Big Give Away!!!!

Big Easter give-away coming soon! Stay tuned!

The Shamrock Winner & Music....

Heidi is the winner of the Collaged Shamrock! Congrats Heidi! Email me your address and I'll get it out to you.

Well, the people have spoken and it seems from the poll I was conducting for the past month that people do not like to hear music when they visit blogs so I'm nixing the music for right now. I like music but some people find it distracting while trying to read.

Shamrock Give-away and St. Paddy's Trivia....

Here is red headed little lass ready to decorate your home for St. Patrick's Day! This shamrock has been collaged with this and that and measures about 4 inches by 4 inches. If you'd like a change to win her in a random drawing held on Thursday, just leave a comment!

Here's some interesting triva to casually toss out on St. Patrick's Day which I got from the business magazine, 'Fast Company'.......

The world's first St. Patrick's Day parade took place in NYC, not Ireland, 247 years ago.
Ireland's St. Patrick's Festival started only 13 years ago and brings in around $79 million in tourist revenue.

Four-leaf clovers are rare with only one for every 10,000 three-leaf clovers.
The most leaves found on a clover? 18

Nine American cities share a name with Ireland's capital, Dublin. The largest is Dublin, California, pop. 41,840.

The potato is the fourth biggest crop in the world (behind wheat, corn and rice).

A third of Americans who celebrate do so with special dinners, usually corned beef and cabbage. The U.S. produced 42.1 billion pounds of beef and 2.6 billion pounds of cabbage in 2006.
Thanks to St. Patrick's Day, March is a better-than-average month for Guinness, accounting for about 10% of its annual sales. The stout is brewed in 50 countries.

Illegal to buy, sell or barter books that are pre-1985

I think this is outrageous! Especially for book collectors and may send hundreds of thousands of vintage childrends books with all of those great illustrations to the landfill! Does it sound remotely like what happened to books in Germany during the late 1930s and 1940s?

No, they're not illegal to own, but a new law that many people haven't heard about yet has recently made it illegal to buy, sell or barter books published before 1985 for children ages 12 and under, because of concerns about lead content in the ink.It's called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) and you can read more about it on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Website here. In spite of what Snopes.com says (which is uncharacteristically myopic about a very far-reaching law - and doesn't even get into the consequences for used children's books), it is quite clear that children's books published before 1985 are in danger. There are reliable reports that some used book stores are trashing all of their pre-1985 children's books. Related effects on other children's items can be read about here, here and here.

Ears and Goodies........

Oh yah, the lady made me some ears! But they're kind of big, don't you think?
He's sculpted from paperclay with chenille stem ears.

I love the word "goodies"! When I was little my aunt Dede would always describe food as "goodies". She had a "goodies" cupboard and let me tell you it was stocked with a wide variety of goodies! It's pretty much an all purpose word that you can use for jellybeans to brownies to Chex-mix. One of my favorite Easter Goodies is the hard chocolate candy shelled robin egg malt ball. What's your favorite Easter Goodie?

Huh? What?

"Hey lady, could you please make me some ears?!!?!?!?! What? huh? what? What was that? Did she say yes? Helllooooooo? I need some ears here! Hey Melissa, get your butt to the studio and get to work on some ears! I'd like two, please."

Gosh, I hate it when my sculptures start to talk back to me! "Listen mister, you'll get your ears when I'm darn good and ready to make them!" I really hate it when I answer them!

Garden Journal

There's a certain kind of light that comes with the very early spring.....it's pale and high and makes the tree branches cast long shadows like twisted strands of yarn on the greening grass. There's also that certain smell that starts stirring in the air. I caught a whiff if it the other day for the briefest of moments and then it was gone.....but I know for sure, it was the smell of spring.

The subtle sights and smells of spring make me begin to think about gardening, both flowers and veggies. I love to garden....there's almost somthing spiritual about gardening for me.

Inspired by the stirrings of spring I decided to create a Garden Journal. My friend Tracy created a "ruler binding" book and I loved it so much I decided to make the Garden Journal in the same fashion. You can find the tutorial by Agnes the Red Art at: http://www.freewebs.com/agnestheredtutorials/alteredart.htm

This journal measures 7 inches by 7 and 3/8 inches. The binding was created with a wooden ruler, metal washers and wing nuts. The little chipboard key is for the garden gate......

5 mini tags are tied to the wing nut for journaling...........

These are the handstamped 7 cardstock pages that are inside the journal.........

Always remember.........bloom where you are planted, wherever that may be.....

A tiny metal fence is infront of the vintage image of the little boy with the wheelbarrow.....

Time to think all things spring and gardening!

Spring Peep!

I know, he looks ticked off, doesn't he? I think he's POed because someday hid his bottle of Bailey's! Anywho he is THE SHAMROCK FAIRY! Ready to make you lucky in all endeavors of your life with a wave of his shamrock wand.

It's going to be 23 degrees this coming Monday......yah, spring, right! Well this is a spring peep I created from Paperclay.

He's wearing a scarf because.......well you know.....it's going to be 23 degrees.....I don't want him to freeze his little giblets off! He's in a wooden painted egg cup.

Studio Happenings.......

A lot of things have been going on in the studio......... even in all this mess...... spring WIPs (works in progress) have materialized! WIP. What will it be? Hmmmmm......

Peep! What color should I paint him?

Where did he come from? Another WIP, although he's missing something........

This rabbit chef is cooking up something.....

Check back tomorrow night to see what each of these look like as FPs (finished projects)! I'm getting ready for a show in April.

I'm Dream' of Green.........and Irish Coffee!

Even though the snow is flying here and it's very cold and extremely windy, I'm dreaming of the vast expanses of vibrant green grass, tulips and warm fragrant spring winds. The green grass made me think of March and March made me think of St. Patrick's Day and......well, you get the progression to this little collage I created......

It's available on Ebay starting today.

Her name is Fiona and she's the Shamrock Fairy! She'll bring you Irish coffee if you're good!The shamrock label is a copy of a vintage fruit crate label and the "Old Underoof" label is an advertisement for Irish whiskey. The collage has been created on 1/4 inch baltic birch wood and measures 4.5 by 6 inches. The entire collage has been sealed with a thin layer of 100% beeswax which has intensified the colors and given it a slight sheen.

Beeswax Experimentation

After watching YouTube video on how to use beeswax to seal collages and reading about 500 article on the internet I decided to jump in and give it a try! I created collages on 6 inch by 6 inch pieces of wood. One is entitled "Friendship is a Sheltering Tree" and the other is "Beauty is All Around Little Red".

Here's what's needed: I bought a small pack of 100% beeswax pellets to melt in the.....

crockpot......

and this little gizmo is used by quilters....its a mini iron but great for smoothing out the wax after you've brushed it on the collage. Oh, yes....you'll need a stiff bristled brush to apply the wax.

These are the 2 collages I did. This is before I applied the beeswax.

Here they are with the wax applied. They are a still a little cloudy but that will clear up as the wax cures. I have to wait until tomorrow to buff them with a soft old t-shirt. Can't wait!

I did better applying the wax with the brush on Little Red than the other one. The trick is to do it quickly and not to get too much build up wax on the collage.

What's in a name?????

I often wonder what people are thinking when they pick a name for their child. Names are very important, as I believe that sometimes they predetermine what direction or occupation a child might grow up to take in life. Now I'm not saying that if you name your child "Tylenol" that he/she will grow up to be a drug rep or worse yet, drug dealer or if you name your child "Elviria" she'll grow up to host horror movies or if you name your child "Percy" he'll grow up to be an interior decorator but I am saying names are kind of important.

Take this humorous little exercise in "what's in a name?".....it will give you chuckle! (I filled in how I would answer using my name)

STRIPPER NAME:(name of fav perfume/cologne,fav candy)
Creed Peppermint Patty (get the sensation! LOL!)

SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd fav color, fav drink, add "THE" to the beginning)
The Blue Cosmo (hey, now that sounds like a real superhero name! Oh! I like that, I think that's what I'll start going by!)

SOAP OPERA NAME:(middle name, town where you were born)
Ann Greenville (she sounds like a nononsense type of chick that wears business suits and has her hair sprayed into a super coiffed style!)

STREET NAME:(fav ice cream flavor, fav cookie)
Chunky Monkey Sugar (wild, eh? Like a rappers name!)

SKANK NAME: (1st pet's name, street you grew up on)
Patty Lou Fredonia (not too sure about this one....is it skanky enough?)

GANGSTA NAME:(first 3 letters of first name plus 'izzle')
Melizzle (sound like a new kind of soda pop!)

WITNESS PROTECTION NAME:(mother and fathers middle names)
Ellen Carroll (very anonymous!)

NASCAR NAME:(first name of your mother's dad, father's dad)
James Curtis (running in the #3 car......James Curtis!....yes I can hear it how)

STAR WARS NAME:(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name)
Ustme (I don't know about this one.....just so I wouldn't look like Yoda!)

DETECTIVE NAME:(favorite color, favorite animal)
Orange Dog ("Orange Dog loosened the belt on her trenchcoat as she reached for the heat she was packing"..........yes, name works!)

So now that you've had your fun with your name, tell me what is a name that you just can't stand and why?

Happy Valentine's Day.......

Sweetie says "Happy Valentine's Day to all my friends in Blogland"!

Happy Birthday AJ!

Today is my niece's birthday......she is 22 years old today! Happy Birthday AJ! It seems like yesterday I raced home from college to see her......that round little red head and those crazy little faces she'd make.....so funny! Now she's the one in college but she still has a round head and still makes crazy faces!

AJ is going to Ireland at the end of this month so in honor of her trip a made an altered matchbook with 4 little 2.3 by 2.5 inch collages on chipboard inside of it.....

This is the book closed......

Laddy........

St. Patty........born on March 17th....

The Irish Rovers..........

Black Irish curls............

This is the matchbook opened showing the first page.....

Conversation Heart Generator

Here is a cool little site that lets you make your own conversational hearts!


http://www.acme.com/heartmaker/

I made this one for the Honey Girl Studio!

Conversation Hearts

Do you ever eat conversation hearts around Valentine's Day? Those tasty little heart shaped lumps of pure sugary lexical delight have been around for a long time.....since the 1860s! In the 1860's, Daniel Chase, the brother of NECCO's founder, Oliver Chase, began printing sayings on the candy. He experimented first with hand tools, and then devised a machine in which the cloth was replaced with a felt roller pad, moistened with vegetable coloring, usually red, which pressed against the die. The die printed the words on the lozenge paste and the double purpose machine cut the lozenges into little hearts! I once had a friend in college who use to write X-rated messages on them with a thin red Sharpie! She was a bad girl!.....Yes, Jane, you were bad!

The present day Sweethearts Conversation Heart dates back to 1902.

To meet the demand for its Conversation Hearts, NECCO produces them from late February through mid-January of the following year. The entire production--about 100,000 pounds a day-- sells out in just six weeks. Whoa! That's a lot of hearts!

My friend Carol sent these conversation heart stickers to me today! I had to create a few things with them right away!

Imagine getting kissed by this little rascal!

She's the Conversation Heart Fairy!

An ATC with a little pug........... well, he really is a "cute pie"! So ugly, he's cute!

More Chocolate?

Felt cupcakes! All the yummy-ness but none of the calories!
I have this little display of felt cupcakes I made on a vintage cakeplate on my dinning room table.

Speaking of felt goodies........... yes, I've been making more felt chocolate covered strawberries. I can't seem to stop! I have a half dozen in this papier mache French collaged chocolate box on
Ebay. Click here to eyeball it!

Cake on Petite Cake Stand.......
on Ebay..... click here!

I'm off to the studio.......... I have an idea for a little something using "conversation hearts".....