels comfortable to turn loose. When we actually spend time with her one on one and not allow all the daily interruptions like the web, facebook,  and whatever may take our full attention away, her voice becomes like a song that gets stuck in our head!  We need to know to always give her credit when credit is due and when it's not give it to her anyway after all art is individual and if we try we can see the beauty in all that our muse leads us to create!

And last but not least when she speaks LISTEN, Write it down even if you cannot get to it right away so you will be able to look back and know that even when she is tired she is still right there beside you ready to get her muse on!!

The point is, our muse will always be there for us when we take the time to nurture her and  be with her. When we stop placing high and unrealistic expectations on her and see the beauty in all she leads us to create. After all as the old saying goes, Rome was not built in a day!! Today I found my muse and brought her home. Have you found your missing muse? If not try a few of the clues she left for me and let me know when you bring her home!! Your Challenge for the next week is to find your muse! Create a piece of art and email a picture to www.melodee.oia@gmail.comwith your story, I will then post it here on my blog!! Lets get together art friends and help those who have lost their muse find her and bring her home!!

  Tah Tah for now my artsy friends and remember to hug your MUSE today!!!

 

                  Mel’odee

For The Love Of Steampunk

Steampunk, Steampunk, Steampunk , Oh how I love Steampunk!!

What began as a literary genre of science fiction and fantasy that incorporated the techno and social aspects of the 1900's has now evolved into so much more. Through the eyes and hands of artists all over the world "Steampunk" has been taken to a whole new level.  I am constantly amazed by the varying combinations of artistry and components from metal fixtures and gadgets to the wondrous thing-a- ma-bobs and Victorian industrial style!! It's flavor is unending and constantly delicious!!

With a love for creating the odd, and collecting the unwanted tainted pieces of what some may call "Junk"  I have formed a passion and true love for steampunk . It is not just the literary genre involving steam powered technology yet a beautiful art form using brass, copper and glass, polished wood, hammering, engraving, and oh the details for the sake of details with a Victorian Industrial twist.  An art form that shows itself through ones own unique personality and artistic interpretation. While some see my collection of  junk ( old gears, washers, chains etc.) in the drawers of my atelier, as an artist I see so much more.   So in honor of Steampunk and all Steampunk lovers everywhere I bring you today a piece I created using some of my old so called "junk" and some collage images from www.AlteredPages.com

 

 

 

 

Introducing "?"

 

Hmmm, She doesn't have a name yet but I will get back to that in a moment. Right now I want to share with you the name of the collage sheet I used to create this one of a kind Steampunk lavalliere which can be found at www.AlteredPages.com. The collage sheet is called "Exotic Beauties" and is a marvelous set of images  of  exotic women perfect for that steampunk piece or your upcoming Halloween art!  AP has some amazing collage sheets and I bet you will be able to find just the right images for your next project be it SteamPunk, Halloween or something else.!!

 

Now for the rest of the story!! 

 

Like what you see here? Well, I am hosting a "Name my Lavalliere"  challenge starting today! Here is how it works. In my comment section leave your idea of a name for my piece and if you have not yet become a follower click on the "follow this blog" link by September 30th 2013. Winner will be announced here on the blog and on my facebook page on October 1st, 2013 and the lucky winner will receive his or her very own SteamPunk piece!!  I am so excited to see what amazing names you all come up with!! So tell your fellow artists and friends about what is going on and get those thinking caps on!!! So until next time my steamy followers, have a beautiful punked out day  and remember to check out all the amazing products  at www.AlteredPages.com

 

 

                              Mel’odee

I

Winners Announced!!

Good Morning my sweet friends,
I pray all are having a super start to the week. This mornings post was to be happy and joyful as I announce the winners of my very first blog giveaway. While the winners will still be announced I must say it is with a heavy heart. You see, I am a Navy Mom as well as a Navy daughter. The shooting in Washington DC this am has effected my family not directly but because of the loyalty to our fellow military families. My heart is heavy and our condolences go out to those involved. I pray God's peace and comfort to all at this time and please ask all of my sweet sweet followers and fellow artists to please remember all of those involved as well as those who help defend our country today and everyday.

Now for the BIG announcement! Saturday, I announced my first of many giveaways here on my blog and I want to thank all of you for the sweet comments and for joining me in my new endeavor. In order to be fair to everyone  I use  "Truly Random" number generator to choose the winners.  So without further ado the winners of Saturdays Giveaway and this sweet tag are,

 

  drum roll pleaseeeee................................

 Tristan Robin Blakeman and Lydia Brazeau!!!!!

 

WOOOO HOOOOO CONGRATS to these two!!!!  Please email me at  melodee.oia@gmail.com  with your snail mail addy so I can get your tags out to you!!!

Well, once congrats again to the winners! Keep watching my friends for the next giveaway coming soon not to mention the first of many swaps and challenges here on my blog.  And if you haven't already, hug your loved one and thank a soldier,

Until next time,

      

       Mel’odee

Product Play and Giveaway

Good Morning My Artsy Sweetz!!! It is a beautiful morning in here in the Ozarks! Summer is slowly making its way out of these here hills and fall is making its debut!!  Sitting here on my porch enjoying some fresh brewed Java feeling the crisp morning breeze just makes my soul eager to head to the woods for some fall viewing of the beautiful scenery. However, it is still a little early so going to play in the atelier instead!

Today here on the blog is product review time and Wow I can’t wait to show you some goodies I have been working with PLUS I am going to do a giveaway!! WHOOP WHOOP!! Don’t you just love FREEBIES!!!!!  So with that let’s check out what I did last night!!
 

 

 

 

LOL, I bet you thought you were gonna see what I created didn’t ya!!   Well first here’s a glimpse of some products I used!!

 

 

 

If you have not used the new Gelatos you are missing it!! I am in love mainly because of the different ways you can use them!! Gelatos are made by Faber Castell (just the name speaks volumes in my book) and are acid-free pigment sticks. They glide on creamy smooth for vibrant color and coverage.  They blend really easily and can be used with or without water. You can use them just as they are or you can convert them to liquid for creating color sprays and drips!! They also work on foam, rubber or clear stamps!!! I have fallen in love with them because of their versatility. Now, let’s take a look at what I did with them

First, you see the two pink smudge spots on my mat in the first picture? NO, they‘re not dirt spots!! LOL it's the Gelatos. I just scribbled with them on my mat. Next I sprayed them with a fine mist of water to make an ink puddle. I then took my tags and laid them in the puddle and allowed the tag to soak up the color. I did this a couple of times on the tag.  Here is the result,

 

 

 

OH, by the way I cut the tags out using card stock from Graphic 45’s Secret Garden. Next I added an image from Altered Pages Collage kit “Elements of Design”.  Decorated the tag with some lace and then used my Gelatos once again. This time I smudged some red on my mat and sprayed with some water, took a make-up sponge and dabbed the puddled like I would an ink pad and created pretty hearts using a stencil.

 

 

 

After completing the stencil effect I then allowed everything to dry and topped my hearts off with a little crystal lacquer,  ribbon, a little stamp from Graphic 45 and a sweet little key babble!!

 

Now for the finished product........ 

 

 

                                                            

 

 

 

 

 Don’t you just love the color of the Gelatos?  They are so easy to use and their many ways of using them makes it that much more fun!! 

 

Well, I hope you have enjoyed my little product preview. I love love the new Gelatos and the beautiful collage images from Altered Pages. Want to give your artful muse a try using these cool items? Just click on thewww.AlteredPages.com  link and head on over. You can find the Gelatos as well as some beautiful images to use. They also have a great supply of Graphic 45 papers, some sweet babbles and German scrap and much more!!

 

Oh I almost forgot!!  LOL I said GIVEAWAY didn’t I!! Well here’s how you can receive the tag I created above FREE.  Just leave me a comment in the comment section of this blog post and then become a follower by clicking on the follow me link!!  Your name will then go into a

random drawing to be held tomorrow night 8pm CST and the winner will be announced Monday right here on my blog as well as my face book page.  Thanks for dropping by and please be sure and drop by www.AlteredPages.com and their blog www.AlteredPages-Artsociates.blogspot.com Great

Company with some amazing products and artists!!

 

Have a beautiful weekend my artsy followers and be watching Tuesday for another project!!

 

                                                                                     Mel’odee

 

"Uncle Bones Skull Polish"

Oh Golly Golly Golly!!! Where do I start? Today was my very first time to fill my position as an AlteredPages.com design team member. What an honor it is to be one of the newest members and being given the opportunity to share my creations on their blog!! I want to congratulate the other 2 new members and am soo excited about all the goodies you are going to be seeing over at the Altered Pages blog. If you have never seen their blog click on the link www.alteredpages-artsociates.blogspot.com and head on over. there is some awesome art happening there by some very talented artists using some amazing products from www.AlteredPages.com !! Right now with the holidays so close you can bet you will be seeing even more awesome goodness or maybe I should say some SPOOKY goodness over the next few weeks along with some awesome challenges!! I am getting chilled to the bone (in a good way of course) just thinking about it! Speaking of bones, AlteredPages has some wonderful Halloween collage and stamp sets. I have included a link to below so that you can go right to their store and grab some wonderful stuff. I did and looky looky what happened!!

 

 

I love old bottles and what better way to decorate for the upcoming gruesome holiday than with old Gothic apothecary bottles. This was so fun and check out the use of the Gothic skulls from the "Gothic" stamp set found here.

 

www.alteredpages.com/shop/Rubber-Stamps/Red-Rubber-Stamps--Sets/p/Gothic-Halloween-Stamp-x1976998.htm

 

 

 

 

 

I created this bottle as my very first project for the AP blog.  I fussy cut the image and added some distressing then used some crackle medium to give it an aged effect. The bottle was an old wine bottle covered with texture paste, then allowed to dry and then painted over using gesso, paint, some brown espresso ink mist then rubbed down with a little Inka Gold metallic rub

 

 

 

 

I created the skulls out of sculpy by pressing the sculpy into rubber ice cube trays I purchased at our neighbor hood Dollar Tree ( betcha never thought of that one!!LOL or maybe I'm late heehee) and adhered to the bottle added a little gauge distressed with more espresso ink and a skeleton key and there you have it, Uncle Bones Skull Polish!!

 

 

 

Perfect addition for that Halloween décor.

 

Well, that's it for today. I hope you were inspired and it got the artful muse in you creepy crawly with ideas. Please join me each Tuesday here and on the AP blog as I turn my artful muse loose once again.

 ALSO

Watch for the 31 Days of Halloween Blog Hop in October! The AP design team will be participating and you're gonna love it!

 

OH, OH, OH , I almost forgot

Next week the new Altered Pages Challenge will be posted, be sure to check out the details at  www.alteredpages-artsociates.blogdpot.com!

 

So Tah Tah for now my artsy creepy followers it's back to the dark atelier to conjure up some more creepy goodness!!

 

Mel'odee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Product Review Saturday

HAPPY SATURDAY my artful friends. Well today is my very first time posting on the AlteredPages.com facebook page as an AlteredPages.com design team member.  I am soo excited about this and thought I would give you a preview of my first post. So here goes

 Are you like me and totally love Faber Castell products? Well head on over to AlteredPages.com and check out the Big Brush Pens . I love love to use them in my art journaling especially for detailing because of their nib that can create various line widths!!!! Not to mention their amazing color and blending possibilities!! HIGH quality and totally archival!
Here is the link! Head on over and get yours!!

  http://www.alteredpages.com/shop/Tools/Gelatos-and-Big-Brush/p/Big-Brush-Pen-Many-colors-x1522755.htm

Well, whatcha think? I must tell you I have been using the products especially the collage images. I am in the studio today working on some fun Halloween goodies. While I am not ready to show you just yet I can tell you , you are gonna love them and I hope you will want to go over and grab some of these images from AlteredPages for yourself!! They have a nice inventory of collage images not to mention some of the Top tools in the trade. You can find the ever popular Dylusions ink sprays, ink pads and journaling block! I Love Dylusions but then again I love all the products they have. The Faber Castell Big Pens are Divine Oh and they have also gotten in the Gelatos as well.
Well enough bragging for today, I need to get back to creating. But Hey, stop back by on Tuesday, I will have the first of many Halloween projects to show you using collage images and products from AlteredPages.com!!
So for now, here is a little image for you to swipe.

 If you create something with it Please send me a pic!! I would love to feature your creation on my blog!!

Happy Creating my artful friends and have a Blessed Saturday!!! 

 

Atelier Happenings

Wow, so much has happened since I last posted. Whoever said creating a blog was easy………………………. Anyway, do I have some fantabulous news to share!!! But first let me tell you what I have been up to!! See about a week or so ago I was browsing through some of my amazing art sisters posts and getting to know everyone. I love looking at their blogs and checking out what’s new with them and all of the Brilliant creations. I also like clicking on their fav’s buttons and being introduced to other artists and their blogs. Well I came across a site called AlteredPages-artsociates. WOW, did they have quite the blog going on there!!!  I fell in love instantly and decided to check them out further so I went to their online store. I almost lost my post toasties when I saw some of their prices especially when they were so much cheaper than what I had been spending. This really got me inquisitive. So I started browsing a little more and boom there it was an opportunity to apply!!!! Soo guess what I did?  Yep, you guessed it I closed the link and went back into the studio to finish up a project I needed to get done before the deadline. 

 These are pictures of what I have been doing for the Halloween swap over at
www.Birdnutsmixedmedia.blogspot.com  

 

 

This is my first swap with the amazing Denise Phillips and I enjoyed creating this Halloween ATC for her swap.  I also belong to a group on Facebook called “The Studio-A Thriving Artist Community” and within this group the Collage Society. We have had an ongoing weekly challenge there and right now we have been creating tags.

These are just a few examples and I will be posting more about these ventures later on next week.

 

 

As you can see I have been busy, busy, busy and all the while thinking “Man I would love to apply for that design team”!!

 Finally I could stand it no longer and just had to talk it over with my Mr. Wonderful, and as always he boosted my confidence and said “Just go for it”.  So that is what I did. I whipped open the ol’ computer zipped into my email and sent a few examples and waited! Never even giving it a thought that I would ever be chosen.

Well, guess what?  Yep you guessed it, things got a little crazy and I avoided checking my email for a few days. Finally one evening after having a house full of grandbabies and settling down to some peace and quiet I finally checked my email. OHHHH EMMMMM GEEEEE!! There it was “THE EMAIL” did I dare open it I thought or just leave it. Well I hesitated long enough to go grab a cup of java take a big swallow and BOOM I click the open button. OH EMM GEEE OH EMM GEEE, I could not believe what I was reading!! I had done it I had been accepted!!!!! Yep, you got it!! Yours truly is now a design team member for an amazing company! AlteredPages.com!! I am so sooo proud, humbled and excited to let EVERYONE know I have been accepted as the newest member to the AlteredPages team!  My, My, My, I am on cloud nine and just can’t wait to get started. By the way did I mention how EXCITED I AM!!! HeeHeeHee! I have already gotten a couple projects in mind and can’t wait to get started. If you don’t know or have not heard of AlteredPages.com click on the links below and drop by.

www.AlteredPages.com

www.AlteredPages-artsociates.blogspot.com

 

 There you will find some amazing products by some of your favorite artists such as Graphic 45, Tim Holtz, Dyan Reaveley, Faber Castell and more. So much yummy goodness over there I can’t wait for you to see!!

As I move forward into my new venture I will introduce you to some of their sister companies and their products. For now I want to thank Jean Moore and all the folks over at AlteredPages for giving me this opportunity.

I hope I haven’t gone on too much with all the happenings and my excitement and I would love it if you would follow me on this amazing new journey. I can’t wait to share some great stuff with you and pray it will inspire the artful muse in you”!!