A Little Crafting Going On

Life has been passing by so quickly it seems that the today's are becoming yesterday's and as I cross these days off on the calendar I wonder if there will ever be time again for creativity and crafting. So when the opportunity arises for a creative project to give to others, I immediately seize the opportunity to be a little crafty.

Such an occasion appeared and did I create!

The creations were little birdcages glued onto a clothespin with a magnet on the back, this little piece can hang photos or any important papers the recipients may have onto their refrigerators.
A sample was created first to establish how much time and what supplies would be needed for each piece. 

After the sample was approved, production began! The first step was to die cut all the bird cages. I just adore this die. It's from the Tim Holtz collection. You can find the die at Tim Holtz .

After die cutting the cages,  scrapbook paper was then cut into rectangles and glued to the backs as the substrate for piece.   Next a quotation was selected and printed on 90# white index and punched from a label punch. Afterward this quotation was applied with glue to the front of the bird cage.
The bird and branch punched from Stampin' Up in coordinating paper came next and was then assembled and glued onto the label. Next came the piece of ribbon and flower punched paper. To give a finishing touch Stickles was applied to flower centers and on leaves. After all was glued and in place on the front,  I had a friend help me glue  the clothes pins- clip style, which were painted white, complete with the magnets previously applied to them onto the backs.

 You can see the finished project modelling on my refrigerator.

This project was so much fun and the results were so pleasing. It was enjoyable to hand them out to  friends to commemorate this event, they were so happy and grateful to receive their gift!!

Extraordinary Things

Happy Pink Saturday!
I have been gone for quite some time. Here in the desert summer means high temperatures, so getting out and about and traveling to cooler climates and higher altitudes is a must and this year I was no exception!
In addition to several weekend escapes, I moved into a different home at a moments notice. This has had a tremendous impact on my lifestyle and I have yet to bring over and unpack the stashes of art materials that I have enjoyed using to create the wonderful pieces of art for challenges and swaps that I would so frequently post on this very blog!

Today, however,  I wanted to share the events of the most recent trip that I had taken to visit my sister who lives south of San Francisco, in the magical place known as"Silicon Valley".
The trip was taken to commemorate the visit of 'Abdul-Baha's historic visit to America 100 years ago. It was quite an  incredible visit, the San Francisco events theme was "Celebrating World Peace". It was a wonderful trip celebrated with so many family members and friends.

San Francisco War Memorial Opera House

On the Saturday night of the trip, I took a ferry ride with the children from Pier 39 in San Francisco to Sausalito, California. It was such a beautiful evening. The sail over was fun and the weather was perfect. It was dinner time when we arrived,  so while the others were seeking a bowl of clam chowder to eat, I became captivated by this sign and ran right over to this place to explore this most intriguing space. I immediately walked in the door and was filled with surprise and wonder with what I saw . The room was filled with absolutely gorgeous works of art. The pieces fantastic, colorful and whimsical. My only sadness was that I would not be in town to celebrate the grand opening event of this wonderful place which took place last night!

This  invitation was created for the grand opening event.

Daniel Merriam Art

Want to see more? Go for a visit to Daniel Merriam Art and enjoy the extraordinary works of art on display and be prepared to be amazed! One point before you go, he encourages guests to dress for the occasion, so done your fancy dress and take a trip over, you will enjoy it!

What a wonderful Pink Saturday! Beverly has so many wonderful friends who participate in Pink Saturday it's a pleasure to be one of them. Please enjoy more Pink Saturday with Beverly at How Sweet The Sound.
I made me happy to visit many of the friend's blogs on Pink Saturday even when I was unable to put together a post. It's such a joy to visit so many wonderful friend's and share in their lives. Please take a moment and share your thoughts, I would love to hear from you!
Enjoy this glorious day! Happy Pink Saturday!

Polka Dot Bonnets

 Polka dots have always been a favorite of mine as far back as I can remember. I adore anything with dots on it. Helga, who is a super talented artist and blogger and entrepreneur and owner of Artchix put together a digi freebie with dots to go with her creative dot tutorial, so I thought I would give dots a try.
The outcome....2 Dreaming of Pink Atc's.

I began with a dictionary text for both backgrounds....and added a white paint wash to both. This first one had a little pink paint added to the wash and when dry some dots were added. I used a pink pen to outline the dots above and a black pen to the dots below. Each ATC was finished with lace and a black outline?

Which background do you prefer? Please leave a comment below, I would love to read what you think!
 I have some collage goodies in Pink to give away, so I will pick one winner from the comments for next weeks Pink Saturday!
There are so many gorgeous Pink Saturday posts to enjoy, please find them at How Sweet The Sound, where Beverly is the wonderful host! Have a beautiful Pink Saturday!

If I Only Had More Time

Time has been passing so quickly,
I couldn't resist having a time out from life to create some timely moos!
I grab a few supplies...
Oh my, I had so many ideas, that I had to take the time to explore each one!
Each one of these Moos were created from my collection of Rubber Stamps, inks, markers and chalk pencils!

This vintage Moo inspired from the Tim Holtz stamp collection.



A cute little retro "Kit Kat" Moo.

This timely Moo was inspired by a Tablet revealed by Abdu'l-Baha which was also set to music by my creative and musical friends friends Eric Dozier and JB Eckl on their Badasht Project II CD.

And lastly always take time to laugh !
It's been fun creating these Moo's and share them with you.The Moo-Mania blog has many more Moo's for you to see, so for more inspiration and fun, please visit Moo-Mania!
Thank you for coming to visit, I would love for you take the time to share a thought with me.

Pink Piggy

I have been altering today, but not the type of project that I normally do with paper, tins, fibers or ribbon.
Today, I have been altering a water bottle, with the girls scouts for recycling day and made it into this sweet little pink piggy!

It was the first opportunity I had to use "Cloud Clay", which was very nice to work with, had a pleasant smell and did not stick to anything but itself! I was told that the best place to purchase it was from Dick Blick.

To make pink we mixed red & white.

To create this fun little piggy grab your supplies: a shortened water bottle, some pick cloud clay, a piece of foil, a rolling pin and two wiggle eyes.

Clear the piece of foil and place the clay in the center and roll out an amount that will wrap around the water bottle completely covering it, make sure the clay is thick enough not to tear.

After the clay is smooth and the body is covered, a small half circle is added an the top of the bottle for the nose, two small ovals are added and bent over for the ears and a little coil was made and attached to the back for the tail! Two small flat circles were made out of clay and the wiggle eyes were set in them and placed onto the front of the pig and four small round balls were made and attached to the bottom on either side of the clay seam and then pressed flat to make the legs allowing the little piggy to stand. The finishing touches were the little white dots scattered on the top of the piggy. And she is complete.

It took the girls about an hour to complete their pigs with minimum help.... Oh it looks like someone didn't quite understand the project!

Pink Saturday is so very special~ Beverly at "How Sweet The Sound"is our host for this very special blog event, so please visit every Saturday and come share the pink in life!

The Wings of Spring

It seems that every minute of the day is packed with so much activity, the day is behind us and the opportunity to be creative is gone.
However, at the very end of last week I took a five minute moo break.
The result?
This touch of nature, moo. The challenge was to create a moo drawing and painting, so a butterfly was drawn and watercolor pencils were used to give it some color.
The result, a small piece of "Nature".
Creating Moos can be quick and they are so much fun.
If you haven't tried to create this size of art, I so recommend to try it.
Please visit Moo-Mania for more wonderful drawing and painting moos, there are some truly delightful artistic moos to enjoy!

New Day

This week has been a week of joyful celebration around the world as this was the week of Naw- Ruz, which means new day. So this week we are celebrating renewal, in both the physical sense as well as the spiritual sense.
"Now the new age is here and creation is reborn. Humanity hath taken on new life.
The autumn hath gone by, and the reviving spring is here. All things are now made new."
~From the Baha'i Writings.

As this is the first Pink Saturday of the Spring, dinner will be served on this wonderful table to celebrate the joyful season with several guests. The dinner will be very delicious and the conversation extremely sweet!

Over desert we will talk about art and how wonderful it is to create it~ and also, how wonderful it is to receive it! It is also wonderful to receive so many lovely comments after a blog post! I used a random generator to select the winner from last weeks post and my very lucky friend Birgit, was selected to win the extra Irish ATC! Birgit is an extremely wonderful artist. She creates many wonderful types of art. Her photography is gorgeous. If you have a chance to visit her blog you will enjoy it. Congratulations Birgit!
There is so much to enjoy on this first Pink Saturday of Spring, to discover it please visit Beverly at How Sweet The Sound and enjoy a day of Pink visiting !

The Luck Of The Irish

Is it Saturday already?

This is the day of the week that always sneaks up on me... perhaps because it's more relaxed, whatever the reason the day is always filled with appointment's, meet and greet ups with crafting and play(this is a fun way to think about house cleaning!).
Today we celebrate St. Patrick's Day, throughout the years, it has been about wearing green, displaying the Shamrock's and having corned beef and cabbage for dinner.
Although, I am not planning on corned beef and cabbage for dinner, I am wearing green and I did received a wonderful strand of shamrock beads at this morning's ATC group swap!

Today's theme for the group was Irish and the ATC's are wonderful!

I thought it would be a challenge to create ATC's for this swap, trying as I am to use up the stash I have collected over the past several years!

I managed to unearth a wonderful Irish collage sheet that I purchased from Mystic Paper. (Located in downtown Mesa, Arizona. It is a wonderful store, if you get a chance to visit, please do!) I also used a digital sheet, downloaded from the internet which was printed at the local copy center. I added a little stamping and some gold and green ink with a few embellishments!

These are the finished cards, if you would enjoy receiving a card please leave a comment, I would love to share the extra card I created with you! I will pick a winner on Tuesday and will announce the winner's name on Wednesday!

I have enjoyed reading so many Pink Saturday Posts filled with stories of spring , pink and St. Patrick's Day at Beverly's How Sweet The Sound, however there are so many more wonderful friends to visit,so please join me!

Happy Pink St. Patrick's Day!

Music Moos

Music is a wonderful art form, it is a great element to transform many situations. It can elevate the soul, it can stimulate the heart, it can also inspire creativity.

Listening to music today was inspiring, so out came the ink pads and paper to create a few Music Moos. Ink on paper can look so velvety, it's so very pretty. Watercolor pen was also used to move some of the ink around, primarily on the violin's. Some metallic gel pen was used to accent the pieces for some bright embellishment.

It's fun to take a few minutes from the day and create some art! It makes the day so much richer and more meaningful!

Moo cards are so fun to make and can be very quick too. Try a few using your very favorite coloring techniques, you too, may become addicted to Moo's!

So Blue

Sometimes life goes by so quickly, it's a challenge to keep up with ATC swaps!
I am finding this has been the case recently. No matter how busy life is, it's important to stop for a moment and create a little piece of art!
While it's so fun to see a blank card turn into a small piece of art, even more fun to receive a handful of different cards from the same theme arrive in the mail!

Tonight I went to the post office and sent out these sweet little blue lovelies!

"Love Is Blue"

The Challenge was to create an ATC out of a paint Chip using the color. I chose these Love Blues!
Creating art from a paint chip is fun, however I was challenged as there was a definite drying time and I found that I had to be patient and let the ink dry!
Have you created art from a paint chip?
Please leave a comment and if there is a picture of it, please link it in your comment!I would love to read about you experience!
Thank you for coming to visit this Blue art!

All Dolled Up

Happy Pink Saturday, my amazing talented friends. Today is a wonderful day, a day to revel with joy. A day to share with all the incredible friends who participate with Beverly at How Sweet The Sound and spend the day visiting each other sharing this Pink Saturday!

How grateful I am to be able to share my challenges and projects and life with all my friends. The gracious and kind comments that I receive are all so special to me.
Like these beautiful dolls who are so precious and each one makes the doll next to it look so much sweeter!

They are so cute in their "Pink"!

Thank you to all the friends who came for a visit last Saturday to leave a comment to win the lace and trim tags. The tags were so fun to make and the laces are so beautiful to work with!
They can be used for a wide variety of crafts, I enjoy using them as embellishments for ATC's inchies and tags, however I have used them for sewing projects as well.

Here is another look at the set of tags:

And the Winner is......selected at random from all those who left a comment:
My art and ATC swapping friend Consuella Jackson!
Congratulations!

We have been swapping art for several years now! I look forward to seeing the wonderful art she will create! Thank you again to everyone who came for a visit and the wonderful comments that you took the time to write. Please visit often as I will be hosting many more give aways in the future!

Happy Pink Saturday!

New Moo's

Many people plan to go to New Orleans to visit, several plan for the Mardi Gras. A few years ago my daughter was fortunate to go to New Orleans on a band trip. She came home with the most wonderful photographs of the Mardi Gras floats that were created for the this celebration. Those same photos were the muse for the creation of this weeks

Moo Challenge.....
Carnival~Mardi Gras.

Creating a Moo is quite a lot of fun and a bit challenging because of it's size.
It's approximately 1.1 x 2.8 inches. The above Moo was created from white index, a collage sheet, black and white patterned paper, music rub on's with German scrap to finish.

While I was collecting supplies to use for the above moo, I found an old Opera brochure that was perfect for a second moo for the challenge..... a decorative gold napkin, the same patterned paper with German scrap and the addition of a gold star and this fun little Moo is complete! I hope you enjoy this little work of art and it inspires you to give it a try and create a little art!