time for a clean slate

I wish everyone a little more Sanity
a touch more Motivation
and moments of pure Joy
Have a Healthy 2009!








*photograph Copyright 2008 Tree-Nation

December is Lisa Vollrath month...

...at least at my blog it seems to be! Earlier this month she asked bloggers to tell her their Christmas wish, and 2 lucky people would be the winner of some lovely altered Altoid's tins. Guess what? I won! woo hoo! The best part is that I also got 6 months of her ezine too...hoot hoot holla! Thanks again Lisa!!! You really were my inspiration for December!

Now go visit her and go make something!

A great mixed media, quilting blog

Don't misunderstand, I do not quilt, but mixed media, now there's something that interests me! Pokey Bolton Editor of Cloth Paper Scissors, has a really great blog. I haven't looked at it in a while, but I reminded to today, and I have missed so much. Go check her out.

Lisa Vollrath, the creator of the awesome paper shoe pattern from an earlier post, has come up with possibly the best giveaway of the season this year! A FREE, and ya gotta love free, page of vintage ephemera every day from December 1st through Christmas day! Go visit her at TenTwoStudios to pick them up, and do look around while you're there. She posts a new project every Monday in honor of "Make it Monday" and of course the best deal going in the mixed media world is signing up for her monthly newsletter "The Monthly Muse" where she gives lots of great step by step directions for fun projects and of course extra ephemera pages!
Lots and lots of generosity and talent there!! don't miss her!

Tim Holtz and the 12 tags of christmas

Ah yes, the leaves have fallen, the heater has been turned on, snow is dusting the ground and Tim Holtz is at it again! Go see what he's up to Tim's blog and leave a comment. You never know, you just might win the supplies he's giving away!

On the 3rd day of Christmas, Tim taught me...

---that even an Emo Christmas can be fun!

On the first day of Christmas, Tim taught me...

How to use masks and grungeboard to make some festive tags!

sticky snowmen

Inspired by the cover of Cloth Paper Scissors November/December 2008 issue, these little snowman came to life. Aren't they sweet.




I tried to make 'regular' snowmen, but something unintentional made them look like skullys. hehehe

Christmas shoes

I was turned on to Lisa Vollrath and Ten Two Studios this week. She has a monthly e zine with projects and ephemera. Good stuff! This month includes the template to make these awesome little paper shoes. Go check her out, lots and lots of talent there.

Revitalize your spirit...altered book

Finally, I finished another journal that came to me. This time the theme was "What to do in Retirement?". I went with 'Revitalize your spirit'. Thanks for looking!

When life closes a door...

...you start a website!

Well, this is a full circle moment for me. So unhappy about losing my favorite place on the internet, a friend of mine contacted me and we made our own. Thinking we could host our swaps there, we would get a handful of friends to join us. Well, it's been 5 days and we have over 100 members, over 250 topics and over 3500 posts! I know, I know!?! One member created the banner for us (thank you Marianne)by digital collaging images from the first posts to our gallery, and another named us PAOists.

We have Scrapbooking, card making, altered arts of all kinds, a ton of swaps already in all catagories. There are a few online challenges to get you motivated if you're stuck, and a gallery filling up with great work from great people! We have a place for you to list your blog or the site of someone who inspires you and already there is talk of getting together for a PAO-WOW. The members have even started to inspire each other in a weight loss challenge! I couldn't ask for a better group of awesome, creative people!

If you want to come play with us paperartistsonline is where we hang out. Obviusly it's very new, and we're still working out kinks as they come up, but so far wow! The energy there is buzzzzzin'. At this time of year, when we stop and think of the things we are thankful for, I am unbelievebly thankful for my friends!

Hey Puzzle swappers...

I just got my paws on 36 puzzles. I know I said I wouldn't do it again, but so many of you asked me to and today I got a great deal on the blanks. I haven't figured out the cost yet, but it shouldn't be more than a few dollars per puzzle, I'm thinking $3 for each blank, which includes shipping to you. They are 8 1/2 x 11 and have 12 pieces each.

There will be 2 themes: 'Ode to Tim Holtz' and 'Anything goes'. You may use ANY supplies you have laying around, just no food products, please.

Once I have all 32 spoken for, I'll send them out. The deadline for these will be February 1st. I ask you include payment when you send them back to me in a reuseable padded envelope with enough loose postage stamps to cover shipping back to you.

I'm handling this same as before. If you haven't participated in one of my swaps, feel free to leave me your questions in the comments section of this post. If you would like to post a spoiler, please add the link in the comments section as well.

How do you sign up? I am now hosting this at paperartistsonline So feel free to hear over and join in. There are a few places left.

Fabric ATC swap

Here are my entries on their way to Australia this afternoon...I so hate to say goodbye! I started with some thin dyed cheesecloth. I attached a variety of fiber, thread and string, embellished with embroidery floss, glass beads and copper. I left one blank because I love the background as is. Already I have some ideas swirling around about a wall hanging. Thanks for looking, comments always welcomed!

Witchy box

While wandering the aisles of the thrift store the other day looking for a rack to store some new jars on, I came across an old spice rack. It was brown, but instantly I knew it held potential for a witchy box filled with potions and prized momentos!







Thanks for visiting, please leave a comment or constructive criticism!!!

a mime's nightmare

hehehe... he's in a box, get it? A box! bwahahaha. This silly little guy will be heading to live with Rachelle for a one/one altered tin swap. I'll have to make another to sit on my shelf.

Thanks for visiting!

What's in your envelope ATCs

Remember that cool pile of swag I received last week? Here are 3 ATCs. Thanks for looking!

Crusade No. 18

I decided to join the Green Pepper Press Street team this week by looking back and beginning the crusades from week one, spooky, halloween art. Fed up with my usual stamps I decided to carve some skullies. Oh how much fun is this! Allison was looking on all night, and finally asked if she could make one. Obviously I can't let a 6 year old carve erasers, but I had her draw on one and I carved it for her. Can you guess which one???



I received a book this week from my friend Ink-Pattie called Puro Muerto, Day of the Dead art and I decided to make some DOD skullies. Then I realized, carving stamps was Crusade #18, so here we are! I can see how addicting this could be, thank god I only bought one sheet of eraser today!! Excuse my inky fingerprints, I was obviously really excited to get these posted, all the ink schmeeeeeeerrd. Stay tuned for some ATCs with these this week. Please visit The GPP Street Team Crusade 18 and see what everyone else came up with.

Thanks for stopping by if this is your first visit here, and welcome back if you've been here before! Constructive criticism is always welcomed!

Green Pepper Press

Yummy yummy yummy! Green Pepper Press has the most amazing crow images anywhere! Go check them out for some good goodies! Look for a swap using these birds soon........ Tell Michelle I sent you!

Vintage Halloween ATCs

Ah yes, the leaves are beginning to change, the morning air is crisp and clean, Fall is upon us! I love Fall! I especially love Halloween! So what better way to welcome my favorite season than host another swap. Here is my take on Vintage Halloween.

Click image for a larger version and feel free to leave constructive criticism.

Lookie what I got!

In a great swap of Pass It Forward. All this awesome stuff to play with!!! I'm going to make ATC's all afternoon and see how much I can use up. Thanks Farley!

Use this foto ATC swap

Hey people out there...you wanna play a game?
Make 5 ATCs and get 4 back.
Keep them the same, or not.
I prefer you back them with chipboard to keep it sturdy too.
You MUST use the attached foto. If you click on her a new page will open and she'll be nice and big to download to your computer.
Due November 1st.

I think she is so beautiful, I can't wait to see what you come up with!!

English bulldog altered book page

hehehe.... I think I was channeling Traci Bautista on this one! I'm pseudo hosting a round robin for altered books, each with a new theme, and this is my take on "English Bulldog"

Constructive criticism always encouraged!

I broke my bone folder!

CRAP! That's not suppossed to happen! If you know what a bone folder is (and I'm going to assume you do if you're reading my blog) it actually snapped in half! the worst part: I got it so long ago, I can't find one the same size!

Someone please help....... I need a bone folder! Not bamboo, not the huge one, not the itty pitty one, the good one, made out of bone! ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!


Now doesn't that look like a great set of tools! I snagged the foto from Studio 5 book arts

Don't give up!

Yesterday was a HUGE day for my family!!! Emily, the youngest, has been blind all her life. Everywhere we go, she keeps her eyes closed, because she has nothing to look at. She keeps her head down, with no reason to hold it up. People always comment, "Awwww, she's sleeping". 'No, actually she's blind, but she can hear you' has always been my response, then they shudder away in some asinine attempt to avoid catching blindness.
I took her to yet another vision doctor, one who specializes in muscle disorders to get a final opinion, and hopefully some therapeutic advice, or the final confirmation of her diagnosis. Well, apparently, the other doctors wrote her off so quickly, they didn't bother to test her for nearsightedness. They looked for a medical anomaly to explain the lack of vision, always blaming it on Optic Nerve Atrophy, or Cortical Visual Impairment (Translation: I dont know why she can't see). Yesterday an incredibly patient, intelligent doctor took a look at her, asked me if we had a history of nearsightedness in the family, and when I said 'Yes, very much' she smiled and said "Well, she has some random muscular movements, but she is also very nearsighted!"....... WHAT?!?!?!
She said she wasn't going to guarantee glasses would help 100%, but she was sure that without them, there was no doubt Emily wasn't able to see!!!!
As if a miracle happened, my little babe put on her glasses, opened her eyes WIDE and started looking around and smiling!
The moral to this story: Don't give up! Unless there is no heartbeat there is hope! Things change, the brain begins to repair itself, people heal, emotionally and physically! This news couldn't come at a better time!

New ATCs

"Sunflower": Leafing pen resist with gold pen, yellow and red liquid watercolor on untextured side of watercolor paper blended with a watercolor brush. ribbon from stash and image from National Geographic.


"Go Fish": Intuitive watercolor with Yellow, red and orange liquid watercolors on the textured side of watercolor paper. Words with my DYMO, dry cleaning ticket, fish from a magazine.


"Peace": Intuitive watercolor. I wanted some darker colors, so I played around with mixing colors to get the darks I so love. Club Scrap roman numeral stamp over the liquid watercolors with pressure embossed copper flashing and magazine image. I so love this, I think I'm going to make it my new 'business card'.


"Harmony": This background came from night 1 with the colorwash and glossy paper. I added a DYMO tag, some copper, jumbo eyelet and Image from Art-e-zine.


"Cheap Monkey": hehehe-isn't he funny! Liquid watercolor baby wipe. Rather than coloring a baby wipe just for this, I took one out and have been wiping my craft sheet with it for a few days. Now that it dried, I adhered it to the cards and instant random background! Look closely you'll see the giraffe from Club stamp Serengheti.


"Tick Tock": More of the colored baby wipe with Rhapsody stamp over it in background, magazine images and DYMO.


"Angel lady" More colored baby wipe, highlighted with gold leafing pen. She's not quite done, but I am so here she is for today.

Please leave comments or constructive criticism...I love to hear what you have to say!

Paper quilting

Quilting as in a nice puffy quilt for your bed, instead these are made of paper and put on cards as embellishments. A friend of mine (Gwen) came over and gave me some awesome pointers the other night as we worked on all the teacher cards A&E are giving this year.

The pattern and red paper are from Hanko design, the other stuff came from a grab bag, so who knows. Gwen made the awesome little house and I did the Apple and T-shirts. Comments and constructive critiques always welcomed!

Art dolls, turned monsters

Well, this is not at all what I was thinking of when I started the art doll swap, but this is what I ended up with.













Here are the ones I'm actually using for the swap:

You know the drill: leave a comment or constructive critique and one could be yours.

Tutorial: How to make an Altered book- Stage 1 Find and Prepare

So, you want to delve into the world of Altered books, but have no clue how to begin... good thing you're here! First, find a book to alter. You can use anything to make a 'book': cardboard, bookboard, an old children's book, licence plates. We're going to recycle a hardcover from the Library in this tutorial. Not the good ones you check out, silly. Most libraries have an area where they sell books; duplicates, old, dammaged ones. Look for a Hard cover book, and I suggest you start with a 'Bible-size' book. In this tutorial, I used a Readers Digest Hardcover of about 600 pages. They usually sell for less than $1 and you can feel good about giving life back into something long forgotten...

Once you get it home, get used to the fact that you are about to destroy a book. All your life you've been told not to tear the pages, don't fold the corners, guess what....you're going to do both. Woooo Hooooo, I love breaking the rules


I begin by deciding how many sections I want to end up with, then tear out a few pages between the sections. How many pages you tear depends how thick your book is. Once you tear out a few, you've gotten over your fear, and now we're ready to 'tear with a purpose'.

Go grab some white glue or gel medium, get a foam brush...get a few so you don't have to make a lot of trips, 'cause you'll use them later on...and get your book.


Apply a healthy, but not gloppy coating of glue/gel medium to the back of the inside page of your book (let's call it page 2) NOT THE SIDE THAT FACES THE COVER and press page 3 against it.


I use my bone folder to get a really stuck, flat surface, but you don't have to.

Continue gluing the next 4-8 pages, depending how thick you want your reinforced page to be.

Now you get to tear some more! woo hoo! Start tearing, and keep going until you get to the next section. Your book will no longer sit flat. The top cover will be a little floppy. This allows you to add dimentional objects to your book, and still fit on a shelf!

Begin your gluing again, until you have 5-10 pages stuck together for reinforced page #2.


Tear until you reach section #3, glue....continue until all sections are finished.


If you are not tired of looking at your book yet, we can move on to priming the surface. Depending on what you want your final pages to look like, you might be ready to start altering. If you want the text to show through, leave the book to dry overnight, before you begin. We'll get into altering the book in a future tutorial. But, if you don't want to see any text, you'll want to prime the pages.

Since this book will be involved in a swap which ends around Halloween, I decided the theme would be Magic! To enhance the Magical theme, I painted each section, and the torn out remainders with Black Scrapbooking paint. I like scrapbooking paint, because it dries very very quickly, and the consistancy is easy to spread.


Set your book up on it's edge, fanning the pages out, so they dry completely, and don't stick together.


At this point, I decided to add a custom leather cover with heat embossed grungeboard hinges to enhance the theme as my book travels around the country. If you are making a book for yourself, I suggest waiting until the end to make the cover, so it doesn't get destroyed.

I was going to include some magic spells for the swappers to play with, then remembered there is black magic, and white magic. Hmmmmm.... So I went back, and applied Gesso to the pages, giving them an eerie white tone. The theme has now transformed to "White Magic".


At this point, the book needs to dry for 24 hours, then it will be ready for color, focal images and fun spells. I placed wax paper between the pages so they don't stick together while it dries. I'll play with a page or 2 before I send it off and keep you posted.

To get to this point I used : A Recycled Reader's Digest Hardcover, foam brushes, gel medium, black paint, white gesso, wax paper.

Comments and constructive criticism always wanted!!!