It's getting cold again.

There is a commercial currently on TV where they sing something like "We Canadians like to canoe and run around in our snowshoes".

WTF????

Which Canadians would that be?

There is another one that says some (really stupid) stuff such as, "No self-respecting Canadian would say, 'Let's wait until it's warmer' and 'Braving the cold is a Canadian past-time'.

ARE THEY KIDDING ME? 

Which Canadian would that be?

I'm Canadian and frankly, I'm waiting for them to come out with an i-scarf for the i-phone.

Give me strength.

Anyways, in the spirit of the first day of spring, I give you

A CANADIAN WINTER:

And finally

Are ya warm enough yet?

Happy Spring!

Oh yeah.

Did I mention I'm Canadian?

Springtime in Paris

Or fall, or winter, or even for that matter, summer.  Over at the Order of the Opus Gluei, they have asked us to create something with this theme in mind: 

Springtime in Paris.

It just so happened that I was putting together an envelope for a swap and my partner mentioned that she loved

ANYTHING TO DO WITH PARIS!!!!

Perfect!

So I ignored the "springtime" part,

(although I understand today is officially the first day of spring)

and I made her a card a la gay Paree!

(Take note, Electra is making cards now)

I hope she likes it.

See, that's the really cool part of the Opus Gluei challenges, you can do whatever part of the theme you choose, or even go off on a tangent totally unrelated (like I sometimes do)

if that's what turns your crank and they

still love you!

hah!

That's so great.

It's the last challenge from

Art Creations Friday!

How sad it that?

although I totally understand how much work it must be to run these challenge blogs.

I'm still sad though.

Here it is.

My last one.

C'mon, be sad with me, K?

and join me in sending a huge THANK YOU! to

Wil

Hermine

Femmy

and

Petra

for their generosity over the past 2 and a half years!

My new heart!

in my mailbox!

courtesy of Karan from Adventures of the Art Junk Gypsy!

I was one of the lucky winners of her gorgeous work from the

One World, One Heart Magic Carpet Ride!

Am I lucky or what?  (Big Grin)

Friday Fill Ins

1. I love to go to the bathroom really often_ because _I'm getting too old._.

2. It's not the quantity,_ it’s the quality!

3. The last thing I had to eat was a homemade cheddar biscuit-Yum!_.

4. Bowing to me_ is no longer essential.

5. Please take a moment to _consider the words that are about to come out of your mouth._.

6. _Street smarts and a strong survival instinct_ have brought you this far.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _spending time with a friend_, tomorrow my plans include _meditation_ and Sunday, I want to _do some paper scrapbooking_!

 

Have a great weekend and vist many more Friday Fill Ins here.

March Artful Bag

I am so charmed and amused with myself tonight!  Hah! 

That's not ego talking, it's how delighted I am to have completed my March purse for the Artful Bag Challenge, after staring at the thrift store purse I bought what seems like YEARS ago.

OK, maybe not years.

but it sure seemed like it.

I swear the bag was taunting me.

You know what that's like.

It is,as I said, a bag I found at the local Bible For Missions store.  So I feel very altrusitic having given my three dollars to a good cause.

The green "lace" was in a garage sale at my local scrapbooking store and because the store owner knows me she said, "You realize that it's faded?"  and I said, "I don't care, there is

A MILE

of it."  for $1.00.

A purchase I later reconsidered.

You know what that's like too.

The other ribbons came from my ribbon jars, the buttons came from my button box and the flowers came from my flower drawer.  The bling?  Guess.

That's right!

My bling stash.

You're one on my smart friends.

WOO HOO!  LIke I said, I'm pleased with myself.  lol

Faux Wood

Drunken Stampers got my attention.  they said "Play with wood!"  and I have a stamp that is all about wood that is one of my most favoritist stamps!  So I had to play.  it would have been wrong not to.  Right?

It was hard to photograph.  The woodgrain stamp is by Cornish Heritage Farms,  the large butterfly stamp is by Inkadinkado

I white embossed the wood grain and distress inked it.  I tried something else, but it didn't work so we won't discuss that.  I stamped the large butterfly on acrylic and coloured is with alcohol inks and stickles.  The little butterflies got the same treatment and were punched out with a Martha Sterwart punch. the flower is by K&Company.  The sentiment came from my sentiment stash.That's about it.  Thanks for looking!

Wordless Wednesday

See more Wordless Wednesdays here

Within Arm's Reach

That's what they said.  The Poobahs, that is.  At The Order of the Opus Gluei.

The challenge ACTUALLY is to make stuff out of whatever is

lying around from your last project(s).

Easy Peasey (WHERE did that saying come from anyways?) for me, cus I have bits and pieces

EVERYWHERE!

I

Mean

EVERYWHERE!

I'm not kidding.

So as soon as I saw what the challenge was, I sidled up to my worktable and rooted around and made ATC's.  Lots of ATC's.  Well, maybe not as many as Jana made, but pretty darn close, I would guess.

anyways.

And I only used what had been piling up on the table.

If you don't like ATC's, go have a cuppa somethin.  Cus you're about to be inundated.

1,2,buckle my shoe.

3,4, shut the door

5.6. pick up sticks7,8, um, who do we appreciate?

Hell, I don't know

9.10, I love men.

OK, it's become obvious I don't know the nursery rhyme.

But I do love to make ATC's.  Now what am I going to do with these?

I could paper my living room.

Hey, did you know when my daughter was little, she pronounced it "Livering Room"?

True story.  it was so darn cute I never corrected her.

She's smart though, she figured it out.

There's probably an ATC in this story somewhere.

Thank Poobahs for the inspiration.

Electra had a good time with this.

The Order of the Opus gluei.

Check it out.

{PS, I won't give all credits, but feel free to email me if  you want to know about an element.  I will give a shout out to Maggie Hurley who created the sweet little owl in the armchair, and to Phenomenon1859 for the dress mannequin and the fairy in the jar.  They are both wonderful works of art.)

I don't have a title for this

But it was WAY fun to make.

Green

That's the theme for this week at Take A Word

I couldn't do all green, but mostly.  It was the best I could do.  I'm not Irish.

The Mannequin is by Zine Manne, the furniture is from Clem Uptown Girls, good old Betty is from the internet, the top hat is by Dezinaworld.

That's the best I can do.

Thanks for looking.

Three Young Ladies

Jeanette of Soartful Challenges

has challenged us to use an image of three lovely ladies this week:.

Can you tell where they are?

(snicker)

All of the antique elements are by Petoos, the background paper is by CatherineDesigns.

I've added a couple of texutres by Kim Klassen.

There is an abundance of talent over there, I hope you go visit!!

Umbrellas

One of the 100 themes for Kimmie's 100 Theme Challenge is "Umbrella".  I  had no idea

a. where to get an image of an umbrella and b. what I was going to do with it when I did get one.

Peggy Gatto's Friday Foto Collage solved both problems for me.  She gave a us a number of different umbrellas this week that we could use for our collage.  First, I had one.  then another, then another.  and long story short, my mojo kicked in:

All of the younguns and the words are by Lisa's Altered Art. 

Compendium of Curiosities #35

We've come to the end of Linda Ledbetter's Compendium of Curiosities Challenge.  I'm so sad.  The ONLY good thing about this ending is that I no longer have to spell "Compendium of Curiosities".  I struggled with that, big-time. In fact, I feel like I should spell it wrong, just to show you how hard I found it.  I won't. But you need to know that is the ONLY good thing about the end of this.

I would like to send a

HUGE HUG

to Linda for all her hard work.  I can't imagine how she's managed to do it all.  but she has.  and if you didn't take part, it's your loss.

Cus it was wonderful!!

Here is my last effort Design Details from Page 67:

Thank you Linda, for inspiring me!

100 Themes.

I'm in the mood to post some more of the digital art I'm doing for Digital Whisper's 100 Themes.  Remember, I told you about it?

What, you don't remember?  Well, geesh, pay attention, will ya, there's going to be a test.

Good Grief

1.Cemetery

The photo is one of mine, the border is by Digikeepsakes, I've added PSE textures and adjustment layers.

2.Mirror
Googled book, unknown photo mask, frame and papers, personal photograph, sherriejd art start paper, assorted PSE textures.

3. Desolate

Personal photo, googled ad, unknown frame, assorted textures brush from brusheezy

and 4. Window

frame by diannerigdonedesigns, background paper byDIkeledidesigns, textures by ZEN, woman in window by Cemerony

OK, I'm done.

For now.  lol

And you thought I was just layin' on the couch eatin' bon bons.

Friday Fill-ins

1. Oh gross! I thought it was _snot!_.

2. _I watched someone bungee jump-_ well THAT's off my bucket list!

3. No, _I did not say I would do your work for you_.

4. When I make art, I use my whole_ heart and soul.

5. And then _I nap_.

6. I can't forget _my address, how would I find my way home_?

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to _doing nothing which requres a brain_, tomorrow my plans include _speaking at a conference_ and Sunday, I want to _go out for a fattening brunch with my girlfriends._!

See more Fill Ins here.

Heart Art Coaster Swap

Another swap, Electra?

Yes, I'm afraid so.  This one is for a Gingersnap Creations group I belong to.

Four.

Coasters.

With Hearts.

I won't give any details of the processes of these works or art (hah!), 'cus I'm just too lazy, but I will give credit to Julia Van Der Werf of Cemerony for her wonderful hearts that I used.  I could use her work every day, all day and these hearts are no exception.  Hmmm, I should go to her website and buy some more...........

Blissful ATC Swap

It's taken me such a long time to get around to posting this-I acutally posted a digital version of this a while ago, but I've made (and put in the mail) a real live version. We had to use all or part of this image provided to us by sweet Wendy:

And here is my version:

This is a fun swap run by a fun lady.  You may want to check it out!

Blissful ATC Swap.

The lady is a Dover image.  I think I'll be using her a lot.

Party Like You Mean It!

You know the Poobahs, right?  Well, they thought I should toddle over to their Challenge #93-Show Us Some New Tricks and share my experience with felt-making with the gang over there.

BUT NO.

I'm stubborn.

I wanted to try something else new.

And then along comes Gingersnap Creations  with their shout-out for Mardi Gras and it came to me!  Just like that.

OK, "What's new about this?" you ask.

"It's just more of your usual mish mash, Electra!"

Well, no, it's not, actually.

See when I was blurfing yesterday, I came across my buddy Lori's "Perfect Stamping" technique that she learned from the talented Wendy Vecchi and I loved it!

So I tried it.  And no, you cannot see it on the background of this gorgeous ATC, so I'm sorry about that.  But it's there. You'll have to trust me on that one. It involves distress inks, Perfect Pearls mist and a stamp. 
But since you can't see the wonderful sparkle in it, you'll have to go see Lori's.  Or Wendy's
.

I tried to get a good photo of the sparklies, trying all sorts of different lighting and different angles and then I realized, I pretty much covered it all up with stuff.  duh.

The stuff I used is Peeled Paint distress ink on the background, Perfect Pearls (right, I said that)  in gold, the glasses are a stamp by "Declassified", covered with stickles of course, gold embossing powder on the edges.  Oh let's see, her dress is scrunched mulberry paper I've had since 1982.  Saving it JUST for THIS project. Um, assorted bling.  And the piece de resistance, the gold mask that was in my delightful matchbox that came from Jan's Arty Journey...then a feather from some poor chick's butt and the brooch.  Oh, the brooch.  Isn't it gorgeous!  I just had to buy it at Mikey's.  It called my name.  And here it is.

So now go visit the Poobahs, cus they started this.

DID YOU COUNT HOW MANY LINKS I PUT INTO THIS POST?!?!?

Holy cow.

I'm exhausted.

But not too tired to sing along with American Idol.

C'mon you do it too.  You know you do.

And the background is green.  I don't know why it doesn't look green.  Cameras do that, you know.

I'm not stupid, I know the Mardis Gras colours!  I went to New Orleans once.

But I don't remember much of it.

That's a whole other blog.

One you probably should not read.
Not if we're going to stay friends.

WOYWWED

Ever since I cleaned out my studio, and found out what I have, I've been happily using up stuff I've had for years and forgotten about.  this wooden dragonfly is oneof those had-for-years items.

The finished LO:

There are lots more Workdesks so see here. 

It is after all, Wednesday!