Thank you card

Today I am going to work on Thank you cards. I have so much to be thankful for and I am completely out of thank you cards. This is a pre-made card - the stipes were already on it. Then I stamped the words on it and came up with the little bouquet to dress it up. The stamps are by Inkadinkado. I inked the bouquet stamp with Zig markers and drew around the flowers with a black pen. The flowers were accented with liquid pearls and regular pearl accents are on the side.

Countdown to 2009 - Think Monday - Think ATC

Here is my ATC for the Think Monday - Think ATC challenge this week which is a countdown to the New Year. The watch is a spellbinders die done on black magic paper and sanded.
Thank you for all your comments on my blog in 2008. I look forward to new challenges in 2009.

Birthday card

I did Birthday Cards today. I made 15 cards today and this was one of my favorites. I'm so glad that the Christmas rush is off and that I could get some cards done. I did most of my cards with my Inkadinkado inchie stamps that I've recently purchased. I stamped them in black and water colored them and did some sewing on them too.

Doll ATC

This is an ATC that was a Christmas present to me from a friend. This is her first ATC as far as I know. She is a quilter and a doll artist. I am so pleased that she gave me her very first work of art.

Merry Christmas - Think Monday - Think ATC

This is my ATC for Think Monday - Think ATC's challenge which is Christmas this week. I used my inchie stamps which were a birthday present from a friend.
Merry Christmas everyone!

This is my favorite image that I worked on Thursday in our water color class.

Lamp challenge - think Monday - think ATC

The challenge over on Think Monday- Think ATC is to do an ATC with a lamp theme. It is crazy when we all have a challenge of the same thing how many different things we come up with.
Well I guess I want to be different this week and when I thought of lamps, I thought of lava lamps. We still have about 4 in our home and enjoy watching them.
The lamp and retro flowers is a transparency.

Red ATC - Think Monday - Think ATC

This is my ATC for this week's challenge on Think Monday - Think ATC. This week's challenge was to do an ATC that was red. You did not have to
do a Christmas ATC but after putting up the wreaths, decorating the mantle and putting up two Christmas trees I am getting in a Christmas mood.

Christmas corsages

These are the two Christmas corsages that I got back from my art group's Christmas corsage swap. The one on the left is from Cher and the one on the right is from Kris. Thanks girls. I'll enjoy wearing them. I have the poinsettia one on my red hat in my profile. I'll have to get a picture of the one with the dove on another of my red hats. I just love hats and I am a red hatter.

Stone Angel - Think Monday - Think ATC

This is my ATC for this week's challenge on Think Monday - Think ATC. I had that song, "Someone To Watch Over Me" going through

my head when I did this one.

Twinchie display and other treasure displays on my mantle

I wanted to display my treasured twinchies for all my family to enjoy but keep them out of my little Grandson's reach. I have put them on my old mantle's Thanksgiving garland which is some fancy Fall ribbon and orange trim. This is not a fireplace but a display of this wonderful old mantle that we stripped and refinished.(click on the picture to see a larger view.) We've had the mantle for over 20 years. It came out of an old house that was being torn down. I've got the twinchies on an orange piece of trim that my Sister was going to discard and I scooped it up cause I loved the Fall colors. She will be amazed at the display of it I'm sure.

The pumpkins on the bottom shelf are real pumpkins and the ones on the top shelf are ceramic ones that I made about 20 years ago and they were in the attic. I just rediscovered them after a trip up into the attic.

I've got my Thankful ATC on display on the left side and the Thanksgiving cards for each family are on the right side. Those little ceramic turkeys salt and pepper shakers were also found in the attic with the pumpkins.

The bowl in the middle was a carnival glass wedding gift given to us 38 years ago. And the leaves in the middle of the ribbon garland were velvet leaves also found in the attic. Oh and one more treasure is on the mantle. It's the old clock that my Mother-in-law's bother earned when he was a child selling Clorine salve door to door and gave to his Mother for Christmas.

Thankful - Think Monday - Think ATC

This is my ATC for the Think Monday - Think ATC challenge for this week which was a cloth/paper challenge. I used an image of a beautiful vintage looking tablecloth that I found in a magazine that I have been saving for something special. The transparent image of the woman is from dibonadesigns.com and she reminds me of a favorite Aunt. The ribbon is the real cloth and it was run through the computer to add the word "Thankful". I am looking forward to Thanksgiving and having my family with me. I will be thankful for them and those that we remember so fondly.

Christmas corsage

Our latest challenge in our art group was to do a Christmas corsage. Mine is a combination ribbon brooch and old fashion Christmas corsage like women used to wear on the coats at Christmas time.

cabinet card swap

Oh joy I am doing the happy dance! The cabinet cards that my online art group did arrived today in the mail and it makes me very glad that I joined this swap.

The artwork is all wonderful. You girls just don't know how much I'll treasure these. I love all the little special touches. I can't quit touching them and looking at them.

#1 - The Good Girl - by Cher. She is wonderfully naughty! I'll bet that was a wild time she had in Paris.

#2 - Dilbert DoRight - by Jean. She did a whole family of Dorights with a story about them on the back and I was one of the lucky ones to get a DoRight family member.

#3 - The Sewing Queen- by Candy. Not only is she beautiful on the front but she has a beautiful Photographic studio print on the back.

#4 - The Gambler - by Gloria. Oh, I love those dollar signs in his eyes! Look at all those special touches!

#5 - The seamstress - by Gloria. Can't quit touching all this great vintage stuff!

#6 - Walrus Soup - by Kris. Walrus soup is the perfect title for this one and I love the colors!

#7 - Follow your Dreams - by Claudia. Yes, I know we only did 6 but Claudia and I swapped with each other for an extra one. Don't you just love these bright wonderful colors? They are also sparkly because they are H2Os.

#8 - The cabinet card holder - Joan. The inside is accordian folded like a book & the cards fit into the folds like they are fitting into files. I love my altered ancestor holder!

Sweetheart Corn - Think Monday - Think ATC

Our challenge for this Monday was to do an ATC having to do with food. The label is from Dover Old time Label Art images.
The Bingo background was a free image I found online but it was from a long time ago and I didn't know then to save the source when I saved it.
I thought the typewritter key letter and grungeboard heart and uneven stamped stitching went along with the feel of the image.

cat in bird feeder

I just could not resist taking a picture of one of my four cats in this

old bird feeder. This is Target. She is named Target because that is

where she was found.

Keep it under your hat ATC - Think Monday - Think ATC

Here is my ATC for this weeks challenge at Think Monday- Think ATC which is purple.

The background stamps are a diamond pattern from Rubbernecker stamps and a leaf and flower stamp from Best Blossoms from Stampin UP. The Mod Hatter is from Stampendous.

And just in case it doesn't translate well - She is a gossip urging someone not to tell the "secret" she just told you and she urging you to "keep it under your hat."

But of course she wants the "secret" told.

earrings

This plate was the inspiration for our online art group's November challenge. We can do any artwork and let the colors or patterns inspire us.

I did these earrings and used the colors in the plate and the shape of the plate. I loved them so much that I just had to make a pair for myself too.

Laugh cabinet card

I had to do a class for our altered book meeting today and I choose to teach how to do altered cabinet cards with Twinkling H2Os. This is how my card turn out.

These were such fun for everyone.

We all shared with each other. Some of the stamps ,the vintage button, butterfly, flower, key and dragonfly brad were either RAKs I had from other friends or things we shared today.

I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends!

The quote says, "Take time to laugh. It is the music of the soul."

Inspired birthday card

I love to read Jennifer McGuireink's blog and she recommended that everyone should look at Lisa Carroll's blog and see her cards. I did go to her blog and was especially inspired by this card:

http://my-little-ink-spot.blogspot.com/2006/11/birthday-bouquet-card-with-magic.html

So I created this similar card.

bi-fold birthday card

This is the front and inside of the first bi-fold card that I have attemped. I really like it and think that I'll be making more of these.

November recipe card

This is the front and back of my recipe cards for my altered book club. We have been swapping recipe cards for months now and I have some real treasures. I also swapped recipe cards with my online group. So now I have 3 small books of them.

This is the recipe I used for my turkey last year and it is yummy! It is from Emeril Lagassee. I plan on doing this recipe again this year for

Thanksgiving because it was a big hit with my family.

Think Monday- Think ATC - Christmas Angel

This is my Christmas angel for Think Monday - Think ATC.

Miss Prissy ATC - Think Monday - Think ATC

This is my ATC for Think Monday - Think ATC. My ATC was inspired by my kitty, Miss Prissy. The image is a stamp by Lost Coast Designs. The quilts are images from a magazine.

altered book pages for November

This is my altered book page for November.
A friend's art program at our last altered book club was doing potato stamps. The hearts and stars in the background were done there as part of our potato stamp project.
The turquoise and pink were added to the project as I was playing around with colors at home.
I thought the hearts needed a love theme and I found this quote which says, "The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves, or rather loved in spite of ourselves." ~Victor Hugo.
I found the lovey couple in the pocket on the left in my artwork stash and the ribbon and flower on the right was a RAK from a friend.
I sewed the pocket page on the side and bottow with some yarn that was in my stash.

Queen's round treasure box

This is a round treasure box that I made for my online art group's October lottery. A theme is announced in our group and we make a piece of art to go with the theme and then someone's name is drawn to win all the lottery pieces each month.
The theme of the lottery was royalty.
This was a round plactic box that I recycled by putting patterned papers on it and using the grungeboard heart, wings and crown. The wings have crackle paint on them, the heart has fired brick distress ink, and the crown has metallic rub-ons on it. The pieces are "sewn" together with wire.

Thanksgiving twinchies

These are the 12 Thanksgiving Twinchies that I made for a swap with my online art group, An Afair With Art. Twinchies are two inch pieces of art.

Pumpkin baby ATC for Think Monday - Think ATC

This is my ATC for the Think Monday - Think ATC challenge. The challenge this week was to do an ATC for Halloween. I love Fall, Halloween, and pumpkins so I did this Pumpkin
baby collage ATC.
The image is from a vintage ephemera CD.
I did inked and distressed patterned papers
for the background. The pumpkin vine is done with a Close To My Heart stamp. The
pumpkins in the center and the words, Happy Halloween are a $1.00 stamp from AC Moore and the pumpkin in her lap is from a small wooden stamp from a box of multiple Holiday stamps. I've had the Halloween eyelets for a very long time so this little black cat came in handy for this challenge.

Birthday Card

This is a birthday card that I did for a friend today. I hope that she likes it.

Think Monday - Think ATC challenge - Ophelia

I’ve finally managed to do my ATC for the Think Monday –Think ATC challenge for this week, which was Ophelia.
I had to research Ophelia to find out who she was.

She was a character from Shakespeare.
After reading about her I think of her as the beautiful lady in the water. I did not have a stamp so I used an image from The Ephemera Book CD for my lady image.

Then I started to look for the water. I found this patterned paper in my scraps and it was a children’s print with tugboats.
The tugboats had little bubbles coming up from them. So I used the bubbles and enhanced them with Stickles. I enhanced the patterned paper with twinkling H2Os.
The swirly boarder stamp is from Lost Coast stamps.

The writing was done on the computer and the font is called Avalon Quest.

cabinet cards and box

Our Fall project for my online art group swap was to do 6 cabinet cards and a box for them.

I did the same cabinet card except I did do some of them in slightly different colors. This one is my favorite.

I did a cigar box for my cabinet card box. Cigar boxes are one of my favorite things to do. They offer lots of room for all kinds of collages.

Discover Mother Nature ATC

Here is my ATC for "Think Monday -

Think ATC." The theme was Mother

Nature this week so I did a gate inviting

you to discover Mother Nature with the

butterfly.

I love Halloween! This is a witch art doll that I made for my art group's October inspiration mingle. The inspiration was a black lace skirt and my little witch has her own black lace skirt over corragated cardboard. Her hat and her bag are $1.00 stamps that I got at AC Moore the other day. Her head is a vintage image on a flattened bottle cap and the image is covered with diamond glaze. The arms, legs and hands are stamped with a friend's stamp. This friend taught my altered book club how to do puzzle people. Her upper body is 1/2 of a large puzzle piece with "witch's brew" stamped on it. The wild colors were already on the puzzle piece. And I used a piece of raffia on her bag that was part of my scrapbook stash from many years ago.

This is my ATC for Think Monday - Think ATC.
The theme this week was coffee. I did a hand cut coffee mug.

page three of trash album

Page 3 of my trash album –

Brown paper bag page painted with gesso and inked
with vintage Photo, Mustard Seed and Fired Brick Ranger Distress inks
- yellow dot pattern – (Mustard Seed ink) is done with bubble wrap
face stamp – Lost Coast Designs – Up Close and Personal
leaf stamps - Rubbernecker
foil leaves are Hershey’s chocolate wrappers. They are inked with leaf stamps
or punched with a leaf punch from Emagination
Autumn is cut out with Roxy Quickutz dies out of a pizza box
Paper behind "Autumn" is the Hershey’s candy bag
Eyes and lips of face are highlighted with Prisma colored pencils