Collage Couture Creation (say that 3 times fast!)

I did this collage for lesson 1 of the Collage Couture class at SIS (I won the class on NSD). I painted the paper with gel medium and then painted with 2 colors of acrylic paint - a light blue and a turquoise, and finally rubbed some espresso acrylic paint on a paper towel and spattered some droplets. The collage section has many fabrics (new and vintage) sewn to a piece of paper. The swirl was cut out of an old 70s craft book on decoupage and the butterflies are by K&co (purchased yesterday morning on clearance on Michaels). I purchased the frame and double mat at a thrift store yesterday morning for a dollar and repainted the frame (it was lime green). I can tell that I will really enjoy this class and feel so grateful that I won it. I am really trying to keep my spending down but I love to play, and the toys can be expensive. LOL!

I did this layout for Scrapping across the universe - together. The photo is of my DH, his twin, his other brother, and his cousin, all being pushed in a wheelbarrow by his dad. I added the William Carlos Williams's poem as it seemed so appropriate, and I have always loved the purity and simplicity of his poetry.

This layout is for Inspired by Amelie - alter ego. I used some Making Memories and Heidi Swapp papers that I had from last fall, some Amy Bulter fabric(the cut out flower), some lace, a paper doily, K&co raised stickers (including one I used like an earring on the vintage magazine ad), and the tag from a necklace stand I got from Urban Outfitters a couple of years ago. Don't we all have wild dreams about how we wished we looked or place we wish we could go or .... but I know that I have a great life and I am trying to remind myself of that every day.

I have started a still life watercolor and hope to have it finished this week. Tomorrow I have class but I don't know what we will be doing. I have also begun to lay out a new quilt for our bed and will take some photos to show. I had hoped to have enough fabric in my stash to make the entire quilt but I only had about half enough in the color scheme. I stopped at the quilt shop yesterday and picked up 5 half yards of some beautiful fabrics so now I can finish cutting out the blocks. Summer has truly arrived here in Florida and I find myself retreating to my studio - I become an A/C hermit in the summer. I guess our indoor/outdoor seasons are pretty much the opposite of up north. I really love having the house open all winter and although I love hot more than cold, I have to admit I get pretty tired of the heat as it lasts sooooooooooooo long.

Inspired by ..........

I received a free sample of the new Starbucks instant coffee in the mail and just had to create something with the packaging. I found this painted wood wall hanging for 50 cents at the thriftstore and the whole thing just made itself. the journaling reads - in case of caffeine emergency break seal

I did this layout last night for the free shoppin thread on SIStv. My items were lime green and pink paint. lace, and something vintage. I made the straw flower on the bloom loom that I just got - it's made of actual vintage raffia straw that I found at the Goodwill thrift store. I bought every skein that they had.

This layout is for Inspired by Amelie and is about simple pleasures that we love and that make life worth living. Here too I made a straw flower (better get used to seeing them). The vintage milk cap is the one I won from Julie (bmwgirl on SIS) and the valentine I won from another RAK. The ting bottle cap is from Trinidad and the photo is of the key lime tree in our yard (I have used a larger version of this photo as a model to paint and showed it in an earlier posting).

Today it is beautiful here and I am going out on the lanai to read - not only am I reading a great murder mystery (the various haunts of man by Susan Hill) but I also received a copy of the new Stampington magazine Marie (purchased on ebay) and I can hardly wait to read it.

Happy Saturday!

Inspired by Amelie challenge - I won!!!!

I was checking my Google reader and saw that the Inspired by Amelie blog had a new posting (it's been a while) and guess what, I won the challenge from December. Woohoo!!! The movie Amelie is so inspiring - so colorful, so random, so funky. I always love the layouts designed by the DT members.

I also saw that Rhonna Farrar had instructions for blog backgrounds - I followed them and they worked beautifully except the border isn't big enough - I need the border to be wider a la Photobucket and that costs $ so for now my blog will remain the same but I am definitely getting some ideas on how to bling it up.

I spent the day taking photos (12 of 12), making a card for Emily's 52Q, doing laundry, filing all of our receipts and paperwork for 2008, ironing, and making a paper doll of myself - I used an old picture of me as a child and drew 4 outfits for me. I have put it all together in a layout to submit to Eccentric therapy - I still have to glue it and take pics. Tomorrow! tomorrow!