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Tim Holtz 12 Day of Christmas Tags - My first 3

2011-12-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

I did Tim's first one first and did it pretty much Exactly like Tim did. Which I am going to do for most of them as I Love Tim's Designs and get to have something close this way. :-)

This was Tim's 2nd and again, I did most the same as Tims except for the Star around the Reindeers neck. I didn't have a star so I used a pearl. And I made the wreath from tinsel pipe cleaners & used Alcohol Ink to make it green.

I was missing some supplies (which are on their way LOL), so I jumped to Tim's #6 tag. After I made yet another run to Scrapbook Territory in Berkeley to get this Texture Fade which I never even considered buying before............but how Perfect is it for this technique! And I LOVE this Technique! I Thought it would be a little bit faster.........but I spent over 2 hours painting after it was embossed! LOL I suspect I could have done that a little more quickly as once it's sanded off a bit, it would have been fine. I was So Thrilled with the results though. I would Love to make a set of vintage looking Christmas ornaments using this technique! One thing I wouldn't do next time however, is use the Walnut Stain ink over the part I had painted white. It worked Great over the colors and distressed them a little. But it turned my white paint brown. I still love it, but would like that white to be white next time. I hope to start a 4th tag today!

Ice Resin ATC's

2011-11-26T14:29:00.000-08:00

I made ATC's this weekend for my Art Ventures swap group. This is an A - Z ATC swap and we are on the letter "I", so I needed to use a technique beginning with I. I had heard of Ice Resin, but hadn't used it before and thought this would be a great place to try it. I am so Thrilled with the outcome I decided to do as my friend Carol Sweeney does and post the process to my blog.

First I needed an ATC size Bezel so I could pour in the ice resin. As I have Many Times now, I went back to mold making that I learned in a class at Art & Soul Retreat from Ty & Marcia Schultz. I had Silputty 40, A & B, from Silkpak, inc. that I ordered after that class. The 2 jars actually go a Long Way and I Think the cost for both was less than $40. I have made Many, Many, Many molds from these jars. To make the mold, I took equal parts of the white and the green putty and mixed them together Well. The color needs to be and even green for the mold to set up correctly. No threads of white going through. This doesn't take long. I had a thick ATC shape (about 1/8" deep) which I used to make the mold. I pushed that into the putty, then made sure the putty was pushed close to the ATC shape and would harden smoothly. The mold hardens in about 5 minutes.

For the ATC design, I tore Stonehenge paper to ATC size (2 1/2 x 3 1/2), then painted the background with Golden Interference Blue paint. (Adding another "I" to the project)

Then I stamped a design over the paint with Golden Iridescent Bronze Fine paint. A 3rd "I". :-)

Then added another "I", an Iris as well as stamping the word Iris in Stampin Up ink. I had 2 issues with these....and that ink was one of them. Next time I would use a Permanent Ink. The Stampin Up ink pads did bleed in the process. I was able to somewhat recover from that, but I would have liked the word to have been more clear.

I used a little glue stick on the back of the ATC to keep it flat in the mold (which Kind of worked.....next time maybe double stick tape). I did need to trim the ATC's a bit to fit the mold well. That negated the Tearing of the ATC's instead of cutting. I wanted the torn side to show. Next time.....I'd tear them just a bit smaller than the mold.

Since I make multiple ATC's when I make them, I ended up making 6 ATC size molds, instead of having to make them one at a time. I didn't realize before I started, it takes 6 hours for Ice Resin to set up enough to work with it and 3 days for it to completely cure. I made 9, so I was able to do it in 2 groups, instead of 1 a day!

Next step is to mix the Ice Resin & pour into the molds. Several years ago I took a class with Susan Lenart Kazmer using resins. She was a Great teacher & I had Much Fun in the class. But the Biggest thing I learned is that Resin takes enough Patience to Stir it as Required in the instructions! Ice Resin calls for stirring for 2 minutes minimum. I learned from Experience....if you Don't mix the 2 parts well enough......it does not set up. This time, I took the time & did it right. :-)

Once they were poured, I put them in a flat bottom pan to be sure they would dry flat. It Did take at least 6 hours to be able to unmould them. I ended up leaving them overnight. This morning I could pop them out of the molds and they were still soft enough I could trim the edges where necessary. Through the day they have been hardening further. But they Are out of the molds & I can add to them if I want. And right out of the mold would be a great time to punch any holes one might want in them. A punch would probably still work at this malleable stage.

And Here is the Ice Resin ATC out of the mold. I love the feel of it. I didn't have problems with bubbles really. A couple here & there & I popped them with a turkey skewer (probably with some gravy on it! LOL).

I will be putting a back page on with the ATC info and most likely use the golden iridescent bronze paint to go around the outer edges yet. And I could now add any items I want on top......not sure about that yet. I'm very happy with the end product, although there are a couple of things I would definately do differently next time. The ink for stamping IRIS needs to be Staz On as this did bleed and is much lighter than I originally stamped. Also the resin can soak into the paper in places. I read that Elmers glue could be used to keep that from happening. I did cover the front and back of the ATC's With an elmers glue mixture (with water), and it did not really work. I think I diluted it too much. I ended up not minding where the resin soaked in however, as it brought up parts of the blue in the interference paint & I kind of like the effect. Anyway....................my first post of a How To project. With the new blogger interface, it's Much Easier than it used to be so I might try to do this more often, IF a project works out that would be fun to share. :-)

Creative Art Camp - Projects Completed

2011-11-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

The first project was a Vintage Valise Journal taught by Jan Hoefler at her beautiful home in Wisconsin. Not only did we get to take a class, but we also got to Shop! Jan's website is www.redrubberpaperandink.com. She sells most of Tim and Rangers products along with lots of other great supplies on her site. She was a Great teacher and we had a FUN day! Here is my journal and a few of the pages we created.

This was our first project at Chrissy's house. I suggested and "taught" this. I had watercolor paper torn to size 8 1/2 x 11, and matboard covers cut to 8 1/2 x 5 1/2. We used Glimmer Mists on both the watercolor paper and the covers. Any spray solutions with mica in them will work with this method. Basically you use maybe 3 colors, spraying them on the watercolor paper. You want the paper to be quite wet and covered. Then layer saran wrap over the puddled mists and create patterns in the saran wrap. Then let dry. I never wait too long before I pull the saran wrap off. At least 10 minutes. But I Think the patterns will appear better if they are left to dry completely. They don't look very interesting until you pull the saran wrap off. Then they are quite Beautiful! Here is my book and some of the pages. The piece with "windows" on the front is a vintage dental slide page that Mary brought for us all. Pea took headshots of all of us and I will be putting pictures in that soon.

Here is a the table with many of our pages drying.

Here are some of the fabric beads I made. We painted fabric first, then overstamped it if we wanted. Some we used already printed fabrics. We glued them & rolled them tightly around straws, cut them to various sizes, then put fibers on some, rolled some in seed beads, wrapped wire and various glass beads around others. They were Much Fun.

Fragments Charms - I made one that was double sided with Christmas images. I will make this into a single charm necklace. The other charms we made were backed with embossed metal. I added jump rings and charms to mine and added them to a chain to make a necklace.

The final project was a domino collage. This idea was found on this website: http://creativepointe.blogspot.com/2011/08/sharing-challenge-entry.html The person who created these has very pretty ones for sale! It was much fun to give the technique a try!

Creative Art Camp - Mukwonago Wisconsin - October 2011

2011-10-31T16:03:00.000-07:00

I just returned last night from 5 Wonderful days in Mukwonago, Wisconsin. Several months ago, 7 of us started planning a small art retreat and the day finally came. Chrissy hosted the camp at her home with her husband Bob. 3 other Wisconsin friends came...Maggi, Sweatpea and Mary. I flew in from California as did Bev, and Carol flew in from Washington state. We were all So Excited to get together and Play. :-)

Chrissy and Bob have a Beautiful house on Phantom Lake. They are Such Welcoming hosts, they make us feel at Home. This is a view from the house overlooking the lake, and below a picture of the house from the lake.

Carol, Bev and I on the deck.

The weather was beautiful the day we arrived, so the first night Bob and Chrissy took us for a pontoon boat ride around the lake. It was Beautiful as I remembered. Bev and I were fortunate to have stayed here a few years ago when we flew in for Raevn's Nest retreat in Cedarburg.

Our gracious host, bartender and special events coordinator during the visit, Bob. :-)

Maggi and Bev, enjoying the ride.

A beautiful sunset beginning.

Both of our wonderful hosts, Bob and Chrissy!

The next day we travelled about an hour to Jan Hoefler's house for a class she taught. I will post my projects next. This was a vintage valise journal ala Tim. We were also able to buy lots of supplies. I've known Jan through yahoo art swap groups for years and was Thrilled to get a chance to meet her. Here is her website: http://www.redrubberpaperandink.com/

And even though I just told a mutual friend, Beth, that Bev & I were staying Out of Trouble this trip.........look what Bev found!! LOL

When we returned, Bob had a Wonderful big bonfire going outside. It was chilly out, but Not around the Fire!

Another night we formed our own pizza dough (that stuff is Stretchy!!! They were all Different). Bob then grilled one side, brought those in, we added whatever toppings we wanted to the grilled side, then he grilled the other side & the toppings warmed & melted at the same time. Wonderful Barbequed Pizzas! Dave & I are going to try that!

The next 3 days, we worked on various projects around the table. Thursday morning we made glimmer mist papers that we would later tear to journal size & bind. That afternoon we made fabric beads embellished with fibers, wire and other beads. Saturday morning we tore our glimmer mist papers and stamped on them if we wanted and bound the journals. That afternoon we made charms using Tim Holtz's acrylic charms, papers, etc. Saturday morning we chose between a domino collage or a canvas. We all chose the domino collage and although it appeared it wouldn't take too much time at first, once we started wrapping wire & adding beads to it, it took most of the day and was Much Fun! We also made some molds from Silpak's Sil Putty. Chrissy went wild in the afternoon, making lots of molds for all of us! We actually used some air dry clay in them and it worked Great! I can't wait to pour some of the eurethane I have into them also. We accomplished a LOT. Photos to come.

As Saturday evening was approaching, we were a little quieter, a little slower and I think fatigue was setting in.

I'm SURE Fatigue was setting in!!!

It was a Wonderful few days of Visiting, Creating and Sharing. We all hope we will be able to do this again next year and in the future. Maybe California next time, then back to Wisconsin. We'll see what we all can come up with. :-) The pictures below are just some of the Color that was still very much around. The peak of fall color might have passed, but it still was Very Pretty!

Back on Land - One final day & night in Cocoa Beach

2011-10-08T10:59:00.000-07:00

We are off the ship on Sunday morning and took a shuttle to the Embassy Suites at the Orlando Airport. We decided to stay one more night so we weren't rushed with packing, getting our flight on time. Which was Great as we both needed to repack our suitcases at the hotel from what we just jammed in on the ship! We had a Lot of Stuff to bring back with all of the gifts from Tim and the projects!

We also got a chance to loung around the pool Sunday afternoon & just kick back. We didn't do too much just laying around on the cruise! Lots to see & do! :-)

And I don't know HOW we did it, but we went out to lunch at Sonny's Barbeque Sunday (Great Food!!) Here is Bev with a Real Ice Tea for the first time since we left.

HOW could I have eated this whole rack of ribs after all of that food on the ship!!!??? I guess it was the ribs I missed in St. Maarten. ;-) A Diet starts soon.....

Sunday night we met Lonnie & Marilyn at the Bonefish Grill (I think this was the BEST meal I have Ever had in my life! We found there is one of these in San Francisco & hope to get there Soon!)

Well, I've looked forward to this event for a year. And now it has come & gone. And despite a few little glitches here & there with scooters and jetskis.....it was a Wonderful time filled with new friends & many memories.
Since this was the last "big" cruise Tim is doing, I'm feeling sad to have no new plans to be back on a ship and on the sea. As is Bev. SO, Monday morning before we separated to our respective airlines & flights, we both decided to Probably sign up for the ScrapMap Mixed Media cruise in November 2012! It won't be a Tim cruise. :-( But it will be something different to look forward to for the next year, as well as being on my 4th Royal Caribbean ship! Now to convince our families that we should be going away on Thanksgiving weekend! ;-)

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise - Days 6 & 7 - At Sea

2011-10-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

The final 2 days are at sea. I have classes on Friday 9 - 12 and Saturday 1 - 4. The rest of the time I spent at the pools, (with a Berry Pina Colada....my only fun drink during the day!), and lunch at Johnny Rockets which is always fun. They didn't sing YMCA though...........they did the Twist. Not nearly as much fun as YMCA, but love those burgers, fries & milkshakes!

Just a random picture of the dining room.

A picture of me with Christie Hund who has a video showing how to make her charms on her blog. Bev & I will be in Wisconsin in 2 weeks for a small art get together & we plan on making these charms. Was fun to meet Christie since it was one of the Wisconsin girls who found her blog before the cruise. :-)

And the Project........A Configuration Box! This is Tims that he actually put together On the Ship! He had the basic coverings done before, but he collected and added all of his elements on the cruise! Fun new things like the shaker box with sand and the flip photo album space. Wish I had looked for a Ship!!!! Hmmm, there's always Google. Might just do that today. LOL

Bev & I at our usual spot. Picture taken by Tim.

And here is My box...............Very Much lacking in elements!!! As Soon as I finish one more blog post & finish the cruise, I am going to add some things to that box! As well as the journal!

Unfortunately, my pictures of the final night cocktail party didn't come out well. I think it was juggling all of my tickets for the drawing, a drink, the camera and my still hurting ribs! I'm going to check out all of the other blogs from other cruisers & see if maybe someone else got some good ones.

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise - Day 5 - Project #3

2011-10-08T10:35:00.001-07:00

After a Full day on St. Maarten, another Wonderful dinner with our tablemates, and a couple of glasses of wine & the shot of the day (!!), we had class from 9:30 - 10:30 PM. I was wondering if after the day, I would stay awake for class, but as Always, Tim keeps things exciting and Fun. No problem at All staying awake. :-)

We made watch case necklaces. Pictures of mine below:

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise - Day 5 - September 29, 2011 - St. Maarten, Dutch & French West Indies

2011-10-08T10:02:00.001-07:00

Day 5 we docked at St. Maarten at 8 AM. Early enough I Forgot to take pictures of shore from the ship. :-( I did however, take several pictures of the ship From shore:

Bev was feeling enough less sore & was able to go ashore, at least for a short while. Bev with the sign, then me with the sign.

Phillipsburg was quite pretty (below), however without having signed up for any excursions, I decided to head straight to Marigot to see the French capitol first.

I did get a chance to shop around in this Marigot flea market. Bought a couple of cover ups. Soon, it began to rain. Then it RAINED!!!! And Amazing Downpour for about 20 minutes! The flea market vendors covered up their wares. I went to the West Indies Mall across the street & found some fun items for our class project the next day. Although, we have no idea what the project yet is going to be......

The skies cleared & back to being a beautiful day. I ate at a small little local food stand which was located next to Wendy's. LOL I had a Johnnycake filled with fresh fish and hot sauce. I had hoped to have some local food and had read about Johhnycakes. Not sure if I liked it or not, but it was fun to Finally find a local food stand & be able to try some local food. I Wanted to go to Grand Case and a "Lo-Lo" as I had read about. Not sure that was really accurate in the travel books. It was supposed to mean Locally owned, Locally operated. However, one cab driver told me there was One restauraunt there Called LoLo's. But cab service to that area was limited, so I did not get the barbeque ribs on the beach from a local Lo Lo that I had hoped for. This weekend back at home however, Dave is going to smoke some ribs. So I'll just get them at home. :-)

I took a cab from Marigot to Orient Beach which was my Goal on this island........to.......you Guessed it! Rent a Jetski!!! LOL When I got there, There they Were........pretty jetskis all ready to go. I am Hurting from the fall yesterday, so I decided to get in the water first & see how my ribs felt. OUCH!!! SO, I just bobbed around in the pretty water, & looked longingly at the jetskis and people out on them. I need to come back here! ;-)

I spent about 2 hours at Orient Beach, walking on the beach and just enjoying the water. Then I took a cab back to Phillipsburg to look around a bit. I hadn't realized there was a Beautiful beach right there off the ship! With Jetskis!! In my research on the availability of jetskis on these islands, I never found that! Next time. :-) The shops along the walkway there were fun too. I didn't have much time left, so no shopping. Probably a Good thing.

And I'm just Sure I can use This sign in some art project! ;-)

I would Love to come back to St. Maarten someday. There is a Lot to explore there. One day was not enough. But I made the Most out of that day. :-)

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise - Day 4 - September 28 2011 - St. Thomas US Virgin Islands

2011-10-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 9/27 we dock at St. Thomas at 11 AM. We have until 6:30 PM on shore. First picture is our pilot boat that leads the ship in to each port.

A view of Charlotte Amelie from our balcony.

Below is our ship in the process of "parallel" parking between 2 other large ships. This was Amazing to watch. It basically pull into place, then moved Sideways in between the other ships with barely Inches to spare! Quite a Job!

I agonized over RC excursions for this stop. And finally, after talking to my brother who has been here several times, took his advice to just take a cab to wherever I wanted to go. My main direction.......getting a Jetski! LOL So I got a cab to Sapphire Beach where I had read that I could rent a jetski. Quite a Beautiful beach with clear turquoise water.

I found the marina and the guy who rents jetskis!!! The cost was Ridiculously high! $120 for an hour! OUCH! It was only $65 per hour in Cabo on the Mexico cruise 2 years ago. But this was what I was heading to do, so I did it!

I went out by myself, but the guy went out of the marina with me to show me the boundries of where I could go. That was a disappointment. I planned to head over to St. John and all around the island of St. Thomas. But I had a well defined triangle where I could go. It was a large area however & Off I Went, 50 mph over waves, current and had the Time of my Life! :-)

THEN, when an hour was up, the guy came out & waved me in. He waited for me to Race up to him, then we both took off. I'm feeling Pretty Cocky now, Flying over waves at top speed. He hits the wake of a boat, which of Course, I do too. Most Air I ever caught!!! FUN!!!! Then we were back over turquoise water, nearly at the entry to the marina...........next thing I know, I'm Off the jetski and In the Water!!! First time Ever I have ended up off a jetski! I hit the water Hard, right on my right rib cage. I was hobbling around holding my side for the next coup days! It still hurts, but I wouldn't have missed that time for the World!

Afterwards, I went in the water for awhile, then grabbed a cab to Magens Beach which I have heard is one of the top 10 beaches in the world to see. I actually thought Sapphire beach was prettier, but I Had to see Magens. :-)

Below are pictures of me in the water with all of my waterproof Stuff. I had a camera stolen in Mexico a few years back, so I now leave Nothing alone on the beach other than maybe a towel! I have waterproof boxes & pouches & as silly as it probably looks......I just take everything in the water with me. I was by myself so had noone to watch my stuff. This worked Perfectly however. :-)

Downtown Charlotte Amelie is basically all duty free shops. Jewelry, alcohol, cigars, table linens.........I never did find a quaint little local art shop. They did have an open air flea market however, but I ran out of time to get to see that.

This was just a window I thought was cool.

There were no classes today. We had some time to just relax on the balcony.

Or on the bed with the monkey! ;-)

I had been to St. Thomas probably 20+ years ago when my husband had a conference in Puerto Rico. We got flights for a Great price IF we spent at least 2 nights in 3 locations. So we spend 3 days in New Orleans, then on to the conference, then spent a week on Tortola which was Wonderful. We stayed one night in Charlotte Amelie before heading to Tortola and one night when we returned. We didn't see too much, but I remembered all of the duty free shopping. If I stayed on St. Thomas sometime, I'd really want to adventure more around the island, not spend time in the downtown area.

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise - Day 3 - September 27 2011 At Sea

2011-10-05T10:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday 9/27 we were at sea. Today is our first big project. I was in Group A and our class was from 9 - 12. The project was a Bifold journal. Pictures of mine are below.

I Swore that on this cruise, I was Not going to bring home a ton of heavy brochures I picked up along the way for a journal. Best laid plans. :-( I didn't add Anything to the journal...............I Do hope to work on it this weekend though.

The rest of the day was lounging around here & there on the ship. And lunch in the Windjammer of course. How I miss all of that food already prepared! Breakfast brought to our cabin, lunch at the buffet, dinner served in the dining room. It is Nice to be pampered. :-)

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise September 26 2011 - First Class Monday evening

2011-10-05T09:01:00.001-07:00

As with the past 2 cruises, we had the classroom, the store and a workroom on the 2nd floor.

Our first class was the first evening, after Coco Cay. It was 1 1/2 hours and here is Richele showing us the project. We decorated inserts for the insulated mugs. I really Enjoyed this & bought a couple more of the mugs to do a couple for Christmas gifts.

Below is my finished mug. Bev mentioned I should put Jetski on it. She was the one who saw my Elation when I returned from the jetski tour! ;-)

A few pictures of class.

Lonnie & Marilyn

I Love just listening to and watching the water as the ship moves through. Loved the turquoise color that came through in this picture.

Relaxing on the balcony. :-)

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise Day 2, September 26 2011 - Coco Cay, Bahamas

2011-10-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

Our first port was Coco Cay in the Bahamas. This is a small island owned by Royal Caribbean. I read a couple of negative reviews of this island from tour books. However I read More positive reviews by people who had been here. Yes, it doesn't have a port city. Which to me, made it Perfect for just relaxing in paradise rather than running all over a larger island. So I liked it. :-)

Each port had these open air "flea markets". Unfortunately for this one on Coco Cay, I couldn't buy anything as I didn't bring any cash. I had read (apparently incorrectly) that Anything we wanted on Coco Cay, we could use our Sea Pass card. Not true. These people take only cash. Guess it saved me some money. LOL

So, for Me, My relaxing started with a kayak tour. I wish I could learn the fine art of relaxing! But I just need to go, go, go. :-) This was a large group. I have kayaked quite a lot. All but 1 time I've been in a sea kayak where you slip down in. These were sit upon kayaks. I had signed up by myself and they had only double kayaks, so I paddled a double by myself, which was fine. I'm a fairly strong paddler. :-) However, there were basically no backs, so this Killed my Back! It was Fun, but we didn't go far and my back just hurt more & more. I would probably not kayak in this type of kayak again. Just too uncomfortable. But I'm glad I did it. :-)

Ahhhhh, then my Goal on this trip........Jetskis in Every Port!!! I LOVE to jetski! I wasn't fond of having to do it in an organized group. I figured we would putt putt around & not have much fun. I was WRONG!!! There were 7 jetskis and 4 guides in our group. He asked who had experience with jetskis.......there were 2 younger couples and me. They gave us a number and we always took off in that order & followed each other. I got to be #3 behind the young buff guys & their girlfriends. LOL Well our guide took off SO FAST that even the Guys couldn't keep up with him. However, I, old lady that I am, kept Up with the other 2 skis!!!! It was Rough & Choppy out there. I've caught a lot of air before, but in lakes when the wind comes up. Nothing like This! It was a THRILL!!! I Loved Every Minute of it! I had read some comments on cruise critic about this tour, and did see quite often that it was Fast & Rough out there. The other 4 jetskis behind me were always WAY behind. They had 3 guides with them however and None of them had ever been on a jetski before. I would have to say, if Any of them wanted to jetski again, I'd be surprised! This was NOT a beginner jetski tour! Fortunately they had enough guides that people could stick with a group at their own pace. I was just thrilled to be in the first fast group & was easily able to keep up. :-) I'd better Stop on this post as I could talk about jetskis Forever. The Elation I feel with the power of the jetski, out in the ocean. It's a definate high for me! :-)

Above is our guide & my #1 & #2 friends. :-)

Me in Jetski Heaven. :-)

We got to go out & around the ship where it was anchored. This was a tender port (you get to shore on a smaller boat, not off on a dock) I was in the last jetski excursion of the day, and they had to have golf carts to get us Quickly back to the last tender to get on the ship before it set sail. Ahhh, what a Treat this was!!! :-)

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise Day 1, September 25 2011 - Set Sail at 4 PM

2011-10-04T16:38:00.001-07:00

Sunday we take a 10:45 shuttle from Hampton in to the port where we can board our ship, Freedom of the Seas (Royal Caribbean). We can't get into our staterooms until 1, but we can have lunch in the Windjammer first. Off we go, having Fun already! Marilyn & Bev. :-)

Ahhh, WAY too much luggage for me! Bev brought 1 suitcase and a backpack. I brought 2 Large suitcases which were Supposed to be 1/2 empty each so I could bring things back. Before I left, I managed to fill them both to 45 pounds, Plus I had a rolling carryon and a bag for my 2 carryons. Ahhhh, I'll Never learn to pack reasonably! :-( But Somehow, I made it home only checking 1 extra duffel bag. Even I still can't figure out how I did That! LOL

Bev's legs & knees hurt quite a bit from "the spill", so she opts for a wheel chair, getting on the ship. A Great idea! I think what Bev missed Most was running up & down the stairs which she Always does! We can't bemoan Too Much though about not getting to the workout room (which was Amazing!!!) though............this cruise was going to be the one where we actually Did that. Nope. Didn't happen.....LOL

The map of the ship by each elevator. Even on my 3rd cruise, All on Royal Caribbean which are all similar..........I Still end up at the wrong end of the ship at Least 1/2 of the time! And I need to refer to this map Often during the cruise!

We follow a Carnival ship out of Port Canaveral. There is a Disney ship that will follow us out. I took a picture from the ship below of Grills where we had lunch. And also, a picture of the Canaveral lighthouse which is not accessible by land. It was hardly visible from the ship............but I took this picture with my new Canon SX230 which has a 14x zoom and image stabilization. This was fully zoomed and I can't Believe how clear the image really is for that much magnification. I Love this camera!

Once on the ship, we have the buffet lunch in the Windjammer, then walk around the upper deck to the other end of the ship where our room is, 8th deck, room 8556. There is a kids water fun pool at one end, the middle section has 2 pools, several hot tubs, and at the other end, the adult pool which is much deeper.

Above are the pools around 1 when people were either still not boarded, or still in the Windjammer. Below is the Real feel of the pools! Crowded! I have met more interesting people in the pools however. It is intimidating at first, but once you go ahead & take a loung right next to someone and/or get into the pool, people are friendly & it's fun to meet new people. :-)

We have a 5 PM Welcome gathering with Tim & everyone to meet, swap & kick the week off. First picture is Jim when I pointed the camera at him below:

Mario, Monica, Richele, Joy, Tim & Jim. My pictures in Pharohs Lounge didn't come out well. I hope someone else posts some more clear ones.

Andrea, Got Ya!!!! ;-) I just snapped my camera when you walked by (like U Do!) and it came out ok! I'd Love to see some of your pictures! :-)

We had a new dinner table on this cruise. Bev & I knew Lonnie & Marilyn would be at our table, but we did not know the other 6 people. And What a FUN Table it turned out to Be!!! I was not going to go to many dinners in the dining room....I was going to watch sunsets and spend evening time in the pool. But our table was so much Fun I was drawn to dinner. And Then.........this cruise, the dinner did Not take an hour and a half with 1/2 hour in between courses! That was just Too Long to sit at a table for me on the past 2. Things moved at a reasonable pace and that was wonderful too! I missed only one dinner in the dining room. I enjoyed the dinners Very Much! :-) Pix of our table below:

Martine and Christina, both from Australia. They had Horrifically LONG flights to get here to take the cruise! But buffered them a bit with an early stay in San Francisco for a couple of days, then a couple of days in Los Angeles before flying home. I am posting on Tuesday after the cruise returned on Sunday. They won't be home until Next Monday! Whew!!! This is why I haven't travelled overseas at all. I don't know How they Do It!

Lorraine & Pat, from Vancouver & Scottland, were also Much Fun! They have known each other for Many Years but more recently found they are distantly related! How Fun is That!? :-) They disembarked from this cruise, and the same day, boarded the Carnival ship and took another 4 day cruise in the Eastern Caribbean. We did the Western. I can't wait to hear their review of the other ship & cruise! What fun to have spontaneously have decided to do that!

Lonnie & Marilyn who I have known since the 2nd cruise to Mexico and last years cruise to Nova Scotia. Very Nice people and I had Much Fun getting to spend more time with them on the cruise!

Donna, Terrence & Christy. Most of my pictures of Donna & Christy didn't come out well. But it just seemed Fun that the one with Terrence (our head waiter) in it as I think he was in Love with Christy! She put him through hoops, didn't you Ms. Christy!? ;-) They are both from Boca Raton (??? Darn, I remembered which city all along, now that I am typing, all I can think of is N'Orlanz. ;-) How Much Fun we had with them! All Unabridged and Impossible not to just Laugh & Laugh. Yep, we were the loud laughing table! And I was the Only one at our table who drank! I wanted my evening Wine! Noone else had a drink that I saw until the last night! A tribute I think to the wonderful melding we did of people and personalities from all Over the world..............and I'll have great memories always.

Here is a picture of Christy and Donna at the final night farewell party. This is more clear than the ones I took in the dining room.

This picture below was just too much fun to not take. Lorraine ordered two desserts. We all Wanted to order 2 of Everything! LOL The food was Wonderful on this cruise!

Ahh, Juliana. And her boyfriend. :-) She started out so stiff & we thought she wouldn't be much fun. Then she Blossomed! She was so much Fun. And when we left the last night........she was right there hugging us all as we hugged each other. She would be a great person to be part of our group. But off she went, the day we docked, on her next hard working tour. I am Amazed at what those people who work on the ship manage to accomplish! It is Hard Work! Some present themselves as "Wanting to do Everything for you" in a tone. Others, like Juliana, let her personality come out She participated, and didn't just read the requirements of RC. She was (is) a special person.

And although this sunset picture is out of order, since the sunsets were During dinner...................it seemed like the perfect picture to end a perfect day.

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise - Cocoa Beach

2011-10-04T15:31:00.001-07:00

Bev & I flew in 2 days early into Orlando, then took a shuttle to Cocoa Beach where we stayed for 2 nights at the Hampton Inn. We had a room with a balcony & a very nice view. The beach was very close so we enjoyed some relaxing beach time before boarding the ship on Sunday morning.

We walked down the beach to the Cocoa Beach Pier and had lunch at "The Boardwalk" restaurant on the pier.

Then some relaxing time on the beach. Bev gets some reading time and I spend most of my time in the water.

The next day, we walked on the beach in the morning and at 10 AM, we rented motor scooters from Skip, at Beach Classic Scooter rental in old downtown Cocoa Beach. We rented them for 6 hours.

Helmeted up and off we go on our "hogettes" :-)

We headed off to a restaurant Skip recommended in Canaveral called Grills. We ate on the patio near the water. Great place!!!

After lunch we headed to Lonnie & Marilyn's hotel to see if they were there & wheat they were up to. They were out, so we continued towards the cruise port to see the ships that were in that day.

Oops, 2 pictures out of order. I give up on moving them. I'm 2 hours into this post now. I need a Blog Class!!!! This is the water off the pier at Grills. There were many turtles & jelly fish in the water. Jelly fish had been brought in by earlier storms and were in the water later in Coco Cay also!

Leaving Grills, also out of order. ;-)

Meanwhile, back to viewing the ships.

We had Great FUN on our hogettes. And we covered a lot of ground. Those puppies went 50 mph. Most scooters or mopeds for rent are regulated to 35 or 40 as over that usually requires a motorcycle license. Or so I've heard and experienced. These were Great!!!

Then, The SPILL! We had been out for 5+ hours having a Great time. There is only 1 way back through Cocoa Beach and that is the main road. Since these go fast enough for the speed limit, we were fine, even with much traffic. Not too far from the rental shop, Bev who was ahead of me, signalled & went to turn into the right turn lane. There was road construction what was not marked and a 2" difference in asphalt level between the lane and the turning lane. Bev's tire hit that rise and Down she Went! I wathced her fly off & hit her head & get drug across the asphalt! All we both can say after that experience is, WEAR A HELMET!!! Her head hit the ground & was drug across the pavement. If she had not been wearing a helmet, we fear how badly she would have been hurt. As it was, she was very cut and bruised and it Did curtail much of her activities on the cruise. She was Very Upbeat about it however, and said she would Definately do the scooter again! Trully it was not her fault. That pavement should have been marked. So it was an unfortunate accident which can happen to anyone. The Best thing that happened is when we talked to Skip when we returned from the cruise, he had made up forms that people now Must sign and they Must wear helmets, even though Florida does not require them. This might save someone else along the line! Thank Goodness we Chose to wear them! The benefits to being older & apparently wiser. LOL

The scene of the spill. A cop stopped, but wasn't very helpful. Bev was bleeding all over the place & asked if he had a towel or something. He said no & left. ???? So she went into Wendys to clean up in the bathroom. Then, the troooper she is, we jumped back on the scooters & headed back to return them. We did have a Great time, other than this incident.

Tim Holtz Caribbean Cruise September 2011

2011-10-04T14:48:00.000-07:00

It is hard to Believe it has been nearly a year since I posted to my blog! Not long after Last years Tim cruise! And I just returned from another, this time to the Western Caribbean. It was A Wonderful Cruise and so Great to see Tim, Mario, Jim, Richele, Joy and Monica, and see again friends I have made from the past 2 cruises. This was a 7 day cruise and working my way back into blogging, I will just include pictures here of the carpet showing the Days of the Week in the Elevator! I plan to print these out & use them in the wonderful journal we made in class. :-)I'm posting in case anyone else missed any days and/or didn't think of taking pictures and might want to use them also. :-)

Wow, a year lost me ground in posting! I spent over an hour, just trying to get these pictures in order! :-( Hopefully my next posts will start getting easier! I hope to have the whole trip posted by Saturday.

Tim Holtz classes in Elk Grove CA November 2010

2010-11-08T17:48:00.001-08:00

I took 2 classes from Tim this past weekend at Stampers Corner in Elk Grove CA. It is over 1 1/2 hours from here so it was a Long weekend! But Tim's classes are Always worth it!

Both of these projects are ones we did on the cruise (more cruise pix to come). But these were decorated for Christmas. I knew I wouldn't make them on my own, plus it's Much more Fun to work with other people in a class.

We did a Christmas journal. I had a hard time with grunge & bling together, but finally think I'm happy with the cover. And the inside pages were all fun.

The Sunday project was a shadow box using fun Christmas items provided by Tim. The most FUN thing about this project was.........we Made printers block letters. I have "joy" in the upper left hand corner. I can see making a Lot of these for use in a shadow box. I Loved the technique! They look authentic tucked into the box. This box is also designed by Tim with removable compartments so you can make them in any configuration you want. There are 4 sizes & of course I Had to have More. Hope someday to do another. :-)

Heart Swap for Carol Sweeney 2010

2010-11-08T17:16:00.001-08:00

I am posting in between cruise pix now.....as Embarassingly, this was a swap that was Due, July 31!!!! I am SO Late. It was a one for one swap in a group I belong to. When I found out who my swap would go to, I had an idea. My friend Carol is a Prolific artist! Not to Speak of her Blog! As she tries more & more new techniques, she always posts all of her steps to her blog. I'm always Amazed!

I wanted to do something for her that would lead her maybe to something new to find different new techniques. So I decided to make an altered book. I had stumbling blocks along the way...........figuring out how to cut the book on my new scroll saw Dave got me for Christmas Three Years Ago! This was the first time I used it. And I LOVE it!

Then I painted it..........the gesso I first used wouldn't cover. I finally Borrowed Golden Gesso from my friend Debbie so I could continue. Then.......I painted the covers & didn't like the colors. I finally adjusted them enough I did like them.......then my mind just went Blank. The book sat for weeks.

I have to say I am SO Happy to finally have it finished. I did the front & back covers and inside both. Now it is up to Carol to play with altering the inside. And/or for that matter, changing the covers completely. I wouldn't mind that. I did make one for myself also so maybe she & I could motivate each other to add to them. :-) So it was kind of a Challenge swap. ;-) I do hope she likes it.

Port 1 - Portland Maine October 2, 2010

2010-10-29T16:15:00.000-07:00

When we woke up Saturday morning, we were docked in Portland Maine. I had ordered room service & we had coffee & ice tea and sweet rolls on our balcony overlooking the city.

Me & Bev as we get off the ship.

A view of our ship from a bridge. It is Large!

We asked a local person as we got off the ship of a good place for breakfast. He pointed us towards Becky's Diner which was Wonderful. A local place, jammed with people & with Great food! We walked along the waterfront probably 3/4 mile to get there.

After breakfast we walked towards town. Thought this sign was funny!

Loved this metal cover. Figured I could use it in my journal somehow. :-)

Downtown

Pretty Trim. I can see using this as a background for something in my art work. Or maybe carving a stamp. :-)

We were about 2 weeks early for the color, but every here & there we saw some colorful trees.

I took a bus excursion in the afternoon to Portland Head Light. I LOVE lighthouses. I was a little disappointed I couldn't get to more of them, and the ones I could were "excursions", which mostly means a long bus ride & maybe 15 minutes at the destination point. This lighthouse did not have a Fresnel Lense which I asked about. Impressed our guide. LOL It is a working lighthouse however and quite pretty.

This is a working light of some sort and I have forgotten what our guide told us about it. It is the last functional one...........whatever it is. LOL Looks like an inland lighthouse to me. I'll have to google it & find out again what it was.

In restrospect, we probably should have checked out the area closer to the ship.....we didn't get back to this area until quite a bit later in the day. There were several very cute streets with shops and restaurants. We never did stop for lunch so we missed the chowder and lobster rolls. But we did get some time to walk around & shop a bit.

Leaving Portland. I tried & tried to get good pictures of the lighthouses as we set sail. For my birthday last week, Dave got me a Digital SLR camera!!! How I Wish I had had it on the ship. Next time. :-) I did get some ok pix though. This is Portland Head Light from the ship.

There were 2 Small lighthouses near the port....this might be Bug Light.

Pictures are out of order again. Someday I'll learn how to get these in, in the right order!!! Meanwhile, backing up, here is Bev on our Balcony watching as we set sail from Portland.

We head up to watch the sunset tonight. The weather was Beautiful today, and the sunset should be very pretty.

Leaving New York & Heading To Sea

2010-10-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday, September 30 we left the Hampton Inn in Manhattan and headed to the ship. We set sail at 5 PM tonight. Here are Sally & Bev, waiting for our transfer bus, which took quite some time to get there. We had 2 buses, but only 1 showed up on time. But eventually we got moving..........only to spend well over an hour waiting in a line of buses at the port to be able to get off & board the ship.

But Finally we are let off the bus and check to be sure our luggage made it, which it did. :-) Then we move through the lines to turn in our medical forms, show our passports and get our Sail Pass that we Live by for the next 10 days.

We set sail on time and head out of Port Liberty. There is a big storm coming in to hit the New York area tonight and for the next couple of days, so the view is pretty fogged in and it is starting to rain. The first day at sail we had some rock & roll times due to the storm & high seas. Fun! :-)

With all of the delays, we are Starving, so we head to the Windjammer for lunch around 2:30. Our dinner time is 5:30 so we Think we are going to eat lightly......best laid plans.

Oops, pictures out of order. Here is our ship, Explorer of the Seas.

More pictures On the ship....the upper decks & one pool area, one of the pool bars, some pix of the Promenade, Bev up top to watch as we leave New York.

Our first night dinner in the dining room, table 322. Several of us had shared table 300 on the cruise to Mexico, and Jaci was able to get us together at a table again. That was Fun!

Here is Barbara and Stephanie with our main server, Kenyata. I was able to remember his name as I've been following Zenyatta, the winning race horse! Kenyata knew of Zenyatta also. I liked Kenyata. He took very good care of us and was very enjoyable.

Ahhh, names.........I Might have this right.......this is Maryann (who Won the Free Cruise next year!!!), Sarah? and Barbara who are travelling together.

Just loved these pages in the drink menu. :-)

Here is Susan, Me and Bev. Then Bev & I after we stopped laughing & started behaving LOL.

Here are Stephanie and Andrea who kept us laughing much of the time. :-)

OK, I take food pictures. LOL First night I had a caeser salad and a shrimp & scallop skewer over a potato cake with vegies & sauce. This was probably the best meal I had on the cruise. For everything that was Wonderful on the cruise....one thing that wasn't was the food. :-( This was only my second cruise, but on the cruise to Mexico, the food was Amazing! Even in the Windjammer........I couldn't wait to see what they would have the next day. Our dinner in the dining room on this cruise was less than 1/2 the quality of Mexico. And the Windjammer........ahhhh, exactly the same thing every single day. It wasn't good the first day and it never got to be good. It was basically maintenance food. Not the Amazing food I was looking forward to from Mexico. We actually ended up not going to the dining room several evenings. However.......that had quite a bit to do with my Loving Sunsets and not wanting to be sitting in the dining room for 2 hours & missing every sunset! It's too bad it takes SO Long to have dinner! It's 1/2 hour between getting a menu, then ordering, then getting the first dish.....it just drags On & On & On. I just can't sit that long, even though I totally enjoyed the company! I apologize to my table..............I just couldn't sit inside with the Spectacular sunsets that were going on outside. Next year........I may just resign myself to not eating in the dining room at all. It is just Too Early and takes Too Long. We need to figure out somewhere to meet next year other than dinner in the dining room table. :-) At least some of the time?

Friday we were at sea and I was in Group 1. We had our class in the morning this day. Tim Never disappoints and we made a Wonderful journal to use along the way on the cruise! First is Karen (keychain) bringing Tim's journal around for us all to see.

There were 80 people in each class, but Tim and his crew had everything set up so it was easy to see, all supplies were set out on the tables, we didn't need to bring Anything as Always with Tim. :-)

And here is my journal. I loved the way we could pick up postcards, punch them and add them to the journal after the fact. I haven't actually added anything further to my journal yet, but certainly Hope I still Will. Especially since I have a bag that probably weights 10 pounds full of Stuff I collected to put in a journal! LOL!

Tim Holtz Cruise 2010 - New York City

2010-10-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

I've posted quite a few pictures here as I am 60 years old and this was my First time ever to New York City! And what a city it is!

I flew in 3 days before the cruise to get a chance to at least get a feel for New York and hopefully come back some day to see things in more depth. I had 10 pages of places I wanted to go & see, just in Manhattan. And Amazingly, on Foot and one subway trip, I managed to see at least 85% of that list. LOTS of walking. Not much going Into places, just seeing them an an overview.

A couple of things I learned early on........don't fly into LaGuardia, especially late at night. ;-) My flight from Midway was delayed over 4 hours due to weather in New York. We finally got On the plane, only to sit for over an hour more on the tarmac before taking off. Once we Got to LaGuardia......we again sat on the tarmac for over an hour as they did not have a gate for us to come in to. 6 1/2 hours delay getting in. It was after midnight by the time I got to the hotel. I decided to stay at the Clarion near LaGuardia the first night as I didn't want to pay $400+ a night for the Hampton where I would move to the next day. Not a good decision on where to stay. Although oddly, the Hampton in Manhattan wasn't much better.

Getting a shuttle to the hotel is possible, but you need to jump through Hoops to be able to find the shuttle. All the while, cars honking, people yelling at each other. There was no gentle entry into New York! LOL

Once at the hotel, there was No food, No room service, Noone to help me with my bags. A very Small elevator & me struggling to get things maybe a block away down a long narrow hallway to my tiny dingy room. Not my best day ever. But the next day..........things started turning Much Better! Amazingly so actually!

The hotel called me a cab in the morning to take me to the Hampton where I would meet Bev and Sally & spend the next 2 nights. The car that picked me up looked more like a pimpmobile than a cab. LOL A large black car with darkened windows. I didn't know it Was a cab until the driver came over looking for me. I never did get a Yellow cab. As a matter of fact, I met one of the Nicest people in my cab driver. Julio. He was a veritable Travel Guide on our way into Manhattan. I learned so Much from him about how to navigate the city. A Very Nice Man. Before he left, I asked him if he would be willing to pick me up at the Hilton near the Newark airport where I stayed with Bev (Bev flew into & out of Newwark), and get me to LaGuardia when I returned. He said Yes, he would. I asked if he promised. And he said yes. SO, I called him Before I left on the cruise, gave him the hotel information & hoped for the best without worrying about how to get from Newark airport to LaGuardia that Sunday. Long story here, but not Only was Julio prepared to pick me up, when I called him the Saturday I returned, He answered "Hello Ms. Margaret, how was your trip?". He planned on getting to my hotel by 7:45 just to be Sure I got to the airport on time. :-) His fee was More than reasonable considering what I had been quoted for the shuttle ($145) and other cabs started at $90. He charge me $80 plus I said, yes, lets go over the bridge & I paid the $8 fees.

We got to LaGuardia quite early. No traffic on Sunday. For NO Charge, Julio took me on a cab tour of Queens, showing me Chez Statium (Citibank Stadium now), the tennis stadium where they play the US Open, all around the park there, and at each place we stopped, got out & Julio took pictures of me in front of the attractions. He was a High point of my visit to New York. Below are some of those pictures and a picture of Julio and his cab. :-)

Oops, this first picture is actually about the best I got of the Statue of Liberty on the morning of our return. I'm not Even going to try to put it in the right order. Too many pix to follow to move it around!

Julio

Actually, once that first Long, Long day and night was over, I have to say, I met so Many Very Nice Friendly people all over New York. I commented on that when going through security at LaGuardia to head home. Even the Security people were Smiling and Friendly! I've Never seen That at an airport. One security man said, we watch too much TV! LOL I found New York Busy, Bustling, Amazing, Friendly and I would LOVE to go back.

Lots of the following are just my Touristy pictures. Here is Times Square.

Tuesday Bev, Sally & I walked all Over the place, in the Pouring down Rain! It wasn't cold however......probably 74 degrees. It was wet but not uncomfortable. Our hotel was on W 139th, in the Garment District (with Wonderful shops! Trims and Buttons and Beads and Fabrics!) I managed to pick up a Few things along the way. :-) We decided to locate Carnegie Deli as recommended by a young woman I sat next to on the plane. A Great Choice!!! We walked from our hotel to 5th Avenue which splits the city into East & West, up 5th past Times Square & over one block where we found the Deli.

We were Drowned Rats, but didn't stop our Enjoyment of some of the BEST food I've ever had! I Dream of that Pastrami Sandwich! And you can see why below! And New York Cheesecake! I've never Had Cheesecake like that!!! If for no Other reason, I need to go back to have another sandwich and piece of cheesecake here. Then to to Katz Deli & compare. People say Katz Deli is better. But it would be Hard to beat this lunch!!! Including our Very Fun Waitress. Picture below.

Meanwhile, back on the streets. We head towards Central Park, seeing all we could see along the way! I thought 5th Avenue and Park Avenue would be more......glitzy or something. In a way, it seemed like San Francisco but 10 times Bigger. And of course the wonderful brick buildings which we don't have in San Francisco much, if at all. I love Reflection pictures as you will see from some I've posted. Like the Beautiful old embellished church reflecting in the solid glass of the building next door. Reminds me of the Trinity Church in Boston & the newer high rise that dwarfs it. I don't think I like that.........but the juxtaposition is Interesting and the reflections are amazing.

The picture below I took in a discount store we went into. I had just done an ATC swap on "Graffiti". It was My topic, but I didn't do it justice. The other 8 in my group did Wonderful ATC's. But this wall reminded me of what I Wanted to do. I got Yelled at by a store employee going down the escalator as I was going up, taking the picture. Right after that, I tried on a sweater & thought a dressing room was empty........everyone had their numbers hanging on the door. Well Apparently it was Not as I pushed on it & someone Slammed it back at me, throwing me against the wall across the hallway. A polite, it's occupied might have sufficed. Honestly, this was more of what I Expected to find in New York (sorry those of you from New York........I DO watch too much tv! LOL). In fact........this was the ONLY place I had Anything other than welcoming friendliness. :-) Anyway, I had to post the picture as I Do like the art work. Maybe I'll later be arrested if that employee happens upon my blog. LOL

Just a Fun Sign.

We made it to Central Park. Bev & I took pictures of all the signs, maps, etc. around the city for our trip journals. After leaving Central Park (we didn't get too far in....basically to the zoo), we came back to Tiffany's. Dripping wet, we went on in & looked around. Oddly not stuffy or nasty. Everyone in the store, employees and people alike were quite friendly. Was I Amazed at this. Apparently. LOL

Now This sign answered a question I had! Although the streets were a Sea of Yellow Cabs............there was hardly Any Honking. Again, TV. ;-) These signs I guess are taken seriously. Now, "$1,000 penalty for hitting pedestrians" should be the next sign! LOL I don't know how people Survive without getting hit at least Once. Although.........in Most of the cases, it was the Pedestrians, ignoring the walk signs that caused problems. And I have to hand it to the cab drivers in the city.......it is an Art unto itself, how to maneover the streets & the people!

Tuesday night, we had walked Miles & Miles & Miles, we just retreated to the hotel & relaxed. Our room was about large enough for 2 double beds exactly, a small desk with a chair that had to be pushed down as far as it would go to go under the desk to get past it, and a narrow dresser with a small tv. There might have been 1 foot of space between the furniture & the beds and about the same amount between the beds and the window. Small, Small room. Again, no one to help with bags, a tiny narrow hallway into a tiny elevator. New York City is Not a place to take a lot of baggage. Unfortunately, I can't seem to stop overpacking! :-(

Around 7:30 we walked up one block and got sandwiches at another take out deli which were delicious. Not the pastrame we had at Carnegie, but still good. We settled in, watched..................TV. LOL

Day 2, we met Sally & headed towards Macy's and the Empire State Building. I was surprised that the Empire State Building is in fact, not the most impressive building in New York City. It was kind of hard to actually even get a picture of it, nestled in amongst all of the other tall buildings. The best view I had of it was later in they day from the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge. Macy's was pretty Amazing! We did shop for a bit. I bought 2 shirts........one of which I ended up wearing for Much of the cruise. I didn't have to pack much at all. I wore what I bought rather than what I packed! LOL Someday I'll learn.............maybe. I was Fascinated by the original old wooden elevators in Macy's. Picture of course below.

And This picture is for Dave. A joke we had before I left. He lived in New Jersey for a bit, long before we met. And had spent time in New York. This will loose a Lot in the translation, but I kept asking him while looking at a map of Manhattan, where the Eiffel Tower was. He answered me back quickly, "That would be in Paris". LOL I swear, I could Not stop calling it the Eiffel Tower. After all, they both start with an "E"! LOL I couldn't Resist a picture of the Eiffel Tower in an art store in Manhattan!!! ;-)

Here is Sally at the table outside of Macy's where we had lunch that day. We got Nathans hotdogs which are so Touted..........and they were basically, not good. I did forget, here at Nathans I got treated in that TV style.......the woman behind the counter was Nasty, basically yelling at you if you didn't order Instantly....wanted maybe to ask for mustard (which they didn't seem to have). Basically it was a long skinny hot dog naked on a bun. They did have saurkraut, but since I don't like that, mine was basically naked. And kind of rubbery and tasteless. The one thing I Did get from there, however........is once she basically Threw the tray with my dog on it at me................I walked the tray up the street to our table, ate the icky dog and took the tray with me! If there is anything I would Definately take on a cruise again.........it would be that Tray! I used that All the Time as a little desk on my bed. There isn't a Lot of room in the cabins. Sitting on the bed is often where you are. Sorry Nathan's. I think keeping your tray is payback for your rude employees and icky hot dogs. (Sorry again New York friends.....just my one time experience there)

After lunch we headed to Grand Central Station (Terminal) to take the subway to the financial district and Ground Zero. Grand Central Station is absolutely Beautiful. How many Times I've seen it in movies (or TV LOL). It was Amazing to be standing there in it. :-) AND.........there was a Magnolia Bakery where we got Cupcakes! We went past the original bakery the day before, but had just had that Deli lunch & cheesecake, so we couldn't even Think of a cupcake. I was Thrilled to be able to have one here!

The Subway was pretty much like I expected it to be I think. Kind of an underground, bit scary place. But what FUN to be on the Subway! When I take BART here in Oakland/SF though, people smile, chat. This was Serious Business, taking the subway. If eye contact was made, I Could get someone to smile. ;-) But people pretty much kept to themselves. Of course we were playing in their city, and they were going to & from work!!! We took the Express which was a Great thought gleened on our part...........so it really was serious working people. And Wall to Wall people at 5:30 at night!

Below is Wall Street and the Trinity Church tucked at one end. I didn't take many pictures of Ground Zero as it is basically a construction site. We did not take the time to go into the memorial as 2 days just isn't enough time to cover even Manhattan! I thought I would cry there. But it was more a quiet observance and wonder at how the people in New York got through all of that. 2 sales ladies in Macy's and I were talking earlier in the day. I told them how Different people were in NY than I expected. They both said things Really Changed after 911. People became more tolerant and accepting of each other, including tourists I think. The whole world came together then in caring about New York and the people who live there. Maybe a more caring society was created out of a devastating event.

Sally took the subway back before Bev and I, and we then decided to walk to the Brooklyn Bridge, across & back. What a Beautiful Bridge that is! And the views from out there are some of the Best in the City! I also finally saw the Statue of Liberty from Afar. I hoped we would see it when leaving on the ship, but a Big storm was coming in that day & although we could kind of see her, it was quite foggy & drizzly. When we returned however, they backed the ship in & it was a clear day, so I did get to see her a bit better. Next time I do want to go out to Ellis Island & climb the steps of the Statue of Liberty.

After 2 Filled days of exploring New York City, we fall asleep fairly early in anticipation of boarding our ship, Explorer of the Seas at Port Liberty New Jersey the next day. :-)

Artful Journey - Los Gatos CA - July 2010

2010-07-24T10:40:00.001-07:00

I spent 4 days at The Artful Journey last week. This was held at The Presentation Center in the hills above Los Gatos, California. I took a 3 day class with DJ Pettitt which was Amazing! The location was Beautiful. It was quite rustic, yet very comfortable. The one thing I was tentative about was the bathrooms are down the hall, not in the rooms. It didn't take long to find that really didn't make a difference. It was dimly lit in the night & no problem getting there, back & right back to sleep. In the mornings, if I Did encounter anyone else having just crawled out of bed, sleepily brushing their teeth......it was actually fun to just say Hi & carry on. Felt kind of like a family in that way. There are no phones, tvs, etc. in the rooms. Although I did have my Ipad & laptop just in case. LOL But we tended to keep working on our projects into the night at times, or walk around the grounds (Bev & I saw a shooting star our first evening, sitting outside). We made & stripped our own beds which I found a nice thing. I have always felt it is such a waste to change bed linens in hotels every day as well as the towels. So this was good to me. And I found my bed very comfortable & slept well each night. :-) I can't Quite seem to concentrate even yet on work & home. I'm still living the memories of a wonderful 4 days.

This is Pueblo, the building many of us stayed in. There are also some cottages where some of our group also stayed.

This is a moss covered pond nearby with a trail going around it. Often there was a great blue heron on the water as well as a family of 4 deer wandering around the grounds.

These are views of our classroom from the back & the front. I'm sure the nuns have never seen quite such a Mess (although a Creative one!) in these rooms. LOL

I thought this was a beautiful cross. Very artistic.

This was a courtyard area where we had coffee in the morning, had the artists sale on Monday night and often just gathered there.

Bev (my roommate) and I did the Labyrinth one evening.

This was a cairn at the center of the labyrinth. I might toy around with using it as a background layer in Photoshop if I ever get back to catching up with my online class!

I am not Catholic, so I thought this picture was interesting! The thought of the nuns marrying just never occurred to me. It's a fun picture.

Here is Peggy, Melissa and Beth. Peggy & Beth are both in our local CaliforniaArtGirls yahoo group and Beth & I were table mates for the 3 days. I enjoyed working with you Beth! I had met Beth & Peggy before at Asilomar. Melissa was a wonderful surprise to see walking down the hall the first afternoon I got there! She and I shared a room at Art & Soul Virginia 4 years ago. We set it up on the online yahoo group, had never met each other & spent 6 or 7 nights & days as roommates. We have kept in touch every now & then, but what a Surprise to see her. And we were in the same class! We got along great in Virginia and I was thrilled to see her. We will most likely keep in touch more Often now. :-)

Here is DJ, binding MY Book. :-) Not the book I made in class. But a book I bought from her. :-) She used the cover to this book as a demo last October in Portland. I Loved it so much, I kept asking her if she would sell it. LOL She wouldn't just sell a cover, so we worked out what type of book and how involved I wanted and a price & she has been working on it. She had it Nearly done & brought it for me to see. It is trully Beautiful!!! I had to leave after class on Wednesday however to get back to work (which I really didn't quite do........I couldn't get motivated for work after 3 days of artistic creativity & being with friends!), and she didn't have it quite bound yet. So it is now on the road with DJ who is driving back the coast route & taking Spectacular pictures I'm sure along the way! It's kind of fun to be looking forward to receiving it when it comes. :-) She referred to it as "Margaret's Book" the whole time as she used it for demo. I loved that. :-)

These are just a few pix of demos and a great group of us students working hard on our wonderful books!

This is the final evening with show & tell, thank you's from Cindy and the teachers (who were DJ, Stephanie Lee, Richard Salley and Katie Kendrick who All were so very Available & Friendly......we really all were one big Happy Group!). The silent auction raised over $700 which was donated to the Center. I am sending off a donation to the center this week myself. They exist by donations only & it really was quite an impressive place. I did read the brochure and they are as I recall, nearly 100% green (or a Very high percentage) and one of the first places getting there. I noticed the first day I walked up, a rooftop garden over the huge building housing the dining hall, bookstore, etc. I didn't realize gardens like that attract different bird species, butterflies, etc.

And here is my book in progress. Many people did get theirs bound. I was having so much fun working on the covers & pages, I decided early on I would bind it later & just relax & enjoy creating the covers & signatures for it. I Do Hope I eventually finish it. But I also look forward to just working on it now & then. The first pictures is the Front (the bird which most of us used.......it was a picture DJ provided for us & for me, although I wanted to have pictures & make this my Own......working on the same picture & learning the layering, etc. was much easier I think than venturing out on my own.) By the time I got to the back cover (the tree & pole), I Did use a picture I took myself & had Much Fun trying to recreate layers like we did on the front. I ended up very happy with it!

And the rest of the pictures are pages I worked on in various stages of completeness. And I have several signatures I didn't even start on yet. I Thoroughly Loved this class and project! I plan to keep an eye on DJ's blog & take an online class in the future. Not that I didn't Learn in the class. But my creativeness seems to come either with a teacher & class or with other people. And this group in class was a Great Group! I hope to see everyone again at one retreat or another. Maybe even next February here again. :-)

Paperbag book swaps

2010-07-10T15:26:00.000-07:00

In the past few months I have been in 2 paper bag book swaps. The first theme was "Nature". There were 12 people and we all did 2 sets of 12 pages. These are my pages for that swap. I haven't yet bound my book, but just recently bought a paper bag book from "Pages In Time" in Lincoln Nebraska. The owner, Karen has made several and they are beautiful. This gave me many ideas of how to bind the book and tidbits to add in pockets, in the bag opening itself. I hope to find time to get that bound soon!

The second book theme was "Da Vinci". There were 8 of us in this swap so we all did 2 sets of 8 pages. Mine is late. :-( But is now winging its way to the UK so all pages can be mailed out to the players. These are my pages for this swap.

I couldn't let go of the idea of using the Mona Lisa in a different way. I have recently been playing with a "Teleidescope" which is like a kaleidescope, but without wheels.....the images are in whatever direction you are looking, so they are real images, not patterns of whatever is in the scope. I bought a program that would do the same thing with pictures. I played & played with Mona Lisa images and these are the ones I used. It was lots of fun, although maybe now the Mona Lisa has been done More than Enough times. LOL

I transferred printed images onto muslin using Leslie Rileys transparency transfer technique and then sewed them onto cardstock & embellished.

One more Sepia Aged photo

2010-06-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

I am Loving this project!!! I should Probably move on to the next video, but I've wanted to know how to do this Forever. :-)

Online Photoshop class with Marie Otero

2010-06-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

I just started an online Photoshop class with Marie Otero. I think this class is going to be Wonderful! We have 4 projects in Week 1, each has a video And a pdf file with pictures and instructions. Everything is very clear & well presented. I'm Excited to finally do something like this.

The first project I attempted is to take a photo, and age it. These are 3 pictures I did in order. By the 3rd, I think I'm getting a bit better at it. The first 2 look like I was trying to make them old. The third I think, works better.

Art & Soul Las Vegas Feb 2010 - Stephanie Lee Class

2010-06-05T12:35:00.001-07:00

My 3rd class at Art & Soul was with Stephanie Lee. I had never taken a class from her before & am so Happy I finally did. She is a really good teacher. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these projects as I'm out of wall space completely......maybe make a large book. ?? But they were fun to work on.

Basically, we brought photos we wanted to work on. These are 2 of about 6 I brought. The pictures are of my mother in law as a child. We had black & white copies made of the photos & enlarged. Then glued them onto heavy (very heavy) watercolor paper. Then we painted out items, leaving only a portion of the actual picture left to work with. From there, we started adding some texture, and that is as far as I got. Stephanie's work then paints back in items, totally changing the picture, using very little of the original image. Again, I hope I get a chance to work on these further & add more color, images, etc.

I really enjoyed the retreat in Las Vegas. The smoke however, added with the allergies I already had, was hard to live with. I coughed, sneezed, eyes watered for the whole trip. I've been to Las Vegas several times in the past, even after I quit smoking 9 years ago.......newer casinos like Paris always had very good ventilation and it really didn't bother me. This time it was like there was no ventilation at All. Makes me wonder if they are cutting back on utilities in the economy. It would make me think hard about going to Las Vegas again any time soon. I love going to Las Vegas too, so I was very disappointed in this. Caesars was the same. It would be nice to Hope they will up the ventilation again in the future.

I have to add......Marian & I had fun playing poker machines (me) and slots (Marian) every evening. One evening however, it was a bit later and we heard music playing. We ventured on over & found it was a DJ, playing very current younger music and many 20 somethings dancing. We watched for awhile, enjoying ourselves, then decided to go on it, sit down & have a drink. Not long after we sat down, a young man and a young woman came from the dance floor, held their hands out to us & drew us out to dance with them all. ALL I can Say IS..........I had the Time of my Life!!! After midnight, in Las Vegas, at 60 years old, shaking my bootie on the dance floor with a bunch of 20 something's. :-) They were all Very Nice & we thanked them for inviting us out. I don't think either of us would have gotten up on our own. Much FUN! Marian, I'm Still smiling about that evening! :-)

Art & Soul Las Vegas February 2010

2010-06-05T11:04:00.000-07:00

I went to the first Art & Soul in Las Vegas in February. Classes were held in Bally's. We stayed in the Paris hotel. I roomed with Marian McBryde & we had a Wonderful Time! Here is the view from our room (after an upgrade)

Here is Marian in Caesar's and me in the mirror in our room.

I took 2 Sally Jean Alexander Classes, a Bird Necklace and Totally Tiara. I LOVE her classes. I continue to learn more about soldering & Love it. Have joined several charm swaps since taking her first class in 2008 and am still learning but getting better at it.

This is the Bird Neckace which I did not finish. I got all of the pieces soldered, but didn't get jump rings on or chain. I do hope I will finish it someday. In my defense.....our classroom was rained out, so we lost some time being moved. Right in the middle of class, water started pouring down from a light fixture. Dangerous maybe? Someone had apparently left a bath running upstairs & it ended up in our room. Fortunately nothing was ruined & we moved out into the dining area which was actually Great. We had much more light and Windows! :-) Sally Jean dealt with the situation Amazingly. We regrouped & got to work in a much nicer area the rest of the day And the next day. :-)

This is the Totally Tiara class. I didn't get this finished either. The large piece of glass at the top (as of yet, until I add More wire), was wrapped with a different type of foil. This piece was heavy & the foil just didn't want to stick. I worked & worked with it, but at the end of the day, it was still basically falling off. I was quite Pleased with myself however, as when I got home, I Did remove it, rewrapped it with stronger foil and did get it soldered on. I am going to add more coiled wire and a couple of crystals. I Loved this class. Years ago when I heard about it, I wondered, Who would want to take a class like This!?? Well, that same year, I Saw what people had done & thought.........ME!!!! I would Love to take a class like this!! It was 3 years later before I saw her offer the class again & I was able to get in it. A Fun, Fun class! And as always, Sally Jean is charming, helpful and thoroughly enjoyable.

Part 2 to come. I haven't Yet started the art room cleaning project & if I don't at least get Started.............I won't get Anywhere today. ;-)

January & February ATC Swaps 2010

2010-06-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

It's hard to Believe it is June 2010 already! I have not posted to my blog since December! It was a long, hard, busy tax season & I never got the time to post. Then I've been running off to art retreats every since. :-) This weekend I'm going to periodically post projects I have done since the beginning of the year and updates on the retreats I've been to.

I typically post only pix of projects I have done to my blog......a lot for a record of them for myself. :-) I'm going to try to post pictures of retreats, etc. this year too.

These are the ATC swaps I did in January (1) and February (4). The first is "Brocade". I used white brocade fabric, colored it with alcohol inks, sewed with a decorative stitch & then added a "brocade" polymer clay button I had made some time back.

Next is "Doors or Windows". I used a window. ;-)

3rd is "What's New). I used several new items on this.....the off white background is card stock sprayed with Homax Heavy Formula Knockdown Texture. Fun Stuff! I will use That again! I found it in the paint store when picking up paint for our living room. I sprayed that with "Smooch Spritz" which I saw at CHA & bought. It gives it just a bit of sparkle which you can't really see in the picture. The mesh is sticky back drywall tape. It's FUN to paruse the hardware store! :-) And the main new item is the flowers. I made these using a reporduction of antique flower making molds which I bought at CHA. Since I bought them, I thought this would be a Great time to use them. Hopefully I will use them Again someday as they were Quite Expensive.

4th is ATC trades I made for Art & Soul in Las Vegas. The theme this year was Alice in Wonderland.

5th is a "Metallic" ATC for DreamCreateInspire group.

Next up......after a couple of hours cleaning in my art room.....will be Art & Soul Las Vegas. If I can Find my projects in that unfortunate "hoarder" room! LOL

Tim Holtz Holiday Hideaway 2009

2009-12-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

Last weekend at this time, I was Happily in Prescott Arizona, attending Tim's Holiday Hideaway event. I was priveledged again this year to be invited. How Grateful I am that my friend Phyllis invited me as a guess the first year and I have been invited and able to go for the past 3 years. This is an Experience I can't really describe. Tim takes us on a roller coaster of Projects, Gifts, Surprises, Treats, and Mario cooks Wonderful meals for us each day and Michele, Keychain and Kim are the Wonderful Elves that help bring this all together. I don't know how Tim manages to surpise us even more each year. But somehow he Does. I feel like a little child who has been taken to Disneyland for the first time. This is 3 days of Wonder and Joy and there isn't even any time to let the stress of our lives even sneak in. :-)

The Festivities began Thursday evening at 5:00 at the Sprinhill Suites in Prescott who have been Wonderful to us for 3 Holiday Hideaways and 1 other retreat Tim put on in May, 4 years ago. We all stay there and we have an art room near the lobby. We do our projects, there, have our meals there, gather & visit & laugh & hug & Enjoy.

Mario and Michele had layed out a fabulous buffet of food goodies, and as always, there was a side table of Sweets & Treats. Cindy & Jennifer are our "Drink Elves" and had several Wonderful Christmas drinks for us this year including a White Christmas and a Christmas Mojito. :-) And we made our first project that night, a snow shaker Christmas pin.

By the end of the first night, my cheeks Hurt from laughing so Much. How often does That happen in life!??? :-) From here, every minute was filled with surprises & excitement. I'm sure I might have things out of order & have forgotten to include some things, but here I go:

Friday we began at 10 AM. We are never allowed in or to Look in the room before Tim opens the door as they are getting all of the surprises ready to go. When we enter, we then get to see the project we will be working on and all of the Goodies Tim has ready for us. :-) Also, LEST I forget................throughout the Whole Event, each table has a Gift Elf. When "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" song goes off..........the Elves go collect Gifts for our whole table. And the song goes off OFTEN! I can't even Believe the gifts we received this year. I have a Long LONG list. I watch The Ellen Show each day & last Thursday & Friday once I got home, I realized she plays the same song with her Twelve Days of Christmas. I couldn't help but Smile & Smile & Smile each time the song came on on her show. It brought me back to the FUN at Holiday Hideaway. :-)

Our First project Friday morning was a vintage necklace. We made roses out of Tims metal flower embellishments which turned out Great! We also made a bracelet using Idea-ology...

Mario cooked up a Wonderful lunch of Italian Sub sandwiches on croissants, potato salad, fruit & brownie bites. The morning drink was a Bloody Mary. The lunch drink today was the Christmas Mojito. Once Full & Content (and Sleepy LOL), we headed back in for our 3rd project of the day which Quickly woke me up & got me back to work. :-) We made Grungeboard roses for this project and layered them on top of vintage velvet that Tim had for us. I didn't quite get this project finished. I got Cute with the swirl by coloring it and adding bling..........And my placement of the flowers leaves me needing to add something above. I need to work on this a little more.

Our Fourth project of the day was a shadowbox. Tim had the hands and hearts for us as well as a table that was covered up when we entered the room. When he pulled the sheet off, there were Tins and Tins of Wonderful vintage items to use with this project that we could pick from. I did not quite finish this project either, but have a handful of vintage goodies I will add after Chrismtas. This was a Fun Project!

Then out to Mario's Wonderful Italian dinner.....Ziti with meatballs and marinara sauce, Chicken parmesan, Green salad with the BEST Balsamic Vinaigrette I've Ever tasted, Parmesan bread sticks and mini cupcakes & brownies. YUM!!!!! The drink of the evening was a White Christmas.

We had 1 more project after dinner, a plaque we made using wood, grunge board images, die cuts, gesso, sanding tools and distress inks. These looked Horrible along the way, but once we were done with them.............they looked like something we might find in an old house or barn & be Thrilled to have found it! Very Very Grunge and Distressed. I Enjoyed this project! I'd Love to make a book cover like this. A couple of weeks before I found some old tin ceiling pieces in a scrapbook/antique store in Lakeside, Arizona while visiting my brother & family in Show Lo. A combination of this technique and those tin ceiling pieces could be Fun. :-) Hope I get a chance in January to try that.

I don't think we left until nearly midnight and Phyllis & I stayed awake talking & sharing the day until probably 1 or later each night. (Sorry Phyllis! LOL). But with starting projects this year at 10 instead of 9, we got to sleep in a bit & recover. :-)

Saturday morning we got started at 10. There were Bloody Mary's And Mimosa's as the morning drinks. And our first project was a Christmas Grungeboard journal to add all of our Holiday Hideaway pictures and moments to. We got the structure of the book done but will add our memories later. We got several different paper stacks to work with. I chose the Graphic 45 which was more vintage.

Saturday Mario made Mexican food for lunch.....Chicken fajitas, little crisp rolled tacos (which I have forgotten the name of as I type), and the drink elves made margueritas. :-) After lunch Tim gave us all an envelope with $20 in it and we descended on the shops of Prescott (Pres"Kit") to buy gifts for our Christmas exchange. We all have favorite stores at this point to head to, then try to buy something without the other people seeing it. We had 1 1/2 hours to choose something, bring it back & have it wrapped. This is Always Stressful when trying to figure out something, and Always So Much Fun that evening when they all get opened. We draw numbers and pick wrapped gifts in order, then can either pick a new gift or take an already opened gift from someone else! People have started forming Alliances to get the Gift they Want! Lots of Laugher & Fun.

But Before that, we start our last project, a layered Christmas canvas. We break for dinner after the first layer of vintage papers, music, journals, etc. Mario has made Barbeque! Barbeque chicken and shredded beef. YUMMY!!! Mario does the BEST barbeque.....Melt in your mouth Great! Dave is still trying to do ribs as good as Mario's! He Might have come close, but I think Mario still Rules. :-) Our food during the Hideaway is Absolutely Fantastic! We do Not go Hungry! ;-)

The drink of the evening is an appletini. :-) We get back to work on our canvases & they are all so Different as with all of our projects. Tim gives us a direction & we all take off with it. I Wish I had pictures of all of the other people's projects! But we get so Busy we hardly stop to breathe let alone walk around. LOL I Loved this project! It too is not quite finished, but here it is.....

We cleared up all of the supplies after this project and then had our Christmas Party. Throughout the event, we Continued to get so Many product gifts, we had More than a full suitcase full by this time. I Tried to write everything down, but by Saturday, the music went off So Often, I couldn't keep track. And Saturday night, after the Christmas party, Shockingly there were still More Gifts! Several more! The Biggest surprise WAS.....the music played, Tim announced that Someone in the room had a ticket taped under their chair......and that person would get a Big Shot!!! Ah, how Naive we all are. We ALL had tickets under our chairs!!!! All 38 of us got Big Shots. Amazing.

There was a final gift that brought tears to my eyes. The final gift was one Tim picked out for all of us. This was made by an artist that Tim met (and my Box is in a larger box being driven home so I don't have the name right now. I will update this once I retrieve that card!) We each got this key with a handblown glass bead around it. I have worn it every day since. :-) A Very Special gift.

Everyone stayed & stayed Saturday night, not wanting to say Goodbye. Lots of Hugs & Hopes to see each other soon. It is Such a Special few days, like nothing else I have ever experienced. I Am so Grateful to have been invited and have become part of this sharing, caring, artistic group of people that I have come to know and care about at this event. Thank you Tim! And Thank you Mario, Michele, Keychain & Kim!! Can't Wait to see you next year. :-)

We all made tags for Tim, Mario and Michele to go along with a gift we gave them after the Christmas party. This was the tag I made.

After a nice nights sleep and finishing up our room treats from the past few days, handmade chocolate pretzels made by Michele as well as another candy that was Delicious as well, Sunday morning we all met in the lobby around 10:30 and headed out to do some shopping in Prescott. We all head to the Newman Gallery (a Great Place owned by Great People!), and the local antique stores. 28 of us met for lunch, then continued shopping until around 4:30, then we all went on to Tim & Mario's house to hang out for awhile. We got to see lots of new products that will be coming out at CHA in January! What I can say is..........get your $$$$ together! There are some GREAT things coming out!!! I have already made my list! :-) New distress ink colors, die cuts, paper stacks................and Tim has a new Book coming out! All to look forward to next year. :-)

We all then came on back to Prescott for a last dinner together at a local restaurant. Then the Final goodbye's were said & off we all went, back to our real lives. With Wonderful memories to take with us. :-)

I actually stayed in Gilbert Arizona to visit my brother & family for a couple of extra days. They probably wish I Hadn't. I just kept Chattering On & On about Holiday Hideaway. Maybe I'll visit them another time of year next year. LOL

Rena's IT Girl gift

2009-11-22T16:36:00.001-08:00

This is a final IT girl gift for Rena in the Art Venture yahoo group. It was due June 2009.....and she has been SO Patient. I hope she enjoys this little book. Her topic was "Children"

Front cover

Inside front cover

Inside back cover

Back cover

An Artful Voyage with Tim Holtz and Wendy Vecchi - Cabo San Lucas

2009-11-22T15:13:00.000-08:00

This is our final day in port before heading home. I Enjoyed Cabo San Lucas the Most of all 3 ports. My reason follows.................. :-)

It is Another Beautiful day as we come into port. We take a "Tender" ashore here where the other ports we just pulled up to the dock. This worked Amazingly Efficiently and was fun.

I loved the docks & all the boats. Our friends Paula & Mal from Orca's Island have a home here and have their boat docked. I couldn't remember the name however, so I didn't visit & leave them a note as I hoped to.

AND, Something Else caught my Eye! Finally...........Jetski's!!!! Warm Sun, Blue Water, and a Jetski! I am in Heaven. :-) With my Limited Spanish I managed to choose from the 100 different sales people offering anything from "waverunners" to ATV tours, to rent myself a waverunner. :-) I don't know if I got a deal or if I got taken, but it was $60 per hour & I rented it for 2 hours. And I had the TIME of my LIFE! I've only been out on a jetski a couple other times and it was in a very calm Lake. The Ocean was a Whole Different Game. WHEEEEE. FLYING over waves and wakes. I Loved it. This was my Favorite adventure of the trip. All by my self. ;-)

I took this picture of myself.

And Somehow, Bev recognized me from the ship and got a couple of pictures of me also. She recognized the orange hat. :-)

I stopped here & there & took some pictures from different places I got to. Once out past the rocks, the ocean swells were bigger & crashing into the shore and the rocks near the beach. FUN! :-)

When I rented the waverunner, I asked to be Sure I would have enough gas for 2 hours. They said SI Senorita, I had enough for more than 2 1/2 hours. And there was a clock on the thing, so I Know I returned at Exactly 2 hours. And my gasoline warning beep thing started going off around 1hr 45 minutes. I Suspect, they thought some silly American old lady was going to putter around slowly in the bay. I pretty much went full throttle the whole time and even quite a ways out in the ocean & along the coast. I'm Happy the Beep didn't mean I was Out of gas. LOL I Did make it back without mishap. :-)

I then took a small boat out the the beach with the same people I rented the waverunner from. I think it was $12 round trip. Something reasonable. I spent the next couple of hours in the water, Wishing I could see where people were renting Kayaks and Snorkeling equipment. Turned out I had my swim goggles with me, so I did a little fish viewing through those. Funny though, if you have ever snorkeled, Instinct is to Breath. But I didn't have a tube to breathe through. LOL I only drank a Little sea water. ;-) And unfortunately, I never did get a chance to kayak. That and doing an ATV tour were the 2 other things I So Wish I had located. But if I had a choice out of the 3, the jetski would have been my Favorite and I did get to do that! :-)

From here we head back home. What a Wonderful trip it was! And I haven't even Begun to post the projects we worked on with Tim & Wendy! That is Probably because I haven't finished them yet. LOL I will add pictures of those as they come along.

This picture leaves me watching from the ship, people still out in the water with their waverunners and I fondly remember my day. I didn't get to see much of Cabo..........but I Did get to see it from the water! :-)

I had never been to any of these locations in Mexico. I spent much time in college in Tiajuana and Ensenada as I lived in Southern California. We took day trips there. Dave & I found & Love Isla Mujeres recently although we haven't been back for over 2 years now. It is Time. And my brother built a home in Puerto Penasco Mexico which we have seen being built but have not yet seen it complete. Out of These 3 locations, I would Love to return to Cabo San Lucas, just for the water activities! I didn't find that in the other cities, but then, they weren't right there where the ship came in, so I suspect I just missed them. I also would love to return to Puerta Vallarta & visit the jungle. NOT the zip line. LOL But the mountains looked intriguing. Mazatlan.........maybe to visit my camera. I don't think we really saw much of Mazatlan really.....between taking jitneys and reading maps that we only got once we got ashore. The thing I would Definately do next time..............is know more about the areas where we dock and Have a Plan. Maximize my time there. :-)

This was a Wonderful experience! I met many new friends and we have all been keeping in touch. Several of us have signed up for the cruise Next October with Tim which will be from New Jersey to Nova Scotia and back in the fall. Should be Beautiful! I'm looking forward to it already. :-)

An Artful Voyage in Mexico with Tim Holtz & Wendy Vecchi - Leaving Puerta Vallarta

2009-11-19T15:37:00.001-08:00

We leave Puerta Vallarta around 5 this evening. We decided to enjoy the last of the sun, and some of the various lounges all over the decks. This is Phyllis & Bev.

Phyllis & Bev moved Up a deck.

Me with one of the several Pina Colada's I managed to have on the ship. :-)

An Artsy picture After the Pina Colada. LOL

A few pictures of the Beautiful sunset that night.

On our way to Cabo San Lucas.

An Artful Voyage in Mexico with Tim Holtz & Wendy Vecchi - Still Puerta Vallarta

2009-11-19T15:15:00.000-08:00

A couple more bronze statues on our way back to the ship.

I heard someone say there was a beach very near the ship. The wonderful girl who took care of us and our room told me it was just across the parking lot, so Although there was some discussion about me not leaving the ship alone...........I did. :-) I spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach just beyond the white hotel. There were chairs & tables & thatched umbrellas. The water was warm & wonderful. I bobbed around out there for probably 2 hours.

And came back sunburnt, straggly, well searched before reboarding the ship........and Quite Proud of myself for getting to a beach! I LOVE the beach and couldn't Stand the thought of one being so close and I couldn't be On it. :-)

An Artful Voyage in Mexico with Tim Holtz & Wendy Vecchi - Puerta Vallarta

2009-11-19T14:43:00.000-08:00

This is our second port on the cruise due to the tropical storm detour. It was a Beautiful day. It reminds me of LA in a way. Maybe the palm trees & much larger streets, traffic, shops. Quite different from Mazatlan. Lots of shops along the sandy beach. Also lots of interesting bronze statues.

This is Me, Phyllis & April.

Me in a Bronze statue chair. :-)

This is a beautiful church and square.

I just Love old bricks. I think this would make great background paper. :-)

We went through the open air market which was near a pretty river.

And This was a hanging bridge. I Thought it would be fun & I'd just bounce on over to the other side. Someone else had a More Bouncy thought & I ended up hanging onto the side to keep from falling. LOL A little more tricky than I thought it was going to be!

And I was Thrilled to find a street vendor selling lime popsicles. :-) My husband and I usually go to Isla Mujeres when we go to Mexico, and this is a favorite thing, a lime popsicle on a hot day. They are Delicious!!

Then on back to the ship.

An Artful Voyage in Mexico with Tim Holtz & Wendy Vecchi-The Ship & Things to Do

2009-11-16T15:00:00.000-08:00

First of all, the ship was HUGE. There were Many Many Many things to do and discover. And for anything that was Not included in the price of the cruise, we had our Sea Pass to use like a credit card. :-) One of the Few things I was Familiar with, Using a Credit Card! LOL This even bought me my new camera. :-)

There were 2 different pool areas, one for everyone including families & smokers, another for adults and non smoking. Both had jacuzzi's and bars and many, many people most of the time. We did swim several times and did get into the jacuzzi a couple of nights after meals & classes. Things I never did get to do were miniature golf, ping pong, the Exercise Room which as of day ONE was going to be a Huge part of our time on the ship! Seems Eating took up that time. LOL Hmmm, see a movie, ice skate, play basketball or climb the rock climbing wall (those 2 actually were Not on my list)..........

FOOD most Definately was a BIG part of the cruise. And presented Amazingly. I just loved these carved watermelons as we entered the Windjammer Cafe (the buffet). I lost my pictures of the dining room unfortunately. We ate only 3 meals there mostly due to the 2 hour time it took. However during 2 of those meals, we made friends with Table 300 and are looking forward to sailing with many of them again next October. :-) Stephanie, Andrea, Eileen, Sandra..........I think all have signed up as well as Bev and I. Also there was Barb and Barbara.........Hmmm. I need to get out my list. I have Forgotten again. :-(

This plate was just too funny to pass up. This was what April had for breakfast most Every morning. She Loved those rolls! And the Cookies. I never got a picture of Those.

And the Promenade. I was a little disappointed with the shops here. I thought there would be more general items for sale. Mostly they were bars and selling alcohol. Which I Love. No problem There. LOL But I left my book at home and had hoped to be able to pick up a book to read. They Did have a "library" but I didn't actually end up with time to read anyway. There wasn't really a general store with magazines, etc. that one might have expected. But it was fun to walk through every once & awhile, just to see what was going on.

And of course, get a Tattoo. LOL

We had a balcony room on level 8 which was Wonderful. I talked Bev into calling her husband after we heard about the Tropical Storm we were either going Around or Through. It Felt like we went Through it. I found it actually quite Fun. Seasickness didn't seem to hit me. Although I Did take pills the first few days. Then stopped since I kind of Liked the feel of the ship tossing about. I Did keep up a bit with my email onboard. But I didn't make many calls due to the Cost! I kept my phone off. There was an internet cafe not far from our cabin so I checked in pretty much every day & let Dave (my husband) know we were fine in the storm & our change of port plans.

One thing I had Imagined WAS..........having a glass of wine on our balcony in the early evening before dinner. Kind of what I do at Home, but without a balcony Or a Ship! LOL But NO..........That was one of the Hardest things I ever had to try to figure out! I bought a wine package with a bottle of wine for each night for Bev & I (although I found, Bev doesn't drink much..........I had to have it all for myself. LOL). But it was a GAME trying to get that bottle of wine to the cabin! They wanted to bring it at dinner only. They would Not bring it to the room. I Could however, have a glass with dinner, then drag an Open bottle back to my room. Quite elegant. ;-) I did do that a couple of times, but mostly ended up Enjoying Sharing wine with our table. In order to have my wine ON our Balcony, I ended up just going down & getting a glass at one of the Numerous bars before dinner. It just seemed the balcony was made for that. :-)

We Did go in & play Bingo once. That was Fun, other than the most Irritating MC. LOL I can see why they might want someone to lead it and have some personality, but they should have asked Tim! He would have given the whole thing Class. This unfortunate guy...........gave it quite the opposite. LOL But we had fun playing. Didn't win, but had fun. :-) Oh & This is Bev & April.

And Wooo Hoooo.........Air Hockey!!!! We even hit the teen agers room & played some games! April & I got into a couple of pretty Good games! We left it at 1 to 1. We need a Playoff sometime in the future! Another night we also went to the Game Room & played a game called "Apples to Apples" which also was much Fun. Lots & Lots of things to do!

And Bev, rocked the Air Guitar and..............I'm not sure What the other machine is. They had lots of games in the arcade room. :-)

And of Course.............Classes with Tim & Wendy! This is me, Jacqui and Chris with Tim. I have known Jacqui and Chris for several years now on a mutual art swap yahoo group. What Fun it was to get to meet them along with Loretta, Carol & Lai Sie (I should Check the spelling here, but if I leave a blog post, I seem to loose it, so my apologies if I have misspelled names here).

Next post, Puerta Vallarta.

An Artful Voyage in Mexico with Tim Holtz & Wendy Vecchi 2

2009-11-16T14:44:00.000-08:00

An Artful Voyage in Mexico with Tim Holtz & Wendy Vecchi

2009-11-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

October 2009, I took my first cruise ever on Royal Caribbean, Mariner of the Seas. This was a 5 night cruise to Mexico including Mazatlan, Puerta Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas, arranged by Scrap Map, Starring, Mr. Tim Holtz and Ms. Wendy Vecchi. :-) I travelled with my friends Phyllis, April and Bev. And what a Wonderful time we Had! Unfortunately, I lost my camera in a jitney in Mazatlan, so most of my pictures start after I bought a new camera on the ship. Amazingly, they had very good prices and several choices. I am quite happy with my new Casio digital. I just wish I hadn't lost all of my pictures of Mazatlan and Mostly, of the tropical storm we went through to get there! Rockin & Rollin on the high seas with videos....lost. :-(

Bev took these pictures. The channel was Very Narrow coming & leaving Mazatlan. Here we were "Threading the Needle".

And this seemed a bit odd to me. But every port had armed guards when the ships came in. I waved as Bev took this picture. The guy on the right smiled & waved back.

Next stop, Puerta Vallarta and I have a Camera Again! ;-)

Art & Soul Portland September-October, 2009

2009-10-23T14:25:00.001-07:00

I took 3 days of class with Misty Mawn at Art & Soul. This makes 9 classes I have taken with Misty. I used to think I wouldn't like to take so many days in a row in the same class with the same teacher. But I was Wrong. This is the 2nd time I've taken 3 days in a row with Misty and I just find myself completely enjoying learning something different Every time I take a class, not to speak of the Time to be able to work on the techniques and faces. As much as I Hope to, at home, life seems to take over. So I Thoroughly enjoy continuing to take Misty's classes. My faces still need work, and I Hope this time to get to practice some in some spare time I plan to find somewhere. LOL

The first class was "Polaroids". We cut matboard and covered it with scrapbook paper. Then we taped off watercolor paper with a little larger space covered at the bottom to resemble a polaroid picture. THEN came the face painting. LOL Again, I need work here. As Misty pointed out........people do not Have black lines running down the sides of their noses and around their eyes. LOL By the end of the 3 days, my faces were actually getting Better. I started getting the feel of Shading instead of outlining. That shows a little in the next project (I hope)

The next 2 days were a long & tall hanging book. I got some backgrounds done which I love. I got to practice again on a face but didn't get further on the page. I took a step on the wilder side with the redhead in the black jacket. This was a picture from a magazine that was painted over. I worked on the face but didn't get further on the rest of her body or collaging the rest of the page. I enjoyed this! I was intimidated by the size of the paper, but that went away quickly once we started working.

And here is my cover. I trully think I made some progress on her face. This again was an image from a magazine. The faces I try myself........I Get the theory, but they all look exactly the same! Practice, Practice, Practice! LOL I am very happy with this page. I want to do a bit more shading & blending, but probably won't add much more. I like her as she is. :-) I just hope I work more on the other background pages in the future! Misty is a Very Sweet, Talented artist. I would Highly Recommend taking classes from her. Even if you don't Want to work on faces, her background techniques are wonderful and some people in class did Not do faces. Some did animals or just collage over the backgrounds. I find myself feeling very peaceful in Misty's class. It's a nice feeling. :-)

My final 2 days were a fabric journal class with DJ Pettit. I have wanted to take a class from her for Years and Finally was able to do that. :-) DJ is a Wonderful artist and teacher. Her journals are Absolutely Amazing. I Enjoyed this class Completely. Unfortunately, the images below on the front & back of my book were not done by me. ;-) These are DJ's images. Since I have loved her work for several years, I decided to use her images. A book done by me, dedicated to her. :-) I have not finished the front, back, Or any of the inside pages. But the pages are ready to start collaging and to sew into a book. Again.........I will Hope for the time to get to work on this! I have ordered a handmade book from DJ & can't Wait to own a piece of her artwork. I do have 2 Misty Mawn prints. Now hopefully a DJ book and I NEARLY bought an original painting. I am Still thinking about it. Where to put it is the question...........maybe I can find a perfect place for her. :-)

And This, yet Again, is a duplicate picture! LOL Somehow I can get 2 of the same picture Into my blog, but without starting all over...................I can't seem to delete it. Someday I'll Also find the time to really figure out what I'm Doing with the blog! Meanwhile, I'll just call this "Back to square One". ;-)

Finally Posting!

2009-10-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

I can't Believe it has been since June that I have posted to my blog. What a Hectic summer it turned out to be.

Our kitchen construction continued for about 6 weeks. We LOVE the outcome. There are still a few things pending, mostly cosmetic. We had the outside of the house painted, a new roof put on & new french doors put into a small room off our dining room and our bedroom. We still have a deck going on outside the bedroom. I needed a construction break, so that won't start for a couple more week. I'll post before & after pictures at some point.

Meanwhile, I went with my friend Debbie to Art & Soul in Portland for 7 days. I came home for 4 days during which time I had to finish my extension income tax returns. Quite a rush there! And the most Fun thing was that Friday, Debbie & I picked Jessie up from the San Francisco airport, brought her back to Debbie's house in Castro Valley, then my house in Oakland so she could see where we live. We played with fantasy film that Jessie brought for us. The time went So Quickly. :-( How we Wish Jessie could have been here for a few Days instead of a few hours!

The next day I flew to LA & went on a Tim Holtz cruise to Mexico! My first cruise & I Loved it! What Fun we had! Pictures of all of these events will follow soon. When I returned I found we had lost a Dear Friend of ours for nearly 40 years to cancer. That was trully a shock as it progressed so Quickly, and so very sad. I will miss him Dearly.

Today is my birthday and although work is still stacked up after nearly 3 weeks away from home & my office, I decided to take an hour here & post some projects from Art & Soul. Our visit with Jessie & pictures And pictures of the cruise and projects will follow as soon as I can get them organized. :-)

May It Girl for Maggie

2009-06-21T16:56:00.000-07:00

May was Maggi's IT girl month. Her topic was something related to Literature/movie/song. I had always wanted to keep a journal of some of my favorite movies, who was in them, the year. So I went with the Movie topic and made this little book of favorite movies. I admit that I made myself one too. LOL I never did start that project, so Maggi's topic got me motivated. I am still enjoying making these little books & hope people didn't get horribly tired of receiving little books! My Bind It All has had a nice workout this past year. :-)

Mystery Swap May 2009 CC Swaps

2009-05-20T17:34:00.001-07:00

These are various pieces I am sending to Carol Sweeney today for the CC Swaps "Mystery Swap". These are polymer clay "Brocade" technique. The hearts are magnets and the others are buttons. Debbie Reid & I (And Debbies daughter Sarah) got together on Saturday and worked on these. They were Much Fun! So much I ended up making clay heart magnets as trades for Art & Soul Asilomar this coming weekend. :-) Much Thanks to Adrienne for coming up with this swap!

Below is Debbie top working in my dining room, then Two pictures of me (accident! And I'm rusing off to Pismo Beach for 4 days before Asilomar so I'm not going to redo this post yet. If Anyone can tell me how to delete a picture without completely redoing the post, that would be Great!). The last picture is of Sarah, Debbie's daughter. We might try to get together more Often to work on techniques. :-)

April 2009 IT girl for Debbie

2009-05-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

April was Debbie's IT girl month in our Art Venture group. She had seen an Envelope book I made for Carol Sweeney in another swap & commented that she would like something like that for her IT month. :-) I Loved making that envelope book & was Thrilled to make another. I do hope she likes it.

I really Enjoy working with Lutradur. It uses a LOT of paint......it seems to suck it up, then leave an interesting pattern of extra paint underneath. Next time I want to pick that up with some blank paper as a new type of background. I want to try some of the other things that can be done with Lutradur such as burn holes for additional texture. I'm really just getting started playing with it.

IT girl for Karen Wright - Shrines

2009-04-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I've been able to update my blog in quite some time. Tax season sidetracked me with work. As well as ending up being Very Late with this IT girl book for Karen Wright who was quite understanding when I emailed her. I appreciated that!

Karen's topic was "Shrines". Staying with my book direction, I embedded a shrine in the cover of the book. I glued pages together until the front cover was thick enough to hold the metal box I used for the shrine. Then I traced around the box & with a mat knife, cut out a niche to hold the box. I wanted to use the lid of the box since it just was part of it, so I made a hidden shrine. The lid slides off to reveal the ???? angel girl?? inside. I thought she fit in a shrine.

Now off to work on 3 ATC swaps due April 30 along with a chunky book page due in Florida on April 30. Lot's of artwork ahead of me now that my busy Job season is over. :-)

February 2009 IT Girl book for Pea

2009-03-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

This is the book I made for Pea who's topic for February was Black & White & Bold. Not sure how Bold it got, but the metal Is Shiny. Is Shiny Bold? ;-) I did a black & white ATC swap in February also and this bird image with the checkerboard around it just wouldn't leave my brain. There are 9 ATC's out there similar to this cover. It was fun to take it a little further with the back, then play with the metal! I Love Ten Seconds molds & metals. Although..........this turquoise color I got somewhere else online. And I can't remember where now...... I Loved the color though!

2009-02-26T08:30:00.000-08:00

I got behind on my IT girl swaps over the holidays but Finally caught up through January.
This book was for Pauline who's topic was womens faces. I Attempted to draw a Kelly Rae Roberts style face on the front. It was fun giving it a try, although I am certainly not great at it! Maybe with practice. :-)

This is the inside of the front & back covers.

This book was for Jessie who's topic was Time.

And this book was for Fiona who's topic was Inspiration.

2009-02-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the back of my book to Carol and it is in the mail. :-)

CC Swaps Envelope book for Carol S

2009-02-24T15:52:00.001-08:00

This is a book I made for an Envelope Book swap in CC Swaps. The only requirement was that we include at least 8 envelopes. I made 8 envelopes out of painted Lutradur, sewed them together, decorated them and added velcro as a closure.
A couple of weeks ago I joined several ladies in Brentwood for a local art group meeting. Diane Bouchard taught a technique for painting on freezer paper. I used this method on the Lutradur & really loved the results.
The technique is basically spreading paints on the background with a credit card, then rubbing a Golden metallic glaze over the colors. On the Lutradur particularly, the glaze seemed to pull the colors all together & make them feel really rich.
From there I used my typical painty techniques of using Stewart Gill paints & sequin waste to add color & texture. I overstamped with Golden tubed iridescent bronze fine and with Golden heavy bodied Titan Buff.
And I can only Hope Carol likes flowers because I find I have kind of caved in to the flowers that have massively shown up in scrapbook stores lately! I used little ones a bit in the past, but I found I love the layered ones....different colors, sizes, textures. I seem to have used quite a few of them on this. LOL

Holiday Hideaway December 2008 - Other Projects

2009-01-18T21:05:00.000-08:00

It's nearly the end of February already (although I started this on January 18 as the date says! LOL) and I am Finally getting a chance to post pix of my other projects from Holiday Hideaway in December. The Christmas hangers are made with Ranger "Fragments". Tim's sample actually had crystals hanging from the hanger also...........I Still haven't gotten a chance to put mine on. But if I don't post these pix pretty soon, it will be Next December!!! ;-)

The Doors were a Lot of fun! These plug in & light up and the faux snow looks so realistic.

And The Birds!!! This I think was my Favorite Project! What FUN these were! And how many Different styles everyone did! This is my bird. I bought the metal iron in an atique store in Prescott & have attached my bird. I also went online & have ordered 5 more birds to Hopefully someday alter! I just Love this little guy!

And I Must Thank Tim for his input along the way. I didn't think I had painted it well enough. And I didn't like that orange showing through when we sanded. Tim said it would end up being my favorite part. And Yep......it Is! It makes it look the most distressed. I won't be so Finicky next time. LOL

Ahh, and these pictures have gotten all out of order from the way we did them. This was actually one of the first projects. I really Loved this project also! Tim's sample had doorknobs as feet to stand on and a door handle on the top. I Bought some.............just haven't had time to put them on yet. This was all made with Grungeboard alphabets and distress inks.

All I can say about the Holiday Hideaway is it is one of the most special events I've ever been fortunate to attend and I Thank Tim for welcoming me into the fold, Mario for all he does for us. And Always thanks to Michelle, Karen & Sharon who help make this all possible. I can't wait for next year! :-)

Holiday Hideaway projects

2008-12-20T15:04:00.001-08:00

The necklace was a side project hosted by Karen "Keychain". There were 40 people attending (+3 counting Tim, Mario and Michelle). Everyone made a charm, no larger than 1" x 1". The first night we had dinner hosted by Mario, and then we all made charm Bracelets. I had seen several charm Necklaces at Art & Soul in Portland in October and Really Wanted one. So I brought my own necklace so I could add the charms to that instead. Everyone's charms were so wonderful & so different. It made a Fun necklace. :-)
Our first project on Friday morning was a metal covered book using Ten Seconds metal sheets and embossing plates. We covered small canvases, then stitched the book & attached to the canvases. I used pesto alcohol ink to get the green color. I have nearly all of the Ten Seconds tools........I Love working with metal. But I actually learned How to work with the metal. I was just winging it before. Rather than just rub the paper stylus over the metal to get the pattern, we used a "defining tool" to really bring out the pattern. Also, rather than just using One pattern, we used many different patterns to create a patchwork look. I had never thought of that.

Since I Still can't seem to figure out how to get blog posts in the order I want and end up taking Forever to move pictures where I want them, I'm going to add the projects in different posts. SO, more to follow..........soon. ;-)

Holiday Hideaway 2008, Prescott, Arizona

2008-12-20T14:54:00.001-08:00

I returned Wednesday night from 5 days in Prescott, Arizona at Tim Holtz's Holiday Hideaway 2008. What FUN we Had! Tim had name tags all ready for us at our tables. I went with my friend Phyllis, who invited me 3 years ago and I have been So Fortunate to have been able to go to Tim's Prescott retreat 3 times now.

I had the picture taken with Tim & Mario to send to my friend Trizzy, in Australia. :-) That of Course gave Me a picture of the 3 of us also. :-) I couldn't resist posting. I could go on for pages about the Wonders of this retreat, but I will not. I started a travel blog awhile back, but haven't quite gotten it really going. Maybe I will post more pix there as well as tales of the trip.

Meanwhile, I will post pictures of our projects next.

Art & Soul Portland October 2008

2008-11-10T08:09:00.000-08:00

I am Finally getting a chance to update my blog. :-) The first week of October I went to Art & Soul in Portland. I took 4 classes.

I had signed up for a class with DJ Pettit, however she had to cancel due to illness. I hope someday soon to be able to take a class from her. I was sorry to miss that class.

Glenny was able to get Kelly Rae Roberts to teach classes in DJ's time spots. The class I took was really Wonderful! We used old letters, envelopes, junk mail.....whatever we could find to create a collage background. Then we began painting, stamping, and texturing that background to leave only parts of the collaged pieces showing through. We then drew in faces & bodies........YES, hand drew them in. Kelly Rae made this Easy actually. And I was Amazed that it Worked! :-) We then painted in the faces, embellished the clothes, continued to add more texture & color to our backgrounds to create our pictures.

Kelly Rae's book, "Taking Flight" shows these techniques and has many wonderful pictures of her work. I had purchased the book prior to class & had her sign it. It is a Great book!

Here are my projects in this class:

The next class I took was a watch case locket by Richard Salley. The only pictures I would want to share here were my blood blistered finger that I hit four times with the hammer on the dappling block. LOL Only 1 other person in class besides myself had Not had any metalsmithing experience. This class was over my head! Richard Salley was great! I just didn't have the right tools (I had girl tools LOL). I needed better quality tools to be able to do this project. But I Did learn a LOT!

So on to the 3rd class, Soldering for Virgins with Sally Jean Alexander. I Finally got a chance to take this class as it sells out in Seconds after registration opens! I found the class really Great! I thought Sally Jean presented everything very well, I liked her timing and I found her charming. As well as Mr. Sally Jean. I learned a lot and I have proceeded to make charms for a swap later in October and a couple of other projects. I now have 43 charms to make for a retreat in December and I am going to do soldered charms for this also. I think I have a new craft to pursue!

Here are some pix of my charms I did in class:

My final class was with Deb Trotter, "Riding the Paper trail". I really enjoyed this class. I have always admired her art work and finally got a chance to take a class from her. We basically created backgrounds with glue and tissue paper, then layered upon them with images, stamping, then cutting in around the images and tissue paper with pastels which brought out both the background and the images. I finished one project and one is still in progress:

September It Girl - Mideavel

2008-09-24T15:10:00.001-07:00

Art Ventures September IT girl is Adrienne and her topic was Mideavel. This made me realize that I know very Little about history! I Was able to find some mideavel manuscripts as well as a wonderful mideavel deck of cards with images of men & women on them. Someone else posted about gargoyles, so I added some of them too. LOL I felt the front was missing Something..........but I couldn't find anything that fit, except the color of the bead I added just at the last. I am going to consider that a Mideavel Lantern. ;-)

August and September A9C swaps

2008-09-20T09:37:00.001-07:00

Our August ATC swap topic was Altered Puzzle Pieces

Our September ATC swap topic was Sewing

Vintage Postcard Halloween Chunky Book

2008-09-20T09:24:00.001-07:00

This is my page for a Halloween chunky book I signed up for. We were to use the vintage postcard we chose, as well as add a vintage actual photo of our family dressed for Halloween. I didn't have any family pictures like that, but found one on the internet. Oddly, the girl on the right looks exactly like I did at that age. :-) I'm Pretending that was my family. LOL

Little books for trades for Raevn's Nest

2008-09-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do trades for Raevn's Nest and since I am so Totally in Love with my Bind It All And my Cuttlebug Embossing folders, I decided to make little books. I used a couple of the images I used on the chunky book page, changed them a bit for the book & added a couple more pages for the inside of the front & back covers and, here are my little book trades. I thought maybe people could use them to take notes in class, gather peoples email addresses, etc. I made 62!!! LOL

Raevn's Nest Chunky Book Page

2008-09-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

This is the front & back of my page for a chunky book hosted by Sweatpea for the Raevn's Nest Art Retreat in Wisconsin this October.

Africa Tip In for CCSwaps

2008-09-13T11:57:00.001-07:00

This is the Front & Back of my Tip in For September, Africa

Aqua, Pink & Ivory Chunky Book Swap

2008-09-13T11:51:00.000-07:00

I joined a chunky book swap that was due in September titled "Aqua, Pink & Ivory". I thought it would be fun to try using a combination of colors I'm not so familiar with. I Love teal or aqua....pink not so much. I ended up doing something so Completely Different than I've done. I think I ended up liking it. I'm so Used to doing more vintage designs and nature colors. But here was the final page.