Flaky

I was looking at the pretty snowflakes on Heather's blog and then I realized that I could make them too. And so can you -- go here.I had a really hard time with those virtual scissors. I felt like one of my kindergarten kiddies using scissors for the first time. snip snip.
It has been snowing a bit here lately -- but now it's just raining. That's November in Toronto for you!

More Mona

More of my work in Andi's book -- although it looks a bit wonky here. All of those Mona images were cut out of scholastic catalogues -- if you are a teacher or a parent here in Canada, you probably know what I mean. Each month, parents get a chance to order from these catalogues through their teachers. There was a book with Mona's image on the cover, so I used lots of those -- I've been saving them for almost 2 years! (The book is E.L. Konigsburg's The Second Mrs. Giaconda). The letter stamps are my favourite foam stamps (Making Memories). Foam stamps are THE BEST for stamping with acrylic paints.

Icicle dolls

Everyone is making them! If you check out Belinda Schneider's blog, she has many many examples (of hers and others) . There are instructions on her blog, and a template here. I liked them when I saw them, but I thought that I didn't need to be making dolls right now. But then I realized what fun ornaments they would make. Okay, perhaps this one isn't too Christmassy, but I've seen some in whites/off whites that are perfect. Next weekend, I'll be making a whole choir of icicle angels!

Pay it Forward!

I got lucky on Elizabeth's Blog! She's having a "Pay it Forward" giveaway! Lots of blogs are doing it!
I'm doing it too! Here's how it works:
I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF (Pay it forward) exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
So basically, if you comment and you’re on, I’ll send you something crafty that I’ll make!
Once you sign up, copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog, and three other lucky people will be recipients of your handmade work.
While you're at it, rent the Pay it Forward movie.
OKAY! The 3 are Michelle, Cori and Marissa -- hop over to their blogs if you want to participate, and get some of their cool art!

Martha and Leo.... together again....

Once again, I am collaborating with Leonardo. We are liking this partnership. This is Andi's calendar-- the last spreads of the Calendar Journal Round Robin. It will fly home to Andi tomorrow. Here is the first spread:(more throughout the week!)

Honour Nature

This is my work in Heather R's book. I spent a lot of time placing pieces and then taking them off. I also spent a whole day doing the background -- and then I found a piece of wallpaper in my stash that is exactly the same. Go figure. Those are lavender branches from my garden. I managed to rescue some before the snow came. I strengthened them will gel medium and then gessoed them a bit.
Serenity:

Stampin Up!

I went to a Stampin Up! Party last week (thank you Debra for hosting!)(And to our neighbourhood Rep, Diana). I had lots of fun. I managed to finish 2 of the 3 cards! AND I quite like them. Not my usual style, but I'd make more. The stampin up white ink is the best white ink that I've come across. It is on the "sparkle" card as snowflakes AND I stamped off ink before I stamped onthe card. It is also on the green strip, again, I stamped it off first. The silver embossing powder is very silver. Nice. Hey, maybe there is a scrappy card maker inside of me after all!
I managed to spend a weeee bit of money (Happy birthday to me from my mom!). And then we ate yummy yummy pastries from Dufflet. No pictures of those. We ate them too fast :)

Time to draw for the stars!

It's Sunday night. I made these cute little tickets with numbers. I got this cool rubber stamp machiney thing called a "mark maker -- automatic numberer" I got it last year at an antique store (it's not antique -- maybe 20 years old?). So here goes....I'm running upstairs so Ray can pick.... it is number 26! The lucky last person to make a comment.... running back downstairs to check the computer to see who it is....... oh, it's Kelly Snelling! Kelly -- they'll be off to you tomorrow. Everyone else -- well, ,there are still some in my etsy shop! And I'm having a fabric collage giveaway in a few weeks too. Thanks for visiting, see y'all next time.

12 days to Christmas....

Okay, not really -- but I finally mailed out my swaps to Heather. Here is a sneak peek of what everyone will be opening on Day 11. Which, I believe, is Christmas Eve. So most definitely check back every day between December 14-25 to see what we're all opening. Don't worry, I'll keep reminding you.

It's all about me....

Last Friday I went to my ATC meeting at Bizzy B's. Our theme was "self portrait" . For some reason, I had NO PROBLEM with this. I used my favourite materials (transparency and fabric) and rubber stamped on some of the fabric (text). I whipped up lots of them. And, wouldn't you know it, there were only 7 (?) people there -- we have had at least 15 before. So I had a few left. Next month's theme is "winter" . We meet the second Friday of each month -- from 6:30 until we're finished (I usually stay until midnight)(when Katie kicks us out) If you live in the Toronto area, feel free to drop in and join us!

Oh My Stars!

I'm listing my aluminum stars in my etsy shop. I made tons of them when I used to do the One of a Kind Show. They are all individually hand cut and punched, and have a tiny hole drilled in them for hanging. They also look wonderful in mixed media collage. I used to sell them for 10 for $5, but I need more space, so they'll be 25 for $5. Woo Hooo!
I've also decided to do a GIVEAWAY of a bag of stars, plus some other little aluminum trinkets that I made. Just leave me a comment telling me if you prefer gold or silver on your holiday tree, and why. I use both gold and silver --- but almost all of my ornaments are pink. I have the most beautiful tree in the world every year. I'll show it to you in December. I'll pick the winner on November 18. Don't forget to leave an email addy for me to contact you (if you're not a blogger member, or if I don't know you)
*** I'm also going to have a giveaway on my 200th blog post -- a few weeks away...... so keep checking back!

What Holiday Food am I?

You Are a Fruitcake

People pretend you're sweet and precious, but they know how weird you really are!

What Holiday Food Are You?

hahahaha, that's funny. It's no secret. I AM weird.

Mommy loves Lauren

A 4x4 collage of fabric, paper, transparency and fibre. I miss my baby....... but she'll be home for a visit in about 5 weeks! :). The photograph was taken the day before she left.

Romancing the Paper

I tried Rachel Emilie Jackson's technique from Somerset Workshop 3. It involves lots of layers of coffee, gesso and paint. I tested it out on Jen's RR book -- the theme was "choose your colour" then work in that colour. My colour was, well.... whitewash? Off white? Okay, so I cheated a bit..... I really loved the results -- especially on the left side of the spread (top). The right side started fine, but I added a piece, and then it was unbalanced, so I had to add more stuff, and then it was kind of full. I was really happy with the sign-in tag (we were supposed to use a paint chip that Jen provided) -- but it doesn't look as great on my computer. Then I made some birdie ATCs. These have been sent off to Donna L!