Whew!  Been in a bit of a blog slump lately!  But enough about that already!

Here's a little something we all had an opportunity to make in Gypsy Book Club the other night.  

Our guest was Designer and Educator with Prima, Jamie Severtson Dougherty.  She brought us goodies and taught us how to create this cute little wall hanging...or, journal cover.  I made it into a wall hanging.   It says, 

"I will not allow anything to wilt me."  

I like it, and I like the very talented Jamie.

Go to her website and check out the gorgeous painting she donated to Charity Wings.

That particular quote came from the Brave Girls Art School.  It's a Brave Girl, Melody Ross, on-line class that I have been taking with some of my friends from Book Club.

Starting Funky Flowers Project

Maybe I should have stopped here!

Here's some pics of a few of our Brave Girls.

Kathren and Alicia

Alma and Gaye

Kat and Anne

Completed Funky Flowers

 We are learning how to be good to ourselves through art and words.  I struggled with the flower project.  Maybe I just went to far with it.  I think there was a point when I kind of liked it, but you know how we think more is better.  Hmmm!  I gave it to Cyndi, my book club friend, and she was happy with it, which in turn made me happy.  The pics are important for me because, I'm not usually this hard on myself with regard to art.  I need to remember.

This week we are going to make TRUTH signs. 

You can still sign up for Brave Girls Art School.

CHA Live with Elena from Charity Wings

Have you ever want to attend the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show, (CHA)?  Here’s an awesome opportunity for you to see everything live streaming right from your computer.  Or, you can watch it later as your schedule permits. Check it out here.

 

LIVE from CHA is a Charity Wings' Fundraiser for A Place to Bark. Buying a raffle ticket gets you an insiders look into the CHA’s Summer Trade Show.

AND A CHANCE TO WIN OVER $4500 WORTH OF PRIZES!

July 17 & 18th, 2012
10am - 6pm daily Chicago time

• 45 LIVE online Manufacturer and Designer Interviews
• Interactive Chat
• 45 Giveaways each with a minimum $100 value
• Recorded footage to watch whenever you like
• All you need is an internet connection!

Find out more and purchase raffle tickets at Charity Wings here.

Check out this short video with Elena sharing a little more about this unbelievable event.

Art With the Doodle Girls

I get the opportunity to spend art time with my friends, Anne and Cynthia, once a month. 

This is Anne showing us her sweet card.

On this particular occasion, Anne and I had just gotten back from the Scrapbook Expo and we were so inspired to make cards.

We used a glitter paper that we made ourselves.  Lots of cutting involved, which is not really my thing, but I like the results.  These are mine!

And, these are Anne’s.  We both used them for Mother’s Day.  I think they are cute!

On this day, the three of us worked on a Maura Johnson inspired art journal page.  This is Anne’s.  I love her color choices.  I really enjoyed doing this as you can tell from an earlier post.

This one was made by Cynthia.  The night before, she spent several hours cutting butterflies out of magazines so we would have a nice selection.  I love her placement of the butterflies.  I also really like the way she anchored the girl to the page and to the text with the lines.  I’m going to remember that for my next girl.

What actually started the little gathering of the three of us was a Traci Bautista online workshop with Strathmore.  We met for five weeks in a row and created some very fun art. 

Traci teaches a fantastic art of doodling and I’ve been doodling on everything ever since.

Traci also suggested making doodle art for cards and ATC’s.

And, finally, she taught us how to make a “Glam Girl,” which I loved.  Here's the beginning of the painting.

And here’s the completed project, where we actually painted the face right on top of the doodling.  This was so fun!

Another doodle page!

Another doodle page!  I really enjoy doing this!  It’s relaxing!

This is Anne’s doodle page that started out like this!  It looks like it could be finished…but no…

Now it’s finished and a gorgeous piece of art!

Anne’s other piece started like this…

And, ended like this!  Awesome!

Here is Anne’s Glam Girl.  Started like this…

Here’s another step in Anne’s girl.

This is not the actual final painting, but rather this is a 1x1” magnet that was made from the final painting.  Pretty dang clever!

This is the beginning of one of Cynthia’s doodle pages.

Here’s more of the same page!

Here’s another one of Cynthia’s pages.

This is the beginning of Cynthia’s Glam Girl!  Love her!

Here are some more of the pages that we created in different stages.

This is Laurie’s Glam Girl.  Isn’t she gorgeous!  Love her hair!

End

Marah Johnson Class

My Book Club friend Sherry, hosted a class in her home, with Marah Johnson.  Marah taught us all kinds of cool things about Twinkling H2o’s LuminArte paints, which is a Creative Imaginations product.  Here’s a fun video!  Here’s a LuminArte blog.

We started with this adorable ATC.  The Twinkling H2O’s are rich and sparkly and luminescent.  The camera doesn’t show the true effect you get from these beautiful paints.


Did you know that Harlequin Romance novels are the way to go for great words?

Then we each received a piece of paper and a face…A beautiful face from a magazine.  We painted the background, the lips and eyes and whatever we wanted with the paints. 


We used Gorgeous butterflies to create hair or a hat in my case. And, Paint pens and markers to add further doodling.


I had so much fun with my first girl, and we had left over butterflies, so what could be better than making another girl in my journal.

I know, she’s practically exactly the same, but that’s what my journal is for…techniques and I didn’t want to forget this one.  I just enjoyed it so much.  I still need to add some journaling.
We played with the paints for hours non-stop!  Oh, we made a page of flowers.  Mine’s not finished yet.


Marah is a great teacher and very generous.  She brought lots of product for us to experiment and play with.  Look, I still have a butterfly to play with!  She also brought product to purchase, so of course, I went home with 3 pots of this gorgeous paint.  Can’t wait to get some more.

Paint It! with LuminArte, also by Creative Imaginations is one of the products that was created specifically for the Twinkling H2O’s.  They are die cut embellishments with lots of detail.  Add the paint in any color, over 150 colors if you add in the Silks etc., and you have a custom embellishment for your project. 

Sherry’s studio was the perfect place for this class.  All the ladies were lovely and talented!  I really had a fabulous time.  Yay!  Let’s do it again!

Technorati Tags: Marah Johnson,Twinkling H2O's,Creative Imaginations,Silks,LuminArt

Happy Birthday Alex

Happy 1st Birthday Alex VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I just had to share this crazy boy with you.  This is my little grandson, Alex.  In these pics, he is having his first birthday cake.  I promise he did not eat that whole cake.  Most of it’s in the chair and on the floor.

 

We had Alex’s Birthday at Old Poway Park.  It was a beautiful day.

The Steam Engine was running and we had about 40 family and friends crammed into that train. 

We reserved a room at the Old Hamburger Factory.

The staff is so incredibly friendly.  The food is wonderful.  You get the room and it’s kind of like having a home-base.  You do all the festivities there, but then you also have the entire park.  People came and went all day.

We had lots of children at this party and they were loving being able to play all over the park.  I highly recommend it for a kids birthday party.  The park is quite large. 

 

This is part of my family, including granddaughter, and two grandsons, my son and daughter and her husband.

 

 

		Happy Birthday Alex VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Here’s both my grandbabies…three weeks apart in age.  So different in every way.  The little girl is all Girlie and the little boy is all BOY!  It’s awesome!  What a Blessing!

They were already having a tug-a-war over the balls.  Cute!

My sister, her grandbaby and me.  We have healthy babies in our family.  He’s only 3 months younger than Alex.

I have a million pics of this day, but not one of my daughter with her son, Alex.  Hopefully she got one. 

If you’ve never been to Old Poway Park, it’s worth a trip.  Especially if you have kids.  They’ll love it.  It’s on Midland Rd. in Poway, right across the street from Stamping Details.  I know some of you have been there.

It was a special day for a special little boy.  Thanks to John and Christine for all that they do for our family.  Alex is a lucky boy to have such wonderful grandparents.