We're starting to get the hang of this......

We've been out on the River about 5 times now and have a 5lb King jack salmon and a 4lb Wild Coho to show for it. Not bad. Still looking for that big Chinook, but we're getting better.........

Pine Needle Baskets

When we were camping at Lassen in August I bought a kit with instructions on how to make pine needle baskets. And we were camping right in the middle of hundreds of Ponderosa Pine trees. I collected up a grocery bag full of them and I've been making these cute little baskets while watching tv in the evenings. I've made 3 so far; these 2 here and 1 tiny one that sits on the dash of the car to hold change. They are so addicting and each one turns out unique. I scrapped this picture using several Club Scrap digi kits including: Adobe, Apothecary, Henna and Fossils.

Wing-ed Things

Finishing up some swap commitments. I really was having a block on this Winged Things swap and then got linked up with some flower tutorials and was off to the races, finally. I started with a Citra Solv background and then did some flower stamping with acrylic paint; then cut apart more flowers to make butterflies with a bead body and wire antennae. Voila!

Happy 24! Paul

Happy Birthday, Paul! It's such a unique year as we were both born in the year of the Rabbit and that makes me twice as old as you. I dug up some great layouts featuring you as the star. The Inn at Spanish Bay uses Club Scrap's Gratitude kit; The layout with Gus in the snow is done with some digi freebies and CS Milestones; The trip to Florida is on CS Concrete Jungle and the one relaxing by the pool is on CS Anniversary Cruise. Hope you enjoy your day and all the College Football games.

The Mummy Strikes!

It's getting to be that time of year, when the ghosts and ghoulies come out to play!  Well, I know it's over a month away, but when you're swapping ATC's you kinda gotta get going a little early. This idea popped into my head at 3am the other day and I got a chance to put it into action today. I couldn't resist this Halloween themed tissue tape when I saw it at Michael's and I'd been mulling over how to make a mummy with it, when "make a wire form and wrap it" came to me in the wee hours. Some chain tie downs and a mica flake floor and it all came together.

And a big Happy Birthday (for real) to my son Paul! 24 years today! Ahhhhhhh, I can remember it like it was yesterday!

Transparent Tea Time Pendant

I got some of those new faceted fragments to play with for the current Grungy Monday challenge (21 I think it is). I also wanted to do a necklace for the September lottery at paperartistsonline so I combined the two and came up with this piece. It's a mini collage with a teacup theme and I incorporated a couple of the techniques that Tim describes on his blog. I used the oval facet and some of my newly purchased beads from my visit to Shipwreck Beads last month. ( If you're in the Olympia, Washington area at all--a must see--bring your wallet). It was a little difficult to photograph the facet since it has faux-etching on the top, but you can see the little teacup at the bottom. Tomorrow we're going salmon fishing. Hope we get a big one!

A Puzzling Dilemma........

I'm hosting a swap over at paperartistsonline and I spent the week end finishing up my pieces for it. I decided to go for a Tim Holtz inspired theme on mine and I have fallen in love with that new resist paper of his. I used an entire sheet on each piece. I love how it takes the distress ink so well and the resist just POPS! 

I also used some cutout images from the DCWV paper stack Tattered Time, another paper I'm finding I love to play with. When I was up visiting my crafty friends in Washington I got to use the big clock die and the tattered flowers die so I added some of those to some of the pieces too. They were cut from Club Scrap pops.

 

I also got to use a whole bunch of new ideology doodads that I've been dying to try. Those little light bulbs take alcohol ink beautifully and the little chain dangles remind me of pendulum clock chains.

And now for the dilemma--WHICH ONE DO I KEEP!!!!! In hosting this swap, I get to look at each and every one of these beautiful works of art (there are 48 in all), but I also have to decide which one's to swap out and which one's I get to keep. I only get 3 plus one of my own and I want them ALL!!!