Votive to Didier's Mother & Grandparents

My french friend Didier, has the most wonderful wedding photo of his grandparents, which i used in this collage. I added the photo of his mother, when she was obviously just a little girl, from another photo. This will be my birthday gift to Colette, his mother.... she was New Year's baby !... Didier is going to get a bookmark out of this image since he is a bit of a snob with his artwork collection but his sentimentality will appreciate the bookmark, I believe. tee-hee.

IF: Rambunctious

OK. Here is my first attempt to contribute to Illustration Friday. all I could think of was my dog and how he loves to sneak into the shower and steal my sponge... this time, I caught him!

2008 Holiday Card

This is a photo of my grandfather and I am a little obsessed with it at the moment. For christmas, this image, once a ATC, has now transformed into a bookmark and a lovely gift for family... especially accompanied with a book!

Votive to the Chevreau Children

I made these two votives for my husband's sisters. One is 11x14 and the other 8x10. I love the old studio posses for the children each holding a bouquet of flowers. Their mother died when they were really young so father was a huge influence in their lives. We found an old Carte Identite of their fathers that I used in the backround.

Laurie Mika's Shrine Class!

This is the shrine I made from Laurie Mika's shrine class. It is the happiest shrine ever made from accidentally buying white clay instead of dark colors as Laurie recommends! I highly recommed Laurie's classes as she has a wonderful energy and she is a wonderful teacher, not to mention that polymer clay could be so much fun!

Anahata Katkin - Symbolic Icon Class

I was lucky enough to get into one of Anahata's classes back in April at Artfest. These are the 2 collages I created in her Symbolic Icon class. This was one of my favorite classes and maybe it's because Anahata is one of my favorite artists.

Raevn's Nest Art Retreat

RAEvN's Nest Art Retreat was so great! http://www.raevns-nest-art-retreat.com/ Thank God it was a huge success and there will be one in 2009, but will be held the fourth weekend of October.:Thursday October 22 - Sunday October 25, 2009. Above are my cohorts and new BFF, June "Faff" as she accidentaly got named while i was high on mirgraine medication!

Below is the charm i created with shrinky dinks for the swap, my Chunky page (both front and back) for the Chunky books we recieved at the retreat and lastly my new ATC card for this retreat. This time I was inspired by my grandfather and it inspired me to change my blog heading. This is the first time i have ever done charms or chunky pages and it was a good challenge and lots of fun to make.

Friday, I took Judy Wise, Encaustic Collage class. Here is a Wonderful photo of her looking suprised I created a decent encaustic collage! (tee-hee) it was so cool to cover a collage in beeswax... it gives the art an interesting look that i plan on exploring a little further!

I also took Judy Wise's Artful journal class on Saturday which i really enjoyed becaue she had us make various backround pages and gave us lot of ideas for starting your journal page and one of the pages we drew our portrait and I acutally found this exercise fun!

I took the Michael DeMeng class Friday night which was the Matchbook Reliquaries. I love the idea of making little shrines out of matchbooks and did the best i could in 2 hours! Laurie Mika put a little rub&buff on the jewels so they did not look to new! thanks, Laurie!

My Fabric Journal for Artfest

Since we all need to bring a journal for Artfest, I decided to make a fabric cover with the Artfest logo sewn on there. Since i learned this quilting technique from Teesha Moore, the host of artfest, i felt making this type of journal was very appropriate!

ATCs for Artfest

So i am getting ready to go to Artfest http://www.teeshamoore.com/ and I have made about 100 of these Artist Trading Cards to swap with other artfesters! What you can't see from the photo is that i embelshed them with glitter and sparkley pens. This is my first time going to Artfest so I hope they are good enough to trade.

Lace Knitted Scarf

Sometimes I find knitting very meditative. It occupies my mind enough so I don't get too hooked up in my thoughts or the television. I have made 2 of these "lace" scarves already in brown and blue. i just love them. They take awhile to make because the yarn is so thin (i used cashmere) but it is well worth it. they go with everything.

Gift Boxes

I have made several gift boxes like the one above and each time I feel that I get better at them. This one I made for my mom! These are so fun and easy to make and I think they really add to the gift and in making someone feel special! I basically us ink, decorative papers, brads, stamps and doodling!