Saturday, May 23, 2015

Art Insanity

And now for part two! After my niece's birthday there was Mothers Day. As usual I like to make something for my mom with any gift I give her. This year I made her a little notebook and pen to go along with her gift. Truman and I got to enjoy a lovely lunch with her at one of her favorite restaurants. It was a perfect day for it too!
Since the retreat I had only partially unpacked and done more shopping to add to the mess! Seriously those pocket letters are addictive. I've collected some items for future PL's for my sister and decided to sign up for a 4 month PL swap along with the secret sister swap. Yeah I get in over my head a lot. Anyway I've actually managed to be very productive and make all the items and do all the shopping for the secret sister and the first PL swap. I also managed to make one of my best friends a birthday PL, which she has no idea of the wonders of yet. This burst of activity turned out to be a good thing because I have been sick for the past week and haven't had it in me to do too much. Soon I will be back behind schedule I'm sure :-)
And in case you're wondering I have been doing the occasional art journal page. I have a journal that is small and more personal that I have done some work in. I haven't gotten around to making too many larger pages but I hope to get back to that soon. But first I need to organize the mess that is this studio! Have a lovely Memorial Day!

Part of Mother's Day gift


Mama and I at Blue Willow

Most of the handmade items for the SS swap (it was themed First Aid kit)

Scrabble charm I made for first PL swap

The plaque I made for the SS swap with her favorite quote

Secret sister package is ready to ship

Front of first PL for swap

Some of the goodies I included

The tag I made for my friends birthday

The front of her surprise PL

Goodies

Wrapped and ready to go

One of my small art journal spreads

The picture is actually a door to hide journaling


The page I just did playing with transfers and stamps

Post Retreat Bliss

Okay so I didn't realize how long ago it was that I had posted so this will be the first of two posts, basically because it's embarrassing how many pictures I have! The retreat was an absolute blast! I wasn't super excited about where I was sitting but I had my friends around me so that's all I needed. I won a small prize and finished 6 pages. Not as high as I've done in the past but way better than last time! As always I was super sad that the weekend had to end but I already have something to look forward too, by the weekends end my sister and I had both purchased tickets to the October retreat! Happy birthday to me! We also got her best friend and my cousin to get their tickets so next October will be AMAZING! I'm already counting down the days!
Right before the retreat my sister had sent me a pocket letter which was a completely new idea to me. I instantly became obsessed and now have made a number of them! I'm having way too much fun with these little works of art! I also got back from the retreat and decided I just had to do the new Secret Sister swap and the Twinchies swap. I'll be waiting until the actual swap to show pictures of the Twinchies I made because it will be way more fun to show you them all at once.
Not long after the retreat my beautiful niece celebrated her first birthday! As usual I went over to my cousins the night before to help decorate and make the food. The theme was Alice In Wonderland and it was so much fun! She really was the sweetest birthday girl ever! Here's the first batch of pictures and I'll be back with a ton more!

Retreat goodies

First page done!

Next!

These pearls are good luck as I move on to pages 3 and 4!

Done!

Last page :-(

Close up

The birthday girl helping with her decorations

On the ladder per tradition

Birthday Bug!

The PL I made for my sister

The goodies

Uncle Truman with the twins the weekend they stayed over