Sizzix Blog Hop - A Pocket full of Inspiration

Thank You for visiting my blog to see what I created
using the soon-to-be released
Sizzix Scoreboard Scalloped Box
designed by Eileen Hull!

The challenge for this "Hop"
was to incorporate a office supply into my design.
I chose lined paper and made my project into
a "Pocket Full of Inspiration"!

I wanted to create something that was as pretty
on the outside as it was on the inside.

I'm also a huge fan of Inspiration quotes
and wanted to "create" something that I could pull out
at any given moment....

I hope you like what I've created!
Have I inspired you?
I hope so!

Please click on the links at the end of this post
to see what all the other fabulous designers have created
and then vote for your favorite project
(please pick me!) on Eileen's Blog.
To vote, just leave a comment on her blog posting.
For example her current post is about the "Scalloped Box",
If you like my design best...please let her know on that post!

There will be 5 new scoreboard designs revealed.
One every 2 weeks, march 31st being the 1st.

Voting with close Monday April 5th at 6pm.
The winner will be announced on the interactive live web TV show,
cool2craft on April 19th.

Make sure you vote!
Because there are two prizes:
One for the designer creating the project that gets the most votes
and one to a random person (could be you!)
commenting on any of the participating blogs!
So please leave a comment "here" -
for your chance to win a Scoreboard die.

(Have a favorite quote? Feel free to share it in your comment -if you want,
and I'll share with you the ones I used in this creation!)

***
Materials I used to create this project:
"Twitterpated" by Imaginise, "Fired Brick" Distress Ink, "Viva Pink" Glimmer Mist,
X-Mas Red & Yellow "Stickles", "Chestnut Roan" Chalk Ink,
Lined paper, Elastic cord,
Vintage Rhinestone button, tacky glue
* * *
Blog Hop Participants:
Candice Windham
Cindi Bisson
Bee Shay
Roxi Phillips
Jennifer Ellefson
Laura Bray
Veronica Goff
Melony Bradley
Marisa Pawelko
Sandy Laipply
Sparkle
Lisa Rojas
Ann Butler
Bonnie Bruns
Madeline
Jen Goode
Julie McGuffee
Karen Burniston

Aprils Fools is right around the corner....

I was reminded by Amy of Mod Podge Rocks that April 1st is almost here!
So I revisited a post that I did on peas and carrots last year.
It was my first try on fake candy food and if you want to the know how I made the above peas and carrots...please go here!

I have browsed the web in search of new idea's and have found
this perfect site....hmmm...what shall I make?
What will you make?
I know I'll for sure try this trick on Dyllan in the morning before school... :)

Magic Milk Bowl:
To set up the trick, squeeze several drops of liquid food coloring over the bottom of a bowl, then pour in dry cereal to conceal the droplets. When a family member sits down to his cereal and adds some milk, he'll think he's entered a Technicolor twilight zone.

Celebrating "Spring" simply.

I wanted to share with you just a few of the decorations I have up for the welcome of Spring!
Just so simple. Really.

My Dad and Step Mom gave me the orange candle and as you can tell I have a affection for Birds, nest..and old looking cages!

The photo above is of my Mothers parents on their Wedding day. The hanging thing is a foam egg that I hot glued flowers to and then dusted it with glitter. I also have a heated passion for prayer cards that show off our lady of ( )...in so may ways.
It's all part of some new art I hope to introduce to you very soon. :)

Most of these decorations will last through the summer. I'll add in some 4th of July things and beach stuff and then it will all come down for Fall and Halloween, later Christmas and at the end of January the Spring comes out all over again.

* * * * * * * *

I don't know if you have noticed but I "cleaned" up my labels (to the right).
I hope it will help you find things easier!

My Garden Knows Best

I'm going to listen
to my garden
a little bit

tomorrow

to 'slow' down
and be well.

I've been doing too much,...
too fast.

Hurry
hurry
hurry.

Forgetting to eat,
even drink-
to the point
of
becoming sick to my stomach today.

Spring is nearly here!
in my garden!
The faeries
leave evidence of their play...

I too,
will take some time
to prune a little,
sweep a little...
water the dry
and
fluff the damp.

Feeling renewed
(I hope)

I'll do
a little Spring cleaning
inside,
(opening the windows)
letting the stale air out...
and
the fresh air IN.
I may start
folding,
putting away,
sorting,
making space
to create anew.

I
will
take
my
time.
and some Tea.
even a cupcake will do.

I will take my time
to be well.

For Spring
is
coming!
And
my Garden
Knows Best.

I love hearts ATC's

Here are the ATC's from the last swap, themed "I love hearts" hosted by my Fiskateer gals!
Mine is the upper right corner using my new Bingo ATC stamp!

I keep these all in a Artist trading card book, grouped by year.

They are like miniature works of art and I can look through the books for inspiration any time I want!


Please go see more of my ATC's here!

Disneyland Curiosities

The last time Dyllan and I went to Disneyland I needed to to find the place that had all those machines that crush pennies and we sorta got lost, but in getting lost we "discovered" some window's that stopped me dead in my tracks!


When you do down main Street and on the left are an assortment of shops that "look" separate, but are really connected...(easy to get turned around) ....in there is a upscale jewelry store with these windows. So many Nontraditional Disney window fillers that I just loved...

and across the hall was a toy store with these old vintage tin circus cars.

I did find what I was looking for, but this was a added bonus!

Etsy Spotlight - Enid of Pre N Das!

This month's Etsy Spotlight features Enid of Pre N Das!

Hi, my name is Enid and I live in Puerto Rico,
a beautiful island in the Caribbean you should visit sometime!

I am married and a mother of three beautiful girls, which are my inspiration.
I have been crafting since I was young, but really got serious after my third child was born.
I just love crafts!
I make jewelry, and I’m incorporating up-cycled and recycled items into my pieces.

I have this idea that everything deserves a second chance, so I try to reuse everything.

I also enjoy making envelopes from old magazines,and creating fabric flowers into hair accessories or brooches.
My other crafts include: sewing, painting with acrylics, and reading!
I always have a book under my pillow just in case.
In the morning I read blogs and my top five are…

http://totallytutorials.blogspot.com/
( love to see how others create and do new things)

http://etsylatino.blogspot.com/
(this I watch every day for updates)

http://verypurpleperson.com/
(I love her art, and she has a very neat and beautiful blog)

http://ecoetsy.blogspot.com/
(because I want to learn how to become an Eco-friendly person one day at a time)

http://forordinarypeople.blogspot.com/
(this is my new favorite blog from a friend of mine)

*** To be entered to win this gorgeous necklace (pictured) please visit Enid's Shop here...browse around and then come back here and post your favorite piece or two.
You will also need to post your e-mail (in case you win) or make sure I have some way to reach you.
Enid also has a beautiful blog for you to visit...and you can translate it here.

Winner has been chosen and notified from last months Etsy Spotlight.

Good luck!

BTW....
If you are interested in being featured in my Etsy spotlight, here are the basics:

1. Your shop must be current
2. Once accepted, you'll featured on a 3rd Friday of a month,
and will be visible on my blog for the whole time.
3. You'll need to mail me 2 good quality shop samples
4. I will handle the shipping of the "won" item to your winner.
5. In the case I don't have a seller to spotlight,
the current seller will have a extra month.

Interested? Have questions? E-mail me!
altered-art@hotmail.com
International Welcome!

I'm Facinated by this Blog!

My eyes are popping and my brain is reeling with what schools are really feeding our kids!

"check out the countries that "may" have provided products for this juice! - I try to buy my produce from inside the states and this is shocking!

Mrs. Q is eating school lunches everyday in 2010 and blogging about it...photo's and all!
It's so interesting! If you have kids in school and you let them buy their own lunches...you might want to read her blog! It's Called Fed up with Lunch.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Today at the post office, while Dyllan was looking for "Wish Faerie's" (dandelion puffs to blow...)
I happened to find a a huge four leaf clover! I took a photo of it and quickly put in between the pages of my cars owner book till I got home to properly press it.
I promise to post it later this week.
I'm so excited! It was quite the accidental find!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My new Scrapbooking World Record!

Saturday I attended a crop in Orange. It's a all day event 9am-9pm that I like to go to every month.

Here I am scrapping with some girls in my scrapbook group, Diana, Pam and Teresa.
I'm not one to do a lot of layouts, It usually takes me a hour to do a two page spread with all the details and embellishments I make. So I have Calendars (5 of them) that were meant to be x-mas gifts to family members...but January was chock full of the scrapbook expo and CHA, then February was another crazy month and here I am in March, just getting my wind back! So Saturday I completed 30 Layouts/ 6 months x5 calendars...and only 3 months to go.

My friend Teresa (on the right) gave me the superb idea to start the calendars at April 2010 and wrap it around to January starting 2011. That way I'll have crafting lee-way time for next years calendars! (or calendar like project...not sure if I'm going to go the 12x12 size again!)


The winner of polka dot orange is...Chignon! Congratulations!

Less than perfect but still Delicious!

The next time you are at a local farmers market, go to your favorite strawberry seller and ask if they have any that are less than perfect. Chances are they will! Usually marked down for their "appearance". But still delicious!

Why use Paper when you can use Fabric to wrap gifts?

It's especially nice when you want to incorporate the fabric into the gift!
It's called Furoshiki.
And you can find more about this here.
enjoy!

Polka Dot Orange, & Polka Dot Black!

I just listed some new hair clips I've been working on.
The reason I'm so late in posting them here, is that when ever I show them to a friend or family, they buy them right on the spot!... Each one is so unique and a joy to make!
Would you like to win a Polka Dot Orange? I have a extra hair clip to give away! But the backing has been sewn on less than perfect if you don't mind.... Leave a comment here with your e-mail address and I'll pick someone on Sunday, March 14th!

Thanks and Good luck!
~Michelle :)

My Mardi Gras Art!

I belong to a Yahoo group called Alpha Stamps.
And they recently had a Carnival/ Masquerade Mask swap!
We had to make 3 masks using the templates provided and the mask base (not including trim) needed to be no bigger than a ATC!
It was really challenging and because I knew I would not get one of mine back...I made duplicates. One for me...one to swap...
Here they are....

For this pink one, the photo does not do justice. It's so much prettier in person! I hand colored, hand glittered and crackle glazed the whole thing.

Of these two...I sent the one on the top in for the swap and kept the one on the bottom.
I embellished them using vintage flocked wall paper and broken jewelry.

The butterfly mask is by far my favorite and I have plans to make a few for Faerie Dust Dreams soon!

It turned out just as I envisioned...& even better!

It took me 2 1/2 days to complete all 6 masks. Basically a full rainy weather, stay in our jammies weekend.


As soon as I receive my swapped masks...I'll post them for you to see!
Thanks for coming by!
~Michelle

Come...have some FUN with your photo's!

It's called Tilt Shifting

and it's FUN!


Makes everything look like model miniatures!

Wanna give it a try? Then go here...and then then let me know if you posted it on your blog cause I want to see what you did too!

The Alice in Wonderland Charm Swap is (CLOSED) and Creating!

Hooray! We are full!
25 Charm makers are now busily creating their 25+1 charms...due by March 20th!
I'm so excited to see what every creates!
Feel free to see the full list of participants here!