28 and counting....

Well, we're back from our little trip to Cannon Beach. We had a wonderful time...lot's of walking on the beach and relaxing, good food and even a few thrift store trips thrown in! Time seems to slow down at the beach. Today is my anniversary...28 years. Quinn and I have "had us a time!" Through good times and not so good times he's always been my "right place." I don't usually post many personal pictures here but this is Quinn's favorite from our wedding photos. I know why...the ceremony was finally all over! Happy anniversary to my sweet baby...and here's to many more!

TMTA - Watches

I had just enough time today before we leave on our trip to Oregon to peek at the theme at TMTA and make a quick card. The theme this week is watches. I've always loved images of clocks/watches and a time theme. So here's my card...be back in a few days!

And More Charms

Well, August has turned out to be quite a charming month! The twice a year charm swap at the Salvage Studio was held yesterday. It was a wonderful sit down buffet of charms served up by Beth and Lisa. There was lots of laughter and sharing, oohing and aahing and even some cookies! The charms are gorgeous as you can see here. Everyone does such a nice job and it's so much fun to see the different techniques and styles. As Beth would say...it's a swell time! I can't wait for February!


Here are the charms I took to exchange. These are altered Scrabble tiles with a vintage bead and button dangle. I used a Scrabble Collage sheet from Tangie Baxter Designs.

















Here's a close-up view of some of the charms.

Charms

I received my three charms from the July RedLead charm swap. This is a great swap...three charms every other month and they're always wonderful! This month I received charms from Debbie Metti (our fabulous hostess by the way), Kathy Lee and Allison Revetta. Aren't they gorgeous? And the packaging is almost as lovely as the charm itself!

The Salvage Studio

Here's a postcard I received in the mail yesterday announcing the new book written by my friends Beth, Lisa and Amy of The Salvage Studio. Isn't that a gorgeous cover? The sentiment expresses the feeling I get each time I make a new ATC or any time I spend sitting on the floor cutting and coloring and pasting things together or creating something out of something else. I can't for the life of me remember how I stumbled upon the Salvage Studio but I'm so glad I did. I made my first ATC for a swap held there! I was just in the store this past weekend introducing a friend to it for the first time and it still holds the same fascination for me it did when I first walked into it! If you've ever looked at a potato masher and thought "picture holder" or a hubcap and dreamed of "garden art" this is the place for you! If you adore lovely old things, bins of doo dads, cans and jars of what nots, paper bits and re-purposed pieces of the past...you'll love this place. Ok...I'm blathering now but that's how much I love the Salvage Studio. You can pre-order the book here and here and you can take a look at the website here. If you're ever in the Edmonds area be sure to stop in...you'll leave with some treasures and perhaps a whole new way of looking at things!

School Days

This is for the SDA August swap.

Lucky me!

Now, I'm not one who usually wins things...but this month I got really lucky! Kris drew my name this month from our group of ATC swappers at SDA to receive a RAK. And what a lovely surprise package it was...take a look! There's tons of paper ephemera...collage images, bingo cards, faux postage, transparencies, labels, tags, even pages from an old phone book. Plus, she sent some lovely bird scrap, epoxy stickers and gorgeous gold and silver foil edgings, wings and windows!To top it all off, she sent along this fabulous ATC...Beach Babe. What a treat! Thank you Kris for such a wonderful gift.

SDA July Swap

Here are the ATC's from the July swap at Stampin D'Amour. This is such a wonderful group of swappers...every card is a delight. I'm so glad Lyneen invited me over!














Top: Kris Dickinson, Alice Hyde, mine
Middle: Kathleen Miller, Louise Granlund, Sarah Hemphill
Bottom: Julia Ziemann, Lyneen Jesse, Pam Sparks

RedLead Charm Swap

Well, we've had another charm swap on the Red Lead group. I love these swaps because we only have to make three charms so it's nice and quick and everyone does such a great job. I can't wait to see what the mail will bring! I made these using Clear Bits acrylic squares from Red Lead Paperworks and the inchie collage sheet from Digital Collage Sheets. If you haven't found this site already, take a minute to look around. She offers lovely collage images, quick digital delivery and the quality is excellent!

Party Doll

Here's the card I made for my lunch group. I love these Frozen Charlotte dolls. This one has such a prim look on her face...I just had to dress her up for a party! We had such a fun lunch this week...lots of sharing and laughter and a wonderful invitation to an art party! More on that later....

TMTA - Turquoise

The challenge this week on TMTA is to use the color turquoise. I love turquoise and brown together so that's what I went with today.