Winter Solstice Snowflake Fairy Collage Sheet

I dug through my vintage images and catalogue images and came up with this collage sheet to celebrate the Winter Solstice. This year the Winter Solstice will occur at 6:47 AM (that's eastern standard time in the US). Please feel free to use this collage sheet in your art!

In pre-historic times, winter was a very difficult time for Aboriginal people in the northern latitudes. AS the days grew shorter they feared that the sun would eventually disappear and leave them in permanent darkness and extreme cold. After the winter solstice, they would have reason to celebrate as they saw the sun rising and the days growing longer. The concept of birth and or death/rebirth became associated with the winter solstice. The Aboriginal people had no elaborate instruments to detect the solstice. But they were able to notice a slight elevation of the sun's path within a few days after the solstice -- perhaps by DEC-25. Celebrations were often timed for about the 25th.

The Candy Cane Excursion 2009 Tour & Give Away

Read all the way to the bottom for the giveaway!

Today my friends Donna, Rita (from left to right) and I went on our Candy Cane Excursion. We started out with breakfast at a little diner. Then on to the Hummel Shop in New Springfield, Ohio. It's more like a Christmas Shop with Hummel figurines in one room of it. Aren't these trees beautiful!?!?!?!

No Rita! NO! You can't buy the $1495 Hummel figurine on the top shelf! That's really how much the ones on the top shelf are! I'm thinking Rita's just happy she doesn't have to dust all these babies!
How about this cute display! It's the Department 56 North Pole Elf Land Series. I collect these house but only the ones that have to do with food, like the Donut Shop, the Hard Rock Candy Shop, etc...

I love the way they have these houses displayed on the glass blocks. It gives me a great idea about how to do my display. I see a trip to Lowe's in my very near future for glass blocks. This is the Candy Cane Factory.....too cute!
Let's talk ornaments. A whole wall of ornament after ornament after ornament.....and some very odd ones too. Rita and Donna and I amused ourselves for a good 15 minutes putting the words "Christmas" in front of each ornament. For example "oh, look at the Christmas Asparagus" or "the Christmas Dragon" or "the Christmas Weinie Dog"....you get the picture. We chucked like idiots after we said each one. I think the lady next to use was getting annoyed, but it WAS funny. How would the Christmas Asparagus look adorning your tree? LOL
We all agreed that this one was the winner for the most bizarre ornament......"The Christmas Banana Santa". Really what the heck is up with that and it was $33!

Woodland Santa tree......very decorated...........

I'm not sure how this tree is going to translate in a picture but in real life it was simply gorgeous. It's almost a neon green color and with the sparkly red ornaments and glittery green holly it really popped.From the Hummel Shop we went to the little village of Columbiana, Ohio as the town was having their open house. I bought this cabinet card in a little antique shop there. Please feel free to use him in your art. After we left there we went to an art show then to a junk shop then to lunch! Whew, I'm tired!

While in the candy cane mode I created this collage sheet. Leave a comment and you'll be in a drawing for one printed on cardstock or you can copy it and use it in your art.

And if you leave a comment you will also be in the drawing for the Candy Cane Excursion 2009 Christmas CD. Artists on it are Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, Shirley Horn, Diana Krall, Lou Rauls, John Coletrane, The Clarks, Kay Star, Straight No Chaser, Vincent Guiraldi and a few others. I'll draw on Tuesday!

Butterfly Art Doll and Free Collage....

I can't believe it's been a week since I last blogged! This was a busy week and I didn't get much studio time at night so I made sure I got into it tonight to finish this altered art doll. Her name is simply "FLY". I started her on Monday and finally got her finished tonight. Sometimes the creative muse flies around, ever elusive and that was the case for me this week. I'm happy with the finished piece, she reminds me of some kind of strange super hero. I especially like her red Doc Martin boots. I got the idea to use the boots from my very talented friend Marsha from Tumble Fish Studio. Please stop by her blog and check out Marsha's amazing creations!

If you would like "Fly" for your very own you can find her on Ebay right now! Here are a few close ups of her. Her arms and legs are moveable.

Back to the boots........aren't these cool!??!?! I plan on using them on a Halloween doll I started tonight.

Hmmmm....I really dig these blue boots, actually I have a pair similar to them.Which brings me to the free collage sheet.......... I put this together last night in a Word document and I'd like to email it to you to use in your collages. Just think of the cool characters you can construct wearing these colorful boots! Shoot me an email and I'll send you 2 sheets in an attachement. A sneak peak of what I'm creating with the winged boots........On the way home I stopped at Borders and bought this book that I've been eyeballing for about 6 months now. What was different tonight that I bought it? I had a 25% off coupon! This is a really good book. It has a plethera of paint, dye and stamping technqiues to use on paper. I can't wait to try out some of the techniques, especially the one that makes paper look like sea glass! I might have to do some tutorials on the some of the techniques in future blogs.