Fowl Friday :)

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Go Get A Mammogram!!!!!
I just received word from an incredibly close friend of mine that she has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer.  She found out last week and is undergoing a lumpectomy tomorrow.  She was not due for a mammogram and had not felt any lumps, but something inside of her was telling her to go and get a mammogram.  I am so grateful that she listened to that little voice inside of her!  So today's lesson is a simple one - please, listen to that voice inside of you and if it is telling you to go get a mammogram, go do it!!!!!
I usually share Friday Folds with you on Friday, but today I decided to share Fowl Friday :)  I will be visiting some relatives shortly and one of them loves roosters, so I decided to take a break from angel making to create a rooster ornament for her :)  I created a pattern and then cut the rooster out of muslin.  I then painted some muslin with a mix of paints and dyes.  The twig legs were added with hot glue as were all of the strips of painted muslin for the tail.  Felt was cut for the top of the rooster's head and beak and the painted fabric was cut to create a wing and waddle.  Acrylic paint and gesso was used to paint the eye feature.  I know there isn't any stamping on this rooster, but there is a whole lot of love and creativity poured into him!  I hope he inspires you to try something new - especially to create something for someone you love!  Have a beautiful weekend and please keep my friend in your thoughts!

1,000 YouTube Followers!!!!!

I just wanted to say thank you so much to all of you that subscribe to my YouTube channel!  The number of followers reached 1,000 today!!!!!  I am overdue for posting videos - I am hoping to get back on track later this month and will try to bring you new inspiration!!!! :)  Thank you again!!!!

Angel #3: Bits of Fabulous Phrases

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  The Instinct Strikes You For A Reason
I was sitting on the couch doing a bit of work on Tuesday when I had an instinct to get up and look outside in the backyard.  I have learned to trust those instincts when I have them, so off I went into the kitchen to take a look out the window.  And there he was - the black cat that comes to visit our yard on occasion.  I hadn't seen him for a few days and, with Willow's passing, I have had a yearning for feline contact.  The instinct created an opportunity for that perfect encounter.  This kitty is so sweet.  He meowed at me and let me love on him a bit before going on his way to hunt for mice and terrorize dogs :)  I strongly believe instinct strikes you for a reason.  The question is whether or not you are willing to heed its call and see where it is wanting to take you.
Today's I'm sharing Angel #3 with you.  For those of you following my blog, you know that I have given myself the challenge of creating 30 angels in 30 days.  Because of my schedule the creating will not happen at an even pace.  At times I will need to create multiple angels in a day in order to keep up with the challenge.  My hope is to succeed...I guess we'll know by December 2nd! :)  Today's angel was the one I created for my friend Cynthia - the woman who inspired this challenge in the first place because of her love of angels (and her love of purple!).  I began with a sheet of fabric cloth that I had created (maybe a year ago!) following instructions from a video by Beryl Taylor.  It is a fabulous way to create fabric for mixed media projects using stamping, tissue paper, book pages, paint, candy wrappers....a whole lot of fun!!!!!  I cut out the angel pattern (it is the same pattern that I created for the angel I shared on Tuesday) from the paper fabric and from a piece of muslin.  I sewed the two pieces together - leaving a space for stuffing.  I then added the base wire for the wings and added organza, muslin and fiber pieces to the wings.  The fabric paper was stamped with the Fabulous Phrases stamp set and the face was painted with gesso and then detailed with permanent markers and watercolor crayons.  I covered the whole angel body with a sparkle glaze to create some shine.  I hope you like it....Cynthia did :)

Out On A Whim Wednesday: Glass!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Go Blow!!!!!
No offense intended with today's lesson from the craft room!  Last night I had an amazing experience!!!!!  My friend Elizabeth and I have created a bit of a tradition.  To celebrate our respective birthdays we go on a creative adventure!  For one birthday it was a painting class.  For another, a glass fusing excursion.  And last night, in celebration of both of our belated birthdays, we took on glassblowing!!!!!!  Wow!  What an experience!!!!!  We went to a studio here in Denver called Agnes of Glass.  We both purchased Groupons and hoped for the best!  We weren't disappointed.  I think one of the things that stuck with me the most was when Agnes started talking about how the tension we hold in our bodies will actually make their way into the glass.  If we are tense and uptight, our piece will be off-balance.  It seems to me that this is true about so many things - the energy we bring to something is the energy that we give to that thing.  I'm not saying that that is a bad thing - actually, I think it is what makes art and creativity so powerful - it gives us an opportunity to outwardly express that which is inside of us.  I learned so much from this experience that took us less than 3 hours.  Lessons about myself and how I approach something new.  Lessons about how we can give to one another - it really did take a village to create each glass tumbler.  There were 4 of us in the class, along with Agnes and two assistants.  When one of us was working on our piece the others were encouraging us, or blowing the tube to put air into our glass, or helping to transfer our glass from one place to another, or heating our glass in the glory hole (the hotter than heck furnace where the glass gets heated and reheated so that the piece becomes hot enough to "work").  I also learned once again that the creative process is a journey that I need - a journey that brings me closer to myself and others.  My advice to you?  Go blow!!!!!! :)
The "marble" that you are seeing above is a piece of glass that gets clipped off of the end of the glass after colored glass has been added and melted into the clear glass.  In order to create a "twist" in the colors of the glass, the end of the molten glass is clipped off as you are simultaneously turning the pole on which the glass is adhered.  (I know I'm not using the technical terms that likely describe this entire process - looks like I might need to go back and learn more!).  We won't see our finished pieces for a week.  They needed to cool and then the bottoms will be ground slightly so that the glasses sit level.  I'll be sure to share the finished piece when I get it back.  In the meantime, this is a "tease" of what it might look like! :)

Two Ways Tuesday: Distressed Dots Background Stamp

For this week's Two Ways Tuesday I decided to play with the Distressed Dots background stamp!

For my first project I decided to ink up the stamp with Island Indigo ink and use the dots as a background for a mini book.  I love carrying these mini books around with me so that I can jot down my thoughts at a moment's notice!  I use recycled paper on the inside of the book.  Here is a close-up of the stamping on the cover.  I used the Broadsheet Alphabet with black Staz-On and dazzling details to spell "dream."

Background stamps aren't just wonderful for use with ink!  You can also use them with acrylic paints and gesso - as long as you rinse them quickly and don't let the paint/gesso dry out on your stamp.  Since I am challenging myself to create 30 angels in 30 days, I decided to incorporate the distressed dots stamp into an angel :)

I began with unbleached muslin and stamped the muslin with the stamp using gesso.  Here is a close-up of the fabric with the gesso dots:

I also stamped the front of the angel with the sentiment from Pursuit of Happiness.
I hope you've enjoyed this week's Two Ways Tuesday and I hope it motivates you to use your Distressed Dots background stamps in new and exciting ways! :)

Mixed Media Angel

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Let Someone Else's Passion Inspire You!
My massage therapist will be celebrating a birthday this week.  I have been going to her for massages for a number of years and it's funny what you notice and what you don't.  A few visits ago, she asked me if I had noticed all the angels and butterflies that she has around her massage room.  Although I had been in that room time after time, I never did notice all the little angels and butterflies hidden and hanging all over the space!  I guess when I arrive there I am in "massage" mode and my awareness is not as acute with respect to my surroundings.  Since her birthday is this week I decided to use her passion for angels as my inspiration....and it's amazing where that is taking me!  I began with this first angel - using fabric I had doodled and colored myself.  I combined the fabric with a number of Stampin' Up! products.  Can you see them?  Notice the Elegant Bird die wings?  And the Lacy Brocade embossing folder used the give the wings dimension?  How about the letters from the Simply Serif Mini Alphabet?  I used some colored pencils to highlight the gesso stripes as well.  When I completed this angel I was ready to start on another one...believing that another angel would feel exactly right for my friend.  And then, before bed last night I began thinking about challenging myself.  Challenging myself to make 30 angels in 30 days!  It's a tall order since I have quite a bit going on in the next 30 days.  It will mean that some days I will not make any angels and on other days I will need to make more than one to catch up!  By December 2nd, my collection of angels will be complete (and there will likely be 29 remaining after I gift one to my friend :)  I will do my best to share each angel with you - and I will also try to use at least one Stampin' Up! product on each angel - although not all of the will be stuffed and not all of them will use fabric.  Yes, this should be quite a challenge!  I'm excited to let someone else's passion take my inspiration to new and exciting places!  Wish me luck! :) and feel free to join me in the challenge...or just make one angel for yourself - whatever inspires you :)