Mother's Day card and gift

Here's the Mother's Day card that I made for my mom.  I used alcohol inks on the back of a Tim Holtz "idea-ology" fragment/charm and then stamped "with love" with Jet Black Archival Ink on the top.  The alcohol inks are done on the back.  Then, I glued a piece of plain, white printer paper onto the back, using Glossy Accents, so it would give it a bit of shine.  If you don't put some paper behind it, you'll see whatever paper it's against.  The butterfly is a new Brenda Walton stamp that I just bought...since I use butterflies all the time!  I used Tim Holtz Distress Markers right on the stamp and then stamped it onto cardstock.  I cut

 it out and then mounted it with double-stick mounting tape... it's about 1/8" thick so it raises things up.  I added some "Stickles" glitter-glue to the little spots on the butterfly.

The art piece (the gift) was done on that really smooth wood...I'm not sure what that stuff is actually called.  But, I know now that I like it better if I'm gluing papers down, instead of painting a background.  It's too smooth for painting, for me.  Even with a coat of gesso, for some "tooth".  I'd rather use a small canvas.  This piece is 5.5 x 5.5.  I love the size... to work with and for hanging somewhere in the house...perfect!  But, I'm not sure I'd paint right on the wood again.

So, this is what I've been busy with!  I think my next project is to organize my stuff and get my dining room back into some kind of order, so I can actually find my supplies when I need them and we can actually use the room for what we intended!!  Wish me luck!!

If you came by for a visit, please leave me a comment!  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

        ~ Teri

Four ATC's, for Swap

Hi!  I'm hosting an ATC swap and I just finished mine!  (Bad girl, six days late!!)  I have everyone else's and will do the actual "swap" this weekend (what fun that will be!!) and then mail them out on Monday.  So, I did four which means I will get back four.  Here are my four.  The top two I just did last night and today.  The bottom two I did a few weeks ago.

You all know what an ATC is by now, right??  :)  They're so fun to do.... some people say you're limited by their size... I say you're "freed" by their size!  There's only so much you can do on such a small space!  (2.5" x 3.5")

I'm so glad I'm done, too, because it's supposed to be a beautiful weekend!!  I want to get out and work in the yard!!  Yay!!  Wish me luck.....

Have a great weekend!

      ~  Teri

Embroidered flour-sack towel

Here's a flour-sack towel that I embroidered for a friend.  I added the little strip of fabric at the bottom, too.  I just love this set of chicken patterns!  There are seven of them....some hens, some roosters.  I did another one, but haven't given it to that friend, yet, so can't post it on here until she has it in her hands.  :)

Look closely and you will see a little chick on either side of the mama....one sleeping and one peeking out.  Too cute.  I need to do a full set of these for my daughters and myself!

That's all for now.... need to finish cooking dinner and putting the flyers down at the coffee shop that I book music for.

Have a great night!

       ~ Teri

The 4x6 Exchange

So, here's a piece that I did for a global art exchange.
The exchange is being coordinated by the Art House Co-op,  in Brooklyn, NY. They have a different project each week and you can sign up for their emails which will let you know what they've got going on. They just did a note swap... you write a note, a letter, tell a story, etc... and send it to them.   They send it on to someone else and you get one back, from who knows who or where! I SO wanted to do that, but I procrastinated on signing up and I missed out!! I didn't miss the dead-line, but they had met their quota of contributors! I believe they were allowing 1000 people (don't quote me on that)...and they had to close it because it was full. I'm so bummed. :(  What a lesson on procrastinating! 

But, I didn't miss out on this art exchange!! So, here's my piece, "Don't Forget Your Wings".  It's a 4x6 - that was the main requirement; also, that it would lie flat and fit in a standard envelope.  You could paint, draw, write, sketch, print, collage or sew. I hope the person who ends up with it loves it. I'm looking so forward to receiving mine! I wonder which part of the world it will come from?  What kind of art will it be?   My 19-yr. old daughter did a delightful watercolor to contribute, also.

Oh, my gosh... how'd it get to be 11:00 at night?  I'm usually up until this time, or later, but I have to be up early to go to a play with our homeschool group!  And, I still have to read before sleeping!!  :)

Good night!

      ~ Teri

An altered-art tip-in swap

Well, it's quite a dismal day here, but I really hadn't noticed that until someone pointed it out to me. My head and heart have been busy creating!! And, I have a little vase of some of my lovely Daffodils right here on my table, so that makes me happy.

The ABAltered Books list is doing a "tip-in swap".
"What's a tip-in?" you ask? It's a page that will go
into an altered book. You tip it in, so to speak, to
an existing book. In the case of a swap, everyone
says what the page size should be (the size of their
book) and the theme that they'd like. The host(ess)
figures out who swaps with whom, although it's
not a straight-across swap. For instance, I'm sending
mine to Carol, a woman in southern California, but
she's not sending one to me... someone else sends
one to me. So, anyway, her theme was Garden Party.
I *love* Victorian anything, so I decided to go with
a Victorian Garden Party theme. After all, the
Victorian era women were the queens of hosting
garden parties!
So, the upper-right picture is the back, which is supposed to have my information.  But, I added a pocket so that I could fold up three pages of information on Victorian garden parties and stick it in there.

This is the front, the actual garden party.  :)  I also created a small pocket (upper right on the piece) so that I could put a small menu in there with what would typically be offered at a garden party.  (It has the ribbon sticking out on top.)

Then, down below is the menu.  I just realized that that picture is a tad out of focus....that's a bummer because I've already sent it off to its rightful owner!  But, you get the idea.  Maybe I'll ask Carol to send me a better shot of it.

I'd never done a tip-in before, so this was a new experience.  It was fun.  I used more paper elements than I normally do.  I usually don't like so much paper, but this just seemed to go in that direction!  I hope she's happy with it!

Now, I have four ATC's to make, for an ATC swap that we're doing!  I have a week before those need to be done, but I better get on that....we all know how time flies... whether you're having fun or not!!

Have a happy Friday, tomorrow!!

    ~ Teri

Amity Daffodil Festival Artshow

With only two days to spare, I just finished my mixed-media piece that I'm entering into the Amity Daffodil Festival Artshow!  I'm not sure about it, really.  There are elements that I'm happy with... some, not so much.  But, that's okay.  It's a learning experience... and the joy is in the process.  It's a 10" x 10" canvas.  It shows me that I need to work on layers.  Layers are key to this kind of art and I just haven't played around enough with them.  I also wanted an old, vintage daffodil to use, instead of painting my own, but I couldn't find any that were suitable.  :(  Someone told me she'd send me some... so, if those show up in my inbox, I may do another piece.  Each person can put in two entries.  Each entry needs to have at least one Daffodil, although they do not need to be the focus of the piece.  I did a watercolor one year.... just one big daffodil... but, it was for my mom, for Mother's Day, so it wasn't for sale.  They told me at the end of the show that had it been for sale, I would've sold it!  Yay!

.I'm also participating in two Art House Co-op projects.  One is a 4 x 6 Exchange (called The 4 x 6 Exchange2), where you send in a 4x6 (needs to be able to be sent in a regular envelope) in by March 31st.  Someone, somewhere else in the world, will get your piece and you will get their piece, in exchange.  2000 people have signed up!!  (I'm glad I'm not the one having to keep those exchanges straight!!)  I'm very excited about that project!  I need to get started on it!!!  These are serious artists that are participating and I need to send my best work.  I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can handle already!

The other Art House Co-op project is this - they wanted to get a look at a common space of the people in their online community.  So, they chose the refrigerator!  We were supposed to take a picture of the inside of our frig and print a 4x6 of it.  Ack!!  Mine desperately needed cleaning, so I limited the visability.  Plus, black and white helped, I think.  So, this is my photo for that.

I'm also doing another ATC swap with my Altered Books Yahoo group and also a "tip-in", which I don't know much about.  You create an altered book spread...or maybe it's just one page... and send it to the person who's hosting.  They get the right ones to the right people (we're choosing themes, so they'll all be different) and then we fit them into an existing altered book.  I'm thinking that I'll just make a small book out of the pages from the tip-in swap, instead of adding them to an existing book.

OK.... I'd started a pair of socks for my youngest son, who now has feet the same size as mine, but then I tried to slip it over my heel, after I had about 2" done, and it wouldn't go.  :(  I ripped it out... like a dummy, I didn't check the gauge, first!!!  So, now, I have to do a few inches of garter stitch, so I can figure out my gauge so that I can figure out how many stitches I should be casting on for him.  This is when I need a good movie or TV show....otherwise, I rarely ever watch TV.. I get too bored!  Hmmm....wonder if I can talk my husband and said child out of that Jett Lee movie they're watching and into something else.  ??  Wish me luck!

       ~  Teri

An ATC, with Easter in mind

Another ATC that I did last night.  I was thinking about Easter when I was working on it.  :)  These are so fun to work on!  They can be limiting because they're so small, but they're also sort of freeing, because you don't have such a big area to cover.

All for now,

     ~  Teri