Happy (crazy) New Year

I had a bit of a whirlwind holiday this year, with tons of company,  and some unexpected travel. When designing this Arched Tent Card Frame, I felt compelled to make it a little nuts. The outside is normal enough. Nothing odd here.

Construction hint: to make the buttons work as a closure, I first put a dot of white glue where I wanted each button to be, and let it dry. Once that raised surface had hardened, I attached the buttons with hot glue. Now they're raised up enough to wrap the string around them comfortably.

Open it up, and you find the portrait of a young girl.

I loved the look on this young girls face: she seemed a bit daft. So I gifted her with some interesting eyeglasses and popped a giant flower on her head, which evidently attracted a large butterfly. She's holding a lovely bouquet of ....fish? Her sky is filled with floating pies. Mmmm. After all, being crazy is part of her charm.

The outside has one of my favorite collage sheet images of a man holding a couple of fish. So this is where she got that interesting bouquet! I set her gentleman caller in a bed of giant flowers. He's such a romantic.

I enjoyed making this goofy little project. For a list of supplies, click here.

Get Well, For A Friend

I have a friend who will be undergoing open heart surgery next month. His lovely wife had the great idea to purchase an old medical journal that she is going to alter for him. Sort of a giant get well card that he can have while he's in the hospital. She's asked several people to do a page and send it to her, so she can tip them into the book. Here's the page I sent.

It's a little smaller sized than the actual book, which is 6 3/4" by 10", so that there will be a little white space around the edges when it's inserted. The tag sticking out of the hospital gown says "happy heart". When you pull it out, there's a little heart with a bandaid on it.

I hope when he receives this special book, he'll realize how many people love him and wish him well.

Happy Homes

Every now and then, even I need a little break from the circus. And Altoid tins. So this week, I picked up a couple of 5" by 5" artist canvases at Michaels and made a couple of collages. The backgrounds are painted, and the houses are collaged. The flowers and the little bird were stamped on, and I added a couple of metal accents for a little dimension. It was fun to play with my paints again.

Both together:

And separately: