What's Up!

OK, first off, I can't believe that I have not posted in ten whole days! I mean, OMG! Sorry, my lovelies!

And there goes a whole lifetime supply of exclamation points. :(

Second, how about this goofy dog? It is bad enough that he's supposed to be a Golden, they of the friendly fun personalities and the gentle disposition of the late, lamented Mr. Jaspy. (And who can believe that it has been two years? I found two of his dog hairs painted onto the door of the hall bathroom. I wonder what the Sports Fan will say if we move and I want to take the bathroom door with me?) Back to Chance. OK, so he's a tripod and more of a Ruby Roo than a Mr. Jaspy-style Golden. He's really a big old sweetie pie. His father, Cody is sweet too but he's stubborn and not so anxious to please as this boy is.

Next up is what I've been up to. Quite a lot. Here's one of my two pages for the Treasure Art Trends Yahoo group's Christmas Chunky. I'd been diligently working on my idea for page No. 1 when page No. 2 pops into my head nearly full-blown. I had a couple of minor things to work out, but wowsers this one just happened and I'm pleased with it!

I stamped Versamark watermark ink on a piece (3 1/4") of pine green card stock and dusted it with Aztec Gold Perfect Pearls. Then I edged the card by dipping it in my fave Sunset Gold Lumiere. Once dried (laying on waxed paper), I ran it through the Xyron. Not good! I had to touch up most of them as the cellophane layer from the Xyron attracted the powder and there were some spots. The next time, I will Xyron first! I Xyroned a slightly bigger piece (3 1/2") of basic red card stock. Next, I worked on the backs. Finally, I added a tiny (1/16") gold-edged green reflective dot in each corner that you do not see here because I forgot to take the photo of one that already had the dots on it.Here's the back. I bought this star stamp almost without thinking. Certainly without any idea in mind. It has come to be one of those stamps you pick up time and again, particularly at Christmastime. The backs are 4" pieces of white card stock. I stamped my star in three colors of Marvy Matchables, red, blue, and pine green. Then I dotted Christmas Red Stickles randomly around the stars and signed it with a red gel pen. I love Stickles!

I also did 35 or so 4 x 4 pages for the Art Unraveled 2008 Technique Chunky book. More on those in another post. I'm happy with them but I'm not.

Finally, here's a big project that will be ongoing. I'm taking a class from Maggie Grey online. The class is free to those who purchase her latest book, Textile Translations: Mixed Media, from her new publishing company, D4Daisy Books. Maggie has asked us not to reveal the steps on our blogs. This is the cover for a book made of pelmet vilene, which is a really heavy Pellon. The decoration is a paper cast of a shell I had hanging around here. Thanks to Michelle Ward and the Street Team Challenges for getting me started on those!

Here's a shot of the entire book cover, opened out. I may add more embroidery and will almost certainly add more beads.