all you need is Love…

assorted fabrics, lace  and velvet rickrack sewn onto watercolor paper, Paper Whimsy girl, scuffed up beads that Mr Magpie found in the road, Dutch postage stamp with silk ribbon for hanging…

“Love is a language spoken by everyone but understood only by the heart.” ~Unknown

*Twinkle*

Natalea of Kandeland hosted a handmade ornament swap and I was lucky enough to be able to join in…

here are the lovely ornaments I received with some of their pretty wrappings in the background…

Joy to the World stuffed heart from Natalea…

 JOY stocking from Vivian…

fabric tree and framed Rousing Rudolphe from Sandy…

 a baker “REJOICE” shaker from Linda…

   an altered doll leg from Kimberly…

and a French jam jar snow globe from Jeanne…

each ornament is inspiring and adds so much charm to our tree…

thank you all!!!

here are the altered spoons that I really had a great time creating for the swap using spoons bent by Mr Magpie…feather wings…golden German Flimmers and some rhinestone bling along with several kinds of glitter and a favorite word of mine…

thanks to my art pal Fran Podlesney for sharing her die cut machine I just happened to have the perfect frills to use as tags on my tuille wrapped ornaments…

I admit I’ve gone a little glitter crazy this season…more on that in another post…

Bat Girlz…

our local Mixed Media Collaborative group is having a one for one altered tin swap with a Halloween theme…

Lisa kindly supplied us each with a tin which measures about two inches (5.08 cm) across with a see through top…

I forgot to take a photo of the plain tin before I started…

it was a little tricky to photograph because of glare and my pix do not show the wide black rick rack I used around the sides of the tin but you get the idea…

just because…

don’t ask me why but for a while now I have wanted to alter a mouse trap…

lots of talented artists have already done some wonderful ones…

when we were in Asheville recently strolling the aisles of a local supermarket we came upon these and I knew the time was right…

while I was working on the traps and being VERY careful to not get caught under the spring part I admired the artists even more and then Mr Magpie came home and showed me how I could disengage the ‘trap’ part of the metal…

I can use that trick when I alter the third one and not have to hold my breath the whole time worrying about getting snapped in the trap…

the larger rat trap spoke to me first…

after covering the trap with gel medium and pattern tissue I added some bat wings to the doll head, black cotton netting which made perfect hair and part of one of my favorite golden flimmerstern…

next I played with the smaller mouse trap adding a medieval lady and scraps of velvet and some of my favorite leaves as wings…

as I worked on these wooden traps it felt good to know that they will never be used to trap animals especially when there are alternative ways to invite rodents out of your home should you need to…

fun to add these to my list of unusual altered items which includes altered shoes, sardine cans, cutlery and cabinet cards to name a few…

have you altered any odd things?

tea and time…

everyone I talk to remarks on how quickly time seems to be passing 

and here we are the 240th day of 2012 and the last Tuesday in August already…

“My friend, let’s not think of tomorrow, but let’s enjoy this fleeting moment of life.”  ~Omar Khayyam

 

Marit’s “Quirky Dutch Summer #1″

if you don’t already know Marit you will definitely want to stop by her blog for a visit…

she is a powerhouse of ideas and inspiration and even has her own magazine called “FEATURING” which is all about art journaling, mixed media and more… 

here is what she says about her latest project…

“As of June 12, there will be an inspirational post on my blog every Tuesday this Summer. This will go on for 10 weeks – posts handling a theme or a technique or…  let’s say: ‘something’ that can be used as an inspiration to get your creative juices flowing. I will think of fun, small challenges to go with it, and you will probably have the possibility to leave your link with each post when you played along.”

Week #1 Fear of the Blank Page …

I am in the process of cleaning/clearing my art room which is a daunting and long overdue task …

I just had to stop for some playtime…

some of my favorite journals are old encyclopedias which are a bit of a rescue mission since everyone seems to be getting rid of them these days…

each of the pages in my 1931 Funk & Wagnalls, Volume III Bart-Book measures 4 x 6″…

I received a free Blue collage sheet in a recent ARTchix Studio order and that is what got me going on these pages…

you can see some of the other supplies I used above including an old Star Trek View Master disc …

the magical lady with her blue wings is layered on a piece of parchment paper that came in between packaged cheese slices…

I stamped the face on the back of a plastic tomato ‘carton’ top as the Lady Moon Organic food logo always speaks to me plus the produce is very good too…

oftentimes a quote or words are my spark for starting a page…

but this time the Lord Byron quote came last…

I do Love quotes and all shades of blue…

“Oh! `darkly, deeply, beautifully blue’, As someone somewhere sings about the sky.” ~Lord Byron

I am looking forward to Marit’s Tuesday prompts and her Quirky Dutch Summer

Stone Angel Sunday 9

back in Old San Juan…

with still more statuary to come…

each of the images can be clicked to enlarge them…

***please enjoy these FREE Downloads for your personal use only…they are not intended for collage sheets or to be sold***