What a Charmer!

Four days ago a wonderful little 17 month old golden retriever named Buddy became part of our family.  Buddy, Budster, or Butters has quickly wormed his way into our hearts and also has formed a tight bond with Meggie, our 3.5 year old golden.   Meggie was devastated when our male golden Barney suddenly collapsed and died July 4.   We decided she needed a companion and went to GRREAT, Golden Retriever Rescue, Education and Training in the DC/MD/VA area to adopt.  She and Buddy have quickly become fast friends but she’s watching him – he’s quite puppy yet and it’s funny to watch his antics with her.  I have a few more photos– mostly when they are on the bed because any other time I can’t get them to hold still long enough to snap a picture.  

                           

This was an ATC I made for a July swap with my ARTHaven Yahoo Group.  The requirement was to add a funny hat to the picture!   This is my first ATC and I really enjoyed making it. 

        We also had a Monthly Lottery and our theme was My Fair Lady this month.  Winner would receive all the items that were entered into the lottery!   Below is a picture of a purse card I made!  I really had fun with these and found them perfect for my granddaughter!   Surprisingly, I won and was the recipient of several journals, wall hangings and some lovely earrings.   As the winner for the lottery, I also got to select the topic for next month’s lottery.  I thought “Roaring 20’s” would be fun! 

                             

The last swap for the month was “Christmas” in July.  Make a Christmas card and matching envelope to swap.  This was my entry for the swap – difficult to think of holidays in July?

That’s it for today.  Several projects in the works.  See you soon.  Thanks for stopping by.

Kerry

Technorati Tags: ATC,purse,Christmas,Buddy,Meggie,adopt

New Addition

A little over a month ago, my male golden retriever suddenly collapsed and died.  It was devastating – to me because I just adored Barney, but to Meggie our female golden retriever who had become inseparable since the day they met.   I must admit that I’ve never seen a dog go into a depression, but that is exactly what happened with Meggie.  So, we decided we should find another companion.  We’d never find another Barney but we could find another companion and playmate.  So we went to GRREAT (Golden Retriever Rescue Education and Training) to adopt.  We were very lucky to find Buddy, a 17 month old male golden retriever.  Buddy is actually from Serbia and because his owners over there decided they couldn’t take care of him,  the vet knew someone in the US Embassy who knew someone in GRREAT, and GRREAT decided to sponsor Buddy to the states.  I applied to adopt him and here he is.    

Buddy is in front, Meggie is in back.  They met yesterday and immediately started to play and haven’t been apart since.  When Buddy wants something, he kind of gurgles, growls, howls but it is his way of talking to us.  We think he is a perfect match for Meggie!

I am also a member of ARTHaven_Creations and Friendship, a Yahoo group.  Usually I have some pieces of art to upload, today is not one of those days.  But I do want to mention that a very good friend is celebrating her 100th Blog post and I’d love to direct you to her blog to see some absolutely fantastic pieces of art.  She can be located at http://elaineakers.blogspot.com and I’m sure you will enjoy looking through her blog.   Until next time. 

Kerry

Technorati Tags: Art,ARTHaven,Buddy,vet,adoption

Hello Again!

I decided that I’m enjoying this hot, hazy and humid weather we’ve been having because I can stay indoors in the a/c and not feel guilty!   Since the group I’m with has been working on an Altered Book project, several of our members have been sharing and showing us many of the  techniques used achieve a variety of looks.   I am learning so many new things but what’s really fantastic is it has given me this immense appetite for experimenting.  I also found that I had many of the items needed – I had bought them long ago and stuffed them in drawers, only to forget about them.   It’s been wonderful to be able to pull these items out and use them.  So, the past several weeks have been filled with trying this color and that color, or ink, or spray, and finally trying transfer techniques I’ve wanted to try for years!  I used the packing tape transfer technique on my  Eiffel Tower tag (I’m into tags now) – it is very light but maybe you will be able to see it.

 

The tag is still a work in progress! 

The group I’m with has several swaps this month and we’ve all been busy with that.  One of the swaps was using a template from Stampington.com, Domestic Goddess Apron and to make an apron and decorate it.  I had such fun, I couldn’t decide which one I liked the best, so I made three!   So my partner won’t know which one she’s going to get! 

 

We also have another swap – to make a tag with a theme of “Call to the Sea” – I had a particularly hard time with this – I just couldn’t seem to come up with anything.  Finally, this came to me but I’m not real happy with it.  Would love to hear what you think.

The next couple of tags are ones that just came to me.  I hope you like them.  I’ve enjoyed working with color, or staying within one shade.  As always, I’ve had fun going through my boxes and boxes of embellishments, trying to find the perfect ones for each project.  So while I was searching, I was also organizing and reorganizing. 

The first  “Road to a Friend’s House is never long”, then “Dream and finally, “Far East”.

     

 

I think that’s about it for now.  I have several tags I’ve been playing with the color.  But I still have two items to go for this month’s swaps!  Guess I’d better get busy.  Thanks again for stopping by.  I love to have visitors!

Always,

Kerry

It’s Been a While!

Oh my.  When I logged onto my blog I was shocked to see that it’s been a month since I was last here.   I certainly didn’t mean to be gone so long.   I’ve kept busy in my ARTHaven working on various projects.  A couple of years ago I happened upon a blog of a woman who decorated wooden purses.  She had many, many styles and they were all decorated so brightly and with various themes.  I decided I’d give it a try.  So I researched a couple ways to cover them, using paint, paper or material.  I found some lovely material that would work. 

I then remembered some paper I ordered and never used.  First I had to find where I put it and finally, in a corner there it stood.  The pictures aren’t the best – hard to hold rolled up paper and the camera! 

These are all oriental papers.  I make a copy of the paper and use that, saving the original for other projects.  Paints used can be any type of craft paint.  I did one purse in oriental paper – red, and forgot to take a picture of it.  The next purse, still in progress, is the same type but by changing the paper can change the style of the purse in a flash. 

I also worked on some decoupage, one of my favorite crafts to do.  Sometimes just sitting and cutting out the little flowers can be so relaxing.  This is a chest I’m making, just about finished.  Wouldn’t it make a cute box on top of your dresser to hold your treasures?

Those are just a few things I’ve been working on.  I’m also working on a board book, a book of memories for a very special person in my life. 

And on a very sad note.  July 4, 2010, my beautiful golden retriever, Barnabus, aka Barney, collapsed and died.  The vet said it was a massive cardiac episode.  Barney was only in my life for a short six years – but he made a big impression.  He left a large hole and an empty spot for his companion, our female golden retriever Meggie MaGee. 

We are currently going through the process of adopting a rescue dog through GRREAT – Golden Retriever Rescue, Education and Training – the local golden rescue in our area.  We’ve been through the interview and home study and are just awaiting our letter of dogs that are available. 

Gosh, now I know why I haven’t updated the blog – I’ve been busy!  I worked on this card, which I thought turned out to be one of my most favorite cards – it is for my mother, who is very ill and is now in hospice.  Dementia has taken over – how I’ve come to hate that word.  She doesn’t remember many people at all and at times doesn’t even remember me. 

That’s it.  I’ve held you captive long enough.  I have more but will make that another entry.  Thank you for stopping by and gazing at the pieces I’ve made.  I’d love to know that you were here. 

Kerry

Buttons and Bows

The  group I am with ARTHavenCreations_Friendships has several swaps every month.  Another one that I signed up to participate in is Button Fairies.   It is such a simple project.  You take a picture of anybody – it can be family, friend or unknown.   Make some wings however you wish, place your picture on the wings and attach some buttons or other little embellishments.  Attached is my interpretation of my button fairy --

Hope you enjoy my button fairy.  Thank you for stopping by. 

Weekend of Fun

I had a lot of time this weekend to work on a few items.  The group I belong to ARTHaven has several swaps for the month of June that I signed up to participate in.  The first is a Tag – of any size, but must be in green and embellished with green.   Below is a picture of my entry. 

The next swap was the June Lottery.  Our task was to create anything of our liking, but the theme must be of Nature.   I had a lot of ideas, a ton of pictures that I could use but just couldn’t figure out how until I started rummaging through my boxes of treasures!  I had bid on a box of boxes on eBay a couple of years ago.  A huge box came filled with all kinds of tins, containers and one little wooden box.  I looked at that and new exactly what I was going to do.  It took some cleaning up, I sanded it down, took the hinges off to clean them up and painted it a deep green.   I then covered it with gold butterflies and sealed with Mod Podge.  It still has several coats of Mod Podge to go, you paint, sand, paint and sand and eventually end with a shiny, glassy surface.  Below is a picture of my entry in the June Lottery. 

I ended my weekend working on a couple more tags.  These have quickly become a favorite of mine to do – there are so many variations!  

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Would love to hear from you.  Until the next time!

Sunday’s Best

Awoke this morning to bright sunshine, blue skies and warm temps.  Predictions for a chance of rain again, but as par for the course, they’ve passed right by.  We are under a tornado warning until 10:00pm.  I’m not a happy camper when bad weather!

Today I worked on catching up on e-mails, selecting papers to be used for the Green Tag Swap, the Mariposa Gift Tag and looking for fairies to use for the Button Fairy Swap.  I had a hard time narrowing my selection for the fairies they were all so cute!  I can see I’ll be making quite a few of those. 

I worked a bit on my Altered Book.  I painted another couple of pages, collaged a couple and impatiently waited for them to dry. 

O ne of the pages I painted yesterday I was going to try for some texture.  I had seen a project where they used clear caulking and you can mold it to whatever you want.  Alas, it didn’t work and I ended up with sticky pages.  So, I collaged over that!  

Fortunately you can do that, cover up or hide something that doesn’t quite work.   This is definitely a work in progress.  

I’ve also been making cards for OWH – this has become a really fun project.  I had a set of cards I bought years ago and I’m using those and then I’ll really dig into my stacks of supplies. 

Technorati Tags: Altered Book,OWH,texture

Please let me know you’ve stopped by.  Thanks. 

What a Journey!

Today dawned so sunny and such a blue sky. It is close to 90 degrees but so very humid and no breeze. For several days we've been under severe weather but it seems to pass all around us and all we get is a very little rain. Oh well - its just the beginnings of summer.

I worked on my AB this afternoon for a little bit. I started gathering my collage papers and tearing the edges. I like the natural look. I've decided my book will be about several periods of my life. The first part will be a little jaunt through the states when my grandparents took my cousin and I out west for the summer of 1963. When in high school, I dreamed of visiting those romantic places in Europe, Austria, Switzerland, Germany. So I figured the only way I would be able to see Europe was on Uncle Sam's dime - so I joined the Air Force. From 1974 through 1984 I spent those years in Europe. Unfortunately, many of those pictures were lost in albums that were made before archival safe products were available and my photos did disintegrate! The pictures may have faded, but so far my memory is intact! The last part are the travels my husband and I are doing in our RV upon our retirement. This may end up in another volume but for now, enjoy the beginnings of my Altered Book - the start! As always, please let me know you've been here.

End of Week

It was the perfect ending of a busy week. I couldn't have asked for a better time. I was able to work on my AB (Altered Book) and get a few pages prepared. The attached photos show the difference in paints used: the blue pages I used a gel medium matte with a beautiful blue acrylic paint. I absolutely love the color. I also used the gel medium gloss and a yellow acrylic and came up with a beautiful glaze. I then used Adirondack Acrylic paint daubers, red and loved the even texture and last I first covered a page with gesso, partially dried it and then used a green pigment ink pad and wiped the page. Not sure if I like that coverage or not. But the object of this AB is to learn about more about art and myself, then it's all about learning.

I also worked on cards for Operation Write Home (OWH) and have a few prepared to send to Celeste. Celeste gathers all the cards and sends them from ARTHaven to the OWH address.

The last project I worked on today was a birthday card and journal for the daughter of a friend. The young lady is turning 10 (as she says double digits) and several of us decided to send her cards. I'm also sending a little journal. I took pictures, but can't find them-actually I see them in the camera but can't get them to upload to the album!

That's about it for today. Thanks for looking. Please leave a comment.

The Start of My AB Journey

The wonderful group ARTHavenCreations_Friendships that I belong has a project this month called the Altered Book Journey. Those that want to follow along and do an altered book will have the guidance of Diann Scholl and Eileen Bellomo. Diann and Eileen will show us techniques to use and how to do them. We can work at our own pace, do as much or as little as we want.

This has been something I've been very interested in doing. I've collected all kinds of "stuff" over the years from ticket stubs, and old photos to Green Savings stamps! So what I'm going to do is show you my progress as the project moves along. I'll post a picture or two of what I'm doing. I hope you enjoy the process and project as much as I'm going to. Attached are the first of two photos, my book after I've ripped out a large chunk of pages, and a picture of the pages and my next job - to prime my pages with gesso.

Good Day

When I awoke this morning my goals were to do something creative. For several days I had been thinking about some tags, so I sat down and made a tag that reflected traveling through Europe. Since I had done a lot of traveling throughout Europe while stationed there in the Air Force, I've always dreamed what it would be like to have visited these wonderful and romantic places in the early 1900's.

As I was rummaging through my paper I found a piece that I thought would go well on another tag I made, "Give your imagination wings" and has butterflies, dragon flies and a hummingbird - all the wings for your imagination.

My last two pieces were a couple of cards that I had been thinking about. A birthday card that would do well for a male and a "under the weather" card. I never seem to have one handy when I need it. It was a good day, I had fun and I loved dreaming about traveling in the 1900's. I hope you enjoy. Let me know what you think.