Pay It Forward Art Project

Now this sounds like a lot of fun; while visiting Kathy over at Kluless, I came upon her post about an art sharing party... of course I wanted in! So in order to participate, I agreed to post the rules here on my blog to see if anyone else would like to join us.

Would you like a Tim Holtz inspired piece by moi? I will be creating something special for the first five who comment on this post and say "Yes, I want in"!

I'll use some of this....

If you do, here are the official rules to cut and paste for your own blog:


What I will do: Make a small work of art for the first five people who comment on this post and say " YES, I want in!"

What you will do: Swap a piece of art with me, post the rules on your blog or any other social media AND make something for the first five who comment on YOUR post...you in return will get 5 pieces of original art.

– It has to be your work, made by you, and the recipient must receive it before 2014 ends.

- Doesn't matter where you live in the world.

- Copy & paste this as your latest entry on your favorite social website (your blog is fine).

– It can be anything art-based: a drawing/illustration, a photograph, digital, jewelry, a knitted item, cross-stitch, paper maché – or anything in-between.

- It doesn't matter if you aren't an artist...the sky's the limit...



Can't wait to swap with ya!

Tim Holtz Tags of 2014 - April

Yikes! Where the heck did the month go? I have been so busy with other things, I haven't had time to get crafty much in April. But I did make sure I got my Tim Holtz April tag done - just in time...

I gathered my supplies - including a new die (new to me, that is); Tim's "Tattered Pinecone" Bigz die and his new "Trellis" Frameworks die. I began by tearing up some tissue tape and adding it around the background in a random pattern. Then I swiped Broken China Distress Paint over top, spritzed on some water to create a cool mottled effect and added Vintage Photo ink.

As instructed, I cut out the trellis in grungeboard, painted, sanded and inked it. I added the inserts punched from his "Mirrored" and patterned paper.

I also added some Wild Honey ink to the background to warm it up and pull together the rose colours and Jute String used in the tag hole. The seam binding was spritzed with water and coloured using inks and paints, scrunched up and then dried with my embossing heat tool.

What really surprised me about this project was how well the Pinecone die makes dried tea roses! Aren't they amazing? I was really so pleased at how these turned out. And they were so easy to make! I coloured my roses before I rolled them; using Victorian Velvet, Worn Lipstick and Wild Honey Distress Inks. Vintage Photo and Forest Moss inks were added to the juniper leaves (from the Pinecone die set too).

An "Inspire" tag from Tim's Philosophy set was painted to bring out the type and added to the ribbon using two jump rings.

I really love all the different textures and colours in this month's tag.

Thank you Tim, for another great tutorial! I never would have tried to make these roses with a Pinecone die - but they are now my favorite and I know I will be making many more!

Happy Easter!

Well, here it is the holiday long weekend - I am preparing to host the family Easter dinner Sunday night so I've been busy with decorating and getting things together.

Each season I like to make something special for the holiday dinner table; this year since I am learning to knit, I thought I would try some knitted Easter Eggs! 

I began by purchasing some paper mache eggs for forms.

I gave each one two coats of white acrylic paint so the brown wouldn't show through the stitches.

Next I got to knitting. I found a pattern on Ravelry, but it was far too large for these eggs, so I modified it to fit. I began with cotton as the pattern suggested - but this was too stiff for my liking; I ended up picking up more springy acrylic which worked so much better. I made seven with variegated baby yarn for each guest's place setting.

After each one was finished flat, I sewed them up over the egg form.

I then bought some solid colours and received perfect pastel yarn-ends from my mom who is de-stashing her craft supplies. Now I could try my hand at designing my own patterns using Excel to map the colours.

I finished enough to fill a beautiful crystal bowl (from my mom too) for our Easter table.

Now I must get to cleaning, cooking and baking. Good thing Monday is a holiday for me; I'm looking forward to relaxing, visiting a few blogs and getting back to some paper crafts after a busy weekend.

Happy Easter everyone!

Game Of Thrones Inspiration

It's been a long wait; nearly a year in fact.

Hubby and I started watching Game Of Thrones early in 2013 after I gave him Season One for Christmas 2012. After the first ten episodes we were hooked; we tore through Season Two then watched Season Three whilst it aired on HBO last March. When that was over (much too quickly), it seemed like April 2014 was so far off...

But here we were; finally at the weekend of Season Four's premiere!

In preparation for this momentous occasion, we decided to have a GOT marathon. However, I was surely not committed to spending hours on end without something productive to do... so I went into my stash of wool and pulled out 11 skeins that would eventually become a thick comfy throw.

While we only got half-way through the first three seasons (well, life does get in the way of 30 solid hours of epic betrayal, dragons, gore, magic, sex, evil, wolves and numerous sword fights) I am just completing my third skein in my GOT throw (62" wide and 20" long so far):

I felt like Old Nan clicking away...

Good thing I recorded the Season Four premiere... it looks like we need another weekend to finish our grand marathon. Then on to the current offerings of medieval mayhem.

Fingers crossed I finish my project by the end of this year's episodes.