the gang's all here now

Here's the whole crew of snow people. The top photo shows my gang all together. The second photo is of the snow family that my cousin, Terry, made. We had so much fun making these new additions to our holiday decor. I'm thinking the best part of this project is that now when we put out our holiday decorations, we will remember how much fun we had together. If you missed the previous days' posts, there are lots of details about how I made each snow person. Terry used fine glitter on her snow people and beautiful pastel colors. They are so soft and shimmery in person.

Thanks for joining me on this journey with the snow people. I can hardly wait to get out the holiday decorations now and get the house looking festive. I'm including these guys in the Mixed Media Monday ornamental challenge this week. We started making them on Monday, so I think it's appropriate.

I'll leave you with a couple of close up shots of Terry's snow family:

peace, love, vote

Only one more week left of ugly name calling and finger pointing and blaming. I'll be so happy to see November 5th arrive. The way I figure it, our country is a mess no matter who wins this one. I'd just like to see a little tolerance all around. People in my state are really fired up over one of the propositions this year. I just read in my very tiny local community that 2 people were arrested for removing signs for one side of the battle and there is a $2,000 reward to find someone who removed signs for the other side. What happened to freedom of speech? Seriously.

When November 5th gets here, we are still one country. No red, no blue. Just Americans trying to live our lives. So, that's how this little art piece came to be. I've been wanting to try my hand at some small art quilts combining cloth and paper. Today was my first shot at it, not great but it's a start. I learned that you shouldn't make holes first in your paper if you are sewing it to fabric. I remember how much I like hand sewing and how much I like working with fabric. This little piece measures about 5" x 6". It's my entry for this week's Mixed Media Monday lock and key challenge.

Supplies used: Stampfrancisco image stamp, CTMH letter stamps, gesso, staz-on black ink, various markers, vintage lace, piece of vintage mattress pad, vintage key, purple metallic thread, handmade flower, black brad, and the cutest little hanger that I got at the scrapbook expo this weekend.

who's there?

This is a combined challenge arch. First it's the paper patchwork challenge hosted by Cora over at Gothic Arches this week. The challenge was to create a patchwork of papers for the background and throw some paint over them. That was fun!

Then it's the things that go bump in the night over at Mixed Media Monday. My friend Kim is hosting this week, so I had to play even though I've never done a challenge there. Honestly I'm a bit intimidated by the talent of the folks who play in the challenges. Such amazing artwork. I really enjoyed the process of making this arch that feels really outside the box for me.

I don't do spooky, so it's not easy to get that feel going. I think my little sister made me watch way too many spooky movies with her as a kid. I can't even go into a community haunted house. I'm just a big chicken. So, I guess this was a face your fears arch. Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies used: titan buff and nickel azo gold Golden Fluid Acrylics, black Staz-on ink, Ink Blocks stamp, variety of Ranger Distress Inks, lots of paper scraps including a clothing tag, map and postcard, owl pic from vintage dictionary, vintage rummy game piece.