Helen's Birthday!

Birthday Card for Helen (click on the image to see the crackle effect better)

Birthday ATC

Hopefully Helen will not check my blog before Saturday when I can give her these birthday creations. I played with Stickles and double sided tape to make the ATC dimensional. The birthday card features an image that I coated with my new Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in "Rock Candy." Boy does this stuff crackle! I was having pieces of the image start to flake off so I used the Rock Candy Distress Stickles over it in places to hold the image together. It really does its job distressing and it was such a neat effect for the vintage girl.

Thankful LFB

Here is the LFB that I made last night for Ginger's "Thankful" swap. I used my new Martha Stewart scallop punch for the border along the bottom and then enhanced it with a squeezed line of pearls made from "Liquid Pearls." I used CTMH stamps for the sentiment and cornucopia and colored in the stamp with markers and Stickles. I added the chipboard title and felt leaves and voila! Instant fall! I am thankful that I get to spend Thanksgiving with my family before they move to NC in December. I will miss them terribly at Christmastime.

Jackson Pollack Inspired LFB

It's that time of the month again!!! Elise's Artist of the Month for November's LFB is Jackson Pollack. I had fun swirling around my favorite colors of paint, spraying on some black with a blow pen, and adhering a quote from Pollack himself!

Go B-P Boys Soccer!

I have the privilege of student teaching in the Broadablin-Perth school district this semester and I am currently placed in the high school. My cooperating teacher is the JV soccer coach, and the Varsity team has made it to States. I was able to attend last week's Veteran's day sectional game against Potsdam at Colonie High School. They won 2-0 and it was a ton of fun to see the students I have in class grinning from ear to ear after every goal and capturing some moments for them on camera.

I had Jeff drive me out there and help me cheer them on in the cold. At least it was a sunny day, and it was a perfect excuse for me to play with my camera's zoom lens. I think its the first time I have really gotten to use it, and it amazed me how clear and close up the pictures looked even though I was sitting at almost the top of the bleachers and they were yards and yards away! These were two of my favorite shots. I wish the boys the best of luck this weekend.

Family Halloween Dinner 2009

my favorite thing about Halloween: caramel apples

the geek and little red riding hood make a cute couple

the R/C plane pilot

Spooky dead bride

a snack spread to die for

some ghoulish girls

the night of the living dead

no bones about it, this was a cool table setting

I couldn't tell you why exactly but Halloween is my family's favorite holiday. For as long as I can remember costumes and decorations have been a big deal for my mom. In grade school my sisters and I won one firehouse costume contest after another, and we decked out our basement as a haunted house every year of high school, and each year the guest list got longer and longer.

As we have gotten older, we have reserved our celebrations to more intimate family affairs. Our haunted dinners are an excuse to still dress up and eat weirdly delicious foods and decorate from floor to ceiling with cobwebs, streamers, bones and spiders galore. This year was no exception. Although Jeff and I wished to wear out pjs to the dinner party and just collapse on the couch after the meal, we should've known we wouldn't get off that easily. Upon arrival to my parents' house in "street clothes" we were soon cooerced upstairs to the costume closet to change. I'm secretly glad they got me motivated despite how tired I was at week's end because Halloween wouldn't be the same without a costume: no matter how pathetic and impromptu it may have been.

Mom made "bat wings and mummy toes" for dinner (chicken wings and pigs in a blanket) along with coleslaw, baked beans, and cornbread. For dessert we had chocolate covered pretzel rods and my favorite caramel apples. I love the ambiance and the comraderie of the occassion and I will miss it next year after they move to NC next month. Halloween will never quite be the same, so I had to be sure to document the tradition this year.

Holiday Inchie LFB

Detail shot of front with shaker pouch of Diamond Dust
Back of LFB featuring Ginger's December Inchie

Front of LFB featuring Helen and Elaine's Inchies

This little fat book page was created for Fran's In My Vintage Room Yahoo Group swap. Earlier last month she had us each create 6 Holiday inchies to be swapped back and we were to choose 3 of our returns to create a Winter/Holiday LFB. This was a challenging but awesome idea! At first I thought it would be hard to pick which three to use, but after I saw which would work together best to tell a little story on the page it worked out. I used Elaine's sledding inchie with Helen's snowman to create a fun "Snow Day" scene. I found a fun use for the diamond dust and shaker pouches I just purchased from Stampassion too! Shake my LFB and it snows on the snowman! Yay! I added Making Memories Wordfetti stickers, Close To My Heart snowflake stamps, and some rhinestones to complete the page. Ginger's December Inchie matched my color scheme and made a great addition to the back of my page where I could put my info and carry over the snowflake theme.

Beeswax LFB, Black & White Theme

After Marilyn's Beeswax Collage Workshop at Lori's I went out and purchased all the supplies to show my sister Elise, and my friend Ginger how to do it (because they couldn't make it to the workshop) and I had so much fun. I was finally able to sit down with the two of them this past Saturday and unpackage my new tools and play. I decided to apply the technique to the 4x4 I have due for an upcoming Stampassion Swap themed "Black & White." It worked wonderfully and was a lot of fun. I thought "Pure Joy" was an ironic sentiment for this sour pussed woman who seems to not at all like the man she's sitting with on the bench.

My sister is so inspired by the endless realm of possiblities beeswax will open into her fine art. Ginger seemed to have fun too, even though she kept having to do all the supply finding when we demanded buttons or ribbon or phrase stamps since we were at her house. It was a great afternoon!