Lindart's art

Valentine Canvas

2012-01-24T07:40:00.000-05:00

I made a Valentine Canvas for Altered Pages, and it's on their site (here) as a kit! There are lots of awesome collage pages here, as well as stamps, papers and lots more! Come take a look!

I made this canvas because I had a canvas that I made a few years ago that I didn't like, and it was just sitting around. I had a brainstorm one night as to what to do with it, and I came up with this:

It will probably be a Valentines gift for hubby! I painted over the canvas, and you can see some of the previous design coming through the paint, which is awesome! If you buy the kit you get everything you need to make it, including the (new) canvas! You could always do a quick collage on the new canvas, then just paint over it to let the design come through.

Thanks for looking!

Some journal pages...

2012-01-15T10:48:00.000-05:00

I now have 4 journals on the go - my Moleskine, my daughter's travel journal to make for her, my large art journal, and my journal that I'm hoping to use for my Kelly Kilmer class that I haven't started yet. My idea for going back to the Moleskine journal for everyday was that it was small, and I could prepare it easily to work on everyday for a week on each double page. At first I wanted it to be more private, and I wasn't going to post it, but it's so much fun I have to. So I took photos rather than scan it so that (hopefully) no one can actually read the words. Here goes:

This was when I started back into my Moleskine in November. It was also the first day we had snow which was gone by the afternoon! The next day that we had enough snow to stay was last Friday!

Got out my Christmas stamps which I hadn't used at all yet because I hadn't made any Christmas cards yet!

More Christmas stamps. First I scribble neo-colors (watercolor crayons) all over the page, then wipe with a baby-wipe. This smooths the background color out. I do this for the next 2 or 3 pages, not really worrying about which colors I'm choosing, although for December I did choose "Christmasy" colors.

For this page I scribble dark red around the edges, then pulled the color into the middle. The envelope is from a swap I was in with the Byhand artists group, a 12 days of Christmas Swap. The envelope was from the 1st day of Christmas giftie.

This next page I did in green and red stripes. It was AWFUL and I hated it, and wondered what the heck I was going to do with it. I decided to showcase the 12 days of Christmas swap gifties and I had 2 different circular shaped "shapes', not doilies exactly, just some shapes I had bought a few months ago thinking to use them as stencils, which is what I did. I sprayed over them with Maya Mist red, and I loved the effect! Then I spent my TV watching evenings doodling away, making each shape different, and used my 12 Days of Christmas stamps for each spot. I added anything like tags etc. that came from the gifties as well.I'm also using my Bienfang watercolor pens to color in the stamps.

This page was better with the green on the border and red inside.

Gifties 7-10-I remade the ugly page to match the other one, and have made each circular shape different by the way I doodled them.

These are the Character construction stamps my daughter gave me for Christmas. I had pre-stamped this page, not knowing what would go in the banner yet, but as it worked out, it was New Years Day at that spot!

I needed more 2 pages for my 12 days gifties so I remade the same ugly pages as before. More character construction stamps that CJs boyfriend gave to me! So lucky that he lives near Bizzy Bee stamp store! I used these stamps to make a birthday card for my step-father.

So that's it for today! Don't forget to stop by Altered Pages to what what new goodies they have! They now have LOTS more than just collage images!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-08T19:52:00.000-05:00

I know, I'm a week late, but I hope everyone has a wonderful and creative 2012! New Years Day was my 58th birthday. I don't feel 58! We always go to brunch on New years Day, and take a 3-generation photo. Here's this year's photo:

I'm in the middle, my Mom is 75, and my daughter is 25.

I also got sick on my birthday, a very bad cold, that sent me to my bed for the next 3 days. Today (Sunday) is the first day I've had enough energy to get me through the whole day! Good thing too, because I start back to school with all my preschoolers tomorrow!

I didn't have much time to really do anything but write in my journal, which I will show you on my next post. Today, I wanted you to see what I saw this morning when I looked into my Stamp Room:

It was treacherous just to walk to my work table...

and even worse ON my table!

my goal today was to finish figuring out what to do with my unmounted stamps to make getting to them even easier...

and to be able to get some space on my table to do some work this week.

Mission accomplished!

Hopefully NOW I can get down to some serious creating!

Talk to you soon!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T18:40:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas (and Happy Hanukkah!) to all my wonderful blog friends who keep me up when I am down! All of you are such wonderful and caring people, and I am so thankful to have each and every one of you in my cyber-life!

I was only able to make 4 cards this year, and I only have 3 of them to show you. I really have to start Christmas card-making in January!

All images are from Altered Pages

I will be posting some Journal pages after Christmas when I have more time (2 weeks holiday!!!) and I am starting a new Kelly Kilmer Workshop called Revel in the Moment, so I will show you what I'm doing there too.

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Hope everyone has a fabulous holiday!

November already!

2011-11-19T16:23:00.000-05:00

Boy, time is flying by. I'm not getting much done, barely started thinking about Christmas, but everyone else seems to be - it was so busy today at the stores! Working on a few journal pages that I can share anyway. . .

I thought this background was done. . .

but then I started doodling!

This is the next page background, the writing isn't quite done yet, and I have one more page on the go.

Not much to show, but then I haven't been working on it much, either too tired at the end of the day or too busy on the weekends. But I'm trying to get a few minutes in before I go to work, and a few minutes in just before bed (but that doesn't last long, I'm no good at night). I'm also trying to get into my art room before I do the things I HAVE to do!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends! Hope your Turkey / Tofurkey Day is a delicious one!

Birthday Card

2011-09-22T18:07:00.000-04:00

Hopefully this card reaches my good friend Marg before she sees this post. It better! But here it is, I had no idea what I was going to do for this card when I started, except that I had just bought the new Tim Holtz pad of paper and knew I wanted to use it.

I had also just bought a new Crafters Workshop swirly stencil that I thought I would christen. The "Life is nothing" stamp is from Viva Las Vegas Stamps. This is the result. I like it! Hope Marg does too!

Check out the giveaway on my sidebar for Ink On My Finger's blog!

Finally - an art post!!

2011-09-11T15:07:00.000-04:00

Hives are all gone, hopefully NEVER to return! But if they do, I am armed! Thank you for all the sympathy I received. I needed it!!

OK, so here are some new journal pages. I've been experimenting a lot with backgrounds and stencils. Not sure how I like it.

The cross is a canvas I'm doing for a good friend who is sadly moving away. I will miss her very much!

My friend Therese came to play with me!!

I thought I would use my Character Construction stamps and create some people on my journal - unfortunately, I only have a couple of these stamps - I have to get more!! Well I'm off to finish this page.

My thoughts go out to all of you who are remembering 911 today, especially those personally affected. It was a horrible day, and though we don't want to remember it, we need to.

Warning: this post may be uncomfortable!

2011-08-28T11:43:00.000-04:00

I have been caught in the throws of HIVES!!! Aaaack!! Here is the lesson that I learned: ALWAYS wash fabric before you sew with it! I was making an outdoor curtain for the playground at school, and bought heavy outdoor fabric, not realizing that I would be ALLERGIC to the sizing in the fabric! I've never been allergic to anything like this before, in fact this is my FIRST allergic reaction (with hives) to ANYTHING!

These were taken August 26, 2 days after I started treating

Hard to tell, but my hands are very swollen, and you can't even see the hives because of the swelling

It didn't show up right away either. Two days after sewing the curtains, the hives came up, and I had no idea at the time where they came from. I had been suffering from what I thought at first were bug bites, then some kind of rash, on my ankles and under my knee. I fought with that for a week before I started to sew with the fabric. On thinking back to where these hives could have come from, I realized that I had SAT on this fabric before I began sewing with it a week later. I then spent about 2 hours over 2 days touching the fabric, and having it sit on me feet as I sewed it. Two days later I started to get the hives, which just escalated over the next few days. I think I had hives on top of hives on top of hives! Luckily I went to the doctor immediately (the 3rd time in a week) and he gave me some VERY strong cortisone cream to apply 3X a day. Two days ago I woke up with hands so swollen that I couldn't even hold a cup of coffee. Luckily I had taken my rings off.

taken today, Sunday, August 28

(yesterday)

Thankfully, getting better!

But no suggestions from the doc except for Benadryl as to what to do about the ITCHING which was driving me mad. So I came up with something that worked for me: ice.

This bag is full of frozen freezies and a few ice packs to help keep them frozen.

After lots of different experiments with bags of ice, and ice packs, I finally found the solution in frozen freezies. I could put them on isolated parts that were itchy, and even pop them between my toes. So I carry my insulated lunch bag with me, full of freezies, and I have more in the fridge to swap them out with when they thaw.
I also switched from Benadryl to another stronger antihistamine, which although I'm sure it helped, certainly didn't take away all the itching. The itching was so bad it kept me from sleeping a lot, but in the last 2 days I have finally gotten to sleep most of the night. I took my ice to bed with me, and even had my feet resting on bags of ice on those first few days. But I seem to be on the road to recovery now, yay!

Well that's my excuse for not doing much art these past two weeks (I did manage a little bit in my journal)! I'm back to the classroom tomorrow to get ready for school next week, so it may be a little while before I'm back.

Hope everyone is well, and for those of you who were/are in the path of Irene, take care and be safe!

Playtime!!

2011-08-22T13:37:00.001-04:00

My good friend Therese came and spent a few days of playtime with me last week! It has turned into an annual event that I look forward to every year!

We played with beeswax!! I finally christened my new Ranger Melting pot I bought over a year ago. we also went to our mutual friend Marg's house for a wonderful lunch and more beeswax fun!

But we spent a lot of time talking about Art Journaling, and looking at videos, especially Gulfsprite and Journal Artista (Paula Phillips). And then we got to making stencils and our own spray ink!

Here is the pile of stencils and things to use as stencils that is on my desk right now.

Therese brought me a pile of stencils that she made with her die cuts-cool!
I sprayed these:

And this tree, but left the stencil on so you could see - she gave me several little baggies of these - how nice its that!

Then we went to the Dollarama and bought some plastic file folders, cut them up, and Therese started cutting out designs for me:

The "glass shards" was made by taping together all the little pieces she cut out -clever!

Some diamonds:

And this is what she did with the pieces she cut out -stuck them together with circle stickers!

Here are some stencils I made a few weeks ago:

Then we started playing with making our own sprays. I have some sprays

But of course, never enough. We did some online searching and came up with several different ways to do this, ended up with re-inkers and alcohol or water. Will also try some with Pearl Ex.

We also went to Chapters and found lots of kooky crazy fun stuff, but bought these-who can resist this typewriter font alphabet set for $12.00?? And I thought the bubbles would be fun for my journal.

At Staples, while looking for Portfolio watercolor oil pastels, we found these very cool watercolor paints, each one has paint in its reservoir. I first heard of these from Gulfsprite. So, of course, picked them up. never did find the Portfolios though.

It was a fun week! Can't wait until next year!!

Next time I will show you some Journal pages made with the stencils.

Aug 1

2011-08-01T19:41:00.000-04:00

Get Your Art On is done - I managed to post most of the month!!

I finished CJs canvas today, entitled Keys to Happiness. CJ chose the words for her canvas:

CJ was visiting all weekend so I didn't have time to do much more, but here are some pictures:

Saturday the main street was closed for festivities

and fun things like Belly Dancing!

Sunday we went to Sandbanks in Picton and sat on the beach all day (like lots of others!)

And we went to CJs favourite Cider Company that sells Waupous Cider and got a few fun things as well as cider to take home.

And we went home by the ferry, which is always fun!

See you soon!

Day 29-GYAO

2011-07-29T17:58:00.000-04:00

The month is almost over! Whew! I have a journal page here:

Now I have to start my next page!

And I've been working on the last two canvases, neither are finished. This one is for CJ:

And this one for my good friend Martha who is moving to Brazil:

I'm not sure how I'm going to finish this one, and I don't want to ruin it, so I've printed out 3 images of it, and I will play with them until I do something I like!

That's it for today. I think I will go and work on tomorrow's journal page!

Day 18-28-GYAO

2011-07-28T11:58:00.000-04:00

Well, suffice it to say that I could not upload anything while I was in Niagara Falls! Took a few pictures, and I wrote on my journal pages, but that is about all the time I had! I wish I had taken more pictures, I really have to get into the habit of doing that.

We went to St Jacob's Farmers Market near Kitchener, and I snapped a few photos there:

Then we went to the town of St Jacob's where there was this funky store made of an old silo:

and we had dinner at a place in Burlington called Emma's Back Porch -this was the view!

And that's about when I stopped taking pictures for some reason!!

Here are some of the journal pages I wrote on:

I obviously haven't caught up on the last page yet, but I will! My friend that I was visiting in Niagara Falls gave me the Thunderbird stamp across the bottom of the page that she picked up for me when she was in Vancouver. How nice is that!! We went to a Music Niagara concert in Niagara-On-The-Lake on our last day, and the grapes were from the cover of the booklet that we were given.

That's all for now!

Day 15-16-17 GYAO

2011-07-17T15:56:00.000-04:00

Haven't blogged for a few days, but have been busy never-the-less! It is my hubby's birthday on Tuesday, but I won't be here, so we celebrated last night at a nice restaurant. I made him this card:

Kinda cute, but he liked it. On the inside is a stamp of a hand holding cards, and it says "it's in the cards Have a Happy birthday!" then "from your Queen" and a little Queen of hearts card. Like I said cutesy!

I've been working in my journal on the other days, and experimented with using some India ink I found. I put it in a spray bottle (watered down). The color is too pale, so I will have to add more ink I think. Has anyone else tried this?

Then I tried watered down brown paint, the color was better, but soon the sprayer got clogged up.

This is what my desk looked like this morning:

I cleaned it up this afternoon:

Then started getting it messy again. . .!!

Here is the page I've been working on over the last few days:

I actually carved a stamp for the lines!

And finally, the little gift for my friend that I will be staying with for the next week in Niagara Falls (Canada).

It's one of those tiny 2" canvases that comes with the easel.

So I don't know if I will be able to blog from Niagara Falls, but I will try! Trying to figure out what I will need, and trying not to take too much!

Day 14-GYAO

2011-07-14T19:27:00.000-04:00

I spent this afternoon with my friend Marg doing art all afternoon! It was lots of fun, I always enjoy being with her! We were in an envelope swap awhile back, and neither of us had made our covers yet to bind all the envelopes together, so that is what we decided to work on. So we made the front and back covers, and then some cool tags that we covered in beeswax. Our next step will be to put it all together with my Cinch, which bit through the covers nicely. We tried it with the Zutter first, but it just wouldn't work. I'm going to add the tags to the cover after all is bound.

The covers

The tags sitting on the covers with the buttons that will eventually go on as well

The tags are all covered in beesewax, - hard to see in the photos

I had a very fun and productive day today!

Day 13-GYAO

2011-07-13T19:53:00.000-04:00

Wow, day 13 already! I did do some work on my journal today, started a new page, always a good step! Not sure if I want to use my kitty's picture

or my Daughter's picture

but in the meantime I added some yellow scallops to the edges. I also made the diamond stencil today from a dollar store plastic folder. It's very hard to see but I sprayed yellow through punchinella on top of the black diamond. Didn't work out as well as I had hoped!

Well, I will work on this tomorrow, then you will see who I chose for the page. . .

Day 12-GTAO

2011-07-12T20:26:00.000-04:00

Nothing tangible to show tonight, but I'm going to settle in with my book and choose my next project. had a very kind of lonely depressing day today, had to get out of the house and hang out at Chapter's/Starbucks for awhile, then went to Zumba, which helped a lot. So Zumba counts, right?

Day 11-GYAO

2011-07-11T19:37:00.000-04:00

Here is my finished journal page. I really like it. It almost looks like I drew it myself!! I kind of hate to write on this page, we'll see what happens when I get to it!

I must choose my next project to do from my book "Art at the Speed of Life". I have 2 more canvases left! To see what everyone else is doing with this challenge, click on my sidebar GYAO button to get to Traci's blog, then underneath her button is a link to everyone else.

Day 10-GYAO

2011-07-10T18:15:00.000-04:00

Didn't do much this lazy Sunday but get caught up on 4 hours of Coronation Street, and still have 4 more to before I'm totally caught up! But I did get into my art room to play with a B&W print I found this morning on Magic Moonlight free images blog. Check it out, there are some nice images here! Any way, I found one of a child that I liked and decided to try it on my next journal page. The page is not finished, nor is the girl, but I've begun, anyway!

It's hard to tell that I painted over a B&W photo, isn't it! I figure the more I practice the better I'll get. (BTW - you can see some of the new Tim Holtz stamps I got at Michael's for 50% off yesterday!)

Day 9-GYAO

2011-07-09T19:35:00.000-04:00

Day 9 already of Get Your Art On!! Today was shopping day and lunch with my Mom day, but I did work on the canvas with the bird on it - covered it all up (it was my least favorite). I chose one of my fav photos of my daughter, CJ, and printed it out in B&W. Now I think I did almost everything the opposite of what it said to do in the book, I didn't use laser printing, I didn't have liquid graphite, I didn't use gel medium, so I just did what I wanted, painted right over top of the photo (around the edges mostly, and on her clothing) and this is what I got:

I don't think it's quite finished, I have to look at it for awhile, but I really love it - or is it that I love her? I thought I'd do the same type of thing as my next page in my journal and went looking for a face to use -any face - and I just kept going back to her, so she will be my next portrait in my journal. I must miss her a lot!! I like the idea of painting on top of the photo.

Day 8-GYAO

2011-07-08T19:31:00.000-04:00

Today was just as lovely as yesterday, except that I had errands and gym this afternoon, so not so much relaxing time. I went to buy some of the colors I didn't have, only to find out that yes, I DID have one of the colors! Hopefully they will both get well used!

But I did get some work done on my canvases from yesterday:

I added a darker color on the edges, then texture and stamps

Then added teal.

This is what each one looks like so far - the teal didn't show up well in these individual ones

Now, these are "finished", BUT they are only the backgrounds for further projects in the book! I will be continuing, this is a lot of fun so far!

Day 7-GYAO

2011-07-07T19:41:00.000-04:00

What a gorgeous day! Not too hot, not too cold, it was hard not to spend the entire day outside (the mosquitoes convinced me that that wasn't really good idea though!).

This is where I like to read and the mosquitoes like to feed. A citronella candle has made life a bit easier. . my summer read is going awfully fast - good thing I have 4 more waiting!

But I did get some art done today despite the nice weather. I have been reading this book:

and it is full of little projects, so I decided to try the first one, creating several prepared canvases at a time.

Steps 1, 2 and 3 all done. I need some paint that I don't have, I will pick it up tomorrow when I'm downtown, and then see what comes next!

Day 6-GYAO

2011-07-07T10:41:00.000-04:00

Very busy day, was out most of the day. But I did do a little bit of fiddling on my last journal page:

That's it for today! Hopefully I will have more time tomorrow.

Day 5-GYAO

2011-07-05T20:21:00.000-04:00

I didn't have a lot of time today, had to do some housework, and dentist, go to Zumba, and read my book about Maid Marion and Robin Hood called Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson. So far its great summer reading, and VERY thick!

So I worked on my journal page:

Not quite done yet, a few little things to add here and there, but mostly done. It is not one of my favorite pages!

I also took apart another journal I started the other day, and am turning it into a Smash Journal - not that I've ever made one before! We'll see how it turns out. That's it for today!

Day 4

2011-07-04T16:03:00.000-04:00

Spent most of my afternoon playing! I've been watching GulfSprite videos lately, she's been very inspiring (everyone I find seems to be!), and I love how she paints her faces right onto scrapbook paper. Now I am no where near as good as she is, but watching her paint, I was thinking, well, maybe something I could try. So I found a photo of CJ that I had posterized, and I edited it a bit more, then printed it out, and cut around it like a stencil. That's how I got the basic shape of her face. Then I just did what I remembered Chris doing in her videos (though not near as well!) and painted away. Certainly not as wonderful as Chris's are, but not too bad for a first try!

It's not supposed to look like CJ, I just got the general shapes and placement of parts from the photo. I will probably use the same "stencil" for the next one too.

Here it is in my journal, but the page isn't finished yet. Will work on it some more tomorrow. It doesn't look TOO bad, does it? Looks like a face, anyway! You can see my picture peeking out over top - I made a "stencil" of me too! Maybe a self-portrait will be next!

Day 3

2011-07-03T19:10:00.000-04:00

Spent just about all day in my little stamping room today, mostly working on my journal page. I also cleaned up my space because 2 stencils I made yesterday disappeared. Very annoying!! I finally found them when I was almost all cleaned up. Then I made a long overdue 4X4 for a swap. I also worked on a Tutorial for Altered Pages, so you'll have to go here in a few days to see it. I made a tutorial on how to make an easy journal cover.

Here are the two things I CAN show you:

My journal page, CJ and JC dancing at the wedding in France. I love this page - so romantic! It's actually nicer in real life.

And this is the 4X4 for a Cirque Swap, long overdue. So now I'm caught up with my swaps, I think I may join a few challenges instead of swaps - they don't have to be mailed!

Day 2

2011-07-02T19:42:00.000-04:00

It was a busy day today, not a lot of time for art, but I did a bit in the morning and a bit in the evening. I like to do a bit, then leave it, and come back to it. It gives me a fresh look at things.

I love this photo of CJ and JC dancing at the wedding in France. Beautiful! So I wanted to use it on my next journal page.

Morning-just getting started!

Evening-a little bit more -we'll see what happens tomorrow! There are things about this page I'm not liking right now.

Day 1-July1-Get Your Art On!

2011-07-01T19:18:00.000-04:00

Happy Canada Day !!!! I spent a nice quiet day inside and outside on my porch. BBQ steak and low-carb "Potato" salad (cauliflower!), and a neat shrimp appetizer I had at a restaurant a few weeks back. Lovely.

So I did get my art on today, but first let's catch up:

My finished page from my last post. The left side turned into a Gratitude page for June. And I thought I'd do some fancy writing for a change on the right side.

This one I forgot to take a photo of the left side without the writing. I'm thinking of using these pages for CJ's Travel Journal, as they are using photos from her trip. This is a cat and one face from a fountain in France (I put the cat on top of the fountain). And, of course, CJ (not a real tattoo though!)

OK, here's today's art:

My VERY late Paris tag for a swap, I must get it out ASAP!

My next Journal Pages, this first one is horrible, then I made it worse by trying to do a transfer that failed miserably. . .

But I fixed it and now I love it! (as always!)

The window and roses are from CJ's trip to France. She loved the roses!

That's all for Day 1!

Get Your Art On!

2011-07-01T07:46:00.000-04:00

Now that summer holidays are OFFICIALLY here, I can devote more time to ART! Traci Bunkers has a wonderful challenge called "30 Days of Get Your Art On" which I am joining. I am also adopting her rules, although one can use any rules they like:

I’ll make art every day for 30 days and post what I have done.
I don’t have to finish what ever I’m working on that day, I just have to work on something.
I have to work for 30 minutes, but can work longer if time permits.
It doesn’t matter what I do for the art making, as long as I work on art.
I won’t feel guilty for taking the time to work on art and I won’t have to justify why I’m doing it.
I don’t have to go into detail in my post about how I did anything or what tools, materials I used (unless I want to).

Go to the button on my sidebar to be whisked away to Traci's website!!

So I guess I better go get busy!!! The 30 Days start TODAY!!!!!

DVD freebie!

2011-06-20T07:20:00.000-04:00

Kathryn Wheel at Journaling For Fun is giving away 2 Journaling DVDs! I know I want them - how about you? Pop on over! I love Kathryn's style of journaling, especially her backgrounds!

Apologies

2011-06-18T09:43:00.000-04:00

I apologize for not keeping up, something I hope to amend over the summer! My goal is to make more frequent posts with less writing.
I have some journal pages to share with you, it's all I have been able to do over the past month as I have been so busy during the day, and so darned exhausted at night. I have two swaps hanging over my head that were due last month that I haven't started yet. I'm hoping to get them done this weekend. Bad girl.

The exciting part about these journal pages is that my DD, CJC went to Europe with her boyfriend, JC, and had a wonderful time. I'm pulling some photos of hers to use on my journal pages, so I'm sure more of those will be popping up.

Here are my pages as of May 12, when CJ went off to France:

I hated this page when I started it. The colors were horrible. So I played with it and changed the colors, though some of the old colors are peeking through. Now I love it! Some new stamps from Wendy Vecchi are on this page too.

This one still needs some work, but these are 2 of CJ's photos. She takes "jump photos" wherever she goes, a bit of a trademark for her now, and on the right is a collage poster she saw in France.

That's it for now, short and sweet! Hopefully I will have time this weekend to work on these pages and my swaps.But summer break is coming. . .!

Spring is here -finally!!

2011-05-14T14:27:00.000-04:00

We had the most wonderful week of Spring last week! Finally, no coat/sweater weather! Of course, we are making up for it with a week of rain starting today, but everything is so wonderfully green!

I finished my last journal, I am posting the last pages, and I have started my bigger journal, 8 X 10 I think. It will be odd working on such large pages again! Haven't done much else in the last month, except my Mother's Day card:

I used a tag from my new Graphics 45 Steampunk paper pad.

Here are my journal pages:

My Traci Bunkers order came in!

If you look in my last post you can see these pages before they were journaled upon. My DD and her boyfriend are in France for a wedding, and will spend the next 3 weeks in France and Spain, so my first few journal pages of my new journal will probably be about their trip. Talk about living vicariously! LOL!

BTW, a journalist I am enjoying, especially since she makes so many videos, is Journal Artista aka Paula. She showed a wonderful technique of making corrugated cardboard which I LOVE, here are some ATCs I made using her technique:

These are all swapped in a Ranger ATC Swap, but I loved making them, so I'll probably make lots more! Go to Paula's blog to see how she does this!

One last thing, ALTERED PAGES has launched it's new website, and it's AWESOME!! Please go and see what they have in their new "store" - lots of new things beside their already wonderful collage sheets!

April!

2011-04-09T15:54:00.000-04:00

Lovely April day, I'm recovering from a miserable Spring cold, so here I am at the computer instead of outside. Oh well, hopefully more of these days to come!

Here is a Stampscapes card I made for a swap on Stampscapes ll Yahoo Group, it was a "barnscapes" swap. I didn't have any barns, so I had to buy a few. I like this one! And I bought the scarecrow. I bought them at Angels Attic.

Last Sunday, I got to have an afternoon of stamping with my friend Marg,and I made these two tags, also for a swap, for my Art for the Creative Mind yahoo group. Marg made some bird tags too. We had a lot of fun!

Here are my latest journal pages, some are just background pages. I think it's neat to see how the page changes as it evolves!

I am currently working on the angel page, so hopefully next week I will have these last 3 pages finished and ready to show you.

I discovered an Art Journalist named Traci Bunkers - I love her techniques and ideas she uses in her journals! I, of course, immediately bought her book, and have started using a few ideas. Then I went to her Etsy shop and bought a couple of stencils and some stamps. They haven't arrived yet, but I'm sure I'll use them when they do! That funny scallopy stamp at the bottom of the last journal page is an idea from her - it's one of those things you use when you paint your toenails to keep your toes apart! She also does little videos which I love watching. So I don't know how my pages will change with this new influence, but I find I'm like a Borg - I just keep assimilating every Art Journalist I come across that I like- watch out!! Resistance is futile!

Finally-Back to Journaling!

2011-03-15T10:07:00.000-04:00

Boy -it's been awhile! I stopped art journaling last September. I tried to figure out why, and what I came up with is that I was 2 pages to the end, and I didn't have another journal ready to go into. I wasn't up to making another one, so I just stopped. Then one of our best friends died, I knew I should journal about him, but couldn't. In January I finally got the gumption to start again, and it's been getting easier ever since. I even started the page on our friend yesterday. And I already have another journal to go into, so hopefully thing will go smoothly from here! But I have decided, after journaling every day for the past month or so, that I lead a terribly predictable and boring life! Oh well!!

So here are all my pages so far, some I took before the journaling as well, so that maybe I can use them in other pieces of art along the road. Besides, I think it's interesting to see "before" and "after"!

This is the completed page of the page I started a few blog posts back, using enlarged copies of 2 moo cards I made a few years ago.

Before page

after- Family Day

The background pictures are taken from some of my old ATCs

Again, more of my old art enlarged in this page as well. I've always loved this Buddha page I did in someone else's Deco Book!

I made this page with the first Altered Pages stamp I got, as well as an extra page I made for another swap book,

and this is what it became:

Another page made with enlarged ATCs of mine. I originally had a quote in the middle, but I hated it, so painted over it. The leaf shapes on the right edge are made with those black heat sensitive foam things that you can impress shapes into. I love this one!

So I used it again on the next page:

This is the page I'm working on this week, so hopefully I will post it in a few days when it's full. The stamps are from Stampin' Up, a gift from a friend. I like using new stamps in my journals. And there's that neat leaf thing across the bottom from the previous page.

My next page to work on, ready to go:

Images from Tim Holtz paper, other bits are things I found on my table that day. Bought some K&C chip board shapes (on sale at Michael's) and used a few as stencils.

I have one more finished background page but I haven't scanned it yet. Also started making background pages in my next journal with leftover paint from this one.

To make this blog post even longer, here are a few other things I've been working on lately:

I had an enverlope swap to do for Byhand -15 envelopes plus thing to put inside. My theme morphed into a Lord Byron (the poet) theme. I even made Byron Post stamps for each envelope (and put a few extra inside)! You can see the huge amount of room I leave myself to create these things!

SPOILER ALERT! If you are in this swap, and want to be surprised, skip this next photo!

Inside each envelope are some Byron post stamps, a romantic letter from Byron (After I finished aging these letters, I realized I should have changed the name on each letter to reflect the person it was going to! oh well, next time!), and a "framed" portrait of Byron, as every love lost girl should have!

My mother turned 75 on Feb 12 (see sidebar for her new books!), and here is the card I gave her, and the inside:

And another card I made with the Altered Pages stamp (I love this stamp!)

And FINALLY (yes, this post is almost over!!) some ATCs I've made in the last month or so:

One of my favorite stamps -"Maude"

These two were for a "Queen of hearts" swap.

Well, that's it. When I started I thought I didn't have much to report. Wrong! I really need to do this more often so you aren't subjected to such a LONG post!! Off to spend the afternoon with my friend Marg and to PLAY!!!

Blogiversary

2011-02-06T18:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my 5th Blogiversary. I can't believe it's only been 5 years, it feels much longer! Someday I will have a celebration, but this year I was sick.
So far, I've been sick all of February. OK, so it's only Feb 6th, but what a way to start the month! I stayed home from work 3 of those days, and 2 were the weekend, so only 1 working sick day. I hope I'm up to going back tomorrow! Now Ron is sick.

Anyway, felt better today so was able to get some art done. An ATC swap for AFTCM called "Hands of Time". I like them both!

Last month I made a kit for Altered Pages, but I hadn't put it on my blog yet. Since it's been on the site for awhile now, I thought I'd post it. I made it from a wooden box my mother gave to me that she found in a second hand shop. I had some sheet music I was supposed to used on a project from AP, called "Song of India". I was all set to do a cool Indian box, until I researched the music and found what the story was. Not at all what thought! It was about an under-the-sea wedding!

The box was fun to make, I'll have to make a book someday to go inside.

Thanks for looking!

Sunday

2011-01-23T19:09:00.000-05:00

It was too cold to do anything this Sunday but stay in my warm cozy jammy type clothes and do art! I have several swap items I needed to make, so I did the two most pressing ones, plus an ATC.

This is my "Under the Sea" Gothic Arch I made for my AFTCM Yahoo group. Sometimes i make things I don't want to give away, and this is one of them! I would love to keep it! The mermaid, the seahorse, and 2 of the shells on the left are popped up. The arch is free standing, made from a chipboard book I got at Michael's in the summer. The 2 sides fold in a bit, but this has been scanned flat. Maybe I'll use it on a journal page!

I also needed to make a card for my Stampscapes II Yahoo group, the theme was "Anything Goes" so I decided to use my new horse stamps (also from Michael's).

This one is going all the way to the Netherlands! I went to a Hero Arts sale on Saturday and bought a set of word stamps and I used 2 of them on this card. One is on the inside, under a stamped image of a horse's head. If you recognize the stamp of the trees in the background, you will know that I took out the water! How to be versatile with your stamps!

That's it for this week! I'm hoping to get some time to work on my journal from my Strathmore class, but I seem to have such small windows of time! I need to start working on my envelopes (15 of them I think!) for an envelope swap at my Byhand Yahoo Group, and I have 3 sets of ATCs to do as well.

Have a great week!

What I've been doing. . .

2011-01-09T19:48:00.000-05:00

Not too much, I'm afraid! Getting back to work is one exhausting activity! And then there's getting back on track with my eating (low-carb!) and getting back to the gym (haven't quite done that yet, but I've been on the bike a few times!). I have joined an online art journal workshop to get me back into journaling. It is taught by Pam Carriker. We have done two weeks so far. The first week was to find old art and print it out. I started with some old journal pages, but it just didn't work for me, then I though about all the art I make and send away to other people. I love most of that art and I never see it again! So I went back and pulled up a couple of moos I did in 2007 that I loved, and used those. I blew them up quite large. For the background I tore up a copy of a journal page that was dark blue. Glued it all down and then did week 2's assignment, using charcoal, oil pastels and gesso. The journal pages actually look better in "person".

the little moos


my week 2 page. We will be adding to this next week

Rolodex Cards

In my Art For the Creative Mind Group we are doing a monthly Rolodex swap of countries around the world. January is Greece. I had an opportunity to use my Non-Sequitur ancient Greece stamps! Yay!

Starbucks Coffee cups!

My daughter got a design-it-yourself coffee cup for Christmas, so I let her choose from my pretty scrapbooking paper the paper she wanted, and she let my decorate the backs!

Using my new "Bathing Beauties" stamp set I got for Christmas

Caitlin loves Mucha girls!


Tim Holtz butterflies

I liked making these so much I asked for one for my birthday - but I haven't had a chance to decorate it yet.

Bookmarks

I also made some bookmarks for presents to go back to the big city, which was also what I made for everyone in the Twelve Days of Christmas swap this year! They are elastic bookmarks, and I don't think I'll every use anything else again!

I made them with Shrinky Dink!


Here is what it looks like on a book - you never lose your pages!

Of course, I never lose my page on my Kindle, but it doesn't mean I can't snazz it up a bit! The beautiful bookmark from Daphne is now a permanent resident in my Kindle too.

OK, that's it for now!I hope everyone has a creative week!

Playing!

2010-12-28T08:23:00.000-05:00

Playing with my new Cinch - easy peasy! Found a bunch of old (2008) 4X4s to make into a book, some ATCs, and my calendar pages from AFTCM Calendar Swap.

These are from an old Byhand Swap called This and That from 2008. Isn't the first one awesome! That's Yogi's!

My calendar from AFTCM Yahoo Group. It stands on it's own.

A bunch of old ATCs of mine

That was fun! I'll have to go searching for more!

Christmas Day

2010-12-26T10:14:00.000-05:00

We had a lovely Christmas Day, peaceful and serene! I don't remember ever not being totally exhausted at the end of a Christmas Day, but last night I felt calm and so not tired! My Mom, Step-Dad and Brother came for dinner, we had a 23 lb turkey (I LOVE leftovers!) and all the cooking was done by the time they arrived! The kitchen wasn't too bad as I had already done 3 dishwasher loads of dishes during the day! So it was sit back, drink eggnog, and enjoy!

Here are some highlights of the day:

Christmas morning

The stocking are filled

My daughter and I are warm and cozy!

My family is so good at getting me art related gifts -here are all the wonderful things they chose for me this year!

and a Cinch!! From my wonderful husband!

This will get a lot of use!

I am so blessed! I had a wonderful Christmas, and hope that all of you did too! Have a lovely restful Boxing Day, or as we call it, Turkey Soup Day!

12 Days of Christmas- Day 12

2010-12-26T09:54:00.001-05:00

Last day!! I had 2 presents to open, from Robyn and Mary-Beth

here is Robyn's:

Looks very pretty on the tree! Thanks Robyn!

And Mary-Beth's:

A tiny canvas on a tiny easel! Very cool! Thanks Mary-Kay!

And for the gift from Mary-Kay from Day 8, I can reveal it now:

Delightful little fabric ornament! Thanks Mary-Kay!

Well, that's it for another year! This was such a fun swap! Many thanks to all who joined!

12 Days of Christmas- Day 11

2010-12-23T11:17:00.000-05:00

Almost over!! I had two to open today, but first I have to show you the secret that my friend Marg discovered about Day 4's gift from Kathleen:

it opens up! Who knew! I thought the bow was strictly ornamental! Now I have a place to put my 2010 Christmas pics! Thanks Marg - it helps to be inquisitive!!

Now for Day 11's gifts:

I opened the pink one first, from Ruth:

This beautiful metallic ornament was inside! It has two sides as you can see, and is covered in embossed metal, rubbed with alcohol ink. Very cool technique! Thank you Ruth!

the next was from Linda H

A cool squiggly knitted white scarf with sparkly gold intertwined!

Here I am wearing it - it goes well with my all-black theme for today! Thanks Linda!!

Many thanks to Linda and Ruth for Day 11!

12 Days of Christmas- Day 10

2010-12-22T09:37:00.000-05:00

Day 10 already! Only 2 more days to go! today's gifts came from Jane and Carolyn:

I opened Jane's first because I knew it was another tile. . .

and it was awesome! Now I have a set of two! Thanks Jane!

Next - Carolyn's gift - wow!

Beautiful origami pieces done with vellum-gorgeous!! The deer is truly awesome, it just seems to glow! And the wreath is already on the tree! Thanks Carolyn!!

12 Days of Christmas- Day 9

2010-12-22T07:38:00.000-05:00

Day 9 gave me two beautiful gifts! One from Joanne and one from Jane.

I opened Joanne's first:

It is a beautiful knotted wristband! It is reversible, so I can wear either side. Love it!!

Next was Jane's:

A beautiful zentangled tile! This is to be used as a coaster, but wouldn't it be cool to have a border of these tiles in a bathroom! Something to think about! I have another present from Jane for day 10, exactly the same package, so I'm thinking I'm going to have a set of these!

Thanks Joanne and Jane!

Update:
I received my Day 6 present in the mail yesterday, so I opened it. It was from Kathleen. Take a peek!

Very pretty! I have it hanging in my front hall. Love it Kathleen! Thank you!

12 Days of Christmas- Day 8

2010-12-21T07:54:00.000-05:00

Day 8 was my day, so I'll show you what everyone else got first. This was an idea I picked up online and just loved the grunge look. Not everyone is a grunge fan so I was a bit worried!

All the ornaments were different, these are just 2 chosen at random. I tried to get them to match the decor of those who sent me their tree colors! One was pink and turquoise, I can't remember who got that one, but it was someone I thought might be open to even more funkiness, so I hope she liked it! The others were more traditional colors. I think one was a snowman. Lots of experimenting as I was doing these! Fun! The Santa stamp on the right has always been my favorite Christmas stamp!

Now for my gifties!

The one marked Day 8 is from Carmen, and the one marked Day 13 is from Mary-Beth, and I can't show you that one today. I will show it at the end of the swap. Its the one everyone gets in place of their own gifty!

Isn't this the most clever calendar ever?? Winter and Spring are back to back (like an upside-down V) and summer and fall are inside. When summer comes I just turn it inside out! So clever, and I love it! Thanks Carmen!!

And thanks M-B! Wink wink!

12 Days of Christmas- Day 7

2010-12-19T15:53:00.000-05:00

Wow - 7 days have gone by so quickly! Today I opened two gifts, on from Wendy and one from Kristy:

I opened Wendy's first:

It is a gorgeous, soft handle, I m thinking for my camera, but the metal ring is too big to fit. I will try to find a way! Thank you Wendy - it's beautiful!

And next was Kristy's

A beautiful necklace!

This necklace is made from a bamboo tile covered in metal - very cool! I love it Kristy! One of my favourite shapes is the heart, so I know I will wear it!

Many thanks to both Wendy and Kristy!

Day 6

2010-12-19T15:43:00.000-05:00

Just one today, hopefully #2 will arrive soon! Today's gift is from Daphne, a good online friend of mine. Hopefully someday we will meet - she's not that far away!

Daphne was so smart-she wrapped her present in old sewing pattern tissue! How cool is that!

This is a beautifully stitched fabric bookmark-almost too beautiful to hide in a book!

The back

I love this bookmark, right now it's hanging on my wall! I just have to figure out how to attach it to my Kindle. . .LOL! (I do have real books-not to worry!)

Thank you Daphne!!

12 Days of Christmas-Day 5

2010-12-18T08:19:00.000-05:00

Day 5 is here! And I have 2 pressies to open today. Here they are:


One from Kaye and one from Sandie

Here's the one from Kaye:

Front

Back

On the tree!

This is a gorgeous Slide Ornament, with 2 sides. Love it! Thanks Kaye!

And from Sandie:

a Zentangled keychain! What a great idea!

On my keys already!

I love my new Zentangled Keychain! I've only just started with Zentangles, hoping to get some done over Christmas. What a great idea Sandie! Thank you!!

Many thanks to Kaye and Sandie for a great Day 5!!

12 Days of Christmas-Day 4

2010-12-17T07:40:00.000-05:00

Today brought one present, one is still on it's way. I'll show it to you when it arrives!

So today's present was from Carolyn, and is a very cute paper pine cone! I have it hanging on my tree. It also came flat and I had to "revive" it. Its very cool! She also sent the template with instructions on how to make it!

Can you see all the beads down the middle?

This is such a cool ornament, and will be on my tree every year! Thanks so much Carolyn!

Today is the last mail day 'till Monday, so I hope my 2nd day 4 arrives today!

12 Days of Christmas-Day 3

2010-12-17T07:33:00.000-05:00

Sorry I'm late with Day 3 - I left my camera at school!

Day 3 brought two more lovely presents. First, from Ramona (all the way from Germany!) came this lovely little book:

"The longest journey is the journey inward"

It came flat for mailing, and I just had to fold it all back up to get the book. I love how it folds! I don't know if she did the lettering herself or not. It looks too long for a stamp!

The second gift was from Wendy, and is a beautiful 3-paneled banner made form cotton, lace, and painted(?) in some way, Its beautiful! It fits just perfectly on my piano!

Wendy and Ramona, thank you so much for these beautiful gifts!

12 Days of Christmas-Day 2

2010-12-14T19:17:00.000-05:00

Another two gifties to open up! I open them when I get home from work, something to look forward to all day!

First, from Beth, what a cute muslin gift bag!

and inside. . .

it's a pin! Gorgeous! I've seen these flowers online, but never in "person"! Fabulous! Thanks Beth!

Pinned to my sleeve!

And the next one is from Judy. . .

the gift was hidden on the back. . .

3 wonderful buttons made of some kind of clay? I love them!! Judy said to use them on a project, and I surely will! Thanks Judy, these are awesome!

Many thanks to Beth and Judy for a wonderful Day 2!

12 Days of Christmas-Day 1

2010-12-13T19:10:00.000-05:00

Wow! I'm right on top of things today! I got to open 2 pressies on this first day of Christmas!

The first one I opened was from Deborah and was contained in this lovely little purse:

and inside was this beautiful Partridge in a Pear Tree!

It is cut out of some kind of wood, and is quite large, with a leaf charm hanging from it's tail...this will be on my tree every year for sure!

And the next present was from Carmen:

looks innocent enough, but when you open it up -WOW!!!!!!

What a gorgeous book!!! All the stamped words were by Quietfiredesign.ca Must get me those stamps!

So my first day was Brill, as they say, and I can't wait for Day 2!

Many many thanks to both Deborah and Carmen!!!!!

Starting to feel like Christmas!

2010-12-12T18:00:00.000-05:00

Even though all the snow has been obliterated by the rain today, it is starting to feel like Christmas! I got all the finishing touches done on the decorating of my Living Room. . .

The tree and coffee table. We have Christmas toys on the coffee table!

My Costa Rican Advent Calendar-every day I put a new ornament on the tree from the box. Baby Jesus is behind the last door

My Snowman Collection. There are more in the spaces on either side of this one.

My Nutcracker Collection

My dining room table

My Mexican Pottery Creche-Baby Jesus in unwrapped on Christmas morning. You can see the collection of handmade cards I've been keeping over the years.


The coffee table toys!

The only art I've done this week is a Christmas card, but I won't show it yet! I've made 5 whole cards so far. I really must start earlier next year!

Tomorrow I get to start opening my 12 Days of Christmas Gifties! I can't wait!! I will try very hard to bring my camera home every day this week to show you what I got!!

My basket of gifts from my ByHand Yahoo group1

Ta-Ta for now!
Lindart

Missing in Action

2010-12-06T07:53:00.000-05:00

But back now! I've gotten so out of the habit of posting to my blog (BAD GIRL!!) I really have to get back to it. It was hard even to just do this, as I hadn't posted in so long! The computer is now fine, I hope, after getting a new hard drive. But now I back everything up.

I have been busy with my swaps, so I'll show some of those. And I am once again participating in the Byhand Twelve days of Christmas Exchange, and I'm in 2 groups. I just finished putting some of the past decorations on my tree, always my most favorite decorations! Just mailed out all my gifts, and have a lovely basket of the gifts piling up!

These are House Tags for a swap, the little windows open and Santa is inside. The person who sent to me also had a window to open with Santa inside!

Stampscapes Swap-theme "character"-this is Frankenstein's bride

I've been kind of obsessed with making these ornaments :


This one isn't mine, but can you see all the tiny triangles? And pins. Thousands of pins.

My first one. I made 3 more that I gave away.


Then I had to "Make it my own", so this one is made from colored book pages (since I love altering books!). This is colored with Distress inks. With dots of silver on the tips of the green ones.

That's it for now. I have to go to work! I will start posting my 12 Days of Christmas gifts when we start opening them! I'm excited!

My Advent calendar-I get to put a teeny ornament on the tree every day!

CRASH!!!!

2010-10-24T18:28:00.000-04:00

Once again my main computer crashes and I`m on my laptop with no access to pictures or scanner. Bummer. My DD says - Get an APPLE!! Maybe I will. . .someday. I have stuff to show, too. Oh well, hopefully all will be well in a day or so, I`m crossing my fingers. In the meantime, I`m playing with Zentangles - can you believe it (my question mark doesn`t work - you`ll just have to add it in yourself)-I thought I would never do those things, but it so happens I CAN, so , of course, I will! Anyway, hang tight, I`ll post when I can!

Linda (I need a cool signature - anyone know how to do one (there`s that question mark again that doesn`t work!)

Got to spend the day...

2010-09-26T15:29:00.000-04:00

in my jammies doin' art! What fun! I finished my Architecture Accordion ATC, and had so much fun figuring it out! Another one wish I could keep! This is for my AFTCM group.

All the little doors open, and there are surprises inside!

This next swap was for the same group, it was a Torso Tag Swap, with the theme of "Witching Hour"

I got carried away and put a head on my torso. . .

Both of these use napkins as the background

I am now working on my Domino Swap, this one is lots of fun too. I love how these projects change and evolve from the first thought in my head to the end. Crazy! I also need to do my Halloween Paper Doll, and my Stampscapes card. Not to mention all my school work. . .Busy busy!

Once Again. . .

2010-09-11T17:32:00.000-04:00

life gets in the way! I've been really busy with school, and finally had a little bit of time to play! I've finished a few swaps for one of the Yahoo Groups I belong to -Art For The Creative Mind.

First, the Bleach Technique Tag. I really liked this one! The bleach worked well on the cardstock that I chose, and I bleached the edges. The images are from Altered Pages.

I received two lovely bleach tags from Jeannie M:

The little bird on the right hand tag is popped up - very cute!

Do you remember the arch I was working on a few posts ago? With the napkin background? Here it is finished:

I think it is now residing in Niagara on the Lake, perhaps a great reason to visit!

This is the arch I received from Ruth W. The front is a little hard to see in the scan, but it has real (I think!) leaves coming off the top, and some glitter on her wings and the butterfly. The back has a very cool pattern on it. This on is different because it is done on a piece of foam board (just now gave me an awesome idea! Wow! But you'll have to wait for it!)

This ATC swap wanted a napkin background, and was called "I Hear A Symphony". These are what I came up with:

Beethoven's Ninth!

Instruments in a Symphony

Both types of napkins came from the dollar store. Be wary though - they only had a pattern on the front quarter-the rest were folded under and white!

Now these I just mailed this week. The first is a Black-Brown-Cream Card Swap:

I think I have all 3 colors on the front, but there is a cream piece inside, so I'm definitely covered! Chance to use my new Tim Holtz embossing folder!

The next is my Matchbox Shrine. This is called "A Tribute to Boyhood":

The paper on the matchbox came from my new Tim Holtz scrapbook paper book from Micheal's - I love it!

The little boy image came from Altered Pages.

I hope my swap partners like them!

Enough for now! Coming up. . . Torso Tags called "Witching Hour" and a Domino Book!

Working hard. . .

2010-08-19T11:43:00.000-04:00

but sadly not so much time for art! But I can share a few things with you, the little moments I can steal to get things done! I've been spending most of my time at my school, making things for my classroom, and getting things ready for September. Not art, but still creative!

But I have been keeping up with my swaps for the Yahoo group I belong to called Art For The Creative Mind. This group really keeps me on my toes!

First up, my Asian Book. We were supposed to use file cards which have a tab, and the theme was "Asian". Well my favorite Asian theme is Japan, so I did a Kimono based Asian book which now lives in Lake Whanapitae deep in Ontario (it almost didn't get there, I liked it so much I almost made a new one to send away, but there was no time!) I know it's in a good home!

I put smushed bottle caps on the tabs, and painted all the pages black.

I love red and black together! I used theMizuhiki

Japanese cord to tie the pages together. The bird on the front came from

a package of Japanese stationary!

These are the first 2 pages. I have a kimono on the right side of each page and

things I felt reflected the kimono on the left. The word stamps

I think are all Stampin' Up and maybe the coins too.

The images on this page, and the previous page came from a pack of Japanese

playing cards I picked up at a garage sale years ago.

The image on this page came from a set of postcards my dad gave me many years ago.

All of the kimono images came from Dover as free samples.

Back cover, I love this samurai stamp but rarely get to use it!

The "Hand stamped" is also from Stampin' up.

Next up we have Black and White Tags. This was a fun swap - I love B&W! I first saw these tags on Marnie's blog, and hoped they were coming to me - and they were!

I'm using the first one as my new fav bookmark, and the second one hangs in a place of honor on my fridge!

I made two tags as well, and they are now living in sunny Florida!

Well, I think I'll stop here, even though I have a few more things to show you. Maybe I'll post again tomorrow!

Playdate!

2010-07-28T16:37:00.000-04:00

My friend Therese from Art- Just Do It! was visiting this weekend, and we invited our friend Marg over for lunch and an afternoon of playing. We had a great time!

We had gone to the Dollar Store and found a bamboo placemat made of black bamboo tiles, so we cut it up and are using the tiles for making necklaces. This one is Therese's.

Marg'smine

. . .and mine. I needed "E" beads? But didn't have any so used these bigger beads. Have some now!

We used Modge Podge to stick the images on.

Then we went on to playing with embossing folders. Marg had a neat technique that we hadn't tried yet. . .

Double embossing

First, we need paper that had a white core. She put it through the Big Shot with the Swiss Dots embossing folder, and then lightly sanded the paper so the dots turned white. The she put it through again, but with the folder sitting on top to DE-emboss it. Now we have a flat piece of paper with white dots. Cool all by itself. But then she ran the same paper through the Big Shot again with the Holly embossing folder, and lightly sanded that. The holly popped right out! We tried it with a few more designs, some worked, some didn't. The Swiss Dots seems to be the best background for the image embossing folders. Lovely and fun!

Then. . .

while at Michael's I bought these cute little chipboard books of a tryptich, or maybe a shrine - there were 5 pages to this book, for $1.50! Of course I bought them all (sorry Kingston) and will have great fun with them. So we took the book apart and each had one to work with. I folded my edges in, and Marg and Therese cut their edges off. We decided to cover them with torn pieces of some napkins we had bought on our trip to the Dollar Store, and we used Modge Podge.

the background is finished. I found some little golden bits and sprinkled them on - would the Modge Podge hold them?

Yes it did! Nice and strong so far! Now I can throw some more on there! I will keep you updated on the progress of this shrine!

And that was the end of our fun afternoon!

So the next day. . .

Therese brought her zutter with her - Yay! I have wanted to bind my Altered Book Club 10th Anniversary Book for a long time - about 200 pages that kept threatening to fall all over the floor every time I looked at it! So we divided it in half and bound each half, so now I have two books, AND it still fits in it's lovely cover that Corrine made!

Voila!!

Therese and I both had been thinking about the technique that Marg showed us yesterday, and started to think outside the box -what if. . .

we didn't have any white core paper?

So we embossed on green paper (not white core) and instead of sanding, we inked the raised parts with Distress ink, de-bossed it, and did the second emboss, then inked that with black. Cool! tried again with white paper, black below, and brown on top - looks rusty! Again - cool!

Well, what about if we. . .

painted white paper with acrylic (cheap) paint, and on the first embossing sanded it off, and on the second embossing rubbed with black ink (Staz-On or Memento-Black Distress wasn't black enough)-Cool!

Then. . .

What if we painted a coloured piece of paper? I chose a lime green (yuk-why do I even own this colour?) and tried again! Very cool! Easier to see on the green one. Also thought - we don't have to use black ink, do we? So we chose red Staz-On. Hard to see the diamond background that one, but it's there.

Well, Therese had to go, so our playtime ended, but wasn't that fun!!!

Can't wait until next year!!

GPP Street Team Challenge

2010-07-27T16:03:00.000-04:00

Therese is visiting again! We decided to do an internet challenge and post it. We chose GPP Street Team Challenge #42 - here it is!

My strips were from an experimental embossoning on metallic paper from yesterday. We embossed a gear pattern over a chrome pattern, but it was too busy. So I used it here, ripped it up, and used concord grape Distress Ink on it. Looked for industrial type pics from a magazine and viola! Will be used as a journal page in a few days.

More on my and Therese's adventure's later!

Mid-July

2010-07-18T11:11:00.000-04:00

Boy this summer is going by fast - and I haven't even really had a holiday yet, despite school being over since the end of June! I have to help at the Summer camp next week again (cooking week). My DD came to visit this weekend to celebrate her dad's birthday! I love when she comes to visit!

At our favourite place for lunch - Pan Chancho!

Birthday dinner in Gananoque- CJ's escargot, spinach & goat cheese in filo appetizer!

and my low-carb dinner-Rack of lamb with ratatoullie

Happy Birthday!

My favourite flowers were on the table!

Ron's Birthday Card

I also made some "Dots" ATCs for my Art For the creative Mind group.

We were to use heat embossing as well as dots.

The background was made with Punchinello and embossed. The bottom image is from alteredpages.com.

Here is my swap card made for my Stampscapes Group. It was a transportation swap.

Tim Holtz car and words

Well, that's it for now. Today is my last day with CJ, so I plan to enjoy it! Hope you enjoy your day too!

I Taught a Class!

2010-07-09T19:39:00.001-04:00

I taught an art class this week - my first ever! It was a mixed media collage class. . .

And here are some of the students at work:

They were all 3 and 4 year olds! I thought they did an awesome job!

This was for a summer camp week at my school, the week was called "Little Artists" and these were their "Masterpieces" that they spent 4 days making!

Have fun making art!!

Long Time

2010-07-05T16:44:00.000-04:00

Sorry I have been neglecting my blog for such a long time! I've been very busy with work, the end of the school year, and now teaching one week of Summer Camp-hopefully it will all end soon and I can have my break! But regardless, I have been making art!

This was for a bird card swap for my Art For the Creative Mind Yahoo Group. It now lives in Liverpool! I used a Club Scrap stamp that had the 3 birds on it, watercoloured the image and cut it into 3 pieces.

This is the arch I made for the 7th anniversary of the ABC Altered Book club. I will be getting about 13 more, and then I will make a book! I had fun making this, even though it took a few tries to get it right!

This is my lovely Steampunk Mona Lisa, again for a swap on AFTCM Yahoo group. She now lives in Philly! The swap was just art dolls, but steampunk was in my head because they were also doing a steampunk necklace swap that I didn't do, so I did a doll instead!

This is my page for Altered Books Canada Yahoo Group (ABCanada).

We had a Nature ATC Swap and we make an altered book page from the ATC we received. This is my page! My ATC came from Jane in Saskatchwan. The bees on the ATC are raised, so I mirrored that with my bee on the sunflower. The girl came from Dover.

And last but not least, some journal pages. Still a bit sporadic, I'm hoping for daily in the summer. Playing around with style again! Wanting to use more of my stamps that were getting very lonely.

That's it for now! Hopefully I will update before the month is over!

Thanks for looking and I always love your comments!

Victoria Day!!

2010-05-24T16:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday Queen Victoria, wherever you may be! Today I made sure I didn't have to go anywhere so that I could work on my art all day. And so far that is what I have done! I recently joined a new Yahoo group called Art For the Creative Mind, and they have lots of great swaps - just what I need to keep the juices flowing! I made an Alice in Wonderland postcard for that group, and still need to make 2 Asian ATCs, an art doll, and a bird card. For my ABCanada group I made a Nature ATC, because we have another ATC swap where we make the ATC we receive into an Altered Book Page! And for my Stampscapes group, we are doing "Animalscapes" this month, so I did mine today. Over at the Altered Books yahoo group, we are celebrating a 7th Anniversary with Arches, so I have to make 17 arches. I started designing it today.

So here they are!

My Alice-In-Wonderland postcard was inpired by a magazine article in Stamper's Sampler, June/July 2009. The article is called "Deconstructed Stamping" by Pam Carriker. I loved the zig-zag around the edge and thought it would be perfect for this card. It was fun poring through my stamps and finding things that would work!

This is my Animalscapes card to mail off to my partner. I found the eagle (Old Island) when I was re-organizing all my um's - so many I had totally forgotten I had! Since I've been watching this eagle and her baby eaglet, it inspired me to make this card.

here is my nature ATC for my ABCanada group:

I love my new word stamps from Michael's - only $1.50!

Update on Beatles Swap!

I received my wonderful Beatles ATCs!

The first one is "She's a Woman" by Martina Fuchs in Germany, the second by Marnie Blum - "rain", and the third by Ingeborg in Germany -"Michelle my belle". My plans are to create pages around these beautiful ATCs in My Beatles Altered Book. A summer project!

And lastly, a journal page. I have been neglecting my journal lately. I think its just because I'm tired and I don't have a lot of energy at the end of the day, especially on those days that I go to the gym after work. I get home late, have to make supper, and by the time I've eaten and washed dishes, I'm ready to zonk out in front of the telly for awhile. I know - I can hear those violins too! Usually asleep by ten. Also I've been a tad depressed lately, and that may be part of it. I'm trying to use more stamps in my journalling lately (why have 1000s of stamps just to cut photos out of magazines??) Also used my new TH die cut, which I had a helluva time getting through my Spellbinder, but it's been easier lately. I may use this die cut for my Aches. Or maybe not. i think these are all TH stamps.

Well that's it for now. If I have forgotten anything I will add it later on. Have a wonderful holiday to those of you who get the day off!

Weekend Fun!

2010-05-09T09:43:00.003-04:00

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all my blog friends!! here is my Mother's Day card for my Mom:

Front - heart from Tim Holtz new die cut

The paper is "cloth paper" made by gluing thin pieces of napkin to a cloth base, drying, and ironing flat. I also put some shimmer mist on it and Lumiere paint. I used 3 different napkins. This piece folded over a thick card that was meant to hold 2 photos. I also stamped the leaves across the top.

Back:

Inside the card I put two photos, one of me as a child, and one of me now. It reads:

I got all my good qualities from you, Mom

Isn't it lucky you had more than enough for both of us?

(from the internet)

I made this card last weekend at our local stamp club annual workshop. It was one of the projects, and I think I will make this fabric-paper again, it was a lot of fun! Here are the other projects we made last weekend:

This is the card I presented, a tri-fold card. Most of the participants were able to do

this with not much trouble.

This is a bead doll that went with the fabric-paper card,

but I'll find another use for it. Easy and fun!

This didn't have anything to do with stamping, but one of our members works with glass, so this was a fun out-of-the-box project. We started the day with this, let it dry and finished the day with the grouting. It's supposed to be a bird bath, but I may use it for something else.

A "milk-carton" box. Will make a great gift box!

We colored the white ribbon with markers then

spritzed the ribbon with water. Nice effect!

This was a simple card to make, just put the white cs through the embossing folder, then the blue ellipse. Swipe the tops with color (I used distress inks), put it together and add dragonfly stickers to the middle.
It made a neat effect.

This one came with a circle cut from a post-it, we stuck the circle on the card
and brayered over the card with blue.
Then using yellow and purple distress ink, I added the color with a sponge.
Then stamped and embossed the mice and the reeds. Simple but effective.

This is the Sunflower card. It came already stamped with the 1/2 sunflower on each side.
We embossed the flowers with the cuttlebug and folder
after we used watercolor crayons to color the flowers. Then we cut the flowers out.

Opened up:

The inside was pre-stamped as well, I added the word BLOOM. (Michael's - $1.50!)

I bought 2 used stamps that day and used them on these metal tags.
This was fun! But you have to buy a "squisher" from Memories
to squish the metal down over the paper tag. Might get one!

We also made this very easy necklace. I used a Tim Holtz stamp and distress ink

The cover of this is raised so things can float inside.

This last one is a crayon resist. We colored the image that was pre-stamped onto Chrome Coat paper (apparently the only kind of paper this will work successfully with) and colored one flower with a light color crayon (I think mine was tan). Then we rubbed distress ink all over the image and wiped it off with a paper towel. The white flower popped out! Stuck on a jewel, mounted on black, then the card, stamped BLOOM and done! Fast and easy.

Well, I hope I got all the instructions correct! It was all from memory, and that seems to be on and off these days! But we had fun, and got a LOT done for one day!

Batles ATC Swap

2010-04-26T07:17:00.000-04:00

Haven't been up to much lately, getting ready for a stamping workshop where I will be showing how to do a Tri-fold card to 22 people. Other than all that preparing and cutting, I have made 3 ATCs for a Beatles ATC Swap for http://bockel24.blogspot.com. The Beatles were my favorite group when I was growing up, and I've done a few artsy things before with this theme!

here they are:

Love, Love Me Do

Rain

Eleanor Rigby

The first two are using Tim Holtz products, the last is a Meer Image stamp. Can't remember who made the sun. So now they will by flying off to Germany!

March Journal Pages

2010-04-03T09:15:00.000-04:00

Here it is a glorious Spring day, and I'm uploading photos on my blog! Waiting for my daughter to wake up (visiting from Toronto) so we can spend the day having lunch and shopping, and going to our favorite haunt, Chapters + Starbucks. A perfect day! The temperature is supposed to go up to 23 degrees (Celsius!) which is about as good as we got all last summer!

So here are my journal pages for March. A bit if tweaking this month.

The image came from one of CJ's magazines called "Bust" - instant love!

The black strip with flowers was some fabric tape I got for Christmas.

I love B&W images so I can color them with my Copic markers!

Thought I'd do a border of swirly stamps - I have a lot of these!

I found the dress (headless) in a magazine - looked very Caudine Hellmuth-ish to me!

I added the bird head (drew it) and colored it with Copic markers. the beak is a magazine cut-out

Thought I would try a mostly stamped page - all is stamped except the people images and the birds on their heads. Turned out OK! I think I'll do more of this type - I do have a lot of stamps that need exercise!

OK-off to have a bath and wake up CJ!
I hope everyone's day is as glorious as mine is!

More cards

2010-03-20T10:39:00.000-04:00

Here's another Stampscapes card I made yesterday:

The skeleton angel is from Meer Image.

A little while ago my friend Therese at Art-just do it!

sent me some lovely paper that she bought on her trip to England. I made several cards for my Stamping Club using the paper as the background:

strange looking - distorted - don't know how that happened!

Thanks for the paper Therese!

After a week of sun and warmer weather, we are back to miserable! At least no snow. . .yet!

Still at it!

2010-03-19T07:57:00.000-04:00

Looking around my stamping room for images that would go well with Stampscapes, I found my Meer images nudes that I had bought many years ago. If you go scroll down the link you can see all the wonderful images that they have in this theme. Now I want more!!

I also went out and bought a waterfall, because I wanted to try the water effect which I had never done before. I think I have pretty much depleted the stock of Stampscapes my local stamp store has, time to order online!

Lots of mistakes in this, but hopefully if you don't look too hard you won't see them! I have 4 more nudes in the set, maybe I'll play with them today! I'm pretty happy with the way the water turned out, with practice I'm sure it will get better!

Hopefully everyone has seen the Doritos Video (if not, see the link at the top of the page under my banner). To get the video to go VIRAL we need to post it to as many people as possible, and to put it on facebooks and twitter about it! Thank you to all who are helping these kids make it happen!!

Back to playing, then back to real life tomorrow!

More Stampscapes!

2010-03-18T10:45:00.000-04:00

I have done 2 more Stampscapes cards. I'm looking through my stamps to see how many I can combine with this style of stamping!

The squirrel and the leaf are popped up

I've had this man for quite awhile - only used him once!

Off to see what else I can come up with! Only a few days left of March Break - it's been fun!

Stampscapes

2010-03-17T09:53:00.000-04:00

And now for something COMPLETELY different! I have dusted off my Stampscapes stamps and have been busy playing with them this week!

This was stamped over a photograph. . .

as was this. . .

and this!

I love the otter in this one!

The wolves are from a SU set of stamps.

That's it for now! I'll probably play some more today!

Don't forget to watch the Doritos Video!! (see above post)

Exciting!!

2010-03-13T18:03:00.001-05:00

My DD and her boyfriend have entered a Doritos contest, and have made an awesome video! I would love for everyone to see it, and since I have no idea how to pop it on my blog, you can go HERE to see it. They get points for every "computer" that views it, and more points if you are out of Canada.

If you love the video, please send the link to everyone you know, and put it on your facebook! Also, if you could click on 5 stars, and "fav" on the video site, that would be absolutely wonderful as well!

I realize I am biased, but these two are awesome filmmakers, as is evidenced quite nicely in this little video!
I know they would love to hear you comments as well, which I will forward to them!

Thanks for watching and voting!!!

2010-03-13T17:07:00.001-05:00

Marlynn at Honeysuckle Breeze blog gave me an award!!

Thank you, Marlynn! There are rules associated with this award. You have to:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it in your blog.
3. Link the person who nominated you.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know.
5. Nominate seven "Kreativ Bloggers"
6. Post links to the seven blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

OK, 7 things that no one would know....

1-I do most of my journaling, including backgrounds and collage from my bed while watching TV. Mind you, I'm not sure what I'm watching while I'm jounaling! I kind of tune out. But its a comfy place to be.

2-My first cat ever was totally black. I found her when I was at summer camp when I was about 10. She was tied up in a paper bag and dumped in a stream to die. I rescued her after hearing her cries. Her name was Inky and I had her for several years until one day she just disappeared. Someone told me she had been kidnapped.

3-I once met Telly Savalas at a restaurant in New York City when he was still on Kojak. And I met Peter Ustinov in Toronto. Still waiting to meet Johnny Depp. . .

4-When I was a young teen one of my favorite groups was Lovin' Spoonful. At 14 years old I moved from CA to Canada, where later the lead singer from Lovin' Spoonful, Zal Yanofsky, opened a restaurant in the city I moved to (Kingston, Ontario). Later, I taught his grandson. I got to know his daughter, and his first wife, and often went to his restaurant (Chez Piggy) before he and his second wife died. He was always popping in and mingling with his customers! He was quite the crazy, but very nice, guy. What a strange co-incidence, to leave CA and a CA band, to find the lead singer in Ontario!

5- I'm going gray. No, really!

6-I love old Kurosawa Samurai movies, especially ones with Toshiro Mifune.

7-at one point, when I was a teenager, we had for pets; 2 boa constrictors, a coati mundi, a flying squirrel, a skunk, and a wooly monkey. Oh yes, and a dog and 2 cats. I don't go in for exotic pets anymore though.

My 7 nominations:

1-Samantha at http://www.journalgirl.com -wonderful journaling
2- http://blueridgelady.blogspot.com-love her journals - fantastic!
3-Mary Ann at http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com -one of my favorite blogs
4-Linda at http://atclindab.blogspot.com -talk about creative!!!
5-John at http://john-alookin.blogspot.com -I love John's hand drawn journals - wonderful! I wish I could do this!
6-Judy at http://judywise.blogspot.com -another wonderful journaler. I wish I could do what she does too!
7-Leslie at http://lesliewood.typepad.com -check out these beautiful pages!

I'm back!

2010-03-06T12:22:00.002-05:00

Don't know how many of you missed me, but I've been "out of it" for a little while - who knows why. I've been suffering from back pain for about 4 weeks now - it was excruciating a few weeks ago, and FINALLY! I can go through a day and not miss the pain pills. At first I was keeping up the daily journaliing, but my back suffered greatly from it, which of course, made me not want to do it, though I did think about it a lot! The pain was just too much though. Also, it made me depressed of course, and with a lot of stressful stuff happening at work, it all culminated in not posting, and not journaling. So now that I'm on the mend, I'm hoping to finish the last page I started (about Feb 16th or so) today, and I have uploaded all the pages before that. So sit back with a cup of coffee (or tea, or a glass of wine!) and take a look, I hope you enjoy January and half of February!

January 2010

oh, and I forgot the excema on my hand that I was battling with for the last several months -it made doing anything with my right hand very painful! It's much better now, almost (dare I say) normal. But I still have to keep it moist and bandaged all the time.
I enjoy using my Copic Markers on B&W pictures to colorize them! THESE are the ones I use, they seem to be a bit cheaper than the others. I got a bunch from my dd for Christmas.

I went through my stash and used of bunch of things I have had a round forever for the border. Image from Altered Pages.

Interesting page, still using stuff up. New dragonfly from Altered pages.

I used two of my old ATCs on this page

Girl from Altered Pages, other images from Nancy Baumiller. Stamp from Tim Holtz. I want to use more stamps in my journals.

My daughter and I went on a trip to Boston/Northampton for the weekend. We took a small plane from Toronto Island. It had propellers. I was TERRIFIED!! It was to get CJ a tattoo from a well-know tattoo artist that she admired. He was only in Easthampton for a short while as a visiting artist, and she got his last day. She will need 3 more visits, though, to complete the tattoo. Maybe when it's all done I will post it.

February 2010

After the tattoo (the next day) we went back to Boston for one night, and went to the aquarium.

The trip back wasn't quite as scary!

This is not one of my better pages, I think you can see I'm fading fast!

This is my last page, I totally forgot it and had to come back and pop it in. It is black. It started out bright yellow with pink circles! I guess that says it all! But I really like it.

That's it for now. Hopefully I can get back on track and start making more art! I have joined a Stampscapes Yahoo Group and so I'm hoping to get back into Stampscapes as well. This link will take you to the Stampscapes Gallery. Find me at Cameron, Linda and you will see some cards I made several years ago.

Bye for now!

Check this out!

2010-01-11T07:01:00.000-05:00

I came across a lovely blog that is celebrating her 1st year blogiversary - she's giving away a huge pile of blog candy! If you are interested, get right over to HERE and check out her blog! I better think about mine - I think it's coming up in February!

The end of my last journal

2010-01-02T15:23:00.000-05:00

Here are the final pages of my last journal, November to December. I ran out of pages on December 7th, and silly me did not have a new journal ready. Well, actually I did, but the paper was all wrong and it just wasn't working so I had to make a new one, then Christmas crept up, and well, you know! I am also having major issues with my right hand (of course!) I have extreme eczema in the palm of my hand, and over Christmas it was so bad I could hardly use my hand without a lot of pain. So it's better today, and hopefully will keep on getting better!

So here they are, I hope you enjoy them!

And the two Sookie Stackhouse book I read in December:

That's it for now!

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T10:36:00.000-05:00

Another year gone, another year older! I started my new journal on the 31st, Number 5.

Here's my New Year's Page:

Still needs some journaling, but the sentiment is there!

Here is my new journal cover, I made this one the same way I made the last one

Here is my first page

Will be posting all my pages from November '09 to December '09 in my next post!

Last card of 2009

2009-12-31T22:03:00.000-05:00

Here's my last card of 2009! My Step-Father has a birthday on the 2nd of January. The family always goes out to brunch on the 1st to celebrate both our birthdays, and I always make him a card. Here it is!

My friend Marg will recognize this card style, because she made me a card very similar to this for my birthday! I liked it so much, I copied the style and made one for Noel. Happy Birthday Noel!

Days 10-12

2009-12-31T20:58:00.000-05:00

Sorry this has taken so long! I dropped my camera on Christmas Day - broke the lens - unfixable - AAAAAHHHH!!!! Had to buy a new one. Took ages to figure out how to load the photos to the computer. But here we are now, and if you haven't seen these on someone else's site already, here they are!

Day 10 pressie was from Carol A. Absolutely stunning!

Isn't this gorgeous?

Thank you Carol!

Day 11 was me, here is what I sent to everyone:

A Steampunk Christmas doll!

I hope everyone liked it!

And this is what I got from Mary-Beth

Beautiful!!! Made from a coaster. Great idea!

Thank you Mary-Beth!!

And finally, day 12, a giftie from Kristie

What could it be?

It's a Tea Book!!! This is so wonderful! I'm going to take it to school with me and use it for my lunchttime tea break! Yay!

Thank you Kristy!!

A BIG thank you to everyone who participated in the 12 days of Christmas Swap. Can't wait for next year's!!

DH and I went out for my birthday (Jan 1) dinner to Red Lobster tonight. Very special for us because DD is allergic to lobster, and this is the only time we go! The meal was delicious - shrimp, crab, lobster, with scallops for the appetizer. M-m-m-! Waiting for the kids to come home from their dinner so we can have MORE shrimp!!

I wish for everyone to have a wonderful and loving night tonight, and for an incredible 2010! Let's make this the best year yet!

Happy New Year!