Stardust Warehouse

Today is the last day of the Christmas break (say it isn't so) and it's back to school tomorrow. Then I'll get busy with semester exams and benchmark testing, so this weekend I took the time to make my ATCs for Joan Roland's Days of the Week Swap at Gluebots.

I started by cutting some old wrapping paper fund-raising materials to size for the backgrounds. Then I painted on a layer of gesso. Next, I used direct-to-paper distress inks to add a bit of color. Next I stamped the names of the days of the week on each card with coffee bean pigment ink. After that I stamped the flourishes with the same ink. I chose some magazine images from my stash and glued those on using Golden clear gloss gel medium. For the final step, I planned to seal the ATCs with more of the gloss gel. However, I found out that doesn't really work so well atop the pigment ink. (That must be why so many people swear by Staz-On ink) The Saturday card with the butterfly is the one I smudged up a bit with the gel. For the rest, I used clear gloss acrylic spray to seal them.

     About fifteen years ago, or maybe closer to twenty, I made some Christmas ornaments from clear beads, safety pins, and wire. The shapes varied. Some were snowflakes, some were icicles, but my very favorite ones were the little angels. I must've made three or four dozen of the ornaments. Most I gave as gifts. A few I sold. As they left, one by one, I kept telling myself that it was okay... that I could always make more.

     Well, I didn't make more. And now, this little angel is the only one left.

     I love her dearly.

Here is my spread for Art Journal Gypsies Week 11, Favorite Things. I started late and am not working in any kind of systematic fashion to get caught up, simply choosing earlier prompts as they catch my fancy. This spread was easy for me to do, although I need about 10 additional pages to list more of my favorites. I didn't include people in this spread because I don't think of people as things.

Well, this is not a very good showing for the first snow day of the year, but

I'll Take It!

Yes, I'm worse than my students. No school! No school! Happy dance! Joy, joy!

Here is my Week 1 attempt for Art Journal Gypsies.

Woo Hoo! My cards made it home. And, don't they look FANTASTIC? Thanks, Gluebots. Ladies, you have outdone yourselves. If you scroll down a few entries you will see the backgrounds + 1 image that I sent out originally. One card got lost in the shuffle, but someone added a wonderful replacement card to take its place. This has been so much fun. RR #5 cards should be home sometime soon....then it's on to Round 6!

or

Seek and Ye Shall Find

Today is Day 13 of the No Place Like Home class that I signed up for in March. And, you guessed it, I am now 12 days behind. In my defense though, I have done snippets here and there of some of the prompts. I'm still in the "Hunting and Gathering" stage of the project.

On one of my hunting/gathering forays, I stumbled upon this cool set of blocks at Ye Olde Goodwill Store. For one measley greenback, no less. I have even managed to photograph said blocks AND load the photos to my computer AND print said photos AND now have blogged about it. So there, y'all.

I've joined Shimelle Laine's new class that starts tomorrow. You can find details on her website, There's No Place Like Home.

I'm really excited about the class. It is the first "fun" online class I've ever signed up for. Trying to talk my daughter into taking the class at the same time, so Heidi, if you are reading this....class begins tomorrow.

It has been a while since I have done much scrapping. I've been more into art journaling lately and some swaps. It will be good to play with the paper once again.

Sign up and join in the fun.

As I was blog surfing the other day, I happened upon Art In A Carton. This project is the brainchild of Susan Letham, a prolific artist who lives in northern Germany. Susan has decided to make 52 of these wonderful cartons this year and to mail them to other artsy people around the world.

She decorates each carton and fills it with objects of art that she has made. I got an email from her today saying that my art is in the mail. I can't wait to receive it and see what wonderful things Susan has included. You can bet I'll be checking that mailbox almost before the mail carrier can get the box closed.

Each person who requests an Art Carton from Susan agrees to make three cartons of her own. One goes back to Susan, one goes to another participant in the project, and the third one goes to someone of your choice who will carry on the project.

Doesn't this sound like fun? Click on the highlighted link to read more about Art in a Carton.

These are my backgrounds for Round Robin #5 at Gluebots.

These are so much fun. Head over to the Yahoo group and join in the fun.