Earth to Linda

OOOO. Was Earth Day yesterday? I have a good reason for letting it slip by me. You see, I celebrate Earth Day quite regularly. Almost every day as a matter of fact.

Just today I brought home these cuttings from the overgrown geranium bush in the school garden. I consider it pruning and pruning promotes healthy growth. Plus, it'll make a great addition to my garden!

Wow, look at how pretty the cuttings look all ready! Don't they have an Asian flair about them? They remind me of cherry blossoms.

To prove I celebrate Earth Day on a regular basis, this journal page from Monday has a saved hand that I've been holding onto for a couple months. I knew I'd need it one day. My habit of saving really pays off in a pinch. You can click on the picture to read my entry. This journal page is for the round robin I'm in.

I decided to show a little "Earth Day Spirit" on this page by using scraps of saved paper and featuring inchies made from recycled items. Yes I'm still making inchies!

Today I found myself taking cuttings from the school garden. The pale pink geraniums yelled at me from the library window to come out and help myself. So I did. I noticed a few plumerias in need of water so I'll have to tend to them and get them in shape cause I'll probably be taking a cutting or two from them next.

Earth Day is a year-round celebration with me. Not only do I take cuttings and happily add them to my garden but I find myself searching through bags of paper scraps for art projects and I enjoy flipping through pages of saved magazines for the perfect phrase or words to use in my journal.

The next time you find yourself reaching for a scrap of paper from a former project or catch yourself taking cuttings for your garden, take that as a reminder that you also celebrate Earth Day on a regular basis.

Artventurous Relief

Meet "Found Memories; a Waterfall of the Past." OK, so it wasn't really called all that but it best describes the project Ellie and I presented for the Extravaganza event last weekend and "Found Memories" was as far as we got for naming it, btw.

We wanted something that could be personalized by each participant. The thought of black, cream and metallics appealed to Ellie and I and as you know, everything goes with black. We asked everyone to bring in copies of photos to add to the waterfall. The waterfall sits behind the black tumbling blocks to the right of the "cardlet."

Once the front panel is opened, a waterfall of stamped and embellished panels are revealed.

Here's a close-up of me and my sister from the mid 70's.

The front panel could also be turned in another direction where more memories sat waiting to be discovered. Here's my brother riding MY tricycle during the 50's.

And the last found memory features me and my two sisters in the backyard where we once swam, played tag, monster, dodge ball and kill!

I've been submerged in a pile of black paper, funky stamps, frosted inks, embossing powder, twill, lace and brads. Sounds like a recipe for a vintage riot and that's sort of what it was.

Despite the excitement of developing an idea for a project and then watching it unfold, I'm so glad it's over. Ellie and I met religiously almost every weekend for a month putting kits together, tweaking ideas, cutting, gluing, laughing and wondering if it could all come together in an hour and a half. We were in for a challenge and we faced it like two mad craft warriors. Shielding our hearts with a heating tool we knew we were ready to face the music, uh, reality of a workshop with a timer.

There's nothing like a sigh of relief knowing that your project was well-received and that everyone completed it on time. Relief also comes from knowing that all the hard work (a whole lot of it), long hours (overtime galore) and the extra effort to make it flow (and flow it did) were all worth it. If we had the chance to do it all again we most definitely would. I think. LOL!!

Tuesday Artventures

I'm feeling it. Yes! Spring has finally sprung!

The sunshine yelled at me to come outside and take note of some outdoor art. This is the first piece of art I noticed. Funny, as many times as I've hung keys in this door I've never paid attention to the funky artistic character it has.

I turned to my left and realized I wasn't alone.

My stoned angel was looking good as ever. The sun beats on her year after year and she still manages to maintain a youthful appearance. No wrinkles. Not fair!

There was a time when I could rattle off the name of all the roses in my garden. Wha happan? This rose is now known as my "Pink with a hint of yellow rose." HA! Sounds good to me.

I love this geranium who is known as Mexicana. I love the bright magenta color.

Intrigue Rose. Love it. They say if you want really big blooms, you should pinch off the little side buds cause they rob energy from the main rose. I can't do this. I love buds just as much as I love large roses. The smell of these roses is incredible. Old fashion scent with a hint of lemon. So good.

My Iceberg Roses never fail to bloom a riot of white among deep green leaves. They're so showy and resist disease.

Each year mid summer I tell myself I'm gonna pull this rose out of the ground cause it gives me so much grief. The blooms are huge and beautiful at the beginning of spring. Then the leaves get rust. You gardeners know what I'm talking about. By the end of summer it looks dead cause it doesn't bloom anymore which is fine with me. I just prune the thing down to get rid of the rusty leaves. Then spring comes around again and once more I'm rewarded with beautiful fat yellow roses.

Day two of my Easter vacation has me feeling the spring bug. I took a walk outside to experience nature's art. Speaking of nature's art, do wrinkles count? Are they like natural zentangles? Ooo, imagine?! Too much fun in the sun! Hope you're enjoying nature's art wherever you are.

Serious Saturday Artventures

I've been swimming in a sea of tags and it hasn't been pretty but it's been artventurous. This is all I could manage for now. I can't, won't, refuse to create chaos in the minds of those who will stand before these tags having to make the difficult decision of which six to choose. Glad it's not me.

I love the look of color and the feel of fibers.

I kid you not when I say that the kits and supplies to all the above tags stretch from one end of under my table to the other end. What do you mean I forgot to include the instructions?!!!!!

This is one of the main reasons I do a lot of standing.

In an attempt to do some spring cleaning I decided to hold a workshop featuring a potpourri of tags. I've been assembling tag kits which means looking for paints, making sure the paints are in good condition, searching for rubber stamps, and making a short shopping list. You see, although the tag components are safely kept in individual packets, the supplies I use to create backgrounds such as paints and rubber stamps are always immediately put away when I get home from a class.

I ran a fair amount of completed tags (my samples) into the shop today with a brief description. I felt relieved to finally get them out of the house and was ready to jump into my Extravaganza project until I realized one important, really, really important, missing item. The instructions! Oh man. Did I mention my computer crashed a while back and most of them where lost at that time? So, it's not quite over. Sigh.