I was lucky again in winning a blogger's giveaway.  And here it is.  How beautiful is this altered plate? It was created by Melissa from Piney Rose Designs

It's just lovely!!!  I love everything about it, the colors, the soft touch, the bling, the framing around the vintage photo. Thanks so much, Melissa!

One of my new pieces

 Dried hydrangea used, a clay stamped flower and a magnifying glass charm

Happy weekend to all,

Well, after a very minor earthquake and some minor floods from hurricane Irene, things around Pennsylvania have calmed down. It was quite a week. We rarely see such events in this state, especially the quake. My thoughts are with those less fortunate states and the people who have been hit with real tragedies due to these events.

This is a small collage on plywood pieces I got from Dollar Tree; it was a pack of 12 or 15 for $1. In the background there's stamping, paper and also crepe paper which I also stamped.

This tag was made using images sent to me by

Inka from Altered Artifacts for examples to use in her Etsy site.

This is also with an image from Inka, the backgroupd Lilas one.  The canvas is a recycled CD.

I love Old Hollywood stars, so this is one of many others I have to put together in a book.

Thanks for visiting and stay safe out there.

 

 I'm continuing in my quest to learn how to draw whimsical girls.  Here's some of my practice ones.  Thanks again to Tam at Willowing for her free course.





Still working for the look I'm after, and I see improvement with ever practice.  Wish me luck with my finding my style.

How-To: No-Carve Stamps

New collages and mixed media I worked on recently using images from an old Mother Goose child's book that was falling apart:

Love the crackle here

Finally tried wax on this one

 I "stamped" thick gesso with a recycled paper tube here

Scrunched dress pattern tissue here 

If you want to try beeswax on your pieces, here's a great video from Stampington.  This link takes you to their video.

Hi from Ocean City, MD

 Assateague Island, MD

Ocean City, MD

Some new things I've been doing

 Collage on chipboard

 Above and below are altered pages in a vintage book

Hope you're enjoying your summer vacation if you have one and for those that love the beach and ocean, I wish you have many visits there.

Hi all.  Welcome to my newest followers and comments left in the past few posts.  It's truly gratifying to see others like what I do and that's a way for me to find out your awesome blogs too.


Here are some things I created in the last few days and weeks.  Unfortunately, something's wrong with my camera so the photos are really not the best.


Mini Composition Notebook


Collage on wood.



Here are some great resources that I linked.  Have you worked with beeswax?  I'm hoping to try it myself.  I love the look.


Stampington Beeswax Tutorial

I sure don't want to rush through the summer, but this book is very cool!
Halloween Altered Book Video
From Marie Patterson

Here's something else I want to try. 
Terrarium Tutorial
from Art Mind
 

 I love that she celebrated all the beautiful things of Spring.

 Thanks again, Cathee for this awesome keepsake and to Dee Moran for organizing the swap.

That big pink flower is a paper napkin

Here's a piece of air dry clay, on the 2nd page, which I used acrylic white paint, a blue glimmer mist and clear varnish.  I used the same foam stamp to produce the indent embossing that I used on the background and also embossed one with pink glitter powder.  On the left, I used a paper doily as a stencil and sprayed it with glimmer mist for the effect on the background.

The papers here was a background paper I made a while back painted with acrylics on the background and the purple stenciled images are done with a dimensional paint.

Love how the library card turned out.  More embossing, this time with a white powder.  The fish strip is fabric from a ready to cut and sew craft of some sort that I've had for years.

Had to include some beachy graphics.  AHHH!!!!

In the middle of these 2 pages is the cone coffee filter which I painted in a pink wash.

 This is the other side of the coffee filter with paper flowers I cut with my Silhouette

 

Crepe streamers stamped and some corrugated cardboard with a crackle effect and prettied up with an antique earring.  The Italian quote says: What beautiful thing have you made?

On the left is an attempt I made to transfer an image with Mod Podge.  Not all of it transferred; still it gave it a cool effect.  I think I was too anxious to see the result and didn't wet the image enough and it was my first attempt. 

Tag tucked in one of the paper bag pockets

A butterfly I printed on vellum and tucked inside one of the pockets.

I also painted and decorated the inside folds of the bags

 The punched holes are there to put all of these into a ring book.  More to come.

 

 Have you found these awesome resources yet:

SOUVENIR

Here's to Spring!!!!

Here's some things I've been working on for my niece's wedding.




Wedding shower thank you cards

I so very much appreciate the generosity of these folks for sharing their knowledge and on their own dime!  

Watch soon for a review on an item from CSN Stores.  I'm still enjoying the desk task chair from CSN I reviewed previously.  As many of you know, CSN has many wonderful and useful items on their retail sites.  Is there anything you need for the holidays for your home?  How about barstools?  Well, needless to say they have it all to get your home ready and pretty for the holidays. 

Here are some other neat stuff I found elsewhere in blogland:  We're so lucky to have these generous folks sharing freely their amazing talents.
 

Victorian Ornaments made with broken or recycled glass ornaments.  I thought this video was awesome.  

And speaking of Christmas theme creations, just wait until you see this awesome and FREE ezine.  Just awesome!!
Inspired Ideas

Free Labels To stick on Ink Pads

  

Pretty awful.  Much more practice needed.  LOL

Have you seen these awesome learning opportunities? Of course I registered for the free course.  Willowing is also a great ning group.

Hi everyone.  Haven't had much ambition to create lately, unfortunately.  Here's something I created a while back and I don't think I ever post it.  





Here are lots of awesome projects for inspiration from other artists and crafters and I'm sharing them with you here as well as some free images:

Source:  A Gathering of Thoughs

From one of my favorite companies, Stampington - 
Vintage Jewelry ideas
And video

Source: Clearly Vintage

Cool pockets for altered books 
from Altered Art Junkies blog

Source: The Graphics Fairy

Mixed media collage video 
from Lucy Hill Edson

Source: Vintage Dragonfly

Tea Dye, Fiber, Rust 
by Cat Carr
 

Source:  The Art of Altering

 

Ideas on what art supplies to pack on a trip.  
Weren't you wondering that on your summer vacation in the past months?  I did.

Source:  Just Something I made

I'll spare you the details, but the last couple of days have been straight out of hell for me, but here's the link part, finally!! 

The boats adrift in the harbor
As thoughts in a calm mind
A liquid sun beaming today and forever
We hoard happiness a smile at a time

Welcome friends.  If you made a piece for the Summer Celebration 2010.  Please link up below.  Thanks for playing along.  

 There's still time to join the Summer Celebration link party if you haven't.  The linking post will go up this Friday, August 13, but you may enter your link anytime after that until the following Friday, August 17.  I know I said August 17, but I'll probably extend it a bit to give me more time.  I hate deadlines for funness (I'm making up a word :), don't you?  So, you have time to create your piece and write up your post to link it up.

 summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~Henry James

How's this for inspiration?  Beautiful creation from Carolyn Saxby
.

Here are more images you may choose to use in this challenge as well as the others on this post or use one you have.  

Current completed work.  I love altering these tiny bottles.

Once again due to the generosity of many magnificent artists and crafters, those of us always on the search to learn more arting are so fortunate.  Here are some awesome resources that I've found recently:

I also have been fortunate in Freecyling and have amazing old books that I'll share with you soon.  Also, got several vintage piano rolls that I will offer for sale.  It's the most unique paper to use in projects.

Celebrating summer is very important to me because summer is my favorite time of year.  I was already on vacation at the beach this summer, but I'm always thinking of it, always!!

Enjoy your weekend,