More "12 Days" Gifts

We are leaving this afternoon to visit our daughters over Christmas so I thought I'd post the remaining gifts I've opened to date from the 12 Days of Christmas swap:

a lovely crystal ornament from Liane

a darling little snowman canvas from Julie

a cute recipe holder and yummy recipe from Gloria

a sweet treats jar from Jan

and a large altered "clothespin" clip from Barbara

I will share the last four gifts after Christmas.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

December Daily Album

This is the third year I have done a December Daily album. (If you don't know what this is, it was started by Ali Edwards and you make any kind of album or even use a photo album and document each day of December.)  This is a great project for using up small scraps of Christmas papers, ephemera, washi tape and ribbons. I have not bought anything new for these except this year I bought the Tim Holtz Christmas Paper Dolls and Word Chips!

 I knew I wanted to do a Traveler's Notebook-type journal but it wasn't until I came across this post on my friend's blog (Autumn Clarke on Sew, Paper, Paint) that I decided to make one like hers. Please do check out her blog as she is so talented and does gorgeous projects. She used the Eileen Hull journal die by Sizzix - since I don't own that die, a friend cut one for me.

Her's was perfection so I mainly copied it although I had to substitute some papers and ephemera as she was using some past Tim Holtz items from her stash. I didn't have the little frame so cut one from some Tim Holtz product packaging. I also had to stamp the tree and I used my Dymo labelmaker for the black sentiment strip. I love it!

Front cover

Here are the pages for the first half of December.

Inside front cover (that's a napkin I used for front and back covers) and Day 1 

Days 2&3

Days 4&5

Days 6&7

Days 8&9

Days 10&11 with tip-in of our family Christmas card

Day 11

Days 12&13

Days 14&15

"12 Days of Christmas"

Once again this year I participated in my online group's "12 Days of Christmas" Swap. We are divided into groups of 12. Each person is assigned one day and makes 12 small gifts, one for each participant in the group, and send them off to each person (we are all over the country so it's fun to get packages from everywhere just before Christmas!). Then twelve days before Christmas we start opening one gift per day.

These were the little shadowbox tins I made for everyone. I actually made 12, but I had sent off some before I remembered to take a photo! I used the bottom half of Altoid mint tins, some Tim Holtz Christmas papers from my stash and little Santa, snowmen and tree trinkets. I hope they like them.

We started opening on the 13th and so far I've received:

a darling white snowy tree in a vintage tin mold from Joan

a clever tri-fold folder for mail art from Robin

open folder revealing contents

and a beautiful altered CD hanging from Judy

I think the background may be hand-painted

Love the unique ideas everyone comes up with and the wonderful artistry in this group!

Back again

More apologies for missing another few weeks. We ended up in Kansas City an extra day over Thanksgiving due to a huge blinding blizzard that moved through Kansas and Missouri. We finally arrived home late Monday night after scurrying for flights through Denver and Oklahoma City. Then on Friday we left for the weekend in Chicago to visit our youngest daughter. 

I promised photos of the projects we did on our recent retreat. Ten ladies attended and each brought a project with kits for all to do. During "down time" we also completed at least twenty cards (everyone had brought a minimum of two samples with kits).

This was my project. I altered a cigar box. The outside is covered with all things textured - keys, buttons, texture paste through stencils, metal washers and nuts, corrugate, rickrack, drywall tape, lace, gears etc. I also added a Tim Holtz "Found Relatives" card. Then I covered everything with small cut pieces of aluminum heating duct tape. Here is a photo of the box before adding the tape.

Once the tape was adhered, I burnished is very well, getting into all the nooks and crannies of the texture. I also used a small sewing tool for creating a dotted line texture especially around the photogragh. Then I painted over all with black acrylic paint, let it dry slightly and wiped off the excess.  Here are two photos of the finished box.

I covered the inside with a patchwork of Tim Holtz "Torn Wallpaper" and added metal feet to the bottom corners.

Here are the remaining projects, in no particular order.

Snowman "Jack in the Box"

Vintage Book with Photos printed on Tea Bags

One inside page

Tall "Love" Explosion Box

Inside

File Folder Book

One inside page with pockets and tags

Small Book Made from Library Pockets

Two inside pages/pockets with "found relatives"

 Christmas Shadowbox

Christmas "House" Shadowbox

Christmas Countdown Canvas

MIA- Oh my gosh!

I can't believe it's been since early Oct. that I've posted here. So much has been going on!

As soon as it got a bit cooler here in Texas, we decided to start cleaning out our attic and garage. Yikes, what a task. We still had boxes and boxes of all five kids' stuff from their school years and college plus lots of miscellaneous stuff we've moved from several houses, some of which had not been opened! Time to clear out so our kids don't have to do it later...

There's been lots of traveling this fall as well. Babysat in Austin the weekend of Oct. 12th; then in Albuquerque 10-/20-26. Had a few days at home before taking off for an artsy girls' 10-day retreat on  Nov. 3, returning on the 11th in time to leave again for Albuquerque on the 12th for another week of babysitting. Returned on the 18th and we are going to Kansas City tomorrow for the Thanksgiving weekend to be with my sister-in-law and family. Our Albuquerque kids/grands will be coming up on the train to join us.

Needless to say, I have not done much creating except at the retreat. I will share those projects next week. I just wanted to let you know that I will be back with more regular posts shortly!

Altered Book Spreads

Finally got back to working in my altered book. Some of the backgrounds had been done before our trip but I had to add focal points and final touches.

The background of this spread started with a collage of fabric scraps glued to the pages. Then I added a layer of white gesso, a floral napkin and some stamping before adding the image and sentiment circles. Have you ever tried Mod Podging fabric? It transforms into a totally different texture and is very fun to do - great way to use up scraps too.

There are portions of a napkin collaged to this background as well. The female image came from a fashion magazine with butterfly wings behind.

I like the quirkiness of this spread. There are layers of collaged book text and small images from magazines covered with scraped acrylic paints, gelatos and stamping. The robot image is from a tech magazine of my husband's with a spiky flower as a "halo." The female head is from a Stampington magazine paired with an octopus-like plant for a body.

I think I'm finally getting back in the groove of making art. I missed it this past month!

Home from Alaska

We returned from our family 7-day Alaskan cruise late Sunday and I've been recuperating ever since! 

We had a fabulous time and saw gorgeous scenery, had beautiful sunny weather, ate lots of food and made many memories that will last a lifetime!  If ever you have a chance to go to Alaska, don't pass up the chance!

Here are a few photos to give you a sense of our adventure.

Altered Book pages

I had completed these spreads in my altered book before I left for Kansas City. I haven't gotten back to much art since I've returned as I'm getting ready for a 7-day Alaska cruise with my entire family. We leave on Saturday so I'm busy packing but thought I'd post before leaving.

The left page of this spread has an image from a fashion magazine. When open, the spread (below)  has flowers and stems created from fabric over a background of paints and stencils. 

The background of this spread is crinkled tissue paper glued over a collage of book text. Then I scraped on acrylic paint and stenciled the white circles. I decoupaged pieces of a Jane Davenport napkin on top along with half an image from a fashion magazine (I used the other half in a previous altered book - love it). It's hard to see the sentiment which is also a decoupaged napkin. I may have to go back and outline it in white...

I hope you are enjoying my altered books as much as I am enjoying working in them. I'm itching to do more, but that will have to wait until after Alaska.