Out with the old... In with the new...

On the day before leaving town to visit my family for Thanksgiving, I managed to total my car.  The accident was my fault and an embarrassingly stupid move on my part.  Thankfully, no one was seriously injured - it could have been so much worse - but my subcompact 2004 Hyundai Accent didn't fare too well against a Dodge Ram pickup!  I finally got out of my rental and into a new (at least new to me) car - a 2010 Hyundai Elantra with power, cruise, and lots of nice little amenities I had been doing without.  Alas, they came with a car payment attached but at least I have something nice, newer, and reliable to get around in.

On a lighter note, I had a wonderful time visiting my family in Wyoming over the Thanksgiving holiday.  I arrived just in time for the traditional dinner, sacrificed sleep for some Black Friday shopping deals, had a Harry Potter movie marathon with my nieces, went to kindergarten with my youngest niece, watched another niece perform admirably at her swim meet, helped my mom rearrange her art studio, and managed to read a novel and complete an art piece in the process.  Not a very restful vacation but definitely a fun and special one!

This is the art piece I completed on my vacation.  It was my birdhouse-themed contribution for the Fifth Anniversary swap on Paper Traders.  The couples featured are my grandparents and great aunt & uncle  =)

Christmas Crafts

 These are two items I made for Christmas swaps on Paper Traders - some inchie ornaments (made with Tim Holtz fragments) and a paper ATC ornament.

Below are some handmade Christmas cards I made - and donated - for my women's church group...

Naked Postcards

I'll bet that caught your attention, huh?  Actually, it just refers to mailing art without an envelope - such as in the case of these postcards I made:

The theme for this Paper Traders swap was one "zetti" postcard and one "steampunk" postcard.  I'm not sure I quite captured the themes in their true intent but I'm not unhappy with the results.  A big thanks to Lorna for hosting this one - it was fun!

Asian Charms Box

Just wanted to quickly share a photo of the box I made for my 16 color charms...

The wooden frame that I used for the base was a dollar store find!

No Spam Allowed

Sorry, everyone, but I keep getting spam comments here so I have had to turn off posts from anonymous users and enable comment moderation.  I apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.  Thanks for understanding.

In the Spirit of Crayola

Liz is hosting a token/charm swap in our Paper Traders group.  Her theme is the 16 colors that come in a box of Crayola crayons: red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, violet, red-violet, carnation pink, brown, white, and black.

I gave mine a common theme by using various asian papers for each one.  I got the idea from vintagepix' button charms that I saw on Flickr.  It took a little trial and error but I finally figured out the secret for doing these without too much mess...

I adhered the paper behind the clear buttons (which I got from Stampin'Up!) using crystal lacquer (diamond glaze, papier glass finish, etc.) but I had trouble with it oozing out through the buttonholes when I pressed them together.  My solution was to cut the ends off of some cheap cotton swabs that had plastic stems (like tiny straws) - they fit perfectly in the holes and the excess glaze oozed up inside the straws instead of all over the front of the buttons... then I placed my finger over the top of the straw when I removed each one, creating a tiny vacuum that sucked out the excess goo!

All I need to do now to finish this project is to make a cute little storage/display box...

San Diego, here I come!

 (photo from www.vroomvroomvroom.com)

Lately, my posts have been infrequent at best.  I wish I had some new art to show you but I've been spending what little spare time I have sorting things to give away...  You see, I've decided to move back to San Diego this summer!

I am super excited to be going back - I miss all my friends so much and I will even be returning to my old job.  My bosses and coworkers in San Diego are awesome people and dear friends so it's going to be really nice to get to work with them again.

In the meantime, I am trying to pare down all my stuff to the bare minimum.  I'm getting rid of all my "big" clothes - so I won't even be tempted to let any of those old pounds climb back on!  Lots of extra shoes, videos, old computer equipment, linens, craft supplies, and most of my furniture.  I still have tons to do and I know the next two months will fly by - I'm planning to move over Memorial Day Weekend at the end of May.

The most important thing still to do is find an apartment! For those of you who are in the area, let me know if you've got any good leads  =)