Another PaperWhimsy Challenge

I really loved the poem this time around. "Moonlight Falls" .....

"When moonlight falls on the water

It is like fingers touching the chords of a harp

On a misty day."

Oh, Hilda Conkling could write a poem. Her imagery is beautiful. She was a child when she wrote these poems. Dear Gale over at PaperWhimsy is providing some breath-taking images to work with. This time we had to use something that evoked moonlight, something that suggested music, a word or phrase from the poem, a pocket with words that you personally love to hear, an image from a previous challenge, and one other PaperWhimsy image from my stash.

I used sparkly things coming from the moon's eyes that to me represented moonlight. The music - I took the easy out and used a piece of "old" french music I had in my stash. In my lace pocket I used three words: heritage, memory, and forever. On the Poem page I used the word bygone. I was able to use my last "silver" moon and a metal tag that said "imagine."

Enjoy.....

Make it Your Own

On Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team, the Crusade for this month is "Make It Your Own." Michelle says in her post on this topic, "When you follow directions, as you would a recipe, or copy a project from a magazine - that is craft. Personalizing, interpreting, processing through your own filters, is art."


In the beginning, when I was starting this adventure in the art world, I would admire an artist's work and be so curious on how it was created, that I would start the process of copying the work to see if I could reproduce it in order to learn the techniques. I was not taking classes at that point. I would never finish these projects because they were not my own. I have to remind myself that by making it my own -- it is mine.

I remember when Where Women Create came out, I saw a notebook that Jenny Doh had created and it was for sale. I loved her design. It was simple, creative, and I wanted it. I kept going back to the web site and it wasn't up and running. Kept going back, and it wasn't up and running. DRAT. I did go back one day and guess what. It was sold out. Hmmmmmm. I never did figure that one out.

So, I decided I could use the basic design and make it my own. I quit pouting (I love pouting but no pays attention to me).... and made me my own using the basic idea. When it was done, it wasn't close to her design but I loved it. I am now using that notebook for cutouts from my Where Women Create magazines.



I know, not close but it is my own..... and I do love it. I worked on one other project from that issue. I saw a bowl that was a beautiful blue with tickets around it. I really think I was drawn to the color of the blue:



As you can see, I cut out the image and journaled underneath it. I then went into my kitchen and found a similar bowl and started to create. I have always liked this bowl because it reminds me of my grandmother's bowls - I have two of hers and this is not one of them *wink*.....





I had some tickets stamped with "hug" which I bought at a store in Rhode Island. Yes, I was hording them and bought them in 2007. OK, they worked. I glued them on with Tacky Glue.


It's fun and it holds a lot of stuff! So, thank you Michelle for reminding me of the importance to make it my own.

We have a winner!

We have a winner for the Book of Names. We had five comments left on the blog entry for the giveaway. One of those was from the author. Louise was # 4 and that is what Random.org selected in the sequence. Congratulations, Louise. I have your address and will get this book in the mail to you on Monday. I know you will enjoy this book!

Thank you to all who put your names in the drawing.

It has been a busy day here in Honeysuckle Breeze and I plan to play mostly tomorrow but come Sunday I am going to have to go into work. Big meeting coming up and I don't feel as prepared as I wish I did. So a few hours on Sunday will be worth the time spent for the serenity it will give me!

After work I did get to hit some tennis balls this afternoon and that helped! I hope you have a great weekend. I need t get a few art challenges done tomorrow besides a tennis clinic. Take care and congrats to Louise S!

The Breeze NewsFlash - no rain yet today

I am doing the Snoopy Dance - I got my silver Sebring back today. All the way over to Woodbridge and back - 2 hours 25 minutes total in traffic. BUT, I got her back and she was just purring when she got Harley back in her cup holder. Harley has grown attached to her. OK, if you have forgotten, here is Harley: (OK, Harley has a little of the dramatic in him. He likes to climb statues to view his universe, yes, he does)......

He is just a little cutie who travels the world with me. A well worn face from some huggy kissy time with friends. We always takes a photo on our trips all cuddled in bed....

Alrighty, this was not going to be a Harley post. He just takes over - he misses blogging. He blogged for my office on the staff blog when we had it and he was just the "cats pajamas" no matter what anyone thought! *wink* *wink*

Found some cool decorative packing tape. Now I thought it was "White" and green - but it is clear and they only put the white backing so you could see the design. I put this in the gratitude journal and if you look half way you can see where the white backing is and then the clear...

I wrote my Fav Five today and then added to the next page with the packing tape and created the facing page real quick.

I cropped this page since I used an artist creation out of a magazine. It had a quote I love, "For a long time she flew only when she thought no one was watching." If I had written down the artist name which I should have, I would have contacted her to see if I could post her creation here - but I did not have the name. Yes, I do love the look of the packing tape.

Guess What! Rainy again in the Breeze

NOPE, no tennis tonight. I headed over to the courts (there had been no rain here in Sterling) and there were puddles on the Reston clay courts I was to play on and no team mates. Seems while the wind was blowing here in the Breeze, Reston had rain and thunder and lightening! Do tell, ToTo, we will stay in the Breeze.

I visited the Paper Source store the other day and found a great buy...... It is called an Electo Notebook created by Uppercase. Check out their products. I bought the Electonote Read & Write notebook. It has a wonderful collection of eclectic pages from dictionaries, old books, cards, etc.

Here is a look at some other pages:

I then decorated the inside cover page with a PaperWhimsy ad found in a magazine. Yes, I used a different one in the previous post. I love these ads!

This little journal (no, it will not take away from my Gratitude Journal right now) will be used for quotes I have been cutting out of my Where Women Create Magazines. That magazine is a treasurer trove of quotes. This has been my quick creative project for this evening while I get fat after all the carbs I ate in order to play tennis until 9:45pm this evening. OH NO..... carbs and more carbs are sitting in my tummy. Toto we ain't in Kansas any more!

Rainy Rainy in the Honeysuckle Breeze

You know, I do love the rain...... but when I wake up at 4:45 am having to drive on a very busy highway to take my new girl (the Chrysler) to get some warranty work done in Woodbridge, it is not pretty. Not at all. For those not familiar to our lovely area - I 495 to 95 S thru the Springfield Mixing Bowl on any normal day is not fun. Add a hard rain in the early morning and it is next to impossible. AND I decided to stay at the dealer until the work was done. To try to drive back to work would have taken over 2 hours going to the north toward Washington, DC, so why not sit and read a book. Really getting into True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling by L.K. Ludwig (photo courtesy of Amazon, yes I am lazy and didn't want to take a photo of my own book which is downstairs.... long day). And this morning was a good day to get ideas, especially when they told me the wrong part was ordered! BUT, they agreed to fix the outside mirror and gave me a free rental for three days and suggested I take the car for warranty work to an authorized Chrysler dealer closer to my home. I smiled and left in a new Nissan Sentra.

Speaking of journaling, I had fun with a page on Sunday night in my gratitude journal. I had finished posting in it and BAM - turned on the Tony's just in time to see one of my favorite and most beloved actresses win her 5th Tony. Angela Lansbury is so special. An exceptional actress. I got to meet her one time many years ago and before her "Murder She Wrote" series. I also was able to see her in a revival of MAME in NYC in 1983. WOW! I happen to have a cutout from an ad for PaperWhimsy and the page was born while I was watching the show! I have to admit that I did not realize she was on Broadway right now in Blythe Spirit. Yup, I was in that play years ago. A fun fun play.

Played tennis last night and if it doesn't rain will play tomorrow night. I need to write in the my gratitude journal in a few minutes.... yes, I am yawning and we have the Deadliest Catch on tonight.... I am yawning again. Will be an early night tonight after such an early morning. I need to read a few more pages in True Vision. Have a great evening and stay dry and safe if it is storming in your area. I hope my little slick gray girl is doing OK away from me. I don't really think she was well taken care on the car lot all these past months. I think she was ignored and she got scratches and no one loved her. Hmmmmmm. She will be home soon.

Laid Back in Honeysuckle Breeze

Beautiful day! Sun out. Top down on car. Errands run. What more can a girl ask for? OK, maybe a game of tennis. Pleasant surprise on Friday's post about the Book of Names giveaway. Jill Gregory (one of the authors) stopped by and commented. That was nice! Those two authors seem really nice and I am hoping they are working on another similar novel to The Book of Names and The Illumination. Fingers are crossed. Drawing for the winner will be at 8pm eastern time on Friday. Leave a comment on that post and you are in the drawing.

At our recent CraftChix outing, my dear friend Suni introduced me to a new coffee. It is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. She is a special lady and I love her dearly and always listen to her advice. Well, today I had a cup of joe along with my little Madeleine cookies. You should go right over to Zeke's website and check it out. My blend is Tell Tale Dark which resembles Starbucks Italian Roast. I'm telling you. . . I think it might beat Starbucks. I have been experimenting with different coffee's and right now this is the one. Doesn't mean I will leave Starbucks but it is certainly tempting. You can find their web site here Zeke's Coffee -- they are out of Baltimore. I will be ordering online when this is gone.

I have also been playing in my Gratitude Journal since yesterday's rant on Serius. I am having so much fun working with it and using up scraps and pieces of stuff. I played with watercolor last night and then used the little wrappers from the watercolors in a page layout while watching Snakes on a Plane. Hmmmmm. I don't think it influenced me.

Here are pages I am playing with right now.

Once again, I used my grandfather's WWI photos in a Paris layout. Also used a Stabilo pencil which I have been reading about in several books on visual journaling. When drawn around collaged images, they do seem to pop.

I also love trying to sew in this journal. It is a challenge but worth the effort. On this Martha Stewart page from her magazine..... I sewed everything before mounting in journal. Used my mother's lace, again!

I also am adding clippings from other magazines of layouts I like. Why not? They are fun to go back to and give me some prompts.

If it is Sunday and I have the time, it is Bubble Bath prior to dinner. I have a team tennis match tomorrow at 7pm - it is a rain make-up from last Wednesday. Looking forward to playing. Have a good week.