A Little Halloween in Wonderland for my "Mouse"

This Is Bailey or since day 3 or 4 my "Mouse". Everyone asks me if that is after  Mini, but actually it is after  lovely Kim Novak in Pal Joey. As Kim sang My Funny Valentine ( a beloved Rodgers and Hart favorite)  with Frank Sinatra in the wings it became one of my favorite moments of film watching. Joey called her the "Mouse" and thus when Bailey arrived she very quickly became my Mouse-because she is amazingly lovely and will always be my Valentine.

Just finished a little Halloween mini album for the Mouse. She was a harem girl last year and plans on being a "Dark Princess" this year. This is a tiny little mini but I think it will hold a couple of years of photos. Had a great time with the Alice in Wonderland inspired papers with a Halloween twist. From my favorite paper designers... Graphic 45.

Steampunk Debutante

Here are all the seam bindings I dyed to match my 2 upcoming Steampunk Debutante projects. I am super pleased with how they came out. I mixed them all myself with Perfect Pearls and Tim Holtz Distressed reinker ink. The method of coloring the seam binding came directly from one of my favorite teachers-Tammy Tutterow. Her wonderful blog is tammytutterow.typepad.com.
Tammy has a wonderful tutorial on how to dye your seam binding using Glimmer Mist. Her method is fabulous. I was super lucky to take a class from Tammy last weekend in St. Louis. Hopefully I will get the post of our fun, fun tag book we created up tomorrow. Thanks to all for peaking in.
Maybe the Steampunk projects will come together quickly-my goodness I have certainly gathered all sorts of goodies to include in them.

By the way I am truly going to work on photography skills.

My Art Journal-"Cherish" them

Late last winter I decided that I would embark down the "Art Journal" path. I tried to be SIMPLE and start with an old fashioned composition book from the stash in my office. Well, 30 days later I only had the basic ready for art pages set to go. Each page was covered with old phone book pages ( attached via mod podge).
Then 2 coats of Gesso were applied. (front and back) This took forever to dry. Thank goodness the Olympics were on-the two went together quite well.
Anyway I stripped the outside off some standard corrugated  cardboard and attached it to the covers. Dry brushed white and blue acrylic paint on and I was ready to assemble. Wanted to make it super flexible so I could add as many pages as wanted so went with large holes punched, grommets inserted and 3" binder rings.
I did the cover first attaching my ribbon to keep it firmly tied together-again I had a super hard time finding pink and green plaid ribbon. Luckily we took a trip to San Francisco and Napa about this time and I found too many choices at Britex in downtown San Francisco. 7 floors of luscious fabric, notions and anything textural seamstress heart would desire.
Cover was completed pretty quickly with painting and wiring picket fence. Alice is a stamp colored with my favorite thin line markers. Bird is from a basic grey fabric and I think that about does it except...
What to put in it?  A bit of everything but with always a loving pupper watching over us.

More to come on contents thus far!

Elements of Collage Class

This saturday I took a GREAT class from Lisa McIlvain on Elements of Collage.
Lisa is wonderful- as was our hostess Maureen at Cottage Panache. Here is the unique and personal project I created.

Wonderful new friends in a cozy and inspirational setting made for a charming Saturday. Class was all inclusive so was easy breezy to get ready for! We just played, oohed and aahhed over all the lovely and personal work.
Can't wait to spend more time with Lisa and this wonderful group of ladies!
A Link to Lisa's blog is here. She is "Tattered & Tarnished".
http://wwhw.tarnishedandtattered.blogspot.com

Swirlydoos and my Mom

I joined the Swirlydoos world about 4 months ago. I have so enjoyed the beautiful scrapbooking kits each month. Here is a layout that I did of my favorite photo of my Mom. This is with the June kit-so many elements to use in lovely ways.

Tim Holtz and Ticking for a Tote

Completed Bag

Tim's Stamp

Flowers and Lace

Ticking and Ribbon

Love all the texture

I took a tote that was in the closet for ages. Turned it inside out and started making embellishments.
Tea dyed and coffee dyed ticking and muslin.
Perfect Pearls misted some seam binding.
Make rolled flowers from strips of muslin and ticking and misted seam binding.
Gathered some strips for posies, and of course included pom palms.
Used vintage and Jenny Bowlin buttons.
Stamped with a favorite Tim Holtz stamp on muslin.
Layered with burlap and stitched all together.
I have just used this little tote over and over.

My First Post

Katherine has battled Mac vs PC for several hours and...
Hallelujah! We are up and running.

Here is a favorite photo of our puppers and babies to launch my blogging career.