March BJP Finished

At last! I have finished anothr of these tiny little pieces. Remember, they are only half the size of an ATC! They should not be taking me so long. This one could have been done a little sooner but the thread on my edge kept breaking but that would only have saved me a couple of days working on it. I've just simply been doing too many other things. Robin, when you started the BJP I had no idea what was out there in cyber world and didn't know I'd be tempted as badly as Pandora to open the lid to everything!

This piece is my purple page. It has flowers I got when I traded an ATC months and months ago with Julie at Mixed Media. Thankyou so much Julie as these flowers are what gave me the idea to use gifted items this year - yours and Grace's beads she sent me. I wanted to use them and what better way than this. The frog bead was a gift from my grandkids. I wondered just how I'd manage to use this bead and I like it here. The leaves that make up the shamrock (St. Patrick's Day tribute) were mine but the pearls that hold them down are from my mother's wedding pearls. They arent' real but they have more worth to me than real ones since they are from my mother. The theme here if you haven't guessed is Spring.

Well, it's on to April now. That means Easter to me and blue violet for my color choice. Hmmm, what can I find that has been gifted and fits that theme...... or will I need to change something here. Well, stay tuned (hopefully not for as long as this one took) and you'll see.

Weekly Inchy

The theme for this week's inchy from Inchybyinch is shoes. Well I rummaged around for a stamp but didn't have one and figured I might go cut a shoe out of a magazine when I remembered I'd bought this button a while ago. I thought it fit the theme pretty darn well. The only trouble with 3-D inchies like this is I can't put them in my journal but maybe this one will go on my fridge as a magnet.

Inchy Swap

Recently I joined in with an inchy swap. The theme was houses. Only a few of us swapped but I got some enjoyable inchies that will be going into my journal soon. I've found that is a good way to store swap inchies and enjoy them again and again. The swap was arranged by Fiona of Inchybyinch blog. I'm a little behind on sharing them as I was away visiting with my daughter's family when they arrived.

Inchy Time Again

Once again I've done an inchy for the group that meets at Inchybyinch . This week's theme was to do something Celtic. This is my take. I ended up doing some religious art unexpectedly. I just happened to have a cross and after I clipped off the hanging loop it fit quite nicely on an inchy. I looked up the name Jesus in an Irish Celtic dictionary (online of course) and added that along with some jewels. The blue jewel stands for his mother Mary, the red and white for the blood and water that poured from his side when he was stabbed in the side at his crucifixion.

I didn't think I'd have time to do one with my company here but that's the thing with inchies. They just don't take that much time so come on and join in on the fun of making a tiny piece of art. Just follow the link above.

Gifted by Grace

Grace of Grace Beading blog had a giveaway for her second blogiversary and she was so kind to send me a super gift just because I find her blog interesting enough to visit when she has a new post. What did she give me? This pin she made. Isn't she beautiful. Grace does an excellent job on her beadwork. Thank you so much Grace. I truly appreciate it.

Journal Class and Challenge

I've been taking Sue Bleiweiss's journal making class. It's been a lot of fun so far. I will be making a post showing all that I've done but on another group ( A.R.T. ) there is a challenge to make a project of any sort in olive green and purple. So, I made the third journal in Sue's class in the colors for the challenge and killed two birds with one stone. I really like how the journal came out and I would never have picked these colors for it were it not for the challenge.

I painted the sticks used to embellish the stitched part of the journal with green and then glazed them with gold since there was a bit of gold in the patchwork of the cover.

I highly recommend both Sue's class and A.R.T. You might want to take a look at both of them.

Update to Rattlesnake Bite

Yay! It sounds like Sarah is going to live and be okay. She survived the night and is getting wound care to her nose today and then tomorrow (when I get home) we'll bring her home from the veterinarian's. Thank you all for caring and hoping and praying for her. I really love the community we have here online.

Rattlesnake Bite

My poor Sarah was bitten by a rattlesnake today. I'm visiting in California so my husband had to deal with it by himself. I gave him the vet's name and told him to call ahead in case they needed to get the anti-venom from somewhere else. It turns out they had it and he got her there while she was still able to walk okay. My husband came around a corner to see Sarah's nose just two inches away from a diamond back! He yelled and she backed up and he thought she was okay but noticed about 15 minutes later her nose was all swollen. That's when he called me. So anyhow, she's at the animal hospital and has been given anti-venom (which the doctor says she can only have one time in her life - I didn't know that), and they said they'll call us in the morning to tell us how she is. They could not say yet that she would be okay. I sure hope so. I'll let you all know when I know how she'll be.

Swap

When Karen of Missy K blog said she'd give away some of her
extra bird inchies just for the asking I jumped right in and asked
for one. I told her I'd trade her one I made. Unfortunately my computer acted up on me and just before it wouldn't start up one day, it must have eaten my photo - actually the whole last day of photos I'd uploaded.

So anyhow, I sent her a quilted inchy with a shell bird attached that I'd dabbed Ranger's alcohol inks on. I also sent her a couple of the extra shell birds I made. In return she sent me this wonderful packet of goodies and two of her bird inchies - one of them with some of the foil on it which she sent me. Aren't they pretty? I am so very lucky.

Thankyou very much Karen. I really like the inchies and the goodies!

Inchy Time Again

The theme for this week's inchy is shells. This is
a good time for this theme as everyone is either heading to the ocean or wishing they were (I'll grant there are a few out there who wouldn't care to be at a beach on a nice summer day but I think most would). First, I took a one inch piece of watercolor paper and drew a tiny beach scene with watercolor pencils. Then I got brave and wet it down. Whew! It turned out pretty good I think but it doesn't matter much as the next step was to glue a shell on the piece and that pretty much covered up my ocean. Still it adds to the effect. Last I added some words. All done. This was a fun one and it was one of those you know immediately just what you want to do.

For those who are interested, this shell was picked up off the beach in Oxnard, California.

Now come on some of you, give this a try! And

then just pop over to Inchybyinch and share the

link to where you post it.

I'm Gifted!

Ha! You were thinking maybe I got some special
letter from Mensa or something huh? No way!




Instead I got lucky when I visited Riley Coyote Creations and saw a drawing being offered. I signed up and didn't win. That's right, I didn't have my name picked by Riley (that's the weimeraner). But, there were only two of us who signed up for the drawing so Deirdre sent me
one of her domino pendants also.

Isn't it pretty? I can't believe the glass-like finish she got on her piece. It's cute that she uses a decorated card (and clever too, I might add) for her pendant holder.

Anyhow, I want to say thank you very much. It's wonderful.

Inchy

This week's theme at Inchybyinch is birds. I have
actually used a stamp on my inchy this week! Isn't this little bird a happy one. Singing his heart out because:

Isn't life glorious! Isn't it grand!

Here--take it--hold it tight in your hand;

Squeeze every drop of it into your soul,

Drink of the joy of it, sun-sweet and whole!

Laugh with the love of it, burst into song!

Scatter its richness as you stride along!

Isn't life splendid--and isn't it great

We can always start living--its never too late!

Isn't Life Glorious by Helen Lowrie Marshall

I got this book years ago (like back in 1969) and have loved this poem from it forever.

This little bird reminded me of the poem so I thought I'd share it with you. Hope you like it to.

I stamped the bird with Distress ink in a purple color. Then I used chalk ink in little cat's eye pads to color in the grass and sky. Added some watercolor pencil to his beak and mouth and added some music notes with Pitt pen. I confess, I have no idea what notes I used so don't try to see if they are part of a song. I don't even know if I made them right! This was a fun inchy to make.

February BJP

This is my February BJP page. Done. Finito. Yay! For this month on my colorwheel theme red-purple was the color to use. Not too bad for a Valentine's month. I had this blue heart bead given to me by Ewian when I won a give-away on her blog for St. Lucia Day. That is the only gifted bead on this page but it is a large one, the dominant bead and theme for the month. I added a peyote ruffle around it to make it fit in and also to stand out more. The background is a rather knotty mess of beading - at least that's what I was attempting because as much as we love to fall in love, to hang in there with one person requires a lot of give and take and some messy times. There's always a few bumps in the road too as you can see by the bumpy beads in the background.

And now on the March. If I'm not too careful, I might actually catch up! Well, sometime anyhow.

New Socks - Kind of!

I have sort of finished a pair of socks. I have made
two of them but they ended up a little off with one being about a half an inch longer in the leg length than the other and that doesn't sit well with me. Unlike the last time (out of many, many pairs this has happened only the last two times I've knit socks), this time I am not unravelling one of them. I have enough yarn to make a third and we'll see which it matches. THEN I will unravel one of them.

This yarn was called You Ugly and was what Perfect Day Yarns thought was a bad die job. I've written about that before when I started these socks and you can see that post here. I don't think the yarn turned out ugly knitted up
into socks with a lace pattern. The pattern broke up the stripiness that occurred on the sole of the sock. I don't mind it there but I like how the bits of broken up color add sparkle to the sock which makes up for the lack of the lace stitch showing up clearly.

I like them and will finish the third shortly. I have learned to knit while we watch the morning news. I actually get something done besided chewing off my fingernails now.

Finchy?

F is the theme of this week's inchy. And the question was posed as to how many things with F we could get on an inchy. Well, here is what I came up with. I decided a grid was called for and did my best to make some tiny objects that would fit. My paper for this one must have been very porous - the sharpie pen I used for the four made the blobs at the beginning of a line on it's own so I added a few more to make it a design. I just love the chalk ink pads for edging my inchies.

The Lone Beader took me up on the offer to make some inchies. She's even put hers up for sale. You'll find her inchies here and here. Take a look- you won't want to miss them. Thanks for giving these a try Lone Beader. I'm still trying to figure out how to snatch those bee ones up before someone else does!

If YOU want to join in making some inchies JUST DO IT! Make them out of anything. Just make them one inch and if you use the F theme, drop by Inchybyinch and let us know where you've posted them.