Love Notes...completed project!

So on Friday, you saw a little sneak peak at what I was planning for V-day. Red, pink and linen with all the trimmings :-)! Now you can see the completed project!

 Felt pouch embellished with trims and hand stitching

 Inside: tags, mini cards and coordinating envelopes

 Adorable heart tags - perfect for any gift!

 A few of the cards. There are 5 total (including my favorite

foldout heart below)

Stay posted for more V-day ideas in the next couple of weeks!
Jx

ART Therapy with friends

Do you ever feel like you are drowning in a sea of commitments and you can't seem to come up for air? Like when everyone in your family is demanding your time - "MOOOMMY, can you help me? I'm hungry. I'm thirsty. I'm bored. I want to go here or there. I want... I wannt... I waannnnnt..." and "Why haven't you done this yet? What have you been doing all day????"   I defintitely find myself in these dark waters from time to time. It weighs you down like a rock tied around your waste.

But do you know what I do when things start going black?  I forget the rest of the world for a few hours and escape to ART. How it calms me when I am all tangled up inside. Paper... ink... stamps... ribbon... thread... fabric... - all are sooooo therapeutic. They allow me to release the stress of the day and create something beautiful, even if it is only beautiful to me. I had an ART therapy session today with some friends who also needed a bit of artful release. We made these cute little felt pouches and mini note cards and tags to go inside. All the things I love combined into one cute package. What more could a girl ask for?! Here are a few photos of our creations.

 Green & Pink flowers and little red hearts...

 Felt pouch that measures approx. 4" w x 4.5" h

 Inside pockets are about 4" apart

Stamping all the goodies inside the pouches!



See you again soon!
Jx

Sneak Peak: Love Notes

With Valentine's Day only a few weeks away and a little inspiration from Stampin Up!'s new Occasions Mini Catalog, I thought it would be fun to make some Love Notes and tags that are packaged in pretty little felt pouches for some of my friends. Don't you just love the dainty flower ribbon? Can't wait to get started sewing and stamping!
More on this project coming soon!

Happy Friday!

Drawing with Misty Mawn

I'm taking an on-line class with Misty Mawn and this week is drawing. Lines, shading, doodles, portraits, whatever suits your fancy! It has been so much fun to pick up a pencil again. As a kid, I got a book from my Grandma on "how to draw animals". It was the greatest thing in the world, along with the tracing paper she gave me to trace the animals first to help get the feel of the proportions. Once I got pretty good at the tracing part, I moved onto drawing them from the pictures. Dogs were my favorite thing to draw, especially cute little golden retrievers or lab puppies off the covers of various magazines laying around the house. I honestly haven't sat down to just draw for a VERY LONG TIME. Here are a couple of the things I've drawn this week. Still have the assignment to do a self-portrait but not sure if that will happen or not....could be scary!

This is supposed to be Miss A, but she looks about 5 years older than she really is... oh well! Had fun drawing her :-)!

One assignment is to pick one item and draw it, paint it or incorporate it into the assignments every day of the 5 week class. I chose my favorite coffee/tea cup. Here's a couple different drawings of it as well as an apple from memory (something much different than a real apple!).

Have a great weekend!
Jx

Amazing Sunrise over the lake

God blessed us with a beautiful sunrise over the mountaints and lake this morning. Z said it looked like a volcano errupting from the mountains! I think he is right on!

Happy Sunday everyone!
Love
Jx

Scrap Fabric Cards

So I mentioned in my previous blog that I was working on a few projects...well, here's one of them! It comes, once again, from the Greencraft magazine by Stampington & Company. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that magazine!  From one who loves all kinds of fabric, I have a hard time getting rid of all the scraps. You know - the little squares or irregular sized pieces after you cut something else out. I saw in Greencraft where another crafty soul made use of the little pieces to create some beautiful cards. Here's my version:

They were remarkably easy to make and didn't require any kind of precise sewing - the messier the better, I found!  To give them as a gift, I tied a few together with some pretty ribbon and added some phrases to choose from (thank you, thinking of you, happy birthday). This way she can choose to add a phrase if she likes or to leave it blank!

:-) Jx

Long time, no see...

Happy New Year! I am still in a bit of shock that it is already 2011. Where in the world did 2010 go????? Sorry for the delay in posting lately. Holidays and life seemed to get in the way over the past month. One of my New Year's resolutions, well at least in my head and now in print, is to post regularly. What is the definition of "regularly"?? That's a very good question in the crazy life I lead. The goal is to post once a week and see how things go from there. So, track me down if I don't live up to my resolution!

I'm working on a couple of projects that I will share with you soon. I'm also taking a 5 week on-line workshop called "Stretching Within" from Misty Mawn where she will teach techniques for drawing, painting, collaging and photo journalling (here are the details). The class starts tomorrow and I am SOOOOOOOOO excited! There are currently 175 people from around the world signed up for the course and from what I have seen so far via the Facebook group that was set up, it is an AMAZING group of people who use art as a way to survive and thrive. Our first "assignment" was to write a poem entitled "I come from..." - this to replace the standard "my name is Julie and I live in Switzerland". What a way to open the door to your heart and soul and remember things that get buried in your memories as you grow older. It has been so incredible to see the poems everyone has shared...very powerful and emotional. I can't wait to see what other journeys this workshop will take me on.

Until next time!
Jx