12 days of Christmas - day 12

Annette ended the 12 days of Christmas with this lovely ornament. Thanks, Annette, I love it and will cherish it as a favorite Christmas ornament!

12 days of Christmas - Day 11

This pretty button heart is from Joan. It is a smaller version of her pretty Christmas tree picture that she made out of old jewelery which is beautiful. This is a beautiful heart too and I think it might become some more of my Valentine's decorations too. Thanks, Joan. I'll always think of you when I see it!

12 days of Christmas - Day 10

Day 10's gift was a felted heart from Gwynn that I put on my library cabinets.  I think it looks very pretty there and I think it would look pretty for Valentine's day too! Thanks, Gwynn. I know that I will enjoy this pretty heart for a long time.

12 days of Christmas - day 9

Day 9 was a pretty Christmas Hangie from Carol that I put on my antique Hoozier Cabinet.

I know I will enjoy this for many years to come.  Thanks, Carol.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 8

This cute little snowman ornament came from Autumn. Thanks, Autumn, I can just picture you and your girls working on these.

12 Days of Christmas - Day 7

This cute little snowman packed in a Christmas mitton came from Jeri. Thanks Jeri, for two gifts in one!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 6

This pretty star ornament is from Dawn. I love how she wire wrapped the bead!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 5

This pretty little ornament came from Liane. Thanks, Laine, I love this pretty red ornament!

12 Days of Christmas - Day 4

This pretty little spool ornament comes from Regina on day 4. It is so cute and tiny enough for those little places where you can really enjoy it!

12 Days of Christmas - day 3

 

This is a smash book from Anne that I love! I have made these for other friends but I've never made myself one. I hope to record daily life in the new year in my new book. Thanks, Anne, I love it!

My 2nd Christmas card for 2012

This is my 2nd Christmas card for 2012. Someone had given me the deer so I thought that I'd put them to good use. Thank you to whomever gave me the deer. It made my Christmas card making easier this year.

2nd day of Christmas - Twelve days of Christmas - from me

This is the two gifts that I made for today for our 2nd day of the 12 days of Christmas. It is shrink art and I made a butterfly/Paris necklace and a bird/Take Wing necklace. I hope everyone enjoys them!

12 days of Christmas - Day one from Teresa

My online art group, AAWA is doing a 12 days of Christmas swap. This is our first giftie from Teresa which is an adorable little note book. Thanks Teresa, this will come in really handy.

Word Art - Love Paint over postcard

This is a postcard I did for my online art group, AAWA. This is a magazine picture which I did a paint-over on. My paint-overs are first drawn on with a permanent black pen. Then lightly dry brushed with white gesso. Then I water color over the picture. I also used stickles on this postcard to give it a sparly look. This postcard is for Joan. I hope she enjoys it.

2012 Christmas card - first design

This is my first Christmas card design for this year.  I thought that I had cleaned the scanner but I see I have more work to do because the card really doesn't have those black smudges on it. Anyway, I think the card turned out really cute. The ticket is from Stampers Anonymous, Tim Holtz's collection.
The bird is from Stampin Up, The Language of Friendship stamps and punch that I just got from my friend, Pam who is a Stampin Up salesperson. Who knew that you could make a Christmas card out of that stamp! The embossing folder is a Cuttlebug folder. The quote is a really pretty one that I saw on the outside of a Christmas card on Pinterest. I decided to use it on the inside of a card. Hope you enjoy this design and it might even inspire some of your Christmas cards!

The Eyes Have It

 

These are two ATCs that I am doing for my online art group who have the theme of "The Eyes Have It".  I couldn't get the idea of the eyes are the windows of the soul out of my head when I heard of this swap. I knew I wanted to do a window with an eye in it. I tried stamps but the eyes were not prominent enough in the stamps.  So these eyes are from magazines. Then I found the quote about the eyes and tears and that just went along so well with the first one. I love the shabby look of the Basic Gray papers for these ATCs!

Thankful Card inspired by Tim Holtz's November tag

This card was done with clear Utee embossing powder and I like that you can see the leaves better.

This card was done with clear embossing powder and the leaves are much more subtle.

 

I like both cards and they are both inspired by Tim's November tag. Our online line art group, AAWA or An Affair with Art decided to make Tim's tag our inspiration for a card this month. I did not have the pretty wheat sheaf that Tim had so I used some leaves that I did have. I used some spray inks on my card instead of the stains which I don't have yet.  I also had some burlap and a little leaf punch. The stamp that I used to stamp over the card had a lace design that you can barely see but I do like the look of it. I used a piece of white paper folded over twice to put my card into when I ironed it.

 I will use the first card for the art group's swap and the second card will go to my friend Kathy. A very Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!

Burlap and Lace projects

These are some projects that we created while my friend, Kathy was visiting me. Kathy did the top one and I did the bottom one. I put the key and heart on mine because I thought he might could be someone's long lost love. I think I might be making more of these because I love the look of the burlap and lace together.

Poison Bottle Swap

 This is a Poison Bottle swap that I did for my online art group. I did 3 coats of white glue on each bottle and let each coat dry. Then I did a spray on sealer and let that dry. Then I did Ranger's clear crackle paint and let it dry. Then I added a brown distress ink to the Fur of Werewolf bottle and let it dry and then sprayed it again with a sealer. I added purple distress ink to the Petrified Butterflies Bottle and a green ink to the Vampire Fangs bottle. The Werewolf bottle has some "fur" from a cat toy inside it, the Petrified Butterflies has dried flowers in it, and the Vampire Fangs has rosemary inside it. I think they turned out wonderfully spooky! I hope Whitney likes them.

Sing Your Art Out

This is a magazine picture that I did a paint over on. I draw around the features, drybrushed on Gesso lightly, then water colored over her. Then I did the background on stickyback canvas so that I could include her in my art journal. I cut her out and added her to the background and then stamped the words on a gessoed square so that they would pop. I love her simitransparent look! She was such fun to do.

TMTA - Poppy

Here is my ATC for Think Monday - Think ATC where the theme if poppies. I had this diecut that look like a poppy to me and a friend gave me the background ATC in a birthday present. I watercolored the background and put my poppy on some blue paper with stickles added for some sparkle.

Shelter for the bluebirds

This is the view outside of my window where I do my arts and crafts. I was wondering what I might do to join the sketchbook challenge where the theme is shelter. I sat down at my window and it hit me that I could do one of the bluebird houses that my Father-in-law made. He passed away recently so this is a tribute to him too.

Old Railroad time book - free graphics

This is an old railroad time book that I also found at our local Pickens, SC jockey lot. It was $1.00 and it is a treasure. Look at all those hours these guys worked in March of 1908 and what little they made! They worked over 200 hours that month and none of them made over $38.80! I love the old handwriting also.

To use these graphics in your own art, double click on the image you'd like. Then right click on the image and do save picture as...

3 postcard found at Jockey Lot (3 for $1.00) Free to use in your art

I I found these 3 old postcards at our local Pickens, SC Jockey Lot. These grapics are free to copy and use in your own art if you'd like. Just double click on the image and then right click on it and do save picture as...

Beach Babe Postcard

This is a postcard for my online art group, An Affair with Art (AAWA). I love the beach babe theme and thought of this Las Vegas saying because I always have such a good time at the beach with friends. Sometimes this saying is just right for the beach too. I put a message on the back of the postcard to Renee that we were having some scandalous fun and I promised to never tell what happened at the beach.

He's got just the ticket

This is my watercolor of a man in my art journal.
My art journal is purely for play and experimentation.
I think men are harder to draw then women so I wanted to see if I could draw a more manly looking man. For some reason, my men drawings always look too feminine.
He is my interpretation of a man that I saw in a magazine.
He's not perfect but really now is any man perfect? He's a start and he was fun to paint and he was just the ticket! I like the page marker over the side of his face for some reason I think it makes him look more funky and playful.

Flower Fairies Postcard

This is a postcard for my altered book group and the girl that this is going to get this postcard chose fairies as her theme. I love how the background flower paper looks with the flower faries!

3 Billy Goats Gruff

I had to do an art project for my online art group on hobbits, trolls or gnomes. I have decided to do the 3 Billy Goats Gruffs since that was my Son's favorite fairy tale and since I have my own goat. I can totally see goats being mean enough to take care of a mean old troll. The goat I have now is not mean. She is sweet and her name is Daisy and she is a buddy to my 2 horses. But I did once have a billy goat that was mean named Sinbad and he could have taken care of that troll for sure!

The art is digital art from my Printmaster program but I added touches of watercolors and sealed it with Royal coat to make it stronger so that it can stand up to having the story pulled in and out.

You can click on the pictures if you want to see them larger.

Cards Done in June, 2012

These are the two latest cards that I did this month. I always try to do a few birthday cards each month and try to come up with at least two new designs each month.  The first card was inspired by a similar card in a magazine. Sorry but I cannot find the magazine right now. I'll post later when I find it.

The Hot Stuff card was inspired by a Two Peas In A Bucket designer, Kristina Werner. Her card is here:

Kristenia's card