in my dreams….I can fly

The Gothic Arches theme is “wings”, Love this theme

The lovely lady is on a scrapbook paper background, that I painted and stenciled a bit (I am really enjoying my plastic doily pieces!)

That great green dotted paper behind the arch is from Linda

*forgot to mention ~ the bit at the top of my arch is a piece of flimmerstern that I colored with a silver metallic marker*

“The butterfly is a flying flower… ” ~Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun

End of June Tea Tuesday…

…Already!!!

A cup of Yogi Tea out in the garden,  hot or chilled is always a treat

local honey and a delicious fruit and nut snack, this company makes pure and simple natural snack bars

white Scabiosa in bloom and out again

it’s a real test in patience waiting for bees to smile for the camera

our resident clover muncher

this one inch (2,54cm) long praying mantis popped up when I was doing a little watering

*as always for a super closeup view, you can click twice*

I really got excited when I looked down and saw this spider web looking up at me in the potting area of our garden.  To capture the spider’s flat web on film I had to spray a light mist of water up into the air,  the droplets of water made it show up enough to see with the camera lens

the spider didn’t seem to mind the shower at all…see her in the middle

do join us for tea…..visit Kimmie for more Tuesday tea stops

Oh Cette Marie

For an upcoming round robin with the QB5 ladies (see below), I chose the theme of Marie Antoinette for my book.

We each have different themes and are creating pages no larger than 6×4″ in paper, fabric or whatever our hearts desire.

My postcard will be making it’s way to Margaret in Switzerland,  she will create a page  for Marie and then mailing to Linda in Texas,  on to   Nathalie in Missouri,  then  Carole in New Zealand and back home to me in Virginia….WOW what a trip!

*click for a closeup*

Here are the front (“just a girl”) and back (“oh that Marie”) of my first page for my Marie book

I will be creating covers for my round robin book after it’s returned to me.   I’ll also decide then whether I’ll bind it on the left side or at the top.  Can’t wait for the pages to start arriving in the mail

*Monday update: late last night I decided to add some foil from a champagne label to the back of my postcard.  Mr Magpie is very observant and noticed that when I flipped Marie to look the other way, the writing at the top was backwards (it needed something there anyway LOL)*

Cheese Glorious Cheese

Combining two of my favorite challenges today (you know I Love challenges!), I have really missed playing in each of these recently.

Art Creations Friday, challenge #32 is using this lovely lady image

I am just learning how to make mirror images (the digital world is not my oyster quite yet LOL),  so I have her looking the other way

The Dans ma maison il y a….challenge is…de la gaieté…..in our house there is “cheerfulness”

Food glorious food…..one of our all time favorite soft cheeses is Boursault.  Not every grocery sells it.  We have a standing joke where we say “just slap it on your hips” (our friend Catherine came up with that years ago)….it’s still a treat that we do enjoy now and again….a nice crusty baguette and some sliced pear = ooh la laa!  Back to my house book……which has been neglected for too long now.  Here is the last time I played in it….YIKES where does the time go!

This cheese makes us very cheerful!  Babette is telling Julien that it’s her favorite too!

*click for closeup + double clip for mega closeup*

The beautiful lace from art friend, Carmen Dyson, was glued on with UHU glue stick, I am still playing with my plastic doily bits, this time with acrylic paint pounced through

“There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament” ~Henry Van Dyke

Pink Saturday: Threads of Life

It’s Pink Saturday again and I thought I would create something using pink.

The current journal theme at Pretty Paper Hearts is based upon Numbers and Scraps from the art table (using paint, a number and a heart shape incorporated as elements in the journal pages).

*photos are all clickable for a closer view*

I just happened to have some pink paint handy ( I mixed Golden’s Quinacridone Magenta and Titan Buff to get shades of pink, thanks again  Julie for the Layer Love class!), a bit of torn map that has route numbers on it, and the outside of a heart from some ATCs that I created after cutting out the word “soul” from the center.  The little “star” is a Paper Whimsy girl.

Gesso pounced through a plastic doily helped  give texture and interest to my pink pages

surrounded by creative chaos on my work table, with lots of bits of this and that……the hardest decision was “what” to use from the fine selection of “stuff”

Here you can see how I protected the rest of my journal from getting paint on the pages while I was working …. pieces  of tin foil or plastic wrap work beautifully

“Humankind has not woven the web of life.  We are but one thread within it.  Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.  All things are bound together.  All things connect.” ~Chief Seattle

***Thank you and Obrigado***

Some thank yous are in order for some of the kind hearts out there in the land of blog.  First I would like to thank Roberta of RCSCreations for helping me make my links so that they now open in a new window; no longer taking you away from my blog each time you click on an underlined or highlighted word or phrase.  I had asked WordPress for help.  They responded by telling me I needed to type in some kind of HTML code, blah blah blah….which didn’t work at all!!!

Roberta gave me the “easy peasy” (as she put it) way of doing it.  There is a little box to check to open the link in a new window, of course, one needs to know where the box is.  Very easy indeed thanks to Roberta….I’m loving it!!!

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Many thanks to Marlynn of Honeysuckle Breeze for presenting me with the “Your Blog is Fabulous” award, such a nice surprise.

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Luisa of Ponto Zero presented me with the “One Lovely Blog Award” all the way from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  I must say being able to connect with artists and special people all over the globe thrills me to no end.  It’s a beautiful thing, thank you Luisa!

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Many thanks also to Pat of Artfully Ooglebloops for presenting me with the “Kreativ Blogger” award, so nice!

Each of you is really sweet to include my Magpie’s Nest in your awards, I really do appreciate it!

Be sure and visit all of these talented bloggers, it’s easy peasy

Layer Love: Final Exam

Nine amazing lessons from the talented

Julie Prichard fromThe Land of Lost Luggage…..WOW, I’ve learned so much.

Layer Love was my first ever online class experience.  I could not be more pleased with how it all came together.  The videos and instruction are excellent, detailed, clear and…..can you tell I’m a big fan!!!

Lesson #9 was ‘The Big Gel’, and as Julie says, gel medium is good for more than just expensive glue

There was enough paint on my palette to do two canvases, here are some detail pics from my first 8 x 10″ canvas

*clickable for a closer look*

I went to sleep with it looking like this…..feeling like it needed something

I had THE most wonderful dream about our middle son Alex, it’s been a long time since he has come to me in a dream, when I awoke I knew exactly what my canvas needed

the sunshine was a piece of fusion paper (made with paper towels and paints) that had been kicking around for awhile now, the cardboard frame was also handy, the words at the bottom are blended better than they appear here, there is glare which takes away from the washes I added

My second canvas measures 12 x 6″

using Julie’s “Julification” techniques

I may try stamping on this one to add some interest

GREAT NEWS: Registration is still open for Layer Love, have a look here. I highly recommend it.   Julie will also be doing an “Art Journaling Super Nova” on line class toward the end of the summer.  You can check her Land of Lost Luggage for details.

Rock n Roll Soul

Music plays a big part in my life, all kinds

This weeks Wednesday Stamper challenge, using at least one rubber stamp, is Rock n Roll.

For some reason I struggled with this topic, not being able to pick just one song, my mind going back to the roots of rock and roll and all over the place.  So I ended up with ATCs,

two actually that still do not really do it for me…..wonder why I can’t express myself here???

Life is richer because of the music special people bring to my life,  I could not imagine a world without music.

Here is a song from a favorite rock n roll master, Neil Young, jamming with his band Crazy Horse….and as he says “rock and roll will never die”…..the video takes a good minute to get going

The power of sound is pretty awesome!

Wordless Wednesday: looked at clouds from both sides now

tea for two

My friend Lennie and I made a date for tea at a sweet spot in a small town not too far away

*photos are clickable for closer views*

no sooner did we get seated then the skies burst open…..more rain and lots of it came down for a good 45 minutes, another gully washer

…the phrase “perfect timing” comes to mind…we enjoyed the view from inside, cozy and dry

sipping our Yorkshire Tea

the top tier of yummy sandwiches was polished off first

we lingered and chatted and then the sun came out again

time for a little shopping

such a lovely day!

Be sure and visit Kimmie at Art in Red Wagons for more tea time fun!

door to your dreams

“Doors” is The Three Muses challenge, I did not want to miss playing along

I am also offering this collaged postcard for the MMM “make a piece of art that tells a story” challenge

doors seem to have stories to tell, making us wonder what is on the other side…..the image of the knight and his little one is by Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale

this song by “Cat Stevens”

helps tell some of the story behind my postcard

The Power of Sound

It is always exciting to try something new. Mr Magpie and I spent a rainy Saturday morning with Carol Colacurcio, a healing sound practitioner and classically trained musician.

She brought about half of her collection of Tibetan Singing Bowls

Carol has practiced using music and sound as medicine for healing on a cellular level for thirteen years now

each bowl has it’s own sound and the various mallets and ways of using them create different tones and vibrations…..we had the opportunity to have a bowl of our choosing placed on us…..as the bowl was played it gave a feeling of lightness and flow, vibrating deeply….it’s one of those things you need to experience….talking about it does not do it justice

for the first time in a while now I feel relief from a nagging pain in my back ….hey I want more of that

“The Spirit speaks directly to our hearts through music. That’s why music has always had such power to move people into positive action”~ Kenny Loggins

He’s the Man

The Sunday Postcard Art challenge is honoring Fathers for Father’s Day.    Here is my tribute to my wonderful husband; the father of our beautiful boys

*click for a closeup*

I used scrap paper from my work table which had stamping, glue and bits of this and that on it, more stamping inks, paints, Neo Color II Crayons, bits of book text and road map along with the column image

***Ich Liebe Dich Liebling***

“He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived and let me watch him do it” ~Clarence Budington Kelland

Days of Lavender and Roses

June is the time when our lavender bushes really show off.  Tall spikes ready for picking and weaving into wands (or bottles as they are also called)

if you lean in close you can almost smell it…ummmm

it never fails that I have to hustle, with bees flitting about,  to cut the stems before they get rained on, they need to be fresh and free of moisture for weaving, cut in the middle of day when the fragrant oils are most active in the buds

I have the nicest memories over the years of sitting on our back porch weaving away with rain falling gently all around

if you would like to know more about weaving the wands, you can take a peek at last years lavender post here

I had to stop everything and get busy….fourteen wands and still weaving…I pin the ends until the stems dry a bit and shrink….I then tighten the ribbon and tie it off

the wands last for years and years

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Look what else is blooming……zipper roses!       Finally found a few metal zippers that are more to my liking for making flowers than my first plastic zipper roses here

real rose leaves and bits of fern until I find some faux rose leaves to tack on the backs of the roses

I painted a tan zipper pink

each one has it’s own character

Feast your eyes on these fantastic creations by Elaine = WOW!!!

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I’m off to tea with one of my favorite Lavender Ladies….Lennie

another rainy day in Virginia

Childhood Postcard Swap

Back in May, I gave a peek at the postcard I made for the Queen Bees swap group (QB5).  I thought we were trading one for one, but those sneaky (in a nice way) gals went ahead and made a postcard for everyone….a big surprise to me when they started rolling in.

I made an ATC for each of the gals that I did not get to send a postcard to and here is the postcard I made for Margaret

there is a story behind everything, isn’t there…..the story behind my tongue sticking out is I was trying to heft a basket onto my Onkel Sepp’s bicycle so he could take me for a bike ride, yet again. I think I made a bit of a pest of myself…and resorted to pinching if he wasn’t ready (at least I wasn’t a biter!).  I still Love hearing him tell me the story

The QB5 gals really spoiled me with kindness, you can see each of their distinctive creations in posts below