January 2nd! Snow Day Play...

Today's central image is The Fool from the Tarot of the Witches deck. I love The Fool, no matter what deck its in. I think it's that whole idea of stepping off into space, smiling, not a care in the world, oblivious to what lies ahead. I guess the New Year is like that--here I go with no idea what the year will bring, and not terribly worried about it.

Happy New Year!

the first page in my journal for 2010

I'm working in a spiral bound notebook that is 12X12 and the pages are black.
My goal is to work in my journal as frequently as possible and to post the images of my pages.
The work in this journal will primarily be collage though there may be some stamped images added to the pages.
Here I began with a page taken from a Mary Englebreit magazine and added a variety of torn, cut, and punched papers. The numbers are from an Advent Calendar scrapbook paper. The Jan. 1 image in the tiny circle is stamped.

I love the bright green striped paper. And the texture of the leaf-printed paper and its bright colors coordinate nicely with the Engelbreit piece, too.

I'm Back!!!

It has been forever since I posted anything to this blog. I've decided that since I'm blogging for Memory Box Company on the Outside the Box blog and for the Your Maine Stamper blog that I really needed to get some posts up on my personal blog.
Below is the post from OutsIde the Box that went up on the 29th:

Greetings from Anne, Your Maine Stamper

I am so excited to be on the Memory Box Design team, and I'm just a little bit nervous writing my first post to our new blog. When the first box from Dave arrived, I couldn't wait to get inside to examine the stamps, papers, cards, envelopes, and jewels. But the real fun for me began outside the box as I inked up stamps, punched papers, selected embellishments, and created my first project. I teach regularly at Your Maine Stamper in Winthrop, Maine; and I have classes planned for every Monday afternoon in January. This bag and tag book is one of the projects we will complete during the Gifts From the Heart class on January 11th.



For this book I punched jumbo scalloped squares (Marvy punch) and small hearts (Martha Stewart punch) from four of the Gossamer 6X6 Collection papers, smaller scalloped circles (Marvy punch) from Petal cardstock, and layered them up with white pearls onto the dozen mini white bags (Michaels Celebrate It paper sacks). I made the covers from a cereal box, tracing the outline of the paper bag, covering the outsides with the packaging sample page from the Gossamer 6X6 Collection and the insides with Petal cardstock. I punched two holes in the closed ends of each bag and the covers and bound them with two small book rings. I added hot pink, pale pink, and lavender dot ribbons and a purple swirl ribbon (May Arts; Michaels) to the rings. I stamped the cover "valentine greetings" and the hearts from the Tree of Love in Memories Ruby. For the tags I used these stamps: Tree of Love, Sonoma Print, Owl Always, Nesting Birds, and Batik Birds from Valentine's Studio. I also used these other Memory Box stamps: valentine greetings, car and heart,leaping squirrel, nuts about you, and the big heart . I stamped the images and inked the edges of the tags with Memories ArtPrint Brown, Adirondack Shell Pink, and Ancient Page Foxglove inks. I added ribbons to each tag before tucking them into the bags. There's room on the back of each tag for a valentine message and enough space in each bag to tuck in a love note, a coupon or gift card, candy, or other small treat.

Happy stamping!
Anne

Another Crafting Weekend

I had a very busy crafting weekend.

On Saturday afternoon I worked at the Maine Art Glass Studio in Lisbon Falls with Jim Nutting to create a unique piece for a window that incorporates shells, stones, and glass pebbles. There were two others in the workshop and a lot of samples to look at for design ideas. Everything was very symmetrical and solid and I tend to not work that way. I began by selecting the things that appealed to me--a yellow striped scallop shell, a big brown stone, glass pebbles in golds and oranges and browns. I was only when I began soldering things together that the design developed. It ended up with lots of holes and one heart-shaped shell that I couldn't figure out how to put into the piece that I decided to tie on with ribbon. Now I can't wait to make a bunch of these for friends!

I also worked up the designs for the Flowers and Flourishes class I'll be teaching next month at Your Maine Stamper. I've included photos of the card fronts.

It's a New Year

It has been ages since I posted anything to my blog. With the start of the new year I seem to be more inspired and have been creating like a mad woman. I'm planning to teach a number of classes during the next two months at Your Maine Stamper in Winthrop. I'll post today the images of some things I created since August as well as the samples I made for the "Just Your Cup of Tea" February class. I've also been working on a calendar for 2009 and I'll include photos of those pages--I'm making my calendar in a book form and using lots of stickers and "stuff" on each month's page. Look for future posts about the tiny houses I've begun making again.

Honey, I Took the Fishing Boat

Joanne Hulsey read this at Gail's memorial service.

Honey, I Took the Fishing Boat

I took the boat out fishing,
And I didn't tell you that I went;

Then before I knew it,
All my fishing time was spent.

Some angels pulled me over and said that I must dock.
I wasn't even startled, so I must have been in shock.

They wouldn't let me make a phone call,
Just said they'd let you know.

Then they said, "Lay down the fishing poles."
And to heaven we did go.

They dressed me in a flowing robe.
I guess I'm in the choir.
I sing decent alto, but I can't go much higher.

Well. it looks like I'm here to stay, so you must follow aft.
Don't worry that I took the boat.

I did leave you the raft.

--Rosie McFadden

Please Let Me Dance

Joanne Hulsey read this at the memorial service.

Please Let Me Dance

Look at you there watching me;
Let me be asked if I might take this dance.
Please ask me to dance.

I've stolen this time to be here, you know,
I meant to be working and, yes, I'm wearing a dress.
Please let me dance.

You know that you want to,
You are just too shy to ask me.
Please let me dance.

You did not ask me so I asked you,
Can I take this dance?

We have danced.
Still I had to ask.

Yet, the last dance you came to me and asked
Will you dance with me?

--Kelly Berry