Beautiful felted dress modeled by my beautiful niece

This is my niece, Alexis modeling her long time friend, Ashley's beautifully felted dress. Ashley is an extremely talented young woman that felts some unbelievable apparel. We spent the afternoon at the DeYoung museum this day & a woman actually followed my niece around to get the particulars on this dress. You can check out some of Ashley's stuff at: http://ashleyrosehelvey.blogspot.com/. Ashley & Alexis have been friends since elementary school. The pictures really don't do the dress justice. It is really stunning, as are all of Ashley's creations!

Chihuly exhibit at the de Young museum in San Francisco

I spent a wonderful weekend in San Francisco visiting my niece as well as meeting my sister there. We started on Friday with The de Young museum for the Dale Chihuly exhibit. The entire museum was wonderful but the Chihuly exhibit was a real show stopper! Some of the most beautiful glass displayed that I've ever seen! I became familiar with Chihuly on a trip to Tacoma last year. We visited the glass museum there & were very impressed to say the least. I felt very lucky when I found out there would be a San Francisco exhibit at the time I was visiting. I was not about to miss that one. Here's some of the photos I shot....Enjoy!

Symbolic Icon

Well, I am trying my hand doing another symbolic icon picture but my friend, Minnie is not here to watch over my shoulder. She taught us this process at Artfest this year after taking one of Anahata's classes. I wasn't too sure about it in the beginning but it's looking better to me now.
I am going out for more canvas so I can try another one. This is 11x14.

Real Beauty

I'm going to set the crafts aside for a moment & talk about some real beauty! Yes, this is...my sweet boy pictured below. He's the only cat I've ever had that will run through the house & play hide n seek with me. He's a crazy boy & we couldn't possibly love him more! If I am feeling down, all I have to do is look at him & that picks me right up! There's no way to look at that beautiful little face & be sad. Dexter is my first Bengal cat. He will be 2 years old in October. My brother & sister-in-law raise the Bengals & have for a few years now. Check out their website at http://dreamquestbengals.com/ Their cats are fabulous & they're very particular about who their kittens go to. These Bengals are NOT your average cat!













Relaxed or what????

Memory Misted out

Time to move on from the Memories Mist for a little while, anyway. I had to experiment with every new stamp I bought so I certainly made a few of these & loved every minute of it. I just have to say one more time that you can never see the full effect of this stuff from a picture. The colors are so beautiful when you tilt the picture in different directions. Really amazing! If you're thinking of purchasing any Memories Mist, http://www.amstamps.com/ is the place to go. They have the best prices I have found thus far.

A few more business card holders

Business card holders

This is a few business card holders that I whipped up this weekend. They're all done on double sided paper & rubber stamped. I also laminate them with the 5mil laminate sheets. ALmost all my paper is purchased from Making Memories in Newbury Park. The stamped images on 1,2 & 4 all came from http://invokearts.com/ . The 3rd one down (remember) is from Alpha Stamps at http://www.alphastamps.com/index.html.

Sheer Heaven Image Transfer

This is a Sheer Heaven image transfer of my friend's beautiful German Shepherd, Shadow.
I purchased this adorable paper right here in my own back yard (almost). There's a great craft store right here in Newbury Park called Makin Memories. They really have an outstanding selection of paper as well as other things. This one, as you can see, was designed to look like a magazine cover...just adorable! http://makinmemories.com/

New day, new fun

I decided it was time to make a few new checkbook covers. My old ones were getting rather worn. I made about 5 or 6 of these so they will last for a while. At my sister's suggestion, I am making some business card holders next. Those are probably far more useful as I am not sure how many people still write checks. The first pic is the front side of one of my favorites. I love this paper. I stamped the face, the crown & the numbers. I have posted the front & back of two checkbooks. I always buy the double-sided paper for this project. That way the inside is a little different. I didn't get any pics of the inside but they're very cute.

Happy Memorial Day

As you can tell, the Memories Mist is a real favorite of mine. Believe it or not, I do other crafts also. I actually made 3 checkbook covers yesterday! I'll post pics of those later. I love the yellows & reds in this stuff. The pictures really do not do them justice. This spray ink is absolutely incredible & the beauty when you tilt the picture a little is fabulous! The metallic gold, copper & silver are my favorites but I also love the Mango Lemonade, Orange Juice & Blue Martini. If I am armed with this & stampboard I am good to go for many many hours! Love it, love it, love it! Try them! Rubber stamp is from http://invokearts.com/ I buy all my stampboard from http://stampscapes.com/. This was actually from a package of rounds & ovals mixed. They're all fairly small in size & fun to work with. They sent me these by mistake but insisted I keep them rather than returning them. As it turns out, I will probably buy more of these.

This is another rubber stamp from http://abovethemark.com/. I really like this stamp a lot! They have a lot of unusual stamps there.

Memories Mist & rubber stamp from http://abovethemark.com/

3 1/2 x 5 in.

Friday Flower

Friday morning Orchid. Wishing everyone a safe, happy Memorial Day weekend!

Memories Mist, Stampboard & Clayboard

Memories Mist & rubber stamps from invokearts.com.

Here's another Memories Mist project. This one was one of my mistakes that I experimented with. I stamped some flowers with the chicken wire stamp over those. I thought it was ugly so I let it sit for a few days. After 4-5 days I took a paper towel wet with alcohol & tried rubbing everything off. It didn't take it off completely but left kind of a muted image. I then took another rubber stamp & stamped my fairy girl over the top. It actually came out looking kind of cool but the pic did not come out that great..

This is from a class I took at Artfest called "Alcohol Acrylic Magic" The clayboard was prepared with seven layers of paint going from light to dark. Once they all dry you rub down to the lower colors using a paper towel soaked in alcohol. After that, I rubber stamped the images.

Sheer Heaven Image Transfers

This was one I did simply for fun. I love all the beautiful flower images. It turned out pretty nice. Again, I used Sheer Heaven Paper. I love that stuff!!

An ink jet photo transfer using Sheer Heaven Paper. Adult photo is Mom (Ursina) & three girls are, Barbara, Debbie & Janet.

Another Stampboard Picture

This is one of my favorites with the Memories Mist & rubber stamp. The picture really doesn't do it justice. Her little face peeking through that vibrant color is really pretty! Make sure to double click on picture for close up.

Memories Mist Mania

Memories Mist on stampboard with rubber stamps.

Sheer Heaven transfers & rubber stamps

Image transfer done on Sheer Heaven paper. The flower, butterfly & angel are the actual images that were transferred. The bird & music are rubber stamped & the text & tape measure were simply attached. I love my new "bird in the hand" stamp from http://invokearts.com/

More transferring of images

I'm back to what I guess I enjoy the most & that is transferring images. I pulled out my Sheer Heaven paper again & it worked like heaven this time! I wanted to transfer some large flowers on to some collage type backgrounds. I was pretty happy with this one. I am going to send it to a special friend of mine.

Image transfer of butterfly using Sheer Heaven paper printed on Epson printer.

Image transfer of flower using Sheer Heaven paper

I just purchased these adorable little scrabble charms made by Teresa Tudor at http://www.teresatudor.etsy.com/ I am quite pleased with them. Teresa's daughter, Cambria also makes some wonderful jewelry & she's just 12 years old. Amazing! Their blog is: jewelryqueens.blogspot.com . Check it out!

Show & tell night at ArtFest

This was my favorite! I am not sure who did it but it was absolutely wonderful. Another one from Anahata's Wallpaper People class.

This is from the Wallpaper People class instructed by Anahata. These are around 5 feet tall. Can you image doing all this in one day? They were all quite beautiful.

Check out this one! This was done in a shadow box class (I believe) by a 15 year old girl that attended ArtFest with her mother. How's this for talent?? This young lady was as nice as she is talented. I am not sure who instructed this class.

Another wonderful doll at show & tell night.

Show & tell night. Doll made in Linda & Opie O'Brien's class, Who's your Dada. Not sure who the artist was.