Art Studio 522

Ready For Paper Cowgirl & Fun New Decoration In Studio

2012-02-19T17:41:00.000-06:00

I spent all day yesterday finishing up for Paper Cowgirl next month. My class is full and I am so excited!! Look at all these kits!

These are the door prizes I made and packaged up. I just need to get some tickets for the students to write their names on and me to draw from.

These are items I have packaged to sell during or after my class. Trims and wool.

Look what I got!! I have been looking for a vintage baby bed springs for so long. A friend and I were in McKinney on Friday and found it. My husband helped me hang it today. I added my little paper ball lights to it. It hangs over my desk in the studio.

House Mouse Card For March

2012-02-13T10:01:00.002-06:00

This cute card would make a wonderful one for a new baby. The mouse is sleeping on a pussy willow flower branch. I added stickles to the flower centers to give the card some sparkle. Vellum is over a pattern paper and a little sheep button is attached to the ribbon. This turned out great but I will say it took some time to cut out all the mice! I had help though!! Thanks to my friend Mary!!

Canvas Art & A Glass House

2012-02-06T21:06:00.000-06:00

I signed up for Donna Downey's Canvas Create class. It was really fun. Here is my canvas for January. Of course I copied what she did but since I am not a painter, I learned some techniques and had a great time making this. The picture really doesn't do the piece justice. Go check it out here https://www.donnadowney.com/index.php/workshops-i-teach

For my birthday in December I had ask for a container to put some of my handmade wool felt crowns in. Look what a fabulous glass house I received from two friends! I put it on my kitchen table for display.

I decided it needed something in the bottom. So I shredded some music paper then put in the crowns.

I also included two birds, but you can hardly see them in this photo. One is cement color and the other is blue. There is a book box that one of the friends had made me along time ago, and I added it too.

Paper Cowgirl in March

2012-01-30T20:47:00.002-06:00

Classes are up and registration is open on the Paper Cowgirl web site http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/p/creative-classes.html I am teaching this wonderful wool crown. The class is scheduled for Thursday, March 15th from 10:00am - 1:00pm in Room A at the Crafty Scrapper in Waxahachie, TX.

Swaps & Fun Art

2012-01-24T18:12:00.002-06:00

This cute little heart paper mache ornament I did for one of my art groups. Covered it with pattern tissue paper and then added the rosette and the cupid. The cupid has stickles on it. The rosettes with the cupid looks great on a card too.

Bottle caps were the theme for my other art group this month. I painted a canvas with watered down tube acrylic paints and then stamped on it to give it some texture. Die cut the flower from a Tim Holtz die and Basic Grey Out of Print paper. Made leaves from a book page and doodled a little with a charcoal pencil. Oh and added the words I printed on the computer. I loved how it all came together!

These fabric hearts were done by my friend Donna J. I think they are sooo cute!!

I bought this magnetic chalk board this weekend. I have been wanting one for so long and had made a small chalk board from a silver tray, but it was not magnetic and that is what I really wanted. There is even a place to stash the chalk and hang something off it!

Class at Stamp Asylum

2012-01-18T15:56:00.000-06:00

Here is one of the cards I will be teaching in my card class at Stamp Asylum on Saturday Feb. 4th. Class runs from 10:00am - 12:30pm and cost $55.00. You make six different cards and this class has several Valentine theme cards in it. Call the store to sign up at 972 596-1224.

Snowflake & Valentine Party

2012-01-17T00:10:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the event I planned for a friend of mine (Carla). I decorated the game room at her place of work on January 7th. I placed this large plastic snowflake on the door so it was the first thing the ladies saw when they arrived.

This photo shows most of the room. I hung foam snowflakes from the ceiling over a few of the tables and in front of the mirror. You can see the decorations and such up close in a previous post I have made. It was really fun to design all the decorations and the classes for this event. I would love to do other things similar to this.

This was the scrapbook page table. The ladies constructed five different pages for this class.

This is the table they sewed their garlands on and made the doily one also. They really enjoyed sewing. One of them said she was going to go home and get her daughter's machine out to use. Another one said she loved these garlands so much she wanted to make them for all the different holidays.

This was the table we ate at through out the day. The cupcakes and snacks were divine!

Center piece for table.

This table was used for the canvas class. Their creations were all different and they loved playing with the paint and stencils a lot.

I used this table for the desserts and party favors. They loved the Valentine socks I packed in the paper mache boxes. In the bags on the floor I included scrapbook supplies and some note cards.

YUM YUM

Corner of dessert table. I made bows from tulle and glued a snowflake in the center. Then just pinned them to the tablecloth. Easy but cute!

Hanging flakes from the ceiling with tulle bows and paper garlands draped above the mirror.

Sugar Cookies

Janet with her doily garland.

Carla sewing her punch garland.

Finished garlands stretched out on the floor.

Renna working away on a page.

The ladies at the scrapbook page table. I think this might be the only photo I got of Renna looking up at the camera. She was always concentrating on her project! LOL

Carla working on her canvas.

Janet's Canvas

Carla's Canvas

Renna's Canvas

The ladies had a wonderful time that day. They were impressed with how much work I put into the event and the projects they did. I was so happy they were happy!! I was also so grateful I took the online Spark Your Christmas Class from Margie Romney Aslett in December. You can still take the class, go to here and take a look http://margieromney-aslett.typepad.com/im_just_a_girl/2011/11/spark-your-christmas.html . I am telling you it is well worth it!! I just used her inital ideas for decorations and such and added my own twist, changed the colors somewhat and a different theme. She is now doing a Valentine online class too. Go here to see about it http://www.margieromney-aslett.typepad.com/ . She is fabulous!!!

House Mouse Card For February & Special Event News

2012-01-16T23:32:00.000-06:00

When I first saw this stamp I thought of Summer time. The mouse was getting a tan. I was surprised the image was for February. But it is cold at this time of year (normally is, today we were almost in the 70's) so why not make a fun colorful card to help you think warmer times are on the way!

SPECIAL EVENT NEWS

Paper Cowgirl is having a show in March and I am teaching!! Go to their blog and check out the dates and info. Use the button on the right of my blog to get there. It is going to be a great event. I believe there are eight different classes and they will be taught on Thursday and Friday March 15th & 16th with the vendor show on Saturday the 17th. The vendor show is put on by Petticoats on the Prairie http://petticoatsontheprairie.blogspot.com/ . Theme is "Under the Big Top". Pretty exciting stuff!!! More info to come later with photos of my class sample.

More Stuff I Have Been Working On

2012-01-03T17:07:00.000-06:00

I have been working on items for my friend's event this weekend. The students will be doing five scrapbook pages for one class. I was going to use some of my cards for ideas but decided to just wing it. I ended up buying supplies at the Crafty Scrapper in Waxahachie http://www.thecraftyscrapper.com/ and just getting the ideas for the pages with the stuff I bought. Only one came from one of my cards. I think I came up with some great pages.

These were wonderful leaves from Prima, I cut off the stems and curled them up to use.

I used a doily on this one too.

Bike page.

Close-up of bike. I think it was from Melissa Francis or Prima. I added flowers to the basket.

Banner on page. Used a punch.

Bo Bunny paper.

Close-up on page. Rhinestones and flowers.

Mitten Page. Fancy Pants Paper.

Close-up of page. Snowflake punch with stickles.

Page idea from one of my cards.

Flower close-up.

Nest close-up.

This is the canvas class they will be doing. I copied the technique from Christy Tomlinson. http://www.christytomlinson.typepad.com/the_scarlet_lime/ She did a canvas with a tree shape because it was around the holidays.

These are the favor bags for the students. Thank goodness the event is only for three people. I am running out of time!! But it has been fun to plan this from scratch. I love the theme of snowflakes and valentines.

Close-up of bag decoration.

Little note pads I found for the students too.

I originally did these boxes for favors and then decided to do the bags also. I put a pair of valentine socks in these boxes. Cute!!

Top of boxes.

These three items are door prizes.

I had to do a table center piece. The colors and several of the decorating ideas came from the class I took from Margie Romney Aslett http://margieromney-aslett.typepad.com/ It was a wonderful class!

Flag in table piece.

Last but not least I did a Welcome sign for the door into the event. Love the dollar store and these snowflakes!

Close-up of door sign.

Stuff I Have Been Working On

2011-12-28T23:32:00.002-06:00

A good friend of mine has hired me to do an event for her in January. She wanted a scrapbooking class and for the money she is paying me I thought I should come up with some other stuff.

Here is a close-up of the invite I made her. I am calling it "Mixed Media Play Day". I only have to provide stuff for three people so it really isn't going to be a big deal to plan. Especially since I only have two weeks to do it in. LOL The event is January 7th.

This is the envelope for the invites.

I made these to hang from the ceiling at the place where the event is being held. I am using a snowflake and valentine theme.

These are garlands they will be making at the event. I took an online class from Margie Romney Aslett http://margieromney-aslett.typepad.com/ before Christmas and it was fabulous!! This was an idea from her. So fun to sew these punched out pieces in the sewing machine! It really worked!!

The following photos are close-ups of the garlands.

This one is doilies with punched music paper attached to the centers then stapled on string. Soooo cute!!!

I decorated this plate holder for cupcakes.

This is the topper I made for it.

These are the party favors. Another great idea of Margie's!! I just added a few things to it.

They are going to make a canvas project too besides the garlands and scrapbook pages. I will post it when I get it finished, and I will take photos at the event and post them afterwards.

This is a New Years card I made this week.

I made a base for my Christmas Solder House. Here it is with tea lights inside.

Here it is on the base.

I have been busy!!! Never a dull moment at my house!!

Happy B'day To Me and House Mouse For January 2012

2011-12-28T23:16:00.000-06:00

Today is my birthday and my friend Donna J. sent me this cute fabric collage! The lady holding the dog is on wood and has been cut out with a saw. So it makes a great dimensional element to the piece. I hung it in my studio.

Here is the card I did using House Mouse for January. I made 95 of those little party hats! I used a megaphone punch I had and just cut off the bottom of it and added the tinsel trim. Worked great!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T00:23:00.000-06:00

New Solder Pieces

2011-12-15T01:09:00.000-06:00

Finally I finished some Christmas solder pieces! I am not putting them in my Etsy Shop but they will be at Stamp Asylum for purchase.

I love how these two boxes came out! The feet are wacky! One box is deeper than the other.

These are a bunch of different pendants to pick from. They all come with a ball chain necklace.

I am listing this crown in my Etsy Shop. So go check it out there if you want to purchase. It is a beauty!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/donnagoss

Christmas Wrapping

2011-12-15T01:02:00.000-06:00

I attended a Christmas Party for one of my art groups last night. We met at Macaroni Grill in Plano, TX. to exchange gifts and visit. The food was wonderful as always. The gifts were fabulous as always to. We just know what each other likes! This photo is the boxes I decorated for each lady and put all their gifts inside. Well there were a few things that would not fit inside. LOL So I had to wrap them separately.

close-up of box

front of box

bow on top of box

separate packages

These are some corsage pins I added beads to. They were part of the ladies gifts. I did the sheet they are sticking in on the computer digitally. The items were from a kit I bought from Ronna Farrer http://rhonnadesigns.blogspot.com/ . She has great stuff.

This photo shows the packages I made to hold the pins. Made from lunch sacks. Easy stuff! Found this on a YouTube video by Roben Marie Smith http://www.robenmarie.com/ .

This photo is another one of the items I made the ladies. Glass jars with chipboard bases by Melissa Francis. I found the animals at Michael's, and the trees at Hobby Lobby. I bleached the trees and then added glitter and mica to them. That was fun! Of course I have tinsel and glitter all over my house now.

Christmas Decor Around the House

2011-12-15T00:47:00.000-06:00

tree in master bedroom

This is the first year I have not put up the big tree in the den. I just did not want to get it all out. Probably because I can't get in my shed to even get to the stuff! Plus there will be less to put up on New Year's Day. That is usually when I take everything down. LOL I just have a few decorations up like the orb I made this year and the one from last year. I posted about the orb already in November I think. I have the little lighted house I made at another art group meeting out on a table by the tree in the den. I kind of miss not having the mantle done and several other things I put out this time of year, but that is OK. There is just not enough time in the day to get everything done!

wooden cut out

another wooden cut out

These wooden cut outs were made by my friend Jeanne. She gave them to me for Christmas this year. I love them!

tree in den

winter crown

kitchen table decor

Happy Decorating everyone!!

New Items Added to Etsy Shop

2011-12-04T22:09:00.001-06:00

I just added some holiday decorations to my shop on Etsy. These metal stars are fun to collage in.

I had fun bleaching these bottle brush trees!

These are tart tin magnets. Very sparkly!!

Swap Art & Snowflake Ornament Gifts

2011-11-27T22:35:00.001-06:00

Remember in a previous post I sent gifts to two of the students that took all my classes at Mrs. O' Leary's? Well here is what I sent them. These glitter snowflake ornaments I made. I hope they liked them!

These are my swaps for one of my art groups. I used dies to cut out felt ornaments. Stitched and stuffed them with poly fill. I sewed on beads and pearls or used stickles on them and added a seam binding ribbon hanger.

This was one swap I got from Joyce. Very elegant! It took some time to stick all those pearls on!!

This is Mary's swap. She purchased the metal sign but stamped JOY on it and added the rhinestones on the left and the bird on the right. Very cute!

This is Rosalyn's swap that I received. Didn't know she had a hidden talent in ceramics. Love it!

This was the project I taught the group to make. Using pipe cleaners and wire for the orb shape then added glittered floral pics, tinsel and an ornament to complete it. Last year I learned how to do this at my other art group. I think I posted about that one in November of last year.

My other art group met last Sunday and we made these houses. Suzy did a great job teaching us. They were a lot of work but so worth it!! They even light up but you can't see it from the photos. They have glitter on them too!! So they really sparkle!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T10:29:00.001-06:00

New Items in Etsy SHop

2011-11-21T17:57:00.001-06:00

I added Lavender Sachets the other day to my shop. Check them out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/donnagoss

Today I added some glittered snowflake ornaments. Love making the paper rosettes! Can't live without that die cut!! This one has one of the new Holiday Colors of Tim Holtz distress inks on the edges.

A couple have faux bottle caps with holiday stickers inside and Glossy Accents sealing it in.

This one has a tiny rhinestone snowflake attached to the rosette. They all have tulle fringe behind the paper rosettes.

They come packaged in a cellophane bag sitting on shred with a kraft cardstock topper.

House Mouse Cards For Nov. & Dec.

2011-11-21T00:57:00.001-06:00

I almost forgot to post the November stamp of the month card for the House Mouse program. This mice stamp did not seem to be very Thanksgivingish so I decided to make it bright and cheery since it had sprinkles on it.

This is December card. I thought it came out sooo cute!!

Classes At Mrs. O'Leary's & Hobby Lobby Tour

2011-11-13T23:54:00.001-06:00

Here are some photos from my classes at Mrs. O'Leary's in Wichita, KS. It was titled "Weekend with the Royals" and we were served tea and scones in the morning. The scones were to die for!!

The first class was the solder crown. Melody and Lora took all of my classes that weekend. I was very grateful to them for that. I am mailing them a little gift tomorrow. I will post about it later. I don't want to spoil their surprise!

This is Mary and Ronda (painted the windows in previous post) and I caught Melody on the run. Mary works at the store.

This is a cool tool that Joni (owner of store) has come up with for soldering the sides of the charms. You solder the front and back first then place the charms in the tool to do the sides. Makes things go quickly! I have one but have not used it yet. Need to get that thing out!

Ronda the Queen came with her tiara on! She is so funny! Everyone finished putting their crowns together in class. When you have a finished project it makes the class soooo much better!

This is Lora holding her finished torch pendant from class. This class was intense so I failed to get any pictures during class. I was worried about this class having not taught it before but each student did a fabulous job with the torch and their piece of metal. No one scorched their metal!! YEA!!!

Sunday morning I taught the wool felt crown class. This class is relaxing since we are doing some hand stitching. Again, I need to thank my friend Jeanne for letting me teach this class. She is a wiz on coming up with projects!! I had the most students in this class!!!

The students all working away on their crowns.

Jeralyn is concentrating on sewing her two pieces of felt together to make the crown shape.

Bottom part done. Now just to sew on the pearls and seed beads. And add the rhinestones. Must have those rhinestones! They add so much sparkle!

The shadowbox class was in the afternoon on Sunday. Not sure who this piece belongs to.

Melody, Melissa, Lora, Kathy, and Dana working on their collages. Some of them wanted to add their own family photos to the houses. I thought that was a great idea. Melody even bought extra kits for other family members to do. What a way to share.

We did a different technique on the background of each house. Then added some decorations and a person with a crown of course. It was a royal weekend ya know? Lots of crowns going on!!

Almost complete!

This is Jan. She came in to the store to shop and I just had to get her photo! There was a steampunk event going on around the city in different places and she had been attending one of them. She was so cute all dressed up! Loved the watch jewelry she had on her shoulder.

On to the Hobby Lobby tour!!! I was fortunate to get to go by the Hobby Lobby headquarters in Oklahoma City on my way up to Kansas. I have been doing cards for their House Mouse stamp of the month program for a few years now. I had never met my contact Jennifer before and was excited about doing so. We had only spoke on the phone once or twice and mostly had contact by email. So it was great to finally get to meet her! She heads the E commerce website and House Mouse program.

Steve is head of the stamp, beads and paper departments. He was generous and gave us the tour of his departments. The photo above is of the three of us.

I can't tell you how interesting and enjoyable the tour was!!

The two photos above are of only one of the buildings. There are four!! They are like half a mile long!! And so clean you could eat off the floor!! And I have never been in a warehouse that is not cold. The temp was perfect. Lots going on inside too! Fork lifts coming and going! Steve's area is around 40,000 square foot. That is just his departments! So you can imagine how huge this place is!

The company makes signage and displays for the stores in house. That is a big undertaking, but a great idea on their part!

This is a display inside the offices showing the products they make and ship to the Hobby Lobby stores. They have been in business since 1972 and continue to grow. Currently there are 492 stores in 40 states. WOW!

This photo shows the plate (silver deal on left) to make the matrix (black deal on right) for pressing the rubber to make the stamp. To make a stamp they purchase the plate then use it to make several matrix of the same image. When using the matrix you have to let it cool between pressings to not damage it. So having several of the same images is time saving.

This is the vulcanizer. The big guy that presses the rubber!! They have six of these guys. Two were in use when we were there. If I remember right the vulcanizer is set between 307 - 317 degrees for 10 minutes to make a stamp. So the matrix with the rubber attached is really hot when it comes out!

Working the vulcanizer.

This man just took these stamps from the vulcanizer. See the gloves he is wearing. They are welders gloves that protect his hands from the heat. They make anywhere from 3000 - 5000 stamps a day!!

This is a roll of cushion. After the rubber is pressed into stamps it goes to this area for adding the cushion to the back of the rubber. The roll starts out at about 16,200 square inches of cushion and looked to be about a yard long.

Next it goes to this area where the stamp is die cut out of the rubber. Using specially made dies for each image it is put into this orange machine. The machine puts a lot of pressure on the die and the stamp is cut from the rubber and cushion intact. There are smaller hand presses for the smaller image stamps. The orange ones are hydraulic presses.

Look at all this rubber!!! I am in heaven!!

These ladies are in charge of labeling and attaching the stamp to the wood. Lots of hands on here!!

The label gets applied to the wood block first, all by hand. Can you imagine? I would have thought a machine would do it!

After the label is applied the stamp is attached to the wood block. Again by hand!!

These are the labels for the 2012 House Mouse stamps. Waiting for their wood block!

I am going to have such fun this coming year designing cards for these stamps! There are some really cute images!

This person was on break I think but they are packaging beads. Again, all done by hand. They count out the number and put them in a bag then staple the topper card on. These are swarovski crystal beads. Beautiful!

They were not producing clear stamps the day we were there, but this is the image used to make those kind of stamps. It's a negative per say and a cold process is used with it. So a hot process for

making the rubber stamps and a cold one for the clear. Pretty cool.

The negatives are stored in these tubes for safe keeping.

This is the machine that makes the clear stamps. Liquid polymer is used to make the stamps.

Look at all this cardstock! All nicely stacked and count out.

This machine counts and correlates the paper into those neat stacks. The big stacks of paper you see in the photo above are placed on the shelves of this machine, then it gets counted into stacks of 50 and stacked up for going to the packaging department.

Here is the cardstock being packaged into clear plastic.

Then it gets labeled and put into a box for going to the warehouse for stock, or going to a store as an order.

There are reports to tell Steve if he is low on something in the warehouse. He has someone that picks a department each day to do inventory in. They are on top of what they have in stock at all times! He is supervisor over 29 employees and they are in to work by five or six o'clock in the morning and done by two - two thirty in the afternoon. Wouldn't you love that job? You would have the rest of the day to enjoy! A lot of the employees are long time ones and have family members working along side them. It says a lot about a company when the employees have been there for years and recommend it to their family.

Both Mary and I were so impressed with this company. I want to thank Jennifer and Steve for taking time out of their day to give us the tour. We only saw a small part of what all happens at the facility, but hope to see more at another time.

Enjoy your week and thanks for stopping by.

Back from Kansas

2011-11-10T20:35:00.001-06:00

I made it back from teaching in Kansas last weekend. I was at Mrs. O'Leary's http://www.mrsolearysart.com/ in Wichita. The first photo is the front of the store and the other one is the back. Love the sign below. It's on the wall in the back. The store is in a great area of downtown Wichita. All the old buildings are wonderful to see. The area is called Old Town.

Here are a few shots from inside the store. Lots and lots of nerchandise to see and buy!

This is a holiday area with ribbons, stamps and great samples for Christmas.

This is the tool area. Jewelry tools, torches, bench block, copper tape, hammers etc..

Joni (the owner) was working on stamping dominoes to take to a show in Houston, TX this week.

Magazines and paper galore!

There is a great section of beads to pick from. That is what is in this area. Below the table are plastic containers filled with beads.

Lucious colors of sari ribbon and fibers.

Lots of ball chain bracelets and necklaces.

They have a wonderful selection of color copies of art to pick from.

I loved this old cabinet of drawers. Each drawer is labeled with what is inside. Knobs, charlotte dolls, rhinestone buckles etc..

There are colorful shirts to buy too!

All kinds of speciality ribbons as well as regular type ones.

This area is like a soda fountain. They have popcorn, bottled drinks and candy to buy.

This is a vinette I thought was great! Love the bottles!

This is at the front of the store on the right side of the front door. The merchandile area where several people have items to sell like antiques, finished jewelry they have made and altered things.

This is on the left side of the front door. Lots of soldered jewelry Joni has made to sell.

Look at all the letter charms!!

This is VERY clevor! Taking a suitcase and making a shelf out of it.

Colored dominoes.

These next two photos are some art on the wall in the hallway of the store. I am not sure who made them but they are fabulous.

This is the bar that Joni and Mark own. The Brickyard. This is the front door outside, down just a little from the front door of the store. It leads into the outside bar area. There is an inside area also, but I did not get any photos of it. It's really large inside as well as outside in the yard. The photos below are of the outside open area. The building was an old casket factory. It is huge!

Upstairs above the store is two aprtments and the level above that is for storage. There are four levels I believe. The bar is on the lower level. It is really cool and Mark is a top notch cook! We had hamburgers and pizza on Sunday for lunch. YUM YUM!!

I took the photos outside the fence on the street and alley.

Lightpost downtown naming the area.

One of their customers (Ronda http://www.myartfulnest.blogspot.com/) painted these two murals on the windows in the back of the store. Aren't they great?

This is Yeager the store cat. He is so beautiful but be careful when petting him. When he gets tired of you he tries to scratch you!

My friend Mary and I had a great time teaching at the store. My students did wonderful jobs on their projects in class and I made some new friends. Joni and Mark and their daughter Faron are great hosts. I hope to come back next year and teach again. Check out their blog http://wwwmrsolearysart.blogspot.com/

I will post at another time about my tour of Hobby Lobby in Oklahoma City. We stopped in there on the way up to Kansas. Plus I did take some photos during my classes at Mrs. O'Leary's, so I will post those later too. Have a great rest of the week everyone!

More Halloween

2011-10-30T19:58:00.000-05:00

This cute guy is outside and I forgot to take a photo of him last week. Patti painted him and he was her swap at the Banders meeting at my house last Sunday. She did a great job on him!

My other Art group meeting was last Wednesday evening at Joyce's house. This is Rosalyn's swap item. She got wooden churches used for birdhouses at probably Hobby Lobby and then decorated them up! Love It!!

This whimsical card is Joyce's swap. It says "wear it well". The scary pumpkin is Mary's swap. It is mounted on a canvas and has a bird on top. Wonderful ideas!!

The project we were to work on that evening was from a book by Judy Wise and Stephanie Lee. The book is working on plaster and wax. I can't remember the title at the moment but it is a great book. Check it out if you have not seen it. I took a board and spread joint compound on it. Then made marks in it with stamps, bubble wrap, a comb and round lid. Let it dry overnight then painted it with watered down acrylic paint. Let that dry and added another light layer of joint compound. More paint then put latex paint (white) on it and heated it up with a propane torch. Bubbles appeared and burst. I sanded everything then added gel medium to seal then black acrylic paint in the cracks. Sealed again with gel medium. Not sure if I totally like it yet. The gel medium sorta looks like wax when it dried.

I took some photos of my Halloween decorations around the house. I got this great mask at Target!

This is in a vase on my kitchen table. The two wand I made for swaps this and last year and the cat is a project from Paper Cowgirl Wicked Tea http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/ last year.

This also sits on my kitchen table.

Love the little pumpkins and the bottle brush tree. You can see the back of a cat paper doll behind the tree. I should have taken a photo of it. It is really cute. My friend Sammie made it. Not sure whose stamp she used though. But the arms and legs move.

Black tree with Stamp n Up stamped circles on it.

I made this card several years ago. Love the pumpkin cup. His eyes jiggle.

My husband loves this cat! I bought him in Georgia a long time ago when visiting a friend there one Fall. He came from a grocery store there. How funny! His fiber optics change colors. I made the eyes in the white pumpkin. It's lighted also but you probably can't tell from the photo.

My cute little BOO letters Donna J made me! The bat has a new friend this year. We made the cat this time at one of my art group meetings. The bat was from last year. Wonder what Traci will come up with for us to do next year? LOL

I have forgotten where I saw this idea of the lace on the pumpkins. I made it several years ago too.

This is a new wreath this year. My friend Carla got it for me. I need to put lights on the mantel to help make it show up better. I added the crow to the wreath. He is hard to see in the photo but sits inside on the bottom.

Got this little girl at Canton, I think last year.

These guys came from Canton too. Except the owl. He is from Michael's. All of this is on the fireplace mantle.

I have a few other decorations around the house but these are the main things. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Halloween!!! I am going to be sitting at home eating pizza and watching The Exorcist. I have not seen that movie in years! Hope I don't get to scared!!! LOL

Art Group Meeting Swaps

2011-10-26T17:01:00.000-05:00

I hosted the October Banders meeting at my house this past weekend. Of course Halloween was the theme. I have to use all the Halloween serving dishes I have at least once a year! Love this holiday!!

I ordered cupcakes from a local bakery we have here in Rowlett. It's called Brendals http://www.brendalscakes.com/ . They make really good cupcakes! Red velvet, chocolate, wedding cake, lemon and other flavors. To die for!!

This was the project we did. Mary helped get it all together for me. Bless her! The pumpkin image came from Olive Rue http://www.etsy.com/shop/OliveRue?ref=ss_profile . This shop has really great images to use for all kinds of projects. Just order and take them into your graphics program to resize. I printed them on t-shirt transfer paper and we ironed them on the linen like fabric bags I sewed up. Stuffed them with rock salt that Mary added lavender oil to. So they smelled lovely.

The hostess gift and swaps I received were wonderful. This graveyard scene was made by Suzy. You can't see from the photo but it lights up and she added items like a witch and mice to the windows. You could see them when the light is on through the windows. Really cool! She made a good box for me to store it in too!

The painted pumpkin can is by Mary and it had pencils, stickles and dipped pretzels in it. She also made the crow sculpture. Covered boxes with paper and added the crow on top with moss at his feet and berries. Love the rosettes around his neck! His is so whimsical!

Jeanne bless her! She did not make it to the meeting because she was out of town but sent this with one of the girls. It's one of her masonite cut outs. she added stickles glitter to the pumpkins eyes and I love the bag! Barbara made the bracelet. Cute!! She had on a skull bead bracelet and necklace I wish I had gotten a photo of. They were very interesting and great colors on the skulls.

This is a fabric hat and wooden BOO letter blocks by Donna J. I love them. She gave me a few years back blocks that say NEST. I can add these to my collection of word letter blocks. She did a great job on the hat too.

Carol made the web purse. lovely fabric for the purse and the little ball pull has beads sewn on it. Olga did a fantastic job on the Day of the Dead skull. Very detailed artwork.

It was a great time had by all. Lots of wonderful friendships we have in this group. I appreciate them all coming out to my house to eat and mingle.

October Swap for Art Group

2011-10-16T19:19:00.000-05:00

I made these lighted wooden pumpkins for one of my art groups. Bought the pumpkins at Michael's and they already had the holes drilled for the lights. I just had to paint them and insert the lights in the holes. Really easy. I decided to add the bird, moss and fall berry picks to the top. They just needed a little something else to perk them it.

Samples For Kansas Classes

2011-09-28T20:57:00.001-05:00

These photos are samples for the classes I will be teaching in Kansas in November.

This one and the one above is a shadowbox. The class is called Kings & Queens of the Neighborhood.

The whole weekend has a crown theme and the store (Mrs. O'Leary's in Wichita) is calling it Weekend with the Royals. They are serving tea and scones.

I will be teaching my soldered crowns.

This pendant is a torch soldered one filled with resin. I used German glass glitter behind the the little crown charm.

These are made from wool blend felt and so fun to make. It will be a great class.

Here is the schedule for weekend of the classes. If something changes I will let you know.

Saturday, November 5th
Glitter Crown Pendant (torch one) 9:00am - 1:00pm
Queen for a Day Crown (solder one) 2:00pm - 7:00pm

Sunday, November 6th
Wool Felt Crown 9:00am - 1:00pm
Kings & Queens of the Neighborhood 2:00pm - 6:00pm

Call the store to sign up at (316) 262-0600. Store address is Mrs. O'Leary's, 126 N. Mead, Wichita, KS 67202 http://www.mrsolearysart.com/

New Pieces of Art

2011-09-24T20:32:00.000-05:00

I had two art group meetings this week. So I have some fun pieces to share. My friend Jeanne has gone crazy for crowns! I just love anything she does! She blows me away with her creativity. These fabric crowns are made from various kinds of fabric. The two in the photo above are thicker upholstery type materials.

These two here are made from t-shirts. Really cool idea!!

The dark brown crown in this photo is made from a sheer fabric. I forgot what type the other one is made of.

The two photos above are art pieces made by another friend, Donna J.. She used encaustic wax, acrylic paints, oil based paints and collage pictures to create these. They are stunning in person.

I had to make samples for one of my classes in Kansas so I had left over resin that needed to be used. So the items above are what I came up with. These are all torch fired bezels.

This was my swap item for one of the meetings (Rubber Banders Art group). I used wooden pumpkins on dowels and covered them with Halloween papers after painting the dowels and sides of the pumpkins orange. Added seam binding ribbon bows and vintage rhinestone buttons to the bows.

These pieces are what everyone else did for the meeting as their swaps. Traci S. did this necklace above. Copper bezel with a silhouette photo and cracked faux glass on top. Looks spooky!

Suzie did this cute little cat picture. He is behind glass. She made a stand from a coat hanger and that is very clever.

Sammie made this adorable paper doll from stamps. His arms and legs move too.

This was Olga's. Hot glue around the skeleton and she colored it with a Krylon silver pen. There is glass over the skeleton.

Mary was my guest and she made these wonderful paper wreaths. She worked really hard on the rosettes. It was more work than she thought. LOL

This is Jeanne's hostess gift. Crepe paper lollie on a dowel with ribbons hanging down and she had paper items at the ends of the ribbons. Great idea.

Donna J. sewed bags from Halloween material. They are really nice.

This funky guy is April's creation. He is a bobble head. This took some engineering to make. Who would have thought to use a cupcake stand as the base? But she did!

Caroline sewed this little fabric wall hanging piece. She is a wonderful sewer. Very neat.

Denise came up with these ghosts from clay. Very Ghostbusterish!!

This was our project for the meeting. Traci H. came up with it. She is a wiz at sewing too. These were fun to make. Last year we did a bat so this little guy has a playmate for Halloween at my house. These were the ones Traci did. I did finish mine but have not taken a photo of him since I had this photo of these.

For my other art group (Hearts & Ho's, don't ask LOL) this was the swap I came up with. A composition journal and then covered it with papers and made a flower from burlap. The theme for the swap was flowers. I got these journals at Target, all three for 65 cents! What a bargain!!

This wonderful thing is Rosalyn's piece for the swap. I love it! Very creative idea to take Edger Allen Poe's poem The Raven and type it up and print it out then stamp some spooky images on the pages. The cover which is what the photo to the left is, she wrote out on a ledger paper she copied then stamped blood splatters and added the glittered bird to the front. It is bradded all together at the top. The photo below is a page inside with the poem on it. She also gave us a cute black metal sign shaped like a tombstone with a bird on top of it. You can kind of see it behind the piece in the photo.

These two items in this picture are Joyce's and Mary's pieces. Joyce cut the flower from metal on a die cut machine. Love that idea! I hope she gets me the die for my birthday this year! Mary was tired and could not get her brain to work. So she bought these little sunflower bags. She did stamp the tags though. She is sooo funny!!

Our project for this meeting was to make a nest from shredded paper, glue and water. It was fun!!! I used old ledger papers and kraft colored braille papers for mine. I added the feathers after it had dried. I think it came out pretty good. I would like to make a few more in my spare time. What is spare time?

These fabulous creations are for one of my classes in Kansas the weekend of November 5th. I will be teaching how to make a soldered crown. More info on the classes later but I wanted to show these. I just finished them today. I also will be teaching this same class at Stamp Asylum in November. No date yet though. We have not got the schedule done out that far yet. Anyway, I added these vintage rhinestone buttons to the peaks on the crowns. Also, I added wire spirals to the sides of the outside peaks. The one crown has a vintage rhinestone pin attached to the front. These babies are very elegant indeed!

Classes I will Be Teaching Soon

2011-09-20T21:40:00.001-05:00

Holiday Cards

Saturday October 15th, 3:00pm - 5:30pm at Stamp Asylum in Plano, TX. Call the store to sign up at

972 596-1224. We will be doing Thanksgiving and Christmas cards in this class. The above photo is just one of the cards. There are six total. Here is their blog to check out www.stampasylum.blogspot.com

Check out the classes for October 8th too. Joni is coming from Mrs. O'Leary's in Kansas to teach and she has some great classes. Speaking of Joni, I will be going up to Kansas to her store and teaching in November. As soon as I finish the samples I will post the photos of them.

Creative Cards

Saturday October 29th, 2:00pm - 4:30pm at Memory Bound in Royse City, TX. Call them at

972 635-6211 to sign up. The above photo has three of the six cards we will be doing in class. This is a new store for our area. Here is their website http://www.memory-bound.com/ .

Mouse Cards For September & October

2011-09-20T21:20:00.000-05:00

I forgot to post the samples of the mouse cards for September and October. So here they are.

Canton Finds

2011-09-08T21:42:00.002-05:00

I found a few things this past weekend when I went to Canton. The spoons I want to turn into hooks for the wall. I will hammer into the spoons after I flatten them with my metal letter stamps to spell different words. I thought the fabric pumpkins were so cute. Not sure what the little metal round cup thing is. It has a hole in it. I am going to put a nest on it and then a glass cloche on top. I love white pumpkins! This is fake one but that's OK it will last longer than a real one. I am always looking for the old black metal with silver numbers tape measures. They are hard to find. Well I found one. Finally the bag makes a great purse. Not sure what kind of bag it was. Mail or whatever I guess. It's lined with blue ticking material and the leather handles are nice.

I bought these metal trays at Canton several trips ago. I have been wanting a chalk board to put on the closet door at the end of my hallway. So I attached the two together and painted the chalk paint on the inside of the top one.

Makes a good magnet too. I had these glass bubble magnets on my fridge so I tried them on the trays and they worked. I wasn't sure if the chalk paint would demagnetize the trays or not.

I bought this ribbon with writing on it this Canton trip. I love it!

Art Group Swaps

2011-09-01T19:18:00.002-05:00

The other art group I belong to met last week. The swap theme was buttons. Below is what I ended up making. I took a canvas and spray painted it robin's egg blue. I attached a piece of ledger sheet and then dry brushed gesso on top to tone things down. I added some walnut stain distress ink to the canvas and then I cut a heart from felt and glued on lots of vintage buttons. I attached the heart to the canvas and used a charcoal pencil around the edge and also glued a piece of lace down.

This was Ros' piece. She made a card and used a vintage button on it. The photo is a relative of hers. Great photo!

This funny looking thing is Mary's piece. I love it because it looks to me like it's an alien or something! That is a huge button and I love the paper it's mounted on. Bark paper and then a handmade one she made. Great colors on both.

This cute thing is Joyce's. I love how she used a spool for a vase. Very creative idea. Of course thread in one of my favorite colors is wound on the spool.

This how I packaged my canvas to give to the girls. A brown sack and I made a special button tag to go with each.

Tags I made.

Art to Show

2011-08-21T22:42:00.000-05:00

Well, I was on vacation this week so I didn't get much art done. I did however ruffle crepe paper rolls for a friend one day. Didn't take that long really but the needle kept coming un-threaded for some reason. I think the thread was getting caught in a crack in my presser foot. I finally got two rolls done though. Here is a photo of them all ruffled!

Today, I went to one of my art group meetings. We made cute little birds from blue jean strips. Well I made a heart instead because I kept having trouble with my bird. I made the tail to long at first and then of course there wasn't enough strip left for the body and head. He would have had too small of a head. So I un-rolled him and made the heart. Here is a picture of some of the other ladies birds.

Traci Hutton in our group came up with the idea for the birds. She is sooo creative. She makes the most wonderful softies and here is her web site link http://www.art-t-dolls.com/index.html . She has great gourd people too. Like I said she is very creative! Next month we are making cats for Halloween. I can't wait!

Our swap theme was birds and here is a photo of what I received back. Donna J. made the tall wooden bird with the stripe legs. Cool! Olga made the glitzy bird and Caroline made the fabric ATC. Olga's bird is from a die cut. My jean strip heart is in the photo too.

Here is a better photo of the ATC. It's very pretty. Caroline did a great job on it.

Below is what I did for the swap. It's a canvas board with a flamingo collage copied on tissue paper. I waxed it to the board with clear wax then added some red and copper wax on the edges. I also melted a pink glitter crayon for some shimmer. I ruffled some orange crepe and glued that to the back and added the pink tinsel garland to the bottom of the collage. Then hung it from pink ribbon.

We had some great show-in-tell today. Dale Wigley made some incredible bracelets. Her Etsy Shop link is http://www.etsy.com/shop/DalesJewelry?ref=seller_info . She will have them listed soon but do check out her shop because she has some beautiful chainmail pieces already listed. She makes her own jump rings for the jewelry. That is a job!

Jeanne has been experimenting with making moths or butterflies from fabric. She made two in the photo and purchased the other one. I personally think hers are just as wonderful as the bought one. The purchased one came from here http://www.etsy.com/shop/MisterFinch?ref=pr_shop_more and it's the bottom one in the photo.

She also made these whimsical little party hats pictured below. She sells her items at The Red Shed http://redshedonline.com/ . Go check them out! She does wonderful collage art too!

Dale went to Art Unraveled in AZ recently and took this book class from Dan Essig. The book on the left in the photo has a tin type on the front and the closure wraps around and then has a magnet that sticks to the tin type. Really neat idea! The other book on the right has covers made from mica. I also took a close-up of the creative stitching on the spine.

Well, vacation was nice but it's back to work on Tuesday! The meeting was a nice way to start the week off.

Class at Stamp Asylum

2011-08-05T21:51:00.002-05:00

I will be teaching my card class, Creative Cards next Saturday, August 13th from 3:00 pm - 5:30 pm at Stamp Asylum. The cost is $55.00. Call the store to sign up at (972) 596-1224.

In this class you will make six cards. Learn a few new techniques

or be reminded of one long forgotten. At the end of class you

will have a stack of cards to be used for any occasion.

All supplies provided.

July Swap For Meeting

2011-07-20T19:53:00.000-05:00

This is the project I made as a swap for one of my art meetings this month. I took an old photo album page and inserted a Paper Whimsy http://www.paperwhimsy.com/ image. Colored the fabric flowers with Glimmer Mist http://mytatteredangels.com/ and added rhinestone centers to all the flowers. I also colored the ribbon used for the hanger with Glimmer Mist.

Thank You Crowns

2011-07-10T20:56:00.000-05:00

I finished making the crowns today for everyone that helped me with my class for Paper Cowgirl. I literally worked on them all day. They turned out great.

I had these wooden stands and they are wonderful for displaying the crowns. I need to find more of these. They are really candle holders I think.

I love the fabric flower trim I used on this one. I sewed a rhinestone in the middle for sparkle.

This sequin flower trim from Hobby Lobby is really pretty and a friend of mine even coffee stained some of hers.

Rhinestone jewelry is perfect for these beauties and I need to restock my stash now.

House Mouse Card For August

2011-07-03T17:38:00.000-05:00

August is for starting school again. Seems like Summer just started but here it is July already and it will be over before you know it.

A Crown For Joni

2011-06-26T23:14:00.000-05:00

Joni Russell from the Artful Illusions rubber stamp company was so generous with helping me on my class at Paper Cowgirl. I wanted to do something special for her. So I made this crown and two of my friends were going to her store in Kansas this weekend so they took it to her. I heard she loved it.

Mouse Card For July

2011-06-26T23:05:00.000-05:00

Here is the House Mouse card for July. Isn't he soooo cute?

Things For Sale on My Etsy Site

2011-06-18T23:55:00.000-05:00

I added these hangers to my etsy shop tonight. I had some left over from Paper Cowgirl. You get six in a package for $9.00. I made them by hand and they are great for displaying your art or whatever you want to hang from them.

They are packaged in a cellophane bag with shred and tied together with seam binding ribbon. I added a Kraft colored topper with a stamped tag at the top to close the bag.

This is a card hanging from the clips on the hanger.

This is a three strand crochet bracelet with beads and a toggle closure.

This sachet has lavender inside it. Smells really great! Place in a drawer or closet. Makes a great gift for someone special.

If your interested in any of these items please go visit my etsy site at http://www.etsy.com/shop/donnagoss

Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat 2011

2011-06-15T22:21:00.001-05:00

table with everyone's class samples

I attended the Paper Cowgirl Retreat in Waxahachie this past Thursday thru Saturday. It was so much fun! We started off with a meet and greet on Thursday at The Dove's Nest http://thedovesnestrestaurant.com/ . This is a wonderful store full of great finds from jewelry to clothing and home decor. We had good food and Lisa Pace http://www.lisapace.com/ was the guest speaker as well as being a teacher at the retreat. Her speech was funny and very informative. I enjoyed it a lot. All the students got to mingle with the teachers (me being a teacher) and each other. It was a whimsical evening and everyone was really nice and friendly.

name badges

Nicki and Tammy

dress Ann-Denise made

This fabulous dress was made by the Queen of Crepe Paper, Ann-Denise Anderson. She is a whiz with paper in general. The dress is made from coffee filters, crepe paper and tissue paper I think too.
It had paper clay flowers on the bodice. Just gorgeous!!

back of dress

This is the back of the dress and it's even pretty. Such detail went into making it.

food table

This was the food table at the meet and greet. Yummy fruit, hummus, veggies and wrap sandwiches.

everyone visiting

me and my boots

Cindy the Head Cowgirl making her welcome speech. She really did a great job of planning things and getting it all together.

Here is Lisa Pace during her speech. She spoke on getting published in magazines and how to write a book. She was great! So funny and her info was really good. She has a new book coming out in January of 2012.

apron swap

There were lots of swaps to participate in. I did not have time to join any but loved seeing all the goodies that were exchanged. This was the "apron swap" participants. There were some great aprons made!

cigar box swap inside

cigar swap outside

The cigar box swap was over the top. This is just one of the boxes. Cami did this one. Very creative!

badge swap

This coin purse was an item in the badge swap. I Loved it! Never would have thought of this. Jennifer did it.

Tanya, Mendy, Nicki, me and Tammy

Friday night we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in downtown Waxahachie. Some of the stores stayed open late for us Paper Cowgirls to shop at. Fun time!

Cami Wallace Dilsaver

Kristi's dress

I know this looks funny but I wanted to see under Kristi's dress. She had pinned old photos and cabinet cards to the skirt under the tulle skirt. So you saw them thru the tulle skirt. Very cute!

Marsha Albee

Marsha won the Prom Queen contest. She bought this real prom dress for $5 I heard. Great deal if she did!

prom table decorations

The Prom was at Polka Dots, a store in Waxahachie. They sell jewelry and clothing but I also think the owner does photography too. There were several beautiful portraits in large blown up format around the store.

drink table at prom

sweets table at prom

photo with props

Kristi, me and Marsha getting our photo taken with the glittered guns! There were some large pictures frames laying around too for props.

my students

Here is my class working away on their mobiles. They were a great group and finished stamping their tags really quickly. I got a lot of compliments on how organized and how cute my kits were. It really made me feel good being my first time to teach at this venue.

samples in class

Kristi concentrating

bag kits were in

I had a few kits left over from class and am thinking about putting them in my Etsy Shop. Just need to find time to take photos and list them. I did have packages of hangers left too and am going to list them for sure soon.

vendor night finds

Vendor Night was Saturday evening. There were some great items for sale. I got this iron piece from Leslie Venable's http://www.flatwoodsfolkart.typepad.com/ booth. She said it was from Savannah. I am guessing it came off a porch. It is really heavy!

goodies from vendor night

Here are the rest of my goodies from that night. Flowers, jewelry, collage stuff and beads.

cuff bracelet

This is a beautiful cuff bracelet I bought from Dale McLain http://dalemclain.blogspot.com/ . I thought the colors were really pretty and love the rhinestones in the middle.

bon ton trip

I made a trip to the store called Bon Ton on Saturday after my class. I had a little extra time before Vendor Night. This store is so cool! Lots of vintage clothing, jewelry (as you can see that is what I bought) and retro items. Old stuff to look through and bring back memories of when I was younger. It has been in business for around 28 years the owner told me that day. It is in Forreston I think is the city and it's about 5 - 10 minutes outside downtown Waxahachie. I think these would be great additions to the wool felt crowns I have been making.

tiara

I bought this tiara too! My first one to own. I don't have a head to put it on but will look for some statue or something to use it on. Not sure how old it is but it has all it's stones intact.

Paper Cowgirl was wonderful. Everyone was so friendly and that made it easy to make new friends. I look forward to the Wicked Tea in the Fall. I went to last years as a student and plan on doing the same this year. Watch the Paper Cowgirl blog for more info about it. Only like 30 something people will be allowed to sign up for it. So you have to watch closely for when the sign up starts.

June 4th Graduation Day

2011-06-06T18:14:00.001-05:00

Acting goofy before he left for the arena.

All the graduates threw up their hats! It was really cool to watch. Blair said he didn't get hat when he left. What a bummer!!

With me outside the areana afterwards. Holding that diploma!! Not a great picture and then we didn't get one with his Dad. He had gone to get the car. It was so hot outside! Blair was sweating so bad in that gown. He said it felt like he was in a sauna!

It's over now and Blair is glad to be out of high school. Had a small party with family on Sunday. He wants to work and play through the Summer then start Richland College in the Fall. He is not sure what he wants to do yet career wise but is nterested in radiology and finance. He has plenty of time to decide.

Last Day of School

2011-05-27T21:29:00.001-05:00

Today was the last day of High School for my son Blair! Of course he says it's no big deal but it is!! Here are some of his Senior pictures. The graduation ceremony is next weekend on June 4th.

Where has the time gone? It just seems like yesterday that he was this blond headed and I mean really blond headed little boy (now it's turned darker). The time has just flown by, and especially so these last few years. He is taller than me now, has a job and a very independent attitude. He will finish up at Richland Jr. College and then who knows what he will do, but I am sure it will be something special.

House Mouse Card For June

2011-05-23T22:11:00.000-05:00

Here is the Mouse card for June. I have been using my Nestabilities a little more lately. In fact the one I am working on now for August I am using another one. I think they give deminsion to the card instead of just cutting things into squares all the time.

Todays Various Art Projects

2011-05-23T22:07:00.000-05:00

Today I worked on various projects that were on my to do list. Of course there is never enough time in the day to get everything done. LOL But I did get some things accomplished. Above is a graduation card I made. My Son is graduating High School in two weeks and I needed several of these for some of his friends gifts. That Tim Holtz http://timholtz.com/ Rosette die is a gem! I love it!

I came up with this banner for my Son's graduation party. He said he did not want a party but we have to do something with the Family, and I am trying to still make it special for him. The school colors are orange, blue and white so I made the banner in those colors. It's chip board letters that I painted and then stuck white cardstock on the back to show through the letters. Then I added clear sparkly glass glitter to the white part. It came out good I think. Never mind my red curtains. This was the best place to hang it for the photo. Not sure where it will go for the party yet.

These little roses are for a swap in one of my art groups. Actually we made the flowers at my other art group meeting last Sunday. I decided to use them for the other art group's swap since the theme was shades of turquoise. It worked out perfect! I painted little wooden cubes then stamped them. Drilled a hole in the top for the wire. Glued the flower and wire and I was done!

This flower was done from some inspiration from my friend Jeanne. She did one and mounted it to a rock. Really cool! She said it was on the cover of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine but they used fabric. We both used paper. I added glossy accents to the paper too. This gave it a shine. My leaf could have been bigger though but oh well. I should have cut my wire longer to start with. I am not even sure how much wire I used. LOL

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T22:02:00.000-05:00

I received this beautiful bouquet of Gerber Daisy's today from my husband and son. Not sure what the greenery is called but I like it.

He is growing up so fast! Graduating from High School in June. Where has the time gone?

Left Over Wool Felt Art

2011-05-07T23:03:00.000-05:00

These are little art pieces made from left over wool felt when you cut out crowns. Some are free hand shaped hearts and a few were cut with a die cut machine. My piece is the photo above with the heart on the hanging wall art board. I love the K & Co. paper called Celeste and the one called Flora and Fauna. I used paper from one of these pads for the piece. You can purchase these two pads at Michael's.

House Mouse Card For May

2011-05-07T22:57:00.000-05:00

Here is the Mouse card I designed for May. I used Copic Markers to color it. These mice grow on you after awhile. I do not like real mice but these are cute!

Class and a Crown

2011-05-02T17:39:00.001-05:00

I will be teaching my Creative Card class this Saturday from 3:00pm to 5:30pm at Stamp Asylum. Below is a photo of one of the cards we will be making. In this class you make six cards using different techniques. It's really fun and the card pictured below is great for Mother's Day!

I made this cute blue crown at one of my art group meetings the other night. Just love that color!!
I picked up the rhinestone piece of jewelry on it at Warrenton.

Paper Cowgirl Made the Newspaper Today

2011-05-02T17:18:00.000-05:00

Paper Cowgirl is in the news today! The Dallas Morning News featured the retreat in an article in the Arts and Life Guide. Check out the blog for more details on the article http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/
You still have time to sign up for classes at the retreat. Here is the link for more info http://pcregistration.blogspot.com/ Not sure of the cut off date for sign ups but I know it's this month. So GIDDY UP girls and boys!!

Round Top/Warrenton Antique Show Final Installment

2011-05-01T21:45:00.000-05:00

This is Kristi Knox http://junkology.wordpress.com/about/ and Theresa Cano http://gardenantqs.blogspot.com/ . I have been checking out Theresa's blog for some time. I found her when I bought something in her booth at Winnie & Tallulah's in Athens, TX. She doesn't have one there anymore, now she is in McKinney at an antique store. She has great stuff! Her blog is fun and she is always traveling around Texas to let us know of great places to shop and shows to attend. She is full of info! Pictures of her booth at Zapp Hall are below. She had a wonderful booth! Kristi I met there at the show. But it is such a small world because she is taking my class at Paper Cowgirl! I could not believe I met a student in my class! Of all the the places to be and meet her. It was great! She is so sweet and I can't wait for my class in June to see her again.

Loved this couch area.

Looking in from the outside.

Check out the flowers wrapped in the corset.

Button chair by table. Yum!

This is looking down the hwy from the side of the road we were shopping on. Bumper to bumper of cars. we never even shopped on the other side of the road. Have to do that next trip!

We found this wonderful sleigh and I said lets get inside and take photos of each other. So we did. Melody took this one of me. we bought hats to keep the sun off our faces and they really were a blessing.

Junk Gypsy http://www.gypsyville.com/ was a fun booth to shop! They had some great items. I bought a rhinestone crown belt buckle and black leather belt for it. I also got a colorful teal and lime green dingle ball scarf. I just need something to wear it with. LOL Photos of their booth is below.

Jewelry table.

My husband said "poor deers" because of the crowns.

We parked by this building. Wonderful rusted texture on the sides.

This booth is Paris Montana http://www.parismontana.blogspot.com/ . They had some cool jewelry. I loved what these two ladies were wearing. You would see ladies all day long wearing fabulous stuff. They were probably going to the prom later that night. We were to tired to come back for it. maybe next time.

Back of ladies shirt.

Found all kinds of neat metal toy trucks! I still remember from a photo of Sally Jean Alexander's studio in Where Women Create of her robins egg blue metal truck. She put glues in hers I think. I never saw a robins egg blue one though or I would have bought it. Love that color!

This was just a cool set up with the lights. Same booth with the metal toy trucks.

Coca Cola sign in Japanese or Chinese. Not sure which since I can't read it. But I am pretty sure that it says Coca Cola.

Several booths when walking around Warrenton.

This was across from Junk Gypsy.

Loved these tassels. Great idea coming on! Have to make some for myself!

I thought it was weird to be selling a casket so I took a photo of it. The arch things above it are fabulous though.

This was a cute booth. Love how they used doors for an archway.

This was where we got cart liners. Really cute ones. They were from Winnie and Tallulah. Although that is not what the booth was called. I think it was Split pea but I am not for sure. I have seen them at a booth in Winnie and Tallulah.

Well that's it for my trip down South. It was really fun and I highly recommend you going. The show is twice a year, Spring and Fall. Check out this site for more info http://www.antiqueweekend.com/indexmain.html .

Round Top/Warrenton Antique Show 3rd Installment

2011-04-23T21:07:00.000-05:00

We had to take time to get some photos of the blue bonnets. These were in Brenham, TX and the last two photos are from Round Top, TX.

Marburger Farm is one of the shows you have to pay to get into. It really is worth it though. The booths are nicely decorated with vignette displays like you would see in regular stores. They really pay attention to how their merchandise is shown.

Loved the color of this chair! But I didn't buy it. I was good.

This little girly was wonderful. I love the idea.

The crackle finish on this cabinet was gorgeous!

Isn't this a great use of faucet handles?

Lots of the walls in the booths were even taken care of. This whole booth had the vintage ceiling tiles on their walls. I thought this chair was such a contrast in color to this wall. Really pretty.

The wall in this booth was covered in book pages. Great idea! I have seen photos in magazines where a wall in a room was done this way.

Remember this guy? My family would eat at Kips Big Boy when I was a child. Fun memories.

This is Diane Cook and her husband. She had a great booth. Check out her blog http://rosa-josies.blogspot.com/ . She does fantastic jewelry! If you have a chance to take a class from her jump on it!

Cuff bracelet by Diane

Other pieces of Diane's jewelry.

Wonderful thimble necklace.

Fancy cuff bracelets.

Magnolia Pearl was at Marburger Farm http://www.magnoliapearl.com/ . These photos DO NOT do this booth justice! Their blog has a few pics of the bird cage dress and it's in better light so you can see it. Robin Brown (the owner) was in Stampington & Company magazine "Where Women Create" issue Nov/Dec/Jan 2011. I did not realize until I read the article she is from Bandera , TX. Her clothing has a gypsy kinda theme to it I think. Very comfortable to wear.

Beautiful dresses were made with wire, bodices, and I don't know what else. They were fabulous! The one in the photo above was right outside the booth and this one was inside.

Check out this magnolia flower made from paper. It was huge!! Stuck on a corner of the booth.

This bird cage hung inside the booth from the center of the tent like structure. The structure was constructed of burlap wrapped around wires and it kind of reminded me of dregs. It looked really cool though! Books had been cut into birds and were hanging from the ceiling.

Here is one of the birds made from a book.

This dress has real birds in the skirt cage. It was on the outside of the booth, opposite side from the other dress I showed earlier. The detail on the dresses was wonderful. Whoever thought of the decorations in this booth is VERY VERY creative!! Looked steampunkish! Which is soooo popular now.

Round Top/Warrenton Antique Show 2nd Installment

2011-04-14T20:21:00.001-05:00

Leftovers Antiques http://leftoversantiques.net/ is a great place for vignette ideas. They have some beautiful items in the store and really know how to display them.

These glass globe bottles were just huge on this table. A dramatic setting.

An apple on top of a derby.

Cool mirrors and bath rub.

These stars were made from some kind of wood and it reminded me of the beach.

Glass eggs and a velvet bird.

Need a trophy?

Real birds.

Ice cream scoops in a case.

Bath items in great little bags.

Lavender in sachets made from vintage linens.

This soothing lavender bed would be wonderful to sleep in.

Brenham is the little town where we stayed during our trip. There were some great shops downtown to visit. One of them was Beadboard Upcountry beadboardupcountry.com. This shop had home decor items as well as clothing and linens. The clothing and bed linens are imported from Italy if I remember right. They were beautiful!

Love to sit here and have a long chat with a friend.

This chair was at near their front door and I have never seen a chair cover that is scrunched like this. Wonderful material!

Perched on a high shelf this pillow with fabric flowers was peeking down on the store.

Love this bed!

This pillow was a scrumptious blue color and had swarovski crystals near the trim and buttons.

These flowers were sitting along this staircase outside a building downtown and I thought they were really pretty.

Melody and I ate lunch here and they have the best pie I have ever eaten! I had chocolate and she had kilime. My stuffed avocado was great too and so was her quiche.

Round Top/Warrenton Antique Show 1st Installment

2011-04-08T22:17:00.000-05:00

Well we had a blast at the show! I highly recommend going. It's a huge one and you will need several days to look around. Lots of walking and the ground is not even all the time. You might be on gravel one minute and grass or sand the next. Check out this link for more info to plan your trip down South. http://www.antiqueweekend.com/indexmain.html The Fall show is Sept.29th thru Oct. 2nd.

We shopped almost all day of the three days we were there. From like 9:30am to 6:00pm. It was hot and we bought hats the first day to keep the sun off our faces. They helped a bunch. There are tents set up on the land off the Hwy and some buildings. Down in Warrenton it's pretty crowed with booths. One right next to the other. Right next to Hwy 237 and then out in the fields. Round Top has some areas with farms or land separating the areas to shop.

We shopped mostly in Warrenton but did attend another show on Hwy 237 before Round Top (La Bahia). Marburger Farms is one of the shows you pay to go into but really worth it to see the displays in the booths. We did not go into Fayetteville, Shelby or Carmine but there are places there also to shop. Where we were we still did not see it all.

You will find so much stuff it is unreal! If you need furniture and I mean antique pieces, this show is the one to go to. Some items were expensive but there were plenty that were just the right price. I saw some wonderful drawer units that would be great for my studio but I just do not have the room. They would store lots of stuff though! I noticed too that some items (not furniture) were plentiful there but are hard to find here locally. Like small vintage Christmas balls just to name one. Did not find a baby bed springs, or thick yard sticks. I was looking for both of those items. But I found plenty of stuff. Below are some photos of my stash then some of the things we saw on our adventure. I will post more photos in another post later.

metal tags, metal tape measure

child's costume patterns, spoons, crochet ball, beaded trim, buttons, corks, rhinestone jewelry, wood block stamp, poodle statue (like my baby Duke!), Diane Cook charms check out her blog http://rosa-josies.blogspot.com/

doorknobs, scarf, belt with rhinestone crown buckle, hot sauce, pumpkin jelly, cucumber melon loofah soap, bird house for the birds to eat off of, Christmas ornaments, foreign money, metal numbers

paper boy bag with cool linen sack sewn on top, scarf, flower

t-shirt

Round Top Here I Come!

2011-03-28T21:14:00.000-05:00

I am off to Round Top on Wednesday of this week with some friends. We are soooo excited because none of us has been before! I am sure we will be so overwhelmed. I hope to take pictures of lots of stuff and post them when I get back.

This antique extravaganza happens in the Spring and then again in the Fall. It is suppose to be well worth the trip. People come from all over the country. I happen to just have been on a blog http://mydesertcottage.blogspot.com/ by a lady from Scottsdale Arizona. She is coming. You can check out this blog http://www.antiqueweekend.com/indexmain.html if your interested in coming in the Fall. They have listed lots of great info for you.

Also, check out http://gardenantqs.blogspot.com/ Garden Vintage Antiques blog. She will have a booth at Zapp Hall. She also is having a blog party tonight there. Wish I was already there and could attend that. I found out about her when she had a booth at a shop down in Malakoff, TX. Her blog is very interesting. She travels all over Texas and visits antique shops and all kinds of other great places. So check her out.

We will have three fun days to shop til we drop! See ya when I get back!

House Mouse Card For April

2011-03-25T18:22:00.000-05:00

Here is what I was doing several weekends ago. Mass production of House Mouse cards for April. 95 of these little babies shipped off last Friday to Oklahoma to be sent out to various stamping and scrapbooking stores.Here is a close-up of the finished card. I added Diamond Stickles to the lemons. It turned out very cute!

Paper Cowgirl Class Registration

2011-03-11T18:57:00.000-06:00

Paper Cowgirl registration for classes is in full swing. Be sure to go check out the list and sign up for your favorites. A few are already sold out! Here is the link http://pcregistration.blogspot.com/ Don't forget the vendor night is on Saturday evening June 11th.

Brayer Class Cards

2011-03-01T17:13:00.000-06:00

I went to Spring Texas this past weekend to take a few brayer classes from Michelle Zindorf http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/ . I must say she is a wiz with the brayer! If you ever have a chance to take a class from her DO NOT hesitate! It is fun and you will learn some great techniques using this tool that a lot of us do not pick up anymore. I hope to develop some classes to teach at

Stamp Asylum later this year using the things I learned.

Valentine Swap & Steampunk Heart

2011-03-01T17:00:00.000-06:00

These painted tin cans were for a Valentine swap in one of my art groups. Using the paper rosette die by Tim Holtz to accent the front of the can and fringed tulle behind it gave a fun dimensional look.

This beauty is made from clay in the Steampunk style of art. I made it at another one of my art group meetings. Two ladies taught us the how to. I decided to frame it at the suggestion of another friend.

House Mouse Cards For January, February & March

2011-02-11T19:13:00.001-06:00

Trying to stay caught up on the House Mouse cards. This one is January. I thought it reminded me of the New Year. So I tried to make it look a little formal. If you can make a mouse look formal. LOL

February of course had to be sorta Valentine-ish. Or about sweets anyway.

March was just fun! Those mice sure can get in some weird places.

Big Announcement!!

2011-02-09T15:27:00.000-06:00

I will be teaching at Paper Cowgirl this Summer June 9th - 11th!! Go to the blog http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/ and check out what is being offered in the way of classes. There are some great teachers and projects. Lisa Pace is going to be the guest speaker and she will also have a class. Registration info will be posted soon. You can also go visit the Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paper-Cowgirl-Art-Retreat/366841747497#!/pages/Paper-Cowgirl-Art-Retreat/366841747497 to keep up to date as to what is going on. So go check it out and help support this local art retreat. There is also going to be a vendor night. More info will be posted when available.

This is my class - Artful Vintage Tag Mobile. Joni from Artful Illusions http://www.mrsolearysart.com/ graciously gave me permission to teach it. I will be gathering supplies and figuring out a special handout with surprise for my students. I need to get busy because this class has a lot of prep work!

Classes I Will Be Teaching At Stamp Asylum

2011-02-08T22:34:00.002-06:00

Listed below are the two classes I have this quarter at Stamp Asylum.

Creative Cards

February 19th 10:00am - 12:30pm

In this class you will make six cards. Learn a few new techniques or be reminded of one long forgotten. At the end of class you will have a stack of cards to be used for any occasion.

All supplies provided.

$55.00

Vintage Inspired Jewelry
March 19th 10:00am - 12:30pm

Using Tim Holtz products from his Ideology Line you will create a vintage looking necklace and cuff bracelet. His baubles, keys, chains and trims are wonderful added to rhinestones and felt for an old world look. Bring to class a bottle of Fabri-Tac, scissors, xacto knife, cutting board, jewelry pliers (2 pair for opening jump rings) and wire cutters. All other supplies provided.
$35.00

Valentine Crowns & Other Fun Stuff

2011-02-07T19:46:00.005-06:00

Check out these wool felt crowns I made for a couple of my friends for Valentines Day. So fun to make these. You can put detail into the decorations or do something simple. I bought the wool felt in red, cream, green and ochre. Need to cut out some more.
The two little crowns have different beading around the bottom and different hearts but otherwise they are the same.

This one is larger and it is mine! There is pink tinsel around the bottom below the white ruffle and pink flowers. I have been saving the vintage rhinestone heart pin for one of these beauties.
These are crocheted bracelets. My friend Jeanne made some and I thought they were so cool. I did change up the closure on mine. She had crocheted a loop to slip back over a bead. Since I am new to crochet I had to figure something else out. Saw a video on youtube for a crocheted multi strand necklace. It was strung this way and used the bead cones to bring it all together with a closure. It worked for me!

These are really quick to make since your just using the chain stitch of crochet. Just have to thread all the beads on before you start.
Finished this scarf. The yarn was different for me to knit with. Never used anything like it. After I got the hang of it (knitted between the balls) it was fun. Used one skein of yarn. Although I think if I do it again I will either make it skinnier (so it will be longer) or use another skein of yarn.

Winter Wonderland in Texas

2011-02-04T09:52:00.003-06:00

Here in Rowlett we got five inches of snow last night. It is so beautiful! This has been a crazy weather week in Texas for sure. Ice started on Monday night and had to stay home for two days. Finally got to get out and go to work yesterday. Things were still messy though on the roads and our parking lot at work was like an ice rink. Today we have snow!

This is out behind my house by the lake.
All bundled up!

I caught some birds taking off from the lake. Part of the lake is frozen near the shore.
Alan holding Duke our dog.
Duke running through the snow. It was so funny to watch him. He was excited about being outside and things being so different than usual when he's out. I finally had to take his sweater off him because it was wet. When we came in the house the fur on his belly was matted with snow. I had to wet him to get it off. Just drying him with a towel was not working.

Blair walking down to the lake.
My baby covered in snow!
The lake frozen at the edge.

Well, I am staying inside where it's warm and hope to get some art projects done. I will post what I create later.

Wool Hearts & Soldered Pendants

2011-02-01T18:02:00.008-06:00

These little cuties came from the scraps of the wool crown I posted the other day. When I cut the peaks on the crown I had these pieces left over. So I cut them into hearts. My friend Jeanne told us this idea when she showed us how to do the crowns. Works out great!

I sewed on buttons, rhinestones, seed beads, pearls and seam binding ribbon to finish them off.

These soldered and resin pendants were done in the online class I took from Stephanie Lee.

These two I made part of the chain also. This was a great class and I highly recommend it if she offers it again. She showed us how to make the nest from wire and how to add the beads (eggs). Flooding the brass base was a challenge. It takes some practice and I need more! The patina hides some of the flaws and that helps.
The boy in this round pendant I mounted him up so he looks dimensional inside the resin.

I made nest earrings and the other nest I will make into a pendant with a dangle below. That is why the wire has been left long. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the whole thing in the beginning.
Two of these are not filled yet. The one with the four eyelets I might make into a bracelet.
These have German glass glitter, pearls and charms inside. There is also a few star beads in the wish one.

I really liked making the nests. It was not hard at all.
This butterfly necklace I gave to a friend. She loves butterflies.
This one was a gift to my niece for her birthday.

Fun Art

2011-01-27T20:43:00.004-06:00

I made this wool felt crown last weekend at my friend Jeanne's house. She gave a class to several of us. I worried I would not like the sewing part but it was really fun. Not tedious like I thought. I hand sewed all the pearls and seed beads on plus whip stitched the crown together. Everything else was glued on. I think it came out great.

This is a close-up of the focal piece of jewelry I used. It is a vintage pin I think I got at The Cattle Barn last year sometime. I pinned it on instead of gluing it. So if I ever want to take it off I can.
Detail of the pearls and seed beads.
Detail of the trims. Rhinestone strand, fringed tulle, a fancy gold trim and a sequin flower trim.

Played with encaustic wax at my last art group meeting. This is on a wooden stamp base. I painted the sides and back with black acrylic paint. The front is clear and blue wax. I color copied the birds and the background and attached everything with the wax. The trim on the right is a scrapbooking border. I scratched into the cooled wax and then rubbed black oil paint in the cracks. Wiped off the excess with a paper towel. It was a fun technique.
This is a tin can. I did this at another one of my art group meetings. It is based on ones that Lisa Kaus http://www.lisakaus.com/ does. I want to find some bigger tins and make some more. I am going to make some for Valentines Day. I will post those when I get them done.

I had to show this. My friend Jeanne sent it to me in the mail. Love it!! She bought the scarf I think, but she crocheted the flowers and trim. wonderful!!! She has been adding flowers to gloves too. I received a black pair of those. She is soooo creative!!

Valentine Banners

2011-01-12T18:46:00.003-06:00

I finished the Valentine Banners. They will be for sale at Stamp Asylum starting Thursday. Come by to see them in person because these photos do not do them justice. They are really cute!

Look What We Got Yesterday

2011-01-10T21:42:00.005-06:00

SNOW! Not much but it was pretty to see it falling and collecting on the trees. East and North of us got more in accumulation. First snow of the year is always special though.

Down at the creek by my house.

Field at the end of my street.

More in the yard. The people across the street built three snowmen in their yard. They were really cute and I should have gotten a picture but didn't.

This was what I was working on while it was snowing. All day I made rosettes for Valentine banners. I will post a photo of the completed banners when I finish them. If you do not have the die by Tim Holtz that cuts the rosettes you need it! The die makes it so easy. I also learned a trick from Absolutely Everything. http://www.absolutelyeverythingblog.blogspot.com/ Kate puts Tim's tissue tape on the back or front of the cut out strips. This helps reinforce them. Then they do not have a tendency to tear along the perforated lines. They can do this when you use to thin a paper. It also adds a decorative touch to the finished rosettes. Try it!

Of course if you don't have the tissue tape, Stamp Asylum does. Call (972 596-1224) or stop by the store and we will see you get some. The dies are still on back order but should be in stock this month. We can always call you when they come in if you let us know you want one.

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T16:42:00.003-06:00

Hope everyone had a great holiday and is ready for 2011!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T17:25:00.004-06:00

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Early Christmas Gifts

2010-12-19T16:08:00.002-06:00

Look what I got for Christmas!! A Tim Holtz Vagabond!! Whooo Hooo!!! I took it out of the box but have only had time to run an embossing folder through it just to see how it works. Can't wait to have more time to play with it.

My friend Jeanne made this wonderful crown for me out of felt. Isn't it the cutest thing you have ever seen?
My friend Carla who will tell you she is not crafty (but she can be when she wants to) made this wreath. She surprised me and made several this season as gifts for family and friends. She did a great job!

I saw this idea on another blog and I am so sorry because I can't give credit where I saw it. I thought is was a cute idea. I made them for the ladies in one of my art groups. Just get the clear ornaments and fill with buttons. The cool thing though about them is, and you probably can't see it from these photos, but I took the cap off the ornament and pulled out the wire from the cap. Ran the wire through a button then put it back in the cap and then back inside the ornament. Really cute! I then tied lace and ric rac on the cap. Glued a button over the knot.

My friend Melody made this ornament. Love it! The bird inside the cage is so sweet.

Busy Making Art

2010-11-30T17:56:00.006-06:00

I made lavender sachets with iron-ons of bird cages and crowns to sell at Stamp Asylum. I also made some snowflake banners that say JOY. They are all packaged and ready to go to the store. There is also some single ornaments made with snowflakes but you could use them as package tags instead. All priced from $6.00 to $18.00. Go by Stamp Asylum http://stampasylum.blogspot.com/ and check them out. They would make perfect gifts or stocking stuffers.

I saw a frame similar to this at an antique store. The price was like $80.00. I could not believe it! I found a frame and made my own using seam binding ribbon, bottles, tags and anything else I thought would be cool and arty.

I filled this bottle later with pearls and another small one with German glass glitter.

My friend Jeanne made this little collage and it was on a card she gave me. I color copied it and added it to this shipping tag with a page from a book and some rhinestones.

This is a swap piece I made for one of my art groups. The snowflake is 17". It is huge! I made a big rosette and sprayed it with glimmer mist and added some stickles. Layered on the square doily and silver round one with the deer made the perfect Christmas ornament.

This is an ornament I made at one of my art group meetings. The host had bought a larger one at an after Christmas sale last year and thought our group could re-create it. Using pipe cleaners, Christmas picks (for flower arrangements), tinsel, color copies and hot glue an ornament was born. It was really fun to make !

This is the top. Taking apart the picks is easy and it makes you look at decorations in a different light. I see more of these in my future. I for sure am going to watch for things on sale after Christmas!