happy day!

See that girl? That's my grandma. She was 17 when
this photograph was taken, in 1926. Her hair was
an amazing red, and she showed it off with those
Mary Pickford curls that were so popular for many,
many years.

Do you see the shadow in the bottom right of the photo?
It's probably my Great Aunt Pearl, my gran's little sister,
but we're not entirely sure about that.


This is star of stage and screen Mary Pickford--

isn't she adorable? Not to mention incredibly influential,
in her time. Pickford eventually cut her hair into
one of those 1920's bobs we associate with flappers,
as did my grandma.



It seems fitting to incorporate a photograph of one of
my favorite gingertops into a bit of art to announce
(happy day!) my invitation to join the design team over
at Gingersnap Creations. I've enjoyed participating in the
challenges there for over a year now, so I have to admit,
I'm pretty excited about this opportunity.

Thank you, Gingers--I'm looking forward to creating along
with you and all the awesome Gingersnappers for the next
six months!

:)

pssssst!!

Psssstttt! Hey, my friend (real and imaginary)
The Contessa is having a giveaway for one of
her beautiful, bright houses.

Just sayin'. In case you want to, you know, go
check it out . . .

Is it just me? Right now, anything with bright
colors really gets me going. It's as if my eyes
are craving color after so many long days of gray.

spring

Have you seen the new issue of Altered Arts Magazine?
I love opening my e-mail and discovering it there--
especially when I'm fortunate enough to find one of
my pieces among the pages!


This is the cover of a hand bound, spring themed book.
All of the collage images can be found at Altered Pages,
which is undergoing a huge makeover; it's going to
be amazingly different over there!

This is just one of the layouts of the Spring book
in Altered Arts. The pics in the magazine are MUCH
better, of course.


This is one of my favorite layouts--you can double click
to make it bigger for you:


No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.

Isn't that a great proverb? Now, I just need to
keep reminding myself of that!!

Thank you, Altered Arts Magazine!

:)

office supplies and overdue thank yous

It's almost Friday. Seriously, this week has flown
by! Finished off a little hand bound book, this
time including some mini file folders in the
mix of pages--thanks for the Office Supply
Challenge, Gingersnap Creations! (There's
some ledger paper in there, too.) Unfortunately,
we were out of town, and I didn't plan ahead
enough to create something in time for the
Gingersnapper Spirit Blog Hop--check
it out for lots of awesome gingery inspiration!

Did you participate in One World One Heart?
Yep, it's been over for awhile, but I need
to say a big THANK YOU to Nancy for these
gorgeous earrings:



Aren't they pretty?

And you aren't going to believe this, but Random
Number Guy was good to me again, and the talented
Ema K sent this pendant:



You can see more of Ema's things at her etsy shop.

THANK YOU again, Nancy and Ema!

:)

life atc

This week has been too busy for my taste. Too
much going on, and not enough down time, even
today. Seriously in need of a little art therapy,
I stole a few minutes in the art room, and made
this atc--



Does anyone still use twinkling H2Os? Those shimmery
watercolor paints--ohhhh, I DO like those. I wish you
could hold this in your hands and see the iridescence
of the citrine, turquoise, and amethyst! And the image's
Mona Lisa type smile (she's from Altered Pages) is a nice
accompaniment to the text. A little gold German scrap,
inked edges, and metallic crayon finish off this atc.
Simple, maybe, but just the bit of "go make something"
I needed today!

Citrine, turquoise, and amethyst may be considered semi-
precious gems, but they're some of my favorites, and
still appropriate for the Gingersnap Creations Jewel
Colors Plus Gold challenge.

Now back to "real life." Whatever that means . . .

Easter cards.

Here's the thing--I like these fine last night, but
today . . . they make me cringe a little. They're
okay, but definitely NOT going to be everyone's
cuppa tea. The challenge was for these to be cards,
Easter themed, use pastels, and have some stamping.



The thing is, they're for a swap, so I'm hoping my
swap partners, whomever they may be, don't open their
package and say:

"Well, isn't this one interesting."

That is my mom's polite code, used occasionally at
art fairs, galleries, etc., for "I don't really
like this, but someone else must, so I won't say
anything negative."

My mom is really nice. I like that about her!

:)

crown

Do you ever start to make something, and then
end up making something completely different
from what you had originally envisioned?



When I first read the Random Readhead "crown" challenge
at Gingersnap Creations, I was delighted at the prospect
of using one of my favorite new stamps--you can see it on
Titania, Queen of the Fairies.



But then, the appeal of making a "real" crown was
just too strong, so I got out my big roll of wire.
Really, I intended to make a traditional kind of
crown, you know, with triangle-points at the top,
tipped with jewels, but that didn't happen AT ALL.



Then, I was blog snooping, ahem, visiting, some
of the inspiring Ginger blogs, and found the
Simon Says Stamp and Show some metal challenge.

So there you go.

Finished it up last night, and wore it until
it was time for bed . . .

song in my heart

I don't have tons of charms--lots of stuff you
could use as charms, I suppose, but not a lot of
actual store-bought, this-is-a-charm, charms.
Sooooo I kind of combined two tutorial techniques,
one by Penny Bennington, and one by Shelly Hickox.
I used Model Magic instead of paper, AND
instead of Primo, basically because I didn't
want to have to rummage through my daughter's
room to find the "real" clay!

This piece goes along with the latest Gingersnap
Creations Spicy Supply Challenge using, what else?
Charms, of course!

Sometimes I get so caught up playing with a new
technique, that the actual make is just kind of,
well, bleah, but this turned out pretty well. I
know, because that aforementioned daughter is not
shy with her opinions. She says she approves. ;)

Does anyone else have a live-in art critic?

****update****



Well, I guess the girl child was right--
thank you, Gingersnaps!
:)