Busy in my studio!!

I have several pics of some new ATC's to add I may do them in separate posts (just easier!)

First I'll show you a couple that I made for the girls who won the "Winner Takes All" swap for Feb. One said that one of her favorite themes is Asian and I made this card for her.

The other one had "House Mouse" as one of the things that she likes and I have 3 House Mouse stamps so I made this one for her.

The 3 stamps I have all are bought because they spoke to me about my own life. This one shouted out about a teddy bear that Veronica has and when she was younger she just about wore his fur off! His name is Travis and he hashas the little pellets in his butt, feet and hands. His feet got a little worn out and his "beans" started to fall out, so I did a little "surgery" on Travis. We kept saying that he was spilling his beans, so this one is titled "Travis Spilled the Beans". My almost 21-yr old still feels the little baby mouse's anxiety over if her friend will get better! She likes this stamp as much as I do!

A few ATC's to share

I think I will try to go chronologically here... I few weeks ago I had just joined the ATC World Yahoo group, and I decided to jump right in to a swap with the theme of "winter clothes". What is your favorite warm item of clothing in the winter? I have always been one to have bare feet as my feet usually get hot and I even have to stick them out of the covers frequently. But this year I have had such COLD FEET! I have actually been wearing warm, fuzzy socks to bed (which would have driven me completely crazy in the past). Anyway, I wanted to make the card about my fuzzy socks. The colors aren't the same as the real ones, but I used flocking on the socks, which just drew lightly with a pencil then used glue and flocking. I love a day when it's snowing outside to curl up in my big chair with a book and a blanket, so I added those elements as well. I thought it was cute.

I also participated recently in a "Winner Takes All" exchange, where everyone signs up, 2 winners are chosen and everyone has to send those two people a card. I didn't win :( The winners can let everyone know what kinds of themes or techniques they particularly like also. One of the winners had Asian as one of the themes that she likes and this is the card I made to send her. It's a little hard to see, but there is some subtle shimmer on her fabric and on the lantern. I need to make another one for myself. (do you who swap cards - of any kind - make one for yourself? I like to.)

Last, but not least, I am also involved in a "Steampunk" themed swap and this is what I ended up with. I felt like, to really be in the Steampunk spirit it would be cool if the card was a little machine in itself. It should DO something. The collaged piece is shaped like a gear and sandwiched beteen 2 layers with a brad in the center so it can spin - like my mind! The images in her brain are all "Steampunk-y": keys, birds, charts, a watch, gears, etc. I love this eyes stamp! And my new Tim Holtz embossing folder for the bricks at the side. I am planning to do another design for this swap and will probably use the brick in that one also. I'll post it if/when I get it done. I have several other projects to do tomorrow also. Goodnight for now!

Funny Pic

So, the other night i was relaxing watching TV and it was getting near bed-time. My daughter came home from work and I stopped her from coming up the stairs and asked her to bring me one of my sugar free ice cream bars. I had bought some ice cream for everyone and a box of SF bars for my self and had only eaten one, so far (out of 6). She says "Did you hide any?" and I said "No, why?" She says that there was only one left and she ate it last night! So I asked if she would just bring me a little bit of the regular ice cream and she's too tired, so I just said forget it. I figured I'd finish my show and go get it myself.
By the time my show is done, I decided I was too tired and would rather just skip the ice cream and go to bed. So I go into my room and THIS is what I find!.....





I sometimes have a bag of chocolates in the drawer next my bed. The red things all over the bed are my Dove Dark Promises that the DOGS ate! Along with the chocolate all over the bed too. She looks pretty satisfied with herself, doesn't she!? Little chub-monster!

Bird IS the Word!

This house is on my route to work and the very first time I noticed it was just after I had gotten my scallop punch and all I could see was the beautiful pink scallops at the top! I love the color combo, too! It still had a porch when I first noticed it. I think they are slowly trying to rehab it and I just hope they don't change the colors or the personality I feel from this house. Anyway, I was involved in a card swap in my "PaintingWithRadiance" group (which is gone now :( ) and knew exactly what I wanted to do for my card. It was using the theme of birds - I think it was close to a year ago! - and in that group, the goal was always to make it sparkly!

So this was the card I made for that swap :

So now I'm involved in a tag swap on one of my ATC groups and again the theme is birds. I still really like that house and decided I wanted to make a variation of my bird card for the tags and this is what I came up with! I liked it, but just didn't feel like it was quite "right" and couldn't quite pinpoint what the problem was. I had originally wanted to have the feather dangle from the strings at the top, but couldn't decide how to do it in a way that would STAY well. I try to make the things for swaps so that they are not going to come undone easily. I have a friend at work, Linnea, who also has an "artsy" side and I like to show her what I've done, what I've received, etc and decided I would get her opinion. She helped me decide HOW to attach the feather where I wanted it and helped me clarify what I wasn't liking about it. I didn't think the bird was easily visible -especially when the lighting was dimmer and was trying to think of a way to "pop" her out better, but didn't really want to add a background behind her and Linny just simply said "change the color" and my lightbulb suddenly went on! Duh! It doesn't HAVE to be the same color to be a variation. I switched it to the light green and it was SO much better! Then, when I got to playing with it as I made it, I added the nest of eggs inside the house. I always make one to keep for myself and I made one for Linny as a gift for healping me "tweak" it. I hope my swappers will like it because I really do!

FYI- the "siding " was done using one of my TJ techniques!

The title of this tag is "Mama's Pride"

Corrugated Cardboard

Made these last night for a "Corrugated Cardboard Valentine" ATC swap. I mostly just wanted to see if I could pull off one layer of the cardboard in a shape without ruining it. Yes, you can! I used a piece of packaging. (recycling!! -yea!) I have recently found several bits that are the usual brown on one side, but WHITE on the other -double yea!! I cut the shape with an Exacto into just the one side, then peeled off that piece. Smooshed on some Brilliance ink and let that dry. Then I used one of my new Tim Holz stamps (belive it or not, the 1st TH stamps I've bought!) with red Staz-On on some window plastic (that I also get from packaging - why buy what you've already bought with something else -you paid for it. Use it!) Stuck on with glue dots. Added a brad and mounted on my cardstock. You can't really see it in the pic, but the brad is red and shiny. I like to distress things, so the curled corner is right up my alley. My Technique Junkies group/newsletter used this in the recent issue and I know I've mentioned it before, but go to techniquejunkies.com to check it out. The newsletter is NOT free, but it is really worth it! It is the ONLY one that I pay for! (Thanks Pat! and no, I get no benefit from the plug -I just really like my newsletters!)

Zentangles!

OK, so, about a month ago, while I was doing my internet surfing and "lurking" around in all my yahoo groups, I discovered a new (to me) artform called ZenTangles. I ended up staying up all night looking at examples and sketching in my notebook. - I keep a notebook near me at almost all times, because I also love lists and am always jotting down ideas, quotes, random thoughts, etc. I have recently decided to make it a UNLINED notebook that could also be a journal. It will end up being very boring in parts (shopping or chore lists) and somewhat "stream-of-consciousness" (PLEASE
excuse my spelling. I'm pretty sure that's not right!) But I'm trying it out.
Anyway, This was drawn in my lined book and I wish that it wasn't, so I got motivated. And, to be honest, I'm currently carrying both books with me! Those, plus my ever-present camera, a few pens and a bottle of water make my purse pretty darn heavy! Who needs make-up any way, right?
Good thing I don't carry my checkbook anymore!
So, I was signed up to do a swap featuring Mermaids and I'm not really the mermaid type, generally, so I had NO stamps to use for this. Plus, I had the "ZenTangle Flu" so this was what I came up with for the mermaids:


Not REALLY a Zentagle, I don't think, but ZT-inspired!
















Then I finally got around to playing with the real Zentangles in a book WITHOUT lines! I had left my computer downstairs, so I had to go from memory of what I had seen and my own brain. I thought I did a decent job for my first try. Please feel free to leave a comment. If you're familiar with ZenTangles and have any pointers, I would greatly appreciate them!

My creativity seems to come in strange bursts. I have tried to start a couple of things since this and tried to learn some of the "Official" patterns, but, it just hasn't been as good. Or as fun. IDK. Have to think about it...

The Chicago Blizzaster of 2011

This video I took last night around 1030pm. We had swept a small path for the dogs, but it was GONE.





We have a stuffed snowman who sits in the rocker on the front porch. Now the poor guy is REALLY a snowman!








Pokey was really ready to go out in the morning, but the backyard wasn't ready for her!




NOW it's ready Pokey! ,.....Pokey...?

Oh. She gave up waiting. Poor dog!



And now for just some pretty pictures...

I have had these really pretty grates up on the fence for years now. I salvaged them from my uncle's farm when he died.

My "snowflowers". I like to leave the cutting till spring, partly because I think these look so pretty with the snow on them. I take pretty much the same picture every year, bu I like them!

Pretty shadows in the afternoon from my bedroom window. The sky actually had some blue in it!

This squirrel stopped and posed for me. There are several of them that play in this tree and they are really stripping the bark off of it this year, but they have SUCH personalities! They are well-aware that we like to watch them and they frequently tease the dogs. I swear I can hear them blowing raspberries at them sometimes!! ("Nah-na-nah-na-nah-nah. You can't catch me!")