For many years I was trying to find a couple of my BFF sisters. We grew up together back in Buffalo NY. Through perseverance and the help of Face Book I found their younger sister and contacted her. I wasn't a 100% sure if she was their sister so I gave her enough information so she knew I wasn't a weirdo (but of course anyone that knows me won't totally agree with that! LOL) I was so thrilled to be reunited with Christine and Irene!!!
30 plus years we have been looking for each other. Irene had a couple of my pictures from high school. OMG!!! I laughed with tears rolling down. So I decided to share them here.
The far upper left picture is my freshman or sophomore year at Villa Maria Acedemy. Hair could not touch the collar of your uniform, when you knelt down that uniform better hang an inch down on the floor. NO jewelry, no bows in your hair and nylons with those ugly black penny loafers. Oh and did I mention that the uniforms were wool and long sleeve white blouses that were NOT permanent press? Oh they were so uncomfortable! And so hot in the summer.
Well I only went to Villa for 2 years and then my parents had me transferred to Cheektowaga Central where I graduated in 1969.
The middle pic is about 4 years old and represents me now and the one on the far right is my graduation picture from 1969. Those were the days!
Circa 1965-1969
Golden Digital Grounds
Ok so tonight I am not looking for cake decorating videos. We were talking about this new product that Golden came out with and I was not familiar with it. Well hold on Stella! I went to the Golden site to read up on it and what do I find? Videos on how to use this new product! OMG! Does this mean that I have to run over to Blicks to check this product out? I guess so.
CLICK HERE to watch the videos at Golden's site. There are two videos to watch and you will be just as anxious as me to go and buy some! Can you say ROAD TRIP?!?!?! LOL!
Let me know what you think of this and if you have tried it. If you have any other tips to add please do!
Enjoy!
New beginnings along the horizon...
For several months I have been in such a slump that it has taken its toll on me. I have no desire to be creative, to be happy or to be inspired. The only thing that has been keeping me going is watching some videos on You Tube. Mostly about cake decorating. Don't ask me... maybe it was for a change that I needed . The other day I came across this video CLICK HERE She is amazing!!!
I found a group via the above mentioned video called "The Artful Paper Doll". It is so inspiring. If you click on "Paper Follies" there are several groups there to join and participate in. Check them all out. One group in particular pertains to self affirmation. I don't know how long this will take for me. Rome was not built in a day but it's worth it to me. I need to take charge again once more in my life. I need to be creative and share with others again. We all go through this in our lives and I am sure with all the dramatic changes that I have had in the last 2 years that it is taken its toll on me. I miss my family and friends back home and it can be very difficult at times. My job is full time now and my hours are not of the norm of 9-5. But where else can one work and share your knowledge of art!!! I love my job I just need some "me" time.
If you have the time check out "The Artful Paper Dolls"!!!
Rachel The Traveler
This past May my grand daughter Rachel went to DC for her class trip. Her mom sent me some pics that they took and this one is my favorite! They had loads of fun and were completely exhausted when they arrived home. I can't think of a better place for kids to go and absorb so much of our country's history.
One More Time!
Ok I showed these cupcake pops to my daughter Gennifer and suggested that perhaps my grand daughter Kennedy and her could make these. Well she tells me no way! OK! So 2 days later I get this phone call and the next thing I know we are off to the store to buy the supplies to make cupcake pops. LOL!
What a process it was! We made about 50 of these little chick pops and they came out pretty good. My grand daughter lost interest after a while and did not want to help. Trust me she licked as much of the chocolate that she could, do you think she went to bed early all sugared up? NOT!~ LOL!
It was fun and we have these pops all made for her day care party on Friday. I think we had enough of them for a while...or until the next time Ms Bakerella tempts us with more of her creations. I still think the idea of chocolate cake with peanut butter would be soooooooooo delicious.
Cupcake Pops
The other day I stumbled across this blog and was WOWED by what I saw and said these are the cutest! The name of the blog is: Bakerella. Make sure you visit her blog and make sure you go through the whole thing. There is so much there to see and I assure you will be delighted!
So I decided that I was going to attempt some of these sweet creations. I want to make them for one of the gals at work who's birthday is next week. So we did a trial run to see if I could make something decent.
Here they are all made up ready to be dipped! Now it is a messy job but I discovered that if you wet your hands the cake will shape better for you. Now don't get them too wet. Shake off the excess water and begin rolling them. Now it was hard for me to tell what the size of them were. So i made mine a little bit smaller then a golf ball. Ah that is way toooooooo big! Why you ask? Hmmmm because they become top heavy and fall off! Trust me! Further more Bakerella can get 45-50 from a batch and I only had 29. So i had to make them smaller. As a reference to size...Tootsie Roll Pop size. Perfect!
Here are the instructions for the basic pops! See if you can resist them! :)
Ok now my pictures of this process are not the best. Bakerella has got that on me! She takes the best pics of her work and just makes you want to reach out and touch the screen. But I was in a hurry and thought I would try and capture the moment.
You should put them in a piece of styrofoam to stand up in but I did not have any and I was not going to make another run to the store. So my son came up with this idea of placing them in the egg carton. It worked for a while but my top heavy first attempts were falling over and UGH what a mess that was! LOL! The egg carton worked for this time and I will buy one tomorrow so I have it when my daughter and I do them on Tuesday! Yep showed them to her and she wants to make them now. Ok!
Another idea to do is to stand them up in a glass of suger! Bakerella tells you that. Duh I missed that reading and my good friend Heather back in NY had to tell me that over the phone. Oh well! Who said I read directions? It does work better then our egg carton!
The End Results
They came out pretty good if you ask me. For my first try what the heck! My daughter wants to make the little chicks? HUH?? Are you kidding me? Have you seen how PERFECT her's are? OMG!! CLICK HERE to see her's and then you have to promise you won't laugh at mine!
It was fun to do and I even had my 20 year old son in the kitchen with me helping out. It's good to have an extra hand with you when you are doing this. His job was putting on the sprinkles. Oh and how do they taste? DELICIOUS! I used a lemon cake with vanilla frosting. But I have been thinking here all afternoon that chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting??? YUM~
If you decide to make them let me know. Email me or leave a comment with your blog so I can see them!
Arch Challenge that i Missed :(
You know when you only have every other weekend off it's hard to find spare time to do artwork. Now don't get me wrong I LOVE my job but it sure does cut into my play time. There was an arch challenge a couple of weeks ago and I did not get mine done in time. WHAAAAAA! Oh how I wanted to play in that one. Oh well. What's a girl to do? So here is the one that I made. It's hard to tell in the pic but it's very dimensional. I used pop dots on the images and then raised the little bird. It's really kewl looking in person! Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving such warm messages. I think I might go do some blog hopping myself!
New Tim Toys!
Ok so I got a few new toys to play with (like I really need more stuff) and most of them were from Ranger. I used my favorite Distress Inks and the alphabet mask. Now I always use cosmetic sponges to apply my ink but I broke down and tried Tim's blending tool and I kind of like it. What the heck a girl needs some new toys now and again! LOL!! Stamped a couple of images using the paint dabbers. The little child is from PID sheet #558.
House Challenge over at PID
I did manage to get a little art work done. I had it done a couple of weeks ago but things got busy and did not finish it till today.
It was made from another one of those wooden frames that you can get at Michaels. So I first covered it with gesso and then applied some acrylic paints. I did a transfer of the birds nest in the lower right hand corner using gel medium. The birds nest is from sheet #434 at the PID site. The two gals are Ashley and Alexis sheet #449. I also used a mask in the background and then added more paints, rubber stamps and flowers. I will be enetering this into the weekly challenge mingle and it will have a new home.
Relaxing this afternoon!
The weather has not been very warm for this time of year here in Las Vegas. We have had a couple of days in the 80's but that was it so far! 62 is not very warm if you ask me! Better then getting 6 inches of snow. A couple of my friends called me today to let me know about their little snow storm. I can say with a great big smile that I don't miss it one bit. So I sat in the yard drinking my coffee and relaxing after half cleaning my room, doing the laundry, getting dinner ready etc. etc. etc. While I was sitting there a beautiful little humming bird decided to visit me. Oh what a piece of art work from Mother Nature! He was so busy fluttering about he did not notice me. A humming bird only a foot away is such a site to behold!
Hope
This is a 6 x6 covered canvas that I applied paints for the background and then glued my image with gel medium. Crumpled some tissue paper and glued it down with gel medium. I them dry brushed it with paints and then covered it with textured paper that has been sitting around for a long time. I then dry brushed with more paints and shoe polish. The metal word was silver that I painted black and then added black embossing powder. Image is from PID.
Altered Frame
The frame that I altered resembled a bird house but I decided I did not want that and took out the bird perch. I created my little collage on the wood backing of the frame using paints and inks. I love that bicycle charm. As soon as I saw that I had to make something with it. Blue Moon as come out with the gorgeous like of vintage charms called "Tokens". I want them all!!! So many to choose from. I only got a couple of pics of this and then the darn batteries went on me! I will go out later and get some because I forgot to charge the other ones! LOL! I need to get used to this fancy camera that I got for Christmas. Too many bells and whistles!
the little fella in the collage is Marshall from Paper Imagery Designs.
Spring is HERE!!!!
The temps here last week were in the 80's! How nice! Flowers blooming, the smell of fresh cut grass, open windows that allow that fresh air to come in! So in honor of spring I altered this wooden box.
The images of the little children are from PID. All the other material that I used to alter this can be purchased at Michaels even the Easter cards that are 3 dimensional. They have some incredible things for Spring and Easter!
Enjoy the new Season!
It was simply FANTASTIC!!!!!
Well the show was a hit as it has been for the last 49 years which is the longest running show in American History. I am so glad that we had the opportunity to witness history. The Vegas Show girls were beautiful, talented and smiled through their entire performance.
Les Folies Bergere was at it's finest! Now I believe the show originated back in the late 1800's. I wish I could tell you the next time you are in Vegas to see this show but sadly it is coming to an end the 27th of March this year. The dancing, singing, acrobats and of course the costumes! MAGNIFICENT!!!
There were also a Chinese Twin Brother Acrobat act that was awesome! And then the comedian Michael Hill I think...I forgot his name (dear me) was funny.
We had great seats right in front and it just could not get any better then that! Oh what a night it truly was!
My first Vegas Show!
Ok I have been living here for nearly 2 years and have not gone to any of the shows here. How sad. BUT....tonight my mother and I are going to one!!!
Folies Bergere has been running for over 50 years and it will be closing it's doors later this month. I am really excited about going to see this one.
Hmmmmm maybe I better take my camera and see if I can get some pics!
And the winners are....
This was my first year in participating in the venture and I am truly excited about it. So many blogs to visit, so many new friends were made and rekindled some that I have not heard from in a long time.
I visited as many as I could and loved each and everyone. So much talent, so many wonderful prizes and the ART WORK!!! Oh my goodness!
Can't wait till next year! I am sure that it will go over the 1000 mark! Thank you Lisa for this opportunity to share with so many all over the world!!!
Now without further ado.....my winners are:
Winner #1 is Halle from Halle's Hobbies
Winner #2 is Brenda from Dragon Lady
I have emailed my winners and they have till midnight Monday Feb. 16th to contact me with their shipping info.
OneWorld-One Heart Two Winners will be chosen!
Hey everyone!! I have been so busy for the last few months that I have not had the chance to post anything. Well that is over and what better way to start then to participate in the One World-One Heart Give-a-way! To win the prize all you have to do is leave a comment here!
What I have for this wonderful event are TWO prizes to give away!
The prize package will contain a signed and dated ATC (made by me of course using two of the latest new images from Paper Imagery Designs) that are framed in their own gold frame. Along with the ATC I will also include a package of Clear stamps from Inkadinkadoo! It will be random who gets what package.
The prize is one ATC in it's gold frame along with a set of one package of Clear Stamps.I am so thrilled to be able to participate in this event! Please make sure that I have a way to get in contact with you in case you are the winner. I will announce the winner on Feb. 12! GOOD LUCK!
Another Challenge from the PID group!
Yet another mingle that we did and the theme was red, pink and a touch of green!
"B" Challenge
Over on the PID Yahoo group we have challenges every two weeks and I created this one for the "B" challenge and have mingled this one out. We have tons of fun with these!!!!
Patience
This little ATC is the other prize for the OWOH give-a-way that I created using another new PID image. This is a transparency on top of another transparency and under that I created a background using oil pastels.
Pretty In Pink
This is one of the new images from Paper Imagery Designs. She will not be available until Feb. 1 This ATC will be one of the prizes that I will be giving away for OWOH giveaway!
Halloween Project
I had to make a pumpkin for a contest at work. I love vintage Halloween and I saw a similar project in a magazine. So I decided to give it a go! He is made with 3 craft pumpkins that were spray painted black. A feather boa around his neck to keep him warm. Rather then carving his face we used a textured paste to create it. His hat is made from card stock that I swiped with gold ink and made black dots. Large chenille stems for his arms and a clay flower pot for the base. It was fun and I love him! No we did not win the district contest but what the heck! He was getting banged up at work and losing his parts. I brought him home for safe keeping! He stands nearly 3 feet tall!
It Rained Last Night!!!
I have been living in Las Vegas for nearly a year and a half and it has only rained twice. It rained very hard here last night and it was unreal! Streets flood, backyards flood and the roads are very slick like driving on ice covered roads back East. It was very pleasant this morning. Birds were singing and having fun in the bird bath. The smell from the rain was very refreshing and the grass was so green! You are on very strict watering here in the desert. So this rain was like a windfall to the plant life here.
Halloween ATC Swap
We are having an Halloween ATC swap in our group using PID images and here are some that I did for it.
Careful when you click on them they are big files and a little blurry BUT i warned ya! New scanner and i still don't know how to use it properly! LOL! High tech! Go figure! And I did small images! EEEEEEEK!
Mother Daughter gone CRAZY SALE
There has been so much going on in the world and to make things a little bit better for our art friends we are having the SALE OF THE CENTURY!!!! The Mother Daughter gone crazy sale!
Until October 3rd 2008 we are offering 3 for the price of one! That's right! You buy one and get TWO free!! That makes our sheets $1.33 each! WOW!!! WE HAVE GONE CRAZY!!!!
This offer is good only on our matte or card stock finish collage sheets. NO TRANSPARENCIES at this price (we are not that crazy!!!!). You MUST place your free sheets in the comment section of your order. Due to the overwhelming demand we will not be able to correct it. PLEASE MAKE CERTAIN YOU MARK YOUR FREE SHEETS!!!! NO EXCEPTIONS FOR THIS SALE!
Click here to view our collage sheets!
AND THE WINNER IS!!!!!
LETHA
Yippee! I love a great contest- I always enter but... well its fun to see who wins!
Congratulations on your first year, and I wish you the best for the coming year!
I posted your give-a-way on my blog!
http://thismuseofmine.blogspot.com/
Hugs!
Letha
please email me with your personal information and since you posted about us on your site you will also get the Tim Holtz Halloween Stamps!
Thank you to all that participated wish you all could win. To all the participants I will offer you 40% off any collage sheet order. Just post a note in the comment section of your order about this and we will discount your 40% off your entire college sheet order. A small way to say thank you!!!!
One Year Anniversary Give-A-Way
It's been a year since I started my blog and oh how my life has changed! Moved cross country, now a Senior Designer for Altered Arts Magazine and my daughter Mel and I started our own company Paper Imagery Designs!
So to celebrate this wonderful year I will be giving away a Halloween Package choosing 5 of our most popular Halloween Sheets by just posting a comment here on my blog and a way that I can email you if you are the winner.... OR click here to view and find out how you can win even more for this Halloween Anniversary Package!
Thanks to everyone that has made this year so special to me!
Birthday Sale Exteneded!!!!
We have had a tremendous response to our Birthday Sale that we have extended it to the 31st of July!
Starting today July 25th and ending July 31st there will be a HUGE Birthday Sale!! Whose Birthday is it? MINE so everyone can celebrate 15% off your TOTAL Order! This is my way of having a Birthday Party!!
That includes ALL products currently in our shop:
Tim Holtz NEW Stamps $16.96 after discount
Stampington Stamps from $12.00 to $15.00 after discount
Maya Road Products from $1.70 to $6.00 after discount
and most of our VERY Popular Collage Sheets as low as $1.70 each WOW!!!!
Use discount code happybirthday (one word) for this sale!!! You won't get these cheaper anywhere else!! I guarantee it!!! If you have a problem with the shipping estimate we will reimburse your shipping difference!
More New Art Work
At our Yahoo group we have challenges each week and here are a couple that I did.
Each month we have an ATC jackpot lottery and this month's theme is red, white and blue. So here is my piece that I did. I bought a magnet that had all the red white and blue glitter on it and altered it. Punched some holes with my crop-a-dile (that thing is so awesome) and added the embellishments. The liberty sign was part of the magnet that I took off and relocated it.
More bird houses for the bird house mingle! OMG!!! I tell you this mingle is full of beautiful altered bird houses.
We also had a black and white challenge also and here is my piece that I did on a canvas panel.
We are having way too much fun! Join us if you like! We even supply some free images if you don't have any yet!
New Art Work this is so different!!
It's been a while since I posted any of my new art work lately. I have been so busy. I have been taking a cake decorating class and here is my first cake. Ok no flowing fountains LOL!! But it's coming.
My daughter Gennifer is also doing this with me. She is not a crafty person at all but when she said she would do this I said ALL RIGHT!!
So here is her first cake! Not bad al all!!!!
I forgot to take pics of the cute little clown cupcakes we made last week. Darn! Every one ate them before I got a chance to snap them! LOL!!
Birthday Sale!!!
Starting today July 25th and ending July 26th there will be a HUGE Birthday Sale!! Whose Birthday is it? MINE so everyone can celebrate 15% off your TOTAL Order! This is my way of having a Birthday Party!!
That includes ALL products currently in our shop:
Tim Holtz NEW Stamps $16.96 after discount
Stampington Stamps from $12.00 to $15.00 after discount
Maya Road Products from $1.70 to $6.00 after discount
and our VERY Popular Collage Sheets $1.70 each WOW!!!!
Use discount code happybirthday (one word) for this sale!!! You won't get these cheaper anywhere else!! I guarantee it!!! If you have a problem with the shipping estimate we will reimburse your shipping difference!
