Princess Matilda Loves to Stamp

Work in progress

2012-02-05T09:39:00.000-05:00

I've been so busy doing so many things, I haven't really thought much about posting on here. So let me rectify that.

Currently, I'm working on a shadow box for one of my friends. Her name is Princess. The box says, "We can't all be princesses. Someone has to clap for me as I go by." Inside, I'm using paper and stamps from Altered Pages. I can't wait to finish it so I can show it off and send it to Princess. She doesn't know she's getting it, and since she doesn't read my blog, I don't have to worry about spoiling the surprise!

This is a triptych ATC I did for a swap on the Art for the Creative Mind Yahoo group. I did these on ATC sized encaustic board. They are thick, stiff, and they hold up so well to all the distressing you could possibly want to do to them. Love these boards so much!

I have other projects too. I'm in an altered book swap for the Art for the Creative Mind group as well, a swap that is going to be going on until July. We each started our own book and shipped it off to the next person, who then adds to the book. My theme is Fairy Tails, a book about myths and mythical creatures. I did my cover and the two interior cover pages in the front, then sent it to the next player. Here is the cover of my book:

I did a gel medium transfer of the pretty fairy picture at the bottom and of the title at the top. The border "lace" or whatever that is has been painted with sparkly paints. I don't like it so that will be changed when I get it back. But I am in love with that fairy image. Oh, the background was painted with gesso, then when it dried, I put some water on it then added Lumiere paints, covered it with plastic wrap, crumpled it, let it almost dry, then pulled the wrap off.

I also made a Mardi Gras mask to swap. It's finished, but I haven't gotten a picture of it yet. I am also working on a Year of the Dragon box swap, but I haven't gotten it done just yet.

I think that's about it for what I'm doing. I have other swaps that I've signed up for but haven't started yet, but dang, I've been busy with all the painting and crafting and stuff. My downstairs looks like an art supply store has exploded and settled in my house. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

4 x 4 Canvas board and other stuff

2012-01-01T10:48:00.000-05:00

I've been busy making stuff. Lots of stuff. I don't have pictures of all the stuff I've made because the computer with the pictures got a virus. That lovely virus that sits behind ads and waits for you to not be looking, then pops up and says Windows Vista 2012 (or whatever OS you're using in whatever year it is) Security something or other. I left my laptop online while I went to get a massage and came back to an infection, so now I'm using my son's desktop. Not many pictures here.

But I do have one. I made this canvas for Altered Pages.

As a design team member at Altered Pages, I have access to tons of gorgeous images as well as the talent of the rest of the team. And Jean's support is phenomenal. She gave us an idea - time - and this is what I made.

It's titled "Time Flies". It's for sale as a kit here Time Flies, Altered Pages. I don't get a commission or anything, but I do get a very special thrill knowing something I made is being packaged and offered to others. It's such a high, and one that never seems to fade no matter how often I see something I made on someone else's site.

So, that's my latest creation. Not much else to show since I have to fix my laptop to get the other pictures. Hope you have a wonderful new year!!

Angel Tags

2011-12-23T00:00:00.000-05:00

I was recently in an angel tag swap with the Altered Pages Yahoo group. We were to make three tags to send to three different people. I really love making tags. I did a lot of distressing on these. I love angel imagery.

I got that ribbon from Michaels. It was in the dollar ribbon bin. LOVE IT. I don't know what it is about it, but I went back and bought four more spools so I could use it again. It's fantastic stuff.

I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Christmas cards for an Altered Pages swap

2011-12-12T10:10:00.000-05:00

I decided to join a Christmas Card swap for the Altered Pages Yahoo group. I'm posting the end product.

Please forgive the picture. The lighting in this place is awful and the white walls and flooring don't help at all. I love swaps.

Christmas card #1

2011-11-26T16:13:00.004-05:00

Jeebus. I don't post for six months, then I post several times in one day. Sorry. When the muse hits, that's when I make stuff.

Here is my first Christmas card for this year.

The paper sparkles, the red and the white. Both are from cutcardstock.com - my favorite place for uber-heavy weight sparkly paper. The stamped image is from Flourishes. I used colored pencils and gamsol to color the image. Dylan likes how I made the candles glow.

Tag book

2011-11-26T13:51:00.008-05:00

I took part in a tag book swap for Altered Pages. I discovered how much I love making tags. Here are a few pictures.

This is the cover.

Here is one of my favorite pages in the book.

I have joined two more tag swaps and can't wait to get ideas for them!

Side Step card

2011-11-26T13:01:00.003-05:00

I joined a new art group, Art for the Creative Mind. They're all about swaps. Lots and lots of them. I jumped right in and decided to swap a fancy fold card that I'd never tried before. Difficult, to say the least, given my lack of precision in anything, but I finally got one folded right and I love the way it looks.

The theme was "Winter Wonderland". I really like the way it turned out. I really hope my partner does as well!

Altered Pages News

2011-05-05T08:01:00.002-04:00

I'm on the design team for Altered Pages. There has been a change in ownership since I joined the team and there is a lot of change coming. A new web site, many new products. To celebrate these, Jean is holding a sale.

Place a postal order before the old website closes and open the new one opens (same name - improved service), and receive a FREE magnetic frame kit including all materials and instructions.

The Kit makes two frames. One per customer please. (colors will vary)
See them on the homepage, www.alteredpages.com

Christmas card #1

2010-12-24T14:56:00.003-05:00

Since most people I've sent cards to should have gotten them by now (since it's the day before Christmas, let's hope!), I can post one of them here.

I usually do my cards in non-traditional colors. This year was no different. I thought the warm colors I used were perfect for the middle of winter.

The colors are SU! They're the In colors. I have no idea what their names are. I don't really pay attention to the names since I just go by the pretty. The stamp is an SU! stamp too. An older one. I stamped in the red of the matting, then highlighted with a white gel pen. The Believe sentiment is from Flourishes. I love their stamps.

I used pearl dew drops in the corner, to look a little like snow. They were simple cards this year, but I love the color combination. Can always count on SU! to make In colors that can be mixed and matched.

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate. For those who celebrate Yule, I hope yours was excellent this year and that you got to enjoy the lunar eclipse. Have a wonderful holiday season!

Bookmarks

2010-11-24T08:02:00.014-05:00

This was the latest project I submitted for Altered Pages. It seemed appropriate for someone who reads as much as I do to create a bookmark kit. I love the little girl images at Altered Pages. They always make me think of what it is to be a young girl. Dolls and sweetness, angelic looks on their faces. Of course, that isn't the kind of little girl I was, nor is it the kind of little girl my daughter was, but nostalgia doesn't seem to take reality into account.

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All of my bookmarks started with white cardstock, over which I stamped flourishes in different colors of green and brown. I did a distressing technique, where I used distress ink pads, again in greens and browns, and marked up the bookmarks randomly, little nicks here and there all over them.

Then I added a dry brush of gesso. I think it's a requirement for pretty much anything I work on. I love how the dry brush technique softens the look. It also is excellent for covering up mistakes. I used various collage papers on the bottom half of some of them. Two of them have lace instead. I did this to anchor the images of the girls, so they weren't floating out in space.
I edged each of them with gold leaf pen before adding embellishments. Some fun fur yarn through a hole in the top finishes the bookmarks.

It's almost Thanksgiving and I have to say that this year, I am thankful for so much. The last four years have really sucked for my family, and 2010 was not an exception. But through all of it, I have found so much strength in friends and extended family, people who love me and who help me through whatever garbage is thrown at my head. I have a great job, wonderful children. Actually, I have the best children any mom could ask for, cool kids, each with an amazing sense of humor and a respect for me that I'm not sure I've earned. I have a mom I adore and admire, and can say is my best friend. I have so much in my life that even through all the suckage, I am thankful for everything good. And hey, without the bad, we couldn't truly appreciate the excellent, could we?

Enjoy your holiday; enjoy your family. Hopefully now that I'm feeling all creative and stuff, I'll have more to post here. I know I have tons of Christmas cards to make. Wish me luck!

Design team update

2010-10-08T08:34:00.008-04:00

I'm on the Altered Pages Design Team! I was surprised when I was chosen, very pleasantly surprised. So I figured it was time I shared another project I did for the contest. I don't know why it's taken me so long to add this here, but better late than never.

This is a set of four coasters, decorated with Christmas in mind. They're hung as ornaments, but they could easily be a coaster book instead.

Each coaster has designer paper glued to it. Each image was decorated with a Sakura gel pen with sparkles.

The image to above has embellishments made from Christmas decoratives I bought at Michaels last year. The little snowflake was from snowflake garland that I cut up.

The image to the left has frou-frou glued at the bottom and her wings sparkle from the gel pen.

The image on the right beside this paragraph is on my favorite designer paper - it's a gorgeous purple color and though not exactly a Christmas color, it's beautiful. She has a sprig from a gold decorative on her, too. I love buying these things from a discount bin and then tearing them apart to use on lots of things. It's economical, but it also looks very pretty.

The last image is my favorite. The little girl has the most beguiling face and her pose is just pretty. She is also on the most Christmas-y of the Christmas papers, done in traditional greens and reds.

So this was my third entry into the contest. Christmas stuff isn't a holiday that comes easily to me.

I've finished my first kit submission for the site, a set of bookmarks. I'll post them here soon. I've found another outlet for my creative urges - writing, and though it's not something I can share, it still makes me feel like I'm making something. And I have lots of creative energy again, lots of ideas for stuff I can make and share, so hopefully there will be more regular posts from me. If anyone is still reading, thanks for that.

Design team contest

2010-07-25T17:35:00.005-04:00

I've decided to enter a contest to try to be on the design team for Altered Pages.

The challenge for week one was to create something with playing cards. This is my finished project. It's called Birds of a Feather. When I think of playing cards I think of the fun I used to have at my grandma's house. Everyone played Pinochle. All the time. The uncles, the aunts, and the cousins (as soon as we were old enough to understand the rules and play). It was a constant on Sundays, and I miss those days, and my grandmother, a lot.

So in the spirit of the fun we used to have playing cards at my grandma's house, I made these cards as fun as I could. One of the collage sheets, Kooky Characters, jumped out at me because they are just so strange. Here are close ups of two of the cards.

See the kooky guys sticking out of the nests?

I had fun making these. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the finished project now that I've sent the pictures off to be judged. I guess I'll just sit it on my buffet and look at it and think of my grandma.

Framed Jewels

2010-07-05T14:13:00.005-04:00

My latest project. I saw some mixed media objects made with this stuff called ICE Resin. It is gorgeous stuff, but doesn't smell like epoxy resin, something I tried two years ago and quickly abandoned because the items I made smelled for months.

I wanted to make some framed jewels, using images from Altered Pages and some jewelry findings I purchased somewhere online. I cut out the images and fit them into my "frames", then poured the ICE Resin over the images. I had some left over, and since it's only good for 45 minutes, I added some Pearl Ex and poured two frames to break up the framed images. I waited a day and poured more resin over them to make them domed. A few hours in a warm toaster oven (specifically for crafts - do NOT put this stuff on or in anything you use for food) and I got some beautiful vintage-like pictures that I stuck to ribbon.

I grabbed an old frame, covered the backing with sheet music and designer paper, then glued tea dyed lace over that. Attached my ribbon of framed jewels to it and voila! All done. I suggest you click on this image and see a larger view to really get what the resin does.

Divas are my thing

2010-02-15T22:33:00.003-05:00

Almost everyone who knows me will tell you what a diva I am. I think women are wonderful and I often wish every woman would realize that and act like the divas they are.

This is my diva book, page 2 (I think I published the cover a long, long time ago!). I'm just playing, trying to get back into the groove, but isn't that pin in the upper corner of the book just amazing? Got it at an estate sale. It's so rich and sparkly.

Anyway, hopefully this marks the end of my lack of ability to create. I really enjoy making these messes.

Been a long, long time

2010-01-27T09:58:00.003-05:00

It has been a very long time since I posted anything to my art blog. Since my in laws died, I have had very little creative energy. We expended so much of our hearts taking care of them in the last two years of their lives that I think I kind of tapped myself out. I've been slowly perusing my favorite blogs again, hoping to get back some spark of what I used to have - some bit of desire to make something, anything.

I have been messing around with charcoal pencils. I'm going to show you all something, but I'll preface it with this. I do not know how to draw anything. Really. If I try to draw a tree, it comes out unrecognizable. I have no depth perception thanks to an eye doctor not listening to me when I was seven, so I truly don't see light and shadow the way everyone else seems to. Things are flat in my eyes, which means the nuances artists capture in images are lost on me. So try not to laugh.

This is a work in progress. I like the woman, but I want to get some more shadowing on her back. I hate the background and plan to paint over it and start over. Maybe even leave it stark white for contrast if I can get the shading on the woman correct - big if.

This picture is standing in front of our big window and I see her every time I walk through the dining room (where I do my art). My husband doesn't like her very much. He doesn't know why I draw bigger women, but when I draw men's backs and bottoms, they are thin, lanky even. Women are supposed to be soft, pliable, fluffy. We bear the weight of entire generations of people on our shoulders and we need a good solid ass to sit on to keep that weight from crushing us. I think she's a beautiful size and I inadvertently draw women this size.

How did I come to be able to draw people when I can't draw a simple object? True story - I dreamed about it. I dreamed about a man's back, scarred and beautiful, and I was drawing it in my dream. When I woke up, I felt like I had to try. Imagine my surprise when I got proportions right on the first try. Sure, I know my drawings are elementary, but for me, it's a giant leap to be able to draw something people can recognize.

Hopefully I'll be posting more as I plan to push myself to make stuff.

Trying something new

2009-05-24T19:21:00.004-04:00

I've seen crocheted wire necklaces before but it took me awhile before I found the right wire for actually making one. I used 30 gauge silver wire, and tiny little crochet hook. I crocheted three separate strands - one with lemon seed beads and crystals, one with crystals, rounds, and green and pink beads, and third with just crystals. It was simple single crochet, pulling a bead into the crocheting every other stitch.

I twisted the wires at the ends and used the crystal strand to wrap the other two together so they'd all blend together. It lies right on my collar bone, and it's so light. I'm very pleased with my first try at this!

Here is a closer look at the stitches and beading. It's delicate, isn't it? I plan to do more of this. It was so easy. It's not often I get something I like on the first try.

Otherwise, things here are fine. I'm still not out of the funk I've been in since my mother in law died. I'm hoping I come back soon. I think I will eventually, but it still just feels like there is a pall hanging over our house. I'm not sure how long this is supposed to last. I guess until it's over, right?

Oh, new job - AWESOME! Beyond awesome, actually. Six months in and I'm doing things I'm good at, things I really enjoy, with people I like. Can't get better, can it?

Bit of jewelry

2009-03-03T05:45:00.003-05:00

I know. Big deal, right? This is a charm bracelet I made. I'm a Twilighter and in Eclipse, Bella gets a charm bracelet from Jacob with a wolf charm carved from wood. Then Edward gives her a crystal heart charm that turns out to be a diamond. Every replica of this bracelet I've seen has a sterling silver wolf charm. I looked for a long time to find a charm that at least mimics the carved wolf. It's carved from stone that looks like wood. It's a fetish, not detailed or real looking, but I don't think it's as commercial as some of those I've seen.

I plan to get real sterling silver chain and findings for this, since I do like it so much. The Swarovski crystal heart sparkles and I want to add more of the red and clear crystal danglies on the "real" one.

Here's an altered tin I made months ago for a challenge for the SS Reflections ezine. Just an altoid tin painted gold. I haven't done anything really creative for awhile, and I feel kind of bad about not posting on my blog for so long. I figured sharing older stuff with you would be better than sharing nothing, right? I enjoy making these altered tins so much that all my friends save their empties to give to me. Recycling at its finest.

Not much else happening here. We're still trying to recover from the shock of the last couple of years. I have no idea how long this process takes, but it's beginning to bug me, this serious lack of creative drive. I just want my muse back!

Another month has passed

2009-02-08T08:09:00.005-05:00

This is the second painting I did.It was really hard to get a good picture of it. I used some glossy mediums on it and they just wanted to shine back at me.

This picture reminds me of a sunset. If you look closely, you can see the garnet gel and fiber paste I used, kind of like spackle, to create a rough wall surface. This one was fun to paint. It took me a lot longer than it looks because the floating medium I used to blend the colors took awhile to dry between layers. Anyway, painting number 2. I'm working on number 3. I love messing with paint and trying new things to see how it makes the paint work.

I was in a valentine postcard swap. This is what I came up with. I'm not exactly a valentine kind of person, but I joined the swap to challenge myself. I'm still not really creating. I get an idea, but never the energy. Or I have the energy and nothing comes to me. I'm hoping this clears up soon. I have lots of stuff waiting for me, begging me to come play. Maybe I'll have to challenge myself more. But this postcard uses an image from Altered Pages. They really have great images, so pretty and so inspiring.

This last picture is of my son. He took his shirt off and put it over his hair and said "Look, Mom, at my long orange hair" and he started posing with it. Since he's usually not so whimsical, I thought it would be a great time to capture one of his moments of fancy on film. Wait, is it called "film" if it's digital? Probably not. So I caught it on disk (better??). I love his sweet face. At five, his personality often doesn't match that angelic look. But in this case, it really did. He was having fun with long "hair". Kids are so cute, aren't they?

Can't believe I'm actually going to show you this

2009-01-14T18:29:00.003-05:00

I haven't made a card since Christmas, but I have been painting. I'm going to post one here. I just can't believe I'm actually going to do this, show my painting on my blog (embarrassing, really embarrassing). Painting is so therapeutic, the mixing of colors, making a mess. We've had a really bad time here, so therapeutic is necessary.

I used Lumieres and acrylics over fiber paste, with different gel mediums. There are layers and layers and layers on this canvas. It took me a week to finish. My daughter claimed it, but then I did a canvas in oranges and reds, her favorite colors, so she's trading me for that one. I'm going to hang it in my office.

Yet another Christmas card

2008-12-29T10:25:00.003-05:00

One more Christmas card. Non-traditional, using SU! image - the first stamp set I ever bought. The paper is SU! in-colors.

I stamped the snowman with Versamagic ink on metallic white card stock. The snowflake is from TAC, stamped in Agean Blue, just like the snowman, but then colored over with a gel pen.

I love sparkles. The leaves are from a sparkly Christmas leaf stick thing I bought on sale. I just snipped off the leaves and used them as an embellishment.

I'm onto the next thing. I've done two felted purses, one as a gift and one for me. I also finished a painting that my daughter has claimed. She flatters me by grabbing up a lot of the things I do before I've even completed them. I told her she didn't need to take it to make me feel good. I think she uses times like this to refer to me as "silly maja".

Another Christmas card

2008-12-15T22:14:00.004-05:00

Out of all the Christmas cards I've made, I think I like this one the best. For some reason, my cards seem awfully washed out on here (yeah, "some" reason - couldn't be that suddenly I'm taking crappy pictures, could it?). This is done with Close to Cocoa, Tangerine Tango (again, not sure it's the right SU! name), and a gold metallic from Cutcardstock.com. The ribbon is from May Arts, I think it's copper. The image is from Flourishes. Watercoloring to paint the reindeer. I love this image so much. I got it last year and I think I used it for many of my cards.

Again, not traditional colors. The orange really makes this pop. And I have to order a few dozen packs of it because I just love it so much. It's a great color. Why is it SU! has such wonderful in-colors that last such a short amount of time?

I have two other cards in the works, as well as a couple of felted purses that aren't fulling properly now that we have a front loading washer (or regular washer took a dive last week), so I'll have to hand felt them, then I'll take pictures. I promise I'll try to take better care when taking pics. I've just not cared enough to take more than one or two pics, instead of my usual 20 or 30.

Christmas is coming

2008-12-14T18:00:00.003-05:00

I can't believe it's almost Christmas. Time is just flying right past me, like I'm not even here. I finally got some of my Christmas cards done. I guess I could wait for New Years Eve to do them, couldn't I? This is my first one. I used SU! colors - Mellow Moss, Vintage Violet, and Close to Cocoa (is that the right name???). Non-traditional colors because I'm just sick of red and green and silver.

The images are from Flourishes. I love the bird image, the branch. I cut the circles with my Big Shot and the nestabilities. I used the Big Shot to emboss the circles.

I hope everyone is doing well, that your holiday season is progressing nicely. We aren't anywhere close to ready for this year, not even kind of close. Sorry for the lack of blogging. There has been a serious lack of art work to go with my lack of blogging. I'm trying to be better.

Thank you note

2008-11-10T22:44:00.003-05:00

I had to make thank you cards to send to the people who interviewed me for my new job. It was a lot of fun, the FOUR HOUR interview. Fun enough that the time passed so quickly. Usually any interview makes me tired, but this one didn't. They asked me so many questions, but in between answers, they told me stories and I told them stories and we all laughed. A lot. It was very much not like an interview. I'm really looking forward to managing again, and getting to lead a team. And I'm especially looking forward to working with people who can have a good time laughing and aren't going to think twice when I shoot nerf balls at them. I've already been warned that they are arming themselves before I start.

The card uses metallic papers from CutCardstock. I used a gel medium and SU! inks, painted randomly on the paper. The colors were Summer Sun, Marigold Morning, and Really Rust, mixed in different proportions to get gradations of color. I dry embossed. The images are SU! Colored with gel pens. Ribbon from May Arts (LOVE that ribbon).

Been a long time

2008-11-08T20:10:00.004-05:00

I know it's been a month. It's been a long, difficult month here. I'm not sure the next few are going to be any easier. Sometimes things just suck. Now is one of those times.

I made a few cards for SSReflections ezine that I'd like to share here. All of them were for the Starform Stickers challenge, and all used Elan Metallics from WorldWin Papers (this is some awesome paper).

This card is a thank you card I made for the HR person at the job I start in December. I know this poor woman is going to have a lot of work to do to get everything ready, and she is going to have to put up with me and some really dumb questions. So I thought I'd butter her up before I drive her nuts. Okay, not really butter her up. I did want to say thank you to her, though.

The image and the sentiment are SU! I dry embossed the pink paper, called Petal, which is really feminine and pretty, and very unlike most of what I do. The stickers are so detailed, I had to make something feminine. The other paper colors are Obsidian and Pewter. I really like the Elan Metallics. The colors are so rich. I had a hard time choosing just three for a card.

This is a sympathy card. I really hope I don't have to use this card for a long time. The stickers are falling stars. It seemed fitting to me. I stamped with Adirondack pigment ink, Snow Cap, and colored over the image with Prismacolor markers and Glaze pens.

I haven't done much else in terms of creating since the beginning of October. I used to have to create every day, or I would feel lost. Since my mother in law's death, I've not had any creative pull whatsoever. I'm really hoping this passes soon. I miss playing.

Thank you and some art

2008-10-09T01:36:00.003-04:00

First, I want to say thank you for all the well wishes, the prayers, the thoughts. It has been a very difficult couple of years for us, but it has been a living hell for my mother in law. I've never seen anyone suffer the way she did. I know others have, but I've not had to witness it and I can't imagine anyone being as strong as she was. She never complained about it, never purposely showed us how much it hurt or how scared she was. She was an amazing woman, and she loved me a lot, as much as I love her. I was so lucky to have married into her family.

I'm also sharing a couple of pieces from the October issue of SSReflections. It's late here (almost 2 am), so I won't be filling in tons of details, but if you want to know how I did anything I don't explain. The first piece is on 4x4 aquaboard. I did the background with Ranger alcohol inks in Lettuce and Bottle. I stamped the image (Blockhead Stamps - gorgeous, isn't she?) with black pigment ink from Ranger, then using a blender pen and a few colors of Ranger's pigment ink, I "painted" in her dress. I added the elements and this is what I got. I love this image.

This was a shrine to childhood that I did. I think this needs even less explanation. I used Basic Grey paper, images and words from Lisa's Altered Art. I painted a cigar box and added all the elements and now this sits on my fireplace mantle. My first shrine and I really enjoyed making it. I have plans to do more, if my life ever settles enough (seems like we'll have time on our hands now, since we've spend a great deal of our "free" time caring for sick parents).

So thank you for looking and thank you for being so kind. As I said before, this was the best ending, the most beautiful ending, my mother in law could have hoped for. She is free and at peace. We just need to remind ourselves of that.

Very sad news

2008-10-06T10:14:00.001-04:00

I don't even want to write the words publicly, but I know there are people who read my blog and care about this. My mother in law died yesterday.

4x4 board book for a swap

2008-09-20T19:24:00.007-04:00

I took part in a swap with SSReflections' yahoo group. We made a 4x4 coaster book. I cut mine out of cardboard to make the pages more sturdy. I glued white tissue paper on top of the cardboard to give it texture. I used Molten Metals acrylic paint in bronze and painted the tissue with that. Tissue paper adds a great texture to collage. I crumple it up before I glue it down so it isn't just flat. It's also very forgiving. If it rips, you can just stick another little piece on top of the hole to fill it in.

I used a book in Russian and cut circles out of it to make the background behind the images. I love foreign text. I used Tattered Rose distress ink and a stipple brush to distress the paper a little bit, then went around the edges in black ink. I stamped randomly on the paper to add something to it, so it wasn't so plain.

The images came from Altered Pages. I think the collage sheet is Screen Sirens. Very sophisticated images, and I thought they'd go well with the colors I chose. I love pink and bronze together. I cut out the women and glued them on top of the circles.

I embellished with flowers and butterflies. Butterflies are such a mystery and so pretty, and since they like flowers, I thought flowers would make sense too. I also used a spray of gold beads that I got from a Christmas bin at Michaels, buttons, stickers, mica, lace and ribbon, heart glitter, Stickles, and Robin's Nest Dew Drops. Lots of stuff.

One of the things I love about swaps like this are the ability to just go with what strikes my fancy. I didn't feel like I had to match things and I took the opportunity to just play. I need to play. I feel like my muse has taken a vacation, and this gave me a chance to have some fun.

ATC Swap -- Fall theme

2008-09-20T14:50:00.004-04:00

It's been insane here, as usual. Maybe a little more than usual. I finished a set of ATCs for a swap with a theme of Autumn Voices. I call the ATC "Fall's Fire", because when I think about this season, I think of the look of the trees and how they remind me of fire.

This was done with artist pastels on a good quality watercolor paper. I used Prismacolor NuPastel sticks. There are six or seven colors on it, blended with my fingers because they were the best tool for the job. Robin's Nest dew drops glued on top after I sprayed the ATC with a workable fixative. I have to make an extra for my daughter. She really likes these.

Card

2008-08-23T11:06:00.003-04:00

Just a quick card share. I stamped this on velour paper. If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you can see the neat texture. I colored with pencils (I think). I did this awhile ago, so I really am trying to remember what I did. I'm almost certain I just used pencils. It's a sweet image, anyway, and I think I have to dig this stamp out again.

Velour paper is pretty neat for stamping on. I did have to take a Micron pen and outline in the spots where the ink wasn't quite dark enough.

Fan card for swap and some really cool news!

2008-08-18T22:24:00.003-04:00

I was in a fan card swap. The template is at Mirkwood Designs, along with some other really great templates. This card was so much fun to make. I have a bawdy card that I'm making, but I tried dying feathers red instead of buying red feathers and it didn't work out very well. As soon as I get some red feathers, I'll finish the fan card I plan to keep and will post a picture. This was so much fun. I was surprised by how easy it was and how quickly the ideas for the theme came.

And now the really cool news. Since I told my mom, I think it's safe for me to post on the blog. I'm going to be a grandmother! My oldest (my only girl) found out on Saturday that she's pregnant. If my calculations are correct, about mid-April, I will be a grandma. My mom is a bit shocked. Angela is, after all, her oldest grandchild and that lucky woman was the recipient of the "grandma" title at ripe old age of 39. I was a very young mom. Anyway, it seems unreal that my oldest is 23 and even more unreal that she is going to be a mom, but she is happy, so I'm happy. Plus I get a great new baby to play with, and this one I can give back! Expect to see some baby blankets and stuff on the blog right around December, when she can find out the gender. If she finds out.

So that's my excitement this week. I think that's enough to hold me for awhile.

Random babbling

2008-08-11T23:33:00.004-04:00

Since it's another late night and I can't sleep, I was digging through my pictures, trying to clean up duplicates, get rid of crappy photos of nothing too important, just general housekeeping as I wait for podcasts to download. I stumbled across this picture I took of my side yard. Every once in awhile, we get the idea we want to move. Then I see pictures like this and I can't remember why. If we ever move, the view will have to be at least this good. It's so serene, relatively isolated, green. Sure, I'm allergic to almost everything that sprouts in the spring and fall, but this pretty view makes it worth it to me.

And this is a bottle I was messing with. I saw on a blog, am looking to find which one, information about altering plastic bottles. I need to fix this one. I love the colors, but it looks like the bottle has horizontal ridges. It doesn't. My darling husband asked me what exactly one would do with a bottle like this. Not sure, dearest, but I spent two weeks painting it and those were two weeks I wasn't nagging at you. I think he got the point. The texture is tissue paper, the paints are metallics. I love the pendant. I'm seriously considering taking the pendant off and pitching the bottle. I want to wear that pendant and the more I look at it, the more I want to.

As the summer winds down, both of my school-aged boys are starting to make requests for books and reading materials. Anyone who doubts the power of homeschooling, or more precisely the philosophy of unschooling, or child-led learning, needs to know what my boys asked for this year. The older boy wants geometry, physics, sign language, and has a list of novels that will set me back quite a bit. He also wants a college anatomy book. Why can't he want fluffy stuff? Fluffy stuff is cheap. All these science and math books are going to break me!! This is the child who barely opened a book 5 years ago before we pulled him from school, the kid who hated math and science. My other son has asked for Latin. He wants to learn Latin. I haven't gotten anything else from him yet, but he's been reading Dostoevsky and Dante and lots of other books I don't know if I could hope to wrap my head around. Child-led learning = letting the child determine what *he wants to learn and at what pace. I embraced this philosophy the year I pulled them out of school. And though I was skeptical, thinking all they'd want to read was comics and all they'd want to do is watch TV, they have surprised me by rediscovering their love of learning and by doing more and better than I ever could have hoped. My kids are awesome. I'm so proud of them.

An ATC for a swap

2008-08-11T00:04:00.003-04:00

Since I can't sleep, I figured I'd share an ATC that I just finished for a swap. I belong to a Yahoo group called Painting With Radiance, basically for anyone who likes shimmery and sparkly things. Things like Twinkling H20s and Pearl Ex, Lumieres, glitter, all of them qualify. I also think Angelina Fibers qualify. They shimmer and sparkle too!

I made the "paper" the image is stamped on from three colors of Angelina fibers - a yellow, a white with purple-ish highlights and a blue. I laid them out, little bits of the fibers, mixed them up so they were all intermingled, and blasted them with my heat gun enough to melt them. I laid parchment paper over top and rubbed to make sure they were flat. I stamped the fairy image (from Artful Inkables) with black VersaMagic ink. Chalk ink, sits on top, and I needed something that would be able to really hold the image on the slick surface. I colored her in with Prismacolor markers. The background of the ATC is the Cling and Scrunch tech, with Pearl Ex watercolor paints. The butterfly is a stone bead that I inked with Versamark and added Perfect Pearls. Really easy card once I figured out what I wanted to do. I hope Pat likes it!

Another short update

2008-08-10T22:36:00.003-04:00

My MIL is kicking butt. Still hanging in there. Today, she was up and eating, talking, lucid. Her kidneys started working again and she knew where she is. The doctors have warned against false hope, but I still have some. If anyone has it in her to survive the unsurvivable, it's my mother in law. You'd need to meet this woman to fully appreciate how tough she is.

Anyway, thank you for the prayers and good thoughts.

Short update

2008-08-09T08:46:00.003-04:00

My mother in law is back in the hospital and the outcome won't be positive for us. She will be having a fabulous ending to her story and I think she's more than ready to be finished with this world. I appreciate the many, many prayers people have been saying for her, all the light and energy people have sent to her. I'm convinced that she has lived this long because of everything people have done on her behalf. Well, that and her incredibly strong will.

If you have more prayers left, please pray for a calm and peaceful time for her before she passes. For no more suffering from this awful condition, and that her family will be able to move on and find peace too. Oh, and if you smoke, quit. If you work with caustic chemicals, pesticides, or other things that can cause lung damage, wear the appropriate protection. Dying from the inability to breathe has to be one of the most awful ways to die. You can't completely eradicate the panic of being unable to catch your breath and it looks like a long, painful drowning. Take care of your lungs. They're REALLY important. That whole breathing in and out thing is so undervalued.

Thanks for everything you have done to support me through this! All the hugs have been much appreciated.

Let's start with a card

2008-07-28T07:16:00.005-04:00

My mom has been hinting, not quite subtly, that I've not posted anything on my blog in awhile. I've been doing lots of stuff, but I've been really scattered and not at all together enough to take pictures and post. I get this way sometimes, just out of sorts for no good reason. Especially when I'm learning something new at work and especially when the learning isn't going well. That has been the last few weeks. All of it. I finally found that perhaps the problem wasn't with me, but was rather an issue with the product I was trying to package. It's still frustrating, but hey, who says life shouldn't be frustrating?

Let's start with a card, as the title suggests. My aunt's father recently passed away. With the recent death of my father in law, I really feel bad for her. Her father was older, had been sick for awhile, and they are sure he's in a better place waiting for them to arrive. And while all of that is most certainly true, I don't think it really makes the aching heart any less painful. I'm so sorry that anyone has to go through this pain. I know it happens every day, but it still makes me sad.

This card is an SU! image, colored with Prismacolor markers (I'm finally figuring those buggers out!). It's very simple, because I don't think death calls for an ornate card. I know the ones that I loved the most from my father in law's passing were the very simple ones. Colors are Marigold Morning and the blue from that year. Dang, can't remember the name. It's SU!'s designer color from 2006-07. Buckaroo Blue! Ha, glad I got that because it would have driven me nuts all day.

And this is my Brandy-girl. Or at least her eyes. She's incredibly camera shy and when I point my camera at her, she starts looking around to see how she can escape. Unlike her ditzy sister, Lacey, who looks straight at me when I try to get a picture. Brandy is almost seven years old. Danes' life spans are around 8 years. She is starting to show her age. I was looking at her eyes yesterday as I sat on our deck looking at the cows next door. Her eyes look so sad. They've always had this very sad look to them.

So there you go, Mom. A post on my blog. Just for you. :o) We're heading to our favorite amusement park today. It was calling for rain in the afternoon, but now it looks like it might be a nice day all day! I'm excited. Dylan hasn't been to the park since he was two and he's going to have so much fun there today. He was playing "carnival day" all day yesterday, getting ready for handing tickets over to the people running the rides. He's such a funny kid. Hope everyone has a wonderful day!!

Inchies!

2008-07-10T22:33:00.003-04:00

These are the inchies I did for Debbie at Debbie's Die Cuts. If you like doing inchies, or need to do a whole bunch, her inchies kits are really nice. I'm just saying...

I have a really hard time working this small. The inchie on the left has a piece of glossy card stock with purple and green ink on it. I made it a long, long time ago so I have no idea what technique or even the kind of ink I used. I crimped it and then on top added diamond dust. Added a coiled clip, a flower with a jewel in the center. That was in. On the right, it's Pearl Ex watercolored background, with a clear stamp (not sure who) of stars stamped on it, then a gold star on top.

ATCs from Debbie's Die Cuts (or is it for?)

2008-07-09T20:55:00.005-04:00

I'm not sure which preposition it is. Debbie Bankston sent me ATC die cuts and I made ATCs out of them. So they are from her. But I made them for her design team. So they are also for her. The first one is a DTP with Ranger pigment inks. I then stamped with the cloud stamp from Artful Inkables and the bird stamp is from TAC. The dragonfly die cut is from Debbie and it has sparkly Stickles on it. The clouds were heat embossed with SU! embossing powder, Iridescent Ice, so it sparkles too. Oh, and the wings of the dragonfly are colored with a silver leaf pen.

This is an SU! image, from a retired stamp set. I'm having a really hard time remembering the names of this stuff tonight, so there is no way I'll pull the name of the set out of my head. The background is silver and red. I stamped a TAC flourish and heat embossed with Iridescent Ice (SU!) and then outlined with green marker. I colored the flower with with a red Prismacolor marker. A few beads, a couple of pretty die cut flourishes from Debbie that I painted silver, and then edge with silver leaf pen and add microbeads from PennyWise Arts. It will be on its way to Debbie in tomorrow's mail! I love her die cuts. If you hate to cut out ATCs or come up with fancy flourishes or frames on your own, her die cuts are wonderful and you get so many for the price!

I've been busy

2008-07-08T23:18:00.004-04:00

Anyone who hasn't been busy, raise your hand! But I've been busy creating and making messes. I went to work today with glue flaking off my hands. These are the ACCs I made (can't remember what ACC stands for, dang it, but I'll figure it out and let you know). They are from Debbie's Die Cuts as part of my work for her design team. ACCs are the size of folded ATCs, only not folded. They are flat like an ATC.
I really enjoyed making these. The heart die cut is from Debbie too. I glued lace on that ACC, that had been rubbed with Coffee Bean Brilliance Ink. The ACC base had been rubbed with gold Brilliance Ink. I did DTP to the heart with Old Paper Distress Ink, then stamped a TAC flourish on with Burnt Umber Palette Hybrid Ink. I added a frame around the Wish sentiment and it was finished. The blue ACC was done by gluing sheet music onto the base and doing a DTP method to it. The beads are on a head pin. I love those beads!!

That is one of three projects I've done for Debbie's design team. I'll show the others tomorrow.

Goodnight.

Almost too tired

2008-07-06T22:13:00.004-04:00

On the SSReflection yahoo group, there was a swap called "Swapper Out". The idea was to take some stuff to make a card and send it to your partner, then she makes the card and keeps it. Here is one of the cards I made. I really would never have considered this style of card making, but as soon as I got all the parts out to rearrange, it all fell into place.

The blues and greens and purples blend so well together, and I got this lightbulb box ran through a crimper. It was so much fun. Our next swap is even better. We're making three sheets of background papers to send to our partners. This should be a really fun swap. I love backgrounds! I love to make them and I can't wait to see what the other person sends me to use.

The title of my post. After July 1, apparently some of my meds that control my sleep/wake cycle fell off the "formulary". I think the only formula that list holds is the formula for making more money for the insurance company. I take exactly three prescriptions drugs on a long term basis, and the insurance company won't cover any of them without an argument. They finally caved on the meds that help me stay awake during the day, but won't fill the script for the meds that keep me asleep at night. I'm almost too tired at this point, and I certainly am not going to beg for them to cover something that has allowed me to fully function as a productive member of society.

And this is a zentangle I've been working on. I actually like this one. I don't always like the doodle stuff. I'm not a good doodler, never having mastered any kind of consistency in the lines I draw. But this one is kind of whimsical and feminine (also so very unlike me). I had fun making it. I want to start another one soon. I think the relaxation these bring are very good for my brain.

Family wise, things are okay. My mother in law is adjusting well. My husband is adjusting, but of course the details fall to him and there are so many details to think about. Why is there no manual for this kind of thing? Oh, wait, that's right, there is one. I just have to get it.

I have a very close friend having a hysterectomy tomorrow (Monday) to remove a mass on her ovary. They think it's cysts, but it could be much worse. I'd really appreciate it if you'd say some prayers for her. I know I will be. Lots of them. She deserves them.

Thank you card

2008-06-27T11:30:00.003-04:00

I made the thank you cards for the people who were kind enough to send us flowers and give us food when my father in law died. He was a hunter and trapper, so my husband wanted something that reflected that. It's such a sad reason to make a card.

The gold paper is so nice. I love this gold. It's from CutCardstock.com. It's really heavy paper. The green paper is also from CutCardstock.com, called Rusted (I think). And it's not a bright gold, but much more like a brushed gold. It was perfect for making somber, masculine cards. The images are SU! The background is Silken Mist, a Technique Junkies technique. It's a very soft effect with green and gold colored H20s.

A couple of cards

2008-06-24T06:09:00.004-04:00

Just a couple of quick cards to upload before work. I've been getting up earlier the last few weeks, and this time in the morning is amazingly productive!

Anyway, this card was done as a Card of the Month for the SSReflections yahoo group. I volunteered to make it when someone else in the group got sick (and is recovering without worry, I hope!). Flo is one of the sweetest women and I was happy to make a card for her. I had this image from SU! I stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with black. The background is called Createx Creation. I used Molten Metal in Bronze and Crimson Lumiere. The texture is pretty awesome. I thought it would be fun to just put her name on the bottom of the card. She can take those letters off and do what she wants with them. The stickles will also peel off, I'm sure. The paper I used is Stardream Metallics, black, gold, and rust. Of course, the black is called something else, but I can't remember.

This card was for a contest on another Yahoo group. We got the image and the little brad from Inka at Inkastamps. In return, 10 of us had to make a card to post. They will be voted on and the winner sends her card to Inka to be put in her online gallery. The background of this was painted them distressed with an old pill bottle. The paints are Molten Metallics in copper and gold, and Citrine Lumiere. Very light hand. Again, heat embossed because it's really the best way to make the image pop. Oh, and the background behind the background is scrunch and cling, watercolor paper with H20s.

Better be getting ready to go to work. It's been a long few weeks. We're hanging in, though it does have its moments. We're dealing with the will and all the legalities now. Power of attorney, accounts, insurance, policies and procedures. Lordy, all of this stuff is exhausting!

Why we homeschool - a side note

2008-06-14T20:57:00.003-04:00

I'm so often asked why I homeschool my children. I was just asked that question on Thursday by a cousin I love to pieces, who really doesn't understand why anyone would take their children away from other children. There is a myth that homeschooled kids are isolated from the rest of society, and I guess if you consider herding children into a room with 25 other children of the exact same age to be "society", that would be a correct assumption. I don't consider that to be normal society nor do I consider what happens during the school day to be socialization.

Why do we homeschool? My kids deserve it. That's the best answer I can give. Our local school didn't do a good job with my kids and they were suffering academically and emotionally. No matter how much time I spent at the school or with my kids doing homework and trying to help, it didn't do any good. I couldn't stop the body slams into the locker, I couldn't stop the nasty name calling or the picking. I couldn't stop the teachers who didn't like my kids' personalities from treating them badly. My kids had some wonderful teachers. I have many wonderful teachers in my family. But the wonderful teachers can't undo the hurt done by the teachers who forget they are teachers and take things personally. One teacher almost said the "big bad word" to my middle son, and the librarian raised her hand to hit him. One of his teachers made him suicidal, and then some man older than me followed him home from the bus stop down our private lane and threatened to hurt him. The school knew (Travis told them) and they didn't tell us. We'd had enough.

Another reason I homeschool is because, quite frankly, I do a better job of teaching. My kids get one on one attention from me. They aren't vying with two dozen others for brief moments of my time. We can have very in depth discussions about things and they can ask hundreds of questions until they know everything they want to know about something. They also have full control over how much they learn. They can learn as much as they want, and I've found that without the shackles that school put on them (short class periods and the changing of topics), their curiosity is unlimited. And none of their time is wasted on lunch breaks or recess or study hall or class changes. The hours they learn are truly hours of learning and not chunks of hopefully learning something between the time it takes them to walk the halls and then get their stuff out and then put it away again in preparation for the walk to the next class. I know some kids thrive in that environment, but my kids are a lot like me. Autodidactics really don't do well with short bursts of learning. We need to be able to delve in and study. Public schools don't allow for that.

And let's be honest. Is a classroom full of 10 year olds and one adult really representative of society? No, it isn't. Nowhere else in their lives will kids ever be required (and I really mean forced) to sit in a room with the same aged kids, having to raise their hand to go to the bathroom and not talk during the day, and worry about spit balls flying at them from behind or the bully who is waiting around the corner to bloody their noses. I hear a lot about how kids have to learn to deal with people they don't like. Yes. They do. But in a school setting, they aren't learning to deal. If the teacher doesn't like them, they have to learn to take verbal abuse and shut up about it, because they have no power. That isn't real life and I don't want my kids learning that other people have that much power over them. I want strong minded, strong willed kids who will know themselves and know when something is really wrong, they don't have to just shut up and put up with it.

My kids are awesome. They're responsible. They get along well with people of all ages. They are certainly not kept in the dark at home and never allowed out. They are smart and they are considerate. They're mature and wonderful. I wouldn't trade all of that for all the "socialization" in the world. I've been called selfish for not being willing to "fight the system from the inside" and just doing what's right for my kids and not trying to make schools better for all kids. Again, to be honest, I don't think our current school system is fixable. I don't think it will ever be right as long as teachers have to teach to a test that our darling pres couldn't pass if he had someone feeding him the answers. I know it's not the teachers' fault that they have to teach that way. They have no choice. I don't think kids should be shackled. I don't think kids should be force fed garbage that will show up once in their lives on some stupid test and never again have any meaning. If saving my children from that system is selfish, then I'm definitely selfish.

You're all winners!

2008-06-13T21:52:00.002-04:00

Since only eight people signed up to be in the drawing, I'm just going to send you all some goodies. I certainly have enough extras to share with everyone! My email is mzw4@yahoo.com. Send me your snail mails and I'll hopefully get envelopes in the mail on Monday!

Blog Jewels! (I am a princess after all)

2008-06-13T21:00:00.002-04:00

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THIS WILL STAY ON TOP

I just realized that I now have 13,000 hits on this blog. That's more than a 1000 a month. I know in the real web world, 1000 hits a month is pathetic, but in my blog world, where it continues to surprise me when people read it, it's awesome!! I'm on a huge recycling binge, so, I am going to give away some stuff. Anyone who knows me knows that I prefer to make backgrounds than make cards with backgrounds. I have a lot of backgrounds I've made just waiting for the perfect use. I'd love to give some away, or lots away, along with some baubles and beads and bits that one could use in one's art. So this is what I'll be giving:

Several pages (maybe three) of different background techniques. Most likely these techniques will be shimmery, because those are the ones I like, but I might surprise you. They will be quarter sheet size (A2 card size) so you can cut them up. There will be squares of Basic Grey paper and SU! double sided paper. I think I'll also throw in some of my quarter sheet or larger leftovers so someone can give them a good home. There will be ribbon and some fibers, as well as some sparkly kinds of bling. There will be some rubber in the mix. I have stamp sets I don't use, many I've never used, and some that are so lightly used. Loads of goodies that people can play with. I'm going to pack them up this weekend and have them ready to go out.

Put a link to this post on your blog, telling people what it is. I think it would be wonderful if other people who have extras of stuff they don't know what to do with got in on the act and gave their extra stuff as a reward for visiting. I might even put together several envelopes. I want my extras to go to loving homes. Then in the comments on this post, let me know where the link is on your blog so I can visit you. Next Friday, the 13th (see the pattern here - 13000 hits, Friday the 13th), I will pick at least one winner at 9pm. and announce it the same night. I do think it would be really cool if other bloggers recycled their unused items this way! Give you room for new stuff, too.

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Black and white

2008-06-12T23:03:00.003-04:00

I think I've mentioned somewhere how relaxing I find painting to be. I love mixing the paint, applying it, watching the colors blend or layer, and even watching it through different levels of drying. This past week has been uber-stressful, and I needed some calm in my life. I forgot about how calming it is to paint, but then I remembered.

This is what I painted. You'd be surprised how much paint went into this. It looks like very little, doesn't it. The black veins are string gel medium mixed with Palette Hybrid Noir ink refill. It's very shiny, the medium with the ink. I just have felt very empty, very sparse. This worked for me. I wish I really knew how to paint. But then it might not be so much fun.

Where does your dog sit?

2008-06-12T15:41:00.002-04:00

Mine sits on the couch. She isn't allowed up on the couch to lay, so she figured out the next best thing. Instead of sitting on the floor, she just sits her butt on the couch!

This is our seven month old, Lacey. She's quite the dog. Love those ears.

Painting

2008-06-10T13:38:00.003-04:00

Painting is incredibly calming, even if you don't really know how to do it. I've been playing with textures in painting, using tar gel and self leveling gel to add streamers of different colors of paint. I painted this a few weeks ago with Lumiere paints. Grape and Crimson and Pink Gold and a yellow acrylic from Liquitex. Not sure which yellow exactly.

I'm painting again today, needing the calm it brings. I've been so scatter brained these last few days, I really didn't remember how peaceful it is to just sit and mix paints. I'm doing one in grays and black today. To match my mood. When it's done drying, I'll take a picture.

My son is going to be SO mad at me for this

2008-06-09T09:37:00.003-04:00

But he doesn't read my blog, so I'll just have to hide it from him. He's 6'1". Both great danes sleep in his bed. I have no idea how they fit. But I saw this picture this morning and had to take it. That's our baby dane, Lacey. She's not so little anymore, but she sure is cute.

My father in law passed away yesterday. We're all stunned and sad and unsure of what happens next. I appreciate all the support you guys have given me. It really does help to know that so many people care enough to say it. My father in law was a really cool guy, and was always nice to me. He loved me like a daughter. Not all women are so lucky. If I don't share much for awhile, this is why. I probably will have to do some painting or something, just for therapy, but it's going to be a few difficult days.

Really bad accident

2008-06-08T11:34:00.002-04:00

My father in law was in a really bad accident on Friday night. He has severe head trauma and is in a coma. We had to fight to get him transferred to a trauma center last night. The doc at the local hospital decided within an hour or two that there was no hope, but rather than let him die, he put him on life support thinking it would be less cruel to make his family pull the plug. I think that was awfully sweet of him. What a guy. Then he came in twice, without explaining any of the findings that led him to his conclusions and offered his condolences, and started asking about organ donation. We think perhaps one of the doc's family members had dibs on a kidney.

Anyway, we asked them to transfer him to a hospital with an amazing trauma center (local one has no trauma center) and the doctor actually gave us a hard time. Asked my husband if he was really willing to risk the lives of a pilot and crew to have him flown to the trauma center. WTF??? Risk the lives of the crew? HUH??? Apparently, these people are only willing to risk their lives for some people, but not for a gravely injured 78 year old. I'm not sure what the criteria are, but I guess the doc didn't think my father in law met them. He actually dared us to call anyone we wanted, but the transfer wouldn't happen. I only had to call the hospital administrator. I was kind of keyed for a fight, but I just called and told her we wanted him out of there NOW, and he was taken by ambulance last night.

The doctor seems very strange to me. He was miffed that my husband said he wanted to take him to a bigger hospital, better equipped to handle a trauma. He got very defensive about the whole thing, telling my husband not to run down the local hospital. Not sure how stating the painfully obvious is an insult, but I honestly will never willingly be admitted to that hospital again, ever. Neither will anyone in my care.

Okay, I know this is an art blog, but I do have a few family members who read this who probably want to know about my FIL. I'm done ranting for now.

Collage details

2008-06-05T22:38:00.002-04:00

I promised some details about the collage and I figured I'd better put them up now before it heads out to Idaho. My sister said she wanted it. That really makes me feel good. She's kind of fancy compared to me. I wasn't sure it would fit her decor.

The tray is old, something my husband picked up for cheap at an auction. I gave him big kisses for that find. What a guy! I used cardboard from my Wii Fit box as the backing. I painted it with Molten Metals in Gold. Using a satin decoupage glue, I glued tea dyed lace on the cardboard, making sure to cover it well with the glue so it would be completely connected to the cardboard. I got all the pictures from a Dover publication (at least I think). I picked all sister pictures because they meant something to me.

I used old jewelry I got at another auction. Can you tell what my new hobby is? Auctions are such a great place to get old stuff that you can use in art, and then that stuff doesn't go to the landfill and you save lots of money. The necklace has beautiful grey pearl(ish) beads. I grabbed a pair of earrings and ripped the backs off (clip ons, ouch!). There is a faux pearl necklace framing one of the pictures. The spoon was painted with Metallic Mixatives in gold, Adirondack alcohol ink. And that pretty little doodad on the front of the spoon is also a clip on earring with the back ripped off.

I love the little bird on the front. I stole it from my four year old. I had to promise I'd get him another one to paint. This one was covered in thick kid's paints, so I just covered it up with Molten Metals in bronze, then gold, then added some dark brown accents (Liquitex Basics). I glued it all down with either fiber paste or decoupage glue. Now it's wrapped in bubble wrap and ready to go on an airplane with my mom to Idaho. I have an old mirror and an old picture frame that I need to get started on.

An ATC and a pretty flower

2008-06-05T22:21:00.002-04:00

I made an ATC for a swap. I actually made an extra 5 of them for another swap, but I've been too lazy to send them. I'm pathetic sometimes. This is a Technique Junkies technique called Createx Creation. If I got that wrong, I'll fix it when I find out. You take Createx paint, which is a pretty thin paint used for airbrushing, and smear it and smoosh it and voila! You get a really cool image. Only I didn't use Createx paint. They belong to my husband and he doesn't have good metallics. I used Molten Metals and regular acrylic craft paints. Mix them with a bit of water to make them thin, and you get some cool effects on paper. Images are from Artful Inkables. Love these stamps.

And now my pretty flower picture. We inherited several very large rhododendron bushes when we bought the house. This year, they are blooming like crazy after a few not so stellar years. I took this picture when I was just out walking around taking lots of pictures. I like the way the lighting on this looked, and I love the color. Rhododendron are so pretty. We have a few different colors, but this was the one where the lighting was just right. There is no altering of the light in the photograph to get it dark at the edges. It's how the picture came out just from the where the sun was.

Other than that, things are pretty quiet here. Life is wonderful.

Collage complete!

2008-06-03T23:20:00.003-04:00

Well, here it is! My first large collage piece and I'm very happy with it. It's called "Sisters". My sister lives in Idaho and I only see her every few years. I miss her a lot. We fought like crazy when we were kids but grew into great friends. Billie, if you read my blog and would like this, I'd be honored to give it to you as a gift (Mom, you can send her the link)!! It's been made in your honor because Mom told me how much you've been missing me. I miss you a lot too. Remember that song "Don't Turn Around" by Ace of Base. It was playing when we said goodbye when you left to move back to California for the final time. I couldn't listen to that song for months without crying and crying. Especially the part where they sing "I wish I could scream out loud that I love you. I wish I could say to you "Don't go!". I wanted so much to keep you here. I knew you'd be happier not here, but you know how selfish I am. :o)

Anyway, I can put some details on the blog tomorrow or the next day. It's late. I have to work tomorrow, and I am TIRED.

SSR June is LIVE!

2008-06-01T18:49:00.006-04:00

June edition of SS Reflections is live. In case you want to visit. It's free to get the newsletter and the ezine. This is one of my designer challenges. this month's challenge was from Pennywise Arts. We used their microbeads. I'm not much for playing with tiny little beads, but I have to admit, by the time I got done with all three of my pieces, I was enjoying them. On this box, if you click on it and make it big, you'll see the beads are around the edge of the box and on the bird and flower.

Another of my designer challenge pieces. This one is beaded on the entire image piece. I love this little girl. She's from TAC's Twinkle Toes stamp set. Isn't she precious?

I'm in the middle of a big collage piece that is almost done. It's taken me two weeks to get the idea out of my head, and then of course, there is the painting, gluing, drying, arranging, rearranging. You get the picture! Hopefully by next weekend I can show it off. I really think it's going to be cool. I've never really done anything like this, so we'll see.

Things here are quiet. In laws are well, kids are well, I'm well but have just discovered I'm getting old. I hurt myself sitting down a few weeks ago. Yes, you read that right. I hurt myself. Sitting down. And then I got a Wii Fit and hurt myself doing the hula hoop. I can finally do the Wii without a lot of pain. Thank goodness! But I realized I'm not 26. In my head, that's how old I am. 26. Mentally, I'm 12, but in my mind's image of myself, I'm 26 years old and my body is now telling me "No you're not". It's also sticking its tongue out at me.

Picture Alert!

2008-05-20T23:58:00.003-04:00

I had to post this picture. It's Dylan wearing Travis's reading glasses. Doesn't he look smart? Well, except for the goofy grin, doesn't he look smart? He is really smart, and a smartass too, but he loves wearing Trav's glasses because his daddy and I wear them and he wants to be like us. They're really, really weak reading glasses that Trav needed for a whole six months. Dylan doesn't wear them a lot, but when he finds them, he loves to put them on and ham it up for the camera. He's such a cutie. Now if only we could get his attitude to be as angelic as his face is.

Tag book

2008-05-20T22:51:00.008-04:00

I have been accepted as a design team member for
Debbie's Die Cuts. Imagine how excited I was! My first project for her was a tag book. She sent me all sorts of very cool little die cuts to play with in addition to the tag book, like the frame die cut on the cover. I used gold UTEE on it, then added glue, sprinkled on some glitter and microbeads, and decided I liked it. Very festive. The theme of the book is Dance Hall Girls.

I "painted" the cover with various Opalites, just dumped them on and spread them around with a sponge. This was over distress inks, so it has an interesting look, like there's a texture, but there isn't. Tricky, don't you think?

I found some great books of sheet music for organ and piano at a town wide yard sale. They were only $.10 each, so I grabbed five. I didn't have any dimes so I had to make it five. Of course. I've seen sheet music used in altered art projects and always loved it. So I glued the sheet music onto the pages, and when it dried, I cut the pages out. I used several distress inks - Tattered Rose, Tea Dye, and Vintage Photo. I used the Tattered Rose, the lightest, first, using a stippling brush and sponge. Then I edged the pages with Tea Dye (medium color), and then around the very edges with Vintage Photo. It gives the pages a very old feel, almost like they were exposed to the sun for a long time. Tattered Rose has to be one of my favorite colors in the distress inks. The little roses were a gift to me for hosting the inchie swap.

I then did a dry brush over the whole thing with white gesso to soften the look, make it kind of hazy and out of focus. I stamped randomly on the pages with TAC flourish stamps using Brilliace ink in Coffee Bean and Galaxy Gold. The photo doesn't pick up on the shimmer of the inks. In fact, I don't think you can even see it in the pictures, or maybe just the Coffee Bean. It's a pretty reddish brown. I made my stepdad a card, using it to stamp the paw prints, and he made a comment about bloody footprints on his card. Leave it up to him. I laughed. He's a funny guy.
The embellishment in the upper left corner was from some junk jewelry I scored at an auction on Saturday. Wow, did I get some GREAT junk jewelry.

The little envelope on this page is one of the die cuts, too. I used distress ink and the same flourish stamps, then added another piece of the junk jewelry I got. And three little flower buttons that I added down the right side. I made the white not quite so bright by rubbing Timber Brown Stazon over them and wiped it off before it completely dried.

The images for all of the pages are from Altered Pages. Love that place too. A whole lot. They have fantastic collage sheets. This is one I got on a transparency, makes the images look a bit ghostly. The lace was from Walmart. I bought the end piece for a bargain. It was white, so I put it in a pot of tea to dye it. My husband was thrilled to see a sheet of lace in one of my pans on the stove. He just kind of shook his head. I had to put a note on it, telling them to leave it alone so no one threw it out.

I used off white beaded garland to tie it all together (literally). I also added a bit to the last page, just because it needed something at the bottom. Debbie sent me that fantastic tassle. I used Caramel alcohol ink on it to make it not white (can you tell white is a problem for me??). Added a few sparkly flowers and declared it finished!

This sounds like it took a long time, but it was done in less than a day. I was surprised how quickly it went. Usually it takes me a long time to make something. I think altered art is definitely an area that inspires me.

Another long absence

2008-05-18T15:39:00.007-04:00

Time sure does get away from me! Anyway, I've been busy, as I'm sure everyone else has. And yet most everyone else manages to post on their blogs more than once every few weeks.

I made a card! Yeah, I was pretty happy that I finally made a card. I've been doing other things, like playing in a Mixed Emulsions workshop on altering photos. But I had to make a card for a swap, and I managed to do it and do it on time, even!

I can't remember for the life of me where I got this stamp. I love the little girl fairy, and I colored her with Twinkling H20s. She's stamped with India ink in black on glossy card stock. The paper behind the image is from WorldWinPapers. It's called Ruche and it's fabulous stuff!! The stuff with the leaves on it is from TAC. I stamped the leaves with Timber Brown Stazon. The image is from Artful Inkables. The pretty butterfly was a gift someone gave me for hosting a swap. It matched so well, I just had to use it! I was excited to get something so coordinated by accident!

This is my experiment from the Mixed Emulsions workshop. Mixed Emulsions is a book written by Angela Cartwright about altering photos to use in your work. This one was printed onto photo paper (glossy) and I colored the image with Tria markers and then did a gesso dry wash around the edges to make it hazy looking. I think she's pretty even without all the fuss.

Update on family. My mother in law and father in law both seem to be doing very well. Everything is relatively calm for now, and I'll just count that as a wonderful blessing. Terry has pleurisy and hurts quite badly, but he is getting better and hopefully we'll all be well for the next week.

Long time, no blog

2008-05-04T11:38:00.007-04:00

Long time, no blog - just like the title says. I've been a bit busy, like the rest of the world. I'm hosting an inchies swap for the SSRefelctions ezine Yahoo Group because our swap goddess, Donalda, had surgery on her hand. I'm honored to have been entrusted with hosting this swap, but I'm sure Donalda is just waiting to get back to running them in her usual, uber-competent way.

The swap theme is the alphabet. 26 players (actually, we have 23, three people are doing two letters), everyone picks a letter and makes 26 of that letter. Then they all get sent to me and I make 26 full alphabets and send them back out. We're almost done - just the letter T to go. It's been fun seeing them all come in.

To the left is my inchie. I was the letter W. I took chipboard, painted it yellow. When it was dry, I put Pearl Blue Lumiere over it and used my noodle brush to make waves. Then I took a wooden ribbon spool and twirled in the almost dry paint. The flower is shrink plastic painted with yellow alcohol marker and shrunk. The W is done with silver metallic perma-marker.

I was out looking around the art blogs of the world and I stumbled upon this most excellent blog - A Note From The Queen. She had these very cool paintings she had done, I think she called them poured paintings. I love color and texture, so I thought I'd try one. They're very easy, but not as quick as I thought. I had to actually wait for paint to dry. Go figure! I used acrylic mediums, floating medium, varnish, and a gloss medium, mixed the paints up and poured. The paint mixtures are different consistencies, so there is some depth to the painting as well as texture. It's really hard to photograph this well. A 2D photo just doesn't capture it. But I tried, so here it is. Oh, and it's 8 x 11 canvas.

The third thing I've been working on is a mixed media collage. It took longer than I thought, too (do you suppose I'm too used to doing quick things??). I really like the way this turned out, as does my 15 year old. He wants it for his room. Just an 8 x 11 canvas board with tissue paper and other papers and lace glued onto it with gel medium, then I painted over it with Lumiere paint and flat acrylic. My husband helped with this. He stuck a soda tab on (you can see it to the upper left of the fairy's head), along with other bits and pieces. What a guy, huh?

It was fun, but it took a long time for the whole thing to come together. I just started with the tissue paper, looking for texture. Then I moved onto the image and theme. The words say "Fairies haunt my dreams".

I'm also working on an art journal called "A Charmed Life". It's going to be kind of dark, so I'm not sure I'll share it here. Probably will, but when I do, I'll try to explain the meaning behind it. It's been inspired by listening to Eminem's music, and knowing how much of his personal pain was poured into the disturbing music he made. I love his music, but if you listen to the lyrics, they are dark and scary, like most of us except we try to hide it. Anyway, between that and the ezine work, I've been quite busy but not posting.

The ezine is up for May. Michelle's Altered Magic Shoppe. If you want to go look at what I did this month, as well as all the other very talented women who work on the crew.

New life

2008-04-20T16:00:00.003-04:00

Don't you just love spring? It's when everything comes back to life. Spring also brings back the worst of my seasonal allergies, but I can forgive it that because of the beauty that comes with it. One thing I adore is seeing the trees bud. The leaves just start poking out of their winter hiding places, very bright green, just hinting at what beauty they are going to bring. I've always wanted to be able to take a picture of the leaves popping out. Finally, today was the perfect day. Rain falling and the leaves just beginning to make the trees look fuzzy. Kind of makes me forget about all the stuff that keeps my mind busy the rest of the time.

More bookmarks

2008-04-08T20:33:00.003-04:00

This is my latest set of bookmarks. One of the women in the bookmark swap sent me an extra set of bookmarks she made. She wasn't my partner, but sent me beautiful bookmarks, so I'm returning the favor. You can't see the background very well on here, but trust me, it's really pretty. I used gouache paints in blue and green, and a pearl metallic acrylic paint. Then I did a dry brush with very little gesso and a bit of the pearl paint. It shimmers a bit and it looks like it's fluid. Very neat effect with very little work. Gouache paints, for those who don't know, are opaque paints, pigment in water, but very thick and heavy. I saw a set on sale in Michaels and bought them without having a clue what to do with them. They're really nice paints for backgrounds.

My father in law had balloon angioplasty today, in two places in his heart and one in his leg. I haven't heard yet how he's doing, but hopefully it all went very well and he's recovering.

Designer Challenge cards

2008-04-04T01:42:00.005-04:00

This month's challenge at SSReflections was from I Brake for Stamps. This first card was colored with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. She's supposed to be a Christmas fairy, but I like her better as just an every day fairy. The cardstock is from SU! - Blush Blossom, Wild Wasabi, Certainly Celery. The ribbon is also SU!, dyed with Blush Blossom ink refill.

This card was colored with Tria markers, much like Copics (only they were on sale!). The designer paper is from Basic Grey, the 6 x 6 Periphery pad. I love that paper so much, I hurried up and bought a second pad of it before it was gone! The flourish is from Debbie's Die Cuts, dyed with an SU! ink pad direct to paper - Mellow Moss. The letters, in case you can't read them, say Dream. They are plastic letter dots I found at M's, and I used alcohol ink in Stream to color them to match the card.

There are so many more beautiful creations with the I Brake for Stamps stuff at SS Reflections. Please go check out what everyone did when you have a chance. Some of the other designers got much more difficult stamps to work with than I did. I was lucky and got fairy stamps - my favorite kind of stamps. I didn't have to think hard to figure out what to do with them. A few of the other designers did. It's amazing what they came up with, the diversity and how neat they all are. I'm really enjoying being part of the ezine, and hopefully I can add some value for them as well!

On a more personal note, my father in law is in the hospital. He had a heart attack this week. He is recovering, but it's still scary. My poor in laws and my poor husband. He's running between the nursing home and the hospital, trying to make sure everyone is okay. Please keep my in laws in your thoughts and prayers.

SS Reflections is Live for April!

2008-04-01T20:41:00.002-04:00

Here's the link for the main page (go and look at everyone's stuff when you get a minute!):

SSReflections - http://www.ssreflections.com

Here's my page:

Michelle's Altered Magic Shoppe

I'll post pics of my designer challenges in a bit.

Other set of bookmarks and a brief explanation

2008-03-28T17:54:00.003-04:00

As you can see, very close to the other bookmarks. Here's how I made them. I used Canson watercolor paper for the bookmarks. I sprayed alcohol color mists that I made onto them in a orange/yellow, a blue, a purple, and a green. I then put on Adirondack Color Washes in Lettuce and Butterscotch. I then dry brushed gesso over that and added an olive green acrylic paint (also dry brushed) over that. I used Winchester paper from TAC, then I put a piece of metal I took off a computer over the bookmark and sprayed the green alcohol mist over that to get the dots (upper right of the bookmark). I have images printed from Dover that I glued on and distressed with distress ink in Frayed Burlap. The bird was made with fantasy film. It's a TAC stamp, stamped in black Stazon, put four layers of the film on top, a piece of wax paper, a piece of copy paper, iron for a few seconds, let cool, and cut out. Looks like a lot of steps, really just isn't. The feathers behind it are peahen tail feathers. The flourish is from Debbie's Die Cuts. I embossed them with copper penny embossing powder. Flowers were painted with Twinkling H20s. The fibers on the bird bookmark are just champagne fun fur yarn. The fibers on the other are some package of fibers I got in the scrapbook section of Ms.

How to make the alcohol mist - I use 91% rubbing alcohol, a small misting bottle from Walmart, reinker in any color I like, and a bit of water. It's about 2/3 alcohol to 1/3 water, then add the reinker, as many drops until you get the color you like. Some of them, I might put in 10 drops. Others, I've added half a reinker bottle. The half a bottle is REALLY vibrant. Stazon inks make much brighter colors with this. I've also added a scoop of Pearl Ex and a teaspoon of hairspray into these bottles to give some shimmer. I love making this stuff by myself. It's much cheaper than trying to buy all the colors of the mists I want. And the alcohol makes it dry pretty fast, which helps keep the papers from warping too much.

Anyway, that's that.

My little thugs

2008-03-28T00:04:00.003-04:00

This is my oldest and my youngest making their best thug face. Angela labeled the picture "'Sup?" As you can see, Angela is very good at the blase, who cares look. Dylan has to try a little harder. And his face is dirty. ALWAYS dirty. Just wanted to share a very cute picture for my family members who never see my kids. Love you guys!!

Bookmark Swap

2008-03-27T23:51:00.003-04:00

I was in a bookmark swap and finally finished the bookmarks I made. I hosted the swap on SS Reflections Yahoo Group. I made two sets of bookmarks because we had an uneven number of participants. I didn't mind taking an extra turn because it meant I got two sets of bookmarks from very talented women. My brain, however, didn't want to cooperate and allow me to make two distinct sets of bookmarks, so they are very similar. I'll post one set tonight and one tomorrow. I'll explain what I did with tomorrow's posting.

I've been published again!

2008-03-25T00:52:00.002-04:00

Vamp Stamp News published a card of mine in its April edition. If you haven't been to their site, you should go:

Vamp Stamp web site

It's a great technique magazine, a bit more eclectic than normal fare, which is more to my liking anyway. And of course, she published my card, so I feel like I have to say thank you by letting everyone know where to find her magazine information! As soon as the magazine is sent (April 1, I think), I will post a picture of my card. I think that's when I'm allowed to do it.

Book talk

2008-03-18T22:23:00.002-04:00

I don't know how many readers of this blog are also readers of books. I'm an avid (some would say rabid) reader. I've been reading since I was four, anything and everything I could get my hands on, I would read. For a few years, I was a freelance editor, editing books by unpublished authors. I got to read a lot of good stuff, but one author stood out in front of all the others. His name is Daniel Omotosho Black. I read his manuscript for "They Tell Me of a Home" and I knew that he needed to find a real publisher (I was freelancing for what was basically a vanity publisher) and that his book was real literature. I also know that one day, he is going to be a famous author. I told him to go find a real publisher and make sure they publish They Tell Me of a Home in hard back. It deserves to be a real book.

If you've ever read Claude Brown or Alex Haley, you have a feel for the type of writing Daniel does. He writes from a rural perspective, deep, segregated South. They Tell Me of a Home was picked up by St. Martin's Press a few years ago. His second book, The Sacred Place, was published by St. Martin's as well, and he just finished his third novel. If you love to read, go to your library and ask them for They Tell Me of a Home. Really. It is a story that can't be put down. I remember opening the manuscript and seeing a poem on the first page. I rolled my eyes and thought "Oh no!" I had to read a few really difficult manuscripts as an editor, in genres that were so far out of my realm of interest and I thought this was another one. I couldn't have been more wrong. When I read the first page (after the poem), that was it. I read every single page in one sitting, and that includes the editing. I couldn't stop reading.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because the stories Daniel writes should be celebrated. I haven't read a lot the last few years. There's something about being an editor that kind of ruins reading for fun. I notice mistakes, and it drives me nuts. They called me the grammar police where I used to work because I was always correcting spelling and grammatical errors. I still do (even though I make enough of them, I try to edit my posts after I publish them to try to correct them), and since I have trouble reading without finding mistakes, I don't read a lot. Daniel Omotosho Black is one exception. His books, and Harry Potter. That's it, and you couldn't get more different stories. Harry Potter is wonderful in an escapist sort of way. They Tell Me of a Home is so emotionally captivating that when I was finished reading it for the first and the 10th time, I was exhausted in that good way that only real literature can do to the mind.

I can't wait for book three to be published and I know that once you read one of his books, you will want to read everything he writes. He has sent me some of his short stories over the last few years, and every story he writes is amazing. There aren't many writers who can write stories that I get completely lost in anymore. If you like a really great read, go to the library and ask for the book, or go to Amazon and buy it. You won't be sorry to own his books.

Fun with paper clay

2008-03-18T20:29:00.003-04:00

This box was a lot of fun to paint, but the real fun was playing with paper clay to make the medallion on top. I was playing with Model Magic, a really light weight paper-like air dry modeling compound. I had purchased paper clay the last time I was at Michaels and I figured I'd pull it out to see if it was any fun. I went to the web site for paper clay, www.paperclay.com and saw a few different techniques. I liked on that looked a little like this and figured I'd give it a try.

Paper clay is really wet to the touch. Really wet, especially if you're used to polymer clay. But it's very pliable, easy to roll out, and easy to mold. I rolled out a sheet of it and stamped with this Cre8it! stamp (our tribal good luck symbol - I was so excited to find this stamp!). I used Palette Hybrid ink on the stamp so I could see the outline really well. I was impatient and put the medallion in my clay oven and dried it. When it was all dry, I carved out the turtle. I painted with Lumiere paint in copper and let it dry. Then I used mars black acrylic paint to paint over it and wiped off the surface. It left the turtle dark. I then dry brushed it with olive green, very lightly, to give it a slightly aged look.

The box is paper mache, and I painted it black. Then I dry brushed copper Lumiere and olive green Lumiere over it. The edging is made of the paper clay, painted the same as the rest of the box. The inside of the box is painted copper and is very stark compared to the outside. I'm really pleased with how it came out. I made some polymer clay beads, too, and will have to try to make something with them to show you. I have way more fun making all the parts than I do trying to put stuff together.

A felted purse

2008-03-16T23:46:00.003-04:00

I love felting purses. I think technically what I do to them is called fulling, but since it ends up looking like felt, I will call it felting and make it easier on myself. I crochet the bags with wool yarn (this is Lion Brand Wool), I add the funky yarn on the edges to sew the bag, then I throw it into the washer using hot water. When it comes out, it's felted. I added the beads to weigh down the flap since there isn't a closure for it. The strap is a chain. I really like how pretty it is.

Other stuff, I got some really great indian stamps (indian of the American sort). I got them cut and have used a few, but I'm trying to figure out if I'm going to use the project for an ezine article for May or if I just want to put it on my blog. I think it's pretty dang cool. Oh, and I just have to direct you to this blog I found. It's called A Bitchin' Escape. It can definitely be offensive, so if you're a sensitive sort, this wouldn't be the place for you. I also think it's hilarious, so if your sense of humor runs to the dark, you might like it. When they say "Bitchin", they aren't talking valley girl talk. But I found it last week and it's interesting to read.

Card started long ago

2008-03-09T18:34:00.002-04:00

I just found the parts to this card. I started it months ago and put it aside because it was too" girly" for me. I used a flower from Lizzie Ann Designs. I colored it with Sakura Glaze pens. They're very bright pens, as you can tell. The colors on this are pink and yellow. I think the pink looks kind of purply in the picture, but it's a bright pink (like SU!'s Pixie Pink only not SU!). I think it's pretty self-explanatory. Stamped the flower, cut it out, colored it. Punched out the scallop, stuck the flower on, added a little jewel to the center of the flower. Ran pink CS through the Big Shot and tore it. Ran yellow CS through the Big shot and punched out the corners to stick the pink piece in. That's about it.

I'm feeling really crappy right now. The flu everyone else got, with all the upper respiratory ick, seems to have passed me by, but my throat hurts like crazy and I'm thinking it might be strep since my skin and head hurts. Oh, and a note to any pharm co rep who might be trolling for the word "flu", don't email me and tell me in one sentence how sorry you are that we've been ill then market flu meds to me in the next sentence. I know the pharmaceutical companies are anything but sorry to see people get sick. Without sick people, you don't have a business, so please, save your insincerity for someone who might buy it. I get enough garbage in my email.

Easter ATCs

2008-03-06T18:52:00.006-05:00

These are the Easter ATCs I made for a swap I'm in on the SS Reflections yahoo group. All three are done on Stardreams Chiara paper, sparkly and very pretty.

The first one is egg shaped on a pretty peach paper. I used an SU stamp, Morning Marigold ink, and clear detail embossing powder. The lid to the egg is hinged and of course you can see the little chick. I got this idea from another group I'm on, The Artists' Circle. They did an ATC workshop last month that I didn't participate in, and they did egg shaped ATCs. I had to do one for Cindy. I think these are so adorable, and when I found the little chick, I knew it belonged in this ATC.

This ATC background was put through the Big Shot with a Cuttlebug folder and then I used a chalk applicator to put inks on the flower and leaves. I got the little girl from a Dover clip art book. I edged everything with gold marker, added ribbon and a flower charm, and ta-da! Easy, but kinda cute too. I like the background best and it's kind of too bad I had to cover some of it up wiht an image. The little girl is really cute, though, holding her flower basket and dressed in pink and yellow. Very Easter-y. Not at all like me.

This ATC was done with a background stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms. I stamped with Versamark and added Kiwi Perfect Pearls. A few rose and butterfly stickers, some ribbon and some green bling, and again, a simple but cute ATC. The background shimmers. I didn't want to cover too much of it up.

I've still got a sick child (Dylan) and interestingly enough, I got an email from someone saying they represent a major pharmaceutical company, urging me to make sure we all get flu shots, and telling me I'm welcome to link to a flu information site from my blog. I feel a tad creeped out by the fact that someone trolled the web, saw that my family was sick, and used it to market their medical products to me. How exploitative and just creepy. Really friggin' creepy.

Lacey and Dylan - family pics

2008-03-05T23:50:00.005-05:00

These are just pictures of the newest members of the family, starting with the newest, Lacey. This is a picture of her as she's almost able to get up on the couch. She will be three months old on Monday, March 10th. She's a really, really big dog. I think she's almost 40 pounds since I'm having trouble lifting her. She is sweet, but scared of me. She was so easy to housetrain, except when I try to get her to go outside. Then she gets all weird and pees on the floor. She also chews my expensive leather shoes and my socks. I'm considering some dental work. Doggy gums can't possibly do as much damage as those darn puppy teeth.

And this is Lacey chewing on my daughter's hand. Does she have a sweet face or what? She has these great wrinkles in her forehead and when I pulled the camera up, she posed for me - stopped dead in mid-chew to get her picture taken. Her ears are so awesome. They're really long, aren't they? I don't think Brandy had ears like that when she was little, so I'm really going to be interested to see if they grow along with her and always hang so low or if she will grow into them.

She and Brandy are getting along much better. They were playing the other day and Lacey was chewing on Brandy's jowls. Brandy turned around and put Lacey's entire head in her mouth! I never really want to know what the inside of a giant dog's mouth looks like, not from inside it anyway.

This last picture I call "Sick Dylan". My poor little monkey has been so sick. I was taking pictures with my zoom lens from across the room, and he was giving me funny looks the whole time. This picture really seemed to capture how he felt - just very blah and annoyed. He is not a good sick person at all. Maybe it's Mommy Brain, but I don't remember my other kids being quite so whiny when they were sick. I'm really intolerant of whining (and everyone in my family who reads this will laugh really hard considering how I used to moo when I was little). I was such a whiner, and how funny that I just can't stand it now? I'm one of those moms who thinks if it isn't bleeding badly or falling off, there's just no point in crying about it. All I had to do to stop my other kids from whining is just ask them if they wanted me to take them to the doctor to get it cut off, whatever body part was ailing them at the time. I ask Dylan and it just makes him cry harder. Not real tears, but this kid seriously says "Wah!" when he cries, literally says "Wah!" But he's feeling really icky right now and this picture really shows it. Poor little Doodle. I hope he soon feels all better. I'll have some pics of ATCs tomorrow.

Reinker Splash card

2008-03-04T23:59:00.002-05:00

I made a card - finally. It seems like so much of my time has been spent trying to do projects I have to do rather than making things I want to make. Not that I haven't had fun, but any time there is a constraint placed on me, it makes it so much harder for me to make something. Why do you suppose that it?

This card uses all SU! stuff except the base cardstock (Malmero Perle) and the pearl brads. I haven't a clue what colors I used on this. I know one was Cameo coral, and I think Barely Banana, but the blue is escaping me. When it mixed with the other colors, it turned funky colors. The technique is from Technique Junkies and it's called Reinker Splash. It was easy to do, which is one of my prerequisites. Most of what I do is easy - has to be to keep my attention long enough.

The nasty flu has hit my home. Everyone here has had it except me. I've been freebasing Vitamin C and hoping like crazy I don't get sick. Dylan is just getting over a fever that kept spiking despite medication, and Travis has it now. Dustin and Terry didn't get a fever like the other two boys. Angela was sick for a long time, but everyone else got over it in a few days. I have my fingers crossed that it misses me. I have better things to do!

A little harder to find on the ezine

2008-03-02T00:43:00.004-05:00

This project is a little harder to find in the ezine since it's on a page with a lot of other projects that everyone did. Go to the Designers Challenge and look at all the gorgeous work everyone did for this. It was a digital challenge. The company was Polka Dot Potato. They have tons of beautiful digital kits, a fraction of the price of "real" paper and elements. You can print out everything to use in a physical piece, but the wonderful part? You get unlimited use of the stuff. Unlimited! So if you want, you can print 1000 pieces of the designer paper, just the exact sizes you need, for the cost of the kit, plus cheap cardstock and ink. Might even be cheaper to have it done at Kinkos. But you can just re-use the elements forever in your personal work.

This was the first digital piece I'd ever done. It was SIMPLE. It took me less than half an hour, and it just all fell into place. I'm busy working on my April artwork that's due in 4 days (I will be on time!!) and then onto my April Designer Challenge, I Brake For Stamps is the sponsor. I also have a few cards I'm making to submit, but I promise I will have some stuff I can actually show you! I did want to share this with you and let you know about the cool company. Even if you just want inspiration, go check out their site. The colors alone will make you salivate!

Good night!!

My first ezine project!

2008-03-01T20:32:00.002-05:00

It's live!! You can go here http://www.ssreflections.com/michelle.html. To see my project. Click on it and it will open in a new window. The picture will be larger and the instructions are in the window too.

I'm so excited!!!

Another puzzle piece and an ATC

2008-02-26T20:57:00.003-05:00

I'll start with the puzzle piece. I added the embellishments on this. It's a really pretty purple and blue theme. I used Fantasy Fibers in a light blue and a dark purple to pull the color out of the darker flowers. Chris Gill added this beautiful girl to the front and some sparklies on her flowers and around the edges. The metal flower in the middle of the fibers, I really like that flower. I have to remember where I got them so I can get more.

The ATC is for a swap I'm in. It's a one for one swap, so I send this directly to my partner. I used a background called "Silken Mist". It's a Technique Junkies technique using Twinkling H20s. I love Twinkling H20s. They're so pretty! I stamped on the background with SU! stamps (the flower and leaves). The bird is a See-D's stamp. I used Starry Night Palette Hybrid ink . The flower image is from Starving Artistamps Artful Inkables line. I love that lily. It's stamped in Jet Black Stazon on fabric I painted with Lumieres. I used alcohol art markers to color the leaves green and edged the flower with Stickles. the shimmer of the fabric is amazing, and it was so easy to cut out and paste down onto the paper.

In other news, my mother in law continues to do well at the nursing home. Last I heard, she was up walking the length of her room and back. We didn't go see her this weekend because my husband has the flu. He's sick as hell and I'm hoping a) that he gets better very quickly, and b) that no one else gets it. He's miserably sick. Poor guy.

I'm working on my project for SS Reflections and for other submissions in March. I'm stamping a little bit again. I always forget how much fun it is to stamp. I love to stamp and color. I just don't do so well at putting it all together. I get bored at that point. :o) I'd rather mess in paint and ink.

Chit chat, puppy update, family stuff

2008-02-21T00:03:00.002-05:00

No pictures. Just chatter. Don't you love it? Dylan has had me laughing so hard in the last couple of days, I thought I'd put it here so the family can get a good laugh.

Last night in bed, he looked at me and said "Don't you play dumb with me!" and went off into a fit of laughter. He has such a wicked sense of humor. He got a bed for Christmas, but I was cleaning this weekend and his bed has some bags of clothes for Goodwill on it so he's been in our bed this week. He's adorable. He rolls over and tangles his fingers in my hair and cuddles in. He's really sweet, but he can be a snot too. Tonight he got sent to be early because I was sleeping on the couch and he chose to jump on my head.

Last night, though, he was just as sweet as he gets. We were reading books together. He is learning how to read and doing pretty darn good. It amazes me how fast he learns. Considering how many hours he spends playing video games, that he can pick up reading too, in the little time we spend on it, well, it's pretty impressive to me. Well, I'm going to bed now. Goodnight!

Another puzzle piece

2008-02-20T20:47:00.002-05:00

I added the image to this piece for the swap I'm in, the second group. I'm amazed at the background and really wanted to bring out the green in it. The woman's image came from Altered Pages. I used Perfect Pearls on the frame, and then heat embossed it. The color is really off in the picture. The frame and the picture match better than this looks. But the background is really awesome and I can't wait to see what the next person does with it - the next person adds the embellishment. It's a fun swap, really easy to do each piece. Lots of fun, which is always good.

Puzzle piece swap

2008-02-16T16:05:00.005-05:00

I'm in a really interesting round robin over on the SSReflections yahoo group. If you don't get the SSReflections ezine, you should sign up for it. It's free, and each month it's full of articles from different areas of stamping and scrapping. And I am on their team now, so in March, my first article will be in the ezine, as well as a couple of projects I did. I'll put a link to my article when it's published, but you really should check it out now because it's a very cool ezine, and the Yahoo group is awesome. Anyway, back to the puzzle round robin. Each group has three people in it. Each person creates the background on their own puzzle piece. They then send the puzzle piece to the next person, and that person adds the image. The third person adds the embellishments. I signed up to be in two groups because they're puzzle pieces. They're small and easy to do.

My backgrounds didn't photograph well, so I don't have any pictures of them. They weren't anything dazzling anyway. Just paper. Cool paper, but still just paper. The first piece I added an image to, though, was painted and it was cool before I added my image. This piece belongs to Suzanne Saupe. I was out looking around for something new to try last night, and I found some awesome YouTube videos by Julia Andrus and Suze Weinberg. They had a faux sea glass video that looked interesting, but Suze had a picture show up to a faux dichoric glass technique that intrigued me too. This is my hacked version of them, really just a piece of painted chipboard (painted with Lumiere paints), I dipped it into Interference Blue UTEE that was melted in my melting pot, put the image on top of the hot UTEE. I added some stickles and glass beads to finish it up. It matches her color scheme well, and the woman in the image has a very coy look on her face, which seemed to go well with such an eclectic and interesting background. I can't wait to see what the next person does with it (the next person adds embellishments!).

And now I'm going to use my blog to complain about a delivery company. I won't name it, but it isn't the brown truck. And it is the other big name delivery company. I order a lot of stuff online. I don't particularly like people and I hate shopping in stores. My local stores also don't have a lot of the stuff I like to play with, so I order online and it's a wonderful thing. I'm sure y'all understand. Anyway, a month ago I ordered beads. They were delivered to my neighbor's house. Mistakes are made, right? Of course they are. I didn't make a fuss. I was thrilled my neighbor let me know and we went and picked up the box. One thing to note, our neighbors aren't exactly "next door". We live on a private lane that serves three houses, so this delivery person had a choice of three possible houses. Two of them have numbers on them that don't match our address.

This week, I placed an order from Dick Blick. It shipped on Valentine's day, so I figured it would be Monday at the earliest. I decided to check the tracking and was surprised to find it was scheduled to be delivered today! TODAY!! Saturday!! I left the page open and a few hours later, I hit reload and was even more shocked to find the status changed to "delivered". Since we had been home, and no one had come to deliver anything, I was really shocked. I went to their site and wrote to them. I let them know that this was the second time that they delivered something to me that didn't come to my house, and could they please tell me where they delivered my package. I got a reply that my package had been left by our mailbox. HUH??

Our mailbox is pretty far from our house, and not visible to us. Our lane isn't snowed in or anything, so I don't know why they didn't drive it back. I sent my son up to see if the box was there. It was. On the ground. Just sitting in a bag on the ground, by the main road, where we wouldn't have seen anyone stopping and picking it up had someone gotten curious. More than $200 worth of merchandise, left sitting by the road, in a bag on the ground. On a Saturday, when most delivery companies don't deliver. I'm just a bit annoyed that my package was sitting somewhere, marked as "delivered" by the company, and it could have been stolen and there would have been no way we would have known or would have been able to prove to the company we hadn't gotten it. I wrote to the delivery company again and let them know that the package was there, and that I wasn't happy. I got back a nice note that they strive to handle every package professionally, and they hope the next time they deliver something to me I will be satisfied. Hmmm. Must have missed that it was the second time in a month that they mishandled my package (hehehehehehe, just had a Beavis and Butthead moment).

I wrote to Dick Blick to let them know and to ask if they used any other shippers. I order from them at least once a month. I don't want to have to change vendors. Dick Blick is awesome. They ship fast. I once had a broken item and they immediately apologized and replaced it. They have GREAT prices and I love getting all these products from one place I trust. So I really don't want to have to change vendors. Oh, and a few years ago, this same delivery company had problems delivering here, too. They called me to ask for directions. I gave them directions. The next week they had to deliver again, and they again called for directions. I got a little snotty and asked if they heard of these magic things called computers, where they could actually store the directions so they didn't have to call my house and delay delivery by a day or two. So this is over and over. Okay, done complaining. I had to get that out of my system. I'm still annoyed that someone could have taken my stuff and there's nothing I could have done. Grrrr.

Challenge card

2008-02-11T22:20:00.000-05:00

Here is my challenge card using the Inka Stamp image. I used two pieces of Silken Mist (Technique Junkies technique), dry brushed Lumiere in gold pink on the base and put it through the Big Shot with a cuttlebug folder. The dresses were colored with Tria Pantone markers. I added the flourish from Debbies Die Cuts, some bling, a bit of frou-frou yarn. I like this card. Those women look like divas.

I'm exhausted. We're having ice/snow/freezing issues like much of the US, but I don't drive in it, and I'm guessing my boss isn't thrilled that I choose to not work rather than risk smashing my face into my windshield and ruining my stunning good looks (please, I hope you read the tone of that right - my eyes are rolling). Seriously, though, I'm not about to risk an accident to go to work, and a scared driver is a dangerous driver. I'm more than scared to drive in this crap.

I'm needle felting a flower right now for a theme swap I'm in. I also have two puzzle pieces to work on for another swap. Life is busy and that's always good!

Free stamps and challenges

2008-02-10T20:24:00.000-05:00

I joined a card challenge for one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. The challenge is sponsored by Inka Stamps. She sent us a free stamp and embellishment, and in return, we have to make a card with it. What a deal, right? The image she sent us was perfect for me. This card isn't my challenge card. That isn't done quite yet (waiting for paint to dry). Group members will vote on 10 cards and the winning card is put on Inka's web site!

I stamped the image and used Prismacolors and gamsol to color it. The background piece, which you can't really see, is Silken Mist, a Technique Junkies technique. I went over the skin with my Sakura star dust pen, so it sparkles. The card stock colors are white (from Papertrey), Blush Blossom (SU!), Stardream Matallics in Malachite, and then Sky Blue for the base. I added some bling in the corner and some fiber and metal charm that says Celebrate. My challenge card will be posted when I get it all done. But for now, I wanted to show this gorgeous image.

Just some chatter

2008-02-09T02:49:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd chatter a bit. No pictures tonight. I'm working on my first submissions to the SSReflections ezine, and I can't share them until they've been published next month. I did a designers challenge with digital elements. It's the first piece I've ever done in digital collage, and I'm so surprised at how easy I found it. I also found out this week that I won a contest for my designer paper using acrylic resist ( this post. I won a $10 gift certificate to juliaandrus.com. I was really surprised! I submitted it for a challenge on the yahoo group, The Latest Trends in Mixed Media Arts, and people got to vote for their favorite paper. It was tie between my paper and another paper, so we each got a gc! Like I said, shocked and pleased. I usually don't win anything, not even by plain dumb luck.

What else? Lacey is doing great. She fits right in. Still just a sweet girl. Very smart. I've already taught her how to sit and if I wave to her, she will wave back. She is starting to go to the door when she has to go out, so housetraining is moving right along, too. Brandy is pretty tolerant of her, except when Lacey tries to eat out of Brandy's bowl. Dylan adores her. She's so cute, too. She tilts her head to the side and looks at me like she's confused when I call her name. We definitely got the right puppy!

I made another felted bag. This one is for me. It's small, a clutch. I have to add some frills to it, but I really like it. I think I'm going to put a chain on it so I don't have to carry it in my hand, so it won't really be a clutch, but I'm getting better at the bags and they are really fun and easy to do. My daughter wants one, and she doesn't even carry a purse! So that's been my life for the last few days, having some fun. My son, Dustin, turned 17 today (well, I guess at this point it was yesterday). Ugh. How does this happen? One day, you're looking into this little face that depends on you for everything and the next, you're looking up at a young man who can take care of himself. And Dustin is my angel. He's the best kid a parent could ever hope for, and I'm not being a mom about that. This kid slept on schedule, ate on schedule, has always listened. He takes care of Dylan more than I do. He is just a good, good kid. Very sensible. My favorite story about him. When he was two, he still wasn't talking much. I was worried that there might be a problem. Then one day I walked into his room in a pair of shorts. He stood up in his crib and said "Mom, I like you legs." Not "your legs", "you legs". We still howl about it. It was the sweetest thing.

Have a good night. I'm off to bed.

Finished a new felted bag!

2008-02-05T03:03:00.000-05:00

Oh, I love this bag. I made it for Michele Kovack because she liked my other bag and asked me if she could commission me to make one for her. Silly girl. I'm learning so I was happy to make one for her as a gift. This is the bag hanging on the wall. It makes it look longer than it really is, but that's okay. I made the front flap longer than the bag by just a tad, maybe half an inch, because there is no closure and I wanted it to not be too easy to pull up a short flap and get into the purse. It hangs so well on my body, and Michele is about my height, maybe a bit taller, so I think it will hang well on her. I'm making me one of these bags. I really love it. I love the white in it and I'm trying to decide on the other colors I'll use for mine. The yellow is also pretty nifty, with the Glittalic yarn intertwined. I also have a book with lots of felting ideas and, well, can you tell I found something else to love to do?

Here's a close up of the front. I put the silver bead on and then the other beads around it. The one in the center is a very neat metallic bead in an amber color. Michele, if you don't like the beading, I can change it. It looks like an eye. It just dawned on me that maybe you don't like eyes on your apparel.

Other news, our puppy's official name is Lacey. She responds to it, Dylan likes it, we're going with it. I liked Keela better, but hey, I'll take Lacey over "Spot" any day. She is a sweet, sweet dog. Very laid back, very placid. Not shy, but she is cautious, kind of. I found her this morning under the computer desk pulling our modem's cabling out of the floor. The door to Dustin's bedroom is closed tonight.

My mother in law is doing well. She is walking farther now, can get across her room. She has a limp, but the therapists are working on it. Amazing woman, just absolutely amazing. Your prayers and cards made her day. She got 13 cards in one day, making for a total of 18 cards, from all over the place, and she loved them all. The nurses were making a big fuss over them and where they came from and how many. It really perked up her spirits. Thank you guys all so much!!

SBS Sketch Challenge #1

2008-02-04T00:20:00.000-05:00

SBS has held the first sketch challenge. This is my interpretation. The colors are a little off. The strip behind the flowers is a Certainly Celery. The strip behind that is copper. The flowers were stamped on my painted cloth and cut out. Pretty darn cool, really. The ribbon is orange, from May Arts, but matches the bronze paper, which matches the bronze Lumiere in the flowers

Very fun challenge. I usually don't do sketch challenges because I like to mess around too much. This card is 8.5 x 4.25, to fit in a legal envelope. Fun, but again, the background seems too plain, but I just wanted to really let the flowers show. I'll probably change it.

And now for the fun stuff. Here's the puppy! She's officially ours now. She is the sweetest puppy. She just wants to cuddle and love everyone here. If you are near her, she is laying on you waiting for you to pet her and give her some love. Her name, for now, is Lacey. I wanted to call her Keela, have been calling her Keela for two weeks now, and then we get her and my husband decides he doesn't like it. So we went through about a dozen names. We all seem to be okay with Lacey. Dylan wanted us to call her Tickly since her tail tickles him. My husband keeps calling her Lucy. Grrrrr. Pick a name already!!! Anyway, she is sweet and adorable and lovable. She chews like a puppy so I've been trying to remember not to leave my shoes on the floor. We are all in love with her already. Isn't that face kissable, that is if she wasn't able to lick her own butt?

Painted fabric

2008-02-01T01:11:00.001-05:00

Before bed, I felt compelled to paint. I love when I just have to do something. So often when that hits, I make something quite ugly, but this time, I kind of like it. I'm not sure what the fabric is. It started out white and satiny. I used lumieres i many colors to color block the piece. I will have to do a second coat tomorrow, but I just wanted to share with you tonight. It's very shimmery and very colorful.

I took closeup pics so you could see the texture on this. Isn't it amazing? I overlapped the colors and where that happened, the texture is so deep. Here, I used Gold Pink Halo, Citrine, and Bronze. I also used a burgundy on the fabric, but it doesn't show in this picture.

I think I'm going to use some for collage work. I want to stamp on it. I see flowers in it, I see flourishes. There are lots of images I can see being used with this fabric. And I have a lot of it, so I might have to cover a journal with some as well.

Okay, it's past 1 am and I must get my tired butt to bed. Good night!

I've been tagged!

2008-01-31T20:21:00.000-05:00

Gabby, Confessions of a Stamper tagged me. Thanks, Gabby! I think these are fun games to play and I appreciate you thinking of me!

These are the rules:
*You must post the rules before you give your answers.

*You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name.

*After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers.

*At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name.(Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details.

L - Loves to make messes. This one was easy. I love to make a mess with almost anything. I've not quite grown up, never really plan to.

E - Easy going. My husband would say "No, just easy". I'm pretty laid back, not too easy to anger or to panic, but watch out when I do get angry. I almost never panic.

I - Interested in way too many things. I still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up. I have supplies for many different art forms sitting at my desk (and on my floor, and on the dining room table, and everywhere else).

G - Good friend. I think I'm a pretty good friend. I don't have tons of close friends, but those I'm close to, I'm fiercely protective of and I'm very loyal to them. I love doing things for my friends, and I'm an especially good listener, though I am guilty of giving a needed dose of reality too. One of my favorite things to say is "Really?"

H - Hell on wheels. It's hard to keep up with my mind, even for me. I flit from thing to thing, idea to idea. My husband says I'm boring. I say I'm just exhausted. I have a wicked sense of humor and a very sharp tongue. If I see bullsh*t, I call bullsh*t, regardless of who it is or where it is. I think "hell on wheels" is pretty accurate.

Okay, now I have to tag five people (oh why, Mama, did you not spell my middle name LEE?).

Kivonne Tucker, one of my very favorite people and someone about whom I don't think I could ever know enough.

Debra Ann, someone I met recently who has been a wonderful wall for me to lean against. Thank you, Debbie, for listening to me.

Michele Kovack, another really wonderful woman. I emailed her out of the blue and asked her if she wanted to swap some images, and she just said yes, didn't even know me, and she was kind enough to say yes. We really connected.

Teresa Chapman, not someone I know well, but she has one of the most gracious, giving spirits I've ever seen.

Megan Peacock, a sister from SBS, a fellow Angel, and just a very sweet person.

I'm off to leave the comments so they know they've been tagged. Thanks again, Gabby!

Yarn and my chocolate/vanilla card, redone

2008-01-29T22:35:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of the yarn I'm using to make Michele's felted bag. Winter white is almost an ivory. The yellow is called Golden Rod. Then I have Dark Teal and Cadet Blue. Those are all Lion Brand Wool yarn. This brand seems to felt well for me, so I'm sticking with it. The sparkly stuff in the corner is Paton's Glittalic in Cream Gleam, to add a little sparkle to the bag. I hope to get started on it tomorrow. I'll make sure to take
pictures before it's felted and after it's felted. Hopefully it will turn out well. I made another little bag that came out symmetrical, and not quite as freeform as my first. So I know I can make something that felts straight and not skewed. Got my fingers crossed.

I also prettied up my chocolate/vanilla challenge card just a little bit. I thought it was too plain on the Very Vanilla base. It was a very quick card, and I knew it had no oomph. It still doesn't have a lot of oomph, but now I think it doesn't look like I took a couple images and stuck them to a piece of paper. I changed the base to Chocolate Chip and put a layer of Au Chocolat dp on it. All images from SU! All paper from SU! I don't often make an all SU! card, or an all any one vendor card, so this is kind of unique. Oh, the ribbon isn't SU!, nor is the paint I used to make the darkest image of flowers. That was Twinklers. But still, very close to a pure SU! card. I like it better this way.

I'm going to offer again, if anyone has use for yarn scraps, some are more than just scraps, let me know. I would love to bundle up bunches of fibers and send to a few people, just to share the love and to help me clean up my yarn collection. I have so much that I use as embellishment, and whole skeins last a long, long time that way. So help a sister out, if you actually use yarn and fibers, and volunteer to take some off my hands.

Quick bit of chit chat

2008-01-29T01:45:00.000-05:00

No pictures. I just wanted to update. I finished all the wedding tins. YAY!! I don't ever volunteer to do something and then complain that I had to do it, but let me just say that as wonderful as it was to get that much practice, I don't enjoy the pressure that goes with doing something like that. I like how they turned out, and I handed them to the bride today, so it's done.

My mother in law got a lot of cards. I plan to thank everyone whose envelope she has saved personally, but I wanted to let you all know here that she really enjoyed getting them. I think it touched her to see so many people sending her good thoughts. She's back in the nursing home, doing well again, walking some again. My husband saw her today (I saw her Saturday) and she was joking around, back to her normal self. Saturday, she seemed awfully grouchy, but we're wondering if it was a med issue.

What else? I've got the stamping bug again, but I'm also making Michele Kovack a felted bag. I will have pictures of the yarn to put up tomorrow. I bought the yarn today. I do so love yarn shopping. She wanted spring, so I got a turquoise, a soft green and a pink, with ivory and a sparkly include in ivory and gold. The colors mesh so well. I am trying to think of something to do with the bag that will make it not just a plain bag. I'd like to make my first bag that will be given away something that is special and pretty enough that Michele deserves it. She's a wonderful friend. She really deserves something nice.

And hey, if anyone uses scraps of yarns for projects, give me a yell. I'm starting to amass lots of bits of yarns, some perfect for embellishing (fun fibers and such). I'd be happy to help you out with some.

I also have a panel of fabric that I want to paint. I'm thinking of using it to cover a journal. So lots of projects in my head. Not much sleep in my life yet. Oh well. Had a fun problem at work today. One of our domain controllers threw a motherboard. Funny, oh my gosh. I mean, the whole thing, kaput. So we were there until 7 pm swapping power supplies and RAM and processors and in the end, turned out to be the motherboard. It sucks when a DC goes - that word controller means something. Oh, and I just realized I need to check to make sure it wasn't one of our global catalogs. If it was, I'll need to transfer that role. We already transferred the DHCP database. Yeah, I know, blah, blah, blah. But some of my friends will get a smile when they read it. This kind of stuff is the reason I got into IT, and for a long time, I didn't get to do any of it. I'm in my glory. Oh, and we get to pick up Quila this weekend!! I can't wait to kiss her little puppy face, though I'm sure she's not little. She's probably 20 pounds or so already.

Goodnight everyone!

Wow - a card!

2008-01-24T00:17:00.000-05:00

I spent my evening doing something I haven't done in a long time - blog surfing. I saw so many amazing, amazing cards that it actually inspired me to do something I haven't felt like doing in awhile. I made a card! This is made with one of The Angel Company's new sets for spring/summer '08, called Enchanted Florals (I'm a hobby angel, and there are tons of new sets I just love this time). I think the flowers in this set are so neat. Very flowing, very fluid. Whimsical, almost. I stamped with Blue Midnight Stazon, painted with Twinkling H20s, and inked around the edges with my favorite distress ink color, Weathered Wood. I stamped another of the images from the same set below the bling and traced over it with my Sakura Gelly Roll pen. I used Brocade Blue and Cool Caribbean cardstock from SU!, and one of the Stardream Metallics papers in Sapphire. The sentiment says "Uplift", and is part of a pack of chipboard sentiments I got at Michaels a long time ago. I'm so glad I got the change to surf blogs tonight. I have been wanting to stamp for a long time, but I tried and tried, and nothing came. I threw away tons of false starts. My mind kept wandering back to my altered stuff. So thanks to everyone who gave me some motivation!!

Altered Notebook Swap

2008-01-23T22:32:00.000-05:00

SSReflections ezine yahoo group had an altered notebook journal swap. This is what I made for my partner. I took a tall, skinny notebook, covered it with Periphery by Basic Grey, added some Weathered Wood and Peeled Paint distress inks, stamped a few flourishes, added the feather, the W, and the sentiment ( also covered with the distress inks). The bird is a TAC stamp that I stamped onto paper I made with Fantasy Film and Fantasy Fibers. I then cut it out and put it up on dimensional dots. The ribbon is SU! Bayou Blue.

Second felting project

2008-01-23T00:40:00.000-05:00

I had so much fun with the felted scarf that I decided to make a felted bag. I got Lion Brand Wool yarn and crocheted a square. Oh, I added Moonlight Mohair yarn, too, for a little sparkle. After I got it all crocheted, I felted it in the washing machine, which is much easier than doing it by hand. Except, and this is a big except if you want a symmetrical bag, there isn't much control over how the shape comes out. Mine came out with a really cool wavy edge. I love it. Not everyone would. But I was doing this just for fun, just to relax while we watched American Idol (a show I hate, but my husband insists on watching!!). This was a lot of fun, very quick, and tomorrow I'll be getting more wool yarn and making a larger wall hanging.

Sorry for the crummy picture, but it's late, I have to go to work in five hours, and I'm rushing. As usual.

First tin

2008-01-21T00:04:00.000-05:00

Let me know what you think about this tin. This is my first altered tin, and one of my friends is giving these to her attendants as a gift. I don't want to be responsible for her attendants getting a really ugly gift, so please, please tell me the truth!!

The first one is the top. The second is the inside top. The bottom has UTEE poured into it with includes like the rest roses, some beads, snowflakes and some fru-fru. Feedback is appreciated.

First felting project

2008-01-19T22:15:00.000-05:00

Wow, who knew this would be so much fun? This is the scarf I made. You can't really see the texture, but it has so much texture! I took a silk scarf I'd dyed more than a year ago, laid yellow and orange wool roving criss-cross on the scarf, and felted away. I'm surprised it actually worked. I don't usually do things right the first time. I have a large piece of felt in the dryer right now that I want to make into a bag or something. I'll have to see when it comes out. It's a lot of fun to do. And the texture on the scarf is neat because the wool shrinks and puckers the fabric, so it has this gorgeous shirred look.

Oh, and I'm going to name the puppy Quila (keela). Going with the theme, as Kerry suggested in her comments on Quila's picture! Thanks so much, Kerry!

Finally, a card

2008-01-17T01:31:00.001-05:00

I had a card stuck in my head, and with the SBS1 Yahoo Challenge, I thought it would be the perfect chance to get it out of my head and onto paper. Now, this is a very, very simple and quick card, as if you couldn't tell. Images are all SU! The flower image was stamped with Palette in Burnt Umber, and then I did direct to rubber H20s and spritzed water onto the watercolor paper, then stamped a shadowy image right beside it. I love that effect. The rest is pretty easy to figure out. I need to stamp a background image onto the Vanilla cardstock or I need to use my Au Chocolat dp to fancy it up. The bg is so plain. Anyway, that's my challenge card, done in less than 15 minutes because it's 1:30, I have to go to work in 5 hours, and I must get to bed. Goodnight everyone.

Some stuff

2008-01-17T00:08:00.001-05:00

Just some pics of some stuff I've been working on and/or planning to work on. This is wool roving in many colors. I crochet, and I love yarn and all the colors it comes in. Now I'm going to try my hand at felting. I want to make a felted scarf and I'm hoping to have the time and energy this weekend. You can't see in this picture the amazing texture of this stuff. It's essentially the stuff yarn is spun from. I got some from a good friend, Jennifer Garrison Stuber, who spins her own yarns, and I need to try felting NOW.

This is a close up picture of the roving. This color is Tangerine, and isn't it yummy?? See how warm and fuzzy it looks? Doesn't it look like orange clouds? I love clouds, and can't wait to make stuff with this. I don't know exactly what I'm going to make, but I have a whole book full of ideas. I'm sure I will find one thing that I'm capable of making.

In the midst of this, I'm making altered altoid tins for a friend's wedding (might have mentioned that here). I don't have pictures of those yet. They're painted but not embellished. I'm waiting for her to send me pictures of her in her gown (Amanda, in case you read this, PLEASE!!!!). I want to personalize the tins for her, make them special. They're her gifts for her maids and her grandmothers. They should be personalized, right?

And finally, I started crocheting with cotton. I'm making dishclothes that I plan to use to clean up after my messy art stuff. I was going to make actual dishclothes to use in the kitchen, but then I realized I like these things and would rather see them stained with paints and inks than with dirty food and stuff like that. This is the first time I've used cotton, and I like it. A lot. Very quick. Very easy. And there is this thing called "freeform" where you don't use any pattern and just do what you like. I'm going to give that a try, too. I did make this cloth without a pattern, but it is very easy to make a square with no pattern, and the cloth is a simple double crochet on the backpost (to make ridges). I wouldn't call it free form, though my lacy edging has always been something I just do, not something I learned from a pattern.

Anyhow, that's the stuff I've been up to. I've also tried to keep up with the blogs I love and to leave messages to thank the bloggers for their gorgeous contributions. I'm not always good at that, but I do look all the time.

You make my day award

2008-01-15T23:52:00.001-05:00

Here it is. My award from Rosella (thank you so much, Rosella). I have to pass this on to 10 people and I'm telling you, I don't think there are only 10 people whose blogs make my day.

1. Alicia at Knitalicious (I'll add the links tomorrow - it's late tonight).
2. Kivonne at Stampin Anyone?
3. Michele at Thoughts of a Cardmaking Scrapbooker
4. Tracy at Enchantasy
5. Ann Marie at Ann Marie's Stamping Adventures
6. Melissa at Melstampz
7. Kimm at Kimm's Daily Grace
8. Debra Ann at Tangled Stitch
9. Lesa's PaperPossibilities
10. Stacy's Stampin with Bubba's Princess

Those are not the only blogs that make my day. Any blog on my blogroll is one that I love to visit. Please, continue to pass on the love...

What is wrong with this picture??

2008-01-15T23:45:00.000-05:00

It's not really a picture. Just a minor rant. I'm kind of in a ranting mood.

There's this song playing on country radio that just has me baffled beyond words. It's the Craig Morgan song "International Harvester". Please tell me what's wrong with this verse.

"I'm the son of a third generation farmer. I've been married ten years to the farmer's daughter."

Um..... can anyone say "yuck".

New member of the family soon

2008-01-13T19:39:00.000-05:00

Here are the pictures of the soon-to-be latest member of our family. No name yet, but she is just sweet as can be. I sat down on the floor and she was the first puppy to come to see me and she just started chewing on my finger. Within moments, three other puppies were chewing on different parts of me, but this one was the cutest. She has more black than any of the other puppies. They were all fawn with black masks. The one we chose has black on her back and tail, and some on her chest. Look at her paws. She's only four weeks old, and look at those paws! She was the next to the largest female pup they had. Her dad is very large, but not much bigger than Brandy. Her mom was little, much smaller than Brandy, and we're hoping the puppy is on the large side. I mean, what's the point of having a Great Dane if the dog isn't big?

She just has the sweetest, wrinkliest face. I never saw a Great Dane this small before, and it's so hard to believe that in a few short months, the wrinkles will be smooth and this pudgy little dog will be a very graceful, regal looking dog (well, the graceful and regal will take more like a year or so). We can pick her up on February 8th, our oldest son's 17th birthday. We still can't agree on a name, but hopefully by the time we pick her up, we'll have settled on one. I like Sahara. My husband doesn't. Any ideas?

I've been tagged

2008-01-12T22:08:00.000-05:00

Debra Ann, at Tangled Stitch tagged me. I was surprised and flattered, especially when she referred to me as a "lovely collage artist". Thanks so much for bringing a smile to my face.

I'm supposed to tell five things about me that people might not know. I imagine there are lots of things some people don't know, but maybe not so many if you're one of the people who've known me since I was in diapers (or in utero), but I'll shoot for the people who don't know me well.

1. Let's start with this. I got pregnant with my oldest when I was 16. I had her at the end of 11th grade, went to the prom with my older brother (my parents made him take me) when I was nine months pregnant, ditched my brother, and had a blast.

2. I had a crush on my husband in high school and he had a crush on me. Neither of us knew it, though. I was in 11th grade (and pregnant) when we really got to know each other. He was so nice to me, treated me with such respect and like I really mattered as a friend. We started dating five years later and have been together ever since. Oh, and he was one of the guys who helped me ditch my brother at the prom. My hero even before he knew it.

3. I started college at 18, quit twice, and finally went back when I was 26 and got my bachelors when I was 31. I went through several majors, including Russian Technical Translation and Political Science (very uninteresting to me now).

4. I learned to read very young. I think it was right before I turned four or right after. I'm not sure which. My older brother taught me. He also was a hero and didn't even know it.

5. I used to be really shy. Really, really shy. So shy that a waiter thought I was deaf. I'm still an introvert and not really fond of people or being around them, but you'd never know it if you saw me in a group.

Now I'm supposed to tag five people. I might not really have five people to tag - I almost hate this part because while I find this very flattering, I'm not sure everyone does. I think I'll tag a few of my SBS sisters. I'd like to know more about them and to point others to their blogs. They make some really neat stuff.

Impressions by V. Velta is wonderful. Her cards are so pretty and she is a guest designer for Flourishes right now, which doesn't surprise me a bit.

Stampin Anyone. Kivonne was the first person I swapped a technique card with and she very quickly became a dear friend.

Paper Possibilities. Lesa has some very cool projects on her blog and she always leaves me some of the nicest comments.

Corner of Enchantment. Rosella gave me an award that I have to put on my blog. I love her name and she was very nice when I asked her if it was her real name (it's so neat, and of course, she didn't get offended). Go see her stuff, really.

Knitalicious. Okay, so Alicia isn't a stamper. She's a knitter, and she is one of the nicest people I know. A great mama, soon to have number three (may already have had him, I haven't heard from her for a day or two!!), and her knitting is wonderful. Not to mention, she has so many animals that she shows off on her blog, as well as her two (soon to be three) boys. Not sure she'll be able to respond to the tag since she's going to be kind of busy, but still, this is a blog anyone who enjoys animals, knitting, yarn, or just color should visit.

That's it. Now I'm going to go to Rosella's blog to get my award. Thanks so much, Debra for the wonderful honor!

Some exciting news

2008-01-10T23:37:00.000-05:00

But first, a look at an interesting piece of canvas I've been working on. I sketched this fairy and flower on canvas months and months ago. I colored her with Nupastels (artists soft pastels by Prismacolor) and set her aside. I wasn't sure I liked her enough to really use it as it. I have ideas now, so I covered it with heavy gel medium and put a layer of tissue paper on it before I collage it. I thought I'd show you a quick "before" shot.

Sorry about the lousy photo. It's late and I'm trying to get this posted and get to bed, before my husband divorces me for being more in love with the computer than I am with him.

And now for my exciting news. I'm the newest Altered Deck crew member for the SS Reflections Ezine! It's a monthly ezine with a "round the world" cruise theme. I was shocked, stunned, absolutely thrilled, to be accepted to this crew. There are some very amazing artists on the crew, and I completely expected to have to apply five or six times over the next year or so before I could even hope. Wow, is this just a great way to start a new year!!

SS Reflections Ezine

Fabulous Fibers!

2008-01-08T21:51:00.000-05:00

I really think they're called Fantasy Fiber, but they are FABULOUS! The things you can do with them. I got my first bag last week and made the tag with the sunshine yellow fiber and the flower. Technique Junkies has an ongoing ATC swap, and the person who runs that swap really wants to try to cover as many of the techniques as possible (which is not really easy given how many techniques come out every other month!). I thought I'd choose a technique that hasn't been done yet, and chose Textured Metallics, April 2006. It's a neat technique, but I used dark colors which would have been very difficult to stamp on. I didn't want to take the focus off the technique, and I wanted to use my clay masks. So I made the ATCs, made the clay masks with Sculpey clay, painted them with Pewter Lumiere paint and then with interference red paint. I melted the fibers onto the back of the masks and glues them to the cards.

I then got to looking at how the fibers look when they're melted. I figured I could easily melt them over a mold of something and make a 3D object. So I made a bowl out of the fibers. I put nonstick foil over the bowl, laid out three colors of fibers, laid nonstick foil over the whole thing and ironed. I lifted the iron a few times to see how it was coming along, added fibers where necessary, and bent back the edges to make them not so hairy. Then I filled this neat little bowl with buttons that my mom gave me. A lot of these were my grandma's. They came on cards that said they cost a whole whopping 29 cents. I need more of these fibers. I'm going to get some light colors and make "paper" to stamp on.

And finally, a card. I made this awhile ago. The background is the technique I had published in Technique Junkies, Varnished Floating Pearls. Instead of using a brown wrapping paper, I used black cardstock. The look is completely different on the black. The stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms. I did Gamsol Magic to color her. I love fairies. I used these little sticky jewels in the corner that match the color of the background perfectly. I love this image and have a bunch more of her stamped out to play with. This is the one image that might entice me to buy Copics and try to get good with them. She is fun to color.