Birthday Season

March seems like open season on birthdays around here. Three family members and three good friends all celebrate this month. On Monday I made these darling little mini-bundt cakes for my step-son. He really wanted a German Chocolate cake and I had a few barriers in the way -- but these little cakes worked beautifully. They have coconut icing in the center and on top of most of them. I decorated with gum drops and slender candles. The stone pan came from Pampered Chef and my wonderful consultant Barb. The recipe came from the back of the box (Devil's Food) and the can (two frostings coconut/pecan and chocolate). --grin

Card Design Series

I'm so excited to be writing for a fun web site called Suite 101. They're like the ultimate internet magazine and cover all kinds of topics. I'll be writing articles about greeting cards and journaling--my near and dear topics.

I've just started a new "quick card" series for Suite 101 and I invite you to join me as we explore this fun and fruitful topic. At the bottom of the article I list some of my most viewed gallery sites for card inspiration.

In addition to the recently published video for Spellbinders, I'm also working on a pod cast deal so I can broadcast more visuals in creative arts. So fun and exciting. I cherish your coments so please continue to email and post right here too--let me know topics that interest you.

Card created spring 2006, Paper Artsy stamp--NAChattin designer

Food Glorious Food

Food Glorious Food--from the Broadway show and movie musical Oliver happens to be the first Broadway show tune I remember knowing. My Mom had the LP and I played and sang the whole soundtrack over and over...but the "food song" stuck with me. And the line that cues that song? "Please sir, may I have some more?" Yes, this is why they call it trivia.

I've been working on visual tribute to food for almost two years now. There's not much to show for it except pages of notes, interviews, recipes, lists, menus, and sketches. My working title is "Food is Love, Love is Food" but as of today, I may go back to the Oliver song....

The layout above was created for the fine folks at Spellbinders, but since the dies aren't that prominent, I don't know where it will end up. (If you notice it missing later on, it's because I'm holding it for publication....)

The left side reads: Food Wisdom: Why dip when you can swim? The dies are Symbology, Paisley, and Paisley mystery die. The stamp is Tim Holtz paisley. The "mess" around the corner is pearlized glue stick squirted randomly. Ranger white Dabber, Sakura Glaze pens, Ancient Page and Colorbox Chalk inks provide the coloring. The background paper is gorgeous in person, it's World Win Caribbean Colors white so it's textured. The print paper is from a pack I got at Jo Ann's with some chipboard. It says "made in china" but it looks a bit like a rip off of Rouge papers--maybe they sold it to them?

The right side reads: Laundry Wisdom: Why Worry? I used the same coloring tools, paper for journaling, and background white card stock. The print background is Junkitz (I think). The journaling area talks about how cool it is to have a neighbor that dives right in and then talks about the significance of dips and chip in my world. Yes, I wrote significance...but hey, we go way back.

Party Perk-Interactive Craft Stations

As we head into the warmer weather, or continue to enjoy it in Florida (smile), remember to spice up your parties, fund raisers, and special events with the Artful Tourist's interactive craft stations. Ages 3-93 will enjoy getting their hands on these unique make and take projects designed specifically for your event.

Pictured today are butterfly bath bombs, tea bags, and Mother's day plant poke. These are not your average paper plate and yarn projects--no one walks away unhappy. Here are some other ideas we've done:

--Beaded key chains (really nice with sun activated color change beads)

--Artist's trading cards (like baseball or pokemonTM cards with other themes)

--Tag Art (becomes a souvenir, book mark, or scrapbook page embellishment)

--Wearable mini journal

--Magic wands

--Decorated tea bags

--Pendants and Pens(matched to your theme or occasion)

--Ink Pens beaded or flowered

--Clay pots decorated and a seed package

--Paper Art Dolls

--Collaborative projects including giant card for guest of honor, banners, murals, etc.

Visit the interactive craft station web page and email me to learn more. All craft station attendants are friendly, festively attired, and professional. Events we've worked in the past included outdoor concerts, kid parties, adult only parties, corporate functions from picnics to awards receptions, fund raisers from fancy dress to auctions, family reunions, and dinner parties.

If you live outside of the south Florida area or if you wish to create your own interactive craft stations, The Artful Tourist will happily design projects for you, prepare a shopping list with purchasing resources, and set up ideas.

Visual Inspiration

Ready to see some great photography? I met Robin Shepett last Thursday at a Scrapbook Meet Up. I knew I was going to to like this lady because she's a dog lover. Not only is she a cool person, she a gifted photographer. I was going to download one of her photos for placement here and I couldn't pick one. Check out her web site and buy her photos if you live far away or set up a session with her if you live in South Florida. THANKS Robin!

I love journals, they are a passionate experience for me. I decorate and bind everything and change up formats regularly. Some remain favorites-- like this one. It's just a simple lined composition book with a decorated cover, but it makes me happy. I used dream impressions stamps and cut outs from a photography book with gel medium.

To learn more about these techniques, consider my altered book workshop series. The workshops are fun and inspirational.

Little things make me smile....

Ode to the dancing bears... Spellbinders has an entire line of posable die cuts that are just too funny. I guess I must be a secret control freak because I like playing with these.

This is a card I made for my brother who finally discovered the Grateful Dead when he turned 40...The superb print papers are World Win and the background is inked to be tye dyed. The stamp is an old favorite from Stamp Affair www.stampaffair.com "If you're walking on thin ice you might as well dance..."

8 Cards-2 hours-Cute Alert

Yes, I do cute. I love artsy, odd, quirky and cute. I'm okay with it.

My latest foray into cuteness was inspired by one of my Yahoo groups who discovered a "One Sheet Wonder" card project on Michaels.com http://www.michaels.com/art/online/projectsheet?pid=e04614

I adapted this into a free online project for die cutters on my web site. Please send me your scans if you try this and I'll post them.

Embracing cuteness today...

CHA Videos

Insight film and video has posted eight new video clips filmed during CHA 2007. Check out my new "old favorite" person Pattie Donham on the Stampabilities video and see a picture of us together in the CHA 2007 post below. Pattie and her finace Scott shot these videos and I just love the work they've done. I didn't get to see all these while I was there, so it's a real treat for me. I need to do some more shopping after this! http://www.insightfilmvideo.com/cha2007/page17.html

I'm honored to represent Spellbinders in our video and if you look carefully you can see Eli, Mark, and Linda in the background. Hope you feel inspired to try some of these great techniques and products--I'm off to make that Tim Holtz tag myself...

The Palm Trees pictured are one of the demo items we created at the booth and on the video. We made them into pins and Pattie wore hers the rest of the day. THANKS Pattie! www.pattiewack.com

Cool Resources

I am always flattered when asked where I come up with all these ideas for paper art. My answer is much like Stella's, "I've always depended on the kindness of strangers." I get the majority of my ideas from online resources and I credit them whenever possible in my workshops, web site tutorials, and in my former newsletter.

Take the waterfall card for example, I was introduced to this card by Split Coast Stampers http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/ and taught it as a stamped card around 2003-2004. This year I revised the design to include die cuts from the Wizard http://www.spellbinders.us and now it's making another round. Pine Cone Press just featured one in their latest book too http://www.pineconepressbookclub.com/

You don't have to think of everything yourself, you just have to start making art. Enjoy!

Pictured in this blog--two stamped waterfalls and one with die cuts, the design is orignal to me, but the idea---well that came from one of many cool resources.

Parental Visitation

I thought about keeping my blog related to mixed media art only, but that defies the meaning of blog for me--like splat, here's what's in my head. So visit my web site for a bit more focus and polish and visit this blog for what's on my mind today.

My parents visited us for the month of February and "a good time was had by all. " They fit right into the trailer park crowd. We have a small (really small) cottage next door to us that is a great way to house guests. Mom and Daddy are campers and they've always tried to leave things better than they found them. Our visit was no exception since they bought a wonderful new screen door for the cottage and new tikki torches for the front patio.

Photos include: Daddy at Farmer's Market (Mom's gone artsy with the angles there), dinner with the neighbors inside (it was below 65 degrees brrrrr) and Sir Henry and I outside for Valentine's dinner.