Patterned Occasions Birthday Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room: You can learn a lot by switching roles!
In both my work life and my art life I find that I often take on a teaching role. I learn a lot when I am teaching both from students and from figuring out how to present what I am teaching. Recently I have also had a fun time learning by switching my role from that of the teacher to that of the student! Whether participating in an art class or observing somebody else doing the work that I do, I gaining powerful insights and inspiration by being a student! Sometimes you really can learn a lot by switching roles!

For today's card I played with the patterned occasions stamp set. I love this adorable cupcake image! I decided to color the image with a number of different markers and stamped the image with the help of the stamp-a-ma-jig. I then stamped and cut out the image on a separate piece of whisper white card stock. I popped up the cut out pieces using dimensionals. Of course I had to add a touch of dazzling diamonds to my cupcake for a bit of bling! I hope you like it!

Healthy Airport Eating and Flying Pigs!

Today's lesson from the craft room: If you make a commitment you can find ways to keep it!
I travel quite a bit and I follow a pretty healthy diet. I have gotten pretty good at seeking out and finding healthy options even in hectic airports! Starbucks at Dallas Ft. Worth Airport provided my latest healthy meal - I love oatmeal for dinner😄 It just goes to show that when you make a commitment to something you can find ways to keep them! Now if I take out my travel watercolor set on the airplane, I'll be really proud of myself!!!!
Today I am sharing an adorable card that was part of a gift I received from Lorraine for Pig Day!!!!! Thanks Lorraine!!!! You can view her blog and her wonderful creativity at www.papervernissage. blogspot.com!

A Butterfly Gift From Afar!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  It's Good To Have Friends You Can Lick Your Plate With!
I confess that there have been times where I have actually licked my plate clean!  After all, how can you let chocolate sauce or a wonderful balsamic vinegar go to waste????  No, I don't do it in restaurants - just in the privacy of my own home :)  I just visited a friend and her husband - this is a friend I have known since I was small - and I smiled very big when I turned around and saw her husband licking the last remaining chocolate sauce from his plate!!!!!  Not only was it fun to see that I'm not the only one guilty of plate-licking - it was also wonderful to be in a place where you are so comfortable, you can do those things that you would normally only do when someone isn't watching you :)  It truly is wonderful to have friends you can lick your plate with!!! :)
Today I am sharing a wonderful surprise that showed up in my mailbox when I returned from my international travels!!!!!  Helen sent me this gorgeous butterfly art piece that she had created using a rainbow of Stampin' Up! colors and the beautiful wings embosslit!!!!  You can check out Helen's blog HERE!  I love all of the adhesive rhinestones she added as well!!!!  Here are a few close ups - I love that this gorgeous creation will hang in my craft room and make me smile every time I look at it!  Thanks Helen!!!!! :)

An Adventure in Marbling!!!!!

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Learn Something From Someone Who Knows!
I had an AMAZING experience this past weekend!  I took a 1-day course on Marbling Magic on Paper and Fabric at the Denver Art Students League from an amazing instructor, Jo Fitsell!!!!!!!  Jo has been marbling and working with fabric for 25 years and learning from her was incredible!!!!!  You can learn more about Jo here!  Also, if you want to learn this amazing technique, she has a wonderful DVD available that was filmed by Quilting Arts!!!!  The DVD is called Marbled Fabric Surface Design and is available HERE!  Can you tell I was impressed?!?!  Jo shared quite a few samples of her work with us to demonstrate the amazing variety of pattern you can create with marbling.  Here is a piece she put together from a number of different fabrics she marbled - just gorgeous!!!!!

It was fun to just dive into the process to see what might happen!  What I loved most about the process is that you have to let go of being in control and literally, go with the flow :)  Here is one part of my workspace during the class...

And here are a few pics of some of the fabrics (the top 2 pics) and paper (the 3rd pic) I created!

At the end of the day I had produced quite a pile of fabric and paper pieces!  Now I can't wait to incorporate them into some of my artwork!!!!  Thank you Jo for a wonderful day and for helping me discover a new passion!!!!!

A Few More Travel Photos: Melbourne, Australia

How does one become a Chocolate Therapist???????
How about these yarn bombed trees! :)