ATC's & ornament swap

Ornaments for exchange

Finished my "ladies" for the ornament swap...
All felt and about 4" tall from a pattern here.  I made little tags on them too for the date.
Also had a great day from the postal service: 3 ATC's from my Downtown ATC group:

Fashion from Vicki A.

Orange from Jessica N.

O' Tannenbaum from Dena J.

Got a wonderful penguin ATC from Darlene S. in our winter swaps: 

PWB Tree

I participated in a box exchange for Christmas: advent match boxes, each with a little surprise in each! 24 other artists participated, organized by Kathy M. Here are all the little boxes on my feather tree! 

Clip Art - Teethy Toothpaste

Here's a bit of fun old advertising form a 1929 scrapbook.... enjoy!

Wintertime ATC

Got this wonderful sumi ATC from Jilian...

Fab-o-ulous Starter blocks from Vintage Vogue

Just found a blog called Vintage Vogue with a ton-over 300-starter blocks for crazy quilting! Now I have to find the printable fabric... its here somewhere!

Halloween Box from Joanne!

Got this fabulous, beaded box in the large Halloween box swap form Joanne. Inside was awesome Halloween button bracelet with many of Joanne's handmade buttons!
And a fun pic seen at work while visiting a store to shoot pictures:

Old Media ATC

Frann B. sent me this great WWII themed ATC. 

Let Your Muse IN!

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.”

~Sophia Loren

ALtered Sisters Art Retreat

Had a great time this weekend with one of my art groups! It was good for the soul! Played with button bracelets and other good things!

Downtown ATC swaps - AUGUST

Here's my feather ATC from Vanne P. Love it!

Theatrical Taxidermy

Hold on to your hats, this might be a bit macabre for some, interesting for others... theatrical taxidermy. I personally love the old Victorian displays as they show a little snapshot of life at that time, even if displayed by dead rabbits. I think that one rabbit is cheating!

Awesome Blog, Awesome Idea

So I've been into bracelets lately - easy to work on while traveling, fun to wear, fun to customize.... Check out the rhinestones added to the traditional woven ones at honestlydiy! And a great tutorial to boot!

1934 McCalls Magazine Scans

Enjoy!

Downtown ATC swaps - AUGUST

Just A Note from Dena Jardin 

St. Therese from Jessica Lynn

Old Photos

Just a teaser from some old photos I got a few weekends back... I love the photography studio art as much as the photos!

I'll try to add some more photos later!

WEB STUFF I want to make

Another great shrinky-dink idea...I'm so making this today!!

My obsession with feathers continues.

Really beautiful "batik" clay.

The most beautiful polymer clay flowers! (Not in English)

Fantastic Bead Designs

Been surfing the bead mag's sites: Beadandbutton.com & beadwork.com since both magazines came at the same time this week! My beady brain just is in heaven! Also found lots of project ideas at Caravan Beads blog including this cool bracelet.
I'm way behind in my second Soul Restoration class, so I want to catch up on that & design a little beer logo for my bro. So off to create!

Pennsylvania

As I was in Pennsylvania last week, I haven't finished much except Joanne's 4th of July box and some jewelry which I haven't photographed yet.

Got my 4th of July box!

Got a wonderful surprise in the mail yesterday - Kathy's 4th of July box !  Thank you, Kathy!!! All sorts of goodies! Joanne-you'll get yours soon, I promise!

Rest to Create!

After a very crazy busy week - but wildly fun & successful - at work, I'm resting & aiming to create a little tonight - whoo hoo! I haven't journalled or anything since last weekend and I still need to plant my tomatoes.

This scan is from an old scrapbook from my friend Rhea. Feel free to create something marvelous with it! It's art with JELLO... there's always room for art with Jello!

Another happy little find is this great idea to use a wine rack to hold yarn! LOVE the colors! What if you filled it with vodka and kittens?! That would be awesome!

Hey - back to pens... Sharpie has 80's glam colors out!! OMG like gag me with a pen! I'm like so getting those. OMG ...sorry, just goin' back to my middle schol days. The colors: Argyle Green, Leg Warmer Orange, Jellie Pink, Banana Clip Yellow and Valley Girl Violet

Necklace Exchange

This is my necklace in the necklace exchange organized by Joanne with my other extremely crafty friends: Beth, Kathy, & Sue. We each created 5 inches on each of our necklaces. My theme was Victorian Mourning/Red/Gun Metal kind of goodies... Thanks to all of you for making my necklace so gorgeous!

Spring Garden

Got a ton of great plants and I'm slowly getting them planted. Too hot, not enough soil, hot again... lots of excuses, but the plants don't agree! They're growing like crazy! The irises are blooming more than I've ever seen them bloom and the lilac is just covered(pics coming soon)! All three roses are blooming too!

Intention Words Photo Project

Impatient awaiting a collaborative book to arrive in the mail... it's Intention Words that I participated in with Catherine Anderson's great photo group. Can't wait! She always does a beautiful job organizing and assembling our books. My word is "Restore," which seems to be a reoccurring theme this year.

New Pen Addiction

The Uniball Signo White Gel Pen UM 153.
This pen is awesome. I must order MORE!!!
And yet doesn't have enough ink in it... mine is almost gone. I'm finding on the internets that the ink is made of angels. I understand why. I'm thinking of doing my reports at work on colored paper so the ink will show. THe pink at the top is my addition - so I can tell it apart from the impostors in my pen case.

Old Pins

I used to collect old pins, but I kinda of lost track of them over the years. While cleaning my office, I found one- one of my faves!

Mom's new friend

These pics are from my mom, from her porch... such a perfect little nest!

Back from Expo

After a successful work trip I should be able to post new stuff soon... :)

Mushy Update

Just cause this pic turned out so cuddly... makes me want to nap.

Playin' with Paste

The online class I'm taking has been having great demos with various techniques.

The latest I've tried is with fiber paste (I used Golden's I got as a sample-yeah!).

The star design is made with a plastic paper plate holder.

I had some floral stencils that really worked with this technique.

I've also started some canvases with some wallpaper samples-thanks, Joanne!

Truth Cards

These are my truth cards from my on-line class from Brave Girls... highly recommended class!

A List from the Library

The local public library records all the items one checks out and makes a list of "favorites." I just cam across my list and thought it to be an interesting snapshot of my life. Here are my top 50:

My Favorite Subjects
• Rock music.
• Polymer clay craft.
• Alternative rock music.
• Audiobooks.
• Popular music.
• Video recordings for the hearing impaired
• Feature films
• Comedy films.
• Wire craft.
• Celtic music.
• Crystals.
• Folk-rock music.
• Humorous stories.
• Imaginary places--Drama.
• Live sound recordings.
• Paper work.
• Salvage (Waste, etc.)
• Self-actualization (Psychology)
• Textile jewelry.
• Acquisitiveness.
• Alice (Fictitious character : Carroll)--Drama.
• Animals--Fiction.
• Astrology.
• Beadwork--Handbooks, manuals, etc.
• Compulsive behavior.
• Compulsive hoarding.
• Depression, Mental.
• Diary fiction.
• Electronic music.
• England--Fiction.
• Essays.
• Fantasy films.
• Fantasy in art.
• Folk music.
• Happiness.
• Italy--Guidebooks.
• Magic.
• New Age music.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• Refuse as art material.
• Rhythm and blues music.
• Self-help techniques.
• Soul music.
• Spirit photography.
• Trees--Michigan--Identification.
• Wit and humor, Pictorial.
• Addams, Charles, 1912-1988.
• Adultery--Drama.
• Aesthetics, Japanese--Fiction.

I like how "beadwork" is next to "complusive hoarding," there's a subject for "Imaginary places--Drama" & "Happiness." I'm not hearing impaired, nor do I commit adultery. I do think the list is quite witty!

Some other good topics that didn't make the top 50:
• Animals--War use.
• Cats--Therapeutic use.
• Mad scientist films.

Drama topics....
• Optical storage devices--Drama. (not so much)
• Queens--Drama. (of course!)
• Rabbits--Drama. (not really, unless they chew through the electric cord)
• Weddings--Drama. (always)

Cross Stitch

One of my first crafts: Cross stitching... now made modern! Need to make a forshizzle sampler....

Soul Restoration Update

My pages from last week & my book cover... love those plastic flowers from Ornamentea. This week, we're making our personal time line, so I post that once I've made some progress on it.

Along with the clip art we're given with the Soul Restoration class, I've been getting more great clip art from the Graphics Fairy blog. She rocks!

I came up with a journal technique that works for me: I print out prompts on sticky-backed paper and stick them down when I need to jump start my writing. We're given prompts with each week of this class, so I've got plenty to work with.

Everyone needs a pair of these

Chuck Norris jeans for getting the job done!

Crafty Cats

This is my little journal assistant... . See that smile? No photoshop here!

Prep, Assemble, Create!

Got my class stuff printed and cut out,
got my classes playing on the computer, good music playing, candle burning...

hopefully will get some creating in tonight!