Saturday, December 25, 2010

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas ...

Well, I made it... but just barely! haha!

For the twelfth day of Christmas, the artist was Sue Foster. And this is SO awesome!

How fantastic is this? It's so cute, and it looks great on my tree! Thank you so much Sue! I just love this little mitten!

Well, that's it for this year's 12 Days of Christmas swap. I had fun with it! What I enjoyed most was making my altered light bulb ornaments. It was so awesome though, the anticipation for each day's gift.

Thank you to Sue Foster and to all the other artists who participated in this swap. I had fun, and I hope that you enjoy the ornament that I made as much as I've enjoyed the gifts you've sent to me.

Happy holiday to everyone!

~Anne

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas ...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Well, I didn't do the second post yesterday like I had planned - yesterday was NUTS! I spent the morning doing the last minute shopping I needed to do for today. The afternoon was spent wrapping gifts, cleaning house and other last minute preparations for today.
So, I just didn't have the energy or the time to update my blog like I would have liked.

But what I do like, is the 11th day of Christmas artwork that I received from Shelly Rae Wood! It's beautiful! Check it out!


This is actually a brooch (or pin) because it has a pin back on it, but, I plan on making a simple little wreath - nothing fancy - but something that can nicely showcase this work because I want it to be on show next year! I love it! It's a little heavy to put on the tree, but I'm thinking either a wreath or perhaps as the centerpiece for a garland. Either would be really nice.

Thank you Shelly Rae! I like this a whole lot!

~Anne

PS: Since I don't have to worry about holiday dinner tonight (we will have our holiday dinner tomorrow night since hubby had to work today), I will (or at least I should) have the time to post the 12th day of Christmas post. Let's hope that I will do just that!

Friday, December 24, 2010

On the Tenth Day of Christmas ...

Happy Christmas Eve! Merry Christmas Eve? OK... how does one say "Hope your Christmas Eve is Jolly?" I guess... just like that?

Anyways... the 10th Day of Christmas Artist is: Regina Zyry!

And Regina made an incredible paper ornament, check it out -


Isn't it cool? I love it. It is now adorning my tree. And also impressive about this gift was the packaging. It was wrapped in a burgundy paper bag, banded and closed with a big, beautiful brad. Very creative! (I'm keeping the brad for some future project!)

Regina, I love this ornament! Thank you so much!

~Anne

PS: I will be posting the 11th day later today (I hope!) so that I can post the 12th day on Christmas day!

Thursday, December 23, 2010

On the Ninth Day of Christmas...

Yay! Time to get caught up just a little!

For the ninth day of Christmas, the artist was Laurie Richardson!
Laurie made the packaging as much a gift as what was inside. Check out this tiny but very cool paint can in which the gift was packaged ...


Not the greatest of photos to be sure, but, I just love this little paint can! So cute, and the gift fit perfectly inside, and with the added cushion of crinkle paper, it was a perfect vessel for this beautiful ornament...

Again, the photo just doesn't do it justice. It shimmers so beautifully, and the photo also fails to capture the lovely marbling that Laurie was able to achieve with this piece. I was very proud to hang it on the tree!

Thank you, Laurie!

Hopefully tomorrow, I will be able to post about the 10th and 11th days of Christmas, so that then on Christmas day all that will be left is day 12.

Also, for those of you who do not know, I have another 12 days of Christmas activity in which I am involved - 12 TEAS of Christmas from 52Teas. You can check that out here!

~Anne

On The Eighth Day of Christmas...

Well, I had good intentions, but I failed to write up another blog post last night to get myself caught up... perhaps I can do so tonight!

Anyways... the artist for the Eighth Day of Christmas is Kari McKnight-Holbrook. And what a lovely gift she made!


This is a tiny art piece that was created on a 2x2 inch canvas. The snowman is crafted out of polymer clay and gives a delightful dimension to the artwork. I just so happened to have one of those little miniature easels so I immediately propped this onto the easel and am now displaying it proudly on my DVD shelf in the living room. What a lovely addition to my holiday decorations!

I just love this!

~Anne

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

On the Seventh Day of Christmas...

The artist for Day 7 was Julie Wicks!

The gift of art for Day 7 was somewhat delayed, but I received it last night - packaged in a very cool cylinder container that had been festively wrapped. Tucked inside was this neat little shadow box from Julie which now sits on the bookshelf (DVD shelf) in the living room. It is really a neat and unique piece of art that I will treasure for years to come!

Isn't it neat?

I know that I'm a little behind on these, but I didn't want to post the days out of order. So, I will probably post the Eighth day later this evening in an effort to get a little caught up!

Thanks again Julie! I really love this!

~Anne

Sunday, December 19, 2010

On The Sixth Day of Christmas...

Greetings!

I know I'm a couple of days late with this one! Things have been crazy for me these last couple of days and they flew by before I knew it!

On Friday, I got to open a beautifully wrapped present from Jean Bennett! I wish I would have thought to take a picture of the wrapped gift before I tore into it!

Anyways... inside, I found these little hand-poured glycerin soaps ...


Aren't they cute? They sparkle really nicely too. All that is needed is something to put them in... like this:


I love this basket (although I'm afraid the photo just doesn't do it justice - or perhaps, I should say my limited photography skills don't do it justice!) - It's so festive and I love that it's reversible. But what I love most is that it really adds a beautiful holiday touch to my bathroom.

Thank you Jean! This is a gorgeous gift! I really love it!

~Anne

Thursday, December 16, 2010

On The Fifth Day of Christmas...

Greetings!

Today, I was able to open a beautifully wrapped gift from Gloria Ketter!

Up until now, each little gift has been an ornament. I love ornaments, however, it is nice to get something a little different today! Check it out!

Isn't it cool? It's a pendant hanging from a ball chain. I suppose I could turn it into an ornament if I wanted by looping a ribbon on to the pendant, but, I think it's quite nice as it is! Really unique and beautiful!

Thank you Gloria! I really love this pendant! What a fun and very cool gift!

~Anne

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

On The Fourth Day of Christmas...

Good Morning everyone! I know that it is just about afternoon for some of you out there, but, it is still morning for me, and by my internal clock, it's quite early!

Anyway... for today's 12 Days of Christmas swap gift, I received a present from a "Secret Santa." I don't know who the artist is of this lovely little trinket, but, I love it oh so much! Thank you, Secret Santa!

I love the wire wrapping at the top of the hanging wire, it may sound a little silly to love something like that, but, I just love little details like that. You may not be able to tell from the photo (I've never claimed to be a great photographer), but this is a re-purposed bottle cap! It is so pretty - the photo just doesn't do it justice.

The other side is embellished with perfectly sized mirror and a glittered snowflake. I couldn't capture that side very well at all, so you will just have to use your imagination.

Another lovely addition to my tree!

Thanks again, Secret Santa!
~Anne

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

On The Third Day of Christmas...

I am just loving this 12 days art swap!

The artist of the day today is: Claudia Holcombe!

I eagerly opened the envelope to find a beautiful handmade card...


With a beautiful ornament inside that matches the card!



The ornament now adorns my tree. Thank you, again, Claudia. It's really lovely! I didn't take a photo of the other side, but it is double sided - the other side has a pretty snowflake on it! This gift certainly did bring me a lot of JOY!


~Anne

Monday, December 13, 2010

On The Second Day of Christmas...

Greetings!

Well, today is the second day of gifts in the 12 Days of Christmas gift swap, and today's artist is: Carol Westphal!
I was so excited to finally open a package for this swap! They had been calling to me for weeks now, and since I was the artist of day 1, I didn't wrap a gift for myself. I guess I could have, but, I figured with all the work that I put into those ornaments, that I didn't need to make any unnecessary work for myself.

Anyways... on to the gift of day 2!

On the second day of Christmas, Carol Westphal sent to me.......

This adorable little ornament!

It went straight onto my tree. I really like this! My christmas tree is filled with handmade ornaments - mostly altered art and ATCs and stuff... and this will make a charming addition to my collection!

Thank you Carol Westphal! I love it!

~Anne

Sunday, December 12, 2010

On The First Day of Christmas...

Holiday Greetings, everyone!

This year, I participated in a 12 Days of Christmas art swap. Basically, we each make 12 pieces of art, send them out to the 11 recipients (with me being the 12th), and then the mailman delivers 11 different pieces of art from 11 other participants in the swap.

My artwork was for day 1. I've already posted about it in my previous post... but here's that photo again... just in case you weren't tired of looking at it already!



This is an altered burned-out lightbulb. I had been saving and accumulating burned out light bulbs for years now, because I just couldn't bring myself to throw them away. It just seemed like such a waste, taking up space in the land fill... and I just knew there was something that I could do with them... I just hadn't taken the time to figure out what to do with them until now.

I start by wiring the top of the light bulb (the metal part) with a loop and wrapping the wire around the metal part to secure it. To further secure the wire to the bulb and to disguise the metal part to keep it from looking too much like a light bulb, I used apoxy clay (my new favorite art stuff).

After allowing the clay to air harden and cure for a couple of days (it doesn't really take that long, but, I allowed it extra time because I didn't want to make the mistake of working on it before it was ready... I figure a little more time to cure is always better than not enough), I cleaned the bulb thoroughly with rubbing alcohol and then began to decoupage mulberry paper, sheet music and newspaper onto the light bulb. You can use any paper you like, I happen to like the texture of the mulberry paper. It is important that the paper be thin enough to be able to manipulate it around the curves of the light bulb without having too many air pockets and folds in the paper.

I allowed each layer to dry, and then my final layer of decoupage was a napkin... for this, I cut out a paisley design napkin and decoupaged it onto the light bulb.

Once the bulb was good and dry (I allowed it to dry a full 48 hours), then I started painting with various paints and I used mica powders to give it a good shimmer. By the time I was finished painting, it was difficult to tell that I had decoupaged the design onto the light bulb, because I had painted over the design. I did this for a couple of reasons: 1) I didn't want it to look like a napkin had been decoupaged onto a light bulb; and 2) I wanted to add some shimmer and sparkle to the paisley design.

Once the paint was completely dry, I added the tinsel thread and the rhinestones and ribbon.

It was a lot of work, but I had so much fun making these!

~Anne

Monday, November 29, 2010

Yeah, yeah, I know... you've heard this before!

But it has been quite a while since my last post!
I've been busy with closing up the tea business. I am nearly finished with that, and the up side to this transition is that I now have more time to focus on my art. I was spending so much time working on the business end of the business, and that took away from time for my art (not to mention time with my family!)
I joined a 12 Days of Christmas swap, and here is what I made (Hey, if you're in the AAWA group, don't peek!)
I don't feel like the photos really do these justice because the camera doesn't pick up the glimmer of these (not to mention the fact that I'm not a great photographer!) I am really happy with how well these ornaments turned out. I am day 1 - and although it wasn't intentional, these turned out looking a bit like a pear... which works for my particular day.

Here's another photo... again, the photo suffers from being taken by a terrible photographer, but, it does show a slightly different view of the ornament...

Not that different... but, like I said, I am not the best photographer, and these really aren't that easy to take a picture of anyway. They're very sparkly and will look nice on a tree though!

That's all for now... I will hopefully update when I finish with my holiday cards, which I better finish soon because they need to be mailed!

Oh! And I almost forgot! Be sure to check out my newest endeavor!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Eight Postcards

Greetings!

Well, over the last couple of days, I've not only been working on Tanya's Pink Journal, but also a set of eight postcards with a birds theme. These still need to dry (which is why I photographed them rather than scanned them), and I think I'm going to give them at least 48 hours to do so, since there are several layers on them. But here they are... and I don't think they'll look too much different after the curing time...

This first one - the photo ended up coming out a little blurry. Hey... I've never claimed to be a photographer!








Overall, I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out. I still need to add a backing to them - I'm going to use a nice handmade paper and stamp the "postcard" marking on it.

These were a lot of fun! I look forward to seeing everyone's work in the finished booklet!

~Anne

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Yep... I'm still alive!

Hey!
It's been quite a while since my last post. I've not had a lot of time to spend on art lately. For those of you who haven't heard... I am closing my tea business after eight years. It was a difficult decision but I think it's best for me and my family... and my artwork too!

Right now, though, I've been spending a lot of my time trying to sort everything out for the business... so that the transition can go as smoothly as possible. So I haven't had a lot of time for creating.
This is a wreath that I made before Christmas (LOL - I just didn't have a chance to get a photo of it before the holiday, first, we couldn't find the battery recharger for the camera, and when we did, I just didn't take the time to take the photo.) The gorgeous rag yarn that I used came from confections on etsy. This was a lot of fun to make!
I've always wanted to do a piece with rag-yarn. It reminds me of my gramma... she had this great rug that was made out of braided rag yarn so whenever I see rag-yarn, it evokes memories of that rug that I used to sit on and sew little snippets of fabric while gramma would sit at the sewing machine. Beautiful, happy memories!

And... this is the latest of journal spreads for the True Colors journal round robin that I'm in (Yes, it's still going on!) ... this is Tanya's journal spread, her color choice was pink!

These pages are really THICK... because well, the first work that I did - after I had worked it, I had rethought my idea and decided to go a different direction. Rather than just starting over, I worked over what I had started. Then... my first attempt at a spread similar to this one resulted in a very fat looking tree! So... I worked over that one too. The result is a couple of pages that are very, very thick... I'm hoping they will work out ok. I haven't yet adhered them to the journal!

I hope that Tanya likes what I came up with. The photo doesn't really do it justice. It's very sparkly because there is an ample sprinkling of pink German glass glitter over the pages.

Well... hopefully my entries to my blog will be more frequent now! We shall see!

~Anne