Valentine Class

I just finished a mini class with Laure Ferlita which was about making cards for Valentine's Day. These are what I came up with. The one with the cupcake was finished in PS Elements but first I made the cupcake painting. All the rest were made as watercolor originals. It was fun and if you want to join in check out Imaginary Trips. A new tour is leaving very soon!

Mail Day!

Aren't I the lucky one? Helena of Creating a Likeness blog from England sent me these things for my birthday which is coming up very soon. She makes some very nice cards which she sells but I didn't have to buy mine! The booklet is so cute too. I have to show it to my granddaughters as I bet they'd love to try to make one like it. I don't have butterflies as pretty as these but they'll make do.

I am lucky to have Helena as a blog friend. There have been a couple of times in the past couple of years when I thought of giving up blogging when I was in a blue funk and then out of the blue, she'd send me an email asking how I was. That got me going again. She sent these photo corners because she remembered me making some once for a project because I didn't have any from the store. Thank you for the birthday gift Helena and for "being there" when I needed it.

I Won!

I was enjoying Jennifer Edwards blog which has great artwork on it. She knits and she paints. You really should go over to Drawn2Life and see for yourself. Anyhow she had a drawing for some of her notecards and I WON! These are the cards I got. If you like them she sells them on her website Yarnworks. Do take a look as you will be glad you did.

Thanks so much Jennifer! I love them.

Belated Easter Posting

I received a wonderful card for Easter from a blogging friend in Great Britain. Helena makes her cards and sells them so I was fortunate to get one of them. She made a very nice bookmark to go with the card. It looks a little smeary here but thats only because there is some pretty irridescent glitter on it. It was a very welcome surprise. Thankyou Helena and I am sorry it took me so long to acknowledge you.

You'll enjoy Helena's blog and she always welcomes new visitors. She is the sponsor of a card exchange I was in at Christmas time which I talk about here. You can see Helena's blog Creating a Likeness here.

Christmas Cards

I've got my cards done and mailed. I took part in a card exchange this year and sent the original of this colored pencil drawn card to the person I was trading with (it was a group trade but each person was given one person in the group for which to make a card. That way we could go to their blog to see what they might like and make a card accordingly - a neat way to do a trade. No one knew who would be making theirs).

I liked the card so much that I decided to make prints of the kitty and glue them onto cards I made with Elements which I am learning how to use. Originally these were all going to be red cards with green envelopes but I goofed so many times on my layout of the words I ran out of red cardstock. So now I have red cards with green envelopes and green cards with red envelopes and the recipients won't know it was due to mistakes. The envelopes are handmade out of Dick Blick construction paper. It is actually a nice 80 pound weight craft paper and I don't think they call it construction paper anymore. The colors and feel of it are great. I recommend everyone try it for crafting. I think you'll like it.


Hope you are all busy getting ready for your holidays be they Christmas, Hannukah or Kwanzaa. It's good to celebrate something especially when times are not so good.

Pay It Forward

Look what I got from Sue in western WA! This is for joining in her Pay It Forward on her blog. It is a postcard she made for me.

I love the colors and look at the sequins and beads that make it sparkle. She even included a bird since I am Freebird. And notice the little heart. This makes me feel like I am in a steamy, colorful rainforest with it's heart thump, thump, thumping to the tune of all the life in it.

Thankyou so much Sue! I treasure it.

Now, I haven't had any takers on my second Pay It Forward. Who knows you might get something like this if you sign up. Then again, it might be something really different. You won't know unless you sign up here .

Second Healing Card

I have finished my second card for the Healing Cards Deck at 1,000 Faces of Mother Henna blog. This is, I think, totally different than my other card. When I talked about this with my daughter she said she thought she'd be able to pick my work out from a group of art even if I think mine don't have a common style. That made me feel good as who doesn't want to have some sense of a style- I don't want to be so chaotic there is no sameness at all in my work.

On the other side of the coin, she thinks I need to work on my printing (on the other card below) as mine is legible but has no pizzaz. I agreed with her and even saw a message about the same thing while I was reading blogs that day.

This card is pen and ink on bristol board. I used Derwent's Inktense colored pencils to color it in. These pencils after being brushed over with water turn a bright, permanent color letting you work over them again and again after they dry. I really like the pencils although I only have a set of 24 which did not include anything like a caucasian skin tone! That meant trying to add several colors very lightly and then blending them with water. It sure made me nervous!

I drew this card as a cup of tea seems to be universally comforting. I feel like a cup of tea after a long trip, a stressful day or when I'm feeling out of sorts brings a good feeling to me. The world must be okay if I can sit back and enjoy that nice, hot cup of tea! What if the whole world stopped everything at one and the same moment every day to share their common need for peace, comfort and care by having a cup around the world? Could such a small thing make a change in the world?

Now my cards go off to Mother Henna to join all the others. I sure am finding it hard to wait to see what they will all look like.