My Dress #3

 This is the third dress I made to go on my banner.  This is another style my mother often made for me.  I love polka dots and just had to use this paper for this dress.  I used white for the collar and trim on the sleeves and trimmed it with with red ribbon.  The I added white paper strips to mimic ribbon across the bottom of the dress.  When I was looking through my stash to find something to decorate the dress, I found this Fashionista tag from 7gypsies and had that "Aha!" moment.  I printed out the "celebrate life" to add to the front.

For the back of this dress I chose this paper because it just looked so old fashioned to me.  Once again I found a 7gypsies tag to add to it.  I think of my girls in dresses similar to this when they were little and always thought they looked like such little princesses.  I cut a round card in half and attached it to the top and used it as my signature label.  I incorporated the card because cards are another one of my addictions.  ")

Dress from Pat

 This darling dress is from Pat.  I love the combinations of the striped paper with the floral paper.  The aqua with the pink is so very delicate and feminine.  Pat has made the collar and the apron of the dress from the aqua strip.  The dress of from the beautiful pink rose paper.  She has used paper lace underneath the collar and added an overlay to the collar of a script paper and then sewn two buttons on top of it.  The apron also has an under lay of papers lace and a punched lace edging along the bottom of the dress.  She as added a white paper scallop across the apron with "such a lovely day" stamped on it.  She then added the two birds to the top of the scalloped piece.  The burgundy ribbon really sets this dress off.  A final touch is the aqua velvet flower with a pearl center.

The back has a light pink gingham check top with a floral circle that covers the threads from the buttons.  The skirt is dark pink with white polka dots.  The label is made from a text paper with a dark pink center and pat has added a white label to sign her name.  Beautiful!  Thank you Pat!

Dress from Marsha

 What a sweet dress Marsha made for my dress banner.  Love the small pink/white checks combined with the window-pane plaid in the apron.  I also like that she made the collar from dark pink/light pink argyle.  The pearls so fit with this dress.  I really like the tiny flower sequins she has scattered across the bottom of the skirt.

Marsha made the back from a blue checked pattern.  Thank you Marsha!

Dress from Jan

 This is Jan's version of the pleated dress template I sent.  She said it reminded her of one she had made for her granddaughter.  I love the collar she made on this one.  The tiny yellow "piping" she put around the collar and on the sleeves is so sweet.  And I love those teeny tiny buttons.  The little duck she bought at the street flea market we attended the last day we were in Paris.  I love that!

The back of the dress looks like some of the paper we dyed at her house one day.  Love the colors!  How very appropriate that the decorative paper has buttons!  What a precious dress.  Thank you Jan!

Dress from Judi

The dress Judi made is popping with color!  Love the purple and the chartreuse together.  Lots of sweet flower with that beautiful turquoise center.  ")   Love that she put the tiny turquoise bird on the apron tie.

The back is chartreuse with lighter green polka dots.  Gorgeous tag trimmed in purple.  Thank you Judi!

Dress from Minori

 This is the dress Minori made for my dress banner.  It is so sweet!  The green lace at the top of the pinafore is one of my very favorite laces!  Then she sewed the brown rick-rack onto the waist.  She layered lots of flowers on the skirt.  She added some tiny little flowers to the blouse and a very sweet collar.  Finally she added the delicate white lace to the bottom of the of the skirt.

Love, love, love the polka dots on the back!  The skirt if full of very colorful ones and the green with brown dots is very pretty.  A great color combo!  Thanks Minori!

Dress from Sara

 This is the dress that Sara made for my dress banner.  This must be paper that Sara has made.  This is the "sailor dress" pattern that I included with my templates.  I love the ric-rac for the pleats down the front.  Also the "kindred spirits" she put on the tag.  The Japanese postage stamp on the dress has a similar color pattern.  I think she must have embossed the trim on the collar and the sleeves, too.   Love the colors!

The paper on the back of the dress has a butterfly and a partial label printed on it.  I like  that Sara chose that spot to sign her name.  Thanks Sara!

Summer's Bounty

 These beautiful red potatoes came out of our summer garden.  We have used them all summer.  I just had to buy potatoes at the grocery store last week.  I was very disappointed in them when I started going through the sack to prepare potatoes for supper.  I went back this week and hand picked the ones I wanted from a bin stacked high with some pretty good potatoes.

This is a late bounty of yellow pear tomatoes, little plum tomatoes and some smaller beef steak tomatoes.  The beef steak tomatoes were much larger in the middle of the summer.   We had two very large tomato plants in the middle of a raised bed that really produced some nice tomatoes.  But we had two very strong wind storms, too.  The first storm blew down one of them, basket and all, and broke it off.   Later the second storm took out the other one and we lost our large tomato supply.  The little pear tomatoes and plum tomatoes have been very nice, but now due to no rain we're losing them, too.   The squash was a wonderful source of food for us this summer.  We had both zuccini and yellow long-neck squash.  We also had a few cucumbers along the way.   We did have an abundant supply of onions which we are still using.   They are harvested and in a basket in my kitchen.  It seems the only survivors are the hot peppers:  cayennes, jalapenos, and chilies.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our fresh vegetables, thanks to all the work of my dear husband, Doug.  ")

Art Doll for Minori

Minori loves Christmas....so it was inevitable that I made a Christmas doll.  ")  This is the Earth Angel stamp from Catherine Moore's Character Constructions.  (No. 7)  I used the arms from Inner Child #6, the dress from Mannequin Cafe #8, and the wreathe from Mannequin Cafe #9.  This is my favorite face stamp and I use her so much.  The dress is also a favorite.  I used red ink to stamp her on green printed Christmas paper.  I had just recently found this Happy Christmas/Happy Holidays ribbon in my stash and laid it out because I knew she was my next exchange.  I really seem to use this little wreathe a lot, too.  I love putting the little red rhinestones on it to simulate holly berries.  I added the crown from MC #9, too.  The crown and wings are coated with clear Stickles glitter glue.  I also added a drop of the glitter glue to the star bursts on the dress.

(21 Secrets Workshop) 2nd class

This piece was done in Cathy Bluteau's workshop.  Again, very well done videos and so easy to follow along.  My first thought was that I would never be able to put so much into such a small space.  But the more I worked on it and tried to incorporate as many of Cathy's ideas as possible, the more I began to visualize how to fill in those spaces.  This really could have been done on a larger page, but it is the size I cut my pages for the 21 Secrets Workshop.  I really want to make a complete journal of all my work done in this workshop.  Cathy encouraged us to use cut outs, but also to draw in some similar images.  The bottom background paper I used to mimic a white wooden fence, even using some white crackle paint over it.  All the strips at the center top are washi tapes.

 

21 Secrets Workshop

Dirty Footprints Studio is doing a 21 Secrets Workshop currently.  I participated in Carissa Paige's class to start.  She is so full of energy, imagination and did some wonderful videos for this class.  Here class is called "Following the Wild Winds" in this artful life.  I followed the wild winds on my daily walk and time of prayer and meditation and came back with these photos and reflections.  I compared the "tunnel" cloud to the tunnel in which I find myself  from time to time....searching in the dark for that "thing" that will spark an idea and give inspiration to do a work.  The spider web I used to illustrate the many paths in the art world and realizing that one cannot follow them all.  And, realizing that one's inner spirit will give guidance to the path that should be taken.

This little bench by the river is a spot that my husband and I both cherish.  It is a wonderful place to contemplate, give thanks to the Creator, and just praise His creation.  Fog was on the river this particular morning and reminded me of my foggy mind during times of difficulty with a piece of work.  The wind calmed as I sat there and the johnson grass began to stand up as it ebbed.  As I pray and meditate my soul began to calm and I asked for guidance as I contemplated my life and the joy I have in Him and His gift of creativity with me.  As I left, I turned and the fog had lifted, the little bench flooded with sunlight.  I was reminded of Jesus' words:  "Peace, be still."

Carissa asked us to paint a page with wild abandon and go on a Vision Quest with that free spirit we had as children.  I have always had a love affair with trees and birds.  As you can imagine, I see many of both as I walk to the river and back.  I loved climbing trees as a young girl and would not quit until I had climbed as high as the branches would allow.  I placed the little bird sticker in the top of the photo of the tree I used on this page.   The sentiment I wrote below the photo says:  Go all the way to the top!  HIGHER!                            

Carissa also asked us to look at the page to see if an image would begin to take shape as we worked on it.  I had stamped a large fleur-de-lis on both pages.  On the second page I could visualize a girl taking shape on this stamped image.  Since I am not comfortable yet to publically show my sketching skills, I cut out the head of a young girls and glued it above the fleur-de-lis.  I drew hands as in prayer on the very top part of the image which made the side "flags" of the image look like wings morphing from her body.  The I drew legs from the bottom of the image.  This is my "Wild Abandon" page.  I would like to think that the Lord God will allow me to fly like a bird in eternity as I sing praises to Him!

Art Doll for Judi

 This is the art doll I made for Judi in our club swap.  I had seen Catherine Moore's animated doll on her website and just loved it.  Of course, Catherine's doesn't look as clumsy as mine does!  I love Catherine's Time Keeper images.  I thought this really put a new twist to the TK's character.  ")  The stars are sticker and I used two for each wire.  They are stuck to one another around the wire so they will stay on the wire.  I wish I had had those micro mini brads to put her together.  The ones I used look too big.  (Judi brought me a box full of goodies for my b'day and she had some of those little brads included! )  The bra is glitter ribbon.  I love this 4th of July look for this doll.

                                                                    This is a folder that I made for the doll.  I continued in the red, white and blue theme.  I added stars also.  The paper is French General.

 Inside the folder I added some information on the left and a paper doll costume.  On the right I added a pocket to put hold the doll.  I stamped the paper doll string on the pocket and added some stars.  I wrote her name at the top of the page.

                                                            This photo shows Miss "Sparkles" out side the pocket.

Dresses for Dress Banners

 This is the first dress template I received for our club's Dress Banner round robin.  Sara is doing dresses and slips.  I love the little slip template.  I added lots of French ephemera that I picked up on our trip to Paris.  Also the little dress tag was so appropriate for this.  We are signing our work on the back of each piece.

                                                                                     This is the front of the slip.  The text and image piece is a scan I took from a fashion pamphlet I bought at an antique book market.  I loved the tiny flower print of the decorative paper I used for the dress and added lace to the bottom of the text piece and a strip of ribbon at the top.  The little heart is a button.  The "adore" is from my Smash stash.

Art Dolls for Art Club 2013

One of our exchanges in 2013 for DivaArtGroup is an art doll exchange with another member each month.  This is the doll that I made for Marsha.  I used stamps from Catherine Moore's Character Constructions:  Bird & Bee Paperie #11 (torso), Mannequin Cafe #6 (dress and arms) and French Laundry #14 (legs).  I stamped the bottom of the dress 2X on vellum and stapled them together sandwiching in the love birds (sticking their heads through slits) and adding flower confetti to the inside of the skirt.  I added a bow in her hair, a lace collar, pink rhinestone button, and magenta butterflies.  I made a tag with "No. 46" to coordinate with the numer on the bodice.  And lastly, I added a strip of washi with the black birds to the bottom of the skirt.

This is the fabulous creation Marsha sent to me.  I am thrilled with her!  The litle note on the front of the card says: "Upon entering middle age, she developed a fondness for umbrellas & galoshes & noisy spring thunderstorms.  And now her friends find her wandering contentedly through puddles when she REALLY SHOULD be working."   Isn't that a hoot!  Sounds just like me!  LOL   Ah, kindred spirits.  ")                 She came with two umbrellas:  one open and one closed.  Also she has two pairs of galoshes.  I love that wild dress and those magenta tights!  Marsha named her "Wild Wanda" and it just fits!  Thanks again, Marsha!

 

More calendar pages....

Here are pages for March.......Happy Easter!  Yes, the last Sunday in March is Easter this year!  Gonna be cold for those little egg-hunters.  :)  Lots more to do on these pages, too.

These July pages are devoted to butterflies.  I love this bright blue accent paper.  I'm going to have to add more of it.  I used some coordinating washi tape around the bright blue piece.  I'll post some more of these pages when they are completely dressed up.  ")

Calendar planning books

In February our Women's Ministry team will host a night of packing boxes for our college students.  Just our way of saying, "We're thinking of you."  I volunteered to make these books for our girls (the guys will receive an organizer notebook).  There will be other items in the boxes:  gift cards, house socks, snacks, pocket kleenex, hat and scarves, etc.  You can see that I used some of my washi tape to adhere the little botanical card to the front of the planner.  There are so many uses for the very numerous washi tapes available today.  Get some!  Play around with it and I am sure you will be as hooked as I am in using it in all your art work.

Here are the pages I made for January......just the bones....lots of goodies to go on these pages yet.  The left has a large pocket for a "dates to remember" card which will be made and dressed up for more of a Wow! affect.  The pocket on the right side will be for those "to do" lists or grocery lists.  I'm going to get all the bones to these books done first and then get down to really dressing them up.  ")

Let the little children come........

This is a canvas I worked on last week for my Sunday School class room.  I had fun painting it and cutting up one of my Mary Englebreit calendars.  After I attached the children to the canvas, I spread some bees wax over them and let it dry and then brushed some yellow ochre glaze over them to antique them.  I love my Golden glazes.  I only have about four earthy colors right now, but I use them alot and so much of my artwork.  This really looks good hung above out little
attendance chart in our room.  :)

Holiday Doll

I was part of Catherine Moore's Holiday Doll Swap in the Character Constructions group on Yahoo!  This is the doll that I made for my new friend Joyce.  I stamped the earth angel head and wings on white cardstock and backed it with a stiffer paper.  I stamped the skirt form 2X.  On the underskirt, I layered red glitter tape and then trimmed it to the form.  For the overskirt, I cut out all the spaces and used my Krylon 18ct. gold leafing pen to color the frame of the skirt and attached it over the red glitter skirt.  I used colored pencils to color in the bodice, face, arms and gloves and used a blending pen when finished.  I attached the bodice with the button brads to the wings.  Then I added a button brad down the front of the bodice and a second one to attach it to the skirt.  I added a gold foil bird to her arm, a gold horn to her hand and the gold swan with wreathe to the bottom of the skirt.  The background is part of Catherine's Nesting Ground papers.  I trimmed it down to be in proportion to the doll's height.  I stamped the ornament several times on vellum and cut them out.  I strung them on red thread and made a swap across the top of the paper.  I used a piece of  green cardstock and wrapped red ribbon around it for a present.  Then I stamped "Be Merry" on the left side of the doll and "Do Not Open Until December 25" on a tag and attached it above the present.  I used a round velcro button to attach the doll to the background so Joyce could remove her if she wants to.   (Stamps used:  Bee Keepers Tea #7 - Earth Angel head and wings; Mad Tea Party #2 - bodice, arms; French Laundry #6 - skirt; Bird and Bee #11 - Do Not Open Until December 25; Bird and Bee #14 - oranment and Be Merry; Mannequin Cafe #9 - wreathe).

More Aquarium fun.......

Also meeting us there was Joyce's sister Nellie, her son Lendel, and husband David.

Jacob admiring the shark's teeth.

 Touching the stingrays and feeding them.

Jake, Britton and Emily looking at a gigantic eel.  And then we were off to lunch..........all 17 of us!

A Day out at the Aquarium

On Friday Ru and I took all my grandchildren to the Tulsa Aquarium for a day of fun.  From left to right:  Jacob, Meleah, Emma, Cody, Dillon, Alana, and Mason.

We met my cousin Joyce with her three grandchildren:  Emily, Jake and Britton.  Emily had her own transport that cousin Jake very kindly pulled and pushed around the aquarium.

Art journaling pages

This was the first page I painted in this journal.  Now it's all ready for writing, stamping, drawing and/or added papers, text or embellishments.

Here's another of Emma's pages.  I love the bright orange and the darker mist she used over the butterflies.  Can't wait to see what she does with this page!

Art Journaling with my Granddaughter

This is my granddaughter Emma.  She is always working in some kind of journal.......which just warms my heart!  I have always been writing in at least one journal,  if not two or three.  I have gone crazy over art journaling.  I'm very new to this, but wanted to introduce Emma to this wonderful medium, too.  We spent all day Saturday a few weeks ago using watercolors to paint pages in a spiral-bound pad of watercolor paper.  It was such great fun and she was so creative and inspiring to her Nana.  ")

This time we used a spiral-bound pad of sketching paper.  We glued three pages together and then tore out the next three pages and continued throughout the pad in this way.  Here is one of the pages Emma painted.  We were using acrylic paints, glimmer mists and stencils.  We painted pages for nearly eight hours!  It was so amazing to get lost in the process that we just lost track of time.  We finally stopped and drove into town to pick up some supper.  Emma stayed the night with us and we just enjoyed her so much.

Christmas Eve Game Night!

 We are a family that loves games!  We had been wanting to have a game night for months, but everyone's schedules plus sickness in the family had prevented it.  So, due to forecasts of ice and snow for our area, the adults decided that Christmas Eve would be a good game night and then we could all stay snuggled in on Christmas Day.  We had all been cooking in preparation for Christmas Day anyway.  So we gathered at our house, built up the fire in the fireplace, laid out the food and drinks and enjoyed the feast.  Then we settled in for a great time of competitiveness!  No TV, no texting, just fun!  We all truly enjoyed it!  Took me back to a time when the girls were young and we had fun evenings around the fireplace and around the table.  ")

Rachel bought us some Who-style headbands to wear!  Here you see JP and Ru modeling theirs.  (Doesn't Ru make you think of Cindy Lou Who?!! LOL)

Reluctantly, the girls lined up for me to take a photograph of them with their darling head gear.  Ru has the droopy candy cane with mistletoe on the end, Rachel has the lady antlers with tiny red bows, and Sharla has the striped hat with a twisty end topped off with the white pompom.  Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Here's most of our grandchildren.  Ru and JP were not able to have his girls due to sickness.  We really missed those little sprites!  Seated here are Jacob (celebrating his 6th birthday Dec. 26th), Cody (11yrs), Mason (8yrs), Emma (13yrs), and Dillon (15yrs).  Cody and Dillon are brothers and the other three are siblings.  We had our Christmas with all the grandchildren on Sunday as they all had to go to their dad's house for Christmas.