LOL Cats

I have added a picture and a link to what I think is the FUNNIEST place ever! I love the LOL Cats web site, I laugh out loud like a little kid every time I look at these pics. There is a companion site for dogs which can be found at the Cats site. Look at the bottom of my blog for the pic and link...........
Enjoy! I do!

Playing at Jane's: Canvas Book

Yesterday was a pretty busy day! First thing in the morning Jane, Jeanne, and I traveled to Frenzy Stamper to pick up our Halloween inchies (I love all of them!) and then Jane and I headed back to her "studio" to play with canvas and paint. We referred to Alisa Burke's Canvas Remix book for inspiration and even though we both had the same supplies in front of us our canvas pieces, the results were amazingly different. Our intent was to just let go with the different paint media Jane had on hand and experiment with different methods....... "what if?" being the driving question. After our pieces dried we gather photos, random pieces of leftover fabric to "funk" up our books. We ripped the canvas in half and swapped so our books became a true collaboration of art, hit the sewing machines and started stitching away. I had brought copies of my NY trip so I used an image of the river at Chittenango Falls for the back cover and then used the small pieces left over elsewhere. I loved the way my paint soaked yarn left a trail, knot and all and made sure it was on my cover. I still need to embellish, but am leaning toward writing on the cover rather than covering up the paint.....

A close-up of the glaze stamped with a pill bottle lid:

An inside page with decorative stitching on unpainted canvas showing Jane's work beneath. I think I would like to get a sewing machine with more decorative stitches for Christmas, I love playing with thread and those stitches!

More stitches and a transparency:

The back cover:

I really, really love the way this book is turning out and cannot wait to get time to work on it some more! Thanks, Jane!!!!

Autumn Decos

Two more decos done and ready to be sent on their way...... first is an Autumn Fairy Envelope Deco. Not sure what an envelope deco should be so I made up my own. I used an envelope stencil from Paper Bouquet and traced it on double-sided Paper Salon cardstock that I've had since last year (purchased all Recollections had in their clearance section!). Inside I ripped cream colored cardstock for the "pages." for the cover I traced a Dover sample with sharpies onto a transparency and layered it over vellum. I first just laid the transparency over the cover and the fairy image got lost, so I tried vellum and achieved exactly what I imagined, I like the pattern of the paper showing through.
The front cover:

The inside envelopes:

Right now the book is temporarily bound with a piece of leather cord, when it gets sent back I will bind it permanently with my Bind-It-All.
For the Autumn Deco I found a card I had made previously for a swap, ripped the front from the card and glued it onto cardstock, bound it with some leaf ribbon and it was finished in less than ten minutes! Easy!

More Busy Stuff

Whew! Been very busy today on swaps that are due within the next month. I haven't worked since I got back from NY so I have made a concentrated effort to get ahead on what's due since I anticipate working next week and then leaving for VA for two weeks followed by a long term sub job for my dear friend Alyssa who's baby is due within the next two weeks!
First up I completed 30 technique pages for an Art Unraveled swap. We were to duplicate a technique learned in one of the classes and I chose Katie Kendrick's Cardboard Visual Journal made from corrugated cardboard. The top layer is peeled off, gessoed, painted, 3-D matte medium over painted with Lumiere, stamped, and edged in dyed cheesecloth. I used primary colors to made secondary colors for paint.

18 Halloween inchies for swap over at Frenzy Stamper. This was my second attempt, the first inchies made from Shrinky Dink didn't come out the way I wanted, the glue never dried in between the plastic and the backing. Yuck! These are much better:

Finally, Holiday inchies for a Yahoo group swap. This time the Shrinky Dink came out okay. I made tags from it and attached to foam taped presents:

Yet more decos and Goodwill score

It's near the end of the month and time to get some decos out in the mail! Yikes! Catch up time.... two Marine decos..... Coastline of My country heading for the UK with faux weathered 7 Gypsies paper, Rusty Pickle tag, and rub ons:

Sea mammals also headed to UK...... painted background paper, ocean fabric from Joann's, lampwork beads and image from National Geographic (I chose a Humpback whale for the cover because I saw several off the coast of the big island of Hawaii):

On a trip to Goodwill ( I have decided this is one of the very few things I will miss about AZ when we settle in VA for good!) I scored some heart doilies, embroidered hankies, and (not pictured) a plastic tablecloth cover: these will be shared with April......

This and That

PHOTOS OF THE TRIP:
Since April is much better at getting lots of photos on a blog, please visit here to see the pics of our weeklong trip to upstate NY. Many pics of the leaves, family, sites we visited....... good stuff.
FUN WEB SITE:
I've been LMAO at this hilarious site recommended by one of my Yahoo group sisters:
LOLcats, there is also a book which brings me to my next thought:
PAPERBACK TRADING:
Visiting my sister in Binghamton, NY on my trip I noticed that she had some books ready to mail so I asked her what was up. She showed me a really great site on which you can send used paperbacks to people who want to read them and get ones you want in exchange, just for the postage (which has only been two dollars and change for each!). This is great for someone like me who chews through books like nothing! So far I have had 8 people request books from me and I should have the fourth Psychic Eye book by Victoria Laurie coming to me soon. For those crafty people, I have placed several journaling books on my wish list and am waiting to see if I can get any of them through this site. Speaking of journaling: if you have not seen any of Keri Smith's books you should! Last year in my fifth grade class I purchased several copies of "Wreck This Journal" and the kids LOVED them! I just bought "How to Be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum and can't wait to dig in. Go to amazon and check them out. While you are there check out the Psychic Eye series. Here is the link for the paperback trading site:
Paperback Swap
Leave me a comment if you like any of these recommended sites or books! Thank you, now GO ENJOY LIFE TODAY!

Back to the heat of AZ

April and I returned from our upstate NY trip Monday evening. It was absolutely gorgeous there! Everyone we met agreed that the trees were the most colorful they had been in a long time. Talk about timing! April took four times as many pics as I did so keep checking her blog for more. We did some sightseeing, shopping, sewing, visiting, lots of eating, and walking through the leaves on the sidewalks. Madison, NY boasts a population of around 300+ so you can imagine that everyone knows everyone there. Yes, I am one of the Edwards girls! Sunday we had a family reunion at my mother's house which was great as it has been 13 years since my last visit. Below are my brother, Skip and my two sisters, Cindy and Merry.

Friday we drove to Cindy's house in Binghamton and after a couple of wrong turns (Oh, THAT Sunoco station!). We spent time at a local library book sale, thrift store, and an alpaca farm.

Wednesday afternoon April and I drove to Cooperstown. We didn't visit the Baseball Hall of Fame, just wandered around to buy souvenirs and eat. We drove west to Cazenovia where April purchased some unique Wizard of Oz fabric that her grandmother will quilt for her. Further north we stopped in the birthplace of L. Frank Baum, Chittenango. There is actually a yellow brick road in the center of the sidewalk there! Heading back we stopped at Chittenango Falls and took some pics:

This is a building in the "center" of town where Rte. 20 intersects North and South streets. We thought the foliage on the bricks was unique and colorful.

And here is one of the spectacular trees in the town:

Needless to say the weather there was a lot cooler than the 90 degree temps here in AZ. It ranged from 40 to around 70 degrees and rained on Thursday. It felt good to take a walk at the end of the day and come home with tingly cheeks! Can't wait to see what the weather is like in VA in 10 days!