Lady in Hat ATC swap

This is my contribution for the Lady in Hat ATC swap over on Tee's blog, The Altered Paper. I wanted to do something a little different from just a lady wearing a hat, so thought of it in terms of how I feel when I dress up, hence the title...I'd Rather Be in Blue Jeans!! LOL I cut out an image of a lady dressed up and wearing a hat, then cut out a small square of denim from an actual pair of cast off jeans. I frayed the edges and glued it on, then glued on a metal button off the jeans. I hope my partner likes it. :)

Altered Spoon swap

This is my contribution for the altered spoon swap that I entered on Tees blog, The Altered Paper. The bowl of the spoon has an image of Marie Antoinette in blue, so the ribbons were selected to match. This was such a fun project and now my family is afraid that they'll soon be eating with their fingers because I'm altering all the silverware I find! LOL

Lotsa swaps going on...

Jeanie, over at All My Art hosted an Altered Door Hanger swap. This is my creation for my partner there. I started with a very think wooden door hanger and am very happy with the way it turned out. Hope my partner likes it. :) I'm trying to catch up and have a lot more to add, so I'll be trying to get all of it done in the next few days. :)

This is my creation for the Pocket Swap that was going on over on Tee's board, The Altered Paper. I loved doing this one, and thought that it turned out really well to have started with a tissue roll core! LOL I love shabby and decided to use that as the theme for this swap. I don't think I took a picture of all the goodies included with it, but this is the main part of it anyway. :) Enjoyed doing this swap. :)

This is my creation for the Treasures of the Sea swap on Vintage Dragonfly's site. I'm late getting it on here, the swap is actually over, and we've gone on to another...Grandma's Attic. Now to figure out what to do with that one! LOL Loved making the mermaid card and holder, I always liked them but had never done one myself, so it was a lot of fun. :) Hope you like it.

A great day at my mailbox

I went to my mailbox yesterday and was so excited to find not one, but TWO swaps came! My music box from Karen over at Monthly Matchbox Swaps on Flickr is a wonderful lil gem all about The Beatles!!! I LOVE it!! She is sooo creative, I was just so thrilled to open up the little decorated pouch to find all the treasures inside! Inside the matchbox it's self, she included tags of Beatles song titles with a little giftie to represent each title attached....ingenious, and so much fun! :) She also made a lil accordion book with the Beatles on each page. I just love the bottle cap on top of the box with a pic of the Beatles inside. GREAT JOB Karen, and thank you so much!

The other package was my gorgeous box from Wendy in the Treasures of the Sea swap over at Vintage Dragonfly's Altered Matchbox Group http://www.flickr.com/groups/vintagedragonfly/ Wendy did an awesome job with her Treasures box by making a mini shrine with a mermaid, shells, all sorts of lil fish and undersea wonders, and embellishing it with teeny tiny lil beads that look just like bubbles coming up from the ocean floor!! Oh so cute! The hanger she attached is embellished with eyelash yarn in the wonderful colors that make one think of the sea and a gorgeous little seashell hanging down. I love it! She also included the cutest lil card with two baby mermaids just kinda hanging out. What a wonderful package to receive. I just love mail days like this!!!

Thanks ladies, I'll treasure these boxes and think of you when I look at them! :)

Music Matchbox swap

Music was the theme for our matchbox swap on Flickr for the month of May. We had a lot of super entries with a lot of different takes on the theme. All of them were wonderful! This is my entry. :) I'm an Elvis fan, just LOVE his music and so he was a natural choice for me; along with the Beatles who I also love, but because they aren't quite equal to how much I like Elvis, they're on the BACK of the box! LOL We also had to include the color black, so these were good choices for that. Anyway, it was such a fun theme to do, thought I'd share it here. I'll be putting my partners box up soon to show as well. Love these swaps, they're so much fun!!

Door Hangers

I've been working on a lot of different projects lately, and one that I've enjoyed doing is a door hanger. Jeanie over at All My Art has a challenge going on, so I thought I'd jump in and try one of my own. I love all things Paris, so that's the theme I went with. I cut two of them out of a cereal box and glued them together for extra strength, then gessoed and painted them an antique white color; I stamped french text with a TH tea dye ink. I found an image of the Eiffel Tower and resized and cut it out, a vintage image of a Parisian couple, then made a PARIS tag; I glued all those down, then stamped a Paris postage stamp in a couple places. I then antiqued all around with brown shoe polish. I made a charm with beads and a crown key, then attached it with a fleur de lis brad. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

I'm still trying to learn about how to do things with my blog. One of the things I'm working on, but haven't mastered yet is how to share a link to other blogs, so I can't put a link to Jeanie's blog, but if you go to All My Art, you will find that Jeanie has a lot to share with some really great ideas. Thanks Jeanie for this challenge. :)

Blogger has been making me crazy!!

Well, it's been a long time since I've been able to make a post here, and I'm just hoping that this one is going to go through! I don't know what's been happening with blogger, but everytime I've tried to get here to post something, there's been something or another that has been acting up to prevent it. There's been lots going on around here to talk about, but it's going to take more than one post to tell/show it all LOL Have a lot to share now that I can get on here, so I'll be back soon and get some of it done. I'm so glad to be back, hope someone has missed me! haha :)

Today is a very special day; twenty five years ago today my only son was born!! What a wonderful blessed event that was. He ended up being our only son, and one of the four proudest accomplishments that hubby and I ever had (along with our three beautiful daughters). He is one of the most intelligent people I have ever known and has been able to accomplish everything he has ever attempted. There are never sufficient words to describe the love and pride that a mother feels for one of her children so I won't even attempt to do so other than to say that my heart swells each and every time I think of him. Happy Birthday Nick, I love you big as the world!!!! :)

Matchboxes and weddings

The theme for the April swap over at our matchbox swap group on flickr is weddings. One of the members, Jeanie, suggested it to coincide with the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. I have an even better reason to be doing weddings though; my youngest daughter will be getting married in less than a month, and we're all about weddings here at my house right now. :) I'm in the midst of making jewelry and flowers, and all kinds of other wedding related things. Excitement is in the air.

I took some time out of our real wedding preps to make the matchbox though, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. First I painted the matchbox a creamy white color, and then glued lace all over it. I pasted a very pretty creamy white ribbon all around the edges as well as each end of the box. I had already found my image of a vintage wedding couple, so I added a bit of greenery to the top of the box, and then the couple. After that, I embellished with beads, a creamy white ribbon rose, and a set of wedding rings.

The inside is chock full of little wedding related goodies that I hope my partner Jonathan will enjoy, but I won't show that until after he receives the box, so he'll be surprised.

This was a really fun matchbox to work on....now back to the real life wedding. :)

Spring at my house

I was wandering around the yard this morning and took a few pix of what is blooming. It's so nice to see some color in the yard. We've been having spring like weather here for awhile now, along with a little cold snap or two, but it seems that the flowers are coping well. I just love being outside piddling around; would much rather be outside working than inside. Would rather mow than vacuum any day!! LOL Here are some pix, hope you enjoy them.

I LOVE birds!! In our matchbox swap group this month, the theme was birds. We had to do a matchbox and some goodies to send to our partner that was all about birds. This is my contribution. It was sooo much fun working on this one. The little book was made using a paper punch and various pix and such of all kinds of little birdies. I so do love the quote on the back of the box. It's been sent to my partner and I'm hoping she loves it as much as I did when I made it. :)

This is my Romance matchbox for a swap at Matchbox monthly swap over on Flicker. This was our February theme. I loved using the little bingo card as the background and the little flower to embellish. We're having a great time with these little matchboxes. :)

Matchbox swap

I'm involved in a matchbox swap in a Flicker altered matchbox group. The theme for this month is Glitz and Glamour. We are to use glitzy gold, and a glamourous image. This is my entry. I used a gold embossed scrapbook paper to cover the matchbox, some ribbon and gold rickrack, an image off the net, a shoe button, and a crown. The crown is made from a Christmas ornament cap, a little trick I learned from my friend Jen on her Jenxo blog. Thanks Jen, I just LOVE these little things, and what I USED to throw away, I am now finding mucho uses for! :) I also used a couple of the ornie caps on the back of the matchbox and placed a flat back golden jewel in the center. I'll wait until my partner receives it before I show what goodies are stuffed inside. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy looking as much as I enjoyed making it. :)

Playing in the beads again

Well, we had a GREAT snowstorm hit here a few days ago...it left 8 inches here at our house and more in other places around. Sooo cool!! The only problem with that much snow is that it makes it harder to get out of the house; but of course for an artist/crafter, that's a little slice of heaven! :D I took the opportunity to play with some beads and do some creating. My daughters (3) decided that they all needed some bird nest jewelry, sooo, I made them earrings, a pendant for a necklace, and a ring! So much fun, but I sure had some sore fingers when finished! :D Anyway, thought I'd show some of the pieces to you. Hope you like them. I sure had a good time making them.

This is my home during the snow we got at Christmas. It's where I live, and love, and play, and create....it's my humble abode and I am so thankful for it! It's the place where together we have raised our four amazing, smart, and wonderful children to be the awesome adults they are. One married, one about to be, and two still considering their choices. :D I am sooo blessed to have a wonderful husband, fabulous children, a fantastic extended family, and terrific friends. I hope all of you had a beautiful Christmas season, and that you have a blessed and prosperous new year. It really is a wonderful life! :)