Happy Halloween!

My 8 year old dd painted hers like a Vampire--she was a vampire as well. My 4 year old ds made his pumpkin silly with "Mr. Potatohead" halloween shapes--note the mouth on the back of the "head"! I had a little fun with my pumpkin this year. Rather than messy carving, I took my trusy Sharpie pen and made a spider web and spider family. Notice the Mommy and Daddy spiders, plus 3 littler ones representing my 8 year old, 4 year old and 6 month old.

Create Every Day

Peggy K. has issued a challenge to artists to Create Every Day during the month of November--read more about it on her blogpost here. I am joining her challenge!

Usually, creating something, however small, is part of my every day life as it is, just to release the stress of the day and refocus my energy. I feel better when I am creating. This past year, I have found it difficult to create every day. First, with the pregnancy, I was so tired and something had to give just so that I could keep up with the basics. Now that I've got a 6 month old, my creative time is still pretty minimal, but I am finding ways to work it in--like taking the kids to McDonald's playland and bringing along my supplies to make charms while they play!

So, I am making the committment to create every day for the month of November. I probably won't blog every day, but I will be sure to give you a run down of what I've been working on. I've got lots of projects lined up:
Autumn Charm Swap
Blue, White and Silver Charm Swap
Class Sample for Embellishing on Art Quilts
Hand Dyed Scarf Swap
plus, making lots of goodies for two craft shows coming up in November and December. I've got my work cut out for me!

Experimental Resin Swap

I recently participated in another swap at Mixed Media Art Friends. This time, the challenge was to experiment with resin, and make charms--not necessarily jewelry charms. I made bottlecaps (kind of tradtional), starfish in resin circles (using a painter's palate as the mold), and some freeform resin dangles that were tinted and embedded with embellishments. I added a little copper wire swirl to these--fun! Haven't gotten back the swap yet, but I am looking forward to see what else everyone came up with.

By the way, my 8 year old daughter was enthralled with the starfish charms, so I had to make her an extra as a necklace for her B-Day. She loved it!

My First Mail Art

This is the first set of Mail Art that I've ever done. I am participating in a mail art Birthday swap on the Collage UnLeashed group. Basically, you send a decorated envelope with some goodies inside to each participant during the month of their birthday. My B-Day is Dec. 27th, right around the corner, so I am looking forward to getting some pretties of my own in the mail.

These pictures show the fronts (with the flower and leaf stamps) and the backs (Wish) on the back. I used acrylic paint throughout. It was fun, but a little challenging to keep the envies from getting stuck, and keeping the adhesive strip on the back dry. Its tempting to decorate all of my outgoing envelopes now!

Shades of Autumn

This is the latest batch of hand dyed fabrics. After I dyed them, I thought "what's with all the brown?" Then I realized that maybe it was a subconscious decision since Autumn is upon us, and these feel to me very much like the Shades of Autumn in New Mexico.

Hand Dyed Vintage Lace

I "inherited" some vintage lace from a friend who was clearing out some of her mother's craft supplies. Great stuff, unfortuneately, most of it is yellowed and age stained. I've been sitting on it for a year or two, and finally decided to try dyeing it. I love the results! It is much more useable and enjoyable now. I have a plan for it....I will be unveiling soon.


Here is the lace along with some other fabric that I dyed, being rinsed out in the sink. It looked so pretty, all a-swirl with color!


And some of the dyed laces here.

Hobby Lobby

You know you go to Hobby Lobby too often, when the check out clerk sees your baby and says, "Oh look, its baby Fletcher!"