BIG NEWS!!!! ANOTHER 'GIVEAWAY'

Hello Everyone:)

THAT'S RIGHT!!!

ANOTHER WONDERFUL GIVEAWAY HERE

on Birdnuts Mixed Media!!!

But the BIG NEWS is that I am 

Co-Hosting with one of my 

all time Favourite People:)

Kristin Hubick

of

Yippie!!!

I'm so thrilled that Kristin was interested 

in Co-Hosting Giveaways on both of our

blogs!

So here's the skinny:)

Like I've done before, to place an entry into the Giveaway,

Sign on my blog, (Right Side of the Page),

as a Google 'Follower' and then

leave a Comment on this Post and you will 

be entered to 

Win a $25.00

Gift Certificate

to 

Retro Cafe Art!

(If you are already a 'Follower' of my blog,

then just post a Comment and remind me

of it, and you'll be entered!!)

Then

Go to Kristin's Blog

Retro Cafe' Art Gallery

Sign on as a 'Follower' on her blog,

Leave a Comment on her blog to

tell her you've entered, and

you could 

Win a $25.00 Gift Certificate 

from Kristin's Shop too!!!

2 Chances to Win!!!

As many of you who 'follow' my blog,

 already know that I LOVE

Coffee Break Design Products

that Kristin has in her

Retro Cafe Art Shop!

This is just a sampling of some of the Great 

Coffee Break Design Products

she produces that I currently keep in supply:)

And here's some Samples of some of my 

latest projects I've made using 

Coffee Break Design Products:)

I made this recently with Kristin's

'ATC Shrine Masonite Kit'

Absolutely a blast to play with!

The whole kit comes in a flat board,

that you break apart and then put together

and embellish in what ever way you want!

I lined this kit with Old Farmers Almanac

pages, after inking them.

I used this wonderful 'Inkadinkado' Brand Stamp

of the Koi, mounted it in the shrine,

Stamped and Inked an old domino to also

mount and added Kristin's wonderful

Acrylic Bobbles to create the Bubbles:)

Really enjoyed making this piece,

and I'm still thinking of it being 

mounted into a shadow box at a later date to show it off more.

The bottles are also from Retro Cafe Art, they're Mr. Tim's

(Tim Holtz) 'Idea-ology' Bottles.

I filled them with 'Natural' Real Vintage pearls and

real tiny sea shells in the bottom bottle:)

Once you start playing with Kristin's 

Coffee Break Design Kits, it's like an

addiction!

Her assortment is wonderful. With choices of 

little mini kits through to major project kits.

Massive Assortment of Stencils and other

goodies too that she produces!

Here's another project that I've used

Coffee Break Design Products

with, it's a Special Project as

it is for my Art Pal Leslie's 

Birthday, as she is a Halloween BABY!

I'm not a very clever Baker but I do make a 

wicked Paper Cake!

Ta Da!

(Don't tell Leslie!!! Grin)

My Halloween Birthday Cake has been a great

pleasure making, and I used a ton of

Coffee Break Design Products all over it!

The top, is another great kit of Kristin's made of

masonite so it's really easy to put together and

to embellish:)

I even used her 'ballerina' that she has in her

shop, and altered the lovely blue colour that

she comes in to black and glitter purple!

And of course, no project of mine could

go without my favourite Alphabet Beads

that you will also find in Retro Cafe Arts Shop!

I just kept layering embellishments onto

this thing, having the best time making

it over the top for my Art Pal Les!

(Spider Web Cut-Outs of Kristin's

embellished with a silver Sharpie!

That was quick and easy!)

( So don't tell Leslie her Birthday Cake is ready:)

LOL

So there ya go!

Some new project ideas for you, and 

a BIG GIVEAWAY

Chance of Winning $25.00 Gift Certificate

to Retro Cafe Art to boot!

The Giveaway is going to run until October 15th, 2011

with the Winner to be Announced on October 16th, 2011

So jump on board, Sign on as a Google 'Follower'

Leave a Comment on this Post and you're Entered!

Then jump over to Kristin's Blog

Join on and Leave a Comment and you'll be

Entered in her Giveaway as well!!!

And as a side note:) Kristin also has another Contest

Going, ( I refer to her affectionately as the 'Contest Diva':)

'Anything Goes Halloween Contest' that You still have

time to make something and enter into her Contest

as it too is open until October 14th! 

So there's your homework class! LOL

Lot's to do and have fun doing!

Wishing you all lots of luck in the Giveaway,

I'm thrilled to be doing another one!

And let all your friends know so they can enter too!

Spread the Love!!!

ENJOY!!!!

It's late Saturday Night and I'm thrilled with all of your wonderful comments and signing on as 'follower's 

You all have made my weekend, so I just have one more thing to say.....

I hope you all brought forks, 'cause I'm not doing the dishes!!!

LOL

Enjoy!

It's almost October, Halloween Month!

Hello Everyone:)

Well, everywhere I've been this weekend in the 

local shops, it's all about Halloween...

My house is now filled with tons of treats....

over a month to go, so you can figure out who

the treats are for, LOL!

But it's put me in the mood, so I've been

busy creating all sorts of Halloween oriented

projects, but dragged out a couple of 'oldies'

to post while I'm currently working on a 

couple of new ones:)

(Sorry, not the best picture)

This is a Halloween banner I made last year,

using tons of commercial graphics by K&Company.

Once in a while, their packs of cut outs are just

too tempting to play with. Not being into

scrapbooking, I have to come up with other uses

for these packs....

Here's a few:)

got a little carried away with the glitter....:)

Something about plain old black and white 

I love about Halloween...

although orange and purple too is fun.

bats, and fly's and ants...oh my:)

A bit of Retro Cafe Art creeped into this one:)

(Mini Coffin Shrine, great fun to put together

and play with some Resin:)

(Link in Favourites Listing:)

I love these plastic skeletons! 

I bought cards full of them and still need more!

LOL

...some people are scared of clowns....pumpkins

are pretty scary too!!! (grin)

eeeeek!

Love the cat on this one:)

One of those moving pictures that changes into

a skeleton, I think I managed to get him in 

'transition' LOL.

I can say honestly, after playing with this project,

I have a new appreciation for Scrapbooking...

it was a ton of work amazingly, but a lot of fun!

So here's another Halloween Project

that currently I have entered in

Retro Cafe Art Gallery's

Anything Goes Halloween Contest

(Link in my Favourites Listing).

The Contest is running until

October 14th, 2011

and Kristin is accepting entries, and it isn't necessary 

to use Coffee Break Design Products in this contest!

You are also allowed up to 3 entries!

So here's another of mine:)

Halloween 'Peek a Boo!'

(This was actually started last year for a local

contest, but I didn't get it finished in time,

so it's been put away unfinished until this past week:)

It looks pretty simple right?

Well let me tell you, this project is absolutely

one of the more involved I've ever done...

take a black lace bra, 

Hand sew, ( and I don't do this usually!),

liner completely inside the bra.

(Love this cotton fabric of cobwebs:)

Completely hand sew lace and bling ribbon...

Stuff the inside of the cups with a really expensive

dyed orange carded sheep's wool...

(yes, I am exhibiting attitude! I went through

two full bags of my special wool!!!)

And the pictures don't reflect the cool orange 

colour that shows through the lace! Darn it!

The Black Chipboard Cat had bottles of 'Stickles'

all over it, and it took 3 days for it to completely

dry...but loved it's 'bling' in the cleavage:)

A few glittered spider's here and there,

and some bling lettering, and walla!

An Art Room note....Storage Ideas:)

I have a plain white tall storage cupboard to

the right of my art desk, and the blank space

kept my imagination running wild with ideas...

so I took this vintage printers drawer and 

bolted it to the side of the cupboard to 

create shelves for some of my wood mounted

stamp collection.

(It's completely full now, and I'm needing at

least another 4 of these! LOL

And just above it, I made these cool shelves,

(actually did myself! Power saw and all!)

Using vintage rulers for the fronts, then

mounted some peel and stick cork for

mini bulletin boards:)

This I made a couple of years ago, and is an 

ongoing project, as you just have so much 

wall space...especially after hanging tons

of art projects, LOL~I love these shelves

and I'm quite proud of myself for making them

on my own! My husband was so taken that he

actually bought me my own power tools!

'Liberation!' (grin)

....so there you go! More projects in the works!

(As I can never do without at least a couple going

all at once:)

So more postings to follow soon!

Till then, have a great week,

and

Enjoy!

Bits and Bobs:)

Hello Everyone:)

Here it's only just the end of September coming up, and already Halloween is 'flying' all over the internet, and in some

cases even a bit of Christmas is already popping up.

Being that my previous post was a Halloween project,

(and as some of you know, Halloween is a major

holiday celebrated in my home:), I find that

I'm looking for something else to work my brain with....

Journaling:)

Started another journal, a basic one, and have started

using some of my vintage photos as a dive in point

to get motivated. 

Seems it's the new 'thing' to get into, and I'm 

gobsmacked at all the talent and flurry of ideas

out on the net, so I figured with my huge collection

of vintage photos, and some of my personal family

photos, and my dry wit, I'd find a 'style' of my own...

In honour of my parents, LOL!

This one took days! Layers of paint, inks, stencils,

then tons of computer paper stamped, inked, cut out,

but my favourite part is the pen inking...great way

to relax!!!

Whoever this woman was, she lends herself to

so many different comments....I love her:)

The original photo is a beauty, and in wonderful

condition, and she is so tidy...(something I'm 

certainly not known for, LOL).

And last but not least.....me:)

I had fun with this one, but for the reason was the

chair....it's from a great graphics sheet that I recently

purchased from Gail at Shabby Cottage Studios,

(Link in my Favourite's Listing:).

The minute I saw this chair, I remembered this 

photo and the hand placement, (ok, so my

mind does go to to weird details sometimes:)

so I played around with my computer to get

the size of both the photo and the chair about

the same, and walla!

So there's some examples of one of the projects I'm

currently working on...

And here's what arrived this week in my mail:)

My order from Kristin Hubick at Retro Cafe Art

(Link in my Favourites Listing:)

of my new Fav Rave

Dyan Reaveley's 

'Dylusions'

Stamps from England!!

Oh, look out world! LOL.

I've recently chatted with Dyan on Facebook,

and I absolutely love her English Humour

and Wit!

And I can't wait for some art time to sit and play 

with my new toys:) Great fun!

Speaking of new toys.....

My 'ToyBoy' that I married, and I just celebrated

our 24th Wedding Anniversary September 17th.

We spent a wonderful day together going to all

of our favourite places. 

He treated me to my favourite art supply store here

in town and then we went to Michael's Craft Store.

You'd think that the trip to Michael's was for me....

but, every year my husband loves to get the

Halloween Lighted Village collection that

Michaels exclusively sells.....

(an annual trip now,

5 years in the making....every year, at least a dozen

or more pieces in the collection....do the math!)

He had a wonderful Anniversary...

(I'm investing in ear plugs this year, as each of

these and all the rest of his collection are also

noise makers!)

We ended the lovely afternoon at our local

'Cupcake' Store and treated ourselves

to a dozen totally decadent cupcakes

that even the next morning tasted wonderful!

(Diet going on throughout this week:)

Well that's what I've been up to:) Have lots more

to share but will save for my next blog post,

as I have a couple of other assemblages and projects

that I'm also working on for the next post....

so until then, Have a Great Rest of the Week!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and do sign

on as a Google 'Followers' if you haven't already,

as I'd love to have you join me in this journey:)

Happy Anniversary to my 'Toy Boy'!!!

Enjoy!

'Old Ladies - Yum!' Halloween Mannequin:)

Hello Everyone:)

I know it's unusual for me to be posting mid-week,

but I'm excited about my latest project:)

Retro Cafe Art Gallery

is having another contest!!!

I've dubbed Kristin Hubick the 

'Contest Diva'!!! LOL

I have to give her a bigShout Out, 

as if it wasn't for her efforts to run

these contests, not only for her customers

but for anyone, it helps give some of us

newbie's a chance to spread our wings,

and gain some confidence and have

our projects seen by others.

So be sure to check out her 

Retro Cafe Art Gallery

and 

Retro Cafe Art Shop!

(Link's in my Favourite's Listing:)

So here is my latest project:)

Yes, it's another one of my Mannequin's!

(Gail at Shabby Cottage Studio where

I get my mannequin's from has dubbed me

the 'Mannequin Queen'! LOL

I've gone batty!

I'm calling this

'Old Ladies - Yum!'

(Notice the 'Victim' needing Help:)

I had a two day marathon in the art room, and

amazed myself at just how many Halloween

oriented art supplies I had! But the real shocker,

was I knew where they all were!! LOL

Most of the embellishments on this piece are

Kristin's Coffee Break Design Products, that

come already punched out on different surfaces,

like chipboard, or masonite.

The spiders, bats, bat wings and even the little coffin

are all Coffee Break Design Products, and are so

much fun to play with:)

(And of course everyone knows the '31' is Mr. Holtz's

number series plates, I love using these:)

The back side view, I loved using the Coffee Break

Design web! 

Between all the ribbon cutting, and making her skirt,

and the black fuzzy pipe cleaners, that was a day

in itself!

My husband commented when he noticed that 

pieces were straying from my art room to our

breakfast table, that this one was a little involved, LOL

And of course, used my favourite black alphabet

beads! I do love those things:)

The base to give it extra stability, I used an old CD

and glued the polka dot paper to it, it helped steady the piece:)

So there ya go!

Now, my wish for you all is to go make something

that is Halloween related and go to 

Retro Cafe Art Gallery 

also listed on Facebook

And jump in both feet into the

Halloween Contest that Kristin

is having!

I have more projects in the works, and

a few things I've been building in my

art room, so more posts to come!

Enjoy!

What a couple of weeks!!! :)

Hi Everyone:)

Well, the Giveaway is all over, and soon

there will be another one in the works!

(Yippie:)

While the previous Giveaway was posted, it allowed me to play catch up on some of the projects in the works the past month.

Here's a couple of completed and semi-completed so

you'll know that I wasn't sitting on my laurels:)

First up:)

My Butterfly Garden:)

I came across this decanter at a local second hand shop,

and nearly knocked my art pal Leslie to the ground to

grab it!

It screamed at me the idea of butterflies in it, and

although bruised, Leslie  agreed that it would

be an interesting project.

Because it is quite narrow, the butterflies had to 

be on stems. I had wanted them on wires, but

there wasn't much room for them to be moving.

Next big jar I find I will try out that idea:)

With the lid off, (for better lighting to photograph)

These cut-out Butterflies come from Kristin Hubick's shop

Retro Cafe Art

(Link in my Favourites List)

and she can tell you I think I might be one of her biggest

buyers of these cut-outs! 

I love the richness of the colours and the quality of the print!

I also added Melissa Francis frames with tissue printed bees

to attach to the wonderful vintage paper background.

Garden Sticks painted and inked with my favourite

alphabet beads!

Had great fun making this one, and I love the colours!

Next up:)

A while back, I posted a series of journal pages

I had just learned how to play with all the paints

and inks to make backgrounds for,

(please search out that post, it was great fun, and

it's great eye candy:)

So I've been fussing for about 6 weeks on how to

make a cover for them.

And here it is:)

Layers of Claudine Hellmuth's Acrylic Paints,

Tattered Angels Sprays and assorted stencils,

and UTEE Embossing powder to highlight a

bit of the background.

Mr. Tim Holtz Grunge Paper Alphabet also Embossed with UTEE after inking and stamping and putting them through an

embossing folder for some texture.

A Stamped Image from La Blanche also embossed with UTEE

And some added goodies of the frame from 

Retro Cafe Art also inked and stamped.

And here you have the front cover of my latest journal attempt:O

It took the whole Holiday weekend just to do the cover, then

to take each page and put rivets into the page holes!

I even had to send my husband running to Michael's on 

Sunday afternoon with one rivet to go find me more!

(He's such a sweet guy, he did it with no complaints!)

(Think I'll keep him, especially since our 24th Wedding

Anniversary in on the 17th this month, I know that's at

least good for a dinner out! LOL)

Anyway, from my previous post, I made soooo many

pages that I can actually make two books....

So I expect this project to take more time now:)

I've experimented with a new 7gypsies binding ring

that is actually a wire. A little difficult at first, but

once you get the hang of the threads of the screw

to fit right in, you've got it made! I'm liking using

these far better than the stiff rings.

As you can see I have lots more embellishments to

do to the back and the inside covers, but will share

down the road when it's all finished.

My previous post of the 'Quake' Journal is currently

sitting on my breakfast table with a large tub of gesso.

The watercolour paper I chose, needs to be gessoed before

starting the journaling on the pages. A long project, but boy

I can't wait to start journaling and jotting down my ideas,

as it's so large it's going to be my Encyclopedia!

I also rarely make cards, but had a birthday in our

group of friends lately, and threw this card together

for him and was thrilled with his response, as he

wants to frame it:) Figure that's a real compliment

coming from a guy!

And last but not least:)

9 x 12

Watercolour 140pd paper cold press.

Tattered Angel inks and stencils and stamps for background.

Claudine Hellmuth Acrylic Paints

(LOVE THESE PAINTS!!)

I've been kicking around this idea in my head for

quite some time having the original picture, and

wanted to try some new techniques.

I have to admit, the two artists that influenced this

journal page were Claudine Hellmuth, as I love

her painted portraits using actual pictures, as you

can see my attempt in this, the subject was actually

holding a bouquet of flowers, but painted it

out and used a pussy willow stamp and

embossed the pussy willows with UTEE.

And my latest Stamp Designer Obsession, (grin)

Dyan Reaveley from England

(The eyes in this piece are one of her stamps from her wonderful assortment!)

Kristin Hubick at Retro Cafe Art has just started selling Dyan's wonderful stamp line, so do go check out her shop!

(Link in my Favourites Listing).

I can't wait for the rest of my order to arrive, as I've invested and hope to have them all:)

It's my little homage to the 1940's Swing Era

in London, England,

and to my mother:)

(She'd hate that I'd done this to her, LOL)

And one last bloom of summer, that popped

open in my garden September 1...and was done

by September 6th....they're supposed to have

bloomed back in May/June...go figure!

Still enjoyed the few days of brilliant colour

and every hummingbird in the area enjoyed it too!

Hope you all have a great rest of the week,

Check back soon, as I have more Giveaways in the works!

And with Halloween on the horizon, lots of other things

'brewing as well'

Enjoy!!