Trying to stay cool.

Thank you and New Art

Hello Everyone,

I want to thank all of you who were so kind as to take time out from your busy days - to stop by and wish me a Happy Birthday. I am thrilled and Honored - for you are truly Friends of the Heart. Once again thank you so much for making my day so special.

A couple posts ago I showed you the cards I made for the the Blissful ATC swap for July. My partners cards arrived on my birthday so I thought I'd share them with you today. My Partner was Victoria and besides being a dabbler in the art of ATC's, like me - she is the human mom to an Aussie Shepard named Bear. (I think I got the breed right). Thus her blog is named - Things I Learn From Bear.

In case you don't remember - the theme was Circus and as you can see below she had a ticket for both of us. (The circus is always better when you go with a friend.)

The clowns made me laugh and giggle.

Ahh! the elephant is so graceful for such a large animal.

Lions and tigers and Bears - oh no - at least lions and giraffes (the scary and the cute).

And here they are all together with the extra cute note she sent me.

Thank you so much Victoria they are just too cute - I love them. Thanks for being such a great swap partner.

Well time is moving and I'm not - so I best say good-bye for now.

Hugs,
Penny

Happy Birthday Pellie.

Hello evfurryone,

I'm giving up my Mancat Monday to wish my mom Pellie a very Happy Birthday and Many more to come.


Purrs,
Genghis

Hugs,
Sir Knight

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Temperature outside is 95 degrees and rising

Humidity is 85%

I'm just gonna snooze the day away.

Oh yeah; Pellie said to tell you it National Lollipop Day today.

Purrs,
Genghis

The Circus is Here

Hello Everyone,

It's that time of the month - for sending out and receiving ATC's for the members of the Blissful ATC Swap hosted by Wendy.

The Theme for this month was the Circus and the special little twist was that we were to create not one but three cards. The inspiration for that would be three ring Circus I guess. So to try and keep things in the three ring idea - I wanted to make sure all my cards featured different aspects of the circus.

So with out further ado...


Ladies and Gentlemen and Children of all ages

May I call your attention to the ringmaster there in the center ring..


Mister Ringmaster is a right debonair fellow with his cane and top hat and he started life as a coloring page on a kids coloring site. I colored him in using colored pencils and then printed him twice in wallet size on regular paper. The color wasn't as good as I hoped so I recolored him with my fine point markers and liked that much better. I used a striped scrapbook paper for my background and added a 3-D sticker of the Big Top. So my Ringmaster wouldn't be crooked standing where he was I removed have of the 3-D effect on the tent and added my first Ringmaster; I then added the second which was just a titch smaller than the first - I don't know why that was - I must have set something different when setting the printer or my printer must have messed up a bit when it sized it. But I thought he looked cute any way. I added two puffy star embellishments and felt he was good to go.


This Elephant was also from a free online coloring site. I colored him with my colored pencils and was pretty content with the color when I reduced him and printed him out business card size.
I used the same background paper and cut out the stool he steps on from some pretty scraps of paper I had left from another project. I used a sticker of a circus dog and placed him riding on the elephants back and each doing their own trick. And this time I got my 3-D effect to work out just right. Yeah!!!!!
I called it Elephun - because I think the elephants are a fun and gentle giant.

Being Sir Knight and I are clowns - I couldn't do the circus without doing my tribute to the fun guys of the Circus. Clown Alee. Yeah!!!!!!

For this card I applied a vellum overlay with one of my favorite song I learned at clown camp "I Wanna Be a Clown"; music and words by my instructor Christine E. Montrose. Then I gather up a few lovely clown faces and applied them to my same background and they made me laugh and giggle right away - so I knew they were just the right mix of characters.

Here is how it looks when you lift the vellum overlay. Aren't they just too cute for words.


And here we have one final glimpse at all three rings.


I know my posts have been kind of on again - off again all this summer - but we have been busy doing a bit of remodeling and I have been deeply engrossed in all the changes going on and have kept myself busy piddling around on that. Plus since this is my birthday month Sir Knight has been taking out and about to do many different places.

One such place was we went this past Sunday to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. Boy did I enjoy that. Where part 1 was a bit on the slow side while it tried to establish the mood and feelings for the final battle. Part two was exciting and full of action. No the movie was not great at following the book - but they did a better job then some books made into movies I've seen. To me it's just watching an alternative choice every now and then - so I don't mind.
But the book and my imagination - is far batter than the movie ever will be.

UMMM I see a little job I need to get busy on if ever this remodel is to be completed - so I best bring this to an end.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs,
Penny

Mancat Monday

Hello evfurryone,

Shhhhhhhhhhsh; Please. - Be very, very quiet. I'm busy hunting alligators at the moment.

Did you hear that??? Was that the sound of a big reptile slithering across the grass?

What's that you say? There isn't any alligators to hunt here in Illinois. What a bummer! I was so looking forward to catching one of those bad boys.

Oh well - I guess I'll just lay here and see if a mousie comes by.

Purrs,
Genghis

What's Black and White and cute as a sows ear?

Hello again everyone,

I just finished my bag for the artful Bag Challenge over at Frosted Petunia's and of course I had to share it with you.

I started with this very plain black bag that I found in the bottom of a box of misc stuff I bought at an auction. (Please discount the fact that I had already started to decorate the bag before I realized I needed a before picture)

I stared at it along time and I really saw no potential in it at all. Poor Bag! Don't fret, I won't give up on you. Just don't give up on me yet either.

In that same box of stuff were a large pile of lacy curtain tie backs. Hmmmm, what can I do? What can I do?

Yipee!!! My ah ha moment came to me. and I got busy sewing and gluing.

And here (Drum roll please) is what I finally came up with........

I glued a large shank button to the top of the clasp ( shank removed of course) , glued a piece of the lace tieback to the front and then sewed up two large yo-yo flowers and one small yo-yo flower. Added vintage buttons to the centers of my yo-yos. Sewed the small yo-yo to a bow made from a small scrap of vintage ribbon I had in my stash and then securely glued everything to the front.

It looked pretty but not quiet finished - so I looked around and found the butterfly sticker -who's color combination worked perfect with it and added that,

I think it turned out kind of cute.

Got to run -I have plenty more creating to do and time is running out.

Hugs,
Penny

The Catch-up Continues

Hello everyone,

Well I made it back and am continuing to fill you in all that happened while I was missing from Blogland.
First I want to share my self-care card of the month with you. My goal this month is Playfulness. The implied wisdom - connect with your inner child - get down on the floor and play.

Sir Knight and I still love to get down and play, whether it's building things from blocks , playing a board game or working a puzzle - the floor is just a little harder to get to as we get older and id definitely harder to get up from once we get down there.

It's the connecting with the inner child that will be the hard part - as I am afraid she was silenced many, many years ago by very stern parenting and I have never been brave enough to bring her out - too afraid of what she will say and do and more importantly how I will feel on seeing her again, after all these years.

Anyhow - (Awkward Pause) - Moving on. Lets get to looking at some more pretty art.

Here are the cards I got from Karla, Miss Peach's mom, for out private swap. I just love the card she made to send them in. Reminiscent of a slower time that was filled with awe and wonder.

Here is a close up of her Steampunk card. Isn't it beautiful?

I told you we shared an affinity for pretty.

Steampunk card opened up revealing all its little secrets and treasures.
She even personalized it with my name. I Just Love it.

Here is the wedding card she made me. Oh my it is so delicate. You probably can't see very well but she has the sheerest piece of ribbon over the card - with a beautiful bride stamped on it. Oh and by the way the butterfly is silver not shades of burgundy - it picked up the reflection from the camera - when it's ready to take the picture.. It's better in real life - a picture just can't do it the right kind of justice.

This is a little box I made for Karla to Keep her ATC's in. It's humble beginning was a small cigar which Sir Knight sanded all the offending cigar information off of and then made a divider for the inside. I them painted it an off white and quilled a Garden Medley of flowers for the top.

I love quilling as an art form - to me it is so restful and looks so pretty when it's done.

This is the inside of the box, of course. I put pink marble wallpaper up on the top and light pink felt in the bottom with pink ribbons to help lift the card from the box; because it is a bit of a tight fit and it would be a shame if a card got damaged trying to get it back out of the box. On the end of the ribbons I sewed little charms - one is a kitty and the other a computer. (I thought that was only fitting as it was those two things that we share and they helped to bring us together.)

Well I best quit before I get to long winded again.

Hugs to all,
Penny

Wordless Wednesday

Catching Up on the News

Hello everyone,

Well the big holiday celebrations are behind us and I have lots of catching up to do.

So many things were going on in June, some good, some bad, and some terribly comical (at least in retrospect they were comical - maybe not when they happened). I was overwhelmed, blown away, and just not able to sit down very often to post.

How much news can i put into one post- well lets just start and see how it goes.

June started pleasant enough. I was busy working in the yard and around the house doing small little remodels. Then Murphy's Law squared kicked in and it was down hill from there on.

We woke up one morning and the coffee maker just stopped working - What! no morning coffee - argggh that makes me angry. I need my first cup of coffee. As soon as Sir Knight was home from work it was off to the store to get a new coffee maker.

I know your sitting there thinking that wasn’t so bad - but wait.

The next day while Sir Knight is at work the flusher thingy for the toilet breaks - so to flush the toilet I had to lift the tank lid and do it manually - another trip to the store as soon as Sir Knight was home from work. Ick.

With that repaired, we had hoped life would return to normal - but noooooo. Two days later the inside of the bathroom sinks faucet just fell apart shooting water all over the place - and now Sir Knight had to be called home from work - because we had no shut offs for the sink without shutting down the whole house. So another trip to town and plenty of parts later our sink was now back in working order and has water shut off right there on the lines to the sink. YEAH!!!!


And if all that hadn’t been bad enough - I, in my klutziness fell down the basement stairs on Father’s Day, 15 minutes before we were due to go to one of our favorite Renaissance Fairs. I ascertained that the extra padding I have - protected my bones and nothing was broken - just a bad sprain in my left leg. I refused to give up our day at the Fair - so I hobbled around on it - oh man that hurt and was probably a big mistake - because that leg swelled up the size of a tree trunk and had me almost in tears for well over a week. Then it started bruising on the front and back. I have therefore been in bed or in a recliner with the leg elevated rather than here at my computer desk. I still have some pain - the bruises are more yellowish than purple - but I am feeling much better than I did.

While I was convalescing - Sir Knight was busy building me a few new accessories for my craft room - but it’s not ready to show you yet; so we will save all that discussion & problems for another post.



While laid up I did a bit of reading and crafting - You know me - I couldn’t survive if I wasn't creating some thing.

Miss Peach's mom Karla and I agreed to do some private swapping of ATC cards.

We would be doing a wedding theme to go along with the swap over at Blissful ATC Swap . We also agreed to do a Steampunk card for each other.

Well this time I decided I need to really understand what the heck Steampunk really was and bought this book

My library looked at me as if I was a freak of some kind when I asked if they could get a copy for me - I guess no one out here in the rural Midwest is even the slight bit interested in things Steampunk - as none of the surrounding libraries had it listed in their library either).




I learned lots while reading this book - and according to the author, to be true Steampunk even the art was suppose to have a steam engine somewhere in it.



So I created this card and titled it Pellie’s Palatial Steam Propelled Carriage. - Sir Knight really liked it but I figured it would never do, to send to Karla - because like me she is more into the pretty side of art.

So I made this next card and liked it much better - Sir Knight calls it soft Steampunk. I call it Pretty Steampunk. The young lady has her goggles on a dirigible flies high in the sky and is also reflected in her goggles. Her feline companion wear a right smart looking top hat and the card has cool gears on it. Yep that’s more my idea of Steampunk.

Then it was on to the Wedding theme. Here is the card I made for Karla . I titled it: From This Day Forward. The bride and groom in this ATC are from a picture I bought in the 70’s when I was married the first time. I was going to make a plaque commemorating our big day - but never seemed to have time - then the marriage fell apart - so I saved it hoping I’d find a use for it some day - because I absolutely loved it.

Doesn't the bride and groom look sweet and romantic? I just love them on this card.

Here is the card I made for Wendy at Bliss Angels, my partner in the Blissful ATC Swap and I titled it: Pansy Wedding Thoughts. As you can tell even though parts are digitally altered - I had to get in and play with a bit of paper and made up some pansies. I used pansies since the marriage certificate I used in the background had pansies on it.

The card I made to send my ATC in.

Look at the goodies Wendy sent me. The sweet fairy card went right up on my inspiration board - so I can look at her often.
Here is the card I got from Wendy. Is it not one of the most beautiful creations you’ve seen. I just love it.
Thank you so much Wendy - you are a super swap partner.

I figured I was on a roll so I decided it was time I made Angela over at Sew Loquacious a replacement card for the card I made in Dec. for her that had the rub on letters rubbing off even before it left my house - that theme was angels - so here is what I made for her. I was happy to send this one out and felt it better represented my skills and abilities.

May Angels Watch Over You

At the end of the month of May I was also in a swap over at Treasure Barn where the theme was hats - and guess what - I was in such a hurry to get my cards out - I forgot to take a picture of the two cards I made for my partner.

But here is a picture of the card she sent me. Really nice work - Love it Tiffine. Thank you so much.



Well this has indeed grown quite long so I will stop for now and pick up again on Thursday.

Hugs,
Penny

Happy 4th of July

Hello my friends,

Genghis and I send you Hugs and Purrs. - Hoping you are are a great long holiday weekend.

Whether you are spending today at the beach -

Or boating down a mountain stream -
Or having a little fireworks display in your own back yard. -

Have a good time - but stay safe.

Hugs
Penny & Sir Knight

Purrs,
Genghis

July has arrived

Hello Everyone,

Today as a way of getting a jump start on the 4th Holiday weekend; I am participating in the Patriotic ATC Blog Hop over at Two Crazy Crafters. Come join us.


I titled this ATC I made - Land That I Love.

I hope you all have a great holiday weekend. Stay safe.

Hugs,
Penny