I don't know which is worse.......the US Mail or the Royal Mail. Mailers Beware!!! If you need to send something overseas that is of any importance at all, send it either by UPS,FED X or even DHL.

A friend of mine has sent me something twice from the UK and twice it's gotten lost. The more I hear from other people over there sending items to the US, the more I hear about packages getting lost and never showing up again. I lost a lot of faith in the US mail awhile ago, I think I have finally lost all faith in all of the US Mail and the Royal Post (or whatever it's called).

Just be cautious when sending items of any value. Make sure you take out insurance if you do use the regular mail.

I completely forgot to post this on St.Pattys Day (March 17th). It was just something I made up really quick for fun, the stamps are from Stampin Up.

You know how Tim Holtz uses the size #8 tag for so much of his artwork? What I've been buying lately from the Office Supply store is the manila 8x5 index cards (forget what they are actually called). You get something like 100 of them for $5 and they are perfect for quick pieces of artwork. If you want to make an art journal with several of them you can do that too, you can do lots of stuff with them, they just come in handy so much and you get plenty for your money. And if you don't like the tab, you just cut it off.

I can't even believe we are almost to April already, can you? This happens to me every year now, all of sudden Christmas is over, then the New Year starts, and before you know it spring is practically over. It just goes by so quickly anymore, and I know I say that all the time too.

There are a couple sites I wanted to promote today if I could, I'd love it if you're not familiar with them that you take the time to check them out for me please.
#1) Crafty Individuals out of the UK is such an amazing stamp company. They make the most beautiful stamps, and then on top of that, they make stunning papers, amazing glossy images to use in your artwork, and now they are making these tags that are so, so gorgeous. I can't even explain to you how pretty these tags are, you have to check it out yourself. http://craftyindividuals.com On top of all of that, the two people who run the company (Malcolm and Jean), they have to honestly be some of the most sweetest, kindest people I've met over the Internet since I started on this art journey of mine.

#2) I'm sure you all have heard of LILY CHILVERS by now, and if you haven't, you should have. Her blog is http://frillyunderwear.blogspot.com I mean, how cute is that title any way? The blog is called Octopode and she is this truly AMAZING artist. I'm not sure of her exact age, but I think she's either 17 or 18. When you look at her artwork you just know she is going places in the art world. I can see her ten years down the road having her artwork everywhere and doing just awesome things with it. I just received her newest line of stamps and they are so cool, I mean, they are so, so cool. You have to get them!! They are quirky, they are like nothing else you've seen before and I am so in love with them. She also does digital collage sheets and you can also order tangible collage sheets. Check her out just as soon as you can!!

#3) AlphaStamps.com is a web company here in the States run by the wonderful Leslie. She carries a little bit of this and a little bit of that. She has really great collage sheets, she has an extensive collection of metal charms and metal trinkets for your artwork (items that I have not seen anywhere else). She sells great products for jewelry making. She also has great swaps to partake in on the Yahoo Group they have and it's just a fun community of artists to play with. Go on over and browse around the site.

These are a few quick, little stamped cards I made on the corrugated cardboard. I added some coordinated pearl embellishments, matching twine and cute little sayings and viola.......you have a few quick and easy cards to send to someone.

These are some ATCs I made a bit ago for an ArtChix Studio swap. I always really liked how they turned out. I never did post them on my blog so I thought I would do that now. Aside from the torn pages from old books, the rest of the materials are from ArtChix Studios.

This is just a simple little ATC I made for AlphaStamps (using their collage images and Dresden blue birds) for Easter. I just thought it was sweet.

This is a little arch I made with a spring theme using an AlphaStamps collage sheet.

This is a 8x8 photo collage I recently finished. I got the photo image off one of my authentic french postcards that I bought at http://vintagecharmings.com.
The woman who runs that website, Kate, is really a nice woman and she travels between Paris and Connecticut every other week. She's always bringing back goodies from there.

I don't know what the weather is like everywhere else right now, but I know lately the east coast of the US has been socked pretty bad with snow. And here I sit in Arizona with the temperature in the 50's at night and the low to mid 70's during the day. It's like spring here right now, beautiful blue skies everyday, it literally couldn't be more beautiful. But believe me, our winter's are the reward we get for getting through the summer's here.

Am I the only one who can't believe we are almost done with January already?? It's going to be the 4th of July any minute now.

After a really, really, really long absence (since right before Halloween), I am back and happily creating again. Happy New Year to everyone!! I hope the holidays were wonderful for each and every one of you and I hope your New Years was safe and as much fun as you wanted it to be.

With the hectic holidays and with my arthritis acting up yet again, I was MIA, out of commission, however you want to phrase it. But with the New Year started I am feeling a rush of brand new creativity and I'm hoping to get back to posting a lot more frequently.

Thank you BTW for not leaving me while I was gone. I even had a fellow artist who I consider just crazy talented recently ask me where I was, and when was I coming back? The fact that someone of her caliber asked me that, well it was more than flattering to say the least.

Here are a couple things I've made most recently. I'm really pleased with how the cardboard collages turned out. The Butterfly card is something I made for my sister. And the standing ATC, is one of three I'm working on, the other two aren't done yet.

Check out the absolutely amazing giveaway on this blog: http://scrapwithstacy.blogspot.com

She's giving away all kinds of Tim Holtz products. Plus when you find her blog, you'll find some great inspiration there as well.

These are a few other projects I did for the AlphaStamps Design Team. Let me just quickly say that you know how when you go into a scrapbooking store or a Michaels or just a store where they carry too much of what you love. I swear Leslie over at AlphaStamps has a unique knack for selecting and selling the very best of the best products that come out every new season or every new CHA show.
She always has the best goodies on her site. You should definitely check it out when you get the chance.

Okay, so back to my other DT AlphaStamp samples. Leslie is going to be selling these awesome little gold frames (I think they will be on her site by this Friday). You can make ornaments for your house or for your Christmas trees with these, there are endless projects you can make with these little frames. I used some more angel images from AlphaStamps collage sheets and then decorated the frames with some German Scrap/Dresden, a little glitter glue and some metal/brass embellishments. When I made these frames I was thinking of ornaments for the tree. They turned out pretty darn cute don't you think?

The last two (although they actually show on this post as being first)are just a couple of ATCs I made, again with some of the AlphaStamps angel collage sheets as well. The backgrounds on the ATCs are obviously my design using metallic paints. The text is embossed and is on pop dots and it is from the AlphaStamps stamp set called "Angels We Have Heard on High". I also used German Scrap/Dresden for around the border of each ATC and also the Dresden Halo for behind each of the angels heads.

These were fun little projects for the up and coming holidays, they would also make great gifts or even great additions to a wrapped package. The holidays will be here before we know it. If you are looking for the right supplies........you know where to go.......AlphaStamps!!

This is a holiday slide mailer I made for the AlphaStamps Design Team. The Yahoo group is also doing an Angel Swap using some of these same materials.

Since I make slide mailers quite a bit I'm always looking for new ways to make their appearance look a bit different than the last one I made. This time I covered the whole front & back with modeling paste (the only part that wasn't covered was the double microscope slide indention on the inside). Once the modeling paste was dry on all sides I then took out some Rub-n-Buff in Antique Gold. (Sometimes I think that there are so many products out on the market these days, that you forget about certain ones that are really great to use.) I had not used the Rub-n-Buff for quite awhile and I was really happy with the outcome on this slide mailer. On the indention on the inside I cut the middle part out which separated it into two sections in order to make it one whole opening. I used the very beautiful stamp set by AlphaStamps called "Angels We Have Heard On High" for the background and then I cut out images from AlphaStamps collage sheets to put over that background. Added some German Scrap/Dresden, pearls and tinsel glitter by Martha Stewart to the inside. I then punched a couple holes in the slide mailer, added some eyelets and small binder rings, decorated the front panel and finally added some ribbon and brass embellishments and viola, I had a little slide mailer booklet.

These are a few "Halloween Candy Holders" that I made for Stampotique. The Stampotique Design Team has been gracious enough to ask me to be their very first Guest Designer. What a wonderful honor from an incredible group of talented women. Thank you so much to each one of you.

I used a small sized "Chinese take-out" box for the first candy holder, and for the second I just altered a white small gift bag.

For the take-out box I added beads to the handle and then I have images on both sides of the box. Pretty simple.

For the gift bag, I first sprayed it with Glimmer Mist in green, orange and a dark purple. Then I stamped my images on a separate sheet of cardstock and added them to the bag. Mostly what I did for the gift bag was to decorate it with doodles. In the past I've been a small time doodler, but most recently I've been watching some amazing artist's videos on YouTube and it really is quite intriguing how much doodles can decorate a piece of artwork. I mean you can keep going and going and going with your doodles and before you know it, those doodles have made a big difference on your piece of artwork. So I've been dabbling in that recently to see if I have any talent for the doodle?

YouTube is so amazing. Even just simply for the art videos you can watch on there to learn new techniques and tricks. As many of you know, I haven't had high speed Internet for all that long, so in the past I wasn't able to access YouTube, but OMG, it is so amazing all the art tutorial's you can watch on there. And people are so very generous with showing other artists how to do the different techniques and what not for artwork pieces. My gosh you could watch art videos all day long and learn so much. It's really wonderful!!

If you're not typically a doodler, I really urge you to give it a try. It really can make a difference. And of course I would suggest black felt pen and white paint pen, those are the best in my opinion for doodling.