Mail Art

The posties are going on strike in Canada.

(possibly)

I'm so sad.

Yeah, it's been 14 years, but C'MON!

I love snail mail.

and now this.

sigh.

Oh well, at least the girls of The Order of the Opus Gluei have presented us with

MAIL ART

as this week's challenge.

SO

whenever the evil postal workers get back to work,

I shall send off a couple of envelopes like this:

The envelope is on the left.  I guess you figured that out yourself, though,

didn't you.

or this:

It's only Tuesday, so you have plenty of time to visit

The Order of the Opus Gluei

Wings

Elements used are by Deviant Art

Take A Word

WINGS

Digital Whispers 100 Theme Challenge

The time has come to post some more of my pieces for

Kimmie's 100-Theme Challenge

  Here goes:

1. ANCIENT

My own photos, metal chain by Digikeepsakes, various textures

2. Sacrifice

Elements by Holliewood, Deviant Art, brushes by Thao Cosgrove and from Brusheezy. hairdo by MizzD

Bridge by Cajoline, unknown photo mask, textures by Kim Klassen and background paper from Deviant Art.

4. Dance

Elements by Beth Rimmer, MizzD, Deviant Art and an unknown rooster with a bass.

5. White

Elements by Holliewood.

And seeing as how that's a lot for one night, last, but not least,

6. Pen & Paper

Pens from Valerie Brincheck, doodles by Invisible Snow

Happy Memorial Day

Inspired by Friday Foto Collage

Grungy Monday on Saturday

Linda Ledbetter hosts this very kewl thing called

Grungy Monday

You're playing along, right?
Or at least going gaga over all the talent that is showcased there each week, right?

You know it's all a celebration of the techniques and products of Tim Holtz, right?

What, do you live in a village in the jungle? 

Shame, shame.

lol

This week,Grungy Monday 08 is from September 2008. 

You can find the instructions

here

You can also find lots more wonderful stuff on Tim's Blog anytime, all the time. (What a deal!)

The background stamp which I used for the actual technique was (natch)_ a Tim Holtz stamp.

I can't tell you the dragonfly stamp, cus I borrowed it from a friend and returned it today and I'm not going to wake her up to find out, NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY!!!

And I think I used the following distress inks: tumbled glass, spiced marmalade, mustard seed, aged mahogany, wild honey, and broken china.

I edged the ATC's with Glossy Accents and

some teeny-tiny copper beads I bought 60 or 70 years ago.

And the Airondack inks I used were wild plum, terra cotta and mushroom, the only ones I have.

But I need to get more now.

Thanks for coming by!

It's Fun Friday

at Dezinaworld!

Yup, something new

AND FUN

(That's why it's called Fun Friday)

We're asked to post something that will make the day a little bit brighter, anything at all.

So you have no excuse to not participate.

Here's something I've made:

Don't ask me why I made this, I couldn't answer anyways.

Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.

Challenge #102-Pinwheels

Challenge #102?  Huh?  Pinwheels?  Where is this challenge? you ask...

Well, folks, it's at

The Order of The Opus Gluei

Where's that? you ask...Well, folks, it's in the blogiverse.  Just click on

the link.

But hurry, you only have one day left to make a pinwheel.  Well, maybe you could make a pinwheel and let the Poobahs know pretty much anytime.  They're really flexible that way.

For that matter, you can make a pinwheel anytime you like.  The instructions are on

The Order of The Opus Gluei website.

I know, I know, I'm rambling.

Here it is:

The little er, girl, is from Lisa's Altered Art.

Everything else leapt out of my stash screaming, "Use me!  Use me!"

Sometimes that's just how it is.

Friday Fill Ins

1. This week I am feeling a bit better thanks to some traction_.

2. _I don't like making _ returns.

3. It's all about _the paper_.

4. _If it ever comes out, I will frolic _ in the sun.

5. I demand _very little, asking is much more effective_.

6. _The garden_ path, it's filled with _water right now_.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _getting started on scrapbooking my parent's and grandparent's photos_, tomorrow my plans include _a craft morning with some good friends_ and Sunday, I want to _clean house.  Maybe._!

 

See lots more Fill Ins here

WOYWWED?

It's the second anniversary of Julia's WOYWWED today!!

OOP!  BIG MISTAKE!
READ MY WHOLE POST!!

I hope you'll join with me in thanking her for her unselfish creation and maintenance of this cool idea each week, which allows us to peek into each other craft rooms.

If you get busy right now, this morning, and post your own WOYWWED, you can participate in her PIF event-a really fun happening.

You'll find all the deets at The Stamping Ground

Thanks Julia, for something I know so many of us look forward to every single Wednesday!!

Oh, and on my Workdesk? 

My last pile of over 200 scrapbook pages that I have been working on for the last century.  I've finished them!

Whistle, clap, cheer for me!

Now, what's next?????

OOPS!!

Please ignore what I said about the second anniversary of WOYWWED!
I'm apparently a week early!
And I'm late for an appointment,m so I'm not going to re-write the whole post.
The good news is, this gives you a whole week to get ready for
NEXT WEEK'S
SECOND ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OVER AT
 http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/

LOL, it ain't easy being me sometimes.  Have a funny day anyways!!

Wordless Wednesday

See lots more Wordless Wednesday postings here,
likely ones that don't make you cringe,
like this did when I saw it!

Denim, Rust and Dust

The last (sniff, sniff) challenge on the Wild West month over at Gingersnap Creations is taking place as we speak.  And it is a Colour Challenge.  (I have to spell "colour" with a "u", in case you're wondering-it's the way we Canadians spell "color".  I'll bet you didn't know that.)

Anyhoo...

(Actually, she is yelling, BINGO!, but the theme IS the Wild West.)

The background is a Tim Holtz Alterations die, distressed with Aged Mahogany, Wild Honey, Walnut Stain, and Vintage Photo, the pocket is from a pair of thrift store baby jeans, (SO CUTE!!), the lady is Dale Evans, from the ever-present Internet, and the charms are from my local bead store.  Lastly, Glitz letter and a stamped distressed and Utee-ed so long ago, I can't remember the details.  Gotta love that junk drawer. 

Er, JUNQUE drawer, it sounds so much more artsy, doncha think?

I really want to thank the team at Gingersnap Creations for allowing me to contribute my art to their fabulous month of western lusciousness. I can't tell you how much it's meant to me.

Now go admire the other amazing art posted there, you'll be as amazed by the talent as am
and you have until June 19th to participate in the ChallengeI! 

Liz's New Job

Peggy gave us a number of images of lovely women from which to choose this week at
Friday Foto Collage. 
I chose one of our illustrious Queen Elizabeth:

At least it looks to me like this is Queen Elizabeth.

And then Marie of Take A Word gave us the theme "Zetti" for this week.

SO:

Have a funny day, all!

(Elements used are by Beth Rimmer, Holliewood, Cemerony, and Dezinaworld.)

Creative Souls Swap

I belong to Creative Souls and just got word that my swap partner for the May "Flowers" swap received my ATC safe and sound. So now I'll show you what I made for her:

Remember the old shaker boxes? 

They were all the rage a few years ago when Scrapbooking was still gertting organized.  The whole deal is that if you shake it, the contents roll around inside.  Kind of like a snowglobe, but in this case, it's tiny flowers.

Anyways, this is a shaker box.

Shake, shake, shake that booty!

Have a good weekend all!

Friday Fills Ins

1. I see _for miles and miles and miles_.

2.  If you p#%* them off, cats_ scratch.

3. They begin _to put their ears back and growl before that happens_.

4. _Things were very different_ so many years earlier.

5. This I know: _You can't light a match on a wet marshmallow_.

6. _I plan to have butter chicken_ for dinner.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _seeing some good friends_, tomorrow my plans include _meditation and the arrival of my daughter and her DH_ and Sunday, I want to _drive up to the Jasper Icefields_!

 

And if all goes according to plan, stay overnight and come back home on Monday.

 

Check out more here

 

and enjoy your long weekend if you are having one.

Grungy Monday 07

Today's post is sponsored by Tim Holt----

OK, it isn't.

I just wanted to see if you were awake.

No one sponsors my posts, just me and my cat. (who is licking my bowl clean of whipped cream as we speak)

ANYWAYS (as my mother used to say when she was not interested in my opinion)

See this?

Very GREEN, doncha think?

The background is based on a technique from the archives of Mr Tim Holtz called

Distress Ink Colour Blocking

and I'm here to tell you, a orangutan could do this technique (if s/he watched Tim's video), it's so easy.

(no slight meant to any orangutans in the crowd)

I'll bet now you want to watch the video, don't you?

Well, the link for said video may be found at Linda Ledbetter's Studio L3 in this week's GRUNGY MONDAY post.

And because it's so easy, you have plenty of time to whip something up and play along.

So get to it!

(and if someone can tell me how to spell orangutan, I'd be eternally grateful)

TTFN

Take A Word #29

Has it really been 29 weeks since Marie started her awesome Take A Word blog?

Wowzers.

If you haven't been there yet, I'd have to wonder why.  There is SO MUCH kewl art in one place.

Wowzers.

This week, the theme is "Oriental".

My daughter asked me one day, what does that mean? and when I told her,

she informed me that this word is "politically incorrect". 

Well, who knew.

Darn word police.

Apparently, we're suppose to say "Asian" now.  Maybe that's just in Canada.

Oh, who knows.

For that matter, who cares?

I give you:  Asian/Oriental

Getting Steamed

Or Steamy, if you prefer.  What I mean is we are creating something steampunk-ey for this week at The Order of The Opus Gluei

Here is my piece:

That's all I got for you.

I hope you like it!

CREDITS ADDED!
The woman is from Deviant Scrap, the wheeled horse is by Cajoline, the girdle, goggles and wings are by Sum of All Crafts, the metal parts, wheels, key, etc, are by Kerry Klaassen Veale, top cat is by Dezinaworld, Blimp and boots are by Lori Cook, and the top trim is by Fiddlette.  The background paper is a mixture of a number of papers.

I should have done this in the first place, sorry!

WOYWWED #102

Two more weeks until Julia's Pay It Forward Event!

Go on over to The Stamping Ground to check it out and get yours ready!

What you see here is a couple of ATC's I'm working on and a project I did under the talented direction of Lisa at You Know How I Roll

(It's gorgeous)

And in the background is yet another of the millions of scrapbook pages I am doing my level best to comjplete.

(without much luck, I might add, but you do the best you can with what you have, right?

Thanks for stopping by!

Scene Stamping

GC 103 at Gingersnap Creations is "Scene Stamping".

I struggled with this one, until a good friend who owns about a bazillion (maybe more) stamps, including the "Stampscapes" line, showed me how to do a perspective scene and then even lent me some stamps so that I could go home and try my very own version of the technique.

I need to tell you that I have concluded that Scene Stamping" is NOT my cup of tea.  Just way too many steps.  I love what others have done using this process, but that's where it will end. lol

Admiring other's work.

HOWEVER, stepping outside your comfort zone is what Challenges are all about, right?

And I did make something:

Stamps are by Stampscapes with the exception of that handsome cowboy. 

He is from The Stamp Barn.

Y'all come back now, y'hear?

Marie Antoinette

Jeanette gave us this lovely lady for this week's challenge at Soartful Challenges

Now it's this:

Hope you like it.

A heart-warming story

I do swaps.

  Mainly through Swap-Bot. 

And one day I signed up for a "Heart" ATC swap, which involved making four, count em, four heart-themed ATC's for your partner.

I put them in an envelope.

I put them in the truck and did a bunch of errands.

And I stopped at the post office, intending to put a stamp on the envelope 

and send it off to my partner.

And the envelope was gone!

I looiked everywhere.

I retraced all of my steps that day.

Long story short, I never did find it.

VERY disappointed.  But hey, life happens, right?

So I made four more and successfully, this time, managed to get them mailed.

But you know what?

My partner emailed me and said she received two envelopes, with all eight ATC's in them!

I couldn't believe it.

Some kind stranger found my envelope of the ground, obviously, went to the post office, bought a stamp (for a fairly large envelope, I may add) and sent it off!

How cool is that?

And if that weren't enough, the recipient and I are now getting to be pretty good friends, swapping back and forth.

There is hope.

Have a funny day.

The Poobahs are 100!!

(Wow, is that ever old, eh?)

Er, ahem,

I think it is the 100th-Challenge of the illustrious Order of the Opus Gluei

Yessirree Bob, it is too so!

And how cool is that?

That's a lot of challenges.

I'm sooooooooo tired...............

Er, ahem, I mean,

The Challenge is to make and stuff fill a matchbox.

I made some matchboxes with the Cricut not too long ago and I almost lost my mind trying to put them together.  My fingers are just too chubby for that diddly-work.

I did manage to pour a drink though, just to help things along.

So I'm sending out a great big THANK YOU to the Matchbox-Fairy for slipping a naked matchbox into my mailbox.

You know who you are, Matchbox-Fairy.

And an even bigger

Thank You!

to Rosemary and Jana for all their creativity and inspiration over the past 100 posts. 

I love the Opus Gluei.

GLUESTICKS FOREVER!!

(and dots and runners and liquid glue honey and maple syrup and gum on the sole of your shoe and all the other sticky stuff)

Oh Yeah, here's my matchbox.

(And I do mean "Stuff")

And to whomever is going to get this,

NO PEEKING!

LOOK AWAY NOW!

Allright.

Have a funny day or night or whatever it is where you live.

Friday Fill Ins

1. I know_,I know, I should get the kitchen cleaned._.

2. _I'm going to put it off, though_ if at all possible.

3. This weather has been great for _days now_!

4. _I would not have told you if I thought it would be_ a problem.

5. I'm really happy I have the ability to _breathe in and out_.

6. _Oobla-di, Oobla-da_, or something to that effect.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _relaxing and talking with my new Friend on the phone_, tomorrow my plans include _a conference all day and evening_ and Sunday, I want to _complete the pile of pages on my desk.  Maybe_!

See more Fill-ins here.

Grungy Monday Door Tag

 

I started to make the background for Grungy Monday 06, with no idea what would become of that background.  I make it following the Technique from the 12 Tags of Christmas, 2007, Day 8, as per Linda's instructions.  You can find the deets on the technique at Tim's Holtz' Blog.

Then what to do, what to do with the background I made?

Well, the lovely Jean Callaghan of

All My Art is hosting a Door Tag Challenge.

What a fun idea.

So I used an image of this young girl from

Lisa's Altered Art , added some 7 Gypsies Embellishments and Voila!

We have a Door Tag!

I hope you have enjoyed your visit, have a great weekend!

Darn Blogger

Is anyone else miffed that stoopid blogger has been down?

Wow, are we (am (am I) ever dependent on it, eh?

This one's for Gini

I was telling a friend in the UK one day how much I LOVE the

Daniel Torrente Stampotique stamps.

And how they are not available in Canada.

And how much it would cost to order them from the UK.

Whining and snivelling, basically.

and my friend Gini

of A Little Bit of Shiny fame

SENT ME ONE!!!

Ooo, I was so excited I could hardly breathe.

And I made a bunch of stuff with it.

The same day.

This is one of the stuff.

Isn't she

adorable???

OK, maybe "adorable" isn't the right word.

Special?

Isn't she

special???

Gini, you're the bestest.

Truly.

Even the Prom Queen thinks so.

(She told me)

Wordless Wednesday

Check out more Wordless Wednesday posts here

All images by Deviant Scrap

WOYWWED?

Nothin much to see today, I'm still plugging along on my paper scrapbook pages that have been needing to be done for what seems like CENTURIES!

And yes, if it seems somewhat chaotic, that because that's how it is.  That's how I work.

And it works for me.

If you would like to peek in other people's windows and see their (likely much neater) workdesks, head on over the Julies blog and check out all the other workdesks at

WOYWWED?

It's so much fun!

Spicy Supply Challenge

I love this invitation from Gingernaps Creations this month for their Spicy Supply Challenge GC #102:

Each month, we challenge you to use some of your supplies that have been languishing in your craft rooms. To compliment our Wild West month, we are asking you to rustle up some

TWINE!

Yessirree cowpokes, y'all need to find that twine languishing (don't you just LOVE that word!?) and come up with sumpin pretty dang special for this challenge.  Or you'll never be able to show yer face in that old saloon you like so much to hang out (languish) in.  And we can't have that, can we?  Where would ya get yer target practice? Plus, Miss Betsy would have to cut back on her whisky order if ya weren't there no more.

This is mine.  I'm not going to be responsible for no bar going out of business.

Now git over there and git busy!!

Gingersnap Creations

YEE-HAW!!

The stamp, btw is by Coronado Island.

Isn't it beautiful?

And all the other stuff?  Well, it was languishing in my studio.

Duh.

Friday Foto Collage

See lots more anazing artwork at Peggy Gatto's wonderful
Friday Foto Collage

Last Dezinaworld

I've posted three other Dezinaworld pieces for her new challenge in the past few days and this is the final one.

You can find the other ones here, here, and here.

This last one is much more straightforward, it's almost ALL Dezinaworld, including the penguin. The frame is by Dianne Drigdon and the word art is by Sherrie JD.

I really hope you visit June at Dezinaworld and play along!

Thanks for stopping by!

Soartful Spain

If I could go to Spain, I would.

Tomorrow.

But that's not an option, so I'll use this dreamy image provided by Jeanette:

This is MY Spain:

http://jeanette-soartfulchallenges.blogspot.com/

Chocolate

is this week's theme at Take A Word

Mmmm, Chocolate.

See more chocolatey goodness at Take A Word