I'm in Gulfport, Mississippi

Yes, I'm on vacation. I'm visiting my sister. My mom drove in from Atlanta. Tomorrow morning is garage sale day. My sister, Cathie, and I got the inspiration to garage sale early tomorrow morning from Shabby Chic Junk (link on the side bar). I'm hoping to come across some goodies for my making my cards, or other altered art. We come from a long line of garage salers. My grandmother lived at those sales, and ohhhhh the bargains she would find. Hunting for that special item is fun, isn't it?! I love old scrabble tiles, postcards and black and white photos. Leave me a comment. Tell me your stories of treasure hunting and what you like to shop for.

Girly Girl

Don't you think this card has "girly girl" written all over it? The three little images were mailed to me to use in a virtual swap, over at the Stamp Shack (link listed on the side bar). When I pulled out my Bella images, I knew right away that this shopping Bella would go hand-in-hand with these images. Matching paper from ColorBok added such a nice element to the stamped images. My daughter wanted to have this card to mail off to a friend, but I couldn't bare to part with it. Instead, I will make her several more so she can share them with her friends.

In my second
card I used just
the virtual swap
images. Who
doesn't love all
this pink?

Spotlight Technique

This card is one that I recently did for a spot

light technique swap over at the Stamp Shack (the link is listed on the right bar). The background is done with Pinata alcohol inks and gold metalic pen. The image was stamped twice; once on cardstock, and once on watercolour paper. The flower on the watercolour paper was then coloured with Tombow markers and blended with brush and water. The bumble bee was done in a similar fashion. I then took my circle punch and punched out a section of the flower and layered it on top of the background flower. This image is so perfect for this technique, don't you think?

Don't we all feel like our "hobby" is taking over our lives when it comes time for self control? One of my favourite blogs is run by Julie at Paper Trufflez. Yes, it is a decadent site indeed. Sneak over to Julie's site for money saving tips.

Zoo Stick Animals

My sister is a paediatrician and last August she mailed me her lab coat so I could paint on it for her. Well, it never got done, and since I'm going to visit her on Wednesday, I thought I had
better do it. I'm not sure if she reads my blog, so I'm
posting it in the hopes that I can surprise her. She designed
the lion on the left, and I did the rest with the help of the
internet. Painting on material is the hardest thing I have done. Hope she likes it.

I'm so excited about my trip. She lives in Mississippi so the weather will be warm. It will be a busy time because she have five children under 13 and the four oldest are boys who spend most of their spare time on the all star baseball and soccer fields, as well as local sports teams. My oldest nephew is in a musical and I'm so excited about seeing him.

My mom, my sister and her two children will be visiting for a brief period while I'm there. They are travelling from Atlanta. I feel so blessed to be able to see my family a couple of times a year. When I lived on Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, I would go years and years without seeing them.

Family is very important to me, and I have my mother to thank because she instilled that in me and my sisters.

3 x 3

3 x 3's are the rage right now and I find them to be quite a challenge to do. Sure, you can just stamp a big stamp and use only a partial image, but as a reader of Godelieve's blog, I saw how she made minature creations. Wow! What a lovely job she does on 3 x 3's. Here I used Stamp'n Up's Big Pieces set, stamping on black and white papers. The black images are heat embossed in black and painted with Pearl-Ex. I love to paint on my cards. Maybe it's because of my painting background. These cards are for a card swap I'm hosting on the Stamp Shack.

Flanders Fields

I love to paint, and began painting about 20 years ago while I lived on Prince Edward Island. My dad and grandmother were painters. My sister, Debbie, recently took up oil painting. Two years ago we exchanged "paintings" and this painting is similar to the one I did for her. I did orange and black poppies for Debbie, and accented with terracotta. Under the poem entitled, "Flanders Fields" the word "poppy" is spelled out with scrabble tiles. I love looking for old scrabble sets at thrift stores. At the bottom of the stem is a poppy stamp I had from my childhood stamp collection. I hate to throw out my stamp book because it is full of useful stamps for my art. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm always digging around at flea markets and a local junk dealer.

Photo Transfer: The poem, "Flanders Fields" was a transfer from a poem I downloaded from the computer. I reversed the image and then painted 8 coats of Golden's Light Molding Paste and let it dry for 24 hours before I turned the image over and gently rubbed off the paper backing with water on my finger. It is such an easy way to transfer images to apply onto your art.

National Scrapbooking Weekend

How unique to scrapbooking in something other than a scrapbook. Yup, that's just what we did at my local scrapbook store. We made a scrapbook in a tin. It was a fabulous project. Filling it with some of my favourite photos was even more fun.

Dancing Fish

This week I attended a Fred Mullett "Dancing Fish" workshop. Mr. Mullett is from the United States and is quite entertaining. This fish is just one of many fish stamps he has designed. It was approximately 10 inches long. While not a lover of fish stamps, I was able to experiment with one of his flower stamps, using the technique that he taught us in the five hour class. Here is my third attempt at this fish. I worked totally independently on this fish, choosing from over 50 transparent and opaque embossing powders. Being a lover of bold colour, I experimented with black, neon purple, medium green, and neon green embossing powders, using a cocktail straw cut on an angle, gently arranging colour where I wanted. Then, I lightly sprinkled a vanilla embossing powder over the entire fish. Enhanced features are painted with an inexpensive children's watercolour paint set. Interesting, eh?

Mookie

I can't help but think of my father when I use this stamp. His nickname came from a Hedgehog cartoon when we lived in Germany back in 1962 to 1965. Dad was in the army and we were stationed there. He became known as Mookie. I bought this stamp for Pat's hedgehog card swap over at the Stamp-Shack. Bright colours are not my usual style but in this case it looks perfect for the stamp.

Yahoo -- I finally did it!

Oh, is my family going to be happy with me. Everyone has been so encouraging and supportive of my creativity, and now I'm branching out to become part of the blogging world.

When I was deciding on a name for my blog, my sister's voted for their favourite name, and although I still wonder if I should have gone with my other choice, I do like Sunflowers and Dragonflies. Anyone who knows me, knows I'm a sunflower and dragonfly lover (and yes, Sarah, a Gerber Daisy lover as well - wink, wink).

Now -- to learn how to post photos of my creations. Stay tuned and Thanks for reading.