homework help

The kittens are three months old already. Here they are helping Mike with his homework. There's Addie close by on the left. Ricky isn't too far away.

ability

My final fortune ATC for the swap.

beautiful smile

This is my second ATC for the fortune swap. The sentiment seemed perfect for Olive from Little Miss Sunshine. I knew I wanted a bright blue background to contrast the yellow and red, but was having trouble coming up with something interesting. I settled on blue Pearl Ex with a border of Ranger Crackle medium.

fortune turtle

A friend in Texas, Jan, is hosting an ATC swap where we use fortune cookie fortunes (actual ones). When I saw this fortune, I immediately thought of the sea turtle with its long lifespan. I had a ton of fun making this ATC. Lots of inking, and scrunching, and more inking. I used two Distress inks, but can't remember which ones. The blue one was either Stormy Sky or Faded Jeans. The green one was either Shabby Shutters or Peeled Paint. On the main panel, I put both colors of ink on one side of vellum, then embossed the turtle in gold on the other side (stamp is from SU set Nature Prints). Then I ripped, rolled and scrunched the edges of the vellum, put more ink on the edges, then added some Stickles (I believe in Crystal). Sewed on a few beads. The tiny dots on the background are from SU set Itty Bitty Backgrounds.

I've made two more ATC's for this swap, and I'll post them as soon as I can get some decent photos. We're supposed to get lots of rain in the next few days (yay - we really need the rain), so I'll take pics when there's a break in the weather.

green and gold santa sled

Here is my second - and final - sled for the swap. Yay - love small swaps! Used a mold for the face. Didn't like the hat he was wearing so I pressed the top of his head back into the beard portion of the mold. As I mentioned before, these sleds are just a few inches long. Very fun size to work with. Photo below is a side view to show the chunkiness.

sled of happiness

I'm in a swap where we alter sleds (I'm making two different ones). Dena got hold of a ton of little wood sleds (can't remember the details other than there were a couple of cases of them). They're pretty small - about 2" x 6".

This is my first effort. I gessoed it, then painted with light blue acrylic, and gave it a good sanding. Added some wood medallions (also painted and sanded). Stamped with my Studio G happiness stamp (featured in my first post in this happiness blog of mine) - using the Tim Holtz acrylic paint dauber I got from his class. I had Mike drill holes in the sled and the little guy's belly so I could screw him into place. Figured that would be a lot stronger than glue - which will be needed because whomever ends up with him will want to have fun posing him. I couldn't resist painting the bottoms of his feet red for just a tiny pop of color. This design is very simple, but somehow I spent many hours on this guy (and his twin brother - had to make a second one to keep). I noodled over many different ideas to add more... putting a tree on the sled, having him hold a snowflake, balancing miniature dishes on his hands and feet, painting the flowers red, etc., etc., but decided simple was best.

cottage cheese?

Last Friday I brought a bunch of out-of-town friends (who came in for the Stampaway convention) to Your Stamping Cottage. There were eight of us shopping. What fun! It was Ramona's second-to-last day in business, so it was also sad for me. As soon as I walked out the door I started crying like a baby. This picture is me and Ramona doing our best "cheeeeese" smiles.