Tuesday, February 26, 2008


Our Altered StART mingle theme was Asian...this is my first Asian piece. It's ATC size 2 1/2 x 3 1/2. Hope whatever it says is something nice! My niece teaches English in Japan and sent me some little goodies...the 3D piece in the middle was too pretty not to use! Thanks, Melody!

Monday, February 25, 2008


Here's a birthday card I made for our darling granddaughter, Stephanie, who is turning 18 today! I have a funny little program called Mr. Presto where I can remove parts of pictures and put in something different. I took out the girl's face and added Steph's baby picture. I'm sure there are ways to do that in Photoshop but since I don't have it, I use this one for some fun effects. The inside of the card says "but you're even more beautiful at 18!" That font, BTW, is called "King and Queen"....it's wonderful. If you Google it, I'm sure you can find it and add it to your fonts. Oh, and the wings and skirt are cut from some petals off a big 99 cent store flower. Hmmm, wonder if 18 year olds appreciate these kind of cards?

Friday, February 22, 2008

You Make My Day Award

Jill, one of the mods on my Altered StART group surprised me today with this lovely treat! Jill was primarily the one who kept encouraging me to start a blog....thanks, Jill!

The rules for the "You Make My Day" award are to re-present it to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness, inspiration and make you feel happy about blog land. Let them know through e-mail or by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times, and if you do, consider yourself really, really loved. So to pass it on and keep the love going ~ here are some of the 100's of blogs that keep me inspired and bring a smile to my face. Please check them out when you have a few minutes...perhaps there are some new friends to be made! My list is on the right sidebar and I am adding all the time. I'm so slow at editing and posting! I don't have all my favorite blogs listed yet but this is a start. I'll be adding soon.....
There are two special art friends who don't have blogs that I'd like to mention....Charlotte S who inspires me always and Lindy G in Buffalo who makes beautiful things....when are you two starting a blog so you can share with the art world?



Blog Troubles


When I tried to make a link for my http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Altered_stArt/ group this morning (editing previous posts) , some of my posts disappeared. Boo hoo!..... I know how to make links when creating new posts.....just haven't figured out how to do it once the post is in place. Not too savvy when it comes to this blogging stuff but I'm taxing my brain to figure it out. Don't they say it keeps your brain young to make it work harder? I need all the help I can get in that department!
ps: hope that link works.........

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Pansy


The Northern California Mixed Media Artists meeting is Sunday. We are supposed to make an "art doll"....I hesitated for a long while because the muse wasn't cooperating. Then I remembered a book "Paper Projects" by Sandra Everton that was languishing in a drawer. I leafed through it and saw this pansy doll and so I went to work scanning her pattern which had a paper pansy for a costume. Of course, I couldn't let that be....I had to get my pressed flowers out and found a gorgeous purple pansy that begged to be a topper for the paper pansy. That wasn't good enough! I heated the beeswax and waxed the thing onto her underskirt. Arrrggghh. Not a good idea. Finally, found another pressed pansy that I put on the top of the waxed one....her headpiece and booby cover-up are pansies/pansy pieces. Her arms and legs are lace covered cardstock. I'm not sure she's anatomically correct but I love pansies....therefore I love her! Click on her for a larger view.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Valentine Cookies

This isn't too artsy, but I made these little sweet treats for a neighbor who brings our garbage cans up to the garage door every Monday morning without fail! She's in her late 80's and as frail as she is, it's a sure thing they'll be there when we open the garage door. I need to take her cookies over to her as DH is causing them to disappear pretty fast! Happy Valentine's Day to everyone. Bite my cookies!

Thursday, February 7, 2008


Here's a little Valentine I made for a friend. It's 3 1/2 x 4 1/2 ....just a little box I covered. The flowers were cut from scrapbook paper and shaped with my fingers a little. Not sure if this will enlarge for you to read the note but plain little birdie in the background (with maybe a bit of envy!) says "So! Just who do you think you are with that purse and crown?" Sometimes, these little fun projects are very satisfying. Hope my friend likes it. I will tell her upfront that after a spell, she is welcome to ditch it, pitch it, hide it or whatever. I hate that some people feel they must keep a gift forever....I'm not that kind of giver.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Button Fairies and Button Regrets

Made these little gals for a swap in my Altered StART group. I cast the faces with Sculpey. They were quite fun to make, though I'm not good with beads and wire. The fingers don't cooperate! When I moved a couple of years ago, I gave away a quart jar full of my mother's buttons to a thrift shop. Some of them were from the early 30's. What was I thinking? Did I just become overwhelmed with all the "stuff" that needed to be moved....or what? I had no clue about altered art at the time, but even so....what a dumb thing to do! I can remember her showing me how to string buttons with a needle and thread when I was about 4. Wonder who has those buttons now?
Off to figure out how to make clickable links in my blog!

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Bees Wax Love


I decided to leave my house guest to his own devices this afternoon and ended up with this ATC for Altered StART's bi-weekly mingle.
Actually, I nearly missed the deadline but I really wanted to play
with bees wax! It went quickly and I found some dried flowers in my Microsoft for Dummies book between some tissue that I dried last summer. I made this little cutie a wreath for her hair and applied the wax over the entire card. She's actually cut out and glued to a piece of embossed white cardstock that I smudged a bit with pink chalk. It disappeared after I put the bees wax on but I still like the effect. It's always funny to me how things come out when you aren't really trying! Thanks, Jill, for encouraging me to put her on my blog and for telling me about
http://stepoutsideyourboxsaturdays.wordpress.com/