New Charm for a going away gift

My boss is leaving tomorrow so I made a charm as a going away gift. She decided not to relocate to Texas from Minnesota so I thought I would make something to remember us by. This being the lonestar state, I used a piece of the Texas map, added a cowgirl and a few odds 'n ends to create the final piece. The back is simply a cluster of yellow roses. The image in color is pre-soldering and the final charm is in b&w because the scanner won't scan in color. I don't know why and I'm getting really sleepy so I'll work on it tomorrow!

Tomorrow - Friday, yay!

Back to Basics for Father's Day

I'm sending out my Dad's stuff for Father's Day ... hazards of living away. But this year I decided to go with a theme and found the perfect travel bag and decided to go back to the stamp basics. It was fun playing with just stamps, ink and colored pencils again! This is what he's getting in the mail. :)

P.S. It's ok it's not the full address, it's just for effect. It's going in the box with the rest of the "themed" gift bag so it's ok. Also, please note that no pink was used in the making of this project!

Fun summer bag

I'm participating in a new swap that involves making a bag to exchange and I'm definitely in need of practice so I just wanted to play with some fun fabric I had, no real pattern or anything, and I made this one today. Definitely not quitting my day job anytime soon and I think I have a few more in my future before I'm ready to pack up and ship of my bag for an exchange but it was fun working in a new medium although it's a lot harder to deal with fabric than paper... it's much harder to just keep trimming until the line is straight! Next time, I'm getting out the pattern and going in with the multiple fabrics... all I'm saying is french blue, chocolate, polka dots and paisley (I think that's enough).

London Calling....

We're planning to head back to the UK this fall and visit London over Thanksgiving - it shouldn't be a big holiday for them. :) We're flying into New York City on Weds the week before Thanksgiving and staying the night and flying into London bright and early on Thursday. We'll do it all over again and will actually be flying back on Thanksgiving and spending the holiday on a plane and hotel room then flying back to Dallas Friday morning from New York. The housesitting and puppysitting is all arranged and I'm already looking forward to the 6 days of relaxing heaven! It's resting, breakfast, shopping/exploring, eating/resting, shopping/exploring, resting, eating, resting, then start again... heaven, I'm telling you! I've got to start the itinerary. Rolland works better with a plan and I want to get in all the places we missed last time.

This is a project I started last weekend when I did some craft shopping. It was mostly color inspired but it's also slightly on theme since it's called "Alice's Journal" and includes photos of Queen Victoria (who I love). I was working on it last weekend when my friend Lara came over for an art play day. I've also made a few new necklaces that I'll post later this week.

Have a great week!

P.S. I've also purchased tickes for Gay Bingo at the Lakewood, going with some pals (previous gig but still love the friends so the suckey job was worth it just for the truly lovely friends {see... silver lining right there!}) in two weeks and Kathy Griffin at Bass Hall in July, both should be more than a riot so I'll give you a full update.

Masked Ballerina ATC

I'm participating in a swap here and I made this piece to exchange. I wanted to make my version of a very feminine and girly tarot card but we needed to include a new technique. I used beeswax and I loved how it turned out!

I used watercolor crayons for the background and on the ballerina (I collaged her on to the piece separately) and love the colors. Added the stamped and embossed word with brown ink and silver embossing powder and then covered everything in beeswax with my handy new little black and pink iron. It looks great in the studio! :)

The beeswax finish softens the colors and ages the piece even more. I even did the back so my name plate sort of melted into the paper background giving it a great effect. I think I'm hooked. I'm planning on doing a series of cards, at least 1-10 with a similar technique. I'm really inspired with the new hunk of beeswax and iron, plus it smells great... oh, perfect for Christmas cards!