If you believe it, make it jewelry!

I worked on this one off and on while watching tv last week. It was kind of fun and I really like the message on this one since I'm very pro-reading of the banned books! :) The back has a list of books that have been banned so I like how it turned out.

The pics are a little fuzzy but the beads are purple with alternating crystals with silver chain. It's actually very pretty. I may have to make a few more and maybe just continue the list of books.

I'm going to get a jump on next year's Christmas gifts!

Happy Christmas!

Fuzzy pics of studio trees!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Trying to get back in to the swing of things here which has been hard but pushing forward . We're getting ready to build a fire and I have a little work to do and Rolland's going upstairs to try and switch over to DSL (last time we had a bad modem) so we're hoping for better luck. I'm going to settle in to watch more episodes of Dharma & Greg, latest DVD purchase, since he'll be upstairs and away from my excellent holiday selection. He'll be watching Die Hard since nothing says Happy Holidays like Bruce Willis. :)

I think I'm going to venture out later to Michael's and get a few supplies and play around with decoupaging a few Christmas plates. This was actually the first type of art projects I was interested in back in junior high. I've always loved the Victorian time period and used to save up my allowance and buy Victoria magazine and go through it over and over... the answer is yes, I've always been slightly off. Anyway, I saw this artist in a magazine a few weeks ago and thought her work was brilliant and got re-inspired so if I finish up the real work I brought home with me I figure I'll reward myself and go play this afternoon. I may also venture out an a quest to find homemade marshmallows at Whole Foods (I realize that's a slight contradiction but anyway!).

These are ornaments I made for my sis-in-law and mom-in-law. The cutie in the fridge is my Sis and the two beauties heading for town are Mom and her Mom. They were a big hit, but it's hard to take the credit when the pics were wonderful - they made great pieces.

Have a great Christmas Eve!

Don't wait

My Grandma passed away this afternoon. For the last few years, I didn't see her, or talk to her, very often since we live so far away and it's difficult to make time to get together, we're really busy, and so on and so on but you never think you're really going to run out of time until you do. If you've got loved runs you're thinking about calling or visiting just call or visit and quit thinking about it because one day it is too late.

Bye Grandma, I Love you.

Busy!

I've been crazy busy since getting back but I wanted to give you a quick update on a few of the presents I've received in the 12 Days swap. The gorgeous canvas piece entitled "The Messenger" is from Katie and I love it! The next piece is from Liz and it's fabulous. I love the colors and dimensions. I promise to dig my camera out tonight and take pics of the other pieces that I can't just scan in! :)

I'm meeting some friends for dinner and tomorrow night work is having a screening for "Night at the Museum" and then I'm on vacation for the holidays! Yay! It's definitely becoming festive at our house!

Have a great Wednesday guys!

Back from Missouri

Sorry about the long absence, we've been in Missouri since Wednesday but I don't always like to post that we're going out of town and I didn't really have a lot of time or access to the 'puter! :) Now that I'm home, I finally had a chance to catch up on a few things. Here are a few items from the 12 Days exchange. The collage piece is from Edina and the book is from Deb and I love them! They've done a fantastic job! I've got more goodies to show but I was lazy and didn't want to try and dig out my camera. :O

I hope you keep checking out the blog of the daily goodies on the 12 Days blog because I'm telling you, these ladies are talented. They are shocking me everyday with the talent in this group and the imagination and work that went into each piece. I'm thrilled to be among them.

I've got some more to show and tell about our trip but I'm wiped out and tomorrow's a work day so I'm off to bed.

My great friend Gwen is too talented!

My friend Gwen made these sets for me for my sisters and they are gorgeous! She's just getting up and running with her knits but she does fabulous work and she's still reasonable since she's just starting out but I'm not sure how long that will last since I'm telling you, she's fabulous! Gwen's made me a few scarves and a gorgeous lap blanket along with a scarf/wrap that I wore all last winter because it was that cozy. Anyway, keep an eye on her blog to see her new stuff or get in touch with her if you need something warm and fluffy to get through the winter... and really, who doesn't! :)

Don't forget to keep watching the 12 Days of Christmas countdown. We started today - woo hoo!

Glinda Collage

I made this one for my little sister for Christmas. It's a 3-d collage under glass on one side and a regular collage under glass on the other. The box is just a regular cardboard jewelry box from the Container Store that I painted on the 3-d side. The flat side is water color paper I painted to get the perfect shade of yellow brick road yellow. I printed the lyrics directly on to the paper, added Dorothy and the German scrap border and the back was exactly how I wanted it. The front however was not so easy. It was tricky to get that crown glued in to place but 4 hours later and half a tube of liquid nails later, it's good to go! I used some pink glittery jewels from Papier Valise to prop up the crown.

Just a tip here, it kept beading up with moisture under glass when I was finished soldering so I ripped the finished solder off. TWICE - because I was that freaked out about it but tonight I finally just did it one more time and let it cool (my husband also talked me down from the ledge after another freak out) and the moisture evaporates after it cools down and it's fine so don't worry about that part if you decide to tackle this project and have a similar experience.

I was inspired my the mini-Hallmark ornaments we saw at the mall shopping so I put them to good use here. The idea is the Glinda the good witch left her goodies in a hurry to meet the wizard but not without leaving a note! I may have a few left over for some fun pieces later.

Initial Necklace

I'm still working on Christmas gifts but I took a break to play around with some pieces I've been trying to arrange into a necklace for weeks. I bought the large smokey quartz beads yesterday and they were exactly what I needed. They worked great with the golden and smokey swarovski beads so all the pieces finally fell into place. It turned out even better than I expected... although my expectations were fairly low since the pieces were just stacked on my desk with me adding, subtracting and re-arranging for weeks!

Today was crazy since it started at 4 am and has yet to stop. I've been working on projects to finish up, stocking the freezer with baked goods and now I need to really think about wrapping some of the goodies... I'm not sure I'm ready to face the paper cuts yet! :)

Anyway, the project for my sister has turned out unbelievably super cute and I hope she loves it. I'll post pics as soon as it's totally finished - she doesn't read the blog so it's safe. Also, my sister-in-law's will probably be in the pic stages tomorrow.

Anyway, I hope everyone's getting into the Christmas/Holiday/Festive/Even if it's not your holiday you get a break any way mood - the cold front's breaking and the high will be 70 tomorrow which, honestly, still feels like December in Texas and I've decided I've finally been bitten by the Christmas bug and have been driving my husband crazy. The alternative was I was driving him crazy because he was worried I hadn't started in about the holidays yet, now, all's right with the world.

Shopping

Today was spent with the last of the Christmas shopping. I think we've got most everything for everyone in our families and our all set. We also worked in a movie, The Holiday, which was really good and I highly recommend it. After spending the entire day out shopping, we finished up with dinner at Cafe Brazil and I think we're heading to bed early... we deserve a rest after fighting the crowds!

Tomorrow will be spent on making the rest of the presents, cookies and cakes for the freezer, wrapping all the presents, decorating the tree and making Christmas cards... yep, I'm definitely ready for bed! :)

Hope your having a great weekend.

Snow Days

I made this pic last week for the December Challenge for Mixed Media Artists. This one was a lot of fun since it was mostly coloring, playing with glitter and glue! I had a little bit of difficulty on the background since I knew the exact shade of blue I wanted but getting it was a little bit harder than I imagined. In the end, I beat the canvas down with a lot of water and paper towels.

The basic idea was to create a piece that evoked a childhood memory and this one is sort of a culmination of a lot of memories for me. I made it last week when we were hit with the flurry of slight ice and snowflakes but very cold weather and it really reminded me of those extremely rare times when we got 2 snow days from school. 1 was not all that unusual, but 2 was almost unthinkable.

Oddly, the most striking thing about this image for me though is the house. It's the house that evokes the most memories for me. My grandparents house was pink and growing up, that was where almost all of the family gatherings were regardless of seasons or occassions. When I really think about where we were for most of my childhood memories with my extended family we were in a pink house on the Kansas prairie. :)

Last one arrived today!

I'm participating in a 12 Days of Christmas Swap and my last package arrived today. It's been a ton of fun exchanging stories, gifts and ideas with such a great group of artists. They are amazing and talented and have been an inspiration. I can't believe how much fun it's been and we haven't even opened our goodies yet!

I've been keeping mine in the dining room in the trifle bowl. This seems appropriate somehow. :)

Weekend Update

I've been working on this chain while watching season one of Weeds. It took most of Friday and Saturday night but it was a nice way to start the weekend. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the locket when it came in. I ordered it with a few other goodies from Papier Valise a couple of weeks ago and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Yesterday was spent catching up on sleep since I had a migraine in the morning and I slept until 3! I hate that sine it means most of my Sat was a bust. We spent last night finalizing Christmas shopping so we're almost finished. Now I just have to finish the gifts I need to make!

Have a great Sunday!