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.
This photo shows Miss "Sparkles" out side the pocket.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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).
Also meeting us there was Joyce's sister Nellie, her son Lendel, and husband David.
Jacob admiring the shark's teeth.
Jake, Britton and Emily looking at a gigantic eel. And then we were off to lunch..........all 17 of us!
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
My Mail Art for Minori had to be something sturdy enough to endure international mailing. I chose to do a Christmas "CD" for her. I know it was a November swap, but she loves Christmas and I just had to choose that theme for her. I started with blank paper and used my Glimmer Mist Candy Apple to cover it. I then tore a strip of music paper and glued it across the CD. I cut out an angel and added the red wings and tucked her inside the music paper. Next I added the "tree" at the left: I tore a strip of brown paper for the trunk and green strips for the tiers and then added the red rhinestones and bow at the top. I used a file label to add the sentiment: "Joyeux Noel!" I added the "believe" sticker at the top and a thin layer of cotton and at the bottom and stamped two little red birds, cut them out and added them to the snow. The address label was added to the spine of the CD holder.
For the back I added the two-sided paper from 7gypsies......red for the back and green to show through to the front. I again spritzed blank paper with Glimmer Mist Candy Apple and placed a musical score made with washi tape strips across the circle. Next I placed strips of green polka dot washi tape on the right side of the circle. Then I tore the picture of the little girls singing Christmas carols from a postcard and placed it above the musical score and over the polka dot washi tape. Then I added more polka dot washi tape to the left side of the circle. I stamped two red birds, cut them out and added them to the left side of the circle. Next I cut out the pink rose and added it to the bottom of the CD and added a faux postage of the little girl writing a letter to Santa over the rose and musical score. Finally I added the rhinestone star beside the faux postage.
This is such an awesome charm! Love this birdhouse from my friend Jan White. Also love that she used lots of turquoise on it! (my favorite color!:). The top of the birdhouse is also turquoise with a musical score across it and then little music notes on the turquoise tab. And, look! Turquoise rhinestones on front of the birdhouse. ") Thank you, Jan.
This sweet cameo is from my friend Susan Wilken. What a gorgeouse cameo! I love those little cherubs. Such a nice frame around them, too. Susan has added tiny rhinestones to some of the flowers around the frame. And, last but not least, she has added a beautiful blue bead at the top of th charm. Thank you, Susan. So it seems the theme of my necklace has been blue and birds. I am so happy with it! Thank you, thank you to all my friends who added their awesome creations to this necklace. What a grand round robin!
The flower jewelry charm is from my friend Marsha Hinds. It is a 3 dimensional piece. She titled it "Stained Glass Window" and that is so appropriate! It really has the look of stained glass. I think it must be two colors of clay rolled together because there are contrasting streaks thoughout the piece.....just like stained glass! She has painted the flower a vivid pink and there is a crease in each leaf painted like a black/white border. Thank you, Marsha! The next charm is from my friend Barb Wenkel. Barb used ultra thick embossing powders (UTE) to make an original piece. While the powders were still hot, she impressed a swirl stamp into it. Then she added some gold to the piece and added the blue rhinestone in the corner. On the back there are gold swirls. Thank you, Barb!
This charm was made by my dear friend Judi (who got me into rubberstamping!:). I love the frame around this beautiful vintage lady. The tiny amber beads at the top and along the bottom are so sweet! Thank you, Judi!
My necklace has returned home and it is beautiful. I will be posting each charm and telling who it is from. This has really been a learning experience and I have loved it! I just feel sorry for the first person who received a charm from me. LOL Of course, everyone is saying that they got better as the round robin advanced. I thought I would wear this necklace, but it is so heavy! It seems impossible that nearly a year has gone by while we were sending these necklaces around. But isn't that they way with time? ")
I painted grunge paper with purple glaze and turquoise paint. I laid a mask down to cover the area for Pat's address and divided the postcard into three sections and used rubber stamps of different font styles for the words on the front. Then I used a ruler and a Sharpie to draw in the lines and dots.
On the back of the postcard, I used various rubber stamps of ladies and girls. I used Copic markers and colored pencils to color in the images. The paper in the middle of the postcard already had "HAPPINESS" printed on it. I added the stamped flowers. I also added the lines, dots and dashes in the blank areas. I'm glad to say it arrived safely in the UK. :)
Our art club had a round robin this year for necklace charms. As soon as I can remember who I made this for, I'll come back and edit this post and fill you in! (**) am I old or what?! Thank you, Sara, for reminding me that this was made for you!
Whoops! should have rotated this one. :) Patience, everyone, it's been a while since I've had a computer. LOL .....when we were in Paris we dug around in a box at one of the flea markets and fished out some interesting brass charms. On the back of the bird, I used a text paper and cut out the letters 'H E A R T" to put across the top of the bird. I cut a heart from a Bingo card (Sara and I both love to use Bingo cards in our artwork). I punched a tiny heart to use in the "free" space. Then I added a faux postage sticker to add to the bottom of the bird.
This is the Mail Art that I created to send to Sara in February for art club. I really didn't want to make a valentine, but wanted to include a heart. So I drew this bird with a heart in his mouth and covered him with decorative paper. I used the front for the addresses and stamps. I used half of a postal cancellation stamp for the beak.
This is the charm that I made for Susan's necklace. I started with a round blank and attached the green resin flower to it. On the bottom ring of the blank, I added a large jump ring to which I added a puffy metal heart and three chains. On the end of each chain I added little nuggets of jade.
Our Round Robin Project for our art club this year is making charms to go on a necklace. Each member acquired/made the necklace of their choice and then made their first charm. I used a heart bezel, cut out a ballerina laid her in the bottom the the bezel and added the aqua flower to the upper left of the heart and a fleur-de-lis at the bottom. I added an aqua rhinestone to a large fleur-de-lis and hung the two together in the center of my chain necklace. (I don't know why I didn't photograph it on the chain....probably was in a hurry to get it mailed out.)As I cleaned up my art table, I found the rhinestone fleur-de-lis that I had bought for the finishing touch to Abby's gift. So I unwrapped the canvas again, added the rhinestones, re-wrapped the canvas and tied the ribbon around it. It has now been delivered!
When I first visited a friend's new house, I found that her young daughter and I shared a fettish for France's fleur-de-lis. We also love the color combo of pink/black/white with just a touch of gold when appropriate. ") So I set out to paint a canvas for her birthday. Well, I have missed the mark by a month but am finally finished with the canvas. I painted an 8"X10" canvas with Studio's "painterly pink", dry-brushing most of the color onto the canvas. I then used Studio's "charcoal black" paint on my fleur-de-lis stamp. I stamped this image 4X, once half off the canvas. Finally I used Apple Barrel's acrylic white paint on my small fleur-de-lis stamp and stamped several X randomly on the canvas. As an afterthought, I used a small brush pen to draw two black fleur-de-lis on the canvas.
I wrote on the canvas with the small brush pen and as I was about to upload it to my blog, I noticed that I had misspelled "fleur". I had spelled it "fluer". I could not believe I had even wrapped it and was ready to take it to Abby. So I had to unwrap the gift and have a "do-over". ")
