My last two sets of skinny pages....

These are my last two sets of skinny book pages. I have to admit I was sad to see this one end. Although I really stressed about these mermaid and Halloween pages, I am pretty happy with the end result. And even though my "Shades of White" book isn't actually bound yet, the pages I received from this group of talented ladies is absolutely fabulous. Twelve of us from this group are now doing a 4x4 page swap. We will be doing a page a month again, so it will take a year to complete the book.

More art stuff.....

These are three little "housecicles" for another PaperWhimsy swap. Will also have to post a photo of the three I received in this swap.....they are so cute!!

These are six more pendant/tags for the ATT birthday club. There were a bunch of June birthdays and now only a few more for the year.

This was a spring canvas swap on the Art Friends Facebook group that my friend Jan hosted.

This is a canvas I made in a class that my friends Nancy, Jane, Ginny and I took at Stampeddler in Northville, MI. This was a new technique for me...the background is made from painted and torn sticky-backed canvas. The collage is actually made on the back of a canvas and little windows are cut from a piece of styrofoam fitted in the back side of the canvas.

Some recent art swaps....

In no particular order, here are some things I have made for recent swps. The first is a friendship themed postcard swap on the PaperWhimsy forum. I think I managed to use all Paperwhimsy images, background papers and embellishments.

This is a group of playing card ATC's. I think I will make some more of these....fun!!

This is my page for a 6x6 Stampers Anonymous book. The finished product is aweseome...will have to post some photos one of these days.

These are a couple of birthday tags for the AllThingsTim birthday club. I have made several more versions of this tag with pendant for the other birthdays this year. The birdcage magnet was for one of the guys in the group...didn't think the guys would want a pendant!!

This wooden box and tag were a birthday gift for the list mom on ATT.

These are charms for recent charm swaps. One is fabric, the three charms with flowers were for a spring theme swap and the last charm is for a metal and glass theme.

My new ride(s)....

I finally broke down and bought a new comfy bike....too old for that racing bike that's been hanging in the garage for many years. Unfortunately we had a VERY wet spring and went right into VERY hot summer weather, so I haven't had much chance to ride....even though I really NEED to! Now my new car is a different story. I traded in my old reliable Highlander for a little sportier Camry that gets much better mileage....pretty cute, huh? I have to admit though that I miss the SUV :(

A few more family photos....

This look could have been the result of a discussion of a nap....or maybe the result of being told no more peanut butter cups...or maybe ice cream!!! But she's SO cute it's hard to say no!!

These photo collages have been done on iPhone apps....part of my latest photography obsession!

More family photos.....

A few more family photos.....the grandkids are all busy playing sports (well all except the two babies and the big 18 year old who is busy working)! We babysit a day or two a week, so we see the two little ones enough to get some great pictures!!

Little Becca Rose LOVES going to the park and swimming! I have tons of iPhone photos of both!

Matt loves his baseball....shown here pitching.

Sweet little Morgan....she loves to be held...such a little sweetie!

This was just before our first trip to Build-A-Bear with Rosie....she's hooked!

Good grief.....

I have SO neglected my poor blog. I must confess to being addicted to a photo app on my iPhone called InstaGram and spend way too much time taking and editing pictures. Enough of that for right now, will post some of my creations on another post. Meanwhile, here is the newest addition to our family....little Morgan Elizabeth.....born 3/12/11. She is such a little sweetie!!

I think it's finally SPRING!

The weather has still been a little unpredictable here, but I think we've seen the end of winter (I hope!) By the middle of the week we should be in the high 50's and maybe even 60 a few days!! WooHoo!!! Made a trip up to Archiver's with my girlfriends today to check out the new Tim Holtz stuff.....awesome stuff, but too much to buy in one day. I would have "broke the bank"!! So here are a few things I've been up to lately. The first two are my latest skinny pages for Rande Hansen's grungy themed book. I had so much fun making these.....got out the papers and paints and just went to town!

The little girl on the blue page is one Rande sent me awhile back, so thought it would be fun to use it in her book.....isn't she cute?

This is a tag I made for the March ATT monthly mailer. The tag was painted black then I clear embossed the floral stamps, painted over it with green paint and rubbed the green off the embossed areas. The birdcage is from Tim's die, painted silver and the bird is grungeboard covered with printed tissue tape colored with alcohol ink.

This tag was for the March birthday on ATT. Love the new metallic, pearly sprays from Ranger.

These charms were for a swap on ATT too. Had to make 30 of these babies and the ones I got back were great!! I love swaps!!

These charms were for a steampunk swap on the ArtCharms group. Had to make 30 of these too and I just loved the ones I got for this swap too. One of these days I need to actually MAKE something with the hundreds of charms I've collected from these swaps over the years.

This is a box I made for the February monthly mailer. The theme for the month was using Tim's fragments. I painted the box black, colored the fragments with alcohol ink then attached them to Tim's images stamped on glossy paper. I used tissue tape around the sides of the lid and filled the box with lots of little goodies!

These last three tags were for the ATT February birthdays. The blue tags have a detachable pendant and the orange tag has a magnet attached.

It's a cold, cold February....

We have had quite a winter this year. I will be ever so happy to see spring arrive. The only good part of all this is that I no longer have to drive to work in the snow. In fact I've been pretty much hibernating these last few weeks.

This is a valentine I made for my PaperWhimsy friend Gale Blair for an exchange on our Facebook Art Friends group. No pressure here....I get to send to Miss PaperWhimsy herself!! I love this pink ruched fabric. I have it is a pale green too, but seem to always use the pink.

I finally received a package from my friend Sally in France that was mailed on November 30th.....and look at the condition it was in when it arrived. It was practically shredded and in a USPS envelope with a note of apology stating "We Care"!!!! Fortunately, Sally had packaged everything so well that everything inside survived the trip despite the post office. Even the lovely crystal on her card was unbroken.

This has been the view from our front porch. In fact this was about three inches ago. We are running out of places to put the snow. I figure if we get more snow before some of this melts, we won't be able to get to the mailbox. (Especially after the efforts of our wonderful snowplow driver!) Ah well, hopefully spring is not too far away. Meanwhile, I will be keeping warm by the fire!