Cute and Easy Bird House

A friend of mine lost her mother recently and when she was cleaning out her house, I asked if I could take one of the old cracker tins home. She looked at me a little puzzled but was thrilled that it was one more thing she didn't have to haul away. Well, I had a plan for that little tin.

Her mother loved her garden and birds in it. So have turned the cracker tin into a bird house to honor her. I'm going to drop it off at Pam's front door this week. I think she will be very surprised to see what I have done with it.

To make the birdhouse I simple used my favorite tool, the Dremel, and put two hole in top of each side. Then I used the same tool to cut a circle down at the bottom. This was a little harder.

I need to practice my circles. Then I hot glued an old spoon from the Goodwill in the hole so the birds will have a stand. To make the hanger, I used wire and odd beads that I had on hand. I thought it came out pretty cute.

Artist Trading Cards/ ATC's

OH MY, OHMY! it's been several week since I've posted here but there has been a crazy wind blowing around me for more than three weeks. I think it may have come and gone. The saddest of this crazy wind is we last my dear sweet Grandmother a week ago. She was 89 years young and was ready to go home. She taught me so many great life lesson sthat i will forever carry with me. I have celebrated her life with friends and family the last week by sharing wonderful stories and pictures of her. Thank you to all who have celebrated with me and prayed for our family.

One of the things that has kept me sane is creating ATC's with my good friend Bella. She has pushed me to join a few swap groups and I had a few deadlines coming up and had to get my cards in the mail. For those of you who don't know what a "swap group" is, it's a group of people who live all over, who connect through the Internet, they create something, then they mail it into one location and then it gets swapped around. In this case, I make three ATC's with a certain theme, mail them in the "swap coordinator" and then in a few weeks, I will receive 3 ATC's from other artists of the same theme. The two that I am involved in now is Alpha Stamps and Marie Antoinette. Take a look at my cards and I hope you enjoy them. I love creating and collecting ATC's. If you want to swap with me at anytime send me a message or just send me a card and I'll send you one back.

Creating Jewelry with Bella, Donna, 5 Dogs and the A-C Repair Man

Had a wonderful day creating new jewelry pieces with one of my favorite artist friends, Bella. We were joined by our Friend Donna, aka Miss Assembled, 5 dogs running in and out of the beautiful sunshine and the A-C repair man. She taught me some new tricks in wire wrapping, something she calls the "The Drunken Mary". The best part of creating with Bella is the TRADING. She works part-time for Alpha stamps and always has the latest goodies and she is very generous. Take a look at some of the things we created yesterday. If you are inspired to create some on your own go to http://www.alphastamps.com/ and you will find a huge assortment of new findings and really cool stuff. We used the 20 guage vintage bronze wire to do the "Drunken Mary". There is also a hugh selection of vintage wraps for beads.

Spring And Easter Workshop

Saturday was a great day of sharing Easter and Spring Crafting projects with my younger students. I didn't have a large group, thank goodness, a couple of the projects that I had planned didn't work out so well. Kids are great, they didn't mind at all. They were very willing to change course with me and try something else. Of course their favorite was coloring eggs. We tried several different methods but we soon found out the best way to get the perfect multi-colored egg is simple to lay 2 to 3 egg in a collard in the sink, splash them with white vinger, then drip regular old food coloring on them. It's the coolest. Don't waste your money on the "Egg Spinner", it was a flop. Happy Spring and Easter to all my little art chix.

Collage Challenge

Last Friday I challenged the Art Chixs to "paint with paper".

So when they arrived on Friday morning, I had ever type and color tissue paper available waiting on them. They pulled out their mog pog and brushes and got busy on their images. The one to the left was done by my friend Dawn.



She started with an image she had seen in a magazine and a 11 x 14 sheet of watercolor paper. Most of the paper is thrown my hand and applied with mog pog. Some of the tree trunks were cut. Then she went back in when it was dry and out lined a little with a very sharp pen. She had printed the poem on a transparent paper and when she was completely happy with her image, she mog poged the poem on top. I can't wait to see it framed. makes me want to take a walk down that path. She really created great depth by using the colored paper in the right places. Way to go Dawn. I'm very impressed.

Just want to share this wonderful Quote

Found this quote on one of my favorite blogs this morning and thought it was worth sharing.

I Believe....

That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I Believe....

That it isn't always enough,to be forgiven by others. Sometimes, you have to learn to forgive yourself.

I Believe...

That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.

I Believe....

That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, But, we are responsible for who we become.

I Believe...

That you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life Forever.

I Believe....

Two people can look at the exact same Thing and see something totally different.

I Believe...

That your life can be changed in a matter of Hours by people who don't even know you.

I Believe...

That even when you think you have no more to give,When a friend cries out to you - you will find the strength to help.

I Believe...

That credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

I Believe...

That the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; They just make the most of everything they have.

So Mom came for a visit two weeks ago and taught us Georgia Art Chix a cool new art lesson.

We made painted floorclothes. Very simple to do and so much fun. Simple purchase vinyl from your local Home Depot, cut to desired size. Paint with one heavy coat of Gesso. Once the gesso is dry, draw off your favorite design and begin painting with acrylic paints. We used student grade paints by Dick blick. Once your paint is good and dry spray with a clear acrylic paint to make sure nothing runs. Then paint or roll at least three coat of polycrylic on the cloth. This will seal the design and ensure that your can wash it. Take a look at some of the design my creative at Art Chix came up with.