I Love Crafting!

  _{I ` Crafting}

My Sweetie is so wonderful, he not only presented me with a new car,(See it in the background? Her name is Coco) he went the extra mile and ordered me custom plates,  HOW CUTE ARE THEY?

Well, the trio piled in and a crafting we went. My daughter and my neighbor Sandy went to my mothers to find a tree to craft into a masterpiece. 

We hiked a bit up the hill to find the perfect Manzanita branches stripped of their natural foliage so we could create a more magnificent work of art. 

We have no idea how these are going to turn out, but of course it’s the bonding and the process that really matters right? 

After painting the branches white with a hint of nickel silver we wrapped little battery operated lights around the branches. Then we painted some leaves and stuck them where WE thought they should go. 

Then Sandy had the brilliant idea of applying spray adhesive and silver glitter to some DEAD Hydrangea flowers from her garden. Perfect! We glued those around here and there. 

Next come the bird nests. We starting with spanish moss swirled into a circle and then those clever little creatures seem to have collected things from my jewelry box. 

Of course they all needed crowns because Sandy said so, I have never been into crowns, but I can play the game. Crowns it is! Too cute!  

 Next are the bird houses, Thank heaven for Michaels 50₵ each.Oh yeah, 

while you are at it, just put anything on it!

The final touch is graphic cards decorated in lacy ruffles. This was found by Sandy while perusing The Graphic Fairy. She printed them out and decorated them up real pretty for us. Thanks friend! 

This was a fun day of creativity and now I am going to clean up the studio for our next adventure. be sure to pop over to Gammy's Little House to see her creations, she just loves visitors!

Why Do We Do THIS?

That time of the month is here again. I Mean the reveal of our Happy Homemaker Tag Along. This is to occur on the 10th of each month, and TODAY is the 10th. I get so excited to see what others have chosen to represent the month in our swap, and what new techniques we will see amongst the taggers. 

 I was asked by a very close family friend, "Why do you do this? I mean what is the point, what will you ever do with them? Isn't it a waste of time?"

OBVIOUSLY the family friend was a MAN and did not at all see the big picture, but none the less it did get me thinking about 'WHY' we do this. I wanted to have a bang up answer that would really show him...............Still thinking...........

In my recently acquired job of teaching art to children I introduced them to the 'TAG' world. I started my lesson by creating a power point presentation to teach about ATCs (artist trading cards). You can check out their work at my blog Little Hands Big Art.

While preparing my lesson I was especially pleased with slide # 8. 

(The Whole Presentation is at the end of this post)

It explains a few reasons 'Why We Do This' and leaves room for more reasons. If you have another reason, I'd love to add it to my list for future students to hear.

Now on to my Tag......

In keeping with my theme of 50's housewife, This sweet woman is setting up the living room with a new portable TV. Yippee. 

She was the initial inspiration.

I cut her out and thought about our family watching TV in March.

 'The Luck of the Irish' is a movie my children watched over and over and over and over.......

you get the idea.

 I was not sure everyone had heard of this nor did they have the same tradition as us, so, covered up went 'The Luck of the Irish' and in came something I was sure all my tagging friends could relate too.

please welcome the TV Dinner, 

and what would we be watching?  

Just look in the TV Guide. 

Not sure what this has to do with March, 

but at least you can see my process in creating this month's tag.

My daughter gave her input and strongly suggested that 

I add letters since the previous months both have lettering.

TECHNIQUE:   To the black part of the TV I added Glossy Accents by inkssentials. This gives the appearance of glass when it is fully dry.

I found a TV Guide on Google (I'm telling you they have everything) and yes it is from March in the 1950's  I then found pages from the inside of a TV guide and sized them to fit, printed them all out, glued them together and fastened them with a staple. 

I also added copper wire for those good 'ol rabbit ears. You remember right?

I like the angle of this photo because it really shows all the depth of this card. 

I HAD FUN CREATING and That's Why I Do This!

Now for a Feature Presentation!

 

SLIDE # 8  Remember The Question?

Thank You for sticking with me for this whole post. I am going to give away an Artist Trading Card /Tag that I have made to the first 4 people who leave a comment stating that they would like one. See you around blogland!!