Charm Exchange/Bracelet

Has it really been this long since I posted? I've been busy, but I'm going to try to post more regularly. So as busy as I've felt I couldn't pass up this charm exchange with an online group I belong to. We had to make charms using blue, white, or crystal beads or findings. There we 36 in our group, sounds like alot of charms to make but once you get going it goes pretty fast. I got my package of all the charms Monday and immediately made a charm bracelet. Lots of rattling charms! Love it! Can't wait for the next exchange!

Baby Norah

I joined a colored pencil drawing class last year. I had seen this teacher at art shows and saw that she offered classes, but her work was so wonderful and I can't draw too well, so I thought it was something I wouldn't be able to do. My friend signed up for a class and was enjoying it so I thought I'd give it a try. I decided to draw my granddaughter, Norah, from a picture I had taken that summer at the beach. It took awhile to finish it, and ALOT of help from the teacher, but I finally finished it and love it!

Hearts Nature Made

I have a strawberry plant that produces only a few straw-berries. If the squirrels don't get them first I've tasted them and they are very tender and sweet. I collect things in heart shape made by nature like last month I collected rocks along Lake Michigan shore in the shape of hearts. Much to my surprise this little stawberr bush grew a little heart shaped strawberry! Cute!

Every year our family spends a long weekend in Michigan on the beach at my daughter's house. For the last couple of years I have brought a craft of some type for my nine grandchildren to do. It's great when the weather isn't desirable to go to the beach. This year I wasn't sure if what I chose as the craft would be something they would want to do. I kept it a secret until the moment I brought the supplies out and told them we would be painting on rocks. They loved the idea! I had planned they would maybe paint two, but they wanted to keep going and later at the beach picked up more rocks for them to paint on. They had a wonderful time and I was so impressed with their creations! It was such a fun time!

Marth Stewart I'm not. Grandma I am!

I recently went to Michigan where the whole family gets together at my daughter's house a long weekend in July. I thought my nine grandchildren would get a kick out of a rainbow cake I saw on Martha Stewart. You can get the recipe on her website and I highly recommend following her instructions that I did not. I think they made a buttercreme frosting and I thought I'd save time and trouble by using canned frosting. Well, it wasn't stiff enough and the six layers kept sliding. We finally put a straw down the middle of it and left for an afternoon at the beach. When we came back several hours later there was a stress fracture from the middle of the cake and who knows how long before the whole thing would topple. So, like the saying, "Life's short, eat dessert first", we did! It took three of us to cut and hold the sides together with big spoons, knives, but once it was on the plate it tasted wonderful and everyone did enjoy the rainbow colors!

Journal Pages

A Start of Another Journal

So I'm in a journal making kick phase now and even tho they're not great-they're fun to make! For this one I cut the cover off an old book. I pasted on torn scraps of wrapping paper, coated it with clear gesso, then added acrylic paint scraping over leaving paper showing thru. I pasted more wrapping paper on the inside of the covers. Then I taped the front and back together with colored duct tape about 1/4" or so apart. I cut a long strip of poster board the height of the cover, folded it the width, and then folded back and forth to make a zig-zag of paper and glued one page to the back cover. I then took different sizes of scrapbook paper and covered each page. I really need to start writing in them!