Merry Christmas - early

Merry Christmas to you and your families! We are traveling today to Florida to meet our five grown children, two sons-in-law and two grandsons for a wonderful week together on the beach. I'm looking forward to a relaxing time enjoying my family and the babies.  

Thank you all for your continued support of my blog. I love to read your comments and knowing some of you out there are actually reading my posts helps me to keep posting! I hope to be more active next year - time just seems to slip away...

Again, enjoy your holiday! I'll be back next year!

Name Collage

I've been wanting to make a word collage of my daughter and son-in-law's last name for their new house.  You may have seen sites online for all kinds of photographs of typography but I didn't want to print them myself.  Several weeks ago I was browsing through Hobby Lobby and in the framing department they had these 4x6 postcards (in both black and white and full color) for each letter of the alphabet.  I picked up four to spell their name (Motz) but then spent weeks searching for the right size frame, to no avail. I finally found a funky, girly canvas on sale for half-price - white with colorful flowers and butterflies all over. (Wish I'd taken a "before" photo!) 

It was the perfect size so I painted it black and then decoupaged the postcards on the canvas with Mod Podge.  After it was dry, I added another coat of Mod Podge over the entire canvas, including the postcards.  I wasn't sure if the inks would run, but they didn't and my canvas turned out awesome! Can't wait to give it to them.

Send a Card to a Recovering Soldier

I've been using up some of my scraps leftover from Christmas projects for some simple Christmas cards.  I won't be using them this year since I plan on sending photo cards after our family vacation in Florida.  But I just heard about this wonderful idea to send cards to recovering soldiers so these will be sent off tomorrow.

Are you making, sending or writing out your Christmas cards now? Take the time to send a few extras to a recovering soldier.  Include a greeting and a thank you.  Send to:

A Recovering Soldier

c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center

6900 Georgia Ave. SW

Washington, DC 20307-5001

It will only take a few minutes of your time and a stamp to make someone's day.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Class Projects

I just realized I haven't taken the time to share some of the class projects I created for the LBH Christmas feature.

This is a shadowbox created in the reverse side of a burlap-covered canvas. It measures 8" square.  The dimensional tree is a folded paperback book and there are alot of techniques in this class.  The photo I used for this project is of my four oldest kids in 1982. The two little ones have babies of their own now!  It's hard for me to realize that some of my own photos are "vintage"! 

Here is a double layout - "'Tis the Season to be Good." It would be great for Santa photos or opening presents or other fun Christmas-time photos.  I used an enameled metal technique for the larger ornaments.

And here's another canvas - mixed media using some of the beautiful Simple Stories Christmas papers and a beautiful layered snowflake tree-topper made with the new Tim Holtz/Sizzix snowflake die.

These classes are still available for a short while so call to sign up soon if you'd like to create one for yourself.

Happy 12-12-12!

Today is December 12th - 12-12-12 - so thought I'd post 12 of something...

Here, in no particular order, are some of my favorite artists.

1. Tim Holtz - the master of distress techniques
2. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer - creator of amazing stencils and champion of staying true to your own style
3. Christy Tomlinson - original "She Art" artist making wonderfully layered and "messy" mixed media art
4. Dyan Reaveley - International Sr. Educator for Ranger, Inc. with her own line of stencils, stamps and spray mists
5. Donna Downey - originally a scrapbook/paper artist but has added painting and art journaling to her list of talents
6. Heidi Swapp - love that she has made a comeback with her own line of papers, digi products, sprays, etc.
7. Dina Wakley - colorful art journaler extraordinaire 
8. Jennifer McGuire - awesome "clean" stamper sharing lots of tips and techniques on her blog
9. Ronda Palazzari - on design team for Maya Rd. and author of a new book - love her style
10. Beryl Taylor - mixed media/textile artist
11. Anna Dabrowski (aka Finnabair) - amazing Finnish mixed media artist and teacher
12. Jennibellie - English art journaler on You Tube, sharing many videos recycling ordinary throw-away materials into art

I hope this gives you some inspiration! Enjoy.

Inspired by Tim Holtz

I was recently in a card swap with the challenge to use the techniques from Tim Holtz's November 2012 Tag (see below) to create a card for your partner.  

Since it was early December before I got around to making the card, I used a winter theme instead of the fall theme.  But I did use the "embossed resist" and "spritz and flick" techniques from the original. 

The tree was first embossed with clear embossing powder and then the background was created with various Distress Stains and inks.  I used Archival inks to stamp the focal word as well as the random script background. Then I spritzed water over the background, blotted and dried to create the mottled look.  The entire piece was then laid face down over a clean absorbent paper and ironed until the embossing powder was removed, leaving a smooth resisted background.  Love that look.

This was a fun and easy card to make and shows that you can use the same techniques for creating other projects, not just a tag.

A Rootin Tootin Great Weekend

Everyone had a fantastic time at our Texas-style Little Somethings Workshop last weekend at The Little Blue House. Thanks to all you cowgirls who participated and made the event so worthwhile!

Here are the Elf Rangers (instructors) with Santa. We taught five 3-hour workshops over four days and enjoyed every bit of it!

Everyone made this cute little bag to carry all their projects from room to room.

Fun treat holders for baked goods were created in the Boot Scootin' Cafe with Tracy.

Paper bows, a bandana fabric poinsettia pin and a "snowglobe" ornament were made in the Wrappin' Wrangler Room with Elaine and Lynette.

And these cute stocking stuffers (gift card holder from Starbucks coffee sleeve, elf pillow box and snowman bottlecap pin) were fashioned in the Creative Corral with me!

Plans are already in the making for our 4th Annual Little Somethings Workshop next year. If you couldn't make it this year, we hope to see you next year!