Eat, Create and Be Merry

I starved you for 2 weeks, but the feast you are about to receive should be worth it! You may want to get a bib so you don't drool on your computer!

I can't think of anything much better than eating or creating, but when combined together two of my favorite things are even better! The latest two installments of recipe club were out of this world. After spending Friday night and Saturday in the company of both of my Recipe Club Classes I have a lot to be merry about! Of course my week was spent in frantic preparation for the two events, but the efforts were truly worth it. It's an amazing process to take a typed recipe and transform it into a readable, creative 6X6 piece of artwork. I first come up with a concept based on the amount of information I have to include in the limited amount of space. Next I typeset the information into a hopefully legible and visually pleasing layout. I also have to include a title and from whom the recipe was obtained. Then I let the creativity take over and hopefully come up with something that brings out both the personality of the food but also the personality of the woman who provided the recipe. After my prototype is complete I prep the projects so that the class member can come together and recreate the art for their own kitchens. It's so much fun to enjoy each other's company as we eat the food and recreate the projects together.

I have to give special kudos to Mikensee (my 11 year old DD) who made the adorable pumpkin stickpins. She made them at my request (with the concept for my card still in my head.) The first batch she made burned and she cried. She was so disappointed. I convinced her it would be worth it for her to make them again so she did. I wish I had taken a picture of the pumpkin patch but I didn't think about. They were so cute in the pin cushion together; each with their very own personality! The card would not have been the same with out them! She did an amazing job. I'm very proud of her. That Makins Clay is just fun stuff!




Let the feast begin!

Comments on Posts and a Morsel of First Artwork

Thank you all for you comments on my post. . . I do love em! Just one little thing, if you ask me a question and don't have an email in your profile it's very hard for me to get in touch with you. Of course I could leave another comment on the post, but I'm not sure that you would ever know I replied unless you stop back by to check.

You can always email me from the link on the right OR update your profile with an email so I can get in touch with you. Of course if your question is pertinent, I will always accommodate a new post for you!


So. . . Where did I bet my boxes? They are Bare Elements "Sam" boxes. They retail for $15. I have one left that I'm happy to sell for $12 plus postage to you. How much can an empty box cost to mail? (not quite empty, it includes dividers and base pages!)

My snow babies use their original hangers and I put them on my Christmas tree with coordinating ribbon, but I'm sure just a traditional Christmas hook will work well too!

Thanks again for your kind comments. Comments really make my day!

Just for fun; This is a card I made for a swap the first year I started with CTMH and the 2nd one I ever made (on my own). . . Go ahead and laugh, but hey, I had to start somewhere!

Just 5 Things

This is my 2nd post for today, so if you want to see the other, please scroll down. :)

For a long time I've been concerned about what posterity might know of me if I didn't leave anything behind for them. I love to scrapbook, but scrapbook pages can often be superficial in natural. By this I mean that we don't often tell about our real self -- our true thoughts and feelings. They usually cover life events of our children and families and I know that the pictures I haven't scrapped by far out weigh the ones I have. I know I also tend to scrapbook the joyous times in life of which there are many, but life isn't always joyous. Sometimes life is painful and hard. What have I learned? What do I wish I'd done? For this though I felt photographs were secondary. I wanted to show a picture of myself from the inside out. Where is my heart? What do I value? What hurts? To this end I began working on a list for myself titled Just 5Things. There are 50 topics on my list. This is some of them;

5 people important to me
5 friends I have known
5 things I would do if I had no limitations
5 things I live for
5 things I don't want to forget
5 things I don't want to live without
5 pieces of advice I wish I could have given myself at 18
5 things I'm passionate about
5 things I wish I could change
5 things I do every day
5 challenges that have changed me
5 things I wish I didn't care about
5 days I'll never forget
5 things I spend too much time on
5 reasons I cry
5 things that might surprise you

The list goes on and on. Like I said, I've worked on this list since last March. I also teach a Pictures In Art Class and this is what my list has become:









There are 6 dividers (shown on my class blog) and the 2nd class will be the pages. The class has been instructed to choose 10 things and I've provided worksheets with questions so that they can journal their true thoughts and feelings. This is to be about them. Even if they choose to tell about 5 people they love, it must be what this has done for them, not just a tribute to the someone else. We will be making scrapbook pages (5X7) for the main 5 things x 5 items (which I've instructed them on how to choose) and then the last divider will hold 5 pages bullet style of the remaining 5 things x 5 items. They have photo instructions to help illustrate the first 5 things. My hope is that the class (me included) will continue to complete the list of 50 things and stuff our boxes so that once we are no longer here to tell our stories our posterity will know us. They won't just have our memories, but our thoughts and feelings in a way I know without this I would never explore. I've told them that I hope they won't even share the boxes with their families now. I think it will be of much more value as a treasure later.

Here's my question for you. What 5 things would you want your posterity to know about you and how are you going to tell them?

Snow Babies Revisited

It's still 100' outside here in AZ but what more could you ask for than a little snowman in your life? I've had several posts recently asking me about my snow babies from last year. I know my friend Jen Peterson made about 100 of them last weekend. She is getting her socks this year at the $1 Store. She made some with some pink and brown socks and oh my are they cute!

Here is the original Post. SNOW BABIES

Here is a quick photo for those who didn't see last year or who want a sneak peek again! :)



Anyway, to address some questions I've been asked;

I used white acrylic paint. I used 2-8 oz bottles for the troupe I made. I cut my socks before I put them on my babies and it doesn't really matter how you do it, i just cut them in half at the toe and then tried to just keep cutting in halves until the strips were thin and curly enough for the poof on top. I used a little bit of glue to attach the hats on the first ones I made, but I really felt it was more trouble than it was worth. They seem to stay on perfectly with the elastic in the ankle band of the socks. If you wanted to be sure I think I would use Scotch Quick Dry Tacky Adhesive. Redline (Bologna) or Terrifically Tacky Tape would all work, but I would use a square in the front and one in the back, not all the way around.

I put the hangers (the round cap with the loop for a hook) on after mine were completely finished.

To do the paint you want to use WAY more than you think you need. I tipped them upside down in a cup and used the paint again and again transferring from one baby to the next. I just did housework and dropped in my office occasionally to do the next one. I let the paint dry for about 48 hours before I did any of the decorating. I used a black paint pen (found mine at Michaels) that looks like a marker. I think you could use a Sharpie, but this gave them way more personality than using a stamped face I think. I used some acrylic paint dyed with reinker and then end of a pencil (eraser side) for their rosy cheeks. You can also use the pearly white ornaments that are also easy to find. I made some of each, but prefer the craft white to the pearl.

If you make some, link up a post. I would love to see how many snow babies are delivered at your house this year!

Autumn Pumpkins

I love fall. Even living in Arizona where fall mostly consists of 100' days, fall means that it is cooling down, nights will soon be cool enough to open the windows,the holidays are approaching and that warm PJ's, peppermint tea and way too many goodies are on their way! I made these several years ago, but after seeing one published in Paper Trends (never thought of submitting mine) I thought you might enjoy seeing them too. I used a foam pumpkin, paper from CTMH with a few stamped images, some inked edges and ribbon and buttons for embellishing.

Baby Eden Blocks

I didn't drink the water but many of my friends did! Back in baby-ville (with a twinge of jealousy I might add! This is for my friend Adrienne whom I met through my friend Tori. She now teaches my daughter piano lessons so you've seen her featured on my blog before! She had a beautiful little Eden a few weeks ago and I finally got her gift made! In my defense she wasn't sure of what baby girl's name was going to be until she was born and as a matter of fact she probably holds the record for number of ultra sounds needed to determine the sex of the sweet little baby!







I'd love to take credit for the tumbling blocks (although mine don't really tumble, they just sort of stack all skiwompesy), but I stole the idea from my friend Jenn. You can see her adorable set of tumbling blocks here. Mine doesn't have pictures because I'm letting Adrienne do her own, but I do like how it turned out. Hope the proud new mommy of beautiful baby Eden does too!

Mother To Be

A LONG time ago, I made a baby onesie out of a small white paper sack. Recently I needed a gift bag for a Baby Shower and I had zero appropriate gift bags in my stash, I had an aha moment and remembered the old baby onesie I had made. The gift was larger than a baby onesie, so I came up with this idea. This is the very quickly made result. I think it looks like a maternity shirt, don't you?

Resident Scrap Cat

Penny is all grown up. She loves to sit perched high up in my office/studio and watch the scraps fly while I busily prep for classes and projects. Her 2nd favorite spot is on top of my vertical paper stash. I've had my oldest daughter make a nice pet pad (tranlate hair trapper) to cover it so she can perch there and I keep my sanity! Isn't she pretty? I frequently call her my Pretty Penny.

Wedding Ensemble

I was recently hired to make a wedding ensemble for an adorable young bride I know. This is how my samples turned out. Her colors are Chocolate and Sunflower. What do you think?

Halloween Card Class Time Again??!!??

I just can't believe that it has been an entire year since I posted these:




Yet here we were again on Friday night, me and about 13/16 Card Class members reminiscing about the year that has flown past. These are the goodies we made this year and of course some of them had to be for Halloween. I'm not sure which I like better; Last year's mummy or Franky's Chocolate Drawer? I also like Witchy Poo, but Franky sure makes the popcorn look like a special treat too. We really enjoyed ourselves AGAIN. Not sure if they'll be able to stand me for another year, but we'll see if there is Halloween Card Class III in 2009.





Here are the other 4 projects from Friday Night. I'm so behind on my posting, you better watch out! A flood's a coming!

More Than Just Color

Remember a while back I posted a great COLOR COMBO Blog? Well, guess what? She has a sister blog that you can see HERE!

Talk about inspiration I do promise more art content SOON! I have some good stuff, but life just keeps getting in the way of my blogging habit!