Summer of Love ATC swap

These were so fun to make!!

I started with an 8.5x11 sheet of periwinkle cardstock. With an old credit card, I spread out some orange and yellow craft paints.

After that was dry, I used rubber stamps, more paint, markers, and stencils to create lots of background interest.

When I was happy with it I cut 9 ATC's from my full sheet of cardstock.

I free handed a VW bug to make a template then cut little bugs out of discarded book pages. Paint and marker were applied in a very loose manner.

I punched wheels from black "handmade paper" ...I put that in quotes since it was actually store bought. I then used little flower sticker for some fun hubcaps.

The part that I love the most is the genuine VW key attached to each one. I grew up with tons of Volkswagons. My dad and his friend would buy them cheap, fix them up and resell. Sometimes they would just part them out. Dad never threw out anything so I had just enough VW keys laying around to give these ATC's just a little extra punch!

A day in my life...

Tuesday started with the packing of 4 lunches instead of the usual 3...I was going on a field trip with the boy!

There was only one problem. I broke my toe on Saturday. I was lucky enough to score my own seat on the bus on the way there.

On the way to River Rendezvous we drove past the Best Buy corporate campus. I thought maybe we'd go past the Mall of America as well but it was not to be.

For one week each year this 1800's River Rendezvous sets up in a city park that was once land owned by a missionary. The class had various stations to visit to learn about different skills needed to survive in MN in the early 1800's.

There was the bow maker...

Spear throwing!!
That was totally fun. I got to throw a couple spears and hit the cardboard bison!!

There was a potter. I wish I had gotten a photo of him working but there were too many kids faces all around him.
The cooper was really great. He was interesting and funny. He had the kids put together a canteen, a rum keg and a German style bucket. Speaking of buckets! He asked the kids if they had seen the Pirates of The Caribbean movies. He made all the buckets for the second and third installments of the series. That was a cool little tidbit of info.

My foot fared pretty well for a whole day of walking.

Of course, there was plenty more work waiting for me after supper...

We ended the day with a nice little fire in the chimenea, a rousing game of Uno and some roasted marshmallows.

I am very fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom!

Check it out...I'm a finalist!

I'm very excited to say that I've become a finalist in the UHU "new gluer" challenge.
I fell in love with the UHU Photo Glue stick long ago, so when the call came out for a new "gluer" I was all over that!

The light of day

My latest page in "Nature's Majesty".

I colored the illustration already in the book with watercolor crayons. I then masked it off along with the words with painters tape. I always stick, un-stick and stick again the painters tape to my clothes before applying to the page. Especially on pages that are weak of fiber like these.

I sponged on black craft paint and let dry overnight. This morning I stamped the swirls with white pigment ink then gently brushed on yellow and copper pearlex powders.

The journally was done with a white gel pen.

I really should have this...

Don't you think!?!? It's got my name written all over it! Of course we differ in pronunciation. I say "Holly" and she says it another way.

Halle perfume

Of course, it's my theory is that her mom thought HollyBerry was cute but changed the spelling to Halle to be different. Hollywood agents likely thought it might be "too cute" and had her use Hal-lee.

But folks look at the name... Halle.
Break it down.
Hall-E.
Don't you see it.

My name was picked out of a Norwegian baby name book. It actually was a boys name..sad but true.

What on Earth...

Imagine yourself carrying about your business when a rumble begins.

It slowly builds.

At first you think it must be a small group of motorcycles.

Then the rumble intensifies and continues.

Curiosity gets the better of your and you drop what your doing and walk through the woods to find this sight...

Hundreds. Seriously, hundreds of motorcycles cruising their way north. Of course, at the time we had no way of knowing what the heck is going on . It gave me goose bumps. I knew it must be something significant....

After returning home I looked up the website shown on the back of the case car trailer and found that this group was on an annual ride in tribute to our brave solders who lay their lives on the line each and everyday in service to our country.
http://www.tributetothetroops.org/

I can't tell you what an amazing sight it was to see...too feel the rumble of all those bikes. It was fun when the bikers noticed us through the woods...they started honking and waving when they saw me with my camera. Of course, I was too caught up in the moment to capture all that.

Happy 80th Mom!!

circa 1930 something...

Roll with the punches

Get it!?! Awh, never mind. My sense of humor is a little dry at times.

I used punches to create the leaves and flowers. I had a great book about the Caribbean that provided the colorful images. The yellow was a spectacular tropical fish.

I only used a spot of glue in the center of each of the punched pieces. The glue made them curl a little which unexpectedly gave them great dimension.

Photoshop gears

As much as I hate the background on these gears, I love how real they look.

I scanned some pocket watch gears I had laying around then made the background of each transparent. All I had left to do then was to stack them and make them look dimensional.

Birthday cards

A couple of VIP's in our lives have birthdays this month.

Digital Bird Brain

Mending...is it an art form?

It's the only "art" I've been doing lately. I had 2 dresses, a pair of shorts, a pair of capri's and a pair of pants to mend. My girl and I are apparently hard on clothes!! Truth be told...only the capri issue was mine but she wrecked the others all on her own.

I'm planning on adding some "artistic" patches to a couple of the girl's clothes just because the repair would be way too obvious without some sort of embellishment. I need to get some embroidery floss back from my mom before tackling the "artistic" patches. Hopefully I can accomplish my vision and share my fix with the group.