Angela's ATC cards

Ugh. At least that's what I was thinking as the deadline to send my ATCs to the Lucky 13 meeting (see post below) drew near. I had to call Cheryl to have her remind me what the requirements were. As it happens, I was sitting on the floor of my craft room when I called her and I had Earth Day on my mind (my family started a new tradition of eating in the park and using no electricity for the evening) so as I chatted with Cheryl, I started working on my ATC cards using some of the "I can't bear to throw it away even though I can't think of what to do with it" materials I had lying within reach. The results are these crazy bubble wrap ATC cards that I decorated with the gorgeous orange mesh our oranges and grapefruits come in. I think they're fun, my husband declared them ugly. It seems so wasteful to package fruit this way but I am fascinated by the color and texture of the mesh. No one loves man-made materials like I do. In high school, I promised my friends that if I ever had twin girls, I would absolutely name them Polly and Esther in honor of the fabulous man made fabric... Then I found out that the mother of Dear Abby and her equally famous, advice-giving twin, Ann Landers, had beaten me to the idea. But I digress. Happy Earth Day!

april 25th

a few of us were able to meet up for a day - yesterday. here's a group shot of cheryl, jennifer, elena, melanie and candice.



per tradition... here's smooshy face with mel, cheryl and elena.



we had a ton of fun. ate some yummy food. blazing buffalo chicken dip, velvet cupcakes, veggies, homemade mac and cheese - yum. we cropped. we gabbed. we laughed. we swapped. atc swap that is. here are some pics of those atcs.

A page for Cheryl....

I want to say thank you to all the ladies in this awesome group who were patient with me. I was really kinda bewildered by how to best do this. I just wanted to do a good job. I love the pictures Cheryl sent me off CHA. They made me smile and had all these wonderful smiles in them . I am happy with what came out. I only used fabric and no paper. I included the words CHA in cool plastic letters
I made a little packet in the back so that she could hold any memorabilia from CHA 2009. I had fun and now I am off to play catch up....Gloria King 

True Beauties by Jolee Jane

Layout by Jolee Jane for Melissa Kennedy

The moment I saw this picture of Melissa's beautiful daughter' with their contagious smiles

I knew I had to create a little whimsy

After painting the canvas I drew on the scalloped top border with a black oil pastel crayon and then re- emphasized the scallops with more white paint

I decided to hand sew some felt triangles and while making them realized they would make roofs(very random thought;) , the house bodies are card stock covered in Mica.

Lastly I made a journal tag that tucks in just behind the photo.

always so very fun to create with such beauty for inspiration!

For Jane by Angela Daniels

When Jane sent me this fabulous photo of the Hotel Monaco in Portland, Oregon and the gorgeous photos of her with her daughter, they all looked so... I don't know... so fashion forward. The circumstance of their trip tells a very different story but I just couldn't stop thinking about a fashion inspired page (Project Runway addict that I am) and the story boards that designers use. To tell the fashion story on the front side of the canvas, I dipped into my jar of black and white ribbons and used some of my favorites to create a fabric-like border for the photos and another black ribbon with an interesting border to highlight the middle photo of Jane and her daughter at the bottom of the layout. In keeping with that design board idea (and again trying so hard to get that fabulous textural look so many of my fellow "Luckies" excel at), I used pins and tulle for an accent.

Because I was thinking about fabric swatches (these little canvas books really do make me think more about sewing on layouts than I usually do) and because I was still concerned that Jane's story about her trip be told, I decided to use some of my favorite fabric swatches to make a very rustic pocket on the back of the layout. Jane can use this pocket to add memorabilia and journaling notes later and the pocket will still fit in with the designer board idea I began with on the front of the layout. One thing I love about scrapping is that a completely inept seamstress like me can pretend to be a bit of a fashion designer with a few scraps and fabric- a pocket of mine wouldn't hold up well to wear but for a little canvas book? I think it will do just fine.

Cover Page by Cheryl Waters

I am just so thrilled to be here . . . in this circle journal group . . . amongst new and old friends. In the last few months I've been touched by continuing to cultivate established friendships and thrilled to begin new relationships with these wonderful and talented women. I'm just so excited about what each of our circle journals will look like when they are completed in January of 2010. Each one will be so unique and represent 12 (there are 13 of us) unique and special artists and ladies.
I am so excited about the pages these artists are creating that I went ahead and created a cover page the other night for my journal. Behind this page I've created will house a representation of friendship, art, investment (into one another's lives), beauty and so much more.
This journey is such a gift! A gift of friendship, art, life, and sharing. I'm thankful you all are here and sharing it with us!
So I just thought I'd share my cover page.

I'm not one that uses red that often but it was fun to do a red and black combination in honor of the theme we've picked . . . the Lucky Thirteen. The #2 card represents my Fiskateer number #002. I see this cover page as a home awaiting some beautifully created pieces of art. I can't wait.

Pages by Melissa Kennedy

Gi’day lovely ladies. i think it would be fair for you to think that the chick from downunder had gone MIA. For those of you who work fulltime you will understand never ending work commitments – make that work in the scrapping industry, and sometimes the last thing you feel like doing when you get home is just that. i then had an appointment with a tent for a week which i must say was soooooo much fun – followed by a massive overdose on chocolate. Anyway the long awaited start to this project finally happened and i must say i have had so most fun over this weekend. Thank you thank you thank you for asking me to be a part of this. Ok my pages are a little simpler than some of the awesome work i see showing up here but this canvas thing is all sooooo new to me – so i am learning as i go and hope you like.

What to do – what to do….Well with the canvases, i tackled this weekend, i first cut them to size ( 8 x 9”), frayed the edges and gave the backs of them a quick coat of fabric stiffener – did we have to do that?????? not sure but i did anyway – it all kinda made me look as it i new what i was doing. LOL. Didn’t have the colored paint i wanted on hand so i thought i would try out some techniques with ink and masks. This was fun. Flourishes, spots and dots being rubbed onto the canvas – i had ink all over me and trust me when i say more than one photo had to be reprinted due to dirty fingers…. hmmmmm.
Add to that some stitching and rubons........ Can you believe that???? the rubons worked like a treat on the canvas. i weren’t sure at first whether to try them or not but glad i did and loved how they turned out.

February Layout – Michelle Van Etten’s photos
Michelle sent me these of her and a friend partying – she said the two of them are known as fire and ice so with fire in my mind i went for the oranges and reds. Had a little play in photoshop to color up the hat to match and had lots of fun creating this layout.

March Layout – Stephanie Ackerman’s photos
Stephanie sent photos of a trip on Valentines day to Grandpa and grandma’s house
Being valentines day it gave me an excuse to use up some of the “hearts” i have stashed away. You've got some gorgeous “boys” there Stephanie

April Layout - Melanie Christie’s photos

Melanie sent me in some photos of some of her birthday celebrations.
Had a bit of fun with this layout too with the little party hat and cake.
Sounds like the cooking class was a fantastic surprise.