I'm not going to blog anymore...

At least not on this blog! Ha! You thought I was quitting forever, didn't you? Nope, you'll not get away from me and my crazy art and random thoughts that easily! From now on, or until I decide to change my mind again, I'm going to blog exclusively at My Meandering Musings. Keeping up two blogs is just too much. I don't know why, but it seems like a lot of work. But I promise that I'll keep posting pics of the things I make over on my other blog. So, come on over!

Bunny ATCs

I made these ATCs for a swap on Flickr. I recently bought some vintage playing cards on eBay that have pictures of some children heirs to some throne or other in Europe and I decided to use them for the swap. These fun little ATCs just crack me up.

The Envelope Please...

Wow! I can't believe I had 175 comments on my One World One Heart Giveaway post! I used a random number generator online to pick the names and here are the winners:

1. For the "sweet" magnets...Lavender Dreamer!

2. For the playing card tags...Crystal!

3. And for the mystery prize...Latharia!

I've emailed all of these lovely people, so I hope I'll be hearing from them soon.

That was fun! I hope you'll stop by my blogs again for more giveaways!

More Art Journal Pages

Here are some art journal pages that I've done this last month. Some were inspired by writing I did prompted by The Awe-Manac and others were inspired by other things in my life right now.

In other art news, I'm gearing up for Artfest in April. I just completed my 32 ATCs for a book one of the other Artfesters is making. This is the first time I've made this many ATCs just for one project. I don't think I've made more than 6 before for swaps, so this was a lot of work.

I'm also making mermaid magnets for trading. I actually made 32 magnets last weekend. And I'm not tired of making them yet!

One World One Heart Giveaway

Why is it so much fun, so fulfilling, to give things away? I don't know, but here I am, giving some things away. Below are two sets of little things I've made that I'm giving away for the One World-One Heart Giveaway. In order to win, you must leave a comment on this post. The winners will be chosen randomly on February 12, 2009.

If you click on the badge above, you can also see all of the other bloggers who are involved in the giveaway. I hope you'll take some time to check out their blog giveaways.

These are some sweet little marble magnets. Mmm, I could lick that cupcake...but I won't.

These lovely glittered tags can be used as book marks or gift tags or anything else you can think of!

I will be adding things to the giveaway as we get closer to February 12, so there will definately be more than two winners.

Oh, and those people who I owe things to for an earlier giveaway, I have them done! I'll mail them to one person and probably show up unannounced at another's house. I hope you like what I've made for you!

So, leave a comment and win!

Art Journal 2009

I know you've all been dying to see some more art, so here are a few art journal pages I've done recently. Right now the art journal and other "artsy" stuff occupy TSH's side of the bed. What will I do when he gets back?


I think the above journal proves once and all that I should stick to glueing things to paper rather than drawing. But it was fun, nonetheless. The poem can be found in a slightly more legible form on My Meandering Musings.

I enjoyed practicing my little squiggly lines on the above page. I haven't played with squiggly lines in years. I forgot how good I was at them. Ahhhh, if I could just have a career based on squiggly lines, I would be set!

I'm Going to Artfest!

I'm so excited!

Yep, I just did the happy dance because I'm so excited to go to Artfest in April! I've never done anything like this before, but I'm glad I'm doing it. I even got all of the classes I wanted, including one taught by the author of Poemcrazy, my current favorite book about writing poetry. Oh, I must go get started on making things to trade with other Artfesters. Must fly!

Some Halloween Fun!

Yes, it's only the second week of September (week number 3 for school!), but I've already started to think about Halloween. I bought costumes for the two boys who care about that kind of stuff yesterday at Joann's before they went on sale. I got to use my 40% off coupons and they both got dinosaur costumes (yes, they're exactly the same. You'd think these little guys were twins if they weren't different heights and looked almost nothing alike.), so that was a good deal. And I've been crafting Halloween stuff for the last few weeks, inspired by Artsymama's Sweet and Sinister Halloween Swap (which a couple of things in this post are actually going towards, but I won't say what! He he!). It's been a blast!



Here's one that I made based on a tutorial from the swap blog. I'm rather pleased with it. (I didn't make the cute little "Treats" box. I bought it and its companion at T.J. Maxx.)



For this one, I painted a frame from a thrift store with black acrylic paint and stamped the witch and the Boo! stamp (both from Martha Stewart's craft stuff from Michaels, which you can now use coupons on!) on vintage text from a story about a witch's birthday party.



This one is candy corn fabric stretched across a canvas (which I bought from the thrift store and it had a picture of a flower on it, but it was super-cheap) which I traced an outline of a black cat on and then painted black around the cat. The last step was to apply glitter around the kitty (I used Martha Stewart's onyx glitter and her glitter glue; I'm totally in love with her glitter right now).



I made this banner using pieces of a photo book kit I bought at the dollar store. I painted all of the chipboard pieces with black acrylic paint, then painted the dots on with more acrylic paints and different size cotton swabs. I then added some glittered chipboard letters and bats punched out (with the bat punch from Martha Stewart, of course) from the same vintage text about a witch's birthday party. Tied together with black ribbon sets it off nicely.

So, there's the fun stuff I've been working on. Once I get done with Halloween, I have to start on presents for Nicole, Heidi, and Jenn, who won my Christmas in July giveaway, but I've just barely now annouced! Hey, you lucky ladies. Congratulations!

New Store at Cafepress.com!

I've been busy playing the last few days creating items for my store at Cafepress.com. It's kind of fun to see your own art on a journal or made into notecards. Here are two items that I've added with my art on them.

I blogged about the House in the Sky collage last month. I have to say I think it's darling. (Of course I have to say that! It's like saying you think your children are beautiful.)

This card/collage was made using a copy of a picture of my great-grandma. I made it last year for a family reunion auction, and I decided to keep it. (If you read about my birdhouse, you might think that's common for me. I'm just a little possesive. Again, my art is like a child, I guess.) But now everyone can enjoy the piece on a notecard! Fun, fun, fun!

Quilt Detail--Shades of Inspiration

Quilt Detail--Shades of Inspiration
Originally uploaded by La Dama de Collage

This is the detail of a quilt that I saw at the Quilt Museum at This Is the Place Heritage Park. I'm awed by this person's talent.

Vintage Green and Flamenco Pink--Shades of Inspiration

Vintage Green and Flamenco Pink--Shades of Inspiration
Originally uploaded by La Dama de Collage

A vintage green Avon decanter and a Royal Doulton figurine match up nicely! These are going to be the colors of my new bedroom!

Arm Candy--Shades of Inspiration

Arm Candy--Shades of Inspiration
Originally uploaded by La Dama de Collage

I made this bracelet last summer and decided to show it off. Of course, as I go to take the picture, the clasp falls off. Guess I'll be restringing it now.

Brigham Young Farmhouse-Shades of Inspiration

Brigham Young Farmhouse
Originally uploaded by La Dama de Collage

So, I found my dream house this weekend. Unfortunately, it's at This is the Place Heritage Park and I don't think they'll sell it to me. But I don't think Great-great Grandpa Brigham would mind if I moved in!

A Sunday Surprise--Shades of Inspiration

A Sunday Surprise
Originally uploaded by La Dama de Collage

Yesterday, I was running into the apartment to change my clothes before going to my parents' house, when I saw this flower. I've lived in this apartment for 2 1/2 years, and this is the first time that I've seen this flower blossom.

Romance Magnets and Back to School for Yvonne

Here are some new items available in my Etsy store.

The marble magnets combine two things I love: Fluffy romance novels and making collage magnets. I used text from one of my own previously read fluffy romance novels as I made the magnets. I have to admit that I also read the book again (at least the good parts!) as I was searching for the perfect words to match the images. Once again, the images for the magnets were from takeabreak's Flickr page.





Below, we have Yvonne again. You may remember her from her day as the Queen of the 4th of July Parade. Now she's heading back to school. And she's not very excited. Poor Yvonne. At least she has a cool lunchbox and some fun new dresses!

La Dama's Christmas in July Gift-a-Way

Hello, everybody. And a Merry Christmas in July to you all!

I know that a lot of people are shocked to already find Halloween items in our favorite craft stores, and in some ways, I feel the same way. However, I love Christmas and I really am ready to start thinking about it now. So, I'm going to start celebrating now by having a gift-a-way for you all, my friends. On July 25th, I will have a drawing for 3 lucky people to win something handcrafted by me. All you have to do to enter the drawing is to leave a comment to this post about what you would like for Christmas (and if you also tell me what items I make that you like, if you win, I can tailor your present to your likes!). This contest is open to close friends and family members as well to people whom I have never had the pleasure of meeting.

So, let's get in the holiday spirit. And to all, a good night!

Queen of the 4th of July Parade

Happy 4th of July, everybody!

This little collage idea just came to me about two hours ago. It's amazing how sometimes I'll go days and weeks (or even longer!) without creating something and then BAM!! inspiration hits and I can't wait to play. This is my first holiday inspired collage.

I first started thinking about making a collage with a picture of a child holding a sparkler and then I started looking for an appropriate picture. I stumbled across this little girl, Yvonne, on divas and dunces Flickr photostream and she called to me. I thought that she would look fabulous with not only a sparkler in her hand but an American flag in her other hand as well. The background is a copy of "America the Beautiful" and cool papers. I colored Yvonne's dress with chalks and enhanced it with a gold pen. Her flag is made of an image I found online and a toothpick while her sparkler is hand-drawn (that's about the extent of my drawing ability!). The buttons are ones that my mother-in-law let me have, and the trims are from Marilyn at Outside the Lines (check out her Etsy shop; it has lots of fun things to create with). Um, as I finished up, I knew that the little girl would need a crown, but I don't know where my little crowns are, so, I, um, took one off an ATC I got awhile back. *gulp* Sorry! As soon as I find my crowns, I'll put it back, I swear, but Yvonne needed a crown!

So, I hope you enjoy your 4th of July, if it's a holiday you celebrate. If it isn't, I still hope you have a lovely day!

These magnets are now available in my Etsy shop. Keep your eyes out for more fun-filled items.

"House in the Sky" Collage

"House in the Sky" Collage
Originally uploaded by La Dama de Collage

I'm not really sure if I'm done with this collage, but I really like it the way it is now, so I'm going to leave it for a little bit and then go back and decide if it needs any other embellishments to finish it up.

This collage definately started with the picture. I found this picture on *Playingwithbrush's Flickr photostream and it really stuck with me. I thought about it a lot before I started working with it. I then decided that each of the girls (and the dog!) needed a crown, so I printed off the crown transparencies from jack and cat curio's Flickr photostream and then colored in the opposite side with a gold American Crafts Metallic Marker. I then adhered them to a piece of cardboard that I had covered with a sheet of Amy Butler scrapbook paper and then added the text from a vintage children's book which I aged with chalk ink.

So, like I said, I'm not sure I'm done with this one, but, for now, I like it!

My Kissing Blocks

Several weeks ago, I bought a box of 100 1.5" wooden blocks from Twice-Round Beads and More's Etsy Shop. I thought they might be fun to play with. And they are! I've just made my first set of collage blocks. They're the smallest canvas (for lack of a better word) that I've used in my art. I've thought about inchies for a long time now, but I've never made any. Maybe now that I've made my "kiss" blocks, I'll be adventurous and make some inchies. But here are my "Kiss" blocks:

Hmm, it looks like Blogger isn't letting me upload my image due to an "internal error." So, here's the link to it on Flickr.

I started these by painting them first. I then chose four different pieces of coordinating scrapbook paper and traced, cut, and glued the pieces to the blocks. The images are from takeabreak's Flickr page. I then adhered the letter stickers to the blocks along with some other embellishments. And now I have a fun little set of blocks for my bookshelf. Maybe I should put some of my fluffy romances on one shelf and use these to decorate that shelf. Hmm, sounds like fun!