Easter banners and stuff

These are the mini banners from the swap I hosted on Christian Paper Artists Yahoo Group. This is showing the "spring" side... the other side is the Easter... holy side.... I'll show it next week! They turned out pretty nice! Here is one side of my triptych.... pretty simple....it's a backdrop for Blue and White KLM Towne! And I made a little mini bunny banner. Used my Martha Stewart punch and punched them on a folded line so they hang on the fiber. Put some glue on their feet to hold them together. So cute!

Linda Wins Again!

I won this! Just this morning!

It's by Debi Vincent.

It was a giveaway on Teresa's Ezine Cottage Bella.

I was reading a great tutorial by Natalie Hansen on Cottage Bella this morning... which I SO plan on making. Anyway, I was just reading along and there was the announcement that a winner of the bracelet had been chosen. Imagine my surprise when MY NAME appeared. I never win!

Well...wait... I did win Malisa's Treasure Hunt - but THAT wasn't luck, that was hard, sweaty work on my part!!!

Anyway.... isn't it fab, Margaret?

Gettin my stuff!

On Thursday Virginia and I met Malisa and Karen

at Los Cucos to hand off my winnings

from the Treasure Hunt a couple of Sundays ago on Malisa's blog Moonlight Hollow.

We had a great three hour lunch...... as is common for me!

We had a great, great time! Malisa and Karen are delightful!

And ....

we have planned our next meeting at my house

where we are going to make garlands...ala Pam Garrison!

See what all I won!

I got great stuff, huh!

And I have the necklace on in that first picture. The black and white cards were made by Malisa and Karen.... they collect vintage images and are quite specific about the kinds of photos. Be sure and visit their blog. They are going to Warrenton for the day Sunday

..... it's Antique Weekend in Texas ....

Remember I was there in the fall? Spring is hard for me to get away - too much going on.

But look for me there come October!

Titles must get googled?

Art dog will be seven on April Fool's Day! His arthritis was really bothering him this week. Doesn't he look pathetic? Poor baby. He had to have two Rimadyls a day since Wednesday. I hate giving them to him, but he could hardly walk. He gets cosequin every day.... but doesn't seem to help enough. Anyone know something else I should be doing? The weather did change and he played HARD on Tuesday at doggie daycare (which he lives to go to).

I'm surprised at some of the comments that I got.... people must google what I had in the subjectline earlier. ????

The ABC's of Grunge by Virginia

Okay, I gotta get Virginia to show me her artwork BEFORE she puts it behind glass! Once again we figured out we had to take the framed piece into my bedroom to get it dark enough to photograph....it still isn't perfect! This is soooooooooo wonderful..... this picture does NOT do it justice.

Virginia covered another picture with a collage of music paper and ledger papers, rubber stamping, etc. Then she took her Tim Holtz Grungeboard Alphabet and applied inks. (I need to have her write this up.) You can tell by some of these closeups what she did... if you have questions, put them in Comments and I'll have her respond.

Easter Banners

I'm hosting an Easter Mini-banner swap on Christian Paper Artists Yahoo Group. I finally finished mine last week. One side is to be SPRING and the other side is to be EASTER... as in the true meaning. Above is my Easter side..... I gessoed some cardstock and then I sewed some fibrous white tissue over them... seemed like a cocoon or maybe burial cloths to me... left them open at the top and dropped butterflies inside that I punched with my Martha Stewart punch. I also have some glitter glue on the edges. Then I made some text with scripture and punched one out for the outside of the "cocoon".

Below are the backs of 3 of my pennants. You can see that I really liked making these stacked flowers.... they got put on my ATC dolls in the previous post! I do obsess!

I just made a text block on my computer, filled it with black and then copied and pasted scripture in it in a light color..... then printed it out, glued it on cardstock and then punched butterflies out!

ATC Paper Dolls!

Nathalie's hosting an ATC Paper Prayer Doll Swap on Christian Paper Artists.

It's a two for two swap and here are mine.

The tiny white spots on the leaves of this Nandina are because we had our house painted last month... not bugs! This one below is my fave.... she's out of an old children's book.

She has carrot legs!

Both dolls have satchels on their backs with prayers in them... P.S. on Monday the 23rd.... I just have to say that I feel so badly for the old children's book mom with the carrot legs. No one seems to like her.... everyone likes the pretty girl best. I think carrot legs used too much baby oil with iodine in it when in the sun as a young girl ....

Texas Bluebonnets!

Jumped out of the car this morning and took these photos a few blocks from my house! (at a church) It's that time of year when the wildflowers are blooming their little heads off here!

It's gorgeous .... makes ya wanna drive somewhere just to see it all!

Moonlight Hollow Treasure Hunt

I won the Moonlight Hollow Treasure Hunt!!!!

Yeah me!

You need to go get your calendar. I'll wait.

Okay.... there is going to be a Treasure Hunt at Moonlight Hollow on March 15... and I want to win the prize. If I blog about it, I get to have a practice run on March 14th. So that's why I'm telling the competition about it.

So if you like the same kind of STUFF that I do... you should maybe check out the treasure hunt. It's to celebrate their 100th post! Happy Anniversary, Girls!

P.S. If you can't leave a comment here, will you please email me so I can figure out why. As far as I know, only one person is having trouble and I do not know how to fix it.

Sewing Machine Covers - Oh My!

As usual, Virginia and I were influenced/inspired by Pam Garrison!

Here is Virginia's.... she actually constructed the cover out of linen!

I, on the other hand, followed the instructions and made mine from a pillow case. I still haven't sewed those ribbons on the side that we discussed, Virginia... to be able to tie each side up abit. Guess I should've take the thread off before I photographed it..wouldn't have that hump on top. ha!

I used crochet I have from my mother. I've decided there is no need for it to stay in drawers as doilies... so I'm deconstructing some of it!

This one is falling apart anyway..see the missing leaves around that rose.

Happy Birthday, Barbie!

Barbie has had a hard life!

Plastic, but still hard! My daughter thought I gave her dolls to charity! No way! Look at my mantle!

Just kidding!!!

I found this here! Does give me an idea though!

I need to go over to BFF Connie's and take a picture of some of the things I've made for her over the years. She loves Barbie! Future blog post!

Spring Yellow Fever

Spring is rapidly approaching. Everything here is covered in a yucky yellow-green dust. I hate it. But soon it will rain and wash it away!

I thought I had applied digital brushes to the above picture, following Teresa's tutorial but I don't see them!!! Why is that?

Hmmmm....wonder what that is?

Honest Scrap!

I got this nifty little award from my Silver Bella friend, Stephanie. The rules for this award are... A) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. B) Show the 7 winners' names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap", the nifty icon they can display proudly on their blog. C) List at least 10 honest things about yourself . Okay, I'm finally doing this... and I am not going to pick 7 blogs to do this. I'm also NOT a rule follower! If you would like to do this, please help yourself to the Icon and give us some honest stuff about yourself.

1)I'm often too honest. I am such a realist sometimes. I hate for people to be in denial, so I try to help them see the light. Sometimes they don't want to see the light. Sometimes it's good to not see the light. I, however, like the light!

2) I'm a late bloomer. I was shy growing up. I believe down to my roots that coloring my hair the summer before my senior year in high school helped me to BLOOM! My mother was a hairdresser and she FINALLY did it! I just needed to be highlighted!

3) I'm just about always on the side of the system. Do you understand that?

4)I'm not a morning person.... not at all. I function best after 3 pm. actually.

5)I usually get along better with men than women. I think that's because of all my boy cousins and because I worked in male dominated workplaces in all my jobs.

6)If I could own as many houses as I wanted... I would want my house in Fort Worth that I lived in from ages 6-12 ... do you feel my pain?

7)I'm an excellent friend!

8)I like to be alone!

9)I hate car trips!!!

10)I'm NOT a rule follower!

11) hee hee Anyway.... I like to journal...hence a blog!

Crepeing back in...

Back to the crepe paper! Some of you had questions.... it's much simpler than you suspect. I use those throw away aluminum pans that you take food to people in.... just set your roll of crepe paper in one. Just pour water over it first...usually that's sufficient to wash the color out.....if you want to add a tablespoon of bleach..give it a try. But do this with the pan by your sink so you can quickly pour the water out. You don't want to take all of the color out of the paper.

And try not to handle the crepe paper - leave it in it's roll.

Let's say you put red paper in and washed/bleached the color out. Now - if you want to - you can pour some coffee or tea over it to tweak the color. I didn't do that. I do have a roll of crepe paper drying now that was white and I poured coffee over it. It's pretty ugly right now. The thing to remember is .... it's not going to be attractive until it dries.

The roll above took a couple of weeks to dry. This is a slow process!! I'm sure in the summer it goes a lot faster. I did just bring my drying one in the house because the guys come today that mow our lawn..... I know they often wonder what it is I do.

Z-Day!!

After months of stumbling over the Zutter box in both of our homes, a plan was devised to figure these contraptions out!!!

Virginia arrived with her tools and her show and tell (1930's ledger!!!)! The boxes are opened and the glorious personal binding systems are in plain site!

But wait............we have to discuss the bunny and other felted creature issues!

Virginia proceeded to cut out tiny pennants so Bunny Rabbit could hold a banner! We were urged..... okay we were nagged.... by Nathalie and Margaret to use our Zutters. So...we copied Margaret's idea to do a triptych!!!

Eventually....with great fear.... holes were punched. Word of caution ..... for your first foray into Zuttering...do not use an odd shape. Just make something with a straight line. Do not make something that involves you lining up sides and slightly angling matboard!!!! I'm just saying.

Let me tell you that the squeezing of the coils is not very exciting. It's very quiet...and just kind of happens! Unlike the hole punching...which is extremely frightening!!!

Virginia used KCompany Que Sera Sera papers! I love those and will not be happy til I own my own pad of them. My Michaels is out !&%$ My triptych is on Wild Raspberry by KCompany.

We are going to embellish the triptychs on our own... but Bunny Rabbit (who needs a name) got a banner out of the deal and is quite happy with it all.

So.... Nat and Marg ..... sleep well knowing Linda and Virginia can zutter with the best of you!

Spring?

Spring is creeping in around here! Above is a picture from Virginia's house. We would be great set designers for a magazine shoot... in case anyone from that area is reading my blog... and we ARE available! Anyway.... obviously that is a Sarah Lugg box, and then next to it is a Viv creation that was purchased on Etsy! And then two little birdies that Virginia ordered from Fancy Tiger and made before Christmas last year.

Here is my bunny that I ordered from the same place and made while I watched the Oscars last month. The little house on the right is from Amy of Inspireco. Got it from her at Silver Bella in 2007. And the girls on the left are by Nicol Sayre.

Below is some red crepe paper that I bleached per Pam Garrison's instructions. Actually I think just rinsing them would've been sufficient. The trick is not to unroll it ... just plunk it down in a tin pan and sit it where it can dry. It took a week or so to dry around here... I left it outside.... it's in great shape and quite useable and the color is soft. Be careful that you don't rid it of all of it's color.

Tomorrow a major event is taking place at my house!!! Hurry back!