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

Swap gifts and a little guessing game

I have to show you the card first, isn't it gorgeous? At first it didn't kick in, me and my cotton brain LOL, there were pictures of this sweet girl all over the envelope , then the card , and then it hit me...... duhhhhhh.. is this the canvas?
Yes it certainly is, and Terri, I am sooooo in love with her, and all you have done to this canvas. She is beautiful!!!!!! Please click on the photo to see a close up, there is so much lovely texture in this piece and detail, I couldn't be happier :)

Terri from Blooming Ideas, and I, did a one on one swap and my parcel arrived .. oh about 15 mins ago. I had to take photos right away and surprise Terri by posting it, what a great way to end this wet and soggy week.

That's not all either, we also made each other a tag and Ooo la la is right, just look at it. This is gorgeous , thank you for a wonderful swap sweetie, everything is Ooo la la :)


I still can't stop looking at them :)
You can see what I sent Terri in the post below this one if you like. Both the canvas and the tag were really fun.

I was just about to post something I have been experimenting with this week when the mail came, so I will show you next time. It's something I have never done before.....hmmmmmm

Can you guess what it is?
First one to guess what it is will receive a little surprise from me :) Just let me know in your comment what you think it is. I hope I didn't make it too easy........

If you are wrong I will leave a comment too and let you know, then you can try again, let's have a bit of fun :)
Thanks for dropping by, Lynn

Update
Ok, my daughter his home tonight and I asked her to guess, then when I showed her what it is she said that is too hard mom, so here is another photo for ya :)
I made a bunch of these this week, and I made them by recycling something.
You don't have to guess what I made it with or how I got to the end result, but guess what it is ...

We have a winner.......... Sarah guessed right after trying so hard :)

Swap with Terri

Terri from Blooming Ideas and I just finished a one on one swap, and here is what I sent her. I can show it now because she has received it :)

I do not have mine yet, it will probably be here any day now because we mailed them on the same day.
We started off by making a tag for each other then I thought, let's do a bit more. So Terri came up with the idea to do a small canvas in a Petite Doll theme or Suzi Blu theme. This is what I came up with.

Below is the tag.
We decided on Vintage girls as the theme. I made mine all fabric and trims with this beautiful girl from Itkupilli

Maybe tomorrow I will have my swap from Terri and show you what she created for me :)

Hope you had a great day, it was quite warm here and sunny so I got outside and did some cleaning up in the back yard.

On another rather sad note, I just found out that Baxter the therapy dog, passed away peacefully on Friday :( Oh, I know he was very old and in rough shape , it's still sad and his owners must miss him terribly.
I found out too, that Baxter was a rescue dog, there was signs of abuse and he had heartworm and gum disease at that time. Well, he sure did well with all the love and care from his owners, what a very special dog, my heart goes out to them.
(If you have no idea what I am talking about, view my post down the page to find out more about Baxieboo.)

Gothic Arch Challenge Risqué

This weeks challenge at Gothic Arches is Risqué and this is what I came up with.
It feels good to participate in a challenge again, it really pushes you to go outside your usual themes and styles.

Did you know that Karen from The Graphics Fairy, who shares some delightful vintage clip art with us has a "Brag Monday"? I just found out this morning. If you have created anything using any of her free images, you can go and post it there on a Monday, then we can all go around and see what each other has been doing with these great images. Go on over there and read what you have to do. I posted "The Witch" an altered postcard I did last month which you can see here if you missed it. I used the Witch and a bat from Karen's collection.

Credits: Vintage lady from a CD of mine, hand with cards and phone dial from Ailsing.net

Inspiring Books

Two very different types of books but both very inspiring :)
This first book is a new, new, book by Sue Roddis of Jabberwocky, one of the blogs I love to follow. If you have seen Sue's work you will know how brilliant and how perfect it is, she has a lot of talent and if you love Decorative Books you will love this book.

Over here in Canada and the States it is not available until January but was published in the U.K last month. Sue was extremely kind and offered to send me a copy. I even have a signed copy :) Thank you so much Sue.......

So... inside there are detailed instructions with lots of photos on how to make several handmade books. That's what I like about this book, she goes through each step. Sorry to say I have not tried any yet, but I will, give me time, I have other projects to finish for swaps and gifts right now, but Sue if you read this, you will be the first to know :)

Don't you just love the heart book on the cover? There is a really neat house book inside too. You can find this great book on Amazon.co.uk right now or you can pre order, maybe add it to your wish list for Christmas if you are in Canada or the U.S


Ok, this next book is inspirational because it is full of heartwarming stories about Baxter the therapy dog and his friends at the hospice where he works. He only goes for a few hours a week these days because, and get this, it's not a typo, he is 16 years old........ I didn't know dogs lived that long but you have to see him on his blog (which I now follow) at Baxieboo's Web Log,
he is such an inspiration, and I hope my little Cooper can one day train to be just like him.

If you love dogs the way I do, you are going to fall in love with Baxter. I do not have his book yet, I only just found about about this little teddy bear, but I will soon. All proceeds from the book are donated to helping therapy dogs train and to hospice centers :)

He still looks very young for his age, he is such a sweetie. The sad thing about Baxter is he can no longer walk, but that doesn't stop him having fun. His mom takes him swimming for therapy to keep his legs strong, and he is still visiting and comforting hospice patients.

If you want to see him in action there is a video but I warn you to get out the kleenex, it is just soooooo moving, and sad. I really cried.
You will cry for Baxter and you will cry for the people at the hospice, but it is beautiful when you see them smile, and the music alone makes you cry, it's "Angel" by Sarah McLauclin, so I don't want to upset anyone, that's why I am leaving it up to you.
You can find the video on YouTube here.

One other thing, there seems to be a debate going on at You Tube as to whether Baxter should still be working, or should be at home relaxing. Well in my opinion he is relaxing when he works, and he is being loved and given comfort by all. Why would he want to be cooped up at home constantly?
I will let you decide for yourself what you think.

Chilly, wet day, I have the fire on and have been snuggling with Cooper, he say's he wants to grow up to be just like Baxter, but I told him he has to be calm with people like he is with me, so we have to work on that :) See you soon..... Lynn

Collage Bookmark ~ Nature ~

Trying to get back into the swing of things today after the Thanksgiving weekend, and it still feels like Monday to me so I am probably going to be all mixed up with my days this week. I have had so much laundry to do today, so in between loads I took some time to make this bookmark.

The close up photos are before I put it in it's plastic sleeve. It is very hard to get a good photo when it is behind plastic, but here it is :)
Kinda foggy looking.......

Happy Thanksgiving Fellow Canadians

Vintage postcard from bulldoggrrl on Flickr

Yes, it is that time again for our Canadian Thanksgiving. To my fellow Canadians, have a great weekend, and if you are having all this rain like we are, let's hope it stops and we have some sunshine this weekend:)

Altered Tin ~ Halloween

I put together this altered tin in a Halloween theme, just for the fun of it because I have a few tins waiting to be used. Then I realized I used the same little guy on the front as I did from my tin last year, I guess I like him a lot :)
All images used on the front of the tin are from Digital Collage Sheets

Inside, the little girl is sitting pretty on the pumpkins all dressed up for trick or treat :)
This sweet little fairy is from Lisa's Altered Art

If you have never tried altering a tin and would like to, I have a beginner tutorial on my blog, just look in my right hand side border to find the link, and let me know what you think if you give it a try. I would love to see what you create.
The tutorial is for a Fairy tin but you can do any theme really, just have fun :)

Swap with my Blue Eyed Girl :)

Ooooooo lookie what arrived yesterday in the mail :)
This is a beautiful, beautiful wet felted and needle felted piece of art created by Linda as part of our swap. Click on the photo to see all the gorgeous detail, she has used gold threads and beads in there too and written a lovely poem in gold pen.
You know what I just noticed? Linda, the sneak posted her felt art on her blog before leaving for Greece , and I had NO clue that it was on it's way to me, but I just realized that I have taken my photo upside down to the way your's is Linda, hope that's ok LOL... Looks great either way I think :)

She has also sent me this ATC which is full of layers and texture, just what I love.

And that's not it, look at this lot for my stash :)
Vintage doily and bits of gorgeous laces and trims, fibers, gold leaf flakes, a really nice key, bits of papers and a wooden house that her husband cut for her. Can't wait to use that :)
Can you also see the little cherubs?
Here is a close up of them, they are so tiny and Linda made them herself from a mold, perfect little embellishment for art work.
I would never have met Linda if I had not started doing the Awfully Big Art Adventure challenges, and I love how you meet someone online then find out all these similarities in your life and things you like , and then become friends. I am so blessed to have a friend like her, thank you again Linda from Blue Eyed Girl , I love everything :)

The Hornet ~ Altered Postcard

This altered postcard is in the same color theme and style as The Witch I did recently.
I actually put this one together before that for my friend Terry at Pringle Hill Studio but I couldn't show it on my blog because I wanted it to be a surprise and she has been away on holiday. Now she has it so I can share :)

I really love this Hornet Lady, and since hornet's are a part of nature I used other nature clip art in this postcard as a theme.

Enjoy your day :)
Lynn

Old keys and retail therapy on a dreary day

It was, and still is a gloomy, wet day here, and I felt very gloomy myself. I decided to walk to the end of the street to the mail box and in there was a little box with a picture of a rusty key on it. Then I noticed it was from Debi, who said she was going to send me some old keys because I couldn't find any, and everyone I asked just didn't seem to have any.
Just look at what was in the box......

Wrapped up in pretty pink tissue and tied with ribbon, but there were two little parcels and a gorgeous gift tag from Debi too.
I couldn't wait to open it, and never realized how many keys could be wrapped in there, just look at them all, and they really are "old", I was thrilled. Then I opened the other piece of tissue and she had sent me some bits of old jewelry too for using on my keys. I rushed over to my husband to show him and he never get's excited about things I get in the mail but he thought they were cool LOL.
You probably all know Debi from Life in my Studio, if not then you really should be following her lovely blog :) I am so grateful to you sweet lady, thank you so much, I could never have found so many old keys. We don't have flea markets around here, and the ones we do are far away and only in the summer, and the jewelry bits are wonderful :)

Isn't it funny what makes some people feel happy? A bunch of old keys and some bits of jewelry just made my day :)

This blog world I live in every day is so special, you meet the most wonderful people and you have never even met them. People just come forward and help each other out, it is a beautiful thing this blogging community :)

What made you happy today?

Ohhhhhh another thing made me happy too. My friend Gail at Shabby Cottage Studio is celebrating the 2nd Birthday of her online shop and not only does she have 25% off everything, but with every purchase your name will be entered in her birthday giveaway which includes 14 gifts, yep 14 different giveaways including a magazine subscription and a free class at
Creative Workshops.
Guess where I went shopping today?
Not only does Gail create beautiful digital collage sheets and her own art work, she also supplies us with many different art supplies for our mixed media and altered art projects. You can have a lot of fun retail therapy over there, I know I did and I really needed it today :)

Be back soon,
Lynn