Valentine Gift Cones

These are my Valentine Gift Cones. They are made with pretty papers and card stock. I trim them with "tissue festooning". I love making them for different holidays. I love the pinks and reds for Valentine's Day.







These are listed on Etsy at www.femininecharms.etsy.com
The vintage style tags are available at www.hudsonsholidays.etsy.com You can order them, print them out and add your own embelishments.

Christmas Cookies 2009

I bought my supplies way in advance. I mixed the dough and chilled it overnight. Then I finally rolled out the dough and cut out my cookies with the help of my youngest son Ryan. I was surprised that he still wanted to help me bake cookies at 14 but I got lucky and he did! He was more interested in the rolling, cutting and baking. My favorite part is the icing and decorating so by the time that the cookies were cool and ready to decorate he was off doing something else. Oh well, I still had fun.

Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat- Classes

I took three classes at the retreat. The first one was an "Altered Canvas" taught by Jan Thomason. This class was really fun and Jan gave us each a goodie bag full of loot! I'm intimidated by canvas and paint so this class was good for me. We collaged images and objects onto the canvas along with paint. I want to try some more of these soon.

The second class "Crepe Paper Spun Hearts" was taught by Ann-Denise Anderson and she really went all out! The room was decorated like a party with gorgeous favors by each each place setting along with some supplies for the class. She brought along many different colors of gathered crepe paper wound onto long cardboard tubes which added even more festiveness to the room. You just can't be around that much crepe paper and not be happy! So that was the day that I got interested in crepe paper. And then I took another class from Ann-Denise in McKinney and made a beautiful crepe paper doll. I have been having so much fun working with crepe paper ever since!

The third class was called "Altered Compacts" taught by Charlotte Garret-Tucker. She showed us how to take vintage rouge and powder compacts and turn them into mini works of art using scrap jewelry pieces and images. I really enjoyed myself and worked so slowly that I was not finished by the end of the class, since there were so many tiny pieces of scrap jewelry that I couldn't decide which to use! Finally I settled on a "religious" theme and started gluing things on but I spend way to much time just enjoying looking through the jewelry! Once I got home I started looking on e-bay for old compacts and I bought a few so that I can do more of these.

Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat- Swaps

In June, I went to one of the most fabulous events EVER. The Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat! The reason this was so super fun for me is that before the retreat I didn't really have the opportunity to spend time with other artists or crafters. So to be around so many other women who love what I love was just wonderful. I met so many fun people!

I was in three classes and also 3 swaps. There was an ATC swap (which I've never made before), a charm swap (that one was right up my alley) and an ephemera swap. We were told that "presentation is everything" so I made sure to spend lots of time planning out the packaging for each swap.

The bags with guns (I burned a little hole into each one with an incense stick) held my ATC's. The brown paper envelopes held my ephemera and the bags with the little chenille cowgirls held my charms.

Soldered Charms

I have missed my soldering. I haven't been doing too much of it lately and now I'm ready to do some new pieces. Here is a picture of some that I made quite a while ago.

Witch Fariy Jars

I tried making some fairy jars last summer and they turned out really cute so I thought I would try some Witch Fairy Jars! I started with spanish moss glued into the bottom of the jar, topped with some green moss. Next I printed out some adorable images on photo quality paper (it's about as thick as card stock). Next I arranged the images into a little spooky fairy land and glued them in along with some glitter. I cut scrapbook circles to cover the circular part of the jar lid insert and then glued ric-rack on the outside of the lid. I purchased my adorable images from http://www.majikdesigns.etsy.com/ and http://www.lisasalteredart.etsy.com/

Craft Fair

For about 10 years I sold candles. I had not done a craft fair since I was selling candles. So I decided to try it this year and do something I had never done before. ALL HALLOWEEN. Everything that I made was Halloween themed. I spend weeks getting ready for the show listening to "The nightmare before Christmas" while I glued and painted. I had a lot of fun, it was a two day craft fair at a local High School. I met some really nice artists, which was no suprise since I always do when I go to those types of things. I really enjoyed talking to them.