Retro Christmas

Back to the cards of Christmas past with this one coming from 2006. I had found this Melissa Frances retro Christmas patterned paper at Mystic Paper ( back when they were across the street from their present location, in a corner of an antique store...they have come a long way!). The paper reminded me of wrapping paper used on the presents when I was a kid. I had a photo of Christmas taken at my uncle's house in Tucson about 1957 of my sister and I with our cousins. The picture and the paper were a perfect fit for a Christmas card. I did a zig-zag stitch on the machine with green thread, added the "Merry Christmas" ribbon and a green tree brad.

If you are keeping count and wondering if you missed a post on the Christmas card for 2005, you didn't. I was so busy I didn't get cards made so boxed cards were sent.

The End

All good books must come to an end, and these are the last pages in the Summer Book. Which by the way still doesn't have an official title. The page on the left is another junk mail envelope with a large velum window, stamped, rub-ons , distressed with ink and lined with Basic Gray patterned paper. The tag has puzzle pieces that I sanded, then inked.

An acrylic page has a black rub-on flourish. Behind the acrylic is the last page. It is of my grand kids. I photographed them (and photoshop the picture to sepia) as they were walking away, turning to wave good-bye. I have taken care of both GK since they were three weeks old. This year they are both off to school, so except for holiday weeks I won't be watching them. The side of the page reads "8 years of Granny Day Care" and on the bottom of the page"Remember everything I taught you and when you need me I'll be here".

We all know that summer ends when the school year starts, so...the end

Cat in the Hats

As you can see this cat has a rough life. This day the grand kids were over and the sun room turned in to a playroom which means the cat went into hiding. Barbies, cars, Lincoln Logs, stickers, costumes, books, and more, all over the room. The hats got dumped on the footstool and when the kids went home to mom and dads house, the cat appeared from her safe place (that place cats hide while the grand kids are at granny and papa's house), she discovered the hats. This was something new and different on the stool, so apparently upon closer inspection, it called for a nap.

Lighting a Fire Under Grandma

In my Mystic Paper Design Team sack for October I also received four sheet of Basic Gray Perhaps patterned paper. The colors went well with a picture of my grandmother when she was a young girl. I set the paper and the photo on my table, and waited for some inspiration to come...it took a while.

I remembered a technique I had seen at Art Unraveled last year. A photo had been copied on to a transparency, and it had been burned just enough to melt the edges. A very cool effect. I played around with the transparency of grandma and figured out how to burn the edges ...with out burning down the house. I was pleased with the way it turned out...what do ya think?

Winter Wonderland

Back to Mystic Paper and the Design Team. The "hopefuls" needed to submit one 12x12 layout and one project of our choice. I entered a very large ( 10 pounds, 5 inches thick, about 13x13 and over 20 pages) interactive family history album that took me nine months to design. And if I can ever figure out how to photograph the pages so they will show up on the blog I will post them. Until then...the 12x12 layout I entered was one of my granddaughter playing in the snow in my mother's back yard in Flagstaff. It was so cold out, I watched the grand kids from mom's dinning room window. I was able to take this picture through the glass by turning off the flash and using the zoom. The patterned paper is Basic Gray. I stitched a piece of sparkly organza to the page create the winter wonderland effect.

Please pass the tissues

Okay...one more Flagstaff picture. The meadows, on the way up the mountain, were a sea of yellow, from all the blooming wildflowers. It was a "stop worthy" photo. These beautiful wildflowers are also probably the reason why everybody in Flagstaff has hay fever this time of year!

Fancy Colorful Birds

Speaking of Gardens...and we were. For Father's Day this past June, our daughter gave her dad a bird feeder. He set it up in the back yard under the Jacaranda tree. Talk about cheap ( get it- "cheep", sad I know, I couldn't resist) entertainment. From the sunroon window we (grand kids and cat too) spent the summer watching the birds. Not your fancy colorful birds, mostly sparrows and 3 types of gray and brown dove. Until a almost white dove showed up for it's share of the bird seed. Of course that called for a picture. I took this one with the zoom, through the window. I have promised the cat that she'll have a the fancy colorful bird to watch this winter.