Oh Canada!

(The guys are bobsledding.)

As the Olympics come to a close, I have to share some paintings that my students made (sorry, I just couldn't resist!) (to see lots more, go to my other blog -- Ms. Brown's Classroom). We have loved learning about the Olympics. So much that I am going to buy the special commemorative DVD about the Olympics the CTV is putting out. (it's $60!!) I really wanted to show them each sport, but I wasn't organized enough to tape them (truth be told, I don't even know how to tape things on tv -- it never works for me :). The DVDs won't come for 6 weeks -- but I figure that I'll use them again in 4 years. And it has a history of the olympics, etc etc.... am I crazy? My friend and her teenagers were laughing at the commercial for the dvds saying "Who on earth would want to buy them?" So if you want to borrow my dvds, I'd love to share them to make it worth my while :) Does anyone have these same dvds for the Summer Olympics? I'd love to show the swimming to my swim team..... (I coach grade 4-8 swim team)(and I also pretend to teach grade 4-8 FolkFest -- folkdancing -- not an Olympic sport... yet.....)

(She is playing hockey)

Steampunk ATCs

I forgot to post my February ATCs from the exchange at Bizzy Bs. The theme was Steampunk. I had a hard time photographing them because I used transparencies. No flash, but the glare from the light still was annoying. Next month's theme is "Mystery" which means you can do whatever you want. Choose your own theme. If you're in Toronto, feel free to join us on March 12 at 6:30 pm at Bizzy Bs! Please email me more than a week ahead of time so I can tell you how many to make!

I made cards!

I'm trying really hard not to buy cards (but sometimes, when those cards at Michaels are on sale, I just can't say no! Here, they are 10 cards for $1.50 and they often go on sale for 1/2 price -- I can't even buy envelopes for that!)
Anyway.....
I bought some very cool hand carved foam stamps from Alisa Burke -- I love foam stamps because they take acrylic paint so well!I stamped them on white paper -- but the 3 heart ones looked really boring so I used some Shimmer mists and Twinkling H2Os to add some colour. Then I cut them out and layered them onto some coloured papers and sewed them down. It's amazing how different they look with different background papers and thread. Alisa has an online class about carving your own foam stamps. I plan to take it very soon (Spring Break?) It's only $30!!! She has lots of other classes too. At ArtUnraveled last year, the work that I saw being carried out of her class was AMAZING. Of course I have her book too -- Canvas Remix -- it's wonderful!!
Next time I make cards I'm going to try a more messy coloured background with black stamps.....

More Valentine Love

I forgot to post what I received for Valentines Day!Ray knitted me these awesome hearts!
My students gave me valentines too!
(Lauren gave me a very cool seal and red sealing wax set -- you'll be seeing a lot of seals in my work soon :)

One World, One Heart

Well, Woodland Wanderings, who won my giveaway, hasn't gotten back to me -- I have emailed her (I think that it's a woman :) and I have left comments on her blog. If I haven't heard back by 6pm on Sunday February 21, I'll choose another name.
***EDIT*** Whew -- just in time! Kelley of Woodland Wanderings emailed me this afternoon. She's been having some computer/internet problems due to the awful weather happening in the east. Congratulations, Kelley -- your bag is on its way!!!
(Shall I have another bag giveaway soon?)

One World, One Heart -- Lookie what I won!!!

I won a few things this year :) A big thank you to everyone who participated :)

A mystery piece of art from The Frog Palace

A Nature inspired canvas from Halle (doesn't it just say that spring is coming??? Today was a beautiful day -- and it wasn't even dark at 5:30 pm!!! SPRING IS COMING!!!!)

A children's book from Heidi (How perfect for me and my class!!!) (if you want to buy your own, you can get it HERE.

An altered composition book from Gail at Shabby Cottage Studio-- totally perfect because the one that I am using is almost full and I need another one -- and this one is BEAUTIFUL!!!!

One World One Heart

This year I visited every blogger who joined the One World One Heart Blogging event. Approximately 1100 blogs in about 3 weeks. I added some blogs to my "daily must-reads" and I shopped a bit from their etsy shops.

Here is a sampling of what I found: (click on their names to see their blogs)

Katie who is a doll maker in England -- I am the proud owner of Violet! Here is the link to her Etsy shop!Beth is fabulous artist -- her Blog is Three Trees Art -- I loved her OWOH giveaway and I couldn't wait to win something so -- I now own this beautiful bracelet from her etsy shop -- it's called "Blue Skies and Poppies"
and at Kim Mailhot's blog I saw her adorable birds - so I had to rescue one from her etsy shop! (I bought the green one)
Here are some more blogs that I've added to my "must read list" (found them all through OWOH)
Judy at My Artistic Side is a wonderful mixed media artist!!!

OWOH -- The winner!

An unbelievable amount of people visited my blog during the 3 weeks of this event. 443 comments!!!! I will be drawing for one main prize (the bag) and then I will send a few smaller prizes to the comments that I liked the most. So the drawing for the bag will be random, but I'm going to send some little owls or something out into the world too because some comments made me smile :)
Thank you to everyone who visited me!
The winner is...... number 223 (and now I have to count down that far -- and I'll have to do it 2 or 3 times to make sure that I'm correct........
it is Woodland Wanderings -- who actually typed in her blog addy incorrectly, so I had to so a big search to find her, but whew for her, I did!!!
I'll be posting a note on your blog to tell you that you've won my purse!

The not so random, just because, winners are....
Shelly because she took the time to look at my other blog too
Brenda because last year she visited everyone and didn't win anything
Theresa because she really likes my owls :)
Tina because she offered me a shovel for my belly button lint :) (see my profile question)
Lorrie just because she lives in Kalamazoo and posted such a great interview with Kim
Diane because she though Andy was cute -- almost as cute as her dogs

(I'm going to post a bit about OWOH tomorrow too -- telling you my great finds and what I have won!!)

Zombie Girl in Love

This is what I made for Ray for Valentines day. I love making dolls....
(please note the lack of snow in the pictures. There is just a sprinkling of snow here. Really!)

Valentines, I LOVE valentines!

These are some Valentine ornaments that I made for a swap:
They had many incarnations -- I wanted to use so many things, but they were too busy. So I pared back and will use the leftovers next year :)

Welcome to Canada!

I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night -- very proud to be Canadian. My daughter (22) and her friends found it to be incredibly boring --but I was happy enough . It is so sad that the event was overshadowed by the death of the Georgian luge racer. See mom? that's why I don't toboggan (I have never liked going fast downhill -- I don't toboggan or ski -- even riding my bike downhill makes me nervous!)
GO CANADA!!!!

ArtUnraveled Technique Fatbook

I haven't made fatbook pages in a few years. Now I remember why! It takes forever!
It's a techniques fatbook from ArtUnraveled. You are supposed to show a technique that you learned at ArtUnraveled. I took a "Stenciled Self Portrait" class from Judy Wise last year. It was my favourite class ever, so I thought I'd do that. Yikes.
I had to make 30 backgrounds, then paint on the flesh, then cut out the dresses and glue them down, then stencil each one!!! Then I finished them with a beeswax coating.
Remind me not to do this again :)I forgot to take pictures of them when they were finished. I kept this one because of the blob on the nose. I actually quite like it and plan to mount it in wood and put it up on the wall!
You can see the piece that I made in Judy's actual class here.