Happy New Year

Hope this year is a success for all, and that your Muse is, well just IS, I guess! I'm gonna backtrack here and share one of my favorite Christmas cards. It was created by my daughter's first babysitter, Eryn, who we are still dear friends with 13 years later! She is quite a talented young lady! This card is called "Merry Kittens".

I've added more ATC's to the slideshow. There are a couple that have been traded, and a couple I can't bear to part with yet. They may come up for trade in the future. There are my babies, and I'm just not ready to part with them yet. I know you understand! If there is no mention of either Traded or Not for Trade in the title, it's fair game, Let's Trade!!

For Christmas, I received a lovely necklace from my BFF, Grace. She purchased it at our favorite store in Shippensburg, Pa, called East Meets West Emporium. The artist's name is Diane Kline. Unfortunately, there is no website listed for her.

How pretty is that! Thanks, Grace! And now for something completely different:

I suffered through having an absessed tooth resulting in root canal on New Years Eve. Welcome to The Suck! I'm hoping 2008 will be a lot cheaper and less painful! But, lo and behold, one hour after returning home from the endodontist, the mailman brought this:

From Jillian at Bohemiart. Lovely packaging, but not as lovely as:
Thank you, Jillian, I love it, it's even better in person!

And because the painkillers work, I did a little creating myself, today. These first two ATC's had finished backgrounds, but no focus yet. Here's the first one called "Amputation".

Techniques used: alcohol ink background, rubber stamps background, wings from Artchix, Peering Heart stamp from Invoke Arts, one of my current favs. Several layers of Utee, words from old book colored with Portfolio oil pastels and outlined with gold PermaOpaque pen, which I love but can't find anymore.

The next one is called "They Were Over" and features the same stamp. I added some red german scrap from Artchix and jewel stickers from Stampendous.

My next adventure started with scrapbook paper overstamped with Michelle Ward's chicken wire stamp from her Bird Sanctuary assortment sold by Clearly Impressed. I added a shrine window, can't remember where I picked that up, inked with Distress ink color called peeled paint, another new favorite. Gold embossed Peering Heart stamp, can you tell I love that one???Inside the window is a gold embossed female figure stamp from My Stamps over scrapbook paper. Words printed on Word, everything adhered with Yes!Paste. Love that stuff!




And my favorite creation of the day, called Mr. Darcy. I burned a watercolor card, painted red, used FolkArt Crackle Medium, painted Titan Buff, overstamped with script, added gold sticker:


I added "Mr. Darcy" image from a vintage cabinet card. Added gold embossed halo. I ripped an end page out of one of my old books to print out the quote from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". Chalked the edges of the words:

You can see on the side the different metal embellishments I considered using. Before adhering the words, I gave the card a coating of Golden Matte medium to seal.
Here is one of my Dirty Little Secrets! I use the ATC Wizard Tool to check sizing: close enuf!

Here is "Mr. Darcy" complete with metal piece, that came from I have no idea where, and some black chalk edging:
It's hard to believe I got any laundry done, isn't it? Well, I never did get around to the ironing.....