One domino magazine, my Tim Holtz Tonic scissors, a Scotch Permanent GlueStick, and 30 minutes...love the blue shuttered door and the olive couch...blue, brown, orange, olive
Grape hyacinths and pansies in luscious purples, a rainbow, and a white ceramic bird...Can you tell that I'm thinking SPRING?!!! The other image on this page is an idea for an Easter card using egg stamps as ornaments--I think the stamps are from Impression Obsession or Outlines--but I'm going to adapt the idea using the two new egg stamps from Memory Box. I think I will stamp each of the images twice, emboss and watercolor or chalk them, and cut them out to pop dot onto a Blossom notecard with a Cool Beans stripey paper edge. I will add some narrow satin ribbons to "hang" them and organza bows in a variety of solid and dotted pinks, greens, or purples. I might also stamp and emboss them on papers from the Gossamer 6X6 pack for a different look. We've got Easter cards to make in class on Monday and my head is swimming with ideas. Looks like this evening will be the workshop time to pull samples together and make up the class packets.
Today is our big WE'RE GOING GREEN event at Your Maine Stamper, so I'm headed into the shop early to set up. This should be a fun day. I'm making cards with anyone who wants to--a St. Patrick's Day shamrock card and an Easter card using the Memory Box Egg Tree stamp. I stamped the tree yesterday and used colored pencil on the eggs and it was okay, but then I added a little dot of Glossy Accents on top of each egg--WOW--the colored popped and they eggs became more 3D egg-like . People are going to LOVE this.
I LOVE working in my March journal. Today's page is about collections, my collections. Mason Jars in shades of blue, including one of my grandmother's jars. Shaving brushes and moustache cups, including one of my grandfather's. Toys from my childhood. Whisk brooms and dustpans; other assorted brushes. Aprons, white ones that I use for curtains in my studio and bright ones for the kitchen. Tins and tins and more tins of buttons. Baby shoes, christening gowns, little jackets. Fabric pieces from my sister's quilting stash. Vintage rhinestone jewelry, both mine and Gail's. Barn signs. All of these images came from a FLEA MARKET STYLE magazine. It is always surprising to me how my pages come together when I just start pulling pictures from magazines and gluing them down. Every picture somehow tells more of my own story.
I love the patina that older objects acquire, that bit of tarnish or rust, the worn finish from use. Silverware, an old clock in a chipped paint case, a scale, a lantern, a fan, a silver tray with white candles and a single blue hydrangea blossom...the ball of twine in the milk glass dish, its roundness echoing the clock and scale dials, the pendulum. I added the directions for making linen name tags so I wouldn't lose them, a neat idea for a special occasion. The other idea on this page that I'm going to use is to put old papers in a clock case behind the pendulum. I bought a gingerbread mantel clock case at an auction recently and a box of clock parts at another auction. I think I can make an interesting "sculpture" using old paper and the clock parts inside and outside the clock case.
Mellow Yellow--the perfect page for what looks like a sunny day! Yellow is my mom's favorite color. All of her favorite things are some shade of yellow--her car, the house, the upholstery in the livingroom, most of the wall colors and draperies, bed linens and towels, etc. I love all the shades of yellow in this collection. Pears, lemon slices, lemon-iced and rind-topped cupcakes that look good enough to eat...the Popsicle advertising piece...calla lilies...a yellow vintagey kitchen...all those buckets of paint. I especially love the LIFE JACKETS sign--I think Dad should make up one of these to put down by the pumphouse where we dock the canoes. Dad is a sign-maker; there are signs all over the place: marking the trails in the woods; labeling buildings; naming the roads; signage for crossings of deer, ducks, chipmunks, squirrels; parking signs for the John Deere; name signs left from wildlife rehabilitation days cover doors on the barn, the fawn names are in my kitchen (the former fawn pen). I think you get the idea. One of my favorites is on the old maple tree: BEWARE FALLING LIMBS. When it's really icy, out comes the AND HOW THE BONES DO BREAK sign. Hopefully those days are past us!!!
I've started a new journal for March. It's 5 1/2 by 7 1/2. It has a pretty springy two-tone green cover that I will decorate at some point. This book is more of an inspiration journal--a place to collect images, colors, ideas, things that might spark my own creativity. This page is an homage to potting sheds, or the "puttering shed". I have a fondness for sheds of all types. I envision a studio that looks more like a shed than a regular building. I've saved at least two copies of this article from Better Homes & Gardens. I also love the fabric-covered mailboxes, most of which are now covered up by other images. Reminds me to think about using fabric in unexpected ways. There's a glass of colored pencils in spring blues and greens, the great bird on the green telephone (like one I used to have in my bedroom growing up only mine was harvest gold), and another bird pendant as inspiration for my own jewelry using glass slides. So far, so good!
