Quiet in the Breeze

Today is the quiet day after the snow fall. Yes, I still need to go and clean my car off but will do that later. I did a bit more playing this morning with the tea book. Last night got images stamped and prepared to go into the book. Playing with the cover - not sure what I will do..... love this idea but might not be the end result.


Have you ever forgotten you had a book and something reminded you of it? Well yesterday while at the grocery store I found "soup" mixture of veggies and decided to go in search of my book....


I have had the Monastery Soup book for quite a while but it got put on the shelf and forgotten. Until now. I am going to make a recipe once a month during 2010. Yes, all of the soups are divided among the twelve months. And as usual, I do not follow directions well and edit along the way. I did add turkey to this soup. I always like meat in my veggie soups.


I also color in this book - I think it may be the reason I bought it. I do much better with pencil than paint. That has been difficult for me to admit. There are those out there that are fantastic with their paint and oil backgrounds. I love to cut, paste, and color and use the paint as highlights. OK, I digress, as you all are use to me doing.


This soup came out so good. The package bought at the store had the most wonderful fresh herbs! So decided to have the soup with a cup of India Spice Tea. Lovely lunch here in the Honeysuckles. I now really want a nap but the day has gone on way too long to afford me the pleasure of one.... The Australian Open has played havoc with my sleep habits the last two weeks and I am happy to report that my boy, Roger Federer, WON the open. I'm happy.


You all have a great rest of the day while I take off my Lizzie Borden apron and start to dabble in some paint on the tea book cover. Will I regret this? Only time will tell ..... and you will find out. But I need a few drags of the dry brush across it. Smooches! Might not see you tomorrow since it is my Tennis Monday and all I do is run home from work, change clothes, run to tennis courts, play tennis for two hours, run home, shower, and go to bed. Love these Mondays!

A Honeysuckle Tea Book

What I've learned from a friend.... 1) Clean up the last project you worked on, and 2) get ready to begin a new.... This has been a hard lesson to learn but during the Christmas Holidays when I was rushing to get stuff created and mailed out...... the tiny workspace became uncontrollable and I wasn't "liking" the creating..... Just remembered you can teach an old dog new tricks...
That being said, I did get the tea book put together. So right now I have the "shell" waiting to be decorated....

Second set of lessons learned today: 1) Be very careful on how thick your board book is; 2) Take into account that it will be covered with heavier paper on top of the board book; and 3) Be sure you cram that baby down into the Zutter all the way - use hammer if necessary (OK, I am being dramatic) and punch away.

A few pages waiting to be decorated....

I now have gathered up my "tea" stamps, OK, I know I have a lot.....


And a few more while I'm at it:

The cube is a Michelle Ward design sold at Stampington and has the words earl grey, sugar, cream, english breakfast, etc.

I did manage to have some tea and cookies while it snowed most of the day. So I am now headed downstairs, it's about 7:15 and I want to stamp and watch a DVRed Masterpiece Theatre I recorded last night. No DVR up here.... So my StazOn, stamps, scraps of left over paper are leaving you all behind. Sleep tight!

a little bit of snow on the honeysuckles

Wonderful stay-inside-kind-of-Saturday. Wanted to post this morning before I got really involved in my next project. Thank you all for the kind words regarding (in my cousin's words) "fluffy" Marie Inkblot. Yes, Patty, she did eat ALL the cake. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. This morning I started gathering papers for my Tea Book and managed to get them all cut. (The goal now is to get them decorated and into the book.....)

I found some incredible rusty stuff in the parking lots after the snow and rain we have had.....

And from Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press. Love this stamp set...

My new {S}crap-zine showed up and plan to use a couple of the items in my new tea book. You can find this over at Amy Steinberg's Etsy Shop.

And, my best bud, Nat over at her RubyFloy Etsy shop, was able to work out a deal with me on her music paper. OH my, be still my beating heart... Yes, she took pity on this poor old soul and gave into my whining..... age works for you sometimes....

And finally, sometimes your friends, after hearing you talk about art creations, know how to make you happy happy...... This friend understands and I knew it when she gave me the following:

Okay... need to get to work and create some art. Might be back later on today... you never know.

The Ink Blot creatures are backkkkk in the Breeze!

OK - I just needed to get one more Ink Blot person done since I have a total of three left to do. I think at this time, I send apologies to Sandra Evertson for the way I highjacked her ink blot ideas and ran away ranting and raving. These, of course, look nothing like her spectacular ones on page 83 in artists' cafe, volume 3. Nope, not even close. Hers blots are fragile. Mine are not. Mine are bold and have lost their ink blot bodies in my design. I sometime call them my bog people. Do I care, nope. She (Sandra) is so darn artistic and yes, boys and girls, I know we do not compare ourselves with other artists. We all dance to our own tunes playing in our heads....

This page started out with the creation of the ink blot. The problem with this one. It was just so darn big. I learned a lesson here. (The only thing I could think of was the headless horseman or headless priest....)

I had to cut it out and then find some larger pieces to design with it.... Hello, Maire (clip art from Itkupilli)..... the "dark side" of Marie. I found my Character Construction stamp, some black netting, black lacy stuff, and away we go....

Got her legs covered in netting. No lady goes to the Opera with her legs bare. Really.... not in my Paris anyway,

Decided to use my Painted Page Journal from a workshop I took with Michelle Ward since its size would lend itself to this big blot. Covered the page with decorative paper, sewed a ribbon, and slapped some paint on it.

And then the fun began. Dress Marie..... and dress her we did.... Used a pink magic marker on the gloved hands since it was a bold color and we needed to see her hands. A few glittery hair accents and there was Marie - 50 pounds heavier following the holidays,

And the total page:


Marie was placed on top of a page I cut out of a Martha Stewart Living magazine (I went for the size of it).... my small stamp of the little Parisian girl is from Fruit Basket Upset at Stamp Francisco. I love her. I called the page, Paris Wept.....

Goodnight, kiddies, and may visions of bog people dance in your dreams tonight.... LOL.

True Colors - one more time in the Breeze

Yes, I am revisiting my favorite book, True Colors, and today looking at the "White Book" which Lynn Perrella originated. When I saw the pages by the various artists, they took my breath away.

White is an interesting color to work with and there are so many variations. However, white is daunting to me and I have done only one layout on facing pages. I used pages from Martha Stewart's Living and cut out an image of Vichyssoise. I layered the pages in different white scrapbook papers and then found a beautiful crocheted flower.




This page I called "Cold Soup"


And of course I had to use a little clip art ... what would white be without a wedding party? I did use a gold leaf pen to decorate the sides of this piece....

The right side I called White Marsh (I don't have a clue where or why I came up with that name). The white lace is from my Grandmother's stash of lace. I loved how it had stained and yellowed...

I need to run and get dinner..... but one last item. I love our blogland and sometimes a special surprise comes when I look and see that someone signed up to follow life in the Honeysuckle Breeze here. I always click to see who it is and usually, if they have a blog, go over to visit. I found a very special one the other day, called Fabric Photo Memories. Not what I expected. I went over and there was Lovey's Grandmother's sewing machine. My heard skipped a beat. I have my Grandmother's sewing machine and this photo is for Lovey...... Grandma's sewing machine in my hall way. Go over and visit Lovey and say Hi!

Grandma's gone - 1987. Thank you Grandma - I have cherished it all these years and think of you everyday when I see it.

The Honeysuckles and Treasure Boxes

Whew -- got the treasurer box I told you about last weekend done! The last two ATCards are finished. So where to begin.....

The cards:


Besides the usual dictionary page and sheet music, I added an angel printed onto a transparency sheet. This image is on the Somerset Studio disk clip art. The children angles are from Itkupilli's shop. Then added a rusty key I had lying around....


Second card also used an image from Itkupilli. She has some wonderful Marie images... A few jewels and brass plate with "memories" engraved on it...

After finishing the cards, I moved onto the box. (Remember, the cards will be clues to the story my friend plans to weave.) You can see the top of the box above. I then added more of the sea "mermaids" from ArtChix to three sides and a Chinese image on the back. Why China - who knows, I'm not telling the story - so my friend can make up a reason! LOL.

I did leave the box a "little undone" by my standards. I am letting the friend add anything she might want to gather. It could use sea shells on the outside. There are many things to be done to it -- but I am turning the box over with cards and goodies inside.

Need to get ready to go over to some friends later on to watch the playoffs. It is a rainy day but those are always the best for me. Love the sun but also love the rain just as much! Take care while I clean up my space (Thank you Elizabeth and Bluebeard) to get ready for the next project to be worked on....... Remember this one? It is next..... OK, and some ink blots.... or is that paint blots?