Christmas Card and Recipe Swap

I participated in a fun swap this month. We exchanged Christmas cards that we made and we include a favorite family recipe.

This one was hand painted and collaged and was bright and cheery.

This one was hand painted. I loved the little birds on the ground. The artist is from Germany and she painted each of the cards with different animals on the bottom. I thought that was pretty neat.

This one was a bright and cheery collage.

This snow globe had glittery balls and an envelope to match.

This was another hand painted one.  I like the whimsical nature of it.

Envelope Swap

I've been working hard to get ready for two local events. I am having a booth for my coaching at a local psychic fair and a wellness expo. If you are local, make sure to come by and say hello. As a result there hasn't been much time for art, just bits and pieces.

This came in the mail yesterday.  I was part of an envelope swap.  It was made by my friend Lisa Bowlin.  I love all the color

This is the back, it has a lot of detail that you can't see. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of my own envelope.

I made this little sketch when I was in Oregon.

This is a little collage I've been working on. Lots of spray inks were used here, not sure if she is done yet.

 



















This is another work in progress, I loved the background which was made on newspaper and the image is a favorite, not sure what else I need to add so I am letting it percolate for awhile.

I've been working hard to get ready for two local events. I am having a booth for my coaching at a local psychic fair and a wellness expo. If you are local, make sure to come by and say hello.

I find even when I am busy with other things you have to grab those moments for art when you can.

List Making And Where it Will Take You

I love lists, I like making them and then crossing each item off.  I will even add items later just so I can cross them off the list.  Often I will use different colors to cross things off just cause its fun.

Todays list led me to organizing my studio. No it not an item on the list. I was vacuuming my office/sewing room and looked at a storage container. It was half empty and I thought I would switch it out with some containers from the art room.

Now its in the art room and holds all my paints, spray ink,etc. I think its going to work great having it all in one place. I need to add some labels but its pretty functional right now. I won't show the rest of the room since its still in disaster mode.

I have always loved stencils and am just a bit annoyed that no one around here carries the good ones. So I have taken matters into my own hands and did some online shopping. I bought a whole slew of stencils by Crafters Workshop, Primarily Balzer designs.  Julie Fei fan Balzer has fantastic style and great stencils.  Check some of them out here.  I ordered from Blue Moon Scrapbooking.  They are fabulous to work with and got me my supplies fast. The pic is of a few that I purchased.

This is my first play with the stencils. I am still adding things to this background.   I do love to keep adding layer after layer.

I think this side may be the reverse of the stencil. when using spray ink I turn the stencil over and get the background too.  It gives different and interesting marks.

I am also doing a fairy swap with some friends on line.  This was my first try, I think she is a little chubby for a fairy. I am trying out a few poses to see which one I would like to use. Doing swaps is always a fun thing for me.  Trying to do something you have never done before helps you grow and stretch as an artist.

Have you done anything out of your comfort zone lately?

Remains of the Day Swap

This is showing just a little bit of the bounty I got in a swap with the Remain of the Day Yahoo group. We swapped 10 for10 items and I did 2 sets. The idea was to share some of your finds with others, I got some really cool stuff.  So many of the swap participants did way more than ten, myself included.  It was like Christmas opening up all the packets.  Today I plan to sort it all in appropriate piles. I got bingo cards, paper, playing cards, wallpaper, napkins, ledger papers, embellishments and more. I even got a couple stamps and a book.  What a fun swap this was. Now the fun begins as I get to use all of these new things.

Well Behaved Women

I participated in this ATC swap over at Milliande's network for women, the subject of the swap was Well behaved women rarely make history. I was so late getting mine done that I forgot to take pictures. My cards all had Liz Taylor on them. I love doing swaps, you get to try new things and then also get to meet new people and of course receive art too. What a deal.

This one imortalizes an old movie star Clara Bow. Created by Laura Damer

This one was done by Patricia Gonzales

This one was done by Liz Monaghan the swap leader.

I got a another postcard, this one is from Italy, and it was made by Barbara I love the papers she used in the background. I thought I had gotten all my cards but I guess I was wrong. There is another postcard swap happening its called Liberate Your Art and you can find more information here

Wands and Affirmations

My glitter sisters had a swap recently where we made magic wands and affirmation cards. This is the wand I received from my friend Ninnie. I think it was made with polymer clay. It is purple and is spiraled with glitter in it. The entire piece has carvings in it and is adorned with silk ribbons and bells on it.













Here is a closeup of the face carved into the wand.


















We were to make 4 different cards for each person. These are Ninnies cards.


















and these are Tinkers cards.
















Gemma's cards have these beautiful whimsical drawings on them.


















My cards, the red one is missing some words. I need to print them out again cause I seemed to have lost them. Mine were cereal boxes that I spray painted on.

















Mahala's cards were layered and embellished.


















Kai's cards have beautiful drawing on them. I am waiting to receive 2 more sets of cards. This really was a fun swap.













Oh and here is the wand I made for Mahala. I used a dowel rod that I covered with 2 layers of fabric. I added ribbons and then brads and jewels and fresh water pearls.













I added a wooden star at the top of the wand. I added a wood sealer and then painted it with metallic paint and attached it with a glue gun. It was really so much fun to make.

If you have never participated in a swap before I suggest you try one. They are a great way to meet new artists and you end up with wonderful art from another person.

Sacred Life Sunday - Friendships

While in Salt Lake City I got to reconnect with an old friend. Linda now lives in Boston. It was great to spend some time with her.














One of the things I did at GA was to go to the Prom for all ages. That's Diane on the left and then Molly and Jennifer to my right. Don't we all look dashing. We had fun dancing the night away. Diane and Molly and I roomed together. It was like being back in college sitting in bed talking way into the night. It was great to be able to learn a little bit more about these ladies I call friends.

Flag Swap












Other special friends are my art friends the glitters sisters. Although we live far away we really have a close bond fostered by Art and connection. We just did a prayer flag swap.


















This is Ninnies flag and she is from Alabama.


















My flag from Idaho.


















Pam's flag, she is from South Carolina and then Portland Oregon and now she is in Florida

















This is Lorraines flag and she is from Callifornia.


















This flag was done by Janet, who is also from California and it is spray painted.


















This flag was done by Kai who is from Cornwall but lives in Ohio.
















This was done by Cheryl who is from British Columbia, Canada

















This was done by Gemma and she lives in the Phoenix area.


















This is Violette's flag and we all met via her message board.


















Mahala lives in Washington


















Mahala sent me two flags.


















The lovely Lisa Oceandreamer made this one and she is from California.

This group of ladies are really the best. I treasure their friendship and feel honored to have some of their art. Do you have any Art friends to share with? If not join a swap on line. You never know who you are going to meet. lasting friendships start this way.