Soul Journey Bookmark

I am a little late posting my pictures of my Soul Journey Bookmark, because I forgot to scan it before I sent it off to Sarah. She so kindly scanned it for me, so- THANK YOU SARAH!
I can't wait to see what bookmark I get in return. It is so fun to do swaps, because it is like a little surprise gift in the mail. I am not really big on surprises, but art surprises are great. I really had a super fun time making this bookmark- I really junked it up. Sometimes I think I go overboard, but hey- that's the fun part right?






















Some of the things on my bookmark are: Twill tape letters (soul) with pastel baby pins, epoxy letters (journey), pink german scrap. On the other side I used several white rub-ons, some felt adhesive lace, rhinestone trim, and then embelished with white and black pen. I then added lots of fibers, a key, moon and a couple of pieces of natural mother of pearl charms. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out. It was interesting how different it looks from the original art pages it came from.

Row House Swap

I finally got my houses finished for Lenna's Row House Swap. They go in the mail in the morning. Well, I guess, it is morning, but they will go in the mail when the Post Office opens, LOL. I have been so busy with all the life stuff that I have been having to deal with that I have not had the time I have wanted to devote to making art. I have had these little houses on my mind for quite some time. I had such great plans for them, but when I started to create them, my muse was gone- it must be on vacation!

The kids are getting ready to go back to school on Monday, and there are a million things that need to be done. I feel so overwhelmed, but yet I can't really put my finger on what exactly is weighing me down right now. It is weird that way with me. I know if I just hold out for a little while, it will pass, and all will be well again. I just have to keep creating- keep my mind on the good stuff :0)

Well, here are my houses:

*The first one is actually my daughter, Quincy's- she is so awesome! I have to brag, because we love to play together, and I was so blocked with these houses and was bouncing ideas off of her, and she put this one together completely by herself, so I told her it was hers, and she gets to keep it!

*The next one I just couldn't give up- It just spoke to me. I love the shimmer of the pale pink roof and the image is so sweet. The flower in

the corner is hard to see, but it is also a shimmery white.

I just loved this one.

*******This one has a picture of my two daughters from several years back when they were little, so I made it to give to my mom. She loves to have things that are handmade with her grandchildren in them! What grandmother doesn't right? I love these vintage pictures of my kids- they are my very favorite.

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These are the rest of the houses that I made and the ones I am sending in for the swap.

Beeswax ATC's

Well, enough blog drama! Even though it is still a mess, I think I am just going to get some art up. I am try to just work on it a little at a time, and hope you all just work through it with me :0)

I hosted a swap with Paper Traders, where the only requirement was to include natural beeswax in the ATC somewhere, or in some way, shape or form. That's it. It was amazing the wonderful pieces everyone made.

I had never worked with beeswax before, and did not have the best success the first go round.

But,

Here are the results of my second attempt, and the ATC's that I ended up making for the swap.

Hey check it out

I think I am getting my blog under control. I still don't have a piece of art created for my header, and I have a ton of commitments right now, and with my kids starting school again, it might take awhile.
If you like something alot, or hate particular parts- leave me comments- I can use all the help I can get. (Feedback is great!) This is definitely going to be a work in progress. LOL

Bear With Me

Please be patient... I am having a case of indecision. In other words... I JUST CAN'T MAKE UP MY SILLY MIND!!! I know- I shouldn't shout on the internet, it is rude, and it annoys people. I keep changing my blog background, because I get bored with it, or it drives me crazy. I don't like this one either. I am so determined to have a 3 column, with a darker background, or a "classy" background, that I won't get bored with, or that won't annoy me after awhile. The little red butterfly was just driving me crazy fluttering around there, but doing nothing. And to top it all off, the "older posts" link was at the top of the posts section. Well, then I changed to a new template, and some how the HTML transferred, UGH. That is so annoying. I guess I am going to just have to do some searching til I find something I like, so stick with me till I get it figured out.
Thanks!
Letha

More Collage Potpourri (Day 18)

These were pages 5 and 6 of the six pages we did of the collage pages. I have to say at first I HATED these ones. I did all the prompts, and at first I thought it was going along just fine. I got to the point where I was doing the color wash, and everything went down hill in a hurry. I just kept going with the idea that it would work itself out, and I just tried to not think about it.
Well, then I added my stencil of the face. Oh my- things just were not going well- I tried to wipe it off, and it just got worse. I broke out the gesso, and started covering part of it up. I loved my number 5, so I worked around it as best I could. I noticed that the sharpie "things I did today" started bleeding through the gesso, so that was an interesting development.
The whole thing was still ICK. So, I stole my daughters "teeny bopper" magazines and started cutting them up- I found the cutest purfume bottles in an advertisement, and the little doll bottles are awesome so I thought I would just cover up as much of my ugly as I could. I am much happier with it now. I had to put some crowns on them, just 'cause- that's what girls are all about right?

Collage Potpourri (Day 17)

I am drowning in numbers- Save me!!!!!
Just kidding, I actually had a ton of fun finding numbers to fill these pages. The three best things I found were the crossword puzzle, the "sexiest men of the year" listing by ages- 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's, and then the 1-2-3 baby blocks. They all got covered up with paint, and you can barely see them, but it is still cool that they are there.
I had a great time smearing paint with the fork, and getting sharpie all over my hands from drawing around them.
I think the hardest part of this page was finding just the perfect "meaningful words" to add to it. I added them with white out around the outside of the pages and then also added the "I CAN" inside the hand shape, just to remind myself of that fact!

Stencil Pages (day 16)

Ok,
I am a few days late in getting this posted, for one the paint took like~ TWO whole days to dry! I will definitely do that different next time. I blopped it on directly from the bottle. I think next time I am going to try to splatter it from a brush, or maybe sprinkle it off a toothbrush- messier, but not so thick.
The other reason is, I was gone all day on Thursday, out of town picking my girls up from the airport. They were out of town all week visiting their grandparents. I am so glad to have them home. I missed them so much, but they had such a wonderful time, and really miss seeing their grandparents, and their Aunt. It was only for a week.
Here are the pages I did, and I love the stencil technique that Sarah has taught us. It turned out great. I think I will be using that one again.

I have to tell you a little funny- one of the things we were supposed to add was some pencil somewhere on the page. I decided that since I used a child's hand, that I was going to put a beak, eye and gobble on the thumb and make it a turkey like I used to do when I was a kid. (it is really hard to see in the picture, but if you click the pictures they will get really big, and you can kind of see it.)