Yum - new supplies!

Bill gave me a gift certificate to Dick Blick for Christmas. It was a great gift because today I went shopping and bought all sorts of fun new supplies that I wanted to try. I picked out two big packs of handmade paper with lots of texture and pattern, a mechanical pencil, lead and erasers. I had sworn off gel pens for a couple years because I always had problems with them drying up, but after Wendy and I played with hers yesterday I just had to get some. So picked out a sent of 10 glittery ones and I bought a new kind called "glaze" gel pens. They are awesome! When they dry, the ink is raised and looks like it was heat embossed! And... a Picasso calendar and an Andy Warhol magnet. And a portable watercolor set that I'm planning to take on our honeymoon this summer and a 192 page sketchbook that I'm going to use as my 2006 art journal. Ok, so you could have figured out most of that from looking at the picture - but I'm excited!

Deco-mania!

Over the last few weeks, I have been taking on several decos at a time from different people, but they've been sitting in my deco box waiting due to the busy nature of the holiday season. So, yesterday and today I have been working on decos like crazy, trying to keep them moving on. I've arted up 20 pages in the last two days! Here are a few of my favorite pages.

Yea - new ATC's!

Animal ATCs for the Member of the Month gift (front and back)

Today when Wendy came over to make art with me, she brought me ATC's for the E.C. swaps. They are very fabulous, and are a great addition to my ATC binder. Plus I feel lucky to receive some of the very first ATCs that she has ever made - and I know she put lots of TLC into them.

Paper weaving

Altered Photo Fun!

I created 5 altered photograph ATC's today. They are for a swap on Nervousness and were inspired by the artwork of Karen Michel. I bought her book a few weeks ago and this was a great excuse to play with the techniques within. Her website is great, too. Plus Wendy came over to play today and it was so helpful to have her there to bounce ideas off of. These ones were hard to part with, so I hope to get some cool returns!

Melissa's gift

Before Christmas I received an amazing holiday gift exchange package from Melissa via the Embellished Circus. Everything was beautifully wrapped and presented. It was so tempting that even my kitty had to check it out!
She included a beaded necklace that I've already worn several times, a glittery ornament, hand-printed cards, a great sunflower ATC, a terrific assortment of beautiful papers, and lots of other goodies! I definitely felt spoiled - but at least I know that she is enjoying the handmade scarf and wrist-warmers that I sent her.

Gift for Bethany

I made my younger sister a little scrapbook (6"x6") for Christmas. She is taking a trip to Paris, France with her art department in March (she's a junior in high school). So, I made up pages that she could stick pictures into from the trip. The papers were all in coordinating colors and patterns (papers by Chatterbox). I think that she really liked it!

Christmas gifts

I did a fair amount of arting and crafting for Christmas gifts this year. I made two mini books inside of Altoid tins for my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. The eight pictures inside are all of our nephew on the day of our wedding in September. They turned out SO cute - I am going to have to make myself one to keep, I think. The construction was pretty simple. I made eight individual mini pages, then I glued them back-to-back with ribbon between the pages. Finally I attached the ends of the ribbons into the bottom of the tin and covered them with a piece of paper.

I also crocheted a scarf for a friend and teacher at my school who was my secret santa partner this year.