Family Collage

I'm truly pleased with how this canvas came out despite it not being colors I would normally choose. What a fun little collage.

What started as a canvas, some paint, fabric scraps, ribbon, buttons, sepia toned pics, my Nana's brooch, a flower and a chipboard book, has really come together nicely.

Thanks Jennifer Stewart for teaching this class at Donna Downey's Inspired Workshop in 2009!

Paper Beads

Well, it's not Friday and I'm not finishing anything... actually, I'm starting something new... shhhh!

It's funny what can be inspiring... I got this magazine in the mail and was "wow'ed" by the colorful border. After trying to get into the "Beadles" class at the Inspired workshop I'm attending in May and not being successful, I did a little research. So I'm trying it out on my own and playing with some different mediums for glazing the beads.

I began with the magazine and cut off the border. Then I cut diagonally to create the triangles.

Here are the beads... I rolled the paper around a straw and glued the end down.

Now comes the difficult part:) I used Diamond Glaze to dip the beads in. I'm not sure I like this medium because 1) it takes a while to dry, 2) the glaze drips down and closes up the hole while drying, and 3) expensive! I'll keep playing with this part. I've seen that other artists use Utee... I just didn't want to have to go out and buy something new.

Here's what I made with my first beads. I'm sending it as a hostess gift for one of the swaps I'm in. I actually really like it!

Heart Charms

SWAPS... I hadn't done a swap for a while. But with the advent of the Inspired Artist Workshop that I'm going to in May 09, I've gotten back into some creative swapping.

Here's the product of one of my swaps.

From wire and wool yarn...

I took my jig to create the heart shape.

Then I wrapped the yarn throught the loops in the wire and added a lobster claw clasp.

This has been a really fun project! I've now made blue and pink heart charms. The last color grouping is purple and then I'm done!!

GOBI- Get Organized, Be Inspired

That's one of the online classes that I'm currently taking through Big Picture Scrapbooking and my Finish It Friday project this week!

I've found in the past that I'm not very consistent with online coursework... well, maybe I'm consistently inconsistent. I'm trying to be better and have just now finished Week 2 of this class (we're in week 7).

So, in Week 2, we make our Inspiration Log. This is so I have a place to put all those ideas that pop into my head from magazines, photos, dreams, greeting cards, etc. It then becomes a reference folder.

I enjoyed this assignment... got to use lots of Mod Podge, which is a favorite glue of mine!

Photo Quilt kicks off "Finish It Fridays"

Last year at ScrapBowl 2008, I took a class with Shimelle Lane, a fabulously creative soul! We brought a series of pictures printed on cardstock to class and proceeded to cut, color, paint, stamp and distress those and other cardstock squares for our quilt. I never got around to sewing it all together during the crop.

Almost one year later, I saw that project sitting unfinished in a bag on my shelf. As a collector of projects, I have MANY things started that I've never quite gotten around to completing. So, I've decided to institute "Finish It Fridays", whereby I take a project that I've begun and finish it. Easy, right? We'll see!

In honor of the picture-quilt-never-finished, I began with that! And guess what?? I completed it! I feel so accomplished I shared it with all the other moms at the bus stop. Here are the pictures: