Been Making Gifts Like a Wild Woman!

The only good thing about this economy is that it's forcing me to make holiday gifts! Due to the lack of TIME I usually buy gifts for Hanukkah and Christmas. However, since I moved to Connecticut, I haven't been able to teach, so I've been watching my pennies. I have spent the past 2 weeks making gifties for my friends.

This is a little sample of what I've been making. Looks simple, doesn't it? However, I painted and stamped the background paper and that took forever. I love making my own background papers; makes them seem all the more personal!

Image is compliments of Lisa's Altered Art!

Don't ya just love giveaways!!!

Susan Tuttle is having a contest giveaway of her new book on her blog. You can link to it here:
Susan Tuttle

I'm always amazed how people can create art and get a book published. Wouldn't that just be an amazing thing? To see what you do and how you do it in the hands of 100's (really 1,000,000's) of artists! What a great retirement gift that would be.

If you're interested in purchasing her book, you can get it at Amazon. I'm sure it is AMAZING!!!

Keep Rivka's Flame Alive

I know that most of you are aware of the heinous crimes that took place in Mumbai. So many innocent lives were lost because of the selfishness of a few. What was so devastating was the assassination of Rivkah and Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, simply because they were Jews.

After spending three weeks in Israel this summer, I've come to a point in my life where I have embraced my Judaism even more. Especially after visiting the Holocaust Museum at Yad Vashem. Why people have to be so cruel because people don't worship the same religion is beyond me. Isn't there just one ultimate higher power?If you are Jewish, please keep the memory of Rivka and her husband alive by lighting Shabbat candles every Friday evening. And if you are not Jewish, please pass the link below (Keep Rivka's Flame Alive) on to your friends who are. Please do not let these innocent people pass on without acknowledging what they gave of themselves in India.

Keep Rivka's Flame Alive

Shabbat Shalom...

29 Days of Giveaways!

Chrysti of The Altered Abbey is having a huge giveaway. Please go to her blog here and post your comment. This is such a generous thing to do with our economy being in the state that it's in. I think I'll probably do a giveaway for my 300th post! That should be coming up rather soon, I do believe!!!

Mickey and Judy

Peggy's theme for one of her journals is Famous Hollywood Couples. Of course, this Tip-in Swap is almost over and I'm one of the LAST people to do this theme. It took me FOREVER to find a "couple" that I liked!

I remember watching the Andy Hardy movies as a kid. When I came across these photos, I knew that this was the couple for me!!! I tried to make the pages look old-time scrapbook; like when we were kids...you know, the acid infused yellow pages with the photo corners??? Yeah, that kind of scrapbook!

Lisa Vollrath Countdown Giveaways

As we approach major holidays, Lisa Vollrath at Go Make Something always does a countdown giveaway. She just asks that you hyperlink to the site so that others can go there as well.

You can find her giveaway here; have fun with her free collage sheets!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

May you all be surrounded by loving family, good friends and great food!

Circles and polka dots!

What a fun piece to make! Megan in my Mixed Media Madams group had a theme of polka dots with a round 8 inch in diameter circle as her base. What a great change of pace. I even found polka dotted flowers in my stash! Sure hope she likes them!

There's a red piece of thread across the bottom photo's face. I didn't realize it until I was done uploading everything. Oh well.....

Finally, a new post!

These ornaments are for a swap in my Zetti Zoo Yahoo Group that my friend Beth is hosting. I love Zetti; I'm just not very good at it. Beth's Zetti is fabulous and if you would like to see for yourself, you can find Beth's work by clicking on her name.

What do you see when you close your eyes?

There are themes that are easy and then there are themes that wreck havoc with my muse!!! Peggy's theme in my Mixed Media Madames group is "What do you see when you close your eyes?" Now...I see the inside of my eyelids for the most part. I'm not a vivid or lucid dreamer. When I first started this, I was thinking Fall colors and leaves. Trashed it. Then I was thinking birds and flight. Trashed it. Then I started something silly. Trashed it. I had a whole lot of nuthin' for a month!

Today my muse played nicely. I just put together the things that I love like the wings and eyes, with the colors that I know Peggy will love...her blues and greens. I'm a MUCH happier camper!



Hope ya like them, pegster!!!

New blog header...AGAIN!

I think I'm getting better at this blog header thing. As I download more images, I'm able to play a little more with it. What I really want are digital vintage images of people. Anyone have any suggestions?

Queens for Caryl

This month I had Caryl's "Queens" book to do in our Alphabetica group. I had the letters S and T. I chose the names Sofia and Titania, a) because I liked the names, and b) I loved their meanings. I googled both and this is what I found:

Sofia/Sophia ( Greek for "wisdom"). I changed the spelling because I liked the "f" spelling better than the ph :o)

Titania was the name of a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. In Shakespeare's play, she is the queen of the fairies.

New Art!

I made these 2 pages for Tamara in my Altered Art Swap group. Here theme is "Home Sweet Home" and she loves the color red. She also wanted circles! OK...so, how do I accommodate my darling friend?

The background paper is hot press water color paper that I spritzed with color mists from Outside the Margins and then covered and pressed with bubble wrap. Gluing just didn't feel right so I machine sewed just about everything to her pages. The left side is meant to be less decorative than the right side.

Sure hope she likes them!!!

7 Random Things!

I was tagged for seven things about me by Megan ~

The rules:

1. Post the rules on your blog.

2. Write seven random things about yourself.

3. Tag seven people at the end of your post.

4. Pass on the tag.

Here are my 7:

1. I really want to visit Maine.
2. I LOVE cold weather and mulled apple cider. Warm weather makes me ill!
3. I really want to learn how to bead correctly. My charms could use some help!
4. I love meeting my online art friends. It feels like we've known each other forever when we do.
5. I've always wanted to own a Jaguar (the car, not the animal!)
6. Although I love to visit big cities, I'm happiest at the ocean or in the woods.
7. I love going to the local coffee house to listen to Bluegrass music!

These are pretty darn random. Now to tag 7 people...
1. Barb
2. Joanne
3. Sanna
4. peggy
5. Marion
6. Elizabeth
7. Deana

Have fun!

Playing with the header again!

At some point, I'm going to REALLY figure this program out. In the meantime, I'm having fun just playing. I'm getting there!!!!!

Happy Birthday Beth!

My darling friend Beth had a birthday last week. I didn't want to post these until she got her package in the mail. I sent her 4 face stamps and this heart. She LOVES the color purple and she LOVES hearts. I combined the 2 for her.

Hope it was super duper darlin'!

Arches for Judy...

These 2 arches are for Judy in my Altered Art Swap group. She didn't have theme, just a color preference of blue and brown. Hope she likes them!!!

Updated Atumn and Crystal

Autumn now has wings. Big thanks to everyone who had suggestions...you all rock! But, I found the easiest of solutions. I found this silk "rosebud" that I had received from a friend. I took it apart and sewed one of the layers on, using a button to hide the stitches. Voila... Wings!
This is Crystal and she is for a friend. She likes the combo of Blue and Orange, so I thought I would make her in those colors. Sure hope she likes her!!!

Now don't laugh...

I have a dorky photo editing program that drives me nuts! I can't for the life of me figure out how to use it. This was what I came up with for a blog header!!! Now, I'm on a learning curve so I'm sure I'll get better at this!

Meet Autumn

Autumn is my newest addition to my doll family. I used a silk leaf behind her head. I tried to tie small sticks together to make wings, but I kept messing it up. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to do it EASILY?