Etsy Cottage Style Charity Event

Love and Hope for our Little Angels


As some of you know, I was the founder of the Etsy Cottage Style community on Ning.com, but have since passed it over to one of the wonderful members and a friend I met through ECS. Still it is always close to my heart, so I would like to share something with you.

I want to let you know about a Charity Event going on through the community.

Many of the artists, including myself, at ECS contributed pages of art/mixed media to create two very special art books which are now on auction on Ebay. Also, other artists have donated items to be auctioned off too, with the proceeds going to "The National Children's Cancer Society".

This has all been organized by Jewel who was helped out by the NCCS when her 3 year old son Cody, was diagnosed with Cancer. At the time, Jewel was a struggling single mom with other children, not receiving child support. The NCCS helped her with living expenses etc while Cody spent a year in hospital. This is such a wonderful charity helping people under stressful , financial situations get the care they need for their child.
If you would like to read Jewel's story please go here.

I don't want to go on too much, but if you are interested in helping out this charity, please come over to Ebay , and see what beautiful things are on auction. There are some lovely christmas decorations, banners and all starting at 9.99us. You can also make a donation of $5 and Jewel will send you the logo you see in my post as a thank you :)

Auctions
The National Children's Cancer Society
Etsy Cottage Style Community
(All links open in a new window)

Gothic Arch Challenge Stars

This week the Gothic Arch Challenge is to use "Stars", here is my entry.

The sweet little girl image is from Shabby Chic Papirskatter, and the wings are from Itkupilli on Etsy, and the crown I cut out myself from some scrap paper then trimmed it with teeny tiny pearl stickers. I used a lot of gold leaf pen and some silver leaf pen too, I think I may have gone a bit over board there :)

Hope you all had a great weekend, see you soon
Lynn

Winter Girl Gift Tag Printable

This beautiful young lady is one of my favorite graphics from an old postcard. I just had to make a special tag with her, and for others to print, so this is my latest printable collage sheet which you can find in my Etsy Shop.

This is how they look put together, and I am very happy with the outcome :) I used an ivory lace background and gave the tags a scalloped top edge, but seems you can't see it here. I

What I did is make two sheets to print, one for the front and one for the back. Just cut out, glue front and back together, punch a hole in the top, rub some distress ink around the tag and add some ribbon, and you have some beautiful gift tags :)

Of course you can leave them with a plain white background too, you could also cut out the girl and make another version of a tag on the backside of the tag. Just be creative, they would even make a nice bookmark :)

I had forgotten how much I missed my Paint Shop Pro, I am really enjoying it, yet I still have time to play with my art too.

Have a great weekend,
Lynn

Altered Box, Santa with children

I am so into creating for Christmas right now, I love it !
This is a paper mache box I have altered using one of my favorite Victorian Santas with the sweet children.
The snow is made with Golden's modeling paste, I gave it a wash of titan buff when it was all set and then sprinkled just a touch of glitter. ( I am not a glitter girl, can't stand the bits getting all over me.)

I glued bits of green, tinsel, some glittered stars, jingle bells, and I am loving the silver ivy leaves I found.

I always wait too long and can never get done all I want to as far as Christmas art, so this year I decided to start really early.

Speaking of Christmas, I now have two digital collage sheets in my Etsy shop for your creative pleasure. Click on the images for a better look :)


I have used some of my favorite images and I have lot's more to work with , so you will be seeing more I am sure of it :)

Tags, tags and more tags

Seems I have made a lot of tags this week....

I am really ready for creating Christmas goodies now...

I made more of the little girl tags for my Etsy shop, which I reopened this week after letting it sit idle all summer.

I had fun making these tiny blue gift tags. The snow flakes are stickers with little jewels on them and they feel like a soft rubber, really nice quality.


And I have been playing a lot in my graphics program this week too.
I had my own website a few years ago, it was called Country Printables. I drew country characters in my graphic program at that time using the vector tool and I created and sold printables and web sets.

I thought you may like to meet some of my country friends :) Here they are saying hello .....

They all have full bodies, you just can't see them here.


I am not into the country graphics anymore, but I enjoyed creating these gift tags for Christmas printing.
This is a terrible photo, it was a rainy day and I tried taking the photo with a light shining on them LOL... didn't work too good.

I have a collage sheet of these in my Etsy shop now, thought I would see if people were interested in this type of thing. So many people just throw out the tags you put on gifts, so I thought why not be able to just print a bunch, cut them out and add some ribbon for those people, just quick and easy.

I enjoyed playing in Paint Shop Pro again so much, I am thinking I will make some more collage sheets, I gave up graphics to have time for my crafts, like sewing and knitting at the time, then just over a year ago I got into Mixed Media, now I realize how much I miss it, but I always have it to go back to whenever I feel the need :)

Have a great weekend all , see you soon,
Lynn

Gothic Arch Challenge

This week at Gothic Arches we are prompted to use the artwork of Lord Frederick Layton, and I chose this beautiful serene looking woman. I used a window image and butterfly from Paper Whimsy, I love this window, it looks as if you can see right through it.
I used one of my old Anna Griffin papers in a gold tone then stamped on it, and rubbed some gold leaf pen around the edges.

The Gothic Arch challenge is now on blogger at it's new location, thank you to Nancy for all the hours you must have spent moving things over there, and thank you all for visiting this first Monday of November :)

Canvas Wall Hanging

This is a 6x6 canvas in a very dark moss green with copper, using acrylic paints with gel medium, then the heat gun to give it some texture. The girl is one of my favorite Paper Whimsy girls which I framed with a paper mache type frame, and adding some old doily underneath.

It hangs with an old piece of chain which is screwed into the sides, and I used the metal corners to finish it off.

Thanks for dropping by, have a great weekend and keep the kids safe when they go trick or treating tomorrow :)
Lynn

Surprise Mail

Don't you love happy surprises? Look what I received in the mail yesterday from my friend Robin .
Such a beautiful little wall hanging with the most gorgeous trim and pearl embellishment. She also wrote me a lovely message on a pretty card and sent one of her stamped tags which I love too, all wrapped up nicely with some pretty pink lace (which I forgot to take in the photograph). My heart is filled with the love of all the amazing people I have met through my blog, and I thank you Robin so very much, your kindness really made my day :)

Gothic Arch Challenge Orange and Black

This week's challenge at Gothic Arches is to use Orange and Black in honor of Halloween, so I did a Halloween theme which I havn't done much of this year. I just can't seem to get into it, but I did have fun with this arch.
The image of the little boys was digitally altered by Terri at Pringle Hill Studio and I think it is brilliant, just the right amount of color, and comes minus the witch hats. You can find it as a freebie on Terri's blog :)

In the spirit of Halloween I thought you might like this clip art I found on one of my CD's.



Have a great day, hope you have some time to relax and be creative :)
Lynn

Handmade Beads with baby wipes

Thank you to the ladies who played along with my guessing game last night, our winner is Sarah from Vintage Figments who tried so hard to get it right, and finally did. They are indeed beads :)
I will be sending you a surprise gift Sarah, hope you had fun.
So here are my finished beads, something I have wanted to try and never got around to, like so many other things.


I kept seeing them in magazines and in books and they were either fabric or tyvek, which is a fiber you can heat. Well I couldn't find any, so I thought I will try it with my dirty baby wipes. Don't worry, I don't use them on baby bums. I use baby wipes a lot in my art room, so if they are covered in paint I let them dry out, or if they are for cleaning my hands on I rinse them out, then paint them. You can use them just like fabric rather than throwing them away.


When the beads are dry you can wrap wire and beads around them or just fibers on there own like I did here, and I left a few as they are. See how you can make something pretty with those baby wipes?
I am no chemist and it could even be dangerous or toxic so if you are going to try what I did, you have to be in a well ventilated area or wear a mask, and be very careful not to start a fire. Sounds scary I know, but it's not really.

The purple beads are done with inks. I used a baby wipe I had only used for cleaning glue and paint off my hands, then blended two shades of ink on it. I then made a few lines with Liquitex metallic copper ink.

When it is dry tear it into strips, any size you want. I used a fat knitting needle and some Golden Gloss Gel Medium to roll it , but try not to get the gel medium on the knitting needle because you will have a heck of a time getting it off after it dries.

Here they are after they are dry, that's all I did to these, although I may have speaded up the drying with my heat gun a bit.

The others I made the same way but my baby wipe was thick with paint and quite stiff, so the end result was a stiffer bead. I painted over the beads when dry with Folk Art metallic paints mixed with a touch of gel medium then used my heat gun to get some bubbles going on.
Do not heat them while they are on your knitting needle. It will melt. Mine did!
I then used a wooden dowel instead.

This photo looks shiny because of the flash , they are not too, too shiny, and you can always use Matte Gel medium if you want a different look. I am sure Modge Podge or even regular craft glue would work too, I just like my Gel medium :)

So there you have it, now what will I do with them? I have no idea yet, but it sure was fun making them. I have seen them used for jewelry and for embellishing, and I am sure I will come up with something. Let me know if you give it a try I would love to see them :)

Have a great weekend,
Lynn