JOY art journal

Here's my collage for the Joy Art Journal hosted by the ultra-talented Gina. Her blog is a must read for me. (Yes, it is a daily blog I stalk) When I started reading Gina's blog, I really got into the world of blogging. I found more blogs I wanted to read and was so inspired to try new things creatively. I was so excited to join this art journal when I read about it.
I thought JOY would be such an easy theme. Then when I really sat down, I was clueless. I knew I wanted to try something similar to what I saw on ArtTeaLife's blog. I loved that collage when I saw it. I found a picture of shoes in an old Anthropologie catalog. I thought JOY...SHOES. Yea, it works for me! It was a little challenging to do this since I'm not home and left most of my supplies. Not that I don't have a ton here, either. I packed quite a few boxes of supplies.
This was a ton of fun even though I was up against a deadline. It's due to Gina April 1st and we're packing up and traveling back home this weekend. Working against the clock is not normally my favorite way to go, but I really wanted to do it!

Tiaras Rule

Here's the pic of the little tiara find from Ruban Rouge. If you click at the link, you'll see that apparently the tiara I bought is dog size. Look at her. She's so cute AND she's wearable. I've already tried it out. HEAVEN.

I'm not quite sure how I became obesessed with crowns/tiaras. I LOVE creating artwork with them. I remember how my sister and I would talk about getting married someday. She wanted the heart shaped bouquet we saw Martha Stewart do and a tiara. We would always joke around because she's the younger one and always had the boyfriend. Well, I got married first so yep, I got the heart shaped bouquet and tiara first :) I still have my tiara from my wedding. I just wore it last Halloween. I didn't really dress up. Just wore a pink mom sweatsuit and the tiara while we went trick or treating. I'll find any occasion to wear that thing.

Playing with the New Goodies

I have to laugh sometimes, or a lot of times. I spend LOTS of money on art supplies. All my fun money goes to art supplies. Then I go and make these little 1" square pendants. With all the stuff I have, shouldn't I have sufficient materials to work with since I'm only using 2 1x1 squares per pendant? Anyways... I'm way into rub-ons, stamping with embossing powder, and layering vellum. It's love...

I'm hoping these will end up on my Etsy shop. And check out Briana's store. She designed the banner and avatar for my store. I TOTALLY love it!!

I'm trying to do other initials besides "N". Otherwise I'd have to keep them all and tell my husband I'm not selling any.

Spring Hoarding

Okay, so there is no such thing as Spring Cleaning in my household. Actually, when I was in the nesting phase of my pregnancy I didn't clean. I cooked, which is sooooo me.

Since I'm here in Tampa, I went to my FAVORITE scrapbook store. I heart Ruban Rouge. I go visit the store everytime I'm here in town. There have been a bunch of new products I've been waiting to buy, but when do I not have a long list to buy!! :)

First on the obsession list: Basic Grey's Pheobe papers. I could die. Paper Heaven! Swirls, Paislies, Flowers, Birdies. And the color palette. I also purchased some Basic Grey rub-ons. Next on the obsession list: 7 Gypsies. I got some great looking "vintagey" single sheets of paper and Outback and Capri paper packs.

I found some other great things that were on my list and I just didn't know it until I was shopping: some girly coordinating papers from Stacy Claire Boyd/EK Success (my fave is the green and pink toile above), Creative Imaginations rub-on swatch book of icons & monograms, American Crafts rub-ons, & Heidi Swapp bling crowns (in pink of course!) I also bought a cute mini tiara that has a hair comb. I'll have to take a pic of it and post it tomorrow. It's too dark now. Hope you all enjoyed shopping with me!

Computer Genius, I am NOT

Alright, who wants a good laugh? I know enough on the computer to get around, but nothing technical. That's what my husband's there for. (Supposedly he's the stupid computer person in his family. Wonder what my title would be?)

Anyways... I am getting ready to FINALLY sell my artwork and open an Etsy store. I thought, "Yeah, I'll just make my banner, pictured above, and slap it on there." Ha, nice thought. I have to deal with pixels and crap. And it's supposed to look professional and there's my little handmade collage. I have no idea how to use Photoshop and I don't even have that program. I tried to scan this down and shrink it. I finally found something on my dad's computer that would show me what the pixel size for Etsy looked like. I had to laugh. It only covered the upper most pink corner in the top left. I decided to have a professional make one for me. I crack myself up sometimes.

EDITED: If your interested in your own banner & avatar, go see Briana. Great work, super efficient & oh so helpful to a novice like me.

Tea Time

Well, here are the pics from the tea for my sister held this past Saturday. It was held in the Victoria Room at The Empress Tea Room. This was the first tea I had been to in a long time and it was wonderful. We had a vanilla based tea and it was yummy!We were also served a selection of sandwiches, scones, and lots of delicious deserts. The puff pastery with the banana cream and chocolate dipped strawberries were my faves.

I hosted the tea with my cousin, Trellee, who also came from out of town and 4 of my sisters best friends from college. If you are ever in the Tampa area, go pop in for a visit. It's well worth it. We got nothing but great comments about how wonderful it was.
Please visit Kari to take a look at her post starting off our tea party and look at other participants. That's where I'm going next.

Uh, duh!

You Are 10% Left Brained, 90% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

And The Winner Is...

Yea, what a wonderful first day of spring here in Tampa. My wonderful assistant, Brandon, helped me out again. (Please disregard the no pants look)

Congrats to Blue the Spa Girl. I'll be emailing you for your mailing address.

I couldn't get my camera to get a good shot of Brandon holding the winner so I guess a scan will have to do.

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog world and left such wonderful comments. I'm saving them for a rainy day when I need a pick me up. Thanks also to everyone who participated and gave me lots of eye candy to look at. Extra special THANK YOU to Lisa Oceandreamer. Without her getting this started I would have never had the chance to "meet" such wonderful and talented people.

Christmas in March

It's always fun to visit my family in Florida. When I spoke to my mom prior to our trip, she told me not to start on my Xmas scrapbook. (Honestly, I'm so behind that it's not even on my to do list.) She bought stuff for herself, my sis and me. Look at all the stuff I got!! I don't know if I even have enough photos. I spent most of Christmas afternoon and evening on my sister's bed from a migrane.

My parents just got back from a trip to Seattle and brought me back this cute little jewelry holder. I know exactly what I'm gonna do with it. It's going on my work table in the studio to hold some of my many beads.
My mom also has this great HUGE magazine collection. I've even found "vintage" magazines from the 50's and 60's. I found the House and Garden color issue from 2003 (It's funny that I just bought this year's color issue) and an Anthropologie catalog from holiday 2004. Such great images for collaging. This is where I get my packratedness from. Somehow it has missed my streamlined sister.

On a completly random note, GO NOLES! I just can't wait for football season! Yes, it's only MARCH...

Happy PINK St Patty's Day

Today was my sister's shower and I didn't even realize it was the same day as St. Patrick's Day until last week. We had such a wonderful time at the shower. This kid is gonna be so spoiled. I didn't get really good shots of the shower gifts, but here they are, the final product... I'll post more tea pics on March 21st. Check here for some inspiration.

It's Almost Here

I've been away from my blog for a couple of days trying to finish up loose ends for my sister's baby shower. I'm really excited. We will be having High Tea at The Empress Tea Room. I'll post pictures on the 21st to join Artsymama's virtual tea party.

I'm not stressed out and I will not be up all night on Friday making 3000 pendants, alright it's only 18, but...

This is a frame I decided to make as a present. Yes, I even had time to make an extra gift. It's collaged with DCWV and Me & My Big Ideas scrapbook paper, 7 Gypsies and Reminisce stickers, and 7 Gypsies rub-ons. I also stamped, used embossing powder and doodled with my silver Sharpie.

We got her big gifts from the registry at Babies 'R Us, the necessities. I had to get some fun gifts too. She has this foot deal. My sister HATES feet. Only she and her husband have cute feet, so she's got Dr. Seuss's The Foot Book coming at her. May Kayden be blessed with cute feet also, or else.

Some New Work

I have finally completed some of the initial pendants for my sisters baby shower favors in addition to some other pendants I had made. I started sweating bullets. I couldn't get the jump rings to solder to the pendants. I bought some jewelry wire, made some decorative hooks and thank goodness they attached to the solder.

The initial pendants have a pink / heart / floral theme. I've just been working with some coordinating scrapbook papers, some mini-heart stamps and monogram rub-ons.

I've always wanted to make these pendants. I took a stained glass class when I was pregnant with Brandon (over 4 years ago) and never finished it. I've been trying to learn by reading books, magazines and on-line forums. Belle Armoire and Legacy did articles on the collaged pendants when I took my class. I am so glad I finally took the plunge and FINALLY bought the microscope slides.

I'm a Shoppin' Fool

Okay, my hubby's not reading, right? I just went shopping on Hannah Grey. I've really been wanting some vintage glass glitter and they've got it on sale. Of course I bought some other goodies: 7 Gypsies paisley rubons (how did I miss these before?), ATC card blanks and vintage wall paper. Oh, I can't wait!!


I was at the local Barnes and Noble last week and bought a ton of magazines. You would have thought I had never had magazines before. I've started reading so many other magazines since I've started blogging. Lots of you have opened my eyes to new sources for inspiration. I also picked up a Dover clip art book on butterflies and it came with a CD of all the artwork. It was marked down 50% and this will be so fun to use in my collaging.

Shower WIP and Craft Store Run

I love any excuse to go to the craft store. Like I need a reason. And every payment out of my fun account is to the craft store. Sometimes I question whether I have an addiction to craft supplies/stores.

Here are the bottles, full of the mints. I went to Michaels since the mints were on sale and to get some ribbon to tie the pendants to the bottles.

This is the pic of the other goodies I could not resist. The stamp was 40% off and I've been looking for a form. The ribbons have paisleys on them and they were only $1.99 and they were in my favorite color combos. The little frame is pink and sparkley and out of the dollar bin, so I had to have it. It will look cute in the craft room somewhere. The book was the big buy. It has 8x8 pages that are perforated and ready to put into scrapbooks. It also comes with a CD and you can print every single element. I LOVE it. There was also a cute one for family and babies. I'm thinking to buying the baby one for my sister.

Here's the second batch of initial pendants. Man, I'm gonna be a soldering fool. My mom said not to make one for her. Yeah, she's only the grandmother to be of the princess. Not an option. I think I like this batch more than the first ones. I may re-do some of the other ones. Yeah, I know, I'm crazy. The shower in on the 17th!