Playing with Diecuts

I spent a few hours this past week-end playing with the new diecuts from Tim Holtz, his birdcage and Tattered florals. Also a couple others. I don't use my diecut machine very often, but when I do I like to make a marathon of it, then have them on hand for stickers and embellishments.

Made these using Starbucks fliers, insides of security envelopes, some fabric. Took some to the gals at Starbucks.


Assorted florals and birds, some are cut from adhesive metal, hence the reflection. Not an excellent photo. The birdcage is really cute cut out of cork.

Falling behind already

Spring is kind of bumming me out this year. I should be skipping and jumping for joy because so far we have had an amazingly cool, damp spring and the temperatures have been to my liking. There is a wonderful crop of wildflowers this spring. However I have not taken the time to shoot one single photo of them, I just enjoy glancing at them while driving down the road. I know I am letting all the circumstances of life get me down, but I am tired and worn out from trying to "be of good cheer" all the time. I have decided to just float along in my little melancholy balloon for awhile longer. Wrapped in my cocoon of sadness until I cannot stand myself and then I will glance up and there will be a clearing in sight and I will steer towards it.

I did some spring cleaning, but lost interest early on. I did just enough to make things look better on the surface, and that is not the point of spring cleaning, at least in my opinion. Hub has been teasing me about my "butterfly behavior"...you know, flitting from one thing to the next, never staying long enough to make much difference. So it got me to thinking about butterflies in a number of ways.

I half-heartedly did these die cuts at Archivers last Saturday, then on the way home saw two cute little girls with their Daddy flying a kite, so stopped and shot a photo.




Then on CBS Sunday morning they did a piece about the Monarch migration. This always makes me sad, as over half their habitat has disappeared because of de-forestation, and they don't seem to be able to control the illegal logging. I had always hoped to someday travel to that one area where they migrate to, and actually see them en masse. But every year their numbers decrease. More sadness, for the plight of these beautiful creatures.

I've Come Unraveled

It's time for Spring Cleaning. I've made an attempt, really I have. You wouldn't know from looking around this place. Why is it when you start to clean out the closets...one thing leads to another. Well, that is what I tell Hubby when he comes home and it looks like an explosion went off. I should have just stuck with washing the windows, after I took the curtains down to wash them. Then the room was so bright I could see that it really needed painting...see that dusky purple paint chip taped to the wall there by the mirror? It has been there for almost a year, and still I can't make up my mind. After painting the downstairs powder room purple last year, I loved it so much I decided to do the upstairs bath in purple and gray... And then the bedroom, but with all those angled ceilings and weird walls, where does one stop and start. We don't want an entire purple bedroom. Is painting just one wall a wild color coming back in style? I dunno... And then the hubster...it has to be just the right shade of purple he says, so it doesn't look girly. He's lived with Martha Stewart floral bedding for a lot of years, so he does need a break.

Oh and then back to closet discoveries. There's a big bag for the Goodwill, another for the Garage Sale, and yet another for fodder for quiltie things and art journals, and ripping into strips for some crochet project that I think I will find time to do. Move that bag into the sewing room and then I start digging through some other stacks of fabric. Oh that will go good with that, oh yeah, been looking for that, etc. Rambling on and on...I finally go downstairs to find that Hubby is home and says "what's for lunch...and where am I going to sit to eat it?" Oh yes I did come up here to look for a certain color ribbon for that ROD journal, didn't I? See, one thing always leads to another. The table is covered with sewing stuff. Now that I have the cover almost finished, where are the stack of pages? Under another pile of "stuff". I'm on a roll, and I want to just keep sewing. Hubster smiles, and stands there at the kitchen sink, eating a raw hot dog and a big hunk of cheese. At least the coffee's fresh, he says.

Here's one thing I did get finished for a friend for her birthday. It's a memento of the last time we had tea with So-Han before he left for China. And see that fringie stuff on the bottom, that is part of an old curtain I uncovered last time I ventured into the sewing room for a ribbon, and ended up digging around for an hour.

Filling The Well

Since spending so much time watching the Olympics had me neglecting other things around here, I really needed to play catch up. Have been cleaning, sorting, I guess I am preparing for the inevitable chore of "spring cleaning". Cleaning and sorting, as always, means mostly the piles of ART supplies and uncovering all the unfinished projects I seem to leave in my wake. So the past couple of days while HUB was out of town, I moved a lot of stuff around. It could also be called re-filling the well, artistically. Just putzing and playing, filing more ideas in my head, while I try to make a clean surface to start some more projects. Oh no, I didn't mean that! I meant...FINISH some of the projects that are half-way there. LOL
It seems like all I show here are things in progress or unfinished. I do finish some things, I really do. I just got some photos back and put them in an album to send to a friend, and actually SENT them.

Here's just a few things I did over the past few days. Things I actually photographed.

Sharpened fat pencils while watching the last of the Olympics


Layed these out to do journal page about our big "snow day". Little girl has snow swirling round her, she is from an Anthropologie catalog. Isn't she sweet?


Picked these up at the clearance aisle. Have a project in mind for these, and it is NOT cookies.

A Few More Envelopes

I've been making a few more envelopes while watching the Olympics. I have a hard time sitting in front of the t.v. and just watching. I always feel like I am wasting time. Being the multi-tasker that I am, I've been folding and cutting, and doodling while watching. I do NOT, however, recommend using the sewing machine while watching speed skating...that leads to more swearing than sewing. So I learned I'd better do the sewing during the commercials.

Two envelopes mailed today.


Chinese New Year. I'm a little late getting these out this year. In progress, not finished.

Sometimes I send Mail

I don't always take time to scan or photograph everything I mail out. Sometimes I go in stages where I mail sometime every day, but not lately. I go in fits and starts, and sometimes I go on a binge of Mail Art and then I do a mass mailing. I like to have a stack of decorated envelopes on hand so I always have some ready in case I want to pop something into the mail, and am short on time. I don't like mailing plain envelopes!


Ephemera I sent out to a few folks.



Just fooling around with plain black envelopes while watching t.v.


Envelope made from a cover of one of my favorite (now defunct) magazines, PopLife.

Folded and stitched.


Made from scrapbook paper and some tickets stitched on.

Back of envy with stitched on bit from a catalog.

I get the best doggone mail!

I love my Mail. Even on days I don't get any Mail ART, I can find pleasure in even the junk mail, because I can usually cut it up to make something else. The mail has been kind of slow ever since the holidays, but the stream opened up and I got some really good stuff this past week. Sometimes the mail lady brings my packages to my door if she can see that I am home, she likes to comment on how cool they are!
Or if she knows I am waiting for something that is slow to get here.

Saturday she delivered this:

A Priority Mail envelope, stuffed full of great ephemera,for making journal pages and other artsy "stuff". From Nancy Lynn, from the RoD Journal class that Mary Ann is teaching. She sent old book pages, painted papers, ribbons and lace, and all kind of fun tid bits. Some of us in the group are swapping stuff with one another. How fun to get paper scraps and such from other parts of the world. Then, the decorated box is from one of my best Mail Art pals, full of wonderful stuff. Rubber stamps, paper, fabric, all manner of "stuff". I just love "stuff"...HaHa At any rate, it was a veritable explosion of pretties for me to fondle and drool over for the week-end.


Today, I got all this! Been waiting for the one from Canada, the other two were surprises. A very good start to my week I'd say.


Earlier last week, I got this "stuff" from Melissa. Great clip art book, and she also sent me some ATC's she's getting rid of from the old days of ArtErratica exchanges. One of mine was even in there.

How cool is this packaging? Hot pink tissue, tied with blue chenille rick-rack.


Does anyone think I need a new word for "STUFF"? Geez, some days my vocabulary does seem rather limited.