Felting Soap and MAIL ART!

Okay... so I've been busy this week, mostly listing things to sell on eBay. But I've also been making felted soaps to sell in my shop (Boulder Creek Antiques & Art)...and! a tutorial to go with a "DYI Felted Soap Kit. 

The fun part of the week has been getting lovely MAIL ART from my friends on Blissfully Art Journaling. Thankyou Shay (in Australia), Annelie (in Holland) and Stacy (in Warren Michigan)! See pics of all below.....

Mail Art....

Well, we're home again, and as always, I hit the ground running. So here's the first chance I've had to post pictures of the mail art I did on our vacation. The idea came up in one of my Yahoo groups (love that group!) and poof... out of my mind was my Madonna/Goddess paintings! This was so much fun! I wrote a short Haiku for each card. Started with a piece of 300lb watercolor paper and did a number of acrylic color washes that felt like the ocean, greens and blues. Funny thing... the post office said they were too stiff and charged me double plus something. But it was worth it. Next time I'll use cardstock, or hey, maybe a real postcard!

A FUN week!

This has been a really fun week. Usually I travel alone, and I love it. But this trip, hubby felt up to coming along and we've had so much fun.... doing almost nothing. Nothing by fooling around with a little art, or mostly, sitting on the deck over the ocean reading, drinking wine coolers, and eating local cheese and bread. That's the life!

Oh... then, there have been a few visits from old friends who live somewhat local to Depoe Bay, Oregon. My highschool girlfriend Karen drove 2 hours from Eugene to visit. What a hoot.... we didn't miss a beat since we saw each other last about 25 years ago. We both still wear our hair like we did in 1965. Oh... and she brought along her highschool boyfriend who she reunited with after 45 years! How sweet is that! Today they are in love and happy.... I'm so happy they found each other again.

And last night our friends Nina and Hugh arrived from northern Washington (six hour drive) to spend today with us. I'll post pics tomorrow.

So, no more art today.... just visiting and relaxing with dear friends.

Blissed out!

Whoops.... I've been so blissed out that I forgot I have a blog! Hubby and I are up here in Depoe Bay, Oregon, right on the coast!

Loving every moment, every sound of the huge winter waves at high tide.


 

And here is the amazing MOON SETTING from Sunday morning.

Yesterday was cloudy and rainy.... but the mighty Ocean Muses kept me happy at my little art table. What a view! rain or shine!

On the right is one of my faces from Tam's class. I'm taking her LIfe Book class, but didn't take a picture of that first painting. The one on the left is from All Norah's Art, Sharon's Faces in Collage. I REALLY REALLY like the way she turned out. This is Hestia, the Greek Goddess of home and hearth, eyes turned heavenward offering the gift of fire to keep our hearts warm.

Today's going to be another FULL DAY of painting! Just loving it!

Namaste and Sweet Blessings.....

And the Birthday winners are....

What a pleasant and beautiful day I had, mostly sitting on my porch swing chatting with my wonderful 19 year old granddaughter! Warms my heart!

So, with the last comment posted, here are my random counter chosen winners:
#1 spiral journal            3    Tammy Freiborg
#2 cupcake painting        10    1carmelitelover - Peggy
#3 composition journal        40    Jennifer Willis of Sweet Pea Stamps
#4 tag journal                70    Claudine of Claudine's Art Corner
#5 set of stamps            68    Mary Walker of Mary Walker Designs
#6 two pdfs                79    Lillian Mederak of Canadian Scrap Tramp

I was able to find emails to notify several of you, others, I couldn't find you. So please email me your addresses asap so I can get your birthday presents in the mail to you!
Sweetest of Blessings to you, and thanks for making this such fun!
xoxo Chris

The #1 song on the Day I was Born!

Birthday Eve - Give Aways

Well, best of intentions... I had planned on giving away many more items to celebrate my 65th birthday tomorrow. Here are a few more gifts I'll be giving away....

A set of three new stamps.

A paste paper covered composition journal similar to this one.

A funky 'tag journal' as seen here in my Etsy shop.

Also, for gift number 6, I'm gifting two of my pdf files (your choice) currently in my Etsy Shop.


Simply leave a comment and you're name is in the drawing. Check back tomorrow afternoon to see who the winners are. You'll need to email me your mailing address so I can get them in the mail on Thursday.

Sweet blessings my friends.

This week's work....

Yes, I started Tam's Life Book class and I'm not quite ready to post pictures yet. But, I'm loving the class!

Yesterday though, I got ambitious and created a SMASH BOOK journal to list on Etsy. I've been wanting to do one since taking Full Speed Boogey. I debated about putting on a traditional hand sewn binding, but I like the flexibility of the spiral bound. I'm curious what your thoughts are. I love the look and handle of the traditional, but the ease of folding over the pages in a spiral bound is great.

The front and back covers show off my paste papers (over heavy book board) and each has a sweet pocket on the inside to stash clippings or what ever. It totals 31 pages, with quite a few fold out pages, so there is at least 70+ pages for layouts. It measures just over 9x6".

Here are some pictures of the journal. Also, below is my latest covered composition book. Both listed on etsy.

Have you found your 2012 WORD?

To Start the New Year....

New Art Journal Plans....

I've decided my next "body of work" will be a series of the Divine Feminine (Madonnas, Goddesses, etc.) So, for some odd reason, I was inspired by Pam Carriker (don't ya love her!) in this VIDEO.

So this is my first practice piece.

The next picture is the cover of the Journal I purchased and put into a spiral bound book to be my "Goddess Journal".

I blogged about this HERE.

Thanks for checking in.

Sweet Blessings on the PATH to discovering the Artist Within.....

More Birthday Give Aways! GOT CAKE?

Whew, now that Christmas is over, the holiday still continues in my heart. I don't really feel relief, in fact, it's kinda sad that suddenly all the Christmas music stops.  But I'm on a roll now, for my BIRTHDAY GIVE AWAY.

Today I am gifting one of my cupcake paintings. It measures about 4x5", painted on a studio canvas, no need to frame.

Keep leaving your comments. I'll pick random numbers on January 4th and will send the winners my/their birthday gifts!

Sweetest Blessings for continuous Holiday Joy

Chris

Free Calendar

Hello dear friends... Hope you're having a happy holiday! Everything is done at my house, so I spent some time today creating a blank calendar for next year. Feel free to copy and paste (or drag) to your desktop, or what ever. I created it in photoshop then saved as a jpeg.

It's for my 3 ring 6x9 datebook. (Decided not to buy one this year.) It's ready to print at 8.5x11 landscape. If you cut right at 5.5 you'll have space to punch holes. I printed mine on cardstock and glued them onto last years (opps, it's still this year!) tab pages. Now I can clown around with my pens and colored pencils.  If you can't nab it from here, send me your email and I'll send you a high resolution jpeg.

Sweet blessings!

Birthday Give Away!

Finally, I've finished my Christmas crafting and baking. Now I can turn my thoughts to the New Year and my.... SIXTY-FIFTH birthday! January 4th.  And I'm celebrating this year with a few gift aways. I have several items in mind and will be listing them in the next few days.

Today, I'm starting by giving away one of my hand-made spiral journals.

This sweet journal is approximately 4.5 x 5 inches, the chipboard front and back are covered with paste papers I made last October in Oregon. (See old post.)

Heavy weight art paper inside will support light washes, pencils, and most drawing tools.

 All you have to do to enter is

leave a comment and join my site.
I'll be choosing randomly on my birthday
(Jan 4th) and will mail packages that day. (Of course I'll include some random goodies too!)

Last Christmas Mini Book for the year....

Tadaaa. I just finished my last mini album for this season. This one is for our family Pirate Gift Exchange. You know, everyone picks a number. 1st person picks a gift and unwraps it. Persons 2, 3, etc. can steal your gift or choose a new one. It's a rollicking good time! And always so funny! Secretly, I'm hoping my niece Lisa will end up with it.

So, my sweetie Molly agreed to be my prop this morning, holding up the book. I didn't get all the pages, but this gives you an idea.