Birthday ATB Swap

Here's my newest Birthday chubby Artist 

Trading Block I created the background by first 

gessoing the ATB and then spritzing with my 

neon Color Mists and drying with the heat gun.  

Next I watered down some white gesso and 

splattered it all over. 

Now its ready to be sent to 

the next person in our birthday swap and I will then 

get it back in time for me to display for my birthday :-)

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What I'm working on...post 2

As promised here is an update of 

what I'm working on. Click Here to see 

my previous post and pictures. I'm not 

too sure about the border yet we'll see. 

On my computer the border and dots 

look black but they are actually a 

chocolate brown.

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Every Inchie Monday's Challenge: Cosmic

I didn't get a chance to do last week's Every Inchie Monday Challenge word of Fishy.  This weeks challenge word is Cosmic. I again hand painted it.  Remember this is only 1 square inch it seems much bigger then it is :-)

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One World One Heart 2011 Winner

I completely forgot to post the winner of my

One World One Heart giveaway!

I'm happy to say that Lotus is the 

winner of my ATB, congratulatons 

Lotus! You can check out her whimsical 

creations HERE!

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Name Graffiti

There's been a lot going on the last couple of days, but I wanted to take a moment to share what my sister made for me out of photographs she took of graffitized trains. I just love it!

You can check out more of her 

photographs here HERE

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Crafty Blogger Blurbs

About Family Crafts 
Stop by and share your crafty cleaning tips and read other people's tips! 

Carmi's Art/Life World 
Carmi crafts some pretty flower brooches with a new tool from Clover! 

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world 
This week at Craftside there is a free tulip quilt block pattern and tutorial, interviews with Susan Strawn author of Knitting America on NPR, Carla Sonheim author of Drawing Lab with details of her workshop at the Etsy Lab in Brooklyn, and a couple of cool DIY sewing tips.

Crafty Princess Diaries 
Tammy's craft club is now slip stitching squares together to make their first baby afghans.

Cross Stitch at About.com 
Connie's dedicating a design to some serious stitchers who are gearing up for some HUGE stitching projects. She reminds them to "Begin with the End in Mind".

Eileen - The Artful Crafter 
Here are directions for making a double strand charm bracelet from Eileen. She made this one for a real life angel. Choose your charms to suit any occasion you like. 

Mixed Media Artist 
Cyndi has a brand new copy of the wonderful book "Scraps" to give away this week! It's a mixed media lover's dream...

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery 
How to make a recycled color wheel dart board. 

The Crochet Dude 
Drew gives five good reasons why January was a blur! 

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Shipping Tag Tutorial

I'm reposting a fun tutorial on 

making vivacious vivid shipping tags!

They make great gift tags, bookmarks 

and embellishments for cards and in your 

art journals.

Click HERE to check it out!

Enjoy!

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What I'm working on...

Here's a new art piece I'm working on.  I started with a16x20 canvas, scrap paper and matte gel medium.  I've since added a layer of watered down gesso and glaze over it.  Below are a couple more photos as it's progressed.  I used my cell phone to take pix so they aren't the best I'll use my good camera when I finish.

Here it is after I've gessoed, 

glazed and sanded it some.

I've stamped layers of paint 

once I sanded it.

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Valentine Treat!

Here's a mega size treat I made for hubby for V-day!

Layers of cake and sugary goodness inside a giant Martini glass!

Nope he wasn't able to finish it but he managed to eat the rest last night LOL

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Happy V-Day!

Happy Valentine's Day Peeps!

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Crafty Blogger Blurbs

About Family Crafts 
If you are in need of a last minute Valentine, check out these printable cards. 

Carmi's Art/Life World 
Carmi has a pop out card tutorial on her blog this week. 

Craftside-A behind-the-scenes peek at a crafty world 
This week at Craftside there are 2 chances to win any book of your choice from QBookShop.com, insight into double exposure photography, 2 free Valentine graphic pattern downloads, 3 samples of extreme lettering, a bunch of the cutest Amineko photos (one with Suede from Project Runway!) and a fun decorating idea. 

Crafty Princess Diaries 
Check out this recycled/reused craft supply score. 

Cross Stitch at About.com 
Connie has a versatile Heart and Hands Blessing pattern for use as a Valentine, wedding, anniversary, or even a St. Patrick's Day project. 

Eileen - The Artful Crafter 
Eileen has some tips for Tara and other aspiring young artists.

Mixed Media Artist 
Cyndi decided to dust off her needle and thread for a brand new project.

Stefanie Girard's Sweater Surgery 
See how to make a recycled sweater, fabric and button cuff 

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Warm Fuzzies

I wanted to share my feel good story with my blog buddies.

I belong to Freecycle.org for my area and had posted the other day that we had an abundance of grapefruit ripe for the pickin' It really makes us feel bad that so many of them go to waste since our trees produce twice a year....We have both white and pink grapefruit trees.  I have picked bags in the past and given them away and had few takers but its been a few years.  This time I had posted a WANT for my sister of a used (but working) and inexpensive older Olympus Camedia 2020 Zoom camera(if you happen to have one let me know), and in order to post a WANT you have to post an OFFER...that's how Freecycle works.  Anyhow, I digress..the point of this post is that I had several responses to my you pick grapefruit offer and received the nicest thank you messages back after they came and picked.  It was not only about getting the grapefruit for themselves, but it also turned out to be the experience of picking them with their families. Normally as I said I would pick them and hang them on the fence for people to come by and pick up, but this time I didn't want to mess with picking them and  I just let people know to bring their own bags and pick as many as they wanted.  The best experience was watching one family who had a little boy put him on their shoulders to pick and hearing him laugh and giggle as he picked grapefruit, it was very sweet and gave my entire family warm fuzzies :-)

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hApPy BiRtHdAy Artist Trading Blocks

I was finally able to finish up a couple more Birthday Artist Trading Blocks.  Remember the little plastic candle holders you put the candles in and stick them into the cake? They have been so hard for me to find! Use to you could find them in the supermarket no problem! I finally had to go to our specialty cake store to find some. I suppose I could have made some out of something else, but I really wanted the candles to fit snuggly and the fact of the matter is I had them stuck in my head and that's what I wanted LOL 

I'm so happy I held out for them because I really think the candle finishes it off, don't you?

Click HERE to check out more of 

my Artist Trading Blocks

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Keep Calm and eat a cupcake!

When all else fails...

Click the picture postcard above 

to download and send to a friend.

Yesterday I experimented with making a red velvet cake from scratch for my hubby.  I baked it in a coffee cup and served it that way. It was a some what dense cake but it was tasty.  

Here's the recipe I used:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 small box of chocolate pudding
• 1/2 ounce red food coloring (add as much as you feel you need)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
•  

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 10 inch round pans.
2. Cream 1/2 cup of shortening, 1 1/2 cups of white sugar, eggs, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract,  in a large bowl. Make a paste of small amount of pudding powder and food coloring in a small bowl and add to shortening mixture. Pour in 2 1/2 cups flour alternately with the milk, mixing until just incorporated. Mix 1 teaspoon of salt, baking soda, and vinegar in a small bowl, and while fizzing fold into the batter; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Pour the batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Frost as desired.

Happy Baking!

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Put a Bird on it!

What a nice surprise to find that Cloth Paper Scissors 
used a couple of my bird ATBs in their tribute to 
Portlandia's Put a Bird on it that aired this past week
 (see below).   Again I dedicate all bird related pieces to 
my dear sister Sharon :-)

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