The Lost Art of Writing Remember that excitment when you received a card or a letter in the mail? In this day and age it doesn't happen often; and I find that sad. I know most of what I receive in the mail are things I really don't want: junk mail and or bills.....yuck! Reading a blog post (the Crafty Donkey http://craftdonkey.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-lost-art-of-writing.html ) a few minutes ago reminded me of those letters I used to share with Penpals and friends that lived so far away. No matter if the day was a good day or a bad day, the whole world seemed so much smaller and more friendly seeing something with my name on it in the stack of mail. I'm guilty with the rest of the world of not writing and sending letters and cards to my loved ones because the internet has replaced that and everything is so much quicker and instant now. NO matter how I say I'm going to try and write so many letters each month or send out cards each month.....I fall flat. I will strive to be better about writing and sending cards and letters out to my friends and family....after all the price of a stamp although seems to rise often really isn't that much. The smile and joy it will bring to them is worth so much more. Please go to The Crafty Donkey blog and remember those days of unexpected mail and the joy it brought.

Mixed Media Arts

I decided to try my hand at this ever growing in popularity craft. So far I bought a small 6"x9" watercolor notebook and used Gesso on the first page. I decided to Gesso both sides so the back was primed for using later. That was yesterday. Today I have created my first background in my Art Journal (or really inspiration Journal).

Using some Radiant Pearls I purchased many years ago I first brushed and swirled the color Peacock, then used Sweet Apricot to add some contrast. Next I decided to highlight using the color Frosty Iris, which I liked but was super light, so I used Royal Satin to add the purple it seemed to be calling for. This is the result.

I really think I like how it is going for now. I know I plan to use some quotes and sayings I saved many years ago from High School that were very dear to me and I want to preserve them in a special way. I now have to decide if I plan to embellish the pages in some other way. Please follow along on this journey into the world of Mixed Media Arts.

With the end of the school year quickly apporaching (this week is it for my granddaughter)I worked on a few of the gift items. Today was cards for the teachers.

These will match with some teacups I cut out and made with my cricut Expression machine using the TAgs, Bags, Boxes and More 2 cartridge. The teacups are being filled with a variety of tea bags and gift cards for the teachers to relax and enjoy the start of their summer vacations. I just love this cartridge! Which I will have to upload those photos later as they are on a different computer. Tomorrow I will be making some fry boxes as a container for the three teen teachers Jaiden has in pre-school and filling them with gift cards to the fast food places in town. What teen doesn't love fast food eating for free! Other than that lately I have only done a couple little things such as this little sketch pad to carry with me for sketching out LO ideas and a couple of recipe pages (which are also on the other computer).

A little playtime!

Over the weekend I was able to play a little bit with paper! This also helped me to get a little work done for the Christmas Season...and it is still April. Here are Christmas Wish lists for each member of my family to write their wished for gifts on and then each member will draw a couple items from the wish lists to do their shopping from. Later I will be able to add these to the scrapbook pages for the year's Christmas and save not only the memory of what everyone wanted, but also a sample of their handwriting.

Next: I found a small (4x4 inch) graph paper pad, and thought wow what a useful thing to carry with me for when I feel inspired to sketch out a layout or sketch a garden plan. Only it needed something, so I made a basic cover for it. It still needs a little work to complete it like a clasp type closure, but I like the way it turned out so far.

Some old photos!

Our Entryway transforms for Halloween to a Witches' Parlour.  Complete with huge spider climbing down from the ceiling.  Each year we try to add to the graveyard in the front of the house and parlour.  We have a lot of fun planning and then watching the reaction of the trick or treaters faces.
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A New Beginning

Spring is here and underway; and time has come to begin anew in other aspects of life.  One of those for me is working hard to use this blog again. 
I have started the planning for planting the vegetable gardens and also replanting some of the butterfly garden. Which will be alot of fun this year, as an early Mother's Day gift my daughter has put together a potting table/area on the patio for me.  She is repurposing some of the tables used at the store she worked at (one that is closing) and supplied me with a tool pouch, seeds and bulbs and even potting soil.  Even cleaned off the patio complete with power washing it.
Rain today prevented me from taking a photo of the area, but I really look forward to working in this space.