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!!

And the Winner is!!!!!!!

Hello Everyone!

Well today is the day!!!

I'm announcing the Winner of the

$25 Gift Certificate to

Melissa Samuels

Wonderful Shop!

Drum roll please!!!!!!!!

The Winner is

'Cindy'!!!!!

(Streamers and confetti flying!!! grin)

So Cindy, please email me at GIMPY@telus.net

with your email address and I will send you

the $25 Gift Certificate to Melissa's Shop

as soon as I hear from you:)

I have confirmed with Melissa, that she is up

and running after the terrible effects from 

Hurricane 'Irene' 

that hit her region, so I have confirmed that

you will be a able to use your Certificate immediately:)

I want to give Big Thanks!

To all of you who participated in my 1st ever

Co-Hosted Giveaway on my blog!

You all have made the experience so much

fun for myself and for Melissa Samuels!

And please stay tuned in the next few weeks,

as I will periodically be doing Giveaways 

again with some of my other Favourite

Shop Owners highlighting 

some of my favourite products from them:)

That all being said.....

Here's a little sideline project I've been working on..

I've never made a journal from scratch before

but have watched many wonderful tutorials

on the net, so this is what I came up with:)

Great pad of wonderful water colour paper...

And a pizza box, cut down to size....

Hand sewn in my 'signature' packs of

the paper in groups of 4 sheet per,

folded in half and pierced the 

fold with holes for sewing..

I took a old 1980's National Geographic map on

Earthquakes

and wrapped the pizza box with it, and proceeded

to paint, stamp, ink and cover it all with these

great cogs from Retro Cafe Art 

(Link in my Favourite's Listing:)

and

Tim Holtz Grunge Lettering

Back of the cover:)

And I'm using a 7gypsies 'Book Bra' to hold

it all together....

Don't know if it is a 

true journal, but it's certainly going to

end up being an 'encyclopedia' of my pages

when it's finished being filled up with my

art on the pages:)

So that's it for this week, and what an exciting

time it has been for me! I so appreciate you

all coming and participating in the Giveaway

and signing on for being a 'Follower' on my blog!

Lot's more to come to participate in and in turn

anyone you'd like to pass on my blog address to

so they can participate is much appreciated!

Have a great Holiday Weekend to both

my U.S. and Canadian Friends 

this Weekend, and to all my

other Global Friends Thanks so Very Much!!!!!

Look forward to you email Cindy!!

The Winner!!!

Enjoy!

Melissa Samuels Gift Certificate Giveaway! 1more day left!

Hello Everyone:)

Just a quick reminder that my 

Giveaway of a 

$25 Gift Certificate

to Melissa Samuels Shop,

has only 1 more day until

I'll be announcing the 

Winner!

There's still time to enter so

check out the previous blog post

for all the details!

In Co-Hosting Giveaways, don't forget

to go to 

Melissa Samuels blog as well

(Link in my Favourites Listing:)

As she's giving away a Free

La Blanche Stamp

in her Giveaway on her blog!

(Details in previous post:)

Melissa and her family are

currently hunkering down

and preparing for Hurricane 'Irene'

to come through later today, and

she and her family have just been

through their first major earthquake!

She and her Family are fine, I checked!

So lets surprise her with tons of new

'followers' and entries on her blog:)

Hope you all are safe through the coming

days of the Hurricane on both our U.S. and

Canadian  Eastern Seaboard!

You all are in our thoughts!

Be Safe!

Melissa Samuels Gift Certificate Giveaway!

Hello Everyone!

(Can you tell I'm excited!)

As I've been telling you in previous posts,

something Special was coming up on my blog,

and today is the day!

I'm so thrilled and pleased to be

co-hosting my very first

Gift Certificate Giveaway!

This has been in the works for the past

few weeks, and I don't know how I've

managed to keep it a secret, (grin)!

I'd like to present, (drumroll please),

(ok, so Oliver Howard isn't very good on the drum,

much better at barking:)

As one of my favourite things to do here on my blog

I'd like to give a 'Shout Out' to 

Melissa Samuels

'The Art of Scrapbooking'

Shop and Blog

who is now a 

Proud Distributor 

of one of my

Favourite Stamp Product Lines

'La Blanche' Stamps

(This is a picture of some of the 

La BlancheStamps 

I have in my personal collection:)

On Melissa's Shop Page

www.melissasamuels.net

(Link in my Favourite's Listing)

Melissa has this wonderful 

La Blanche Demo from

CHA Summer 2011

That absolutely grabbed my attention!

At CHA Melissa became a New Distributor

for the Entire La Blanche Stamp Product Line

in the U.S. and has brought in for her new

product line in her shop, 

so many of this years new stamps

from La Blanche!

So here's the 

Gift Certificate Giveaway

requirements:)

First: To enter into the Giveaway please

sign on as a 'Google Follower'

here on my blog at

then leave a 

'Comment' here on this Blog Post

telling me you've entered the

Giveaway 

then

Please go to 

Melissa Samuels Blog 

(Link in Favourite's Listing)

And sign on Melissa's Blog as a

'Google' Follower and

leave a 'Comment' on her 

La Blanche Page Blog Post

for your chance to Win a Free 

La Blanche Stamp from Melissa, and

where Melissa can show you 

examples and give you information

about this wonderful Stamp Product Line!

 Then 

You have officially entered in the

Gift Certificate Giveaway

to win a $25 Gift Certificate to

Melissa Samuels Shop!

I will be running the Giveaway

until September 2, 2011

and will announce the 

'Winner'

of the $25 Gift Certificate to

Melissa's Shop on that Friday!

I will then post who the Winner is and

ask you to email me your email address

so I can send your $25 Gift Certificate to you:)

Based on the wonderful Video that

Melissa has on her Shop Page that

she made from the CHA Convention

Summer 2011

And, Melissa's wonderful Talent with

Cards, Scrapbooking, and Journal Making,

I decided to post an example of one

of my projects, using the techniques

I learned from Melissa's Video that

would be a little different from the

normal use of the stamps.

In a previous blog post I showed you 

some wonderful wood cigar boxes that

had been gifted to me from dear friends:)

Well since that Blog post, I've looked at

this box, and came up with this.....

Now you're wondering...

what does this have to do with the 

La Blanche Stamps...well

The inside of the box is lined with

Stamped Images from my collection of the

La Blanche Stamps

and using the wonderful technique of using

UTEE to highlight the image with also

the use of Tim Holtz 'Distress Inks' by Ranger

This is what I came up with as an example:)

I love the texturing that using the UTEE

(Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel)

produces!

And the crisp colours that jump out at you with

these great detailed stamps!

The top of the box, using Tim Holtz 'Fragments'

I used many of my other collection of stamps

(also their Companies are listed in my Favourites Listing)

and hand inked and painted using 

Water-Soluble Crayons then pasted the images

to the bottom of the Fragments using 

Inkssentials 'Glossy Accents'.

I will say, the idea for the top of this box came

from Tim Holtz blog, where he created this

layered use of the Fragments:)

(Thanks Mr. Tim)

Using some of my other Favourite Embellishments

I inked, stamped, and used the tissue transfer

technique to create the 'labels'

And used the La Blanche Stamps again

using the UTEE to create a textured label 

for the sides of the cigar box.

So I hope you'll take the time to enter and

pass on the word to your friends,

into my First Giveaway!

And hope you'll take the time to go

to Melissa Samuels Blog and Shop

and watch her wonderful CHA Video!

Cheers!

(And have a great Weekend!)

Enjoy!