Cheers! Happy 2010 People!!!!!!

Happy,Happy New Year to my art friends everywhere! I've been busy starting a brand new art journal and making my vision board for this year! I am celebrating with good friends at home and I have a new cocktail I'm making. It's a Berry Merry Martini- Yum!So, here's a toast to all of you who love ART like I do and are sharing your dreams by honoring
your creative spirits! Thank you for stopping by my little corner of blogdom- I love sharing my

art with you and reading the comments you write! You rock!

New Angels

Even though December was a jam-packed busy month for me, I managed to get some art done thanks to my buddy Suzi Blu! I decided to take her online class for some much needed inspiration. I love angels and had fun with these pieces.

New Dreambox for Helga's challenge

I made this Dreambox today in response to Helga's blog challenge. I had to combine 3 of her previous challenges in one! O.K.- I was inspired by my loved ones,( my boys)I used pattern in the painting of the metal box, and I was inspired to make this project by looking at the very cool Dreamboxes from Helga's class at Art and Soul. I made transparencies from my boys current photos and made little birds from their newborn photos. I attached charms along the bottom edge. The word SOAR and the bird images and charms remind me of how they are flying away more every day. My greatest wish is that they will always soar into their futures.

The inside collage was difficult to photograph because of the reflective surface of the plastic transparencies.

Christmas Moments

Christmas moments to remember!The whole family will have fun with this !!!!
The cousins are all teenagers now!
My mom and her first great-grandchild, Dexter, 5 months old.
My new Lambie snuggie and slippers- so soft and warm !!!!!!!
My cousin, Tina, and my boys Jamison and Weston.
Weston and Jamison getting to know Dexter.
My lab, Samson, with a Christmas bow around his neck.
Awwww! A baby's laugh is always the best moment!

Take a look at this amazingly cool Christmas Card made by my dear friend,Terri. I loved the design and how she used all the different paper to piece together the picture. My step-daughter Sera noticed that the bird was made from phone book pages that contained Terri's last name!

The bird house perched on top of the tree is made from OUR last name in the phone book!

So, I needed to post a shout out to Terri for her attention to detail that my 40-something eyes didn't catch! I love this card! Check out my friend's blog on my blog list Tinker Art!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

I can't believe I didn't post in December until now! I have been so busy since I went back to teaching second grade on Nov. 30th. My kids learn a holiday show every year and I only have 3 weeks to teach them 9 songs and dances! They performed their Gingerbread Show today to a packed classroom of parents and grandparents. NOW I have a few days off and I need to finish up my own Christmas to do list !Here is a photo of Julie, my sister Melanie and me taken on Sunday December 21st. Julie came down from Reno to visit and we had a great art day. She and Melanie were best friends in elementary school and had a reunion. We ate lunch and worked on art stuff and gabbed it up! I will make sure to post a few more times before the new year!

I hope everyone has a chance to celebrate with loved ones and I am going to try to RELAX and enjoy this time.

We Dream in Color Project Pages...

I just finished this spread for my We Dream in Color round robin group. I made a fabric quilted heart and made fabric arms for the portrait on the right page. When her arms are stretched out you can read the words "You radiate Joy Beauty Peace Wisdom and Power."

I am all caught up with both of my round robin groups and will get the month of December to work in the next 2 books that come to me. I am back to work Monday and won't start my Christmas break until December 23rd. I am making gifts for family and friends and I will post

and let you see my progress. I am also planning some cool holiday giveaways so keep checking back!

New Works

I have had these Dreamboxes for a while and was hesitant to do anything with them in case I might mess them up beyond the point of no return. My friend, Sherrill, came over to work on art projects yesterday, so I had the perfect opportunity to dive in!The first one has a paper doll I made for an ARTchix swap and Helga used it on a sheet of tags.

I cut her out and put her inside the nicho and painted the outside with paint pens.
This one is for my friend, Mary, who just wanted something celebrating The Day of The Dead.
This is the inside of the Day of The Dead box. I really like how it turned out, we'll have to see how Mary likes it.
These pages are for a color themed round robin I'm in and Val's colors are hot pink and green.
I think these colors totally pop off the pages!

Cupcakes on my mind...

This weekend I got to hang out with my buddy, Beth, and we checked out a new cupcake shop in Long Beach. They were delicious! I am obviously becoming obsessed because here are the projects I finished this week. I designed a fabric wall-hanging with sequin and bead sprinkles.
I whipped up these cards using images from a digital collage sheet I got from Itkupilli.




I love using the pom-poms, even though they make my scans a little blurry! We shall see if this gets the cupcakes out of my system for a while. I am glad that cupcake shop is an hour away or I think I'd be in REAL trouble!

It's Our 25th Anniversary Baby!

This is my beloved, This is my friend-

I pledge to share my life openly with you, to speak the truth to you in love;

I promise to honor and tenderly care for you,

To cherish and encourage your own fulfillment as an individual

through all the changes of our lives.

Today is our 25th wedding anniversary and in my family that is a HUGE accomplishment! I wanted to share a few photos from our homespun wedding day and remember the vows that we chose on that day. When I looked through my wedding album, I found the original cards we all read from, and my sister Melanie's have blurry places because she could not make it through any of her readings without crying. It was a beautiful day and we have made it through many changes. I feel blessed every day to have my beloved friend by my side through this journey.

Happy Anniversary Dave!

A Blog Award!

I am so excited to get this blog award from Elizabeth because she has such an amazing blog herself! I want to pass it on to some inspiring blogs you should check out!

Here's one for Kitty called The Artful Paper Doll

My friend Mija who has just started blogging and is an incredible artist and person

Pilar who creates wonderful art and shares books and music galore,

Eileen from New York showcases fabulous techniques and projects

Picking Names Out Of A Hat...

The trick or treaters have trickled out and I am shaking the names up in my witch's hat.

My hubby is mixing them up and drawing names so I can send out my spooky art to the winners. I had him draw 5 names- one for each of the pieces I posted.

And the winners are:

Happy Haunting goes to Sue Young

Happy Halloween skeleton wall hanging goes to Martha Brown

SoulMates goes to Peggy Daily Gatto

Jesters ATC goes to Peggy Louise

Beware of Me ATC goes to Julie at Juls4real

Congrats to each of you and a big thank you to everyone who commented!!!!!

I will e-mail you all for your addresses so I can get these mailed off to their new homes.

I took the Diva Challenge!

My friend Kimberly Moore had a challenge on her blog to give her line portrait a DIVA makeover! Here's what I came up with. This challenge is open until October 3oth-

you should give it a whirl!

Spooktacular Blog Giveaway!!!!!!

OOoooohhhhhh.... this is my 129th blog post and I vaguely remember I promised a giveaway on my 100th post. Oops! Sorry about that, but better late than never I always say! I have some vintage Halloween pieces to giveaway... if I get 31 comments by October 31st. I will choose 3 winners at random from all the comments I get on this post on Halloween night ! If you mention your favorite in your post I'll try to give you that choice if you win! They vary in size so I will list title and size under each scan.
Happy Haunting - 8 1/2" x 9 1/4 "
Happy Halloween wall hanging 5 1/2" x 14"

Soulmates 10" x 12"
Jesters ATC
Beware of me ATC