Valentine's

I hadn't played around with altered or paper arts in quite a while. I decided to do some items for Valentines this year. The first picture shows altered recipe boxes. I got the recipe boxes from the Fun Finds section at Michaels. I sealed them with gesso and had fun with several different types of paint. I stamped and embossed, added grungeboard embossed hearts, rusted jewelry components and stamped shrinky dink images to create a less traditional Valentine. I filled them with chocolate and travel size lotions, bath gels and such to give to my friends.

I also did some bookmark tag Valentines with hearts. I covered the tags with decorative paper, did some stamping, some masking, inked the edges, added hearts, ribbon, Prima flowers and such to make more non-traditional Valentine's.

One of the art doll egroups I belong to did a Queen of Hearts swap. I used a dollar store porcelain doll as the base for my doll. Her wings are wire and screen, she is covered with tissue paper and painted. She has stamped embellishments and a brass pressing crown.

The local polymer clay guild meeting is on Valentine's Day this year. Our swap theme is nature, so I did the turtle pins. We are supposed to wrap our swap items and I thought since it is Valentine's, I would wrap them appropriately. I made pilow boxes from red gloss cardstock and added Prima flowers and ribbon.

SNOW!!!!

Happy birthday to me, it snowed all day long on my birthday. In fact, it was record-breaking snow for the day & the year in this area. DFW airport officially reported over 12 inches of snow. I think our area reported over 8 inches. Unfortunately I had to change my birthday plans since I did not want to drive in that mess. Snow is very beautiful as long as one is inside and doesn't have to get out in it or go anywhere. It should all be gone within 2 - 3 days if it warms up like it is supposed to do tomorrow. I took these pictures this morning after yesterday's snow. It snowed almost 24 hours straight. The first picture is the view up the road from my house, except you can't see the road, or the neighbor's driveway.

The second picture is the view out the back door. I love the way the snow made the little antique fence around my herb garden look. The next picture is the view out the front door looking up in the trees - they almost look like lace. We were lucky and didn't loose any branches. In parts of Dallas, many trees split due to the weight of the snow. It was expecially hard on live oak trees which keep their leaves year round.

The last picture is Zeke in the backyard. I was able to get one picture of him before he noticed I had the camera. He acts like the camera is going to steal his soul and will disappear if he sees a camera or if he thinks you are taking a picture with the phone. He was also less than impressed with the snow and like me enjoyed it much better from inside.

Bird Wedding Cake Topper

One of my coworkers is getting married later this year and she wanted birds for her wedding cake toppers instead of the traditional bride & groom. I made her the whimscal cake toppers as my wedding gift for her.

Texas Beader's Retreat

Vicki & I attended our third retreat last month. The retreat sold out so our friend Lisa wasn't able to join us - hopefully next year. The first piece I worked on at the retreat was a beaded purse. The focal piece is a polymer clay face I bought from Kim Cavendar at the polymer clay retreat I attended in September. The purse is made entirely from recycled jeans. The handle is a denim belt from a dress. After I finished the purse, I worked on a bracelet and necklace in autumn hues to match a jacket I made (bought the fabric at the Houston Quilt Show a couple of years ago). The other piece shown is what I did for the challenge - a travel jewely pouch.

Edie's Shoes

I love the whole idea and concept of bartering. Last summer my friend Edie had a fabulous polymer clay bead that she had done in colors I don't normally use. The piece really spoke to me and I wanted it badly. Edie wouldn't name a price, but I kept after her & she finally decided to let me have the piece if I would agree to do her a pair of shoes. What a great idea to swap art for art! Here are Edie's shoes.

Sprocket Gears

As I've mentioned before, I like to use Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears in my jewelry. I've done pieces for myself and for some of my friends for birthday presents. Here are some more examples for your viewing pleasure. I wore my necklace and bracelet to the Texas Beader's Retreat in January and they were a huge hit. I bet you couldn't find any of these gears at any of the area Michaels stores after the retreat.

ELVES
I made elf ornaments last year for my coworkers for their Christmas presents. I'm just now getting them on my blog because unfortunately I thought I had moved the images from my camera to my computer before deleting them, but obviously hadn't. Luckily my Aunt took pictures of them and I was able to get the pictures from her. These are polymer clay over aluminum foil balls. I made two for each of my coworkers, as the both have two small children.