Happy St. Paddy's Day (Patty's?). So a lot has been going on in my life; much is not so great, but I don't need to mention it here. I am now back and ready to try and keep up the blog with a little more diligence.

I have been asked to be co-owner of Altered Art of Visions and Dreams...I am so excited and humbled, and love working with everyone in the group. We have done several swaps including the cards featured above. We decided to do Passport Cards of 2 places we dream to visit some day...mine being Alaska and Australia. We then will put them into our own passport folder (which I still need to make). All the cards are so beautiful and make you want to take flight!

My focus for now is on 2 things: I am currently writing instructions for some new swaps (need to not get bogged down in this LOL) and I am also taking a class from Creative Workshops called "Artistic Journaling, Your Way" by Jodi Ohl. I've tried journaling in the past, and have many books that have maybe 20-40 pages written, but then the rest is left blank. Not sure what to do with them since they date back to the 80's. Perhaps I'll take out the written pages, put them in order chronologically and then start again with the blank books. I'm slow to getting into a good rhythm with this class, though I do have the first lesson almost done - thank goodness these classes don't have a time schedule. I do love the content and will learn more about using a lot of the mediums I have laying around. It is also going to be a very 'freeing' class; much of what I am sure to learn will flow into my life and my future art.

Well, I'll say bye for now - I have a Black & White Round Robin canvas to add to and am anxious to get my hands creatively dirty!!

It's been awhile, but I just want to wish everyone a wonderful Holiday Season. Be thankful for all you have and will receive, for all your loved ones and friends near and far. Most of all, be safe, be happy and share the love and joy around you and wherever you go. Merry Christmas!

YIPEEE! I have finished my first Creative Workshop http://creativeworkshops.ning.com/ project from the Painted Fabric Collage class. I am happy! I am looking forward to doing more...as well as the other swaps I'm involved in with Altered Arts of Visions and Dreams. This picture is simple, and I want to secure it to a piece of old fence board ("...Honey, can you find me a piece of......."). Yes, my sweetheart is going to look for me :o)) And as always, pictures don't do artwork justice, but that's okay. Rain is expected this Tuesday now...hmmmm...maybe I'll hide in 'OZ' for some special art time. Cloudy days and rain always make me smile.

The Heart I received is the one with the lovely yellow flower in the middle...I love yellow and am fond of wine LOl! It is definitely suitable for framing!

The second shows the actual peices I contributed.

Here are the finished products of the Heart Puzzle Swap. Six ladies (including me) took 8 pieces of a heart puzzle...all the pieces being mixed so no one worked on their own but all worked on everyone elses...and altered to our 'heart's' delight! The results are so fun! Thanks to Dove, Kas, Kimberly, Kristal and Phyll! You ladies ROCK!

So here is a picture of my felt skeleton...rather looks like a bride, so I think she needs a groom...and she is sitting on my hat (veils of gold with black cats, black lace in front with a skeleton attached), my spell wand from a branch that I glittered, rhinestoned & feathered and my "poison" apple. That campsite will never be the same, trust me!! A good time was had by all!

Okay, so there were 13 of us all wearing witches hats, holding our wands and chanting spells over the fire...then, after burning our paper spells and notions in a caldron, we walked under the full moon (1/2 mile one way) to the edge of the lake and dumped the ashes in the water...hey, it's how witches do it, I guess :o)) Either way, I'm sure we scared a few other campers that night...wearing hats, waving wands, repeating spells...what a hoot!!