Signs of Spring

Mother nature seems to be waking and the first signs of Spring are evident. Loving the daffodils blooming in my garden, and the ladybirds who have been woken. The sun has been shining a lot in recent days, a great excuse to get in the car with the roof down - Loving it.

My creative muse has been woken by the glorious weather, I thought I would share this with you... a shadow box created in much the same way as the other one I created and shared in an earlier post. I really love how they turned out, happy days!

Most days I get up at 6.30 to see the family off to work, as I was up I thought I would create this today...

Just for fun, a little 5 x 5 board that I covered with paper, stamped, painted and added the Tim Holtz frame...it says "And Mother Nature answered the call for Spring, the flowers bloomed".
I shall hopefully get a chance to play with my Derwent Inktense Pencils later, haven't used them before so excited to see how they work and what sort of effect I can achieve. Soon as I have created something I will post.

Right that's me for today, have fun and take care wherever you are xxx
Dawn

A neat gadget

I have had a lovely couple of days as my youngest sister came up from Devon; she had been to visit her daughter, Stephanie in High Wycombe to sort out Wedding Invitations as Stephanie is getting married on 16th September. She then came to stay with me and the family for a couple of days. It was nice to sit and chat...lovely to see you Caroline.

As a result I obviously didn't get much art done, but hey ho, sometimes there are other things to do, like catching up lol.
Having said that I wanted to share this gadget with you

it is a Polaroid Pogo and it is a portable printer. It doesn't have ink cartridges to worry about it works by using some thermal technology. Basically you take a photo on your phone and then you can bluetooth it to this gadget and it will print it. (you can connect a camera via usb too).
Anyway I bought it before Christmas and it has sat there so I thought let me play with that!
I was amazed by the print quality, the images are 2 x 3 and I used one to do this...

This is one of my paintings printed using the Pogo. As you can see not bad quality eh? It has a peel of back so becomes a sticker. I stuck it on to an ATC block that I had decorated with a paper napkin, will finish it off, this is going to be a gift for someone visiting the UK.
IMAGINE what you could do with this, great for journals, cards, ATCs - well wherever your imagination takes you.
AND it is not expensive, I have just ordered a pink one for China to take on her travels so she can journal as she goes, got it off Amazon and the cost? £45.91 for the printer and 100 sheets of printer paper.
Hope you don't mind me sharing this gadget with you.
The sun is shining today - again, can't be England because we have had 3 days of sunshine in a row - maybe it is to ensure Di Russell-Horn who is visiting can enjoy her time here, no complaints from me!!!

Need to go an do shopping, I LOVE, sorry HATE food shopping, up and down the aisles wondering what to buy BLAH!
Hopefully it won't take long and I can get in my room... so till next time, Take care, Dawn

Let me share some ART

So here I am itching to share some art with you.
The first pictures are of Art work received from Diane Salter regulars here will know that I LOVE her work, I have these beautiful pieces to decorate one of the rooms in my villa..

aren't the wonderful, the sides are beautifully decorated too and there is so much detail in them.

Then there is these pieces from Sue Pelletier. How excited am I to be doing a class with Sue at Art is...You in October...TOTALLY EXCITED!!!!!

The canvas I will be creating with Sue is a 12 x 12 Party Dress....check out her blog. She is in Pam Carriker's new book "Art at the Speed of Life".

And finally, I have created these two items for gifts for Art is girlies.

 These first one is a papier mache box which I have covered with papers and lace, bit of ink to distress. The flowers are wooden ones painted with the Ranger enamel paints.

These small shadow box is decorated with papers again, inked and stamped and a wooden heart added to the centre.
I have my sister Caroline visiting today, the sun is shining so we shall head on out and go have some fun, till next time

Take care and have fun with whatever you are doing
Hugs, Dawn

Oops forgot to post

so playing catch up...
Had fun again with Prisma pencils,

so thought I would share with you, I think I would like to try and paint this one... we shall see.

What else have I been up to? Drinking this.... would you drink this?

Are you wondering what is in it? lol, it looks like something from a swamp, surprised I didn't find tadpoles and newts in there.
It is actually a smoothie created with spring greens, alfalfa and spinach.. I added 1/2 an apple and a cup of water. I have read a few blogs and facebook posts recently where these have been concocted and the person drinking has lost weight. I only want to loose about 10lbs so I think I can detox and see where this takes me... will try fruity ones too.

And now I just have to share with you a gift from my friend Lorraine, she presented me with this today
- an handmade box, created from scratch and beautifully decorated...

how special is that... absolutely stunning. Is it a box if it doesn't hold anything, probably,definitely, want to see what is inside?

This ceramic heart moved me to tears, I LOVE my friend Lorraine, she is a really special lady, and to get anything from her is a joy as she creates such exquisite art  - THANK YOU SO MUCH for this Lorraine - I will treasure it xxx

Comic Relief on this evening, shed too many tears already, Stuart can't cope so I have hit the record button and we are watching some other programme.
Crazy week with the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear problems in Japan, I keep thinking about the people who were swept away, who have not been found and just can't get my head around it - Life can be taken so quickly and unexpectedly, we need to cherish each moment and events such as in New Zealand and Japan should remind us of that...I am going to be quiet now.

Will post tomorrow - some things to show you xx

Take care and Live your life to the fullest

Dawn

Sunday Night, Monday morning

Monday's are my day for catching up after the weekend... the usual exciting, stimulating chores day lol...
Today I did do the usual, hoovering, dusting, washing machine on, but then I thought hold on lets do something different for a change...well different to the usual Monday routine.
So I had a little play with Prisma pencils and Zest It Blending Sponge, I don't know where she came from but this is who I created...

it was fun experimenting and she strikes me as a girl who is sassy but actually, she wants someone to love.
Shall I tell you about where I went last night with my friend Nataline... I went here

We went to see Colin Fry, the medium. It was a good night out, he is actually a funny guy, but serious when he has to be. Nobody came through to speak to me, but my friend presumed that someone had when Colin mentioned a couple of names that I could have been connected to - next thing I know, there I was with a mic in hand and my face up on the BIG SCREEN...TOTALLY EMBARRASSING, needless to say it wasn't anyone coming through for me.
Here she is my wonderful friend (well nearly not so wonderful last night) one of my truly BEST FRIENDS

Nataline would have liked her dad to come through I think, but even though we had no connections we did have a laugh as I said before.
Oh and before I get I should really share this with you, China's friend Danielle came around the other evening and admired a necklace I made for China, so I made this for her...

picture not crisp, but she really liked it, so that made me happy.

I am going to watch the news, find it totally distressing watching the coverage from Japan - I don't know how you recover from the Earthquake and Tsunami disasters, and on top of that a Level 5 Nuclear threat. If you haven't donated, and it doesn't have to be monetary, you could donate something that can be sold, then please consider doing so - no matter what sort of a day you are having, it can't come close to what the Japanese nation are experiencing.

Till next time

Take care, Dawn

Dolls and Gifts

Isn't it lovely when you get things through the post that you are so NOT expecting... The postman arrived with a package for me, I was wondering what can it be... I opened it and found this inside -

now this is a beautiful Wall hanging from my friend Barbara, she thought it was my Wedding Anniversary on the 8/3 when it is in fact on the 3/8 - that's what happens when you have different dating sytems, US v UK lol. I am so not complaining, hey why would I when I received this early THANKS BARBARA.
Just have to point out the label on the bottom left, it says "Golden Dawn" and was the brand name for the blanket that made up the backing for this piece - how cool is that!

Now I need to share with you a couple of WONDERFUL dolls, created by Patricia of Papillon Bleu; she is a very talented French lady and she lives about 1/2 hour from me her in Kent. I found her due to OWOH.
You may recall that she had a doll called Elegante who I purchased for China, my daughter... well then I asked her to create a doll for a special little girl called Rhosie, she is having her 1st Holy Communion in June and as I have been asked to be her Godmother I have been putting together some little gifts for her.
Patricia made this delightful little girl as a keepsake for the day...

(I will have to take another picture as I didn't realise her little crucifix is not hanging down the front, but the back)
She is perfect, and I am sure Rhosie is going to love her too.
My friend Lorraine needed cheering up so I saw this on Patricia's Etsy and thought that she would be looked after by Lorraine.

This is Mikiko, would you just look at her, she has little clay shoes on, and a clay face, exquisitely painted. She actually turned up on the day of the Japanese earthquake, very symbolic.
Lorraine LIKES ADORES her.. she was so happy. The two dolls arrived in this package

and because I knew what was in the packaging I took the box round to Lorraine's and let her unwrap Mikiko herself, we were enthralled by the little ballons, Patricia told me they had a party to celebrate going to a new home. So if you like dolls and storytelling it would be a good idea to visit Patricias blog and share in the stories of her dolls.

Jazz came home on Friday with these beautiful flowers for his mum - he does this randomly and I always love when he does... THANKS JAZZ

I don't want you all falling asleep now so I shall get outta here, take care till next time - HAVE FUN!!

Dawn

Altering Objects

I have been enjoying the sunshine over the last couple of days, fair enough it is cold but I am a sunshine girl and seeing it gives me such a lift.
I get my happy head on and when I have a happy head I create.
I have to say that Julie and Richard liked, No LOVED the book I made for their guests to sign, phew what a relief. Just got to add the finishing touch, on the inside cover I found a music sheet on e bay titled "Here is the Bride" so thought that would finish it off nicely.

So the sun was shining and I created, wondering what I created ... take a peek.

Altered this bottle and added a grunge paper rose to the neck, it's amazing how just adding a few bits and pieces changes a bottle and makes it into something new and interesting.

and this one, if you have never done one of these and would like a bit of guidance
Nancy Maxwell James can tell you how with a neat little Pdf. This one I used a bit of the Ranger enamel  paint, so easy and effective. Paper Whimsy image used, have you seen the beautiful Paper Whimsy images, if not check them out.
And finally I altered this...

A dunhill lighter box, donated to my "stash" by my friend Natalie, she saves me all her rubbish, good stuff!

This is what I ended up with, a little shrine with a PW image, coloured the dress with my copic pens, added distress stickle to the hat and sash.
Then I used scrap paper and Tim Holtz tissue tape to cover the box, added a bottle with "Lifes Memories" on it, hung some found pieces of a house, flower and teddy bear. The finishing touches were the corners and the lovely donated flower...ta-da, that is why I love the sun shine, it makes me do stuff.

Thanks for looking and hope you come back soon
hugs Dawn

Guest Book for Julie and Richard

Got up this morning and thought about what to do today. Decided to make the Wedding Guest book that Julie had asked me to do, she wanted the colours to be teal and white.
The wedding is not till September but if we get the planning permission to put another level on the dormer bungalow I am not going to be of a calm mind to do it. Another reason I decided to get it done early was in case Julie didn't like it.
So I looked through my stash and started work.
The first thing I did was round the corners of each page inside the book and then use the scroll stamp you see on the cover at the top and bottom of alternate pages.

I had the cotton scraps with the images for so long, but thought they would be perfect for the book. I put a white cotton lace hankie as the base of the cover, oops, no I didn't I used some Bo Bunny scrapbook paper first then added the cotton hankie.
On top I added the cotton scraps and some Prima Marketing Calcutta Mini flowers, I did paint the centre with some teal from Viva metal paints.
I put white lace down the spine, added the Tim Holtz drawer knob and then hung some embellishments.
Fingers crossed it will get the seal of approval.

All that is left to do to it is add the words to their tune on the inside cover and then put Tim Holz metal corners on and ta-da done and dusted.
Thanks for dropping by to take a peak xxx

Dawn

So what now after TIm....Charms, ATC BLOCK and a Book

I have a couple of exciting things to show you.
The first involves my friend Amber Dawn she creates the most amazing, outstanding, mind-blowing charms...they are so teeny tiny, made with polymer clay - check them out you will be AMAZED!

I have lined them up with one of the Hitch fasteners just so you can get a perspective. I really don't know how she manages to do these but I am fortunate to own these... if you like charms check out her blog because she organises swaps and it is worth a look just to see her delights....

The excitement builds as I countdown to Art Is...You in October; okay it might seem like months away, but when I think how quick the Tim workshop came around I am soooooo excited!
There is a swap at the Retreat and the theme this year is Dr Seuss. I have to tell you that when I was at school I HATED Green Eggs and Ham, and the Cat in the Hat... so I was a bit concerned that I would not get inspired.
Anyway I have revisited Dr Seuss courtesy of the internet and can now relate to him and love some of his quotes. So I decided to make ATC blocks as my swap.

 I used one of my paintings, printed it on to Claudine Hellmuth's sticky back canvas and then applied to block. Viva paint was used to decorate the block and some TSS metal around the edge, not visible in these photos.

Then I used this Dr Seuss quote "Don't cry because it's over - Smile because it happened" a perfect sentiment. Applicable to the Tim experience too.
I used Golden glass bead gel coloured with a touch of Milled Lavender re-inker and then coloured the paper I printed on to with the same. A glass slide covered the text and a few embellishments completed it...the finishing touch as you can see is the Tim Holtz feet - I have 9 of these to make, so only 8 more to go....
I hope you are still with me because I wanted to share with you the final part of the Post title.
Most of you reading this are bloggers yourself, did you know you can have your blog made into a book...I didn't until my friend Diane told us about it on her blog. I checked it out, it looked good so I thought I would create a book from my 1st year in blogland.
I wanted to see what sort of quality it was. I  went to the website BLOG2PRINT told them what the name of my blog was, chose cover etc. and they created a book for me to preview... so simple! If you like you buy. It took about 3 weeks to get here to the UK and cost $45 including postage.
The cost varies depending on the number of pages but I have 66 pages in my 1st book.
I ordered the following years and had a discount code readysetb2p which gave me 15% off the next books.(valid till March 9th) I have ordered 2008,2009 and 2010 all for $120 (including shipping to UK)
You can make it cheaper as you can have a soft cover book or have it downloaded as a PDF for $7.95.You can even do one a year if you wish, spread it out, or ask for it as a Birthday/Christmas present.
My kids will now have my blog in a book long after I am not here.... I have no affiliation with Blog2Print but thought I would share with you..

If you made it to the end of this post... THANK YOU, see you next time

Hugs
Dawn xxx