Will You Be Attending? . . .

It's almost here!  This Friday and Saturday is the Holiday Affaire II event in Costa Mesa.  Below are a few items that I will be selling . . .

Christmas Angel - 8" x 8" gallery wrapped canvas

Christmas Tree - 8" x 8" gallery wrapped canvas

laser wood cut Santas and Elves and some
fun swimsuit & intimate Santa girl earrings

Some vintage goodies in the mix . . .

And of course I will be bringing some of my Eclectic Charm Necklaces . . .

Oh, and I just learned today that 4 more artists will be selling at the event.  That makes twelve of us now.  There will be something for everyone - sterling silver jewelry, candle holders, gorgeous holiday pillows, decorator dolls, whimsical creations, greeting cards, fine art and MORE!


Ooooh, and don't miss the Mini Marketplace.  There's going to be some really good new and slightly used items and even some vintage ephemera for sale at some great prices.


For address, time of event both days, etc., please refer to my blog post below.  Hoping to see you Friday, Saturday or maybe even both days! :)

A Holiday Affaire II - December 2nd and 3rd

Hello Blogger Peeps! I will be participating in the upcoming event on Friday, December 2nd and Saturday, December 3rd with some of my other artsy friends. Please note the times for each day. Friday - noon to 6pm and Saturday - 10am to 4pm.

The event is being held again at the home of my friends Linda and Bob Bucci in Costa Mesa (see above for complete address).  Their house is on the corner of 19th and Raymond.

AND we're going to have a "Mini Marketplace" where you can get some good deals on art books & magazines, vintage ephemera, inks, ribbon, rubber stamps and soooooo much more.  First come-First served.

So mark you calendars and spread the word!  Bring your cash, checks and credit cards.  There will be a credit card machine available and I'm also hooked up with the SQUARE Card Reader on my IPhone.  We've got you covered any way you want/need to pay for what you can't live without this holiday season :)

Have a Happy Thanksgiving next week!

Reflect on your present blessings
of which every man has many,
not on your past misfortunes,
of which all men have some
Charles Dickens

Merry Christmas

I Made It!

Earlier today my crafting mood was altered (not by choice), and I put away all of my supplies and decided that I wasn't going to be able to complete the remaining 12 Tags of Christmas in time to meet the New Years Eve midnight deadline.  


I called Lezlei, and after about a 30+ minute talk on the phone (not just about the tags, mind you), she encouraged me to get my supplies back out and finish up the last three tags I needed to complete.

I have taken one photo of all of my tags together (as instructed by Tim), and have e-mailed my entry for the chance at winning the grand prize.  It all comes down to "the luck of the draw", as the winning tags will be chosen randomly,  and announced and posted on Tim's blog January 1st.

Guardian Angels in My Life

KC Willis is giving away this really cool Guardian Angel Collage she has created on a vintage book cover to everyone who mentions and links to Collage Camp on their blog, Yahoo group, Twitter, etc.  You get the picture!

On the back of each handmade collage, KC has handwritten "Post an angel at your door. Fear the darkness nevermore."  Ok, so I know where THIS Guardian Angel is going to be placed!  


If you are a "regular" on my blog, you know how much I have enjoyed taking KC's on-line workshops!  Well for the next week, you TOO can take Collage Camp.  And instead of the regular $98 cost, you can join in the fun for $75!  


Just click on the link for KC Willis Collage Camp over in the column on the right - here on my blog.  


And yes, I am also a member of KC's Mixed Media Mania workshops as well.  Like I said, I really enjoyed her workshops this past year!


And speaking of Guardian Angels . . .

You can't have too many Guardian Angels in your life.  This is the quilted Guardian Angel that my friend Jacki Long gifted me at Christmas.  Isn't she just precious?  

HEY! Where's My Christmas Basket???

December 26th is Boxing Day, and from what I have read, is a public holiday or bank holiday in the U.K., Australia, Canada, Germany, Greenland, New Zealand, Hong Kong and countries in the Commonwealth of Nations that are made up of mainly a Christian population.

Boxing Day in the United Kingdom is traditionally a day when employers distribute money, food, cloth (material) or other valuable goods to their employees.  Ok "Day Job", where's my Christmas Bonus Check, a turkey, some new clothes or something more valuable than that Christmas tree metal ornament  (that was scratched, by the way) that you distributed to all your employees?

More recently, employers traditionally give their servants (yeah, that's what I am) a gift of money or food in a small box on the day after Christmas Day.  "Day Job", are you reading this??  Where's my Christmas basket?!


In South Africa, The Day of Goodwill, also honored on December 26th, is a day to give to those who are less fortunate.


I read so many takes on this Boxing Day holiday thing and am not sure I really know WHAT it all means now.  However, from what I gather, although this is a statutory holiday in some countries, it doesn't seem to be celebrated in the way it was intended to be in the beginning.  

This Boxing Day holiday seems to boil down to nothing more than watching an ice hockey event on the t.v. or shopping the stores the day after Christmas.  I'm just sayin' . . . 

The Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #5

I think today is for cleaning instead of crafting!

This must not have been a good day for me to make tags.  Not all that jazzed about how either one of these turned out, but since I'm posting all of them urrrrgh.  


I was going with a circular-gold-kinda theme for this first one . . .

I put a strip of sequins at the top and bottom of this tag, but they were just too "over the top" for this tag.  I'll remove it and try a plain gold ribbon instead.  Give me a day to sleep on this one ok?

This is the second Tag #5 I made - not feelin' this one either.  I was destashing this morning and was just about to throw this Starbucks bag in the trash when I saw some possibilities . . .

This tag was made using Fired Brick Distress Crackle Paint, Aged Mahogany Distress Ink, acrylic fragment charms, a cut up Starbucks holiday bag, Glossy Accents, some wire, and a gold paint pen.

The Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #12 and Tag Tuesday

Although this is Tag #12, I still have 5 more to do (2, 4, 5, 7 and 8).  I am having SO much fun putting my spin on Tim's Twelve Tags of Christmas!


Some of the grunge paper (not grunge board) rose petals were covered in decorative papers and some were rubber stamped - and of course inked before assembling.

I covered my tag with vintage music from a church song book.  

Products used to create this tag include:  Flourish rubberstamp, Grungepaper, decorative papers, white paint pen, silver flower leaves, a couple of rhinestones, Glimmer Mist, Glossy Accents, a piece of silver glittered leaf stem, Distress Inks, black acrylic paint, a Season's Greetings rub-on, ribbons and (yet again!) Platinum Stickles Glitter glue!

Thanks for stopping by! 

I'll be working on Tag #5 today - *smiles* 


PS  Have you seen the new die cuts that Tim is coming out with?  Be still my heart!

And for Tag Tuesday, over
on Louise's Kard Krazy
blog, today's challenge was to make a tag that was not in the shape of a rectangle.

I made a tag in the shape of a Christmas stocking covered with vintage sheet music of "Oh Let Us Praise the Christmas Tree", some German Glitter Glass and a few holiday trims and ribbons to finish it off.

Mail Break

I thought it was about time I took a shower, washed my hair, put some deodorant on, and put something on other than a fresh pair of flannel pj's. 

This isn't me, but these ARE my Nick and Nora flannel pj's!

I hadn't checked the mail since last Thursday.  I know, I'm really taking this staycation a little too far, huh?

And NO, this isn't my mailbox, but YES my mailbox was about this full!

Along with the bills and the junk mail, I received two packages.  

The first package was from my (very talented artist) friend, Jacki Long.  

I opened the collaged card she had made, but will wait until Christmas Eve to open the two packages that were enclosed.  Although I sure would LOVE to *smiles*.

Thank you my friend!

The next package was from Pam Austin.  Huuummmm, had I won something on her blog and didn't remember?  Oh wait, Pam doesn't HAVE a blog.  What would she be sending me?  I opened the top tissue-wrapped item first . . .

Oh MY! - This was such a surprise and the nicest RAK - Random Act of Kindness.  Click on the tag to read what Pam wrote.

Then I opened the other one - it's a wall calendar by Anne Taintor. . .

This calendar reminded Pam of the atc's I made for the Tim Holtz cruise this past October.  Was this a thoughtful RAK or WHAT?!  

Here's the backside showing all of the months for 2010 . . .

I will Sooooo enjoy each and every one of them Pam - Thank you for your random act of kindness!
UPDATE: . . .
Pam is someone that sat next to me at Wendy Vecchi's make-n-take at the July RSC in Carson.  She heard me talking about the upcoming (at the time) art cruise to Mexico, and said because of all my ranting and raving she signed up!  Yep, so that's how Pam and I met.  After the cruise, we saw each other at the November RSC (that I blogged about already).  That's Pam below on the left.  Hi Pam! *smiles*

And guess what else?  One of Pam's best friends lives less than a mile from me and that's where she was when she read this post after work yesterday.  It's things like that in life that just make me smile!

The Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #3

So I was looking through some of my craft drawers - the drawers with glitter and peebles and glass shards, and  . . . well you get the picture.  In one of those drawers I found these 12 little bottles of ink. 

Do you remember these?  They're the Posh Inkabilities that Ranger makes *or used to make*.  I haven't seen these around in a long time.  They were specifically made to use with that compressed sponge in the photo above.  Dee Gruenig used them a lot.


I have all of the Alcohol Inks (you saw them in an earlier post that Renee labeled for me!), but I thought I would try these Posh Inks to make the plaid paper for this tag instead.  I've had these waaaaay longer than my Alcohol Inks, so why not use them?

I didn't wait for the paint to dry before I went the other way with the sponge on these to get the plaid look, but I kinda like the effect.  Next time I do this though, I'll have a little more patience *smiles*


So here are the tags I made . . .

I took a piece of the leftover plaid and stamped the "star light star bright" message on the back, added a little color to it and then using some Glossy Accents attached it to an acrylic fragment.  What's nice is that the back of the tag is already "finished".

I added some snaps on the four corners . . .

Here's the first Tag #3 . . .

On the next Tag #3 I used a different tree stamp (same one I used on Tag #6 in the car).  The tree stamp doesn't have a trunk, so I used a "love" stamp sideways to make one 


Stamped some snowflakes and added some Platinum Stickles Glitter Glue (duh!) to the snowflakes and the tree 


Cut two strips from the striped paper and added to the top and bottom of the piece

The fibers I used were the PERFECT colors!  I was gifted these from my friend Linda Forrest awhile back. Thanks Linda!

PS  The reindeer I used on Tag #11 was picked up at one of the Sugar Plum festivals, but I'm sure you can find something similar at your local craft and hobby store in the ornament section.  This one just worked out so well because it was fairly flat and I could glue it down.

Back to Tag #12 - started on it last night.  Can you tell I'm having fun so far on my staycation at home? *insert big smiles here*

The Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #11

For my take on Tag #11, I used Distress Inks, one of the Flourish rubberstamps, 

jeweled reindeer, one of Tim's metal flowers, a sheer gold mesh fabric flower I took apart,  

Gold Stickles, Platinum Stickles (of course!), coordinating ribbons and fibers, Pearl Glimmer Mist, Pineapple Glimmer Mist and a silver paint pen.

Working on Tag #3 before I call it a night.  Wait until you see what I found in one of my craft drawers.  Talk about a blast from the past!

The Twelve Tags of Christmas - Tag #1

Ok, this makes, #6, #9, #10 and now #1.  Four down and 8 to go!

My rendition of Tim's Tag #1 of the 12 Tags of Christmas:

The Snowman stamp I used is a custom stamp that was hand carved by my friend Linda Bucci.  I stamped the Snowman and cut it out around the border and applied foam tape behind it and attached to the tag to make it dimensional . . .

Other products used on this tag include a Paper Distresser, Happy Holidays rubberstamp, heat tool, Carrara Marble Coarse Glitter by Martha Stewart, Pearl Acrylic Paint Dabber, Dried Marigold and Brushed Corduroy and Walnut Stain Distress Inks, Just For Fun snowflake stamp, Glossy Accents and Tattered Angels Pearl Glimmer Mist 

The Pearl Paint dabber was used on the snowflake stamp and after stamping, I heat set the snowflakes.

The little crown on the Snowman's head is Grungeboard that I faux rusted and attached with Glossy Accents.   Coordinating fibers were strung from the top of the tag for hanging.


And I guess you know by now . . . Platinum Stickles Glitter Glue can be found on this tag as WELL!  *smiles*