Sunday, July 31, 2011

Happy Birthday, Vivienne!

Today's a special birthday for my friend, Vivienne.  For the 'surprise' party later on, they said, "no gifts, just a card"!   I wanted to take a little something anyway, so here's what I made:

A pretty, glittery card

A Magic Wand - side one


Magic Wand - side two

and

A crown - or fancy party hat!

I hope she gets a kick out of these and has a wonderful birthday. Good thing she doesn't blog!




Saturday, July 30, 2011

More Christmas in July!

2010 White Christmas Tag Swap
Part Two

Cheryl (Bassic Living) made this sweet blog button for the swap.
Thanks, Cheryl! I love seeing it around blogland!

Wendy, Jonelle, and Lisa

Marlene, Kathy, and Cheryl


Robin, Jessica, and Michelle & Ashley


Dawn and Michelle


Jane (my tag!), Debi, and Wanda



Many of the White Christmas Tag Swappers have been in several tag swaps together the past year or so, beginning with Kandeland's 2010 Valentine Tag Swap.  Everyone enjoyed that one so much that we just kept going!  Most of the swaps have had 20 participants so we get lots of tags!  All these White Christmas tags are just lovely. I had so much fun with this, my first swap as hostess! Thanks to Wanda for helping me get started ! And thanks so much to all the tag swappers! 

I wonder if anyone will want to do another White Christmas Tag Swap this year?! Interested?


Thursday, July 28, 2011

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle all the way!

Christmas in July

Remember Woolworth's? Wouldn't I love to have more of these jingle bells - especially at that price (.18 marked down from .69)!

White Christmas Tag Swap 2010

I hosted my first swap last December, but didn't have my blog then so haven't shown the beautiful tags before.  Here are a few of them - will show the others in another post or two.

Tags by Vivian, Cindy, and Rachel


Tags by Natalea, Marian, and Kimberly


Rachel  (Rach-ology)


Cindy (lulucb)


Vivian  (Viv's Whimsy)


Natalea  (Kandeland)


Kimberly  (Art, Joy, Stuff)


Marian Ballog

All these tags are so beautiful! And so are the others, which I'll show soon.

Some of the amazing hostess gifts I received! 
Swaps are truly a lot of fun!


Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Bird Song Tag Book


Karla's Cottage
Bird Song Tag Book Swap

What's this - all wrapped up in a bird page?

My Bird Song Tag Book!

Just look at all these beauties!

Here's Karla's Tag Book cover - see the bird feather and the  tiny birdcage charm,  complete with  a blue bird!

Erica's "Warbler of Marshes"

Sheila's "Vintage Chick"

Sibrina's colorful birdies

Jill's nest of pearls

Beth's vintage wallpaper with bird


Kim's "Flee as a Bird"

Maggie's "Bird Song" with 2 cute little tags in the pocket

I was thrilled with all the tags I received! It's always so much fun to see how others interpret the swap theme, and I like to see what techniques are used.  Karla hosts wonderful swaps from time to time, so keep an eye on her blog if you like tag swaps.  I've taken part in several: Puppy Love, Alice, and Dorothy. Karla is very welcoming to beginners and all levels.  She must've had almost 150 in this Birdsong swap!  Can you believe it? It was a fun swap, and I've enjoyed looking at my tag swappers' blogs too! Go see for yourself - some very creative bloggers!


Sunday, July 24, 2011

Teeny-Tiny Baby Steps

Fun with Photos - and Microsoft Paint!

Yesterday I found Mary Green's post about making her own vintage patterned papers so interesting.  She mentioned that she'd used Microsoft Paint for a couple of the samples pictured, and said it was pretty easy. Hmmm, well I haven't even opened my PhotoShop Elements yet, so thought I'd give this a try! 


Isn't this a silly piece? Believe it or not, it started as part of a photo of a sunflower cake one of my daughters had baked! It was fun to play around with changing the colors, the eye dropper, spritzer, etc.


This was a small piece of one of my azalea bush photos cut out and pasted in rows all over the workspace.  I didn't get the size right since part of one row has been cut off, but I did learn how to do this.  Next time I can do better.


Here's the same piece with the brightness & contrast changed in
Office Picture Manager.  So now it does look almost like a soft wallpaper design.  Lots of possibilities here! I just used a couple of my photos this time.  Next time I'll try a smaller picture, and I'll see about changing from color to black and white.

Getting ready to storm - better go! Back Soon!

Monday, July 4, 2011

America the Beautiful

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!


O beautiful for spacious skies


For amber waves of grain


For purple mountain majesties


Above the fruited plain!


America!


America!


God shed His grace


on thee


And crown thy good


with brotherhood


From sea to shining sea!


Thanks so much to Kimberly for hosting this beautiful Red, White, and Blue ATC Swap! Thanks to Kathy and Linda for participating too! I love all the ATCs and all the extra goodies Kimberly sent! Enjoy a wonderful July 4th celebration!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Welcome to July and the ATC Blog Hop!

Two Crazy Crafters
ATC Blog Hop

Twila and Lindsey of Two Crazy Crafters are hosting their first blog hop today - featuring ATCs with a Fourth of July theme!

Here's my ATC, made for Kimberly's Red, White, Blue ATC garland. I'll post the whole garland next.


Thanks, Twila & Lindsey, for hosting this fun blog hop! Now to go check out all the other ATCs.


Have a wonderful July 4th holiday, everyone!