Tonight's the night!

The inaugural Anthologies Connection monthly kit will post on the website just after midnight tonight (12:01 am April 1st). This kit features beautiful papers, coordinating cardstock, embellishments galore and even some "surprises" to stir your creative muse. There are a limited number of kits and demand is high, so check it out tonight if you want to get one! (You can only purchase these online.)

I am so excited to be a part of this! There are ten design team members, all of whom created a minimum of four projects, so there will be plenty of inspiration in the Gallery for anyone who purchases the kit. The Gallery will go live on the website at just after midnight as well.

Tracy and I (both in-house DT members) shared the kit this month. Tracy made two layouts and I made two cards, a spring hanging and a "home" canvas. Even after all that creating, there was still a ton of product leftover for even more projects. Here are my projects which I can finally reveal.

The first is the 8 x 10" canvas I made. If you look closely you will see my four girls in the window. All the flowers (except the rosebud in the center of the large one) were originally white and I glimmer misted them heavily.


Here's the cute little chipboard birdie - inked and Stickled. (Sorry the photo is out of focus - my closeups need more work!)

The two cards I made:


And the hanging. There were four or five chipboard "bracket" pieces in the kit for a book. I used one and drew the bracket on the opposite side to make the shape for the hanging. The background is two of the papers with a wash of paint. The chipboard bird was misted and sprayed so much that it started disintegrating - I loved it! So I picked at the edges to give a feathery look to the wings and tail. The music paper is antique and brittle, so I just tore it carefully and adhered it. The brown flower is a Prima flower which comes adhered with a glue dot on pretty patterned card, which I used for the leaf!

The butterflies were all cut out from extra paper and popped up for dimension. I also couldn't resist adding lots of sparkle.
Loved this kit!

Better late than never

I am in an online group and in charge of a monthly inspiration challenge mingle. I post a picture of something, members sign up and create a project inspired by the photo. At the end of the month, the artwork is swapped among the participants.

This was the inspiration photo for February's mingle.



I have been so busy teaching that I had not sent a project to my partner. Call me embarrassed, ashamed, and very negligent! So this week I finally managed to create a card for Miss Patience and sent it off along with another "apology" gift.

The card is an A2 version of an easel card. When open, the front is held in place by tucking behind the popped-up inside sentiment. The music piece was aged with coffee as well as heating with a heat tool to "burn" the edges. I glimmer-misted the heart doily. I have no idea why I had such a mental block about finishing this as it was a fun card to do!

Anthologies Connection

So what is the Anthologies Connection? I've posted about it before, but it's the new kit club at the paper arts store in Hurst, Anthologies. Basically, on the first of each month a new kit will debut, brimming with patterned papers, cardstock, embellishments, and even some surprises. All will be coordinated so that many projects can be made with the one kit. We also have a new Connections Design Team that will be creating and posting projects made with the kit for inspiration. This will not be a kit for a specific project nor will there be instructions included; rather, this is a coordinating grouping of supplies for you to create your own projects with!

The in-house design team is also participating in the fun of creating samples with the monthly kit on a rotating basis. Tracy, the Creative Director, and myself are sharing the kit this month and making projects. I finished up four projects this weekend and have passed the kit on to Tracy. There is a ton of product in this kit! Beautiful stuff!

Here 's one sneak peak of a project I did.

The kit will be available online only at www.anthologiesbyme.com starting at 12:01 AM on April 1st. So set your clocks and be among the first to get this fabulous kit. There is a limited number available so when they're gone, they're gone.

Ready for spring

Look at these beautiful fondant cupcakes I discovered on the Peas Love Carrots blog on this post . There's a full tutorial, complete with more photos, on how to make these beauties.



And I can't imagine spending the time to make these darling lambkins and then eating them! But wouldn't they look cute on your Easter table!

Yum, yum.

Happy St. Pat's Day!

I hope everyone has a fun St. Patrick's Day - are you wearing green? And Happy Birthday to my good friend, Trisha, whose mother told her when she was growing up that everyone was celebrating because it was her birthday! How fun is that.

A few weeks ago, my local art group swapped Irish/St. Patrick Day "twinchies." We each made 8 identical little 2" x 2" squares. I used a green alcohol inked background mounted on a larger cream colored cardstock. The words are stamped and cut out; I found the image online and greatly reduced it; Stickles frames the square and a tiny shamrock cut from a decorated hair elastic adorns the upper right corner.

We swapped them at our meeting and then took unfinished, approximately 7" square boxes from the dollar store and painted and embellished them, adding the twinchies to the little compartments. We each had to complete one additional square to fill the box. This is my completed box - I love seeing all the different and wonderful little mini artworks from my friends.

I'm back from Albuquerque

This weekend I flew to Albuquerque to my daughter's bridal shower - a short trip, leaving Friday evening and returning Sunday morning. Other than missing four flights (non-rev standby) due to the heavy spring break traffic and having to buy a full-fare ticket for the last seat on the last flight in, it was a great trip. All four of my girls attended (from Chicago and New York City) so we had a fun girl weekend. Two of Kelly's flight attendant girlfriends flew in also and three of her childhood/high school and college friends attended. All the girls went to Santa Fe for a bachelorette night out on the town followed by a spa day on Sunday. Here's a cute photo of them before they met up with the "locals". My four are on the left - Kelly is the bride-to-be in the light blue shirt.

Back at Anthologies, we were having our Spring Fling Open House, debuting our twenty new spring and Easter classes. I was there on Friday helping with the make-and-take and explaining some of the classes. We had a wonderful turnout and the class projects were well-received. Almost 300 classes have been sold! So we are going to be busy!

Sorry I can't reveal the projects in their entirety, but here's one sneak peek at a canvas Tracy and I collaborated on.

I LOVE this chair - it was a dirty brown and we painted it pink, distressed with white and then decoupaged old hymnal music pages on the seat and back with an occasional butterfly. It's part of our display, but I'd love to take it home... Can't you just see this done for a teenager's room with teen magazine cutouts or torn posters? What about a chair for the kitchen done in recipes? The possibilities are endless.

So, we are all ready for spring - are you?

Anthologies Connections and New Design Team

Exciting news - the paper arts store, Anthologies, where I work (or should I say play, as it's too much fun to call it work!) is launching a new kit club on April 1st called Anthologies Connections. It will be a monthly kit of delicious coordinating products just waiting for your creativity. (Sneak peak above!) More information is on the website: http://www.anthologiesbyme.com or click on the blinkie in the right column. And a new design team has just been announced for creating projects with the kit contents for inspiration. It will be so much fun to see what everyone comes up with!

Congratulations to all the fabulous artists who were chosen! Welcome to Anthologies!

Sandy Hubbard - http://www.asmylittleworldturns.blogspot.com/

Lori Camperlengo - http://www.camperlengo.blogspot.com/

Jing-Jing Nickel - http://www.thislittleartofmine.blogspot.com/

April Hummert - http://www.scrappingskylar.blogspot.com/

Rebecca Turner - http://www.pigtailspapertrails.blogspot.com/

Lisa Houpt - http://www.itsjustlisa.blogspot.com/

Erica Hofstetter - http://www.zunky-chic.blogspot.com/

Michele Brooks - http://www.michelebrooks.typepad.com/

Jennifer Yates - http://www.thepinkroom.typepad.com/

In addition, our in-store design team and instructors will be rotating in on a monthly basis and creating projects with the Anthologies Connections kit.

Tracy Pounds, Creative Director - http://www.luv2cre8joy.blogspot.com/

Susan Tidwell (me!)

Rhonda Merry - http://www.noidlehandshere.blogspot.com/

Elaine Howell

Anna Dixon

Aaron Gwaltney

Be sure to visit these blogs to get a feel for their different styles and see some delicious eye candy! Can't wait to share more with you.

More fairy tales

Today was another six-hour day at work, teaching classes, and we're about to have our Spring Open House on Friday and Saturday to showcase our next feature of spring and Easter class projects, so guess what I'm feverishly working on!

As promised, here are the fairy tale shadowboxes made by the other art group members. I apologize for the terrible photos - since these all have glass, I had to shoot without a flash and, as you will note, not a very steady hand!

The first one is another Alice box - isn't it fun to see the different interpretations! This was made by Trisha and she even added little black feet to the bottom of the box.


Mette did a Danish fairy tale (oops, can't remember what it was called). I love how she added paper strips to the front of the glass to look like a window which the butterfly is peeking through.

Next we have Christine's and this one was very hard to photograph, not only because of the glass, but she added a transparency inside which is much easier to see in real life. This is a Thai fairy tale, as she is Thai. Lots of collaged images inside.

Yet another Alice. She was popular in our group! Cathy made this and stained the box. I like the addition of the ribbon and the key.

Debbie did Cinderella, which, with all the glitter and bling, suits her. She is the "embellishment queen" of the group. This really sparkles in real life and the silver-painted box is perfect.

Julie did Hansel and Gretel, with a vintagey, old-world feel. I believe the background was fabric and she added lots of gold trim and sequins. The outside of the box was rubbed with what looked like a metallic wax. Another out of focus photo!

Here is Lynn's Thumbelina. It's hard to see, but she added a "tutu" fringe ribbon around the outside. The bird is a transparency and the background is text from the fairy tale. I love how she added the grungeboard wings outside of the box!

This was a super-fun challenge and it was cool seeing all the unique interpretations and different approaches everyone took.

Fairy Tales

Last month my local art group started a fairy tale shadow box challenge. We were each given a small 5" wooden shadowbox which had a glass top and opened. We were supposed to alter the box using our favorite fairy tale. Tuesday night was the "reveal."

I chose Alice in Wonderland (not the new movie version, but the original classic). This is my finished shadowbox. The words "curiouser and curiuser" and Alice are on the front of the glass; everything else is inside the box. Several of the images are on dimensional pop dots to give depth. I painted wide blue stripes on a page from the book for the background. Most of the images are from a digital kit from ScrapArtist. I also added a real Queen of Hearts mini playing card, the brass crown and a sheer clock from Maya Road.

Here is a view of the inside (without the glare of the glass). I didn't notice that the word "time" had fallen off the clock until after I took this photo.

I papered the outside of the box with this red and white polka dot paper and painted the lid with black and white stripes. I also added this quote to the bottom of the box.

Tomorrow I will share the other members' boxes. They were all very unique!