I recently ordered a whole bunch of Lavinia Stamps

and have been having fun creating whimsical and magical images. 

This is my favorite so far. 

I seem to have a connection to the idea of a

frog and a snail in a friendship, as this is the 4th in a long standing series.

 

 It's been awhile.  Does anyone still read blogs?  I hope so.  I know I do. Here are some recent pictures of what I've been up to...

making bobbins for wrapping ribbon

making tags and journal cards

a trip to Washington D.C.

making a polymer clay frog skeleton.

enjoying the beach while I can! 

Winter is here. 

It's a quiet lovely time of the year. 

I tend to become a hermit at this time. 

Lately I've been loving coloring in fanciful coloring books.

But I did paint this experimental watercolor (with a bit of collage) the other day. 

20 days until Spring! yay! 

 

Collage Snippits

 

I love making these small collages. I use them in my journals as an embellishment, on cards and as tuck spots on pages of my journals. 

These are to become greeting cards.  It's such a great way to use up odds and ends of papers and such. 

Gelli Printing

I once attended a workshop with Elizabeth St. Hilaire in Italy. It was a week of collage technique under a Tuscan Sun. Stunning and so much fun! 

We made collage paper using paper and acrylic inks on a gelli plate. This week I wanted to do some collage work, but needed more collage papers, so I pulled out my materials and went to town! I ended up with an amazing array of  beautiful paper!  The above are just a few. I printed on music paper, book paper, deli paper, rice paper and regular old copy paper.  It all works...any thin paper really. 

On to collage!   Happy Crafting! 

Mixed media experiments

 

After seeing Jane Chipp's artwork, I was inspired to try it myself. I am learning what I like and what to change with each rendition. A great learning experience!  I love to learn new or different techniques. What I love about this is it combines painting with collage - a real mixed media project. 

Happy crafting!

Lots and lots of butterflies

 

Can one ever have too many butterflies??  I don't think so.  Although I have lots already, as soon as I saw this tutorial over at the Graphics Fairy, I had to give it a go!  There is a free download for the butterfly images. I printed them onto sticker paper. Plain paper works too. One must use a laser printer, as the gold foil sticks to the toner in the lamination process. After printing and foiling with the laminator, I painted the butterflies using watercolors and dye ink pads.  Over all, I am very pleased with the results!  For the fussy cutting of the butterflies- I watch TV while doing the cutting. Very Zen and relaxing. 

Happy Crafting!