4x4's: Wings

Im participating in a mingle for 4x4's with the theme Wings... So I decided to make 4 very different 4x4's :) I think 'The Flight of Sorrow' is my favorite of the 4. I made the background with acrylics & a plastic fork lol. I had some fun with my sewing machine on the 'Take Flight' 4x4. I decided to 'quilt' it and I loved how it turned out. 'Believe' was just something I put together with our cat Diesel in mind (he passed away recently and we miss him.) Its sort of a statement to believe that our lost pets are waiting for us in heaven. And 'Magical Secrets' was another one that I decided to use my sewing machine on. :) You cant see it well but their is a strip of fabric ribbon and I hand sewed the buttons on, and the fairies outfit and wings as well as the butterfly she is whispering too shimmer. It was so much fun to create these. I liked thinking of different idea's of what you can do with wings. I cant wait to receive mine too :)

Carpe Diem,

Andrea

Altered puzzle piece in a fae fashion...

One of my art friends decided to put together an altered puzzle and her theme is fairies :) I wanted to help because I LOVE altered puzzles! I think they are fantastic forms of art/collage and conversation pieces. I have a few here, and have made a few for family/friends that I just love. Its always fun to see what others do with your theme and I love the surprise of receiving the pieces and putting it all together! I hope my friend likes this piece that I created for her. I had some fun with these gorgeous rub ons that I found recently... arent they great. You cant tell from the scan but the wings of the fae and the wings of the butterflies,dragonflies, and bee sparkle. :) I cant wait to see the finish puzzle. I bet it will be magical :)

Carpe Diem,

Are you Square?

In the group Absolutely Everything Swap Central we had a swap called Are you Square. The swap host sent us these square blank chipboard pieces and we altered them in any fashion we would like. I decided to participate and so these are the 3 squares I altered :) I decided since the host is going to swap these out among the participants, I would create 3 very different pieces. I think my favorite of the 3 is the Peace Square. :) Im excited to see what squares I receive in return for this. I hope the person or people who receive my squares enjoy them :)

"Live in Peace, and Peace will live in you."

Carpe Diem,

Beautiful, worth sharing!

During the One World, One Heart Giveaway I was lucky enough to win a gorgeous handmade birdhouse from D&G Gardens and Crafts! I loved their creations so very much that I also ordered a second birdhouse to go along with the one I won. The pricing is wonderfully affordable! Today I was happily surprised when I had this fantastic package waiting for me! I wanted to share with everyone just how beautiful and well made and packaged my items were. They came in a large shipping box filled with peanuts and were individually wrapped. In the box was also an informative card about the type of birdhouses I received and the types of birds that are attracted to them, as well as hanging and cleaning instructions. There was also a beautiful magnet featuring a gorgeous photographed monarch butterfly. And finally a business card and a bookmark with the quote 'A good book on your shelf is a friend that turns its back on you and remains a friend.' Everything was sooo wonderful! I am urging anyone who loves gardening and nature to visit D&G Gardens and Crafts. I am so thankful to have found them! And I promise you wont be sorry!

God Bless,

Another new jewelry pouch...

I am really digging these pouches! Today I decided to try using paper and my sewing machine! I created this handmade paper using white card stock, and a crayon resist technique. Then I just had some fun sewing it all up! It turned out nicely. Its really sturdy and has a great texture! I hope the recipient enjoys it ;)

Sewn Jewelry Pouch

I havent been feeling well the last few days. I have another cold thats really got me down, but last night I was sooo bored and couldnt sleep so I sewed together a jewelry pouch for the jewelry I am selling in my shop. At first I wasnt sure how I was going to do it because I am new to sewing. My husband got me a sewing machine recently so I have been trying to use it and practice with it as much as possible. I actually love how it turned out. The fabric is vintage. It came from a collection of fabrics my grandmother had stashed away. She had soo many squares of vintage fabrics that I wanted to take it all. But she let me have this remanant that I really enjoyed. I'm really glad I figured out what to create with it. I think the new owner should enjoy this.. its a good addition to the necklace I think :) I just thought I would share.

Yummy Blog Candy!

I just had to share this wonderful blog! Melissa from Keepsakes by Melissa is offering fabulous blog candy! Head over to her blog....http://keepsakesbymelissa.blogspot.com/2009/02/fruit-of-my-labor-blog-candy-time.html and see whats up for grabs! You wont be sorry! You have until Feb. 19th to visit... dont be late! :)

New Challenge & Mingle Group

Hey everyone! I just created a new group called Paper Arts Mingles & Challenges. I just wanted to introduce it and see if anyone would be interested in joining. The group is for paper art related mingles such as Artist Trading Cards, Gothic Arches, Greeting Cards, skinnies, inchies, altered art, and mixed media art.. AND each Thursday we will be hosting a new challenge for the members to participate in. The challenge will have a new host each week.... and each week a winner is chosen using random.org and the winner is featured on the group page for the week and they receive a prize!Does this sound like something fun for you to be a part of? Would you like to be a Challenge host, or a design team member? Would you like to donate a prize, or just participate in the challenge each week... would you just like to participate in mingles, or be inspired? If so... check out the group by going to http://www.papercraftplanet.com/group/paperartsminglesandchallenges

Mural finished, or not?

Well Im not sure if its complete or not. I like it... but I keep going back and looking at it thinking theres something it needs. *sighs* I didnt add much more to it. I added a wooden border that I white washed. Thought it would be a nice 'frame' and then I added the quote "We are each of us Angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another" by Lucretius. I was thinking of maybe blocking in the quote in white (or perhaps another solid color) so that they pop more. I think maybe its too hidden in the flowers. I just dont want to do that and then ruin the flowers *lol* You know how sometimes you do TOO much and ruin the piece. I would really hate to ruin this with all the time and effort I have put into it. But I think it needs SOMETHING. Any advice, opinions would be awesome. I think I'm pretty stumped at the moment. *sighs*

And the winner is....

Todays the day that I use the random number picker to pick the winner of my 'Openings' OWOH giveaway :) This was my first time participating in OWOH and I could not believe all of the wonderful comments that were left for me! 145! Thank you all so much for visiting my blog and leaving such wonderful notes to me! I can not wait until next year to participate again, and I think I will have an even bigger giveaway then! But without further adeu.....

The winner is...... [drum roll please]

out of 145 comments:

Here are your random numbers:26
Timestamp: 2009-02-12 16:09:27 UTC

#26 on my comments list is.... Ladybug of LivingthelightIfind !!! I have emailed Ladybug for her address :) If she doesnt respond within 2 days I will post a new winner!

Congrats to you Ladybug!!!!!

Mural- Day 3

[ Day 3 began with painting a bird silhouette]

[Next I decided I wanted to add a butterfly too... so this is the outline I drew in pencil]

[then I painted the butterfly. I wanted to add a few warm colors to contrast the flowers :) ]

[At the end of Day 3 this is how it looks :) ]

Almost done I think, yay! More to come soon!

My Mural's Coming along...

I worked on my studio mural again. This is the first time I have ever done a mural before but I wanted to do something creative in my studio and I already have to do 'spring cleaning' soooo I took everything out and have been working on this. Once Im finished I will clean and organize. :) Thats going to be a chore lol. Maybe I'll find some neat things I didnt remember having that I can use in my art. Thats always fun. So here is the progress of my mural.

Day 1

[ I decided to do something floral]

Day 2

[Starting fresh I added more flowers & since I had the light of day the colors show better in the pic lol]

[I decided to 'frame' the flowers and paint the entire wall a solid color. Its called Ancient Purple. But I painted it w/ streaks to add some design and dimension]

[Once that was finished I added the blue background and clouds]

[another view]

I think todays progress was good. Tomorrow is Detail day lol. Then I'll need to figure out how to incorporate the other walls of the room in some way. I'm thinking of adding a butterfly or maybe a flying ladybug.. or a bird. Hmm. Not sure yet :) Thanks for visiting! Stay tuned for more!

A pretty cool site...

I just had to share this site that was shared with me today.

http://www.quiltersofsc.org/artfullbras/artfullbras.htm

This is just totally awesome in my opinion. Check it out!

My Studio Mural

So today I started renovating my studio. I decided I wanted to do something crazy and start a mural. lol. So here's the beginning. I dont exactly know where Im going with it but we'll see. lol. I just liked the colors together. I stopped working on it tonight to watch American Idol and then I was so excited to share I just had to get online! Now its too late to go work on it, go figure, so I will start fresh tomorrow. Just wanted to share. We'll see how this turns out.... So far so good :)

Another Necklace

I created this necklace using the same technique as my heart necklace from the yahoo group art-and-crafts. It was so much fun to create them both. I think I will be selling these necklaces in my shop. Stay tuned for more information about that. I never thought I would be interested in making necklaces but It was so much fun! *lol* Thanks for looking!

Thaw Out- NOT!

So I think I spoke before I should have about thawing out .lol. Its snowing here again. Last night it was snowing but we only had about 2 inches and this morning when I woke and looked out there was about 6 inches, and its still coming down. I had a First Place meeting at church last night and it was snowing but not too bad. I drove down and everything was ok, until I got out of the car in the parking lot at the church and then I was slip sliding everywhere! When we came out of our meeting it was coming down hard and the roads were getting slushy. So I was worried but I took my chances on getting home and drove up our drive. Luckily it wasnt too bad yet. Thankfully Tim's truck is 4 wheel drive so he's ok, but he still parks at the end of our drive and walks up because he doesnt want to chance it. I'm glad I dont have anywhere to drive today. lol.

Tonight we have church but I honestly think it will be canceled because its snowed a ton more since last night and I know its going to be dangerous for older folks and kids to walk in the parking lot tonight if it was last night. Im sure no one wants any one to get injured. I'm hoping the road crews come and take care of our drive tonight. They've been stopping and taking care of it for us because we do have a street sign and its paved so its technically a private road... Im thankful for that! We still walk because we dont trust the incline and the black ice but its so much easier for the walk when we dont have to crunch through a foot of snow and we know where we are putting our feet .lol.

These are just a couple of pictures that I took this morning and wanted to share. :)

[This is the view from our porch]

[And this is the icicles hanging from our porch. I took this picture so that you could see how big and long they are!]

Wishing everyone a blessed day. I'm going to totally revamp my studio today. I think I may even paint a mural as well :) yay! I'll share pics soon!