Christmas Shadowbox

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, filled with good food and fun times with people you love. We went to Austin to visit two of the grand boys and had our feast at our oldest daughter's house. Now I'm home for just a few days before leaving again for babysitting in Albuquerque next week!

This month I participated in a holiday shadow box swap with my online art group.  I created this shadow box with a wintery Santa scene.  The box is painted a dark blue and the background has a portion of a beautiful patterned paper with a church, houses and snowy trees which I fussy-cut. I made the snow with texture paste, sprinkling on mica while it was wet. The tree and light are purchased items (I added alcohol ink to the "glass" of the light to make it shine, but it's not visible in the photo). The Santa is a vintage Victorian "scrap," which I cut out, added Mod Podge for added strength and glued a piece of rigid plastic packaging to the back to get it to stand. I added a painted wood title piece and red bells for feet.  I covered the back with a coordinating paper from the same collection and added one of the journaling cards from the collection to sign my name.

Front

Back

Yesterday I received the shadow box that was made for me by Judy. I love it - it's a Tim Holtz divided configuration box filled with all sorts of Christmasy items. The entire box is covered with a vintage-colored snowflake washi tape and embellished with a printed twill ribbon, a little glass knob and ornate metal feet. Isn't it spectacular?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

DLP unPlanner - November - Week 1

Hello from Albuquerque! We are busy with two littles this weekend. They have way

 too much energy!

This is my weekly spread for the first week of November. I stamped many fall leaves for the background and added some paper strips. The leaf in the lower right corner is a metal one I received in a swap. I thought it looked perfect on this page! The days of the week are the Art-to-the-5th stamps that came in the original kit. I love them but can only use on the first weeks as they only go through #10.

This week's PAC art challenge was to add something from the bottom of your purse or wallet. I found an old receipt which I cut up and painted for the hearts. I also used the bar code strip at the bottom but when I covered it with gel medium, much of the ink came off. I then added some glitter tape over it.  The background is a "dirty" paper towel that I scrunched and glued to the card base. I love all the random fall colors.

Note - the "smudge" that appears in the center of the smaller heart must be a light reflection since it's not on the original.

November DLP unPlanner 2016

November's theme is: Changing Seasons - Redefining Priorities

For the month divider I used the November one from the Bo Bunny packet, colored the borders with gelato and added a pocket from the Bo Bunny "Calendar Girl" paper line. I used an old tag I received from a swap and colored it heavily with Distress Inks and Heirloom Gold spray mist. I added the title for the month with a Dymo labeler.

November Monthly Divider

Tag - before

Tag - after

I used the monthly view already on the back of the divider, again coloring the borders and adding some stickers and washi tape. I punched small maple leaves out of painted paper for the dates.

Monthly view

I am leaving for Albuquerque to babysit again this evening and will be gone for several days. I will try to upload and post about the first week's spread.

Remaining October PACs

The last two PACs of October are finished!

Week 4

Art Challenge - Repeat a Pattern

For this card I used an under paper (previously painted scrap paper) as the background. For the repeating pattern, I cut small rectangles of a gold candy wrapper and stitched horizontally through them. I used a variegated thread and left the tails for extra texture. I looked through my box of "found words" that I save from book pages etc. and found this appropriate phrase. Done!

Week 5 (actually just one day!)

Art Challenge - Incorporate the First Letter of Your First Name

Again, I used a pre-painted scrap and glued on a few other scraps. I found the "S" clip which was perfect for the focal point. I also added a border made from overlapping s's. To finish, I added scribbles at the bottom with black ink for some added texture and depth.

On to November!

October DLP unPlanner 2016 - Week 4

More catchup...

This is Week 4. I was at my art retreat this week and working on various projects (I will share later) so not much on the calendar.

Since Oct. 31st fell on Monday, I didn't want to use an entire weekly page so I used the back of a darling Halloween card I received. (See second photo.)

Here is what I did for my Monthly Pocket Picks. I used another full sheet protector and fused pockets in it according to the sizes I needed.  Once again I used a black tag for some photos of the month. I love how that looks.

Front

Back

I still have a few October PACs to catch up on so will share those next.

October DLP unPlanner - Weeks 2 & 3

October Theme - A Fresh Start - Clear Your Palette

Week 2 

In keeping with my "fresh start," I'm trying to use colors I don't usually use. For this week I used greens and orange. The heart on Friday is for our 44th wedding anniversary. I loved using a tiny maple leaf punch for the dates.

The PAC art challenge for this week was to start with a doodle. I used a piece of previously gelli-plated deli paper for the background and started outlining the shapes of the stencil on the paper. I continued doodling and adding color until the card was filled. It still needed a focal point, so I found this bird image among some scraps on my desk.

Week 3

For this week I used a background stamp and orange ink for the background and watercolor for the days of the week. 

This week's PAC challenge was to draw a line down the center and create two scenes on the card. After much thought, I decided to use a Jack-o-Lantern/pumpkin symbolizing the two "faces" of fall -  Halloween and Thanksgiving. The painted background was a scrap and the pumpkin was stamped on watercolor paper and watercolored. I machine-stitched down the center and wrapped fall-themed washi tape around the edges.

Scrapbooks "Finished"

I've been diligently working on all four grand boys' scrapbooks. I never did this for my own children so thought I would do it for the grands, as their mothers are not going to have time for it either.

In September I "finished" all four - or, I should say, I am up-to-date on them! The, of course, are on-going projects! I now have to add pumpkin patch and Halloween pages (times four!).

Some of the pages I don't think I've shared before:

Life Happens...

I cannot believe I've neglected this blog for almost a month! Life has been crazy busy all through October!

The kids gifted Bill and I Bob Dylan concert tickets on the 18th for our August birthdays so we were back in Albuquerque for a few days that week and took the boys to the pumpkin patch. A few days after returning, I left for a ten-day art retreat with eight friends, all but one of whom I met online. From there, we visited the other grand boys in Austin for Halloween - yet another pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating. Arrived home a few days ago and have been playing catch-up since!

Here are a few Halloween photos until I can get some art posted.

Carl and Mitchell carving pumpkins

4-yr old boredom with photo-taking

Carl as Ironman

Mitchell as Bevo - enthralled with pumpkins this year

Kelly and Josh dressed up as "Nosy Neighbors" - Carl made his spider hat in school and
decided to wear it trick-or-treating instead of his mask

Mitchell loved trick-or-treating

Drew was an EMT - John dressed as a banana

Grant was a fireman

Candy - the best part!

What a mess!