Tim Holtz 12 Tags of Christmas

Every year Tim Holtz creates a new tag each day for the first 12 days of December. And each year he manages to create some of the most beautiful tags ever seen... and everyone, I mean E V E R Y O N E, tries to duplicate them. Not a bad thing, however, because Tim provides the ingredients and recipe to make your own beautiful tags! Yum.

So go take a look at the tags Tim created with real tags, stamps and ink, ephemera and such HERE. Then go HERE and see the HAND PAINTED version done by the one and only Inkwell. OMG, is there nothing this woman can't do?

All Smashed Up!

I joined a Junk Journal swap at Your Paper Pantry with a Christmas theme, and I was STUNNED when I received the finished book! Watch the video and you'll see just how pretty this "junk" journal is!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

I hope those of you that read my blog have a wonderful and blessed Christmas. I'm signing off until 2012 but I've set up some future posts of my favorite slides and videos, (not mine!). I just enjoy them and hope that you do as well.

This first slide show is of the collages that Inkwell has been making all year for the group that follows her on Ustream. She calls it All About You, and pulls bits and pieces together based on information provided by her "subject". Each piece has special meaning to the "subject", and Dede, being the kind and generous soul that she is, then sends the finished collage to her "subject", wherever he or she may be in the world. To me, it's a wonderful gift for doing something you love doing, which is to watch Dede create art!

So Merry Christmas to all and especially to YOU!

December Doodles

It's December again and my worst month for blogging. I usually end up signing off until the new year, so if I don't return until then, you've been warned.

Been having problems with the Flickr photostreams on my blog so I've removed them. Half the time they don't show up, and I've noticed this on other blogs as well. I don't know what the glitch is but I hope they work it out eventually, it's been going on for a long time. I'm also having problems with Google, Facebook, etc., all being connected so I'm going to disconnect them! I don't know where the problem lies, but I didn't have it before and I hate when simple things don't operate correctly.

And I didn't make a December calendar because I'm doing Dawn Sokol's Doodle 12-31 class. I'm using a board book as she suggested and following along with her daily prompts, videos and word for the day. She's giving good tips too. It's really a pretty basic class, but I'm learning a completely different type of journaling so I'm rather pleased with it, (especially since I don't journal!). I like Dawn's style and lettering is really fun...I just don't know anything about it! I was kind of hoping she'd teach a bit of lettering but apparently not. Really don't think I want to take a formal lettering course.

On that note...here's the beginning of my little holiday doodle book! Fast and easy, no stress!

Merry Christmas to ME!

As a member of The Paper Pantry I was able to join their Secret Santa Swap this year, and holy cow, let me tell you...those women are generous beyond imagination! I can hardly believe some of the packages that have been swapped, but the biggest surprise was the one that came to me!!



My Secret Santa was Melaney. You can meet her and all the wonderful women of the pantry by joining today! Your Paper Pantry

18 Days of Nanojoumo!

Nanojoumo, a set on Flickr.

Set in Stone by Inkwell 2008

Set in Stone 11x14 Collage, a photo by inkwell2008 on Flickr.

About a month ago, Dede surprised me with this gift. It now sits in my craft room, framed and lovely, and where I can always look to it for inspiration. Those of you who know Dede will understand how there are no words to express my gratitude. No words to say what is in my heart. But be assured that if the house were on fire, this would definitely NOT burn. ;-)

I'm very fortunate and happy to have found art journaling and people like Dede. People with great talent who lend their encouragement to those of us that are less than talented.

I love you, Dede!

Nanojoumo

The first 12 days of National Nonstop Journaling Month are done. Yay! I'm really enjoying this, and I'm glad that I used the smaller journal. Some of the prompts require a bit of thought, while others I've been able to process quickly. I keep telling myself there are no rules, no need to be perfect every day and it helps. It allows me to play and have fun with it. One of my problems is that I always like someone elses work better than my own, so I'm overly critical of what I do. That has to STOP, and journaling every day is helping. I hope it sticks.

Thanks for stopping by!

063Eileen's photostream on Flickr.

November Calendar

The month isn't quite half over, so I don't feel as bad as I could about being so late with my calendars! I've been working on some swaps and the daily journaling, and just being too lazy to finish up. I don't know if I'll be doing this again but I will try to do one for December. Maybe I'll feel differently about it when the holidays are over. I've met so many nice women and seen such beautiful blogs. I'd miss that.

Here we are with October and November, which is actually in the works and has been for a while!

November Prompts with Dawn Sokol

I've been toying with the idea of doing Dawn's 30 day NaNoJouMo (National November Journaling Month) but I don't know if I can stay with it, the end of the year gets very busy. I took a peek this morning though and she's started off with a bang. She has her own little page posted for the prompt to show how simple journaling every day can be. I'm in. I'm going to use a small journal for this and make it easy on myself.

So if you're interested in journalling prompts, get on over there and get a little inspiration. Did I mention it's free?

Dawn Sokol's NaNoJouMo

Warren Buffett says...

No, I'm not going political...my blog will remain as is, but I found this on another craft blog and I HAVE to pass it on. I love it, I agree with it, and I'm re-posting it. That's all.

Warren Buffett, in a recent interview with CNBC, offers one of the best quotes about the debt ceiling:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only
3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

Warren Buffet is asking each addressee to forward this as an email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise. (Personal note from me - I have no idea if Mr. Buffett is asking this or not, but it was in the copy so I'm leaving it there)

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension.
A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.
All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen.
Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S.) to receive the message. Maybe it is time. THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!!!!! If you agree with the above, pass it on. If not, just ignore. You are one of my 20+.

Playing with Color Wash and Stencils

Ahhh, something new to play with, and I love it! (Frasier does too. If you look closely, you can see the telltale blue on his paw. This is after day two, day one was really blue!) If you don't have any color wash, you need to get some! The colors are so bright! Don't let my lousy pictures fool you, the color is vibrant!

I was lucky enough to catch a sale at ScrapbookingAlley.com thanks to Dale Ann Potter who happily shares her great finds. The Adirondack brand was on sale for under $4/bottle so I stocked up and bought 9 of them...(should have bought 12).






This last page was done over an old painted and glitter misted piece that turned out very badly. I've always wanted to redo it, even tried to once or twice, but it just kept getting worse. Finally, I gessoed over all the layers and sprayed it with color wash. Voila! It's not as bright as the first two pages because of all the color underneath, but it's a far improvement over what's under the color wash, I promise you that. And just in case you have any Frasier's wandering around, it's acid free and non toxic.

Wildflowers

I think this is one of the last pages I made. (One of the lessons from Gulfsprite's 30 Days of Journaling) There are a few others but not worth photographing. I've been in a slump lately and just making small things, so I've nothing to show for the time I spend at my craft table. I find that pretty amazing since I'm always at my craft table!

The old hometown had a bad weekend, the Tigers lost, U of M lost, and the Lions lost.

Be happy people.

Will you still need me? Will you still feed me?

When I'm 64?

Happy Birthday to me!

Ugh

Oct Calendar

I apologize for not having this done and posted with the Sept calendar below. I think I'm a bit confused as to when the calendar is to be done...at the beginning of the month or the end of the month. I think I did it right the first two months! So here's my quickly put together Oct calendar! Gotta run...I have a LOT of calendars to look at!

September Calendar

Another month gone. Fall is here. Halloween's coming. Then Thanksgiving. And Christmas. Oh My!!

Here's my finished calendar for September. It was a quiet month but a lot going on with family. The pictures that appear under a date are journal pages or collages that I made, or completed, on that day.



You can see more calendars or join the fun at The Kathryn Wheel.

What I've been working on....

These are the last pages I've actually completed. At times I feel like I need a break, and then I'll watch some awesome video and want to get right back to it. I did manage to take the weekend off...I was online but I didn't make anything, I cleaned my scrap area but didn't make anything, visited my favorite Pantry and joined a swap, posted some pics to Flickr, etc., but I DID NOT MAKE ANYTHING! I know I have 25 more days of 30 Days with Gulfsprite but I have 90 days to do that...well, 90 minus 25. So tomorrow I'll get right back to it.

Each of the following was made from a prompt I received in the 30 Days with Gulfsprite class that I'm taking.

This was SO dark. It happens to me a lot but I'm okay with the white paint.





I love this. I love the color, I love the ruffles....first time making them. I used a white gel pen to make the stitches.



I'm a fall person. I love everything about it. I especially love to decorate with fall colors. I'd use them year round if I could....I think I probably have.

New Collage Page

Sadly to say, it appears that Art Squared has died a slow and lonely death. The site hasn't been updated, messages haven't been responded to, nothing, nada, zip. I'll refrain from saying how rude I think it is that they did that without a word to anyone, but I'll certainly be removing links from my blog, facebook, etc.

I made this collage while watching ustream shows on 9/2/11. For some reason I never scheduled the post and it's been sitting in draft mode for weeks. I liked this at first but now I really don't care for it. I've done better, but I've also done worse. I have more pages to post now that I'm beginning to make a little headway on Golfsprite's 30 day journaling class. I just have to photograph them.

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September 2nd was a GOOD day! I woke up early and somehow managed to go online around 7:00 am. I couldn't have been luckier! Dede had been persuaded to go live on Ustream and she gave the BEST show ever! I think she was on for 2 hours, maybe 3, I'm not sure, but she sure did give us a ton of information! We should have paid for it...it was like attending a motivational seminar! The people, the place, the timing....it just all came together in cyberspace to make for a truly great morning for a bunch of art lovin' girls.

Dede's such a fabulous artist, and she inspires so many others. Unfortunately, I can't always see her Ustream shows because she starts at 6:00AM my time. But when I do, it's worth every sleepy-eyed moment. You can catch her program every Wednesday and Thursday at 9:00AM EST at Coffee and Art in the Morning.