/* */ Beulah Bee

January 27, 2014

The Little Cowboy

This is a photo of my Dad (who is now 83). He must have been quite proud of his cowboy outfit but this may have been one of only a few happy moments in his otherwise, bleak childhood.

He joined the navy at 17 and got a lot of tattoos and when I was a kid, I remember how we would ask about them, where he got them and what they meant.

So this was my inspiration for creating a collage, using a background of torn book pages, an image transfer of his photo and a heart tattoo, a scrap of sewing pattern tissue paper and text cut from a ticket. Colored pencils and acrylic paint were used for color.

I've linked it to the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp, where the theme is "this is where the cowboy rides away." It doesn't qualify for the random drawing because it is not a new work but it is the first time I've ever shared it with anyone.

January 20, 2014

Forgotten wishes

I transferred this image (from Iran's first women's magazine) to a tag using solvent.

With the SSS Snowflake stencil, embossing ink, and clear embossing powder, I created a resist for the watercolor background and lady's dress.

I applied gold embossing power on the harp body but didn't like it so I ironed it off.

The faint impression of gold color which was left behind works for an aged-effect.

Some text seems appropriate to finish it off but this was only an experiment in techniques.

I decided to just let the image (and the post's title) speak for itself.

I've entered it in the drawing at the Simon Say's Stamp Wednesday blog challenge, where the prompt is "emboss it."

Hester Prynne

Published in Somerset Studio Gallery Winter 2012

The letter "A" is the prompt for Monday's blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp. This entry may not qualify for the random drawing because I made it two years ago, but I've never blogged about it and linked it anyway.

It seems many others do not enter "new" work because less than one hour after the post, there will be like 10 or 20 entries already of real elaborate items that I just know took longer than one hour to make.

So I'm guilty as charged because I wanted to have my post appear higher on the list so maybe more people would come visit and see what I made. How desperate and pathetic is that? I do enjoy the challenge of creating new work based on the prompts and will try my best not to post things made prior to the challenge date just to be first in line. There, now I feel better and it's good to get things off your chest (sorry Hester, no pun intended). She also chose not to conform to rules and beliefs, so I guess this piece is rather appropriate for today's post.

(Hester Prynne is the main character in a classic work of literary fiction written by Nathanial Hawthorne titled, The Scarlet Letter.)