The one about the handmade book

My handmade book for a one on one swap with Lilia. I am really having fun with this style of collage!

outside and inside of back book cover.

Front cover is covered with this patterned tulle.

The one about Light Blue

...another page for my little color book. This one came together so fast...it was fun.

Collage on an old bingo card I bought on eBay... Mrs. Ray Barthold's bingo card, actually. It says so on the back. :)

The one about turning four

Happy Birthday to my Amelia!

The one about orange

Orange page in my book on colors. I was trying out a different style for me and it was harrrrrrd! (although now that I look at it, it didn't end up being that different)

I am still messing with it since I am not sure it is finished yet.

5" x 6" collage on scrap chipboard. For some reason it is more satisfying to make things out of garbage rather than buying new. lol

The one about the eyes

Here's my entry into Beth's journal in our Alphabetica Project. Her theme was windows so I came up with Eyes are the Window to the Soul.

The one about the sticker

This is what I bought myself in Hawaii. Thought maybe I could hide the minivan behind this hibiscus.

The one about the...

(click to enlarge)

Making a Wooden Zoo.

Just playing around and this is what came about.

Corrugated cardboard piece (i love that stuff) covered with old book paper and painted, sanded, painted, stamped, then covered with gesso. Paper Whimsey image of child and butterfly. Vintage button from eBay. Old children's book illustration and wildflower engraving from early 1900's. Graphite pencil and paint. All mounted onto a altered book page covered with gesso.

...and one bad photo of the whole thing!

The one about the new banner

Okay,
so I dabbled in the digi world a little bit tonight and I made a new banner. (snicker) I really don't know what I am doing, but I did get those few elements together from 2Peas free kits and a title created & imported from CorelDraw. I don't see myself switching to digi....I like the real thing too much. Isn't that digi paper cool? It's by Veronica Ponce. The medallion thing is by Rhonna Farrer, and the graph is by Tia Bennett.

Above "A" from Rhonna's Parisian Alpha Kit

The one about Kaleidoscope

Between my birthday and Christmas, I have so much in gift certificates at Amazon, it's kinda ridiculous. (I love it, though. Who needs candles and body lotion? Boring.) I got another box of books in the mail today. This one is awesome! I haven't been this excited about an art book in a while. It's going to be fun reading and learning and trying new things. The design and graphics on the pages are amazing!

and...

LOST was on again tonight!!!

The one about the heart cookies

It's that time again! I'm makin' Valentine cookies.
Sometimes I make these cherry chocolate cordial muffins.





I have decided that Valentine's Day is my favorite for the colors, the hearts, the cookies, lace, red and pinks in all shades.

The one about the survival guide

I found this part of Keri Smith's fun site from Dina's blog a few months ago. Really like it---fun, too. My favorite is the above list and also the "what to do when you're stuck" cards on page one.
Print one out!

The one about the four-leaf clover

The other day I found this pressed between the pages of one of the old books I have. The book is nearly 100 years old and I bought it off eBay. I wonder of this means I am lucky?

When I was a kid living in North Carolina, we would sit in the clover patches that grew in the lawns around our apartment buildings. The game was to find a four-leaf clover, which we did more often than you would expect. Sometimes we would find a clover with five leaves.

the one about the two canvases

Each piece will be sent around to the other players in the RR for one of my groups, Creative Journeys. I have done the background and others in the swap will add to the piece.

6"x6" corrugated cardboard, book pages, stamps, and paint.

The one about volcanoes & observatories

More pictures from our vacation last week.

Lava flows meeting the ocean.

Rob was reeeeeeely excited to see Kilauea and the observatories on Mauna Kea. I was more excited to go shopping and enjoy not cooking dinner every night. hee hee

It rained the whole day we first visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. I mean, it really rained! So disappointing!!! We did make a quick trip back our last day there and the weather cooperated enough so that we could see the sights.

I was amazed at how much black lava was everywhere on the island. Pretty neat stuff, after it's cooled. :)

To see the observatories on Mauna Kea, we had to rent an SVU to make it up the 13,000 ft high mountain on an unpaved road. The top of the mountain was in a cloud and it was, of course, raining. We hoped the summit was above the clouds, but it wasn't.

We sat in the car for over an hour hoping the storm would break. It didn't. This is the view out the windshield. No visibility and raining and blowing hard. Very cold. It felt like we were in a blizzard. Back down at the base of Mauna Kea, it was sunny and warm. Go figure.

Below is the observatory, as best we could see it. Rob was very bummed the rest of the day.

The one about the beach

We spent the last week in Hawaii. Neither of us had been to Hawaii before. Rob chose to visit the Big Island for it's volcanoes and the observatory on Mauna Kea.

The best day was the afternoon on the beach. The Big Island has very few white sand beaches. This was one of them. I got bumped around by the waves pretty good and am still sore in spots, including a sprained thumb. Darn ocean filled up my suit with over half a cup of sand while it knocked me over and pushed me to shore. It was very fun though; playing in the ocean in January.

We sat on our towels and relaxed. I drew in my sketchbook, desperately missing my art supplies at home. It has been so long since I drew anything freehand. I need to do that more often.