MOST AMAZING SS BOX!!!

  

I took part in the greatest SS Swap hosted by Laurel.  You can read all about it on her blog - PaperandScissorsRock by clicking HERE.  You see the box it all came it along with the beautiful card above.  Just look at that box full of stuff!

I hardly know where to begin!  There were a bunch of packages wrapped up in bubble wrap, then in pretty tissue paper.  And adorned with "Timmy Tattered Ribbon Strips" with messages written on them.  So cool!

Even the card was wrapped up and had a message that said to open it first.

Then I found the beautiful postcard you see above.  Even the back is beautiful.  I love handmade postcards!

THEN I found this little owl!  Owls are one of my very favorite things!  This is a vintage toothpick holder made into a pin cushion!!!  How freakin' cool is that!!!  As if that wasn't enough THEN it is stuffed with handmade head or hat pins.  The most beautiful beads including some really nice leaf beads - leaves being another of my favorites.  I just LOVE this!  I'll cherish it forever!

Next I found this lovely book.  "The White Album". So elegant!  And it is stuffed with pages - atleast 50!  And they are all embosed!  Some have foldover flaps.  Kinda hard to photo white on white but check out the clocks on the second page shown here.  Love them!

Next I found this little stamp of my initial.  It's a stamp for sealing envelopes with wax.  But they also work great with embossing powders and colored hot glue.  And I really like the fleur de lis handle.  So pretty!

After all of that I'm just now getting to THE BOX!!!  Check out this beautiful box!!!

Can you see those little presents wrapped in tissue through the window  Here's a look in the top of the box.

Even the back of the box looks great!  I love this box.  It has a handle so I'm going to hang it in a place of honor in my art room!  Love the fleur de lis trim on it too.

And even the inside of the box is amazing.  Love this bird image.  Just look at that box!  So elegant...

  Next I found this mini book.  Another bird.  I love bird art!  It's an ATC book.

  

Check out the inside of the book.  It has a bunny and spring ATC and the 7 (yes SEVEN!) ATC backgrounds in the pockets of the accordion fold mini that I get to make ATCs with!

 

Above is the adorable ATC I got,  Check out that cute bunny charm up in the corner.  So cute!

Next was this altered mint container.  Such detailed adornment - hard to do it justice with a camera.  Especially in the Pacific Northwest/Oregon in March when we are having rainy, gray days. 

I'm a sucker for small containers so was thrilled to get this.  But - just wait 'til you see what was inside

This amazing necklace was inside!  First it's silver which is my fave,  Has the most beautiful dark blue beads, and a big key and the pendant is two sided and has a vintage postage stamp on each side.  This is soooooo cool!
(wonder how many times I'll say cool in this post - everything is cooler than the last!)
I have the necklace on with my beat up old painting sweatshirt!  Doesn't really do it justice - the necklace, not the sweatshirt!

Next is this envelope made from really cool vintage postage designed paper.  Love those brads on the closure!  The envelope was stuffed with really fun ephemera.  I've been making machine stitched collages and this stuff will be so perfect for more of that!

Here's the ALL the stuff that was end the envelope:

And there's still more!  Wow!  A beautiful little bottle!  And get this - my SS typed poetry words with her vintage typewriter, then must have cut into strips  and put them in the bottle.  When I open the bottle I can pull out words (like I'll ever get to the point I could quit treasuring this and use any of the words...).

And still MORE!  Look at these beautiful flowers made out of vintage lace and fabric.  My ss mentioned I could alter them with spray inks.  They are so cool!

And here's a closeup of part of that card from the first picture.  The flowers in the lower left corner have a really nice little bird charm in among the flowers - so cool!  I love that palm tree too.  So nice!

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Getting this package definitely made my day!  Heck!  My week, my month.  I just can't express how wonderful it is.  I am so amazed at the talent and generosity of my SS!

Oh yeah...my SS is the WONDERFUL DarcieGlam!!!

Thanks Darcie!  You rock!  Love ya!

More Bird and Butterfly Collages

I'm hooked on sewing collages.  My old Singer has a great zig zag stitch and I love the texture it adds to my mini collages.

This time I made folded cards:

You can find them for sale with postcards and mini journals at my Etsy shop HERE.

Birds and Butterflies

I've become obsessed with sewing on paper.  I have an old Singer my mom bought almost 50 years ago and it has a really nice zigzag stitch.  So I got out some scrapbook paper - mostly 7 Gypsies Conservatory 8x8 paper pad.  And I've been making little 4" x 6" collage postcards.  They are turning out great!  Here are some of them:

I just love the stitching on the cards.  It looks cool and adds really cool texture.  Just love it!
So, some of these I have mailed out, some I have kept for my bulletin board, some I'm sending to Dede to give away on her UStream shows (you can find her HERE, she streams early morn Wed and Thurs), and some of them are listed for sale on Etsy.  You can find my Etsy by clicking HERE.

Thanks for taking a look!

Have a creative weekend everyone! 

Bird Altered Book Stitched Collages

It's been awhile since I posted anything from my bird altered book.  I love birds and making bird themed art.  I've been working in this book off and on for a few years now.  Here's the book cover:

Lately I've been using the zigzag stitch on my sewing machine rather than glue.  Maybe that is because (gasp!) I am out of Golden Gel Medium.  I really need to find a coupon and get to a Michael's!  But in the meantime I am really enjoying sewing on paper!  I love the texture the stitching adds to the collage.
I used to work in and manage retail fabric stores and sewed all the time.  But that was before paper arts took over my life!  Now I seldom sew.

So, here's a couple bird collages I made using 7 Gypsies Conservatory 8 x 8" papers.  I love that their paper pads have multiple (I think 6) of each design so I can cut pieces out of the multiples.

 
The background on the book pages is two shades of craft acrylic paints sponged on.  I did end up using Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive to glue the bird cut outs to the collages and to glue the collages into the book.

Thanks for taking a look!
Have a creative weekend!

Get Your Art On - days 4,5,6,7, & 8

Okay, finally time to post some more Get Your Art On days!  Blogging is definately going to be the challenging part of this for me.
Day 4
Decided the Tim Holtz die cut gears would make great fireworks.  Kinda difficult to see on the scan but made them sparkly by gluing on sparkly bits and glitter glue.

Day 5 and 7
I worked on these pages Tues and Thurs and forgot to scan in between.  Now I'm trying to be sure to scan what I did that day each night, whether done or not.  They are in my Bird Altered Book.

Day 6

I had alot of appts and errands this day and was pretty worn out when I got home.  My art for this day was art preparation.  Time to recycle some magazines so went through cutting out words, phrases, and images.

Here's a few words:

And a few images:

They'll end up in some fun collages one of these days.

Day 8

This is a journal page inspired by song lyrics:

I'll put the lyrics on the opposite page of my journal.  I don't know how I ever found this song and lyrics cuz it's not my usual style of music.  Just goes to show...step out of your usual now and then, might find something you really like!  You can check out the song on YouTube HERE.

Today's Get Your Art On is outside drying and not done yet so it'll get posted another day.
You can read all about 30 Days of Get Your Art On HERE.
Join in!  You can start your 30 days at any time!
Thanks to Traci Bunkers for the inspiration!

Have a GREAT weekend!

Violet Green Swallow

I just did a simple page in my Altered Bird Book using one of the backgrounds I had already prepared.  When I can't get my creativity flowing I sometimes just go through a journal or altered book and do some backgrounds.  Doesn't usually take much time for the ideas to start coming to me for more creativity.  Making backgrounds might be my fav part of the process most of the time!  Then once I'm ready to add something it's fun to go through looking for a background that'll work.

This time I found a black background with some iridescent green paint on it.  I sprayed over it with Wild Plum Color Wash then wiped it with a baby wipe so it was streaks instead of dots.
I had a postcard I've been saving to put in the altered book that my friend Debbie sent me.  She had added the words "Birds of a feather"  and I added the stamped feathers.  I lightly colored them with violet colored pencil but it didn't show on the scan.  I taped the postcard in at the top so I can flip it up and read the message on the back.
I think the page turned out great.  Thanks Debbie for the cool postcard!
Well, back to some major reorganizing of my studio area...I've been at it a few days but had to take a quick break to do some creating.
Hope you all are enjoying your summer.
Thanks for taking a look at my blog!