Kerry'sCraftingCorner

Just Journal!

2011-01-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

My goal for this new year is to try and journal/post every day on my blog. I'm finding it difficult to "talk" on the page. I worked on several pieces of art today, nothing is completed. Several birthdays of friends are coming and I'd like to finish their cards, we have a couple of wonderful swaps to participate in the ARTHaven Friendships Yahoo group and I'd like to learn a new and use a new technique every week. I'm going to use Tim Holtz' book, "A Compendium of Curiosities" - his book is full of great techniques to help you grow in your creative journey. So, I'll work on a project and take pictures along the way to show you my progress. I was given the link of a wonderful craft store that sells the most beautiful flowers -www.theFranticStamper.com. I bought some beautiful flowers and I'll attach pictures of a few of them. Till tomorrow!

Missing but Found!

2011-01-01T09:09:00.000-08:00

My goodness. I realize I hadn't updated my blog in a while, but wasn't aware that long. A lot has happened in the last of 2010. My mother passed away, there was a lot of work settling the estate and getting things moved around. We had to make several trips to Florida to accomplish all this. Little time was left to create. I tried though!

Christmas rolled around and while it was difficult to get into the mood without my mother, I did manage to participate in a couple of swaps with the group I belong to ARTHaven Creations and Friendships.

I haven't made any New Year's resolutions in many years but I really do hope to become a little more organized and spend more time in my ARTHaven doing the one thing I love to do - work on my art.

The swaps I participated in were a Christmas Tag, an Ornament, gift bag and a recipe card. I got pics of all but the gift bag! That was my favorite too.

What a Charmer!

2010-08-12T18:56:00.001-07:00

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

2010-08-09T11:52:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-07-24T15:02:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-07-24T14:18:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-15T07:22:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-06T17:15:00.001-07:00

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!

2010-06-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

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

2010-05-31T16:39:00.000-07:00

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.

Busy Month

2010-05-29T13:36:00.000-07:00

It has been a very busy month for me. I've had several medical appointments to followup with a problem I've been having. To keep my mind off these tests, I've had to find ways to keep busy. Since we aren't on the road traveling, my other keep busy projects are to shop! I don't think I know anybody that doesn't like to shop and especially for craft supplies. There were some good deals on Cricut cartridges at CricutMachine.com, so I picked up Batman, Superman, Old West and Dinosaur Tracks at $22.95 each. I'm hoping to make more children's cards with these cartridges! While blog-hopping and looking at other art pieces I noticed some wonderful paper - Graphic 45, so I was able to find a good on-line shop for that, Zutter came out with the Distrezz-it-All, a wonderful electric tool for as they state "achieving that shabby-chic look" without using sandpaper, and files! More browsing on-line and was able to find Tim Holtz products of clock faces, sprockets and gears, keyholes, keys, etc., wonderful embellishments. I finally found this wonderful paper - Mariposa. It is gorgeous - I'm really going to have a hard time cutting this paper!

When I wasn't busy catching up with e-mail and shopping on-line, I participated in a couple of swaps with my Yahoo group, ARTHavenCreations_Friendships. One swap was to create a blue tag no bigger than 5.5"x3" and embellished in blue. That was fun because blue happens to be my favorite color. The other swap was to make these wonderfully easy corner bookmarks. You take a sealed envelope, measure down 4" on two sides (forming a triangle) and cut across using your decorative scissors to make a fancy edge. Decorate the object in anyway you like and then swap with the assigned partner. These were fun, so easy and make wonderful RAKs. You can also make them using your favorite paper, make your own envelope, or cut a strip of paper roughly 8" long and 4" wide. Fold over, forming a triangle and seal with your favorite glue and decorate as you like. I'm going to attach pictures of the bookmarks and tags I made and later I'll upload pictures of the ones I received.

That's it for me today.

Always,
Kerry P.

Sooo MIA!

2010-05-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry to be MIA. Just when you think you've got a handle on things, life gets in the way! We are finally home and unloading the RV. It was a fantastic trip, we had a wonderful time and saw some awesome sites. Now to get back to crafting. I've been working hard to get my ARTHaven back up and running. Now I will work hard on posting every day and getting some of my pieces posted.

I was lucky and bid on some cartridges- picked up Independence Day and Summer in Paris. Both of the cartridges look like they have loads of interesting items. I also got most of the new cartridges - Just Because Cards, Create a Critter, Serenade, and Nursery Rhymes. I also picked up good deals on Give a Hoot, Preserves, Straight from the Nest, and Serenade. And finally, the long awaited pre-order for Picturesque - it was shipped and I received earlier this month. I'm anxious to try all the carts out and have ideas for quite a few.

So that's about it for now. Thanks for following.

Sunny Sunday in Arizona

2010-03-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

Good day all! It has been a beautiful day, mild temps, clear blue skies but some quite strong winds. Fortunately they have calmed down as the afternoon winds down. My husband and I spent the afternoon putting things away, packing up the outdoor chairs, cleaning the grill and basically getting ready to bring in the slides and get on the road tomorrow. The sad part is leaving the friends I've made over the winter and I had to pack up the Cricut and crafting stuff while we are on the road.

I heard a wonderful tutorial that Capadia Designs made on Cricut Design Studio Hide, Select and Contour - I've attached the link here, http://capadiadesigns.blogspot.com/2009/07/video-hide-selected-contour.html. It really was very helpful in learning how to cut an item that has several layers and only cutting once in all the colors you want.

I am still working on getting pictures of the cards I've made on my blog, and changing a few things around. I am not very computer savvy so need some help on these new things. I'm adding more pictures that I've taken of Grand Canyon, Sedona, blooming cactus and other beautiful sights along the way. I hope you enjoy them.

That's about it for today. I'll see you tomorrow.

Winter is Just About Over!

2010-03-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

It seems like such a short time ago we left Maryland to spend the winter in Arizona - land of warmth and sunshine! Unknowing to us, it was one of the worst winters on record for Maryland with a total of 65 inches of snow in two storms and the coldest and wettest winter on record for Arizona! Nonetheless, we managed to have a good time, see the sights of Tucson and surrounding mountains. We spent an afternoon with Wyatt and the clan in Tombstone and lunched at the Long Branch Saloon. Then a visit to Boot Hill to see the residents. I managed to find some beautiful turquoise jewelry and will come home with a two beautiful necklaces, two bracelets, five pair of earrings and three rings. And we found some wonderful Mexican food and it doesn't come in mild or spicy! It only comes in one temperature! We also enjoyed watching many air shows the air base (Davis Monthan AFB) put on with the sorties they flew daily. We really did have an Air Show this past weekend when the Blue Angels and the Thunderbirds put on a show that is fantastic every time I see them.

The weather in Arizona is like any other place - it can be severe at times. We had many storms but the worst part is the wind. Wind gusts of 60-70 mph sound like nothing, but in an RV they feel like you are flying through the air to Kansas! The rains can be light or heavy but after every rain, we've had the most spectacular rainbows and one time we had a double rainbow. I'll will miss the beautiful sunsets we've seen just about every night. But most of all I will remember the wonderful friendships that were made and we hope to see these folks again on the road.

We do have a short trip to take up to the northern part of Arizona, we'll be spending a week or so visiting Sedona, the Grand Canyon, Montezuma's Castle and then to Las Vegas and Hoover Dam. After that the long trek across the country to home. I'm kind of anxious to get there and get back to my craft room! Oh, I can imagine the shape I left it in. Thanks for stopping by. I'm attaching pictures of a few of the places.

Tuesday and the week rushes by!

2010-02-23T21:15:00.000-08:00

We woke this morning cold! Sometime late yesterday, during the all day rain, our furnace decided to take a break. As the outside temps got colder and colder, the inside temps began to drop also. The furnace would come on but it was only blowing cold air! We tried to find someone to come in and fix it, but nobody worked after hours. And my goodness, this is Tucson, Arizona - the land of sun and heat! And they were having the coldest winter on record in some time. The actual temp this morning was 37 degrees and there had been a hard frost outside. The inside temp of our RV was 47! We were chilled to the bone. Actually, I think chilled through the bone. Our repairman arrived at 08:00 a.m. and quickly found the trouble and got us started. While the sun came out, the wind was still harsh and the temps didn't rise above 52 degrees. We actually started to warm up late afternoon! But it doesn't take long for the temps to drop once the sun goes down for the day.

I tried to keep up with my e-mail - I belong to two Yahoo groups that are quite active. And, I've mentioned yesterday, I've decided to join the masses and create blog. As soon as I figure it all out, I will post my pictures of my creativity. I hope you visit me and please feel free to leave any and all comments and suggestions. Kerry

The Beginning!

2010-02-22T20:21:00.000-08:00

Well, I've joined the masses and created my own blog. I figured it wouldn't be long before I had to create a blog. It's the easiest way to be able to share my creations and my ArtHaven.