Garden Party Starts Today

 You can join in on the fun with the Artist Class gang!  Our classes start today.  

Click here go to the Artist Class blog.  Click here to sign up & don't forget to use your coupon code
"creativerants" for $10 off registration.

I'm one of the "extras" classes during the month.  For those taking the class, you can download the picture above for use in my project.  (Please note, the photo is for personal use only).

 Lookie what I found over on Anthropologie

Artist Class ~ Garden Party

Celebrate Spring with Artist Class Garden Party

Save $10 with the code "creativerants" at checkout

Come join us for the next session of Artists Class.  Look at the beautiful projects we'll be making.  I'm excited for this one by Tina Jenson.  I'm thinking of all the cute places I can put these flowers.

The ever creative hostess Mary Green says:

Did you know that April is National Garden Month? It's a great time to celebrate Springtime, Gardens, and the return of sunshine with the newest 4 week Artist Class session.
This Garden Party session is filled with great Artists, charming projects and loads of extras - plenty of them designed to entice you into a springtime garden-fresh mood. Shake off the grey and throw open the windows, this is your time to push aside any lingering gloom...and bring your creativity to life.

The price of a session of Artist Class is normally $59.00, but Garden Party is just $49.00 - $10.00 off the original price. Then, with an Artist's discount code you'll save $10.00 more.

You'll pay just $39.00 in all!

Come get in the mood for Spring!

May Fair In June

So I went to the May Fair held by Old Luckett's Store in May & I'm just posting. I'm such a slacker.
I had a ball. There was so much to look at & I got to spend some money & just take in the eye candy.

This vintage pin was my big buy. I sooo love her. It caught my eye right away. I hate it when vendors know I'm hooked :) Everyone was really nice there though. Most of them gave me good deals without me even asking. I also bought some vintage hankies, vintage buttons & vintage junk jewels to work with.
This guy had the coolest stuff! I bought some metal & wood printing press letters & designs. I got my initials & my business name initials.
I have more pics on my flickr account.

Card Swap

This post is REALLY late. I did a notecard swap hosted by the wonderful Regina. I had so much fun doing this. I was really inspired by the themes: birds, flowers, trees, bees. We had free reign to interpret. Regina carves her own stamps & made us the cool bookmarkers. I used her picture to show the bookmarks & stamps. She has some great info on her blog, so go check it out.
Deb Crawford: top right. Photograph of a beautiful watercolor.
Heather P : bottom left. Heather recycled magazine pages, made them into flowers & added a quote from Emerson.
Tangee H: top left. Decorative paper with paper flower embelished with epoxy middle. It says princess!!

Tanya F: bottom middle. Tanya took the photograph of the flowers & collaged them with other elements into the card.

Sweet Sweet Jane: middle. Bird cut out of decorative paper.

Needless to say, I was blown away by the cards I received. All of them are stunning & I don't know if I'll be able to part with any. There is a group pool on flickr if you want to check the others out. Go on over!

I'm Alive & Card Swap

To those of you who have visited my blog & I have not written you back, I'm so sorry. I got sick, AGAIN. It was worse this time around. Both the boys were also sick & Rick wasn't here. The week before that, Rick had surgery, so as he says he's "Gimpy" I'm so happy to have just made it through last week. Enough whining on my end. I just want everyone to know I really appreciate the comments you make. Thank you especially to everyone who commented about Brandon's birdhouse. It's been wonderful sharing the comments with him. His eyes just lit up.
This was fun & I really should do more card swaps. They're quite easy to make so I don't have a huge commitment & I get the creative juices out. This swap was hosted by the lovely Regina. Go take a look at her blog; she's got a bunch of tutorials (they're listed on her sidebar)

I was instantly inspired by the themes: birds, trees, flowers, & bees. Most of these cards are such a departure from my usual color palette. (Only 1 pink card). The tree cards are my fave. They are pictures I took here in Dover during winter of last year. I made copies & did the packing tape transfer. I just love doing those tape transfers.

While I was sick, I was able to complete my application for the Dover OSC craft show for this November. The packet was due today & I made it. I took the plunge with this show since I'm so familiar with it. It's only 1 day & I think I'm ready to put myself out there. The mess pictured is my home studio. One of the things I had to include was pictures of my work space. AGGG! Karin, when I wrote the info about it I stole the Creative Chaos name. Thank you :) Seriously, you wanna see this craziness? I didn't think they wanted a picture of my kitchen table or my bed. Really, I create wherever. Keeping my fingers crossed!

The Pink Palace ~ Birdhouse Blinging with Beth & Karla

Here's my "Pink Palace". I bought 2 bird houses to paint quite a few years back. I started painting them & hated it. So, they sat for awhile (years). When I started blogging, I got back into collaging & found one of the old bird houses. It was still ugly & really dusty. It had moved maybe 5 times with us. She survived a few stints in storage & I thought it was time to rehab.

She got a generous coating of gesso then lots of pink acrylic in different shades. After that, I went crazy; scrapbook paper, rub-ons, rubber stamps, German scrap, & a cute pink bird I bought from a clearance bin. Of course, at the time I had NO idea what I was going to do with it. I seem to do that with good buys all the time.

These pics aren't the best & I couldn't take any new ones. I don't know where the poor palace is. It's still packed somewhere from our move. We just decided not to unpack everything since we knew we were moving again this summer. I took these before I started experimenting with taking pictures. I'm not any sort of expert now, but I don't take crappy ones like these anymore.

Go visit Beth & Karla to see our birdhouse hostesses & visit the flickr group.
Brandon wanted to join in on this one too. Here's a few shots of him painting his own. He borrowed one of my shirts for painting & it looked like a dress. He got the second of the ugly needed to be rehabbed houses.

Hanging Up Springtime Swap

This swap is the cutest. I mean, look at the swap button. It's being organized by Sarah of Gypsie Mermaid Life. I'm already planning & will probably start this weekend. You make 6 items: dress, bloomers, hat, gloves, butterfly, & bird. Sarah is going to give each swapper items from 6 different artists & hang them on a line. Oh so fun! There is a cap of 30 people & it's filling up quick. Go sign up now if you wanna join! She even made us samples. This girl is GOOD!

Happy Birthday To Me & Brandon

I really should have a birthday week. I started celebrating yesterday. Brandon's birthday is this weekend so we should just party all week. Our birthdays are only 5 days apart. Last night I decided to make a boxed cake on the spur of the moment and Brandon had a practice birthday cake. Yes, I know they cakes aren't pretty, but they sure were yummy. I am not a baker!!
I spent yesterday at St. Michael's MD. I just love that area. We used to live in Easton, also a wonderful town. I went to a store called What's This What's That. The owner was our neighbor in Easton and I went to go show her some of my artwork. I had never gone to a store to try and sell my wares before. I am just not a salesperson for my own work. I think it was less intimidating to do this with someone I know. She ended up not buying anything this time, but it's given me some confidence and ideas of what to do. I picked up the funniest set of cards from her store. Take a look... It's from a company called She She Me. They've got another cute set I must have.
While I was there I went to my favorite restaurant, The Crab Claw. I love this place. I sat right on the water and enjoyed my favorite, soft shell crab. It's probably good we don't live 10 minutes from there anymore cause I could eat there every other day. My last stop was at Coco & Company. The website doesn't do it justice. They sell a little of everything; stationary, handbags, furniture and home accessories. I got the cutest vintage book there. It's my first one. It's got several operas inside and has the plays, illustrations and sheet music.

If you are ever in the area, you must visit St Michaels. There's a ton of shops I could live in and I so enjoy sitting out by the water.

The boys stayed home with my husband. He's just the greatest. Saturday night he decided they would stay home instead of tagging along. He knew I'd have my mind on the meeting and didn't want me stressed out. Brandon was promised waffles with chocolate syrup for breakfast. Then I woke up this morning and he had a little surprise waiting for me on the dining room table. He had already bought me golf lessons, so we could golf together. But sitting on our table was a pink coffee mug and a gift card to Starbucks. He's the best!

Easter Greetings

We had a wonderful Easter this past weekend with the in-laws. As you can see from the pictures, the boys had too much fun. They were passed out in the car on the way home. I somehow did not take pictures of the boys with their baskets, but these are great pics of them with the bunnies. (By the way, that's Allie peeking her head in. The picture was so cute.)

The funniest thing was having snow flurries on Saturday morning. This was all wrong. We were all wearing non-spring clothes to church on Easter morning.

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.