TenTwoStudio's countdown for Christmas

Lisa Volrath is having The annual Christmas countdown. It starts in one week! The images are finished, loaded up, and ready to roll out. Beginning December 1st, she'll countdown the days 'til Christmas by posting a new printable item---47 printables in all. Spread the word:http://countdown. tentwostudios. com/
not sure if any of you have checked out her site but she has wonderful pictures she gives away to download on most holidays. Spread the word after you check out her site. That's where I got the images and bamboo tiles for the necklaces I posted awhile ago. She also has some cute book kits and altoid tin kits and pictures sized just right for them. Happy Holidays. Hugz, Scary

More Ornaments and a job

I did some more ornaments for Christmas presents. I really am having fun doing these and hubby is ready to swipe my stuff off the kitchen table into the trash, lol. But merry merry I always say (at least until the 1st of Dec. when I go bah humbug, lol). I used images from Artchix studio and Retrocafe Art. The angel and the baby ornaments are soldered. The baby has a bale on the back for a ribbon or to wear as a pin.

Well, hubby and I were fortunate enough to be hired on the 1st interview we went on. 7 am in Bismarck which meant getting up at 5, good thing I am a morning person. Rud Oil hired us both. We will be driving brand new Mack trucks hauling crude bulk oil in tankers with 2 trailers, the back trailer is called a pup which just means not a full length trailer. 2 loads a day, 5 -12 hour days so 70 hours a week. Time and a half over time after 40 hours. $23 an hour starting, medical -they pay half- and 2 weeks vacation after 1 year. We will be driving separate trucks and will have the same hours and days off. 5 days on 2 off 5 on then 3 off. We will have to buy a trailer to live in but will be able to park it in a heated shop. We have been wanting a trailer for some time so that's not all bad. Going to go look at it on Monday. Hopefully it is like the ones we have been looking at at the RV-trailer sales places. It's a 04 or 05, not sure yet if it has slide outs. We also go for safety training on Monday. Have to learn how to breathe properly through a gas mask just in case there is a leak at the oil well or pipeline. Then we get fitted for fire retardant suits that we wear when loading and off loading, also get new hard hats, wheeeeee!!!I already have 2 but a girl can never have enough hard hats, right?Kind of like shoes. I got approved by TSA(National Security) on my background check so I can go take my hazardous material test(ICK!!). Studying for the tests ,hazardous material(haz-mat), doubles/triples(2 or 3 trailers) and tanker(hauling tankers), has given me several headaches. The hazmat is the worst of course. Lots of chemical type things to learn. Lance is still waiting for his TSA check to be completed. With the weather we have in ND, I am not totally thrilled with having to drive hazmat loads in the winter but I am going to buck up and do it. At $23 an hour each, we should be able to get all of our debts in a year or so and I won't have the headaches of doing all the paperwork I did when we ran our own trucking company. Yippee to that!!!!! Also someone else pays the trip permits, fuel, road taxes, etc. Yippppppeee to that too, lol. So thank you to all who prayed. It worked.

Now for a new prayer request. My daughter, Candice, is pregnant and due in Jan. She was just diagnosed with gestational diabetes. They aren't sure if they caught it in time for it not to stay with her after the pregnancy. She is freaking out and getting very depressed. She has had a few bouts with dizziness in the past couple days and had her sugar checked last night and it was ok but she is still worried. She doesn't get much exercise despite having 3 kids to run after and she has been very tired. I keep stressing how important it is to get some sort of activity going but I know it's hard when you seem to be tired all of the time. Anyhows, she could sure use some prayers. I have been taking the kids as much as I can just to help out. Her boyfriend isn't much help around the house or with the 1 year old. Men don't seem to understand how much a pregnancy can drain a person. The grandkids and I are going to the nursing home this morning to see Great Grampa and visit for a bit. We went to Winter fest celebrations here in town yesterday. Mother Goose story time was a big hit. Lisa makes a great Mother Goose, lol. We made cards for soldiers with glitter and glue. Trevin and Arianna loved that. We had popcorn and hot chocolate(much hotter than Nana Cheri's hot choccy at home). Carrie brought her Pynchon horses and a hay wagon converted into a seated cart for wagon rides around town. We had our snow pants on, so with the blankets provided, we were toasty warm. That was fun. Then we met Santa and Mrs. Claus and the balloon man and had our faces painted with snowmen and snow flakes. After eating BBQ's and kraut and knephla for supper, I took Trevin home for a much needed nap for Nana, lol. I had planned to be back for the ballet at 7 and light parade at 8 but slept to 7:30 and by the time Trevin got through going potty, we missed them both. He said it was ok as the next time it got dark we could see the light parade, lol. What a sweetie. It was pretty windy so we didn't walk all the way around town to see the lights as our faces were getting cold. We only live 1 block from down town so we just walked back and forth all day. Arianna stayed with friends for the ballet(she loved it) and the parade of lights. There were only 4 floats this year which is why Trevin and I missed it by minutes, lol. Big town ya know.

Ok off to see Grampa. Have a blessed weekend. Hugz, Scary

Christmas Ornaments

My grandddaughter, Arianna, 7 years old, and I have been making ornaments for friends for Christmas. We used match boxes and poker chips and images from Artchix studio. We think they turned out pertty nice if we do say so ourselves, lol. I used alphabet noodles for the noel on the poker chip. I colored them with a gold leaf pen. Arianna's is the blue match box in the middle and it is going to an internet friend of mine's granddaughter. Thanks for looking.

4th and 5th Fabric page

whew all done, just have to get them to the mail once they get the streets plowed. I made tags for each page and have them safety pinnned to the backs so the other artists can remove them and mount them different if they want to. I am sewing mine together when I get mine back but how I sew them depends on how they have have names displayed. Here are my final 2 pages with their tags. I took some of the design from the front and did the back. I am not posting the tags for the other 3 but you can get the idea of what they might look like. I was very happy with the tag idea.

A friend of Candi's came over yesterday to borrow a chain to help pull out some gal that got stuck in the snow on Main street, lol. Our first blizzard of the year.

Hubby will be happy that I finally can get my stuff off the kitchen table again. That is until my next project of course, lol. While I was trying to come up with ideas for the pages, Arianna and I did little turkey ornaments made with a folding paper fan. A kit we got at a rummage sale this summer. Very cute and will try and get pictures later. We also made an angel ornament from a kit. Her teacher had them do paper plate scarecrows at school and I asked Arianna to find out where she got them. She was sweet enough to send an entire kit for me so I got to make one too. Arianna showed me how they had glued it together. So fun and what a sweet teacher. So for a Halloween treat I hugged a couple of candy bars for her with some teacher paper(PCCrafter is the hugware site) Very cool pictures and craft site. I just lost my HugClub program in a computer crash so have to reload them all which totally sucks as I have been a member for a couple years and have quite a fdew programs from them but they have the coolest stuff so will get it back soon I hope.

It looks like the trucking business is still slow so hubby and I are loking for jobs. He wants to go oilfield as they are looking for CDL drivers right now so we might be relocating to a different part of the state. Our house is paid off, thank God, so we will probably be buying a pull type camper to live in. In ND, in the winter, I am not sure of the wisdom of this as pipes frezze quickly b ut we will see. We have been working this week on getting resumes and cover letters done. Wish us luck and say a few prayers if you have time. He has been hogging computer but ill try to get on when I can. Not sure how long we will have internet on the road but I suppose we will have to finish our 2 year contract with Sprint.

Hugz for now, Scary

Altered page

working on a new book because I misplaced the older one, lol. This technique is from Bev Braselton's book, Altered Books Workshop. I tea stained the pages, then sprinkled instant coffee on and let it dry. I thought it was very fun. I used various stamps, Distressed ink pads from Tim Holtz line, black card stock behind the main tags on left page, thebutterfly bit was done on a piece of manilla folder and then torn out. I need to decide what ribbons to put in the tag holes yet but was kind of impressed it turned out as good as it did for my first one, lol.

Eyelet Give away

was just checking out this give away at Kristin's site. Very cool!!! If you win, you will get:An eyelet setter, THREE leather punches, and 1200 unique eyelets (these are EZ set aluminum eyelets that set beautifully and don't split on the backs)
the types and shapes of eyelets include heart mixture, angel mixture, triangle mixture, teddy bear mixture, halloween mixture, pastel yellow, star mixture, diamond mixture, lavender mixture, square mixture, butterfly mixture, and holiday mix.
I am an eyelet freak. If you would like a chance to win go to her blog Here for details. Also check out the blog entries lower on the page. The pieces she does are outstanding. She also has a supply store that is listed on my links to the right under favorite online supplies. RetroCafeArt. That's it for now. Working on 2 new altered book techniques today between feeding Hubby and Wayne who are putting in a shower at our rental. Will try and get them posted later this week. Got a call about hauling bees for our favorite bee guy but they are going to CA and we kind of took CA off our to do list of places to go in the truck. So not leaving as of yet.

Zentanlge Journey

My first attempts at Zentangle. If you haven't heard of them, search the word. Amazing art on the web done by way more talented people than I. My doodles have always been pretty boring. This elevates doodling to art. I would love to have the kit with all the fancy paper (deckle cut)and pens and the die to roll is a neat idea, but as I am too cheap to spend $49 for it, I go with searches on the web. Here is my first and 2nd attempt. The first is in my journal Miss Fannie sent me, the 2nd on white card stock cut to 3 1/2 inches square. Card stock was not a good choice as the pen bleeds into it too much. Arianna was here and had fun with one too. Will definitely be doing more of these in the future. I am making a "legend" of designs for when I am stumped on what to do next. That's what the die is for in the kit. You roll the number and look on the legend for the design and doodle away. The legend has numbered doodles. Hugz for now, Scary

1st pages in art journal

My first try at journalling with art. These are the first 2 pages from my journal I got from the marvelous Miss Fannie. Doing a lesson from arttradermag.com/issues/ArtTrader_Issue4.pdf (awesome mag) on how to funky draw by Sal Scheibe. I need more practice but this is my first page trying to draw. It was fun but definitely need more colors of pencils. Trevin kept helping me with colors, lol. I used Prismacolor pencils 24 count water soluble. I thought they were artist quality but they don't blend like I thought they would. I did forget to add the clouds to my lady drawing too. But all in all was happy with my first try. I also need some better black to draw with. Need to research that. Maybe will ask Sanna for some imput. Very Fun so far. Hugz, Scary

First handmade bird

Back from a quick trip to Houston, TX. We left Thursday morning at 11 am, got into Houston, with generators, at 1:30 pm. Loaded up with piope and came back to ND. Home at 7:15 am Sunday. About 3000 miles. Lots of damage in Houston from hurricane Ike. Power was off at all of the truck stops. The people who we hauled the generators for shared a BBQ feast with us. Wasn't that sweet? We took the load of pipe out so we wouldn't have to sit the weekend there with no electricity. We do carry food in the truck, soups, milk, cereals, sandwich meats but it's nice to have a bathroom to tinkle in occasionally, lol. We put a microwave in this winter and it is so handy for heating things up.

I really like how this one turned out. It's not one othe lessons I am doing but I love all the birds everyone is doing now days so had to try one. I am too cheap apparently to buy the chip board blanks so made one from the back of an empty legal pad. Glued it on using Traci Bautista's Collage Pauge. Used brown chal;k to age the aedges. The back ground is done on torn newspaper pages, 4x4 inches, glued together with glue sticks. An idea I got from checking out Kiwi Carole's blog which sent me to Donna's blog. Very neat little video to watch. I then used Carand'ache neocolorll 's to color the background. Smeared them around using a paper towel. Hubby was like what the heck are you doing? lol. The neo colors I used were salvaged from my daughter's art supplies from high school as I haven't found any in Bismarck yet. Out of 10 in the original tin, there are bits and pieces of 6 colors. Anyhows.... I am working on a book for a friend and this is one of the pages. She must be special cuz she gets my first bird. I made the pages in the truck with various newspapers I read across the country. I think this is from Steele, where I live but there are pages from Knoxville, TN in there too. I cut the letters from a Farmers Almanac. Circles of words are from a dictionary and book, circled with brown marker and then brown chalk. A bit of sequin waste(punchinella) from skybluepink. I hope she likes it. Off to get a shower for our rental. Hopefully get some art done tomorrow while Lance goes fishing. Had a hard time sleeping last night as we had a very loud thunderstorm going on. Our Mother dog, Kringala, is scared stiff of them and whines terribly. Poor thing. Her and Lance almost got hit but a lightening bolt when we were camping. She hasn't been the same since. Have a great day. Hugz, Scary

Fabric ATC's beaded Challenge

They are having a beaded ATC challlenge, no theme, over in the Fabric yahoo group I am in. So here are my entries. The butterfly one was done under duress, lol. Had both boy grankids over helping. First I forgot to put Peltex underneath. I don't know what I was thinking, just used interfacing. Hubby was in craft room on the computer and I was trying to get things done and just grabbed the first stiffener sheet on top in my closet and went with it, lol. Then wanting to cover the stitching from the beading but the beads were too close to the edge so I ended up hand stitching the edges. Oh my head hurt when I got done but for all the messups I thought it turned out ok. Thanks to my daughter Candi for helping to decide colors and placing of beads. I think Marva will like the pansy one for sure. Off to bed. Hugz, Scary

revamped 2nd and 3rd forest pages

Didn't think there was enough on 2nd one(did I mention my clutter problem? lol) so added a leaf skeleton. I am terrible at remembering who sent me those leaves but I have been hoarding them for awhile. I ADORE them. On to the 3rd page, I thought the forest theme fit Robin Hood and Maid Marion so well? Did a packing tape transfer. Don't like it. Tooo thin. Ripped poor Marion's leg right off when I was placing her on the fabric, poor thing. Clever placing of her name covered it up though, lol. I think I will use contact paper next time. The images are from Altered by Lisa. I liked the coins around it, trying to point out Robin robbed from the rich type thing. Not sure if anyone will get it? the backgrounds for both figures is muslin stamped with green ink. Been dieing to use that stamp since I splurged and got it on sale lol.

Had a call on generators going to Houston area but they had to be there by 3 pm tomorrow and couldn't do it unless we flew, lol. Drat. So off to bead another ATC for the Fabric group I am in's swap challenge. Hugz, Scary

2nd page for the swap

Ok I think I went to the opposite extreme on this one. I have some plastic leaf charms I might add yet but kind of like this one as is. Again no back ideas yet. The next one I want to try a technique from CPS but trying to figure how to get the forest theme in on it. I don't want to just add green to the page.

Got side tracked checking out Tim Holtz's blog last night. What a talent. I wonder how he gets any art done with all the traveling he does. My friend Sanna gets to go to one of his classes on the east coast the lucky duck. I was just checking out what they will be making. I am sooooo jealous. He has such cool products already and now he has come out with a new line. I am thinking I need to pick one thing and buy all the stuff needed to do that. I miss driving road construction and having my own money left AFTER paying all the bills. I feel so guilty now buying even the basics as I have so much stuff in my craft room as it is between the paper and fabrics. But Lance got tackle and worms this week so I am thinking I have about another $40 in stuff to get to catch up, lol. How's that for validation? I checked prices on Tim's stuff and so far Stampers Anonymous is the cheapest by at least a nickel on most of his new stuff. Shoot, I am still wanting more of his old stuff. I have been saving his project directions as pdf files. I bought a couple of his stamps and have 4 distressed inks. I also bought one of his books, some card stock sheets and thicker small ones. I made a couple of pins and the pocket watch chain from his book. Do I really need the nonstick scissors? Maybe. I would like the edge distresser after seeing how to use it. I had about 5000 things picked out last night, lol. I want the grungeboard pieces. Someone sent me a piece and it really does work cool. I wish his stamps were all clear. I am new to stamping and it makes it so much easier really. I also want the embossing powders. I wish you could buy this stuff locally. They finally got a few distressed inks in Hobby Lobby and alcohol inks. But not anything else last time I was there.

Ok I really should get a shower and go get the Sunday paper. My friend Fran is in the hospital in Bismarck. I am waiting to see if she is up for visitors today. Zane still has my car so hopefully Candi will take me up if she is. Should take Baby J up to see Grampa Reuben this morning too. It would be nice if he would like to see the rest of us but there you have it, lol. Hugz, Scary

My First Fabric Page for a Swap

Lenna Andrews is having a swap over at http://creativeswaps.blogspot.com . The theme is Forest. We have to make 4 pages that are 6 x 6 inches, and we will recieve 4 from different artists Lenna has great swaps. This is my first page. I have never done a Fabric page swap just because I didn't want to disappoint anyone. I really like the way this one turned out although I forgot to stitch the words on BEFORE beading so had to glue them on , duh to me. The grandboys(3 and 10 months) were here while I was working on it and my brain farted I guess, lol. I was just so happy everything was coming together. I hand stitched under the leaf with some sild embroidery floss? Not sure if you call it that when it is silk? but you really can't see it very well. The dress has glitter painted on it and the beads are stitched on as is the butterfly. I attached each flower different just because I could, lol. The image is from Lisa's altered art. I might have gone over board on the embellishments but I like cluttered. Everything about me is cluttered. Sometimes an organized clutter but still cluttered. When I redid my kitchen and took down my 105 baskets I had hanging on 3 walls(that had windows and doors and a fridge on the wall too) It looked so bare to me. Drove me nuts. I am not a bare wall kind of person. Although when I redid the kitchen and living room last time I went minimal. I am adding things slow but sure but very little. Course that could be because I am too cheap to spend money on the things I want to hang on the walls? Yep it could be. Hee hee. Anyways. I hope someone likes my firstest page. Off to bed. Keeping an eye on Hurricane Ike in TX. Saying many prayers for those poor people down there. Nighters and Hugz, Scary

Books I got this week

I have been looking at altered art books and books on collage and after many questions to my art friends, finally decided on 3. They were waiting patiently for me when we got home this weekend. I got Collage Discovery Workshop by Claudine Hellmuth. Awesome book. I would highly recommend this book to beginners. I have only done a couple techniques so far but after I get more supplies I will be trying everything.
I also got Altered Book Workshop by Bev Brazelton. It has different techniques that Beth Cote's and looks like it will be lots of fun.
I also got Traci Bautista's Collage Unleashed. I have a video by her also. I love her collages. SO hopefully will be posting my process of learning to collage and do altered books.
I am also signed up for my first fabric page swap with Lenna Andrews. The subject is forests. She was in one of my first ATC swaps over at ArtChix yahoo group and she has been so kind and inspirational. I love keeping tabs on her swaps but this is the first I have had enough guts to join. I hope I won't disappoint anyone but I think I have had some great mentors on the subject and if the ideas I have fall into place, I think I will do ok.

Forgot to add that we just managed to stay ahead of Hurricane Gutav last week. Got out of New Orleans on Thursday and went into north Louisiana then out of there to Dallas then up to OK. Hit some of the rain in OK when we were leaving there. Very nice to be home where it's much cooler than down south.

Here's some fishing pictures from August. No comments on the goof holding the BIG fish. I don't dress for pictures obviously. Lol. The 2 kids are Arianna(7) and Trevin(3), our 2 grandkids that are our fishing buddies. The picture of the guy with the hat and Trevin, is my brother in law who came fishing with us.

Orange altered book page

You might remember me mentioning Lisa Vollrath before when I posted the bamboo tile pendants. This orange page is from my altered book I just started a few weeks ago and her theme at Go Make Something is orange this week and since I finally got to be home I made an orange page in my book. Her site is so awesome. She teaches so many techniques about so many things. Check her out when you have time. Well worth it.

I painted the pages yellow with acrylic paint. Then used orange Pastels chalk to shade the edges. I smeared it and blended with my fingers. I used a pink paint to do the bubble wrap paint dots in the corners(that is very fun, try it sometime.) I cut the letters out of a page from a book, chalked them, then glue sticked them on. I outlined the letters with a sharpie marker. The squares in the right upper corner are finger nail polish from a magazine as are the tulips. I sewed some butterfly sequins onto a piece of lace and double sided taped it to the page. I sewed the round sequins on the right page on but had to glue the ones on the left as the page behind it was already done and the orange thread didn't go with my Texas theme, lol. The left corner design is from some paper placemats I bought cheap at the dollar store. And the mesh is the stuff you put on drywall(brain fart and I don't remember what it is called, lol) I am going to spray this page to set it as it has lots of chalks on it. Thanks for looking.

New Purple tin

been so inanely busy lately that I haven't even had a chance to catch up in my yahoo groups, which is so unlike me. Tomorrow morning we will be leaving in the truck again. Back to work so maybe I can catch up a bit on the computer. I should never have taught hubby hopw to look for loads, lol. Now he is on the computer all the time. I do have a new tin to post though. Will try and get back on later this weekend and catch you up on my fishing expedition. Had a great week. Hugz, Scary

AHHH good to be home

It's been a very hectic last 2 weeks. Laptop issues in the truck prohibited me from checking everyone out while I was gone which drove me insane. I usually do my emails when hubby is driving down the road and they got piled up like mad while we were out this time. We went to NC, MN, IA, TX and back. Saw lots of devestating flooding in Des Moines and across IA and IL. Had to reroute some of our trips due to road closures. I am praying so hard for those poor people. And I can't even imagine what the crop flooding is going todo to our food prices. Almost all of IA is a disaster area. The fields that aren't even close to rivers are under water. Even with fuel prices as high as they are we got some great paying loads this time so starting to catch up. Going to take a week off for the 4th to do some camping and fishing, then get after it hard again.

Once home, Arianna, my granddaughter who is now 7 YEARS OLD, and I finished up some tins we had been working on. Playing with her and making memories for both of us inspired this tin. My Dad's wife always reminds me that we are making memories when we do things together. She is such a pleasant girl to have around. Pretty much happy with anything we do as long as we do it together. She is getting a warped sense of humor too(not sure where she gets that from, hee hee.) She pretty much hangs with Nanna Cheri while I am home. Anyhow the orange "Create Memories" tin is mine and the butterfly tin, is one she made for her teacher. She is working on another one, for her other teacher, with some fabulous school fabric I got. Hopefully we will get a chance to play a little today with it. I promised her I would share her tin with all my friends on the internet. So here is Arinna's art beside mine. By the way, she is usually by my side when I blog hop and she loves looking at everyone's art too. So again thank you for sharing your art. I sure missed you all. Hugz, Scary

Internet friends

How many of you have internet friends you have never met in person? I have quite a few. Some from when I played games at gamehouse, some from when I made name tags for emails, and new ones from art groups I have been in or blogs I have visited. Today one of those new friends blew me away. Fannie sent me the most beautiful, thoughtful gift. If I would have been wearing socks, it would have knocked em right off my huge feet, lol. The cover is done using some of her fabric paper I think. She has been talking a class on it I believe. You can't see it in the scan but there are tiny bits of petals or leaves maybe embedded in the paper. The stamping on the cover is embossed with something to give it a smooth very cool texture. And there is gold tinting when you turn it in the light. The embossed pansy note card is just too much. The pansies and the edging stick right up from the page. I would love to have paper to write on like that. The inside is stunning purple rose fabric. See her gorgeous moo card with the heart? I love that. Her name and info is on the back. Moo cards seem to be popping up everywhere I look lately. Another thing I have to check out. The page with my name on it is again embossed with that cool textury stuff. I have to find out what that is. I have only tried embossing with a heat gun once and it didn't turn out anything like that. Inside the pages are lightly tinted a kind of purple. Fanny... I absolutely adore this journal. I vow to use it for something wonderful. You are such a dear friend. Thank you so very much. Now I know why you wanted my address, lol. Hugz, Scary with or without the Cheri, lol

New tin and 1st bamboo tile pendant

Ok finished my 1st pendant. Grandson Trevin, 3, was trying to help too much so just did one today. I just love these tiles. Also finshed the Altoids tin I started yesterday. Fannie's post gave me my theme about friends. "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other gold." I have made many friends over the year and I treasure everyone of them, even the ones I have not yet met in person. That just amazes my hubby, lol. The cover is muslin stained with chalk ink, cheese cloth stained with chalk ink, bird sticker, page pebble with word from dictionary, friends rub on and a viola from my yard that I pressed. The purple silk cord around the edge is what was wrapped around my lovely card from KiwiCarole. Inside ismore stained muslion, stamped and embossed with silver lined glass beads, a gold dragonfly bead and swirl, another viola on the orange paper Carole sent with imagine stamped on it and a gold folied butterfly sticker. Around the outside I stitched a single line running stitch. I am disappointed with the scan, The orange didn't show up very bright.

Altered Tins

I made a few altered tins with some Altoids tins my daughter in Oregon found me at a rummage sale. She gave me a paper bag full. What a sweetie. I wish I would have taken a picture of the seashell tin I made for her for her bath room, darn it. Anyhow The domino ornament is stuck in with a glue dot so you can take it out and hang it.

I ran across a picture of an altered tin on the internet and started searching for more. That's how I found altered books, I am working on one , trying different techniques. And that is how I found paper ATC's at artchix and then Sanna from FabricATCsOnetoOne invited me to her yahoo group and I started making fabric ATC's, altered cabinet cards, then fabric postcards. I love that group. It's almost like a family. Anyhow, Kiwicarole altered a beautiful tin and I thought I would share a few of mine.

Bamboo Tile pendants beginning

I got some gorgeous black bamboo tiles from Lisa at TenTwoStudios and also her Asian collage sheet that is sized to fit them. This is how they start and with the front pictures added. They are double drilled( I love that after drilling dominos for ornaments at Christmas). She also has a tutorial on how she made hers on that site. Mine are drying now. Will post after I add the backs, the beads and cord.

Can you say "Fabulous"?

I got a lovely gift today in the mail from Kiwi Carole, her blog link is to the right>. She is from New Zealand. I won this fabulous pink Fabric ATC(Artist Trading Card) with the coolest clay face on it, from leaving a comment on her blog. Actually someone else won but didn't respond to her for mailing instructions, so I won. The ATC came wrapped in this yummy orange interfacingish? like material wrapped in some purple cording that feels like chennille almost. Not sure what either of them are for sure but I adore the colors and will definitely be using them in future art projects. It's the first thing I have won from a blog and I am so thrilled. Besides I made a new blog friend half ways across the world. Can't be luckier than that I figure. SO thank you so much Carole. I appreciate it more than you know. Hugz, Scary

Step 3 Postcard

ok, stuck here. Not sure what else to do. Does it need buttons? Blue ones on the yellow swirls? This is way more beading than I have ever done on fabric and I am kind of happy with the way it turned out so far. Just saw a class on Encrusted Crazy Quilting at Joggles. $60 but I would love to take it. I am going to ask around and see if the people who have taken online classes are satisfied with what they learned and do a little research on Sharon Boggon, the gal giving the class. We'll see how money looks closer to the class I guess. I want to take a class on something so bad. Anyhow this is how far I got.

Fabric Post cards Swap

We just had a fabulous swap at the FabricATCsOnetoOne yahoo group I am in. These are the wonderful cards I recieved. Aren't they gorgeous? The pieced card is from Helen in England. I had thought it was a crazy quilt but it is called paper piecing. Helen does such beautiful art. Her quilts are outstanding.

The umbrella card is from Judi in the UK. You can't see the shimmery fibers around the redge but it is truely a work of art.

The one with the dress pattern is from CindyB in Minnesota, USA. Don't you just love that dress maker form and that gold needle? How wonderful it is to come home and find art like this in my mailbox.

step 2

ok step 2 was to do the hand stitching. I highly recommend using floss that shows up better than the yellow I used in the middle. I haven't decided if I am ripping that out and trying something new there. Not real happy with the fern stitch done in blue either now that I look at it, lol. Also it is a good idea to baste the fabric down to the muslin backing or your stitches will pucker something terrible. That's what all the purple threads are. I think I will machine stitch the edges now before I add any beading or buttons. But here is step 2 of the post card.

The start of..

ok this is the first crazy quilt that I actually planned out the design and fabrics before beginning. I am almost sure that you should do it this way but I don't, lol. This is post card sized and I will post as I embellish it with my attempt at stitching. I am going to try different kinds. I just found out that a true CQ is stitched along each seam so going to try it. Hopefully that's how you get better right? lol. We'll see.

I am also thinking about joining a book swap in Lostartcreations with Terrie Lightfoot. There are some very talented artists that I admire greatly and am scared that mine wouldn't even be close to theirs and they will be disappointed. I wonder how long a person feels this way? Lol. !0 pages due by August which should be doable but with trucking I hate to commit to projects of that size but would love to have a collaborative book once. I hope someone talks me into it, lol. Anyhow I am going to the bar to watch hubby and daughter play poker and visit for a bit and then go get Arianna and Trevin again if they are still up and let them spend the night again maybe. Didn't make it to the park today because the wind was just too crazy so I owe them a park day tomorrow for sure. Can't renig when you're a Nanna Cheri right? bye

Home again, home again, jiggity jog

AHHhhhhhhh. Home again. Got a house full of noise this morning. Trevin and Arianna are here in the kitchen building a fort with chjairs and barstools and blankets and clothes pins, lol. I remember doing that growing up. We are also watching ET, which they had never heard of. Also got a disc set of oldies, with Heidi(with Shirley Temple), jack and the beanstalk(with Abbott and Costello), The Borrowers (with Eddie Albert), and just bunches more. Those are going on after ET. I watched a couple of them last night while Arianna was falling asleep. Ahh the memories. I still remember Heidi from when I was little. I hope Arianna will like it as much as I did. She also brought home tons of papers to play school this summer. I used to love doing that also. She thinks I should get an old school desk for my yard. We used to have some. I will have to check around and find some.

We are having a flower ATC swap over at FabricATCsOnetoOne yahoo group I am in. Got home in time to get at least one done to swap. That's the one posted here. Haven't done much stitching in my life other that cross stitch and plastic canvas but googled crazy quilts and found some really awesome stitch directions. I can only dream of doing the work I see on some of them. Those girls talk of fiber cleasses they have taken. Well ,someday I hope to take some too but for now I am just practicing. It was fun once I got the feather stitch figured out. I really like that one and am working on a post card right now. More room than an ATC so will hopefully finger it out, lol. Working on a couple more flower ATC's and the deadline was extended so might be able to get them done in spite of having the grandkids over.

We have to go visit Hubby's Dad at the nursing home. He likes showing off Baby J to all the old ladies up there. They flock around him when we bring the little kids up. Baby J is 6 months old and a very happy baby. One gal had been eating Cheetos and had to pinch his little cheeks so needless to say by the time we got done visiting with Alice, Baby J had a very orange face, lol. Oh well babies wash up so nicely don't they? lol. Ok off to play with the Little People castle and watch cartoons. Later Arianna wants to make Auntie Sally a birthday card with some of my new embellishments she saw me digging through.

ARTchix group itty bitty's

these are paper itty bitty's which are 3 inch by 3 inch collages for a swap in Artchix yahoo group. I got 6 from other artists in return. I have to mount those too but here are the ones I did for the swap.

more itty bitties

there I think that is all of them. As you can see there was a variety of themes. It was great fun. Next I will post the pictures of the paper itty bitty's we did for a swap at ARTCHIX yahoo group.