Art Party

Our "lunch ladies" group had another art party earlier this month. We had such a good time! I love this bunch...they're so talented and funny...the time we spend together just flies by! Once again, Jo and Cathy shared their lovely home with us offering the perfect setting to inspire us. We feasted first then got down to business working with polymer clay. Jo had the pasta makers and the ovens going constantly as we created molds and worked with pigment powders each creating a stash of things to use in future projects. As usual, Lyneen was a little dynamo churning out an amazing number of pieces. That girl can work! I can't wait to see what everyone creates with their pieces. All in all it was another great afternoon filled with good food, good friends and lots of fun. As you can see, Grace got in another dog dance with Dagger! I can't wait for the next one...beeswax and buttons!

Catching up

Things have been so hectic here...in a good way at least...that I've neglected my blog. So, today since it's my day off I thought I'd do a little catching up. Here are a few atcs and a "Nurse Linda" Valentine I made for my co-workers at the blood center. I found some gorgeous papers to use on these cards. The background for the fairy card is from Cosmo Cricket and the other paper used in each of these is from Making Memories. The trim at the bottom of the nurse valentine is the back of the paper used in the top one...both sides are so pretty it was hard to decide which one to use. I've added a picture of both so you can so how pretty they are. We don't have access to a lot of different papers close by so it's such a treat to find two that I've had such fun using. Don't you just love gorgeous papers? I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's Day!

Valentine Countdown

Can you believe it's already less than 2 weeks until Valentine's Day? It seems like I just finished putting away the Christmas decorations! Oh well, if Valentine's Day is right around the corner then you know it's time for another wonderful countdown from Lisa Vollrath. Be sure to take a look here for a new image every day and daily drawings to win subscriptions to the Monthly Muse, Lisa's online newsletter full of lessons and ideas and images.

RedLead Domino Swap

This month at Red Lead we're swapping dominoes! This was a three for three swap which is so easy and fun to do. I had some of the Red Lead Valentine collage images and I couldn't resist using them for my dominoes. Red Lead has so many wonderful collage sheets...check them out here.

SDA January Swap

Here's the group back from SDA for January...another great month. Thanks to all the gals in Group one!

Winter Whimsy Mitten Swap

These are the lovely goodies I received from my swap partner Janice. She's decorated these mittens with loads of vintage green buttons...aren't they pretty? What you don't see is that on the back of each mitten she's attached the sweetest little scottie dog button! I love the hanging frame she's made...the frame itself is covered with a beautiful bird design. In the opening is a memory frame with a stamped bird image...love it! And the ledger calendar is just gorgeous! Thank you Janice for knowing just what I'd love! The Winter Whimsy Mitten Swap was the second swap in Linda Smith's A Swap for All Seasons. She's accepting sign-ups until February 7th for the next swap called Vintage Spring Sweetness. These are great swaps...one partner, vintage themes, fun giveaways! Why don't you join me for the next one? We'll mail the swaps on March 20...the first day of Spring...come on, you know you want to! Just take a look here if you'd like to sign up and maybe we'll be swapping Spring sweetness!

Time for another art party!

Our lunch group is having another art party! Look at this wonderful invitation Cathy has sent us...isn't she fabulous?! Cathy has such a way with these vintage images and a delightful, slightly twisted sense of humor! I love this little group...talented, funny women...each of them inspiring in their own ways. I get recharged whenever we get together. I can't wait!

Visual Journalism Workshop

Here's the first background with the added collage bits. As part of the workshop we were given four lovely collage sheets from Shabby Cottage Studio. I've used images from one of these on this first background. Ok...five more to go!

Visual Journalism Workshop

Over the years I've often kept journals...written journals not art journals. Sometimes I was a
faithful journalist and other times I'd abandon them for months at a time. I've started a couple of art journals but never gotten very far with them. When I saw that Shabby Cottage Studio was offering a workshop on art journaling with Pam Carriker I thought it would be fun to give it a try. Last week's assignment was to create several background pages. Pam demonstrated her techniques then gave us the week to create our pages. Here are the pages I made. The assignment for week two is to add collage bits and some more stamping to the background. Stay tuned.....

With Love and Best Wishes

A valentine created with elements from an atc kit by Tangie Baxter.

SDA - Valentine

Another brown card...it's funny how I seem to latch onto colors at times. This is an image from Digital Collage Sheets - The Color Brown No. 2. This is such a gorgeous picture...I love her dress and hat...the lace and the flowers and the touches of cranberry are so lovely! I took her image and changed the opacity then placed it on top of a Valentine message. I like how you can see the writing in her face.

Starsnap

I love vintage sewing notions and I picked up this old Starsnap card at a thrift shop awhile ago. I scanned it and used it for the base of this atc. I enlarged the actual center image and added it to a bottle cap to make her the focus. I added a little Crackle Accents just for fun.

Red Lead Itty Bitty Vintage Valentine Book

RedLead Paperworks Yahoo group is getting together to create another itty bitty book. These are such a treat to be a part of! I have my Itty Bitty Friendship book out on my shelve and love to look at it now and then. Red Lead has so many wonderful Valentine images from stamps to collage sheets that it was hard to decide on which one I was going to use! I finally settled on this sweet little girl all dressed up and carrying a big red heart. I can't wait to get this one back...I know it's going to be the sweetest thing!

King of the Snowmen

While Katie was home for the holidays she asked me to make her a snow person to take back to school with her. One of our holiday traditions each year is to make a chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake for dessert on Christmas day. So, after using the last of the Chambord in the cheesecake the bottle was perfect for the last of the season's snow people. The bottle's cap even made the perfect crown!

Happy New Year ATC

Well, after all the lovely red and green colors for the holidays I thought it would be a nice change of pace to use something different in this card. I love this image...the little girl is dressed so properly all the way down to her fur muff but it hasn't stopped her from taking a little slide on the ice!

I won an Alpha Stamps Giveaway!

WOW...do I feel like a lucky girl! Not only was yesterday my birthday but I woke up this morning to find that I had won the Day 6 - January 1st giveaway at Alpha Stamps. It's such a fun gift pack that I feel like I've received another birthday gift! In addition to the beautiful collage sheet you see here, she's included 10 yards of ribbons, a stamp, charms and foils...all cupids and some beautiful red Dresden foils. How fun is that?? If you'd like, you can see the whole package here. There's a few more days of the giveaway...be sure to stop by the Alpha Stamps blog and enter!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all...I wish for you a year filled with health and happiness and many moments of joyful creativity!

Alpha Stamps Giveaway

As you probably know, Alpha Stamps is a wonderful site full of gorgeous images, beautiful embellishments, charms, stamps, Dresden foils and so much more. Well, starting today they're having a post-holiday sale and a daily giveaway. Take a look at the Alpha Stamps site...there's lots of new things to temp you and go on over to the blog and enter the giveaway!

4 x 4's

I've been working on some 4x4's for three of the gals at Follow Your Bliss. One has had surgery, one moved into a new home and another is a fellow nurse whose husband was recently laid off. Mary Ann is going to include these in a 4x4 book for each of them. I know that would cheer me for sure!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by those you love. May peace, good health and happiness greet you in the New Year!

A Cone Party

For our first Christmas together the "Lunch Ladies" group was invited to Cathy and Jo's house for a Cone Party. We had a delicious lunch then spent the afternoon making cones, also known as tussie mussies. A tussie mussie is a small bouquet of flowers or a nosegay. The name can also refer to the cone-shaped holder of such a bouquet. If you do an internet search you'll find that tussie mussies have become very popular with crafters and there are all sorts of tussie mussies out there to look at from sweet pink versions for Valentine's Day to spooky ones for Halloween. We had such a wonderful time making them! Here are a few photos of Cathy and Jo's home...beautifully decorated for Christmas. It was the perfect backdrop for an afternoon spent creating with friends. Each of the women in the group brought a small gift to exchange. Cathy made each of us a lovely fabric covered cone. Jo made gorgeous Japanese Temari balls. Grace gave each of us some of her watercolor cards and a sweet altered matchbox. Miki made wonderful three dimensional ATCs and Lyneen gave each of us a cute Chinese takeout container filled with lace and trims and baubles. Nothing like a little early Christmas cheer!

Giveaway

Susan Tuttle is having a giveaway for her new book Exhibition 36: Mixed Media Demonstrations + Explorations. 36 mixed media artists share their work throughout the pages and offer insights along with techniques for their projects. You can take a look at the book and read reviews here. And you can enter the giveaway on Susan's blog here. I just saw this book at Barnes & Noble the other night and added it to my Christmas wish list!