New Jewelry For Me!

Hello Friends and Family. I had to get some beads for the Chotski pins I made and I had some left over so I thought I would try to make something for myself. I can't believe that I made this necklace and these earrings for me! Yes, it took me a little bit of time, but I am so happy with the results. I thought I wouldn't be able to see well enough to actually make something, but what a happy surprise. Now, I can't wait to go back to the store and buy some more beads and to try something different. Let me know what you think. I know they are not all that fancy, but I like them and they were great fun to do!

New Round Robin

Hello Friends and Family. I was going to mention that I am starting a new Christmas Book Round Robin with my group. If you have been wanting to do a RR, then you can read and follow along as I prepare my book, and do the first couple of spreads in it before I send it to my mailing partner. I will be happy to walk you through the steps as I go, and you can made a similar one, or one with a different subject. I will be starting on it soon, and I think our last mailing will be right before Thanksgiving. The first thing you will need to do it find a good sturdy book, with sewn in pages, not glued in pages. Here is a great tutorial on determining if a book has sewn or glued in papes: . Lisa Vollrath has many other great tutorials on making and working in an altered book. Just search at GoMakeSomething.com.
So go find your book, and choose a theme, and we will get started soon. Email if you are thinking of doing this so we can talk.

CHOTSKI PINS

 

Hello Friends and Family. Here are two Chotski pins that I made for a swap. The blue and green one is for my friend Jo Ann, and the one with the vintage and a couple of new beads is for my friend Deb. Now Deb knows a lot about Ireland, and she says that a Chotski pin that looks like a big safety pin, sort of, is what hold the kilt of an Irishman closed. Neat huh? Well, I think that this is not a real Chotski, but this is what I could find at Jo Ann Fabrics so I was desperatate enough to use these. They are really easy to do, and you can hang any number of things from the loops.

I am also working on my Torsos for a swap on my group, and they will be going out soon. When I get some scans or photos made I will upload them for you to take a look. I am thinking I may connect mine together to make a banner, but I could change my mind by the time I receive mine. If you want a pattern to make some of your own, just email me and I will send it to you. Pleae put Torso Pattern in the subject line. Well, I hope you are having a good crafting and arting week, and that you will continue to make beautiful things coming up.

Altered Books Group has 10th Birthday!

Hello Friends and Family. I hope wherever you are that you are staying cool. I’m sure trying to, but this Texas weather is not wanting to cooperate.

If you have been in altered objects, books, etc., then I know you have heard of the huge Altered Book Group on Yahoo. They are celebrating their 10th birthday! So many of us have come from that group, forming new groups, new projects, new friends. You can clink on the right if you would like to check them our.

The piece of art that I have up today is a 4”X6” heavily collaged page for the group’s birthday. Corinne, who is in that group, is a real doll and she is collecting all of the pages from everyone that wanted to participate. She is doing lazar color copies of all the pages, and sending them back out  to all of us fir FREE! I told you she is a doll! She will accept postage to mail you all of the page copies, and when you get them you can bind them and have a wonderful memory piece of this event. 

You know I am not shy about showing you my boo-boos, and this next one is a dozy:

Yes, the first time I made this I made it in the wrong direction! So from now on I am double checking the instructions. I know it had to be flat and I did pretty good with that, but the orientation got me.

Well, that’s it for today. I will be adding some Torsos for a swap this weekend, and preparing a book for a Christmas Book RR so I will write more later.

COWGIRL COLLAGE FINISHED

I have finished working on my friend Deb’s collage board, and here are my photos with an explanation of what I did. I hope she and you will like it!

Here I am trying various papers and images on the board.

In this photo, I have glued down the red paper in the left top corner, and done some rubber stamping in the background, including a crackle stamp, and the cowgirls on the left.

Here is have used some Delta Dimensional Pant in Blue with a large foam rubber stamp.

Here is the finished project. I am pretty happy with it. I saved room on the left for one more person to work on this, and then it is going home. I hope you are inspired to try a canvas board collage for yourself!

HOWDY PARTNERS

Hello Friends and Family. I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday, and that you had good food, good family and friends, and good fun! I had a great time right here at my new apartments. We had a catered lunch for the 4th, and I didn't even have to leave my place to see a wonderful fireworks show at the Rangers Ballpark. A great show and it was free!

I am preparing to work on another round robin collage board that I received this past week. This board belongs to my friend Deb, and she likes cowgirls and she isn't even from Texas! This collage is done on a piece of masonite board, and it is very flat. The first think I want to do is to add some texture and the appearance of texture. I have a lot of Western images, and embellishments so I am looking forward to working on this one. I have a Western book started, but not finished so I think I will get it out and work on it this week too.

In my online Yahoo group, I am fishing for some new ideas to inspire my friends there. I have lots of new polls and suggestions out there right now. Beeswax collage, microscope slide jewelry, Christmas in July, Christmas RR book, and several more ideas. I am hosting a Torso swap right now, and I am creating Chotski pins for another swap so I will be adding some photos from these things soon.

You know how things slow down this time of year, with the kids home from school, and the weather so hot, well at least here in Texas, that all we want to do is stay indoors, or in the pool, and drinking ice cold tea....with lime. That's the way I love it!

Here is how I make my tea: I start with cold water in a glass measuring cup. I add two family sized decaf tea bags, and pop it in the microwave for about 4 minutes. I take it out and let it stand for a bit, and then pour it in a gallon jug. You can add one cup of sugar now while the tea is hot, or fill the gallon with water and then add a sugar subsitute. Then squeeze in a couple of limes, removing any seeds, and then pour over lots of ice. Ahh....wonderful!

I have been visiting some of my favorite blogs, and I love to visit blogs, and see what everyone is working on, and I will be making my rounds this week doing just that. I hope to add some new art photos this week, what with this newest RR collage board, and I hope you will come by soon and let me know what you think.