Happy New Year 2011

Good morning to all on this last day of 2010. Are you all ready to move forward? It's time to reflect on all our blessings in 2010 & look forward to all the new things we will encounter in 2011. I thank you all for your friendship & never-ending encouragement. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I will leave you this morning with this newest PSE project & a short quote:

James Levin:                                                                                                                                   Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.

Rainy Day PSE Photograph & Dexter the Bengal Boy

Good morning! The rain is coming down again this morning but not too heavy at this point. I thought I would post this Rainy Day composition done with Photoshop Elements. The two images are from Morguefile.com.
at http://www.morguefile.com/.   This turned out to be one of my favorites. The intense rain is fascinating to me if you're not out there in it!  
The 2nd photo is of my sweet Dexter in all his glory! He is one stunning  bengal boy!
Happy Wednesday to you all!

More Image Transfers for Christmas

Good morning! Today's pics are more 12x12 image transfers done with Sheer Heaven. The top pic is Roxy Ann LaRue who belongs to my brother & sister-in-law. I loved the verse used under her pic. The 2nd one is a childhood friend of my sons who passed away some 25 years ago now. He was a  Hemophiliac that received tainted blood which ultimately led to his death. We still miss his sweet face & wonderful personality to this day!
His parents were extremely pleased with this.   Have a Happy Tuesday!

Christmas Projects

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a delightful holiday & hopefully Santa brought you lots of goodies. Tim & I had a great day & wonderful turkey dinner prepared by my sister-in-law. It's really kind of nice not to cook for a change.
I am posting 2 image transfers I did for Christmas gifts. The top dog is Marvelous Maxie....a beautiful white lab (she's as sweet as she is beautiful)  & the bottom one is Mr Shadow...one of the largest & sweetest german sheperds I have seen. They are both 12x12 image transfers done with Sheer Heaven paper.
1) I apply art paper to the canvas (12x12 sheets for these.)
2)I print my image on the Sheer Heaven paper
3) Spray the printed image with 70% alcohol
4) Lay face down on the art paper & run your hand over it a few times
5) Lift off the Sheer Heaven paper & you will see your image.
I also transferred some text on these & a bit of rubber stamping on Shadow's.
Anyone that has followed my blog for a while knows I was the image transfer queen for a while. I LOVE SHEER HEAVEN! If any of you are interested in trying it.... here is the link                                             http://www.dotcalmvillage.net/sheerheavenart.html
Have a terrific week!

Merry Christmas 2010

Good Christmas Eve morning to you all! I hope you are all set for the big holiday. Today should be a fairly easy day with most everything done now. Heading to dinner tonight with family & again tomorrow for Christmas dinner. No cooking this year...other than about 300 peanut butter cups. Those went to everyone.
I have a little clip art pic of Santa this morning that was overlayed on a mosaic type background & altered a bit in PSE.  The background was from a Flickr texture group. I hope you all have a beautiful holiday with family & friends.

Blue Eyes Shining & Birds Singing

Drip, drip, drip! Going into our 5th day of rain today. Tonight is suppose to be the BIG storm. I hope all those living in hillside areas make it through with as little damage as possible. Our hills are totally saturated!
The post this morning is a couple of pieces I did over the past month or so. The background on the bird pic was a freebie from a Flickr texture group & the image was a simple clip art freebie from one of my blogging friends. The background is actually different layers of nylon that I tweaked in Photoshop Elements & then did an overlay with the birds. The top picture was a digital background freebie (loved that light shining through)
& the image was another old photo freebie from a fellow blogger. Once again, I tweaked both a bit in PSE & then overlayed the image on the digital background. I love the way the light made her eyes pop.
Happy Tuesday everyone!

One Week Left Until Christmas

Good morning everyone! It is going to be a wet weekend here in So. California. Rain is predicted for the next 5 days or so. We can use it...time to restore all that beautiful greenery!
I've been working on a few projects for Christmas but won't be posting them until after the holiday. I have been crafting my little heart out & loving every minute of it.
This morning I am leaving you with a couple of PSE projects from the past few weeks. I still LOVE doing these but somehow it is different when you can actually hold the piece of art n your hands when you're done with it. It's just a different feeling for me. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

One World One Heart Coming Soon

Good Morning! I saw yesterday that One World One Heart is starting again next month for the 5TH & final year. You can find the details for this HUGE event over at   Lisa Swifka's Whimsical Bohemian Blog.
http://awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com/a_whimsical_bohemian/2010/12/annoucning-the-fifth-and-final-one-world-one-heart-event-.html 
This is a world wide giveaway & I believe Lisa had around 1000 participants last year.
It has to be an enormous amount of work for her. I can see why she's stopping after 5.
Thank you so much Lisa for carrying this on over the past years!
HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!

Some Christmas Pictures Today

Good Friday morning! The sun is shining bright & our weekend is suppose to push right in to 80 degrees. It's going to be gorgeous & I hope you all have a wonderful & creative weekend.
The pics I am posting this morning were a couple of free backgrounds & free Christmas images from another blogger. I believe it was the Graphics Fairy  at  http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ .  Her entire blog is devoted to freebies. Fellow bloggers are so wonderful about sharing their images & I am so grateful to all of them.

Back to Photoshop Elements

Good Friday morning! Another cool morning but not quite as cold as it has been. We're expecting a little rain this weekend. I am shooting for staying inside & doing art all day for at least one of those days.
I am posting some more PSE projects this morning (the top 2 pics) & a sunset pic out my back door the other night. I am crazy for sunrises & sunsets. It is not unusual to see me out in my PJs at the crack of dawn shooting pictures of the sky! I just love them! The other two are freebie images & freebie backgrounds. The top little girl is so cute but that look on her face is a bit questionable to me.
Have a delightful weekend, everyone!

New Dog Tag Project

Good morning everyone! Brrrr....32 degrees on the patio this morning. My heater is running now!
When Gail came to town a copuple of weeks ago she brought some supplies for yet another new project. She took a class with Julia Jae in Everett at http://blackdoorstudio.ning.com/ to learn this process.
These are done by printing your desired image & placing it on your desired background.  Brush Polymer medium over the image giving it a good coat. Lay your little plexiglass cover over & apply pressure. Let dry.
Once dried, trim the edges & add whatever little charms you like. I am placing them on 30" ball chains.
I used double sided paper on some & simply glazed over the back side. You can also add the metal dog tag piece on the back. Sorry I don't know all the correct terminolgy for this stuff.
In the pics....the beautiful white lab is Marvelous Maxie, the drop dead gorgeous cat is my Cooper, the drop dead gorgeous child is also mine & the gorgeous german shepherd belongs to a very good friend. She is getting this as part of a birthday present.      Hope you all have a wonderful day 

New Bird Bath

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family & friends.
When my sister visited a couple of weeks ago, she brought a new idea with her. It is a bird bath made from various pieces of glass which we gathered from everywhere but mostly thrift shops. Gail already made a couple of these & I absolutely fell in love with them. They look beautiful with the sun hitting them as well as the rain.   They are quite beautiful in the yard. It is only in the house now as I had to attach the little duck. It is going back outside today. I am ready to whip out some more.
Have a wonderful weekend!!

New Photoshop Elements Creations

Good morning everyone! It's a soggy morning here in Southern California. It is suppose to rain all weekend.
Thank goodness my roof is done & I have just a few finishing touches on my bedroom. Chris, who's been doing my roof, along with a million other things around here,  has been such a treasure! He is a friend of my son's & I feel so very lucky that this great guy has helped us so very much. We are so lucky! We love Chris & his partner, Lisa & their wonderful lab, Maxie. Maxie is "the icing on the cake" as I get to kiss & play with her all day while her Dad is working. Now that the roof is done....we will really miss her sweet face.
Hope you all have a grand weekend!

Carousel Animals & Sunrises Today

Good Morning! I have a bit of a mix today for you. When I started remodeling my bedroom I mentioned some carousel animals one of my husband's friends carved with a bit of help from my husband. My father-in-law was a woodshop teacher for many years & my husband did some woodworking over the years. His friend, carved these animals for a living. They are generally painted after they are carved but we opted to leave ours with the natural wood. I believe they were made with bass wood. There is the Lion & the Lioness & they are LARGE! The other two photos are gorgeous sunrises I have been capturing right outside my front door. Happy Thursday Everyone!

Today is all about Transportation

Good morning everyone! I managed to play a little bit yesterday & made some new PSE photos. Somewhere I found a new image website called http://www.fontplay.com/freephotos/index.htm. These images came from that site as well as some backgrounds also. I thought I would try something connected to transportation. Soooooo......here you have it! A BIG airplane & what looks to be a Buick from the 50's era.
Happy  Monday everyone & may you all have a wonderful week! My bedroom should be finished later this week, I hope.

Work, Work & more Work

Good Morning! This has been one heck of a busy week. My roof is being replaced along with the remodel of my bedroom. Today is FINALLY the day the paint goes on plus my new bed will be delivered. Sister & I even made time for some art yesterday. I have a surprise down the road....a new creation my sister came up with & we are pretty excited.

I am posting a couple more pics this morning that were done with Photoshop Elements. The images were freebies & the backgrounds are my own creations. Hope you all have a wonderful & creative weekend!

More PSE & Blogger Problems

Good morning everyone! Having problems with Blogger again. When they make changes that always results in new bugs to work out. Bedroom is coming along & we are going to shoot for a litttle art time today.
I will leave you with a couple of PSE projects I did a few weeks ago. Happy Wednesday everyone!

100 Followers & Breakfast with the Hummingbirds

Good morning everyone! I am so excited today that I have reached 100 followers on my blog. I am beside myself with joy & appreciation. I just can't thank you all enough for coming along with me! I have a mixed bag this morning for you.
We have experienced some phenomenal sunrises lately. I am posting a couple of pics of that as well as our little hummingbird family. We just can't keep their feeder filled fast enough. Little pigs...they are. In the beginning they didn't really come around if we were outside by the feeder. Now...they will whiz right by your head! They are feeling quite comfortable here now. They are amazing little things & we, of course, love them! HAPPY THURSDAY!!

Voting Day & Hollywood Girls

Good morning everyone. Today, November 2nd is voting day & I hope you will ALL get out there & vote. It will be quite an interestng day & evening.
I am posting a couple of Hollywood hotties today. The bottom one is an image of Marilyn Monroe placed over a scene of downtown Hollywood. The top is an image of Gloria Swanson placed over one of my tye dye backgrounds. They were done using Photoshop Elements & I also change the color & opacity.
Happy Tuesday everyone....We are looking at temperatures very close to 90 degrees today. Doesn't feel like Fall!

Happy Halloween

Good morning to all! I woke up around 1:00 A.M. to the pouring rain. Rain always sounds much better when you're in your pajamas & inside the house! It's suppose to be gone this morning so all the kids will have a dry Halloween.
I'm posting the last of the Halloween images this morning. The web is from a free texture group in Flickr & the doll image is mine. The 2nd image background came from Gaby at: http://gaby-cajubrasil.blogspot.com/ and the image was a freebie I found on Google. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Unusual & More Halloween

Good Morning! I took some beautiful pictures of the sunrise a couple of days ago which led me to this top photo. The pilot looking out the window came from pdphoto.org & I placed him over one of my sunrise pictures. Kind of a mysterious looking photo of him up in the clouds. The 2nd is a freebie halloween background & I placed a photo of some halloween masks over that. All done with PSE & tweaking color & opacity.
We are pushing ahead on the bedroom today. We were able to remove a carousel lion
from there yesterday. Yes....I had a carousel lion in my bedroom & he is FULL carousel size! Who would've guessed??? His girlfriend is in my den!
My husband went to school with an amazing wood carver & they did these two pieces several years ago. I will post pics of these sometime. HAPPY THURSDAY!

Another Big Project

Good morning. Today I am going to start preparation to rip my existing bedroom apart & have the popcorn ceiling removed, apply new paint, new floor & window coverings..etc. It will be a BIG job but my sister Gail is coming to town to help me once again! The work will actually be done after Halloween. Now, I have to shop for colors. You would think that would be exciting but I don't really think of it like that. It's more of a chore trying to figure out what I like best. Once I get rolling then the enthusiasm rises. I just have to get through the messy part first!
Meanwhile....I have yet another Halloween creepy & a Halloween beauty for you this morning. That is my Dexter inside the pumpkin! The other two were freebies. Both were overlayed in Photoshop Elements with color & opacity tweaked. Have a wonderful Tuesday everyone!

Last week of Halloween Images

Good morning! How can we be almost into November?? Next week is Halloween!
Todays photo is one taken by my husband a long time ago. I really have no clue where he shot it but I do love it! I imposed his photo over the top of a freebie graveyard shot. Of course, I always tweak the color & opacity too.
I am NOT really a Halloween person but I had a ball making all my Halloween pictures.
One last thing...a big congratulations to The Texas Rangers & San Francisco Giants....they are going to the world series!!!!
Have a beautiful Sunday everyone AND.......GO STEELERS!