Eye Candy and Artist Encouragement

Lovey over at Fabric Memories Go visit her, she's the friendliest, most good hearted woman you'll ever meet!

Opus Gluei -Life's a Beach

All week long I've been thinking about what to make for this week's challenge at The Order of the Opus Gluei. I grew up on an island and going down to the beach was something we did as little kids whenever we wanted to. Then when my daughter was born, we would go out to the coast two, sometimes three times a year to visit grandma and we could walk to the beach from her place. Then of course there are the vacations. Last year was, to the best of my recollection, the only time in the last 20 years that we have NOT gone to the beach, and as terrific as our trip was, it was missing something.

But I'm babbling. This is what I've made for "Life's a Beach". It's a canvas which I colour-washed, glimmer-misted, stenciled, beeswaxed, stamped, glass-beaded, and metallic-waxed, and then added a vintage doily, shells from our travels, a stamp I won on a cruise, along with Mr. Tim's filmstrip and some unknown paper clip. Oh, I almost forgot, the main "picture" was alcohol-inked and stamped and embossed with another stamp I won on the same cruise. Whew! There, now you can replicate it. Thanks for looking!

Blog Hop!

As is frequently the case, my ATC doesn't have a whole lot to do with the topic of my post today. But it could. If you use your imagination. lol Having said that, I am on my way out, to buy some petit fours for my upcoming tea party and shall try my utmost to make it home with them intact and not in my tummy. Yes, I have the day off work today and yes I am THRILLED about that!!!
Now back to the task at hand. Gingersnap Creations is having a blog hop and you definitely should dress up in you most Alice-in-Wonderland-like outfit and skip on over there to take part. You'll be happy you did. Trust me. Have fun! BTW, the images of the little boy and the little girl are from Lisa's Altered Art, aren't they wonderful?TTFN

Friday Fill-In #180

1. _A two-hour massage always_ feels great.
2. The solution is _acceptance_.
3. _When you are driving try to never_ fall asleep.
4. How about _you and I go have a tea party?_.
5. _Sleep_ is something I highly recommend!
6. Imagine _just for a moment what it would be like if all art materials were free..._.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _not getting ANY calls from work_, tomorrow my plans include _hanging out with friends_ and Sunday, I want to _take some photos in the park_!

Find more fabulous Friday Fill-Ins here

Wordless Wednesday

More Wordless Wednesdays here

On Second Thought

I DO have an ATC which fits for the Mad Tea Party. I was feeling fairly fanciful on the weekend.

The Mad Tea Party 2010

This ATC has nothing to do with it, (although I suppose it could) it's just something I made the other night to cheer myself up, BUT I am tickled pink to be joining in on The Mad Tea Party 2010
When I should be paying attention to the traffic (especially since I am THE world's worst driver), or when I should be working (and we all know they pay me so much that they SHOULD have my undivided attention EVERY SINGLE MINUTE), I've been dreaming of what my Tea Party shall be like. Well, not actually what it shall be like, because it shall be wonderful, more, what and who shall be there. I won't tell you, you'll have to come for yourself. skip on over to A Fanciful Twist and check it out, you may want to join in the festivities as well!

Just a quick hello

Hi I had a busy weekend, work, three hours sleep, back to work. Then I was pretty much useless for the rest of the day, so I just went to bed. Got to go in late today, but worked late tonight, so I'm sitting here soaking my feet (that my lovely daughter made happen) and I was just about to toddle off to bed when I realized, Hey! I have a blog! Hmmm, when did I last post? Can't remember? Oop. Better say something to let my friends know I'm here.

I'm here.

Nightie night.

Late Addition: I should have given credit to Gaby for her wonderful image of the fairy-dog! Totally my error, she does lovely work and I appreciate her generosity.

Always inspiring

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSEMARY!!

Go over and wish her happy birthday why don't you. I'm sure she'll give you a little piece of her cocomut cake. Here's where she'll be eating cake:

Rosemary

Wowzas!!

Well, can you believe it, I'm the lucky recipient of an award! I am officially a bold-faced, er, I mean a Creative Writer! What a nice surprise!
There are certain expectations of one who has been given this honour, such as:
1. Express gratitude to the blogger who bestowed the award unto you. That would be my bloggy-buddy Lori, who is the most thoughtfulest, prettiest, kindest, talentedest person I know. And she has the the coolest blog with the coolest art evah! (The second part is really true lol)
2. Display the picture on your blog proudly. Can you see how I'm sticking my chest out? (no jokes, please)
3. Be nice and provide a link to the person who gave it to you.
i been thinkin bout inkin
(Aren't I nice?)
4. Tell up to six outrageous lies about yourself and at least one outrageous truth, or switch it around and tell six outrageous truths and one outrageous lie. (You can decide for yourself which is which.)
5. Nominate seven creative writers who might be into this. (Be patient)
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate and let the owners of the blogs know. (Every superstar gets to break one rule. since I know only too well how busy my friends are, they can decide whether or not they want to hop this train.)

OK, seven things six of which may be true or may not, or one of which may be a lie, or.......

1. I am a certified chef and cooked for the Governor-General of Canada.
2. Once my daughter left me in the front yard in the dark in a wheelchair and went inside to play with her friends, forgetting about me.
3. I consider nachos a breakfast food.
4. I was kicked out of the United Church.
5. I won 4 million dollars in the Lottery and lost it all in a pyramid scan.
6. I survived on popcorn and grapefruit pop for an entire year.
7. I rode a bull in the jungle in Cuba.

Now that we've gotten THAT out of the way, the 7 friends I am thinkin' MIGHT want to play are:

Jingle
Gini
Rosemary (who won't do it cus she's too busy celebrating her birthday)
Jana
Linda
Jenxo
ohh, I'm stressing, I don't have many friends...
Lisa

Whew, that was a workout! Lori, you're da bomb, thanks for nominatin' me!

Friday Fill ins #179

1. _Anywhere but here_ is my favorite place to travel to.
2. When I think about my childhood, I often remember _Knotts Berry Farm and Disneyland_.
3. _A pet_ makes for a good friend.
4. The wind in the trees, the rain on my skin, _some money in my pocket_.
5. _Travelling_ is so exciting!
6. My best friend knows _all my struggles_.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _a massage_, tomorrow my plans include _going to the junkyard to take photos_ and Sunday, I want to _work on my Palm Sprilgs album_!
Find lots more Fill ins here

Another Swap ATC

This challenge is called "cluck, cluck, cluck"

Do I need to say anything more?

I made this for these blog parties

I hope you visit these parties,cus there is a vast array of talent there!

Button Fairies

Have ya ever heard of button fairies? Me neither. I saw that button fairy ATCs were one of the swaps on Swap-bot and figured, well, why not? I can make a button fairy. (I think) So I googled it. Doncha just LOVE Google? It's like we don't even have to think anymore! They should just cancel school. for everyone. Dictionaries are obsolete, which actually works really well, IMO, as you can get them really cheap at the thrift store for altered art projects. Hey, 20 years from now will artists like you and me be using old computers to make altered art? Will all the real books be gone? Arrgghhh. Now I'm traumatized. I should never let my mind wander, it's too little to be out on its own.
Oh yeah, button fairies. I found out how to make them. And made some. I made a few, because one should always make a few of anything one is making. These are two of the few I made. The others are in the mail, but you can't see them until their recipients get them.
The images are from, well, um, what can I say, I googled something and found them. And the buttons are from my stash, especially the black buttons, some of which are from my mother's button box that I used to play with when I was a little girl. I LOVE those buttons. They will NOT be traded, not even if god himself wants to do a swap. The blue wings are a really old butterfly cut-out I got somewhere, and cut in half and the white wings aren't even for scrapbooking, I think I found them in some floral department somewhere. They're really pretty, all sparkly, except you can't see that in the photo. Hey, know why the blue lady is popular? If you look REAL close, behind her button body, you can see her bottom. Try to say that real fast. Button body bottom. Three times. I double-dog dare you.
Go ahead. Google button fairies. And then make some. We could start a trend. Except there may already be a trend and I just don't know because I never come out of my studio except when I have to, like, WORK. Yuk. Work. Don't get me started.
Have a funny day tomorrow.

not Wordless Wednesday

Some time ago I promised I would post a picture of the place I ended up when I "wandered aimlessly" for my Big Picture Scrapbooking class. And I never did do that. So in lieu of not saying anything today (tee hee, like that every happens with me), here you are: a photo of the exquisite row of flowering cherry trees that I came upon in my meanderings around the city. (It's the page I did for the class.) Wowzers. The trees, not the page. :-)

I can see Clearly now

for the Order of the Opus Challenge #57


I had to come up with two ATC's for a swap, one had the theme of peace and the other: bicycles. Can you tell which is which? If you can't please tell me right away, so I can NOT put them in the mail and can start over again. :-( Here's a little hint: the peace one has peace symbols as the background and she's a hippie, offering flowers. OK maybe that was a litle obscure for those who weren't around in the Viet Nam era. (The rest of you went to school, right? Were you there in history class? Why not? Where were you? ) The other is much simpler-background bicycle paper, that I coloured with Versa Magic Spanish Olive (I know I know, it's not Tim's but I had to use what I got and the technique, such as it was, was his!) The image on this one is from Lisa's Altered Art the "Hippie chick is, I believe from Lady's Closet, but do you think I can find it to give you a link? Her flowers are stickled (as every flower should be).
Now after all this wordiness, Why, you ask, would this have anything to do with a challenge which requires you to use something clear? Well, these ATC's are covered with altered acrylic, using a technique I learned from Nathalie Thompson. She laminated cellophane "Easter grass" together with acrylic and got a sort of Mica look. Mine didn't turn out as well as hers because, no matter how many Loonie stores (yes Virginia, in Canada, we call our Dollars "Loonies") I went to, I could NOT find Easter grass. So I used Shredded food wrap. It looks kind of cool though. It doesn't show up very well inthe pics and I tried numerous angles until I finally gave up and just photographed the darn things. Put your nose right up to the computer. See? No? You'll have to take my word for it then. There IS altered acrylic on these ATCS. Honest.

Oh yeah, one more thing. if there are ANY more typos on this post, I don't want to know. I've gone through it what seems like 18 times and I'm tired now. Please ignore them if you find any. And I wouldn't ask if I wasn't sure you love me.
Good night.

Beautiful Jewelry!!

Linda Baldock is having a giveaway on her blog. You HAVE to check out her art, it is AMAZING!!

Road Trip

I had to work out of town today. And by the time I got home it was too dark for me to take any pics of the things I made on the weekend, which is what I planned to do. so I'll bore you with some pics of the places I visited today. I could only work until a certain time in the morning, where I was working, and had to entertain myself over lunch, so I went down the highway. I also did a little mud 4x4ing. Woo hoo! Fun! And then I had to go back after lunch and finish my work in the afternoon.
This picture is of a 100-year old coal mine that I have every intention of touring when I have three hours.
Tomorrow, I'll have pics of some ATC's I worked on this weekend. Promise.
Now I have to blurf. I've missed my friends. Later Gator.