CIAO BELLO

An ATC challenge. I like them. So little space, so many ways. Over at
Steff's Stuff she's having a "red" challenge. Here's mine. Ciao Bello, as in Goodbye Boyfriend.

And we did it. My daughter and I stayed up until midnight. Happy New Year!

Ciao!

Elaine

IF YOU LOVE PATTERNS...

If you love patterns, fonts, need some inspiration...

Check out this web site Pattern Maker Charts

I think it will keep you busy until 2011!

Thanks Louise, of Kard Krazy for teaching me how to post direct links. Not only is she an exceptional artist, she's a computer savvy gal.

Elaine

AULD LANG SYNE-TAG TUESDAY CHALLENGE

It's Tag Tuesday (OK, 2 days ago, but I am new to this challenge) and it's a great place to visit
http://kardkrazy.blogspot.com/2009/12/tag-tuesday-challenge-32-happy-new-year.html

One of my 2010 goals is to learn how to put blog links here, and click to the blog. I have two girls that keep me computer savvy, but somethings, I have to learn on my own, like this issue.

Here's my tag. Auld Lang Syne. My hopeless romantic theme...glistening chandelier, music dancing in the air, tick tock, the clock counts down to that special moment of greeting the New Year, ahh.. that first kiss of the New Year.

Lisa, my friend in Oklahoma, (who has seen a blizzard and more snow than one wants to see on the Texahoma line this month) loves this chandelier stamp by Impress as much as I do. We do enable each other, along with Paula and Courtney, when it comes to art supplies. It's a good thing they are not Santa, we'd never see any presents, they'd be busy in the studio, creating, telling the elves, "one more minute, just hold on..."

"Forgetting what is behind, and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me..."

--Philippians 3:13-14

Great peace to you this 2010.

Elaine

MERMAID BY CRACKER

What can I say about my dearest pal, Laurie aka Cracker. I've put several pieces of her art work on my blog. She's been selling her art and I am so happy for her. This is her gift to our youngest daughter. "Aunt Laurie" knows I brainwashed...ahum, raise my daughter to love the beach. And this is the result of that bountiful love. What a priceless treasure for my daughter. Thanks Laurie! We love it.
Peace, love, joy to you for 2010.
Elaine

LET'S GET SHABBY CHALLENGE

How can I resist a challenge that relates to summer colors and fun times. Especially when it's -4 outside. http://letsgetshabby.blogspot.com/ is having the challenge. Here is mine. It's called Shore Is Fun. It's a picture of our youngest daughter, visiting her Godmother in Ocean City, NJ. What a beautiful beach and board walk.

Shore hope to see you again:)

Elaine

WEDDING DRESS BLUES

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful daughter, who wanted to get married in a very special wedding dress. She saw it in a magazine, we went to have her try it on, and it was ordered and on it's way. Little did the mother know what horrors were ahead. Nor did the daughter. But let's skip forward to happily ever after dress.

The ending--the dress arrived, altered correctly, hanging in the dressing room, ready to wear down the aisle.
Sisters both have beautiful dresses, not to mention well fitting dresses, sashes and everything in place. Even the flowers were in the proper hands.The sides were altered, everything fit to perfection. The hair, simply elegant.

Rewind. What does a mother do when the daughter calls and says the dress was altered wrong in Italy. They measured and ordered the wrong size. They can't fix it. The mother calms the daughter down, while thumping her foot on the hardwood floor. The plans are set, for another alteration, for a talk with the company, for tears 2000 miles away, for a desire to fly by to Texas and yank on my boots, if you know what I mean. But no...I maintained my composure, let the telephone ring and tears come, let my daughter continue alteration appointments until the error was fixed.

And then I vented. I grabbed wall paper, ribbon, lace, big Christmas bows, and made a dress, I called it the ugly option dress. And I worked all day, all night on this ugly option dress. I had the design mimic my daughters dress in some ways, and in areas I put the errors. This is the front.

This is the back view.

The hem line and back that needed major alterations.

My Christmas bow hanging off the shoulder, to cover other dreamt up alteration errors.

And the back view, up close, of the sparkles, the skirt line, the dreams of the true dress vs the ugly option dressMore sparkles and edges unhemmed (had to fit my distress issues in some way...)

Fast forward. She walked down the aisle, escorted by daddy, beautiful, stunning in the perfect wedding dress. We all were happily ever after. And even better, I am finally catching up to 2008, when this all happened. I'm only behind 2 years on scrapping, or so I tell myself...

Bliss to all.

Elaine

POSTCARDS

I make postcards. It's quick, easy, and I do NOT distress the edges. I learned that doesn't work well with the postal system machines.

Here I took a piece of cardboard, stamped it (Hampton Art Stamp) used Stickles, colored in some areas with my markers, sprayed heavily with Glimmer Mist and turned the heat gun on, to dry it out. And voila, I have a postcard, ready to send out today. I even have three stamps left from the holiday mail outs.
Elaine

FAMILY TIME

Here is one of my fun, story telling scrap pages. No vintage, just a little story page for me to read. And our youngest daughter, who does not like clowns, dressed up as an scary clown.
And then her Christmas picture, that I never got printed! But we mailed all the Christmas cards out, I hope!

Peace to all.

Elaine

THE OTHER SIDE OF ME

No to those who asked me over the holiday if I only made "old stuff." Here are cards that I made, some bright, some elegant, some vintage, to let you know, that I work with a variety of techniques. In fact, a lot of my quick scrapping is done in a fun story telling setting.

Some of these, I made doubles of, for the next celebration card I need. A few minutes now saves the "it can't be her birthday already" sigh. I do love vintage, steampunk, copic markers, stamping, scrapping, mixed media, let's say I am addicted to it all.

Elaine

NEW YEARS PAST

Three wonderful New Year post cards I dug out of my drawer. So much time passed and yet the greetings are still the same. They wrote of family, love, and thinking of you. I'll use these soon. How about you? What are you going to create with them?

Peace.

Elaine

Madonna and Child by Giotto

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
Matthew 1:21

Christmas Blessings.
Elaine

FREEBIE VINTAGE DOWNLOAD

Here is the post card I used on an early post. I hope you enjoy copy and pasting this to play with. Send me what you did. I'd love to see your creativity.

And a Happy Christmas to you

Elaine

SALT DOUGH STAMP ORNAMENTS WITH GLIMMER MIST

I had the kids and their friends come make salt dough ornaments. They stamped with my rubber stamps and ink. Afterwards, they left me with the ones "that they didn't like."

CHALLENGE: Fix them... with ink, Glimmer mist, lots of different colors of Glimmer mists, heat tool dried, wrapped ribbon around them and voila, the challenge is now hanging on my Christmas tree. Here they are...

The rectangles are Stampin Up images
I colored this one in with ink pens, distressed the edges with Rangers Tim Holtz distress ink, added a wild red ribbon and gold and watermelon Glimmer MistAnd here are some hanging on the Christmas tree. Great opportunity to challenge myself to adapt something that was about to hit the trash.

Fun for all! Hope your tree is shining as a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas and that blessed star.

Elaine

STAMPING FUN

Here are some stamping tags and cards. Some have the MOO card within the picture. Below, merci is the MOO card. This was a wonderful stamp to use. You can have lots of fun with it.

Of course, it would not be complete without some pretty ribbon!

Another MOO card attached to my purple friend card. This was a favorite of my sisters.

Of course, I went against the purple craving, and made an under the sea card.

And then back to the purple crave card. I love this stamp and have used it often.

And some French accents on this card. The same stamp used on the first MOO card.

Have a great day.

Elaine

A HAPPY CHRISTMAS

I found these tiny vintage ornaments in the early 1980's, hunting for treasures. They are all that were salvaged when our basement flooded out. So simple, so elegant.
Here is one vintage post card that was used to create cards with the same sketch theme. I love to use the Stickles. I collect old post cards and found this one stuck between two cards.

A close up of the post card. Love the fonts on old cards. I used dimensional popups to pull out the poinsettias

I found it very interesting that the majority of my Christmas post cards had Happy Christmas on them, instead of Merry Christmas. Time for me to do some research on that trivia...

Blessings,

Elaine

THE AVALANCHE OF PHOTOS

I am all for children entering my studio, creating their masterpieces. But one day, a naughty fairy came in, wiped out my shelf of organized photos, ready to scrap by date, in order, as in the Dewy Decimal System of photos. Now it looks like a pile of junk waiting to tumble. Thus the entry before. I tell myself, no sniveling! It's just, just, breathe, photos that I, breathe, organized ready to pull out to scrap, deep sigh. The good news, those naughty fairies found boxes and storage, very creative storage (shoe box and turkey pan) to place all those photos. That was very nice, sigh, that the naughty fairy has a nice side to her!

Next New England snow stopper will find me organizing them again. Until then, they appear to be balanced!

Elaine, the non sniveling gal

WHINING BE GONE

My new motto in life! NO SNIVELING! My dear pal Laurie sent this to us and we just love it. I want to loop some ribbon through it and wear it as a necklace. I don't know where she bought it, but it is priceless.


Thanks Cracker!

Elaine

UPDATING AND REARRANGING

For several months, I searched high and low for my scan disk, that held over 5000 photo's. My husband thinks I should take one or two pictures of my art work, then upload it. I take about 20-30 of each, don't ask why, just accept me the way I am. Anyway, back to the scan disk, I found it behind my printer, which is left of my laptop. My children are home, safe and sound, all 5000+, whew, close call. And now I can work on my project, because I have nothing better to do during the holiday season, the cards are not done, the baking, no, a few more packages need to be mailed out. Alas, my goal was to upload my art work, that I did over the year, that I have not put in. It's my personal diary, for me to see on the blog, and if you care to join in, please make yourself at home. You can even start my Christmas cards, baking...

Lincoln. I had so much fun making him. If you look closely in the upper right hand corner, under the white flowers, there is a locket opened, and Mary Todd Lincoln's photo is in it. And all the charms flowing down the ribbons have various photos of Lincoln.

There is bound to be an avalanche of snow in CT this weekend, or so they say. I will make sure the laptop battery is charged and ready to upload a massive amount of photos. Also, I'm entering my work, since my mom, back in Texas, finally sat down at my baby sisters computer and looked at my blog. Thanks Mom! And now, she can sit down again, and see more work. This is the hard part about living so far away from Texas and loving a mom who does NOT want a computer. Not sharing my artwork, days walking, beach combing, laughing with her, watching her watch her grandchildren grow. Ah, the list is endless. I miss you Mom. I love you Mom. Thanks for looking at my blog<3>

Keep your toes warm, wear two pairs of socks. Ok, so it works for me.
Holiday Blessings to all.
Elaine

GRAPHIC 45 WIN!

What can I say that you have not already read. I am a big fan of Graphic 45.

As Mr. Darcy told Miss Elizabeth at the end of the Pride and Prejudice movie, "I love, love, love you." Well I love, love, love Graphic 45 paper. They are teasing on their blog right now, with little hints about the upcoming new release...(this is when I really use my coupons and put that money saved into my G45 fund) and I wrote a post.

Random, yes, but I post on many blogs but never a "random" winner. Today I won. What a great way to warm up my toes in this freezing weather, with toe snapping happy dance. I believe I won some paper. Not just any paper, but Graphic 45 paper. What a wonderful holiday present, to me.

If you haven't been following Graphic 45, make sure you check out their web site www.g45papers.com and then also go to their community board. Great place to see wonderful creativity.

Wow! Thanks for sharing my excitement.

Blessings,
Elaine

LADY OF SHALOTT

Lord Tennyson Victorian Ballad, "Lady of Shalott."

The inspiration behind this mixed media project.

There was an aubergine (the color purple...in the eggplant hue) challenge that I entered. This art work did not make the cut for the magazine. I love it regardless of publication or not.

My favorite color is purple, I crave that color and hold back from abusing it in my work. On top of purple, mixing it with Victorian romance well, it made my day or several days, to be exact a week, working on this mixed media.

Wish I had close up details so you can see what fun I had sneaking little beauties all over the place. After I was done with this piece, my floor spoke evidence of all the beads, lace, flowers which I packed and I mean packed into it.

Challenges offer a chance to explore a world that you have not yet discovered. Over the years of creating art and writing, I have enough rejection slips to wallpaper the house. But I also have some blessed samples of my writing and art work published. Truly, my life is not complete without using my creativity. In fact, if I've skipped a week, my husband reminds me to go to my studio. And I come out happy. Got to love a man who understands what makes his wife tick!


I must state that our family had been blessed this past year. We are so thankful for time together, for the healing of my husband and prostate cancer, for our older daughter acquiring a job as a teacher and her husband working also. And for our younger daughter, finding a wonderful place to worship with other kids her age and learning to be herself, in this pressured world of being something else. Truly God blesses us daily.

Have a day filled with peace joy hope and love.
Elaine

ONE MORE COMPLETED...

I have to tell the truth, I took this picture fast, and it flat out looks better in your hands. Oh well, sometimes, ok, most of the time I scrap and do things around the house at the same time. Sometimes it's a rush, when the dogs are barking to go out and I am attempting to take a picture. We all have those day. Well, I do. But this is another picture of my mother-in-law, and her sister and a friend. They are doing the final inspection before the walk down the aisle.

I distressed the edges and the ribbon, and added some string ribbon with jewels hanging from it. It was fun to do, and now it's time to add it to the in-laws wedding book. I promise it will be angled correctly in the book!



Hope you have a wonderful Sunday evening.
Blessings,
Elaine

WEEKEND IN MY STUDIO

Where does the weekend go? In fact, where does the week go? I had all these plans to get into the studio and now, it's Sunday afternoon and I am entering the studio. It's so cold for this Texas gal. New England sneaks up with that cold air. Brrrr. I set the thermostat for Texas summer degrees downstairs, turned on two space heaters, and then upstairs, the other thermostat is also set to August in Texas. I'm wearing two pairs of socks, sweats and can now feel my toes, well most of them.

I finished another layout of my in-laws. My friend Lisa's schedule is so busy, and she still makes time to do her layouts. It's motivated me to get into that studio, with no excuse.

Well back to the studio...

Keep yourself warm.

Elaine

CHRISTMAS CARDS

The most wonderful time of the year...the celebration of the birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Our 12 y.o. dd honored us by making our Christmas card this year. We took this painting and had it made into cards. Pardon the picture I took, I was/am rushing today, and trying to remind myself not to rush, just enjoy it all. Not always easy for me or for some of you who I know actually read this blog. I love this picture, it's so fun to look at and find all the interesting things that are happening. It reminds me of the first time I took to the slopes!


Thanks for looking.
Keep Christ in Christmas.
Elaine