Journal ~ Favorite Foods

I'm working a little, well more like a lot, out of order on the Journal 52 prompts.  This one is from Week 32: Favorite Foods. Cupcakes aren't my favorite food, I don't really have one, but they are my favorite to make.

 I had some trouble with this page and had to start it all over.  Can you see the image of the woman above?  Well, that is my grandmother who taught me a lot about baking.  I wanted to include her image and decided to try a new to me technique, gel medium image transfer.  It didn't work as well as I wanted it to but in the end I like how the page turned out.

 I cut along the edge of the page in the shape of the cupcakes.  You can see the next page peeking through.  

Medusa Candy Jar

 It's October!  Time to share Halloween goodies!

This one was so much fun to make.  It's a Medusa themed candy jar using Alpha Stamps products.

Wouldn't this be Awesome filled with Gummy Worms!  I mean after all that is the closes one is going to get to the Essence of Medusa this Halloween.

 And there is no way you can open/look at a Medusa Candy Jar directly to you must use the mini mirror provided.  

 The topper is a paper clay skull and crossbones.

This was so much fun to make and I know it will be even more fun to have out on the counter filled with Candy this Halloween Season.  

It is available in my Etsy store.

Lunch Box Notes F, G and H

Here is part 2 of my pre-school lunch box notes.  

Go HERE to download/print them out

C, D and E are HERE

Lunch Box Notes C, D and E

So I am one of those mom's who sends lunch box notes.  My mom used to write on napkins and I just loved getting them.  So moving along with the times I print out ones I find and toss them in.  My oldest has a hard time reading some of the ones I pick but she understands them for the most part.  My youngest, 4 years, has no clue but wants little notes so bad.  

I searched and searched but there just aren't any preschool level lunch box notes.  So what is an artist to do?  Well, I made my own and I am sharing them with you.  I hope you like them and that your little one loves them!

Each week in school she is learning a new letter so I have created 4 per week highlighting the letter she is working on.  This is just the first installment.  And If you really want me to do A and B I will, but my daughter is past those letters.  Just leave a comment.  

Click HERE for a link to go to a Google Doc and print them out/download them etc. 

Journaling ~ Rhyme

 I would by no means call myself a journaler but I have found myself a bit lost now that many of my swapping groups have shut down.  I discovered Journal52 and have been playing with their prompts.  

This weeks prompt was Rhyme Time.

I started with an acrylic background, covered it with gesso, then Twinkling H2O's next came some hand writien facts about the rhyme and randomly placed stamps.  I created the cow and moon from various decorative papers.  To finish it off I added some texture paste in a star pattern.

Envelope Art

Wendy from Bliss Angels hosted a fabulous Mail Art Swap.  We were paired with three other ladies and told "go" no rules just your imagination and it had to of course be mailable.  

I made my 3 all different.  

 This one is my favorite.  I hardly ever do anything with circus items and I don't have that many but I received the paper I used as a banner and just couldn't get that out of my mind.  The circus theme evolved from there.

 If you follow me you know that anything Ocean themed is my cup of tea.  So of course I had to create an envelope with that theme.  I wanted it to be a bit different and found this blue envelope in my secret stash.

 It's hard to tell but I covered the entire envelope in perfect pearls.  So shimmery and pretty.

 The swap didn't have to be mailed until the end of the month so I thought a Halloween themed envelope would be fun to receive.  

This one ended up being the most work and it is the one I like the least.  I hope that the recipient likes it better than I do.  

You can follow the progression of my pieces on Instegram, glittertartdesigns.

Nevermore...

 It's been a while, and I've missed it, since I created something for Alpha Stamps.  But what better way to get back in the swing of things than playing with some Poe?!?   The September Kit of the Month at Alpha Stamps is Edgar Allan Poe.  I love me some Poe!

 To create this piece I wrapped a wood block in decorative paper (available in the kit) adhered Poe to one corner and attached my crow with a dowel rod in the other corner.  The same paper (just the opposite side) I used to wrap the wood is used as the crows head and the banner background.

I'm hosting a swap over at the Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group for decorating the chipboard birds.  Come join us, it doesn't have to be done in a Poe style.

To achieve the feather like look on my crow I took apart a Gerber daisy flower (black) that I got at a local craft store.  I thought the individual petals looked perfect for crow feathers.  

Some of my finishing touches include 

Resin Skull Beads

Black Sweeper Fringe (hides the attachment of the petals at the neck) It's in the kit!

Black Pearl (for the eye)

Antique Typewriter Mini alphabet Set  

Edgar Allan Poe Kit ~ and a Swap Announcement

It's that time again...another Halloween season starting at Alpha Stamps and boy do they know how to celebrate there!  To start off Leslie has a killer Edgar Allan Poe Kit for sale.

Here is some inspiring art by some of the design team members...more to come.

But the real fun is the swap I am hosting through Alpha Stamps Yahoo Group

It's a 3 for 3 Raven cut out swap.  

Come and join us!

French Bird Cotton Pouch

 Before I took my summer break I had discovered a template to make this cute little pouch.  I made a few for a swap that I was in that were much simpler than this one. So I wanted to give it a try with a more creative design.  This is what I came up with.

 For this one I hand dyed and stamped the cotton.and hand sewed the silk ribbon roses.  Aren't the little birds egg centers just too much fun!

 I stamped and colored the little nest before attaching it.  

 And inside I lined the pouch with French blue lace. 

 Again I hand stamped and colored the Fluer de lis.

On the back you can really see the detail of the stamping.

All the stamps I used on this are available from Alpha Stamps.    

I have this one for sale in my shop.

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Well summer has come to an end, marked by my oldest heading off to school, still have my youngest for a month.  It has been a great summer filled with lots of traveling and family.  I'm sorry it has to end but excited to get back to my routine and my blog.  I hope you all had a wonderful summer and I'm so glad you stopped by today.

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that she is the latest recipient of a generations-old family curse that requires her to complete three seemingly impossible tasks or risk falling into madness and passing the curse on to the next generation. Unlike her ancestors, though, Lucy has family, friends, and other modern resources to help her out. But will it be enough to conquer this age-old evil? 

A beautifully wrought modern fairy tale from master storyteller and award-winning author Nancy Werlin. Inspired by the classic folk ballad "Scarborough Fair," this is a wonderfully riveting and haunting novel of suspense, romance, and fantasy.

I had no idea what to expect when I picked up this book, nor could I remember what drew me to it in the first place.  Going in without any expectations probably saved me from absolutely hating this book.  In the end I decided to give Impossible 2 out of 5 stars.

My initial issue with this book is that it took it a long time to get off the ground.  Instead of getting right to the problem and the three tasks that Lucy would have to face Nancy takes over 100 pages to get to the incident that sets off everything.  Yes I agree that some character development needs to be made but I as a reader prefer to see my characters in action rather than in a slow drudge through everyday life.

Once the horrible incident that set everything off took place all the characters, and I mean all of them, seemed to just accept it and move on.  I'm sorry but there is an element of fantasy (folklore) here that any normal person would not just accept once told.  I liked the fact that the people in Lucy's life supported her and believed in her but everything was just too easy and convenient.

Now I want to take a second to go back to the whole action thing, or lack there of.  So Impossible has this wonderful set up, horrible incident, 3 tasks to perform.  One would think the majority of the book would be on performing the three critical tasks.  Well, it's not.  In fact one task is completed in a couple of paragraphs.  No great dramatic lead up, no thwart, no action during, it just happens and then we move on. I do have to say that the last task does have a lot more drama and intrigue to it but at this point in time I was just reading because I had read over half the book.

Final thoughts.  Well, I didn't like the book but I am not relegating it to the worst books I've ever read.  I probably won't pick up anything else by this author.

The Friday 56, Book Beginnings, Literary Friday

Book Beginnings
There will be no awakening.

The Friday 56
The camp lay twenty miles east of where we lived, hacked out of the woods during the 3rd wave to build a field hospital after the ones in town had reached full capacity.