Art Share ~ COF April Open Theme Swp

Guess what showed up in my mailbox yesterday...The Circle of Friends April, Open theme swap. And Wow was that box filled with some really fun pieces.

Now let me share the art. From the bottom center going clockwise, Inspire is by Sandi our fearless leader, Peter Rabbit is by Andrea, Count Your Blessings by Elizabeth of Sassy Stampin' Momma, Watercolor by Kathy, Balloon Monster and thanks a Bunch by Monica of Art Rocks, B is for Bird by Sarette and the center piece A Artis preceptar is by Margie our newest member.

Before I move on I want to say thank you to Sarette for hosting such a wonderful swap!

I picked a few to highlight today, the first one is Andrea's Peter Cottontail. the reason I selected this tag is because when I was a girl about my daughters age my parents bought me the entire set of Peter Cottontail books, a lovely collection that I have handed down to her. The image Andrea used looks just like one of the illustrations from the books I have and I love that she sprayed it with glimmer mist it makes it look old to me.

On the back Andrea included a phrase from the book "Peter's coat and shoes were plainly to be seen upon the scarecrow."

This is the first time I have swapped with Margie and I wanted to highlight her piece because it is one of the stamps that I have always loved but never purchased for myself. I just don't know what I would do with it. Every time I see it used I love it and her card is no exception.

For the background she used alcohol inks, then stamped the image in a bold black. She mounted all this on a gold decorative paper and then onto the blue cardstock. I just love the color combination she selected.

So glad that I got to swap with Margie finally!





These two fabulously fun creations are by Monica who is our newest member to undertake a blog. She started one up a few weeks ago and it has been so much fun to watch her share her first posts. I included a link to her blog up at the top of this post.

I have always loved Monica's simple style and bold colors. Every time I open a swap I know right off which fabulous creation is hers. These cards are miniature and she sent envelopes along with them. No way am I mailing them out though, every time I look at them they make me smile.

When I opened Sarette's piece I was floored, it is the most fabulous and simple idea I have seen in a long time and I am planning on stealing the idea from her (hope you don't mind).

On the surface this looks like a very simple, pretty little fold out card, but inside it holds a post it pad! What a fabulous way to dress up something that i always have sitting around. And if you look below you can see that I have already started to use this piece. I absolutely love art that functions!









Yet another wonderful Circle of Friends swap! If you are interested in becoming a member come check us out over at yahoo The Circle of Friends, we are always open to new members.

Now I am off to go finish this months swap!

Divas de Mayo ~ A Swapping Fiesta! What I sent

Yesterday I shared the wonderful goodies I received in this months PBS Diva Swap. You can view the fabulous items I got HERE. My swap partner received the box I sent yesterday also so I can now share them with all of you.

Margaret said in her profile that she loves the 60's colors and she is a fabulous cook, alas I don't know this first hand but she made it to the finals of a very tough cooking competition and she is always sharing wonderful recipes with us Diva's.

The twist this month was to include something in our boxes that was "Festive" well, I went a bit overboard. I wanted to send her some outdoor entertaining things to fancy up her dinner parties outside and was cruising one of my regular stores when I saw this apron, inspiration struck and I hit the sewing machine running.

I shoved the apron in my purse and headed to the local fabric store. It took a little looking but I found some nice fabrics that I thought went well, there was nothing that was spot on. I got them cut and was getting ready to check out when I walked by the rick rack display and like a lightning bolt my design just kept getting hotter! So I picked up some rick rack and headed home.

I selected 6 different fabrics, 2 yellows (they were the hardest), 2 greens, and 2 browns.

This is my very first set of napkins where I didn't attach a boarder and it is also my very first set of tea/hand towels. Everything is double sided because lets face it no one wants to look at the back of fabric, it's just not pretty.

The n's are all hand cut applique's that I ironed on using stitch witchery. And I sewed the rick rack as well as glued it (don't want it to frey).

Margaret said that I got the colors perfect to match the rest of her decor. I really hope I did and she's not just being sweet. I love these and had a great time making them. I hope she gets years and years of use out of them.

The other items that I sent were citronella candles to keep those pesky bugs away, some fun outdoor twinkle lights and a holder for wine glasses and a bottle of wine that you steak into the ground. It looked like a ton of fun!

Till next time!

Divas de Mayo ~ A Swapping Fiesta! My Goodies!

This is the latest haul of goodies that my PBS Diva Margaret sent me. The Diva's are a group I am a part of through the PBS site. We all share a love of books and get together to chat about anything and everything and also swap goodies.

Recently we have started to have twists to go with our monthly swaps, this time it was...

FESTIVE! You must send at least one item this month you feel is festive. It can be a color (red is festive) or a flower (think Tulip Festival), candles are festive or anything you think is fun and festive. The choice is yours.

Margaret blew me out of the water with the gift she sent!

First I want to share some of the note that she wrote me...

...I tucked some usable packing material that you might be able to use. The odds & ends of yarn are leftover from projects I've made. I keep them and now hopefully you or someone you know can us them. The lace and ribbons also are left form projects....

The Post Script is the best though...

I hope you don't think of the odds and ends as a stupid gift. Please feel free to toss anything you don't use.

So at this point I am highly curious as to what all the "odds and ends" are, so I pull back the tissue paper and OMG I squeal like a little girl!

Have you ever seen a full ziplock bag crammed with so many scrumptious art goodies??? I just couldn't contain myself, I ripped into it right away, completely consumed with the fabulous odds and ends, totally forgetting about the rest of the box thinking there's no way whatever is buried under all that bubble wrap could top this part of the gift.

WRONG!

Yes that is Sugar, my four legged helper, checking out the fabulous odds and ends. She of course found them all worthy and tried to sneak off with one or two. Needless to say she didn't get very far, it's mine all mine!

There was not one, not two, but four tea cups all lovingly wrapped hidden under the bag of odds and ends.

The picture I have at the top of the post shows all four but I've decided to just feature one today and link it to Tea Cup Tuesday this way I'll have three more fabulous cups to share with you over the next few weeks.

Okay so onto the fabulous cup. I selected this one because today is a rather grey and rainy day and this cup, while grey (a fabulous shade of grey) is also very bright, so I hope the sun comes out soon to join me for tea.

There is no stamp on the bottom of the cup but there is a number. I'm pretty sure it is from occupied Japan.

Check out all that gold brushed down the sides, I love that it looks like random brush strokes. And isn't the foot fabulous!

But just wait, the cup is exquisite on the inside, it has a kind of opalescent coating inside that reflects pinks, purples and yellows to match the lovely painted bouquet on the inside. It is going to be so much fun to drink tea out of this and watch the pearly sides and bouquet appear as my tea disappears.

Now onto the saucer, the flowers from the inside of the cup are mimicked here as is the random brush strokes and a bit of the pearlescent shimmer but wow those cut outs! Each cut out is highlighted with gold.

The final detail that I want to showcase is the delicate and lovely handle. I love the mix of swirls with a touch of what I think looks like leaves. And like the rest of the cup it has wonderful gold highlights.

I will cherish this cup and the other three which I'll be showcasing over the next few weeks. This is the first cup I have received from a PBS Diva and I know every time I look at it or use it I'll think of Margaret.

Thank you beyond words!

Boite D'Allumettes Swap Goes Postal

Just got back from mailing out the most recent swap I am taking part in with the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group. The swap is titled, Boite D'Allumettes and participants were to decorate a matchbox in the Marie style and fill it with goodies for our partner.

I was paired up with Wanda from Roses In Water and got right to work. But I'm not going to show anyone what I did until Wanda gets it...I know I'm so bad, but I thought I would give you a taste of what she will be receiving. This is the box I shipped Wanda's swap in.

I painted the box a soft linen shade and then stamped the cracked stamp all over in a medium shade of brown ink. If you use a Tim Holtz distress ink they do something really cool, they kind of seep into the paint/box and take on a very soft look that I love, it is great for backgrounds.

Next I stamped the Eiffel lower all over but my stamp was too tall for the box so I angled it, so the Eiffel tower kinda meats the Leaning Tower of Pisa on this box. As a finishing touch I cut, glittered and glued the fabulous carriage images on. I just love this image, purchased it from Graphique on Etsy, please check out their images they are wonderful!

I had a great time on this swap, even though I think I am more nervous about this one than I was the Tea Cup Swap. Keep your eye's out for the post on what I put into this shipping box...it should be long I mailed it priority!

Fairies through the Glass

This is the last of my four Fairy book pages for the Alpha Stamps Fairy Garden Book Swap. My other pages are Grant Me Wings, Behind the Fence, and Come Not Near our Fairy Queen. I can't wait to get the returns, you can view all of the participants entries HERE at the Alpha Stamps Gallery.

Real quick review of the requirements. Participants were asked to feature a fairy, use a 3D item and build it on the chipboard book.

If you've been following me lately you might have noticed a new trend. I have been using a lot of natural, or found in nature items in my art. This piece is no exception, I used moss to fill in the space around the image.

The inspiration for this piece was mainly the image but it was also a scene from the movie The Secret of NIMH at a point the camera (or drawings) pan into or out of the boys bedroom window which is a large/thick coke bottle bottom. I wanted to make It look like my fairies were inside a room in the woods. I used a sheet of transparency film that I sewed on, before closing it all the way I added a few seed beads, so they move around when you pick up the piece.

The sewing showed so I added a green fiber which I wish I hadn't, it didn't go on an nicely as I wanted so it makes the roundness I was going for a bit scewed. Then I added the moss, there are places you can see through it but that's okay because I built the entire thing on a decorative paper.

There are lots of hidden details in the moss, mostly these little butterflies, but also the decorative paper behind the moss has a lot of interesting things on it.

The finishing touches on this page include some paper flowers and the gold Dresden, which was not easy to put on since the shape is not square. When it was all put together I trimmed the moss so it doesn't stick out beyond the edges of the page, but it does curl up onto the image of the Fairies.

I had a great time making these pages and I learned a lot and used a lot of new techniques. I can't wait to get my returns!

Here Comes the Bride's present...

Today is my cousin's wedding day, yahoo yahoo, it's the beginning of her Happily Ever After! So what better way to start it than with not only a fabulous present (that will remain a secret because I don't know when she is opening stuff) but with a fabulously wrapped present?

A very good friend of mine, the one that calls me her Yoda, so I guess that makes her my Padawan learner, helped me with this one. When I say help, I guess I mean I told her what to do and she did it so she learned while doing. But some of the elements were her idea, the black ribbon running the way it does was all her!

After the ribbon was placed we needed something large enough to fill the gap between. I pulled out some gold fabric and taught her how to turn it into a flower. Then asked her to add an element of sophistication by sewing on the pearls. Placement was entirely up to Michelle.

After that we found a center for the flower. Originally the black pearl broach had a rhinestone as it's center. We popped it out and placed in one of the pearls we had used.

The final touch on the actual flower was to trim the edges with gold glitter, this will also help with fraying.

To make it really stand out and to still fill in some space we added 3 gigantic fabric leaves, some gold glittered branches and a black feather or two.

Overall this is the most stunning wedding present I have ever seen and I am so proud of Michelle for putting it together and for me for being able to teach her to create something like this. I know my cousin is going to love it, and if not I know her mom does because she already told me.

Congratulations my dear Cousin...have a great day and I can't wait to call you Mrs!

A day Late, but not a dollar short. Happy Mother's Day

My post may be a Day late for Mother's Day but I don't think that my mother would say the gift was a dollar short ;).

About a month ago I was wandering through Michael's when I found Lisa M. Pace's book, Delight in the Details. I flipped through it a bit and decided to buy it. It wasn't until I got home that I realized what a treasure I had stumbled onto. The book is the best art book I have ever purchased!

It is chocked full of project idea's, one of them being a mother's day box. As soon as I saw the idea I knew I had to make one for my own mother. Like always I pulled a little of this and a little of that from the book to make the box my very own.

I started with Lisa's Faux Porcelain Flowers. This part was a bit tricky since the product Lisa used is no longer available on the market. I ended up using Stiffy and watering it down. Once that was dry I followed the remainder of her instructions. I don't think that my sealer was exactly the same as Lisa's because my flowers never took on a brilliant glass like shine but that could also be the difference in fabric stiffener used, because the paper I had them sitting on when I sprayed them got very very shinny.

When the flowers were ready I cut a piece of cardstock slightly smaller than the box top and started to build the box topper. The technique used for the lace that peaks out all around I already knew but Lisa has included it in her book also. To finish off the topper I added some hand died seam binding that I crinkled.

Before affixing the topper to the box I had to do something to the rest of the heart shaped box. I decided that a crackled look would be nice so I prepped the box with a natural linen acrylic paint, then the crackle medium and then I added the pink acrylic paint. I think my crackle medium is a bit old because it only worked in a few spots but that doesn't really bother me since a lot of the non crackled parts got covered. Next I dusted on some brownish inks to give it an older feel and to add some depth.

Around the lid of the box I wrapped a piece of hand died fabric that I stamped a swirl on. If I had it to do again I would have stamped the swirl design that I stamped on the fabric all over the bottom outside of the box. Even though a lot of it would have been covered by the rosettes I think it would have added more depth.

The last element is one that I have seen around a lot but didn't know how to do until I bought Lisa's book. I made 6 rosettes to go around the base of the box. Each rosette is made from white streamer that I dusted with brown inks and then glittered the edges of. On the rosettes I placed a chipboard heart that I had glittered and added the letters to spell out mother.

I created a set of 3 rosettes that have a shabby chic feel to them at the same time, those are for sale in my Etsy store.


Well, that's it for the box...I filled it with candy and mailed it out. I hope that my mother and mother in law enjoy them. I learned a lot making them and had fun doing it.

Come Not Near Our Fairy Queen

Here is my third page for the Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group swap Fairy Books. Real quick recap on the swap requirements, use the chipboard book, a fairy image and a 3D item.

For this page I really used the Collage Image as inspiration. There were so many hidden details in this image. It wasn't until I already had the image on the chipboard page and the fairy's wings glittered and them 3D'ed that I noticed the poles and decided to create the stick polls. I cut twigs and wrapped the in coordinating ribbon (I was going for a May Pole type look) and then glued them down.

I cut some little images (like the bird with a mini fairy on his back pictured here) from Graphic's 45 paper and added them to the polls. I also added a bit of glitter to the ribbon in various spots.

In the bottom corner of the collage image was a phrase. I decided to create these banners, using a technique Laura shared at Artfully Musing. I stamped into paper clay one of Alpha Stamps Banner Stamps. Once it was dry I trimmed it and then painted it with alcohol inks before adding the phrase and sealing the entire thing. (I have some of these on sale in my Etsy store. If you mention this post I will do free S&H on this item.)

I added pink rhinestones and attached a Tim Holtz clear acrylic tag using shimmery DMC floss to finish it off. The phrase didn't all fit on the banner so that is the only reason I used the acrylic tag, but I really like this addition.


To finish this page off I added some fibers and leaf ribbon all around the edge and some pretty pink flowers placed randomly along the bottom. I also added pink rhinestones to the ends of the ribbons on the poles.

If I had this one to do over I would leave the ribbon I wrapped around the pole longer so I could wind it around the edges, especially at the top. I think it looks very bare up there.

Behind the Fence

This is my second page for the Alpha Stamps yahoo Group swap Fairy Garden Book. My first page Grant Me Wings can be viewed HERE. A quick recap, we had to use an image of a fairy and the chipboard book along with including one 3D item.

For this page I wanted to create a picket fence for the fairy to be walking along. The fence is made out of sticks, like pop sickle sticks but without the rounded ends. I took a sharp matt knife to them to ruff them up at bit and then painted them with tim holtz crackle paint. Once that was dry I added a touch of brown ink to give it a more distressed look. To build the fence I used two long pieces layed horizontal and then cut the other sticks to various sizes, spacing them out till I achieved the look I was going for.

I selected an image from the green fairy collage sheet found HERE. To add some umph to her I beaded her belt and attached a set of German scrap wings. She is 3Ded on the background.



I made these little hummingbirds a while back using a technique Laura showed us on her blog Artfully Musing. They are made of paper clay. Once they were dry I brushed them with some brown inks and then coated him with some warm ice glitter before sealing him and placing him on the fence. I had a set for sale in my Etsy store but it got snagged...I am working on getting some more uploaded. If you are interested drop me a note and I'll send them directly to you (no silly Etsy charges).



To hide that the image was not large enough to cover the entire chipboard page I cut strips from the top and bottom of the image. It was much taller than it was wider. And glued those to the side before adding the flowers I had cut.

The finishing touches on this page are the fibers ribboned through the fence, I was hoping they would end up looking like vines.

I love my fence and hope whoever receives this page loves it too.

Grant me Wings

Alpha Stamps latest Swap with the Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group is a Fairy Garden Book Swap. Participants were asked to use the chipboard book, make 4 pages and include a Fairy image and something 3D. There was no way I was passing this swap up!



This is my first page. I will be uploading the others over the next few days, time seems to not be on my side these days. A few months ago I was lucky to receive an ATC by Laura from Artfully Musing, she had created a wand that took the cake, in my opinion. So I decided to do the same here. Mine is a toothpick painted silver with a string of beads hanging from it all hidden by a punched out flower I glittered and a small blue flower. To me, this is the key element of this page, it makes everything work.






For the background I used the entire Fairy Image, although it was not quite large enough to cover the chipboard so I painted the sides to give it the right color. Then I kaleidoscope embossed a swirl all over. Once that was done I added the 3D elements, the fairy which I accented with glitter, the little girl and the wand.

I'm a big fan of framing my pieces in some fashion so I pulled out my sewing machine and made a ruffle out of twall, glued it down and then added the vine, which I accented with glitter. As a final touch I distressed some blue flowers, added some clear pebbles to their centers and attached them.

The backs of all of mine are similar, I hate leaving it just covered in pretty paper so I made a rosette, dusted it with coordinating colors, attached the fabulous fairy (one of my favorite stamps by Alpha Stamps) and then added my information.

I really enjoyed this swap and can't wait to show you the rest of my creations.