My claim to fame.....my book was published in the book shown here. :-)

This is one of 3 things I have had published. :-) It didn't hurt that Sue is my friend. But to give myself some credit, I did submit this book and it was not only accepted for the publication, it was actually on the cover! I have been very flattered by this. Now that I have a blog, I figure I might as well post it. :-) Also posted are a few of the inside pages. I still have a lot of work to do on this book, but have had Much fun collecting things to put In it. :-)

12 Days of Christmas Gifts Received :-)

These are the gifts I received in the 12 Days of Christmas swap in the CC Swaps yahoo group:

Autumn Labbe-Renaults necklace

Annie Mackays bag with sachets

Adrienne's necklace

Chrissy's tags with instructions on the back

Carol Sweeney's ATC book.




Maggi's pin and box

Debbie Reids Paint Brush Holder

Pauline's butterfly keychain box

Paula Hill's handmade bag and sachet

Trish Bayley's Tag 2008 Calendar & pages








Sweetpea's Key Can of Goodies and fun bag






Trish Latimer's necklace

12 Days of Christmas Swap-CC Swaps

This is a journal I made for a "12 Days of Christmas" swap. The covers are painted with golden fluid acrylic paints, then textured by either removing paint with a cosmetic sponge & sequin waste, or adding additional paint with textured wallpaper. The image is a transparency transfer as well as the words. I bound them with the Bind it All which I just Love!

The top 2 pictures are of the front & back, the bottom 2 are the inside of the back and the inside of the front covers.

Christmas Recipe Tag Book Swap

This is the front & back of my recipe tag book swap. The background of the front I created with tissue paper, images, scraps of music all collaged on with white glue. Then I stamped over it with gold & silver stars. I scanned the background & printed for the 21 tags, then layered with the music, gold "ribbon" and the reindeer.

The recipe is one that I have made many many times and people always seem to love it. It is a nice option for a non chocolate dessert. Just for a change. :-) I have made it in different molds, depending on the season and used different fruits & berries. I don't usually add all of the liquor to the berries which makes it quicker. And the recipe itself takes just 10 minutes to put together, then just refrigerate & unmold later. :-)

Art & Soul - LK Ludwig class

This is actually the Back of my book, which I uploaded last. I'm still having problems figuring out how to Blog. It came up first. I didn't decorate the front of the book yet. Following are the pages I got done:

This was a nature journal class taught by LK Ludwig. We started with a Very FUN metal mesh technique. Laying items on the mesh & spraying with acid left beautiful images on the mesh. My friend Debbie came up with another thought...to stamp the mesh with a rubber stamp & Versamark pad which acts as a resist. The results are Wonderful!

I was a little disappointed in this class as it didn't really have a direction for me. LK's books are Wonderful! But we brought transparencies, pictures, poems..........most of which we never used. Plus it was the final day & I was tired. So I did get some pages done, although I did not start sewing them into our book covers.

Art & Soul - Angela Cartwright class

This was my project in Angela Cartwright's "Dance of Life" class. It is not finished...I have not yet decided how to color (if at all) the "border". I enjoyed Angela's vision of this project, however there was no class sample and I was never sure where we were going with it. I finally stopped trying to figure it out & just started working. Although I didn't have the pictures I might have wanted, I found images in my baggies of goodies that all related to my life in some way. OK, so the bottle of wine is the biggest image! LOL I Did enjoy finding images however to work with, having not printed any that we were Supposed to bring. I wasn't Thrilled with the embossing powder I brought either. I didn't know exactly what we were going to do with it, so I just grabbed some clear & some gold. My gold turned out to be Very Glittery. So this is Quite a Shiney piece! I actually like it though....it reminds me of the vintage glass glitter cards.

Art & Soul Leighanna Light class

This class was "Vintage Metal Treasure Deck" taught by Leighanna Light. I have made ATC's before, but didn't think I would ever make a Metal one. I got a slow start in this class, mostly trying to do the rusting technique which didn't really work well for me. I preferred the gesso techniques. Once I got started, I got quite a few done and bought 2 more metal "decks" to hopefully make more in the future.