I've got butterflies ....

loads of them ... not in my tummy ... and not real butterflies ... but a bunch of fakes ... formerly used in a store window display ...

and I have flowers from the same window ... an old black skirt, an old lace window panel ... and somehow with this not much stuff I am trying to make a costume ... I am going to a charity scrapbooking crop this weekend, and the theme for the masque portion of the crop is "Scrap Decadence" ... and since i use a lot of butterfly and flower embellishments on my pages I thought i might put them on me ... buy how????

I am completely stumped as to what to do ... and I am leaving friday so i have to have the outfit ready by thursday ... and i have a million other things to do ...

any suggestions???

at any rate,  Mona Lisa Mae  has offered to help ... or play ... and Honey is always around to distract me and take me away from my costume making ...

This post about butterflies and desperation is brought to you by the letter B and Jenny's fabulous Alphabet meme ... go here to read some fabulous B posts.

Peace, Love & Paper ~ Jo

and the Winner is .....

I am a little late with my draw, but from the comments that were made before Saturday on my post about my little metal insects  .....   drumroll please .....

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1

Max: 9

Result:

3

Powered by RANDOM.ORG

So Lynn, that's you!  email me with your details and I will get this off in the mail for you!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

Peace Love & Paper

~ Jo

Happy Mail .... Coming & Going!!!

Don'tcha just love happy mail?  you know ... real mail???  sometimes with goodie???   I totally do!  And I got some very recently ...  let me show you ...

Coming
This smokin cool necklace came in the mail to me from one of my favourite bloggers & artists, Lynn Stevens ... you can check out her creativity at her blog Trash to Treasure Art ...  I loved the way she packaged it in a little bag with a very pretty tag!  Thanks so much Lynn, I am totally enjoying it!

Coming
Oh my gosh I was asked by Elmers to participate in their Crafter's Challenge ... they offered to send me adhesives and tools to use, so I agreed ... look what they sent .... amazing isn't .... Thanks Elmers's!

Going
I plan on posting my project for the Elmers Challenge on about the 4th or 5th of October ... watch for posting because Elmers will be giving 3 of my lucky blog readers a chance to win the following:

X-ACTO:

4-pack Decorative Edge Scissors

Self Healing Mat

Retractable Craft Knife

Craft Swivel Knife

CraftBond:

Scrapbooking Tape: Repositionable

Extra Strength Glue Stick

Wet & Dry Dual Tip Glue Pen

Permanent Tape Runner

Going

You still have till the end of today to enter my teeny tiny giveaway ... to enter you have to leave a comment on this post.  Winner will receive the metal embellishments, some vintage inspired ribbon, and the Fall issue of the Canadian Scrapbooker magazine ... remember, the comments must be posted by midnight tonight.

Peace, Love & Paper ~ Jo

The Arrival ...

I am pleased to Announce the Arrival of Miss Mona Lisa Mae!  although some of you have seen her in a previous blog post, you were never formally introduced ... 

Readers, meet Mona Lisa Mae,

Mona Lisa Mae, meet my readers!!!  (funny as i typed that i heard Patti  screeching Meet My Millionaires)

Mona has come to via Air Mail, all the way from Birmingham, Alabama ... Living here, I am sure she will find lots of little Adventures to occupy her time.  Right now, she is trying to make friends with Honey ... Sadly Honey is still terrified of Mona .... it's not because she is a monkey, or because she has stripes ... it's because Honey is terrified of small toys ... yes, quite the strange dog, but Mona believes she will have Honey in the palm of her tinier hand in no time.

That's it for A folks ... something different from me this next trip around the Alphabet ... Make sure you stop in and visit Jenny Matlock's blog for links to some Amazing & Amusing A entries!!!

Peace, Love & Paper ~ Jo

something new!!!

Calling all card makers ... there is something new at The Inspired Scrapper ... they now have card challenges every other Monday ... so head on over and check out the first challenge, featuring Jillian, ChrissAnn and little ole me ....

Here's some sneaks

and remember to enter my little giveaway, here ... all you have to do is leave a comment ... some of the vintage themed goodies will be pretty pleated ribbons and gorgeous one of a kind buttons ...

Peace, Love & Paper ~ Jo

a little white lie, little sneak peak, little tutorial ... and a little giveaway

yeah, just when i say i wont be blogging for a week i am back ... that's my little white lie for today ...

I have a new layout up at The Inspired Scrapper ... here is the peak ...

the challenge is "Fall is in the Air" ... I hope you can stop by .... there are also some very cool layouts by DT members Chriss and Karen.

and now for a teeny tiny tutorial ...
I found these rusted ornaments on sale dirt cheap at a garden shop (you can use any metal ornament), they were linked together by broken chain ...  I have used them as before, but this time i wanted to add a patina to them without having to do too much work and using what i had on hand ... i'm sure i could have rushed out and picked up something to do it with at the craft store but sometimes getting creative with your existing supplies saves you a few bucks ...

1.  Grab your paint, glimmer mist and/or Shimmer Mist

2.  Gather your metal embellies and/or findings ... anything you can dig up!

3.  Dab on your paint ... apply as liberally as desired but leave a bit of the original metal showing through

4.  Now wipe off the excess paint ... and then dab a tiny bit of paint for highlights.  let this dry

5.  Spray glimmer mist unevenly ... soak some areas and ignore others

6. Now wipe of the excess ...  let dry or dry with your heat gun ...  just don't touch the hot metal

7.  spray on a metallic shimmer, in this case i used copper, and dab off excess pooling mist  (yes this is sounding a little Karate Kid ... wipe on, wipe off)

8.  and you are done ... you can use these on layouts, cards, tags ... string them back together, put ribbon through the top hole and attach a crystal to the bottom and tie onto a wine bottle ... hang them in the window from a string of beads ... inexpensive, they take very little time ... and anyone can do this

And the giveaway ... I also did an additional 3 ornaments ... i let more of the glimmer mist sink in so the turquoise is a little more prominent ... you can win these and a few other vintage inspired goodies by leaving me a comment below .... I will draw a name next Saturday ...

Have a great week ... go play with metal!

Peace, Love & Paper ~ Jo

Over the rainbow ...

whew!!!  don't know about the rest of you but wow ... i'm slowing down ... so I am glad that we are finally done,finished, finito, totally over the rainbow.  Truth be told I found it way harder to do than our regular A - Z stuff ... but it was an interesting and enjoyable meme to participate in.

I totally loved reading everyone's takes on colours ... there were some wickedly cool interpretations ...

I am taking a bit of a break ... for a least a week ... maybe more .... but most likely a week.

Thanks so much to all of you who have taken the time to visit and comment ... aren't comments just so much fun to read???  I have tried to comment on everyone's but i missed a bunch last week, so I apologize for that ...

more from the fab art store window ... notice waldo in the reflection ... hehehe

As usual, this was post was brought to you by the colours of the rainbow ... and the uber cool,wonderfully fun and energetic Jenny Matlock.  Make sure you check out her linky for some fabulous posts on the rainbow!

glass in motion

Honey is terrified of our new friend, Mona Lisa Mae

me ... in colour

this stuff is bananas ... banana holders that is!!!

violets are blue .... really???

I thought that violets were violet .... gosh, i hope this whole violet thing is not going to turn into another debate on weather a colour is or isnt a colour .... (indigo still haunts me)  i love my title ... so sorry but the rest of this post is going to be rather lame ... i have been out and about ... took a day trip to beautiful Whistler ... took a peek to peek gondola ride between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains ... and i have been painting dd's bedroom walls ... guess what colour???

If you said violet ... well then  you are dead wrong ... she went with a black and white scheme ... painting over hotpink and black ... all i can say is that that Behr's all in one primer and paint works really really well ... love it ... sadly this paint project has taken me most of the week ... i don't know how professional painters manage to do something like this ... i had little bits of black sneaking on to the white walls and vice versa ... and then i would have to take a teeny tiny paint brush to correct it ... it was very picky work ... and we finished just now ...

omg ... you're still reading???  this is a dreadful post, so here are some pictures featuring lovely violets for your amusement and enjoyment!

this was parked outside of the grocery store with the engine running ... i really wanted to hop on and ride ... did you know i used to ride ... yeah back in the day ... me... all 100 pounds of me back then screaming down the highway on two wheels ... that was like over 30 years ago ... there were not many female riders back then ...

this is an older photo ... i made these easter eggs using alcohol inks ... i loved the way they turned out ... if you try this, do not eat the eggs ... you would be best to blow out the eggs first and then ink the empty shell 

these flowers look violet to me ... they are so interesting  ... i haven't a clue those as to what there are but i do find them appealing 

I found this piece of pottery ... looks rather artistic ... on a wall ... that wall as a matter of fact ... just sitting there, kinda lonely and abandoned ... i loved the violet undertones on the exterior

and her is my dd ... sitting with some very pretty violet orchids and other violet coloured flowers ...

Thanks so very much for reading this post through ... not my best, but it didn't want to miss a week .... enjoy your trip around Jenny's Rainbow Summer School Meme this week ... i am sure you will find loads of violet beauty and inspiration!

Peace, Love & Paper  ~ Jo

Indigo??? who knows ...

Indigo ... seems to be a colour that even the experts cannot agree on. Is it dark blue? dark purple? somewhere in between??? apparently there is no clear answer ... even its inclusion in the colour spectrum is debatable ...  read all about it here

I feel for this debatable colour ... it must be hard being placed on the colour spectrum and then have others declare that you shouldn't really be there ...

I guess if indigo wants an understanding shoulder to lean on it could turn to Pluto ... who once was a planet and included in the solar system as such and now isn't ...

So I am declaring indigo to mean any colour between blue and violet that is dark in nature and can't otherwise be classed and you just wanna call something indigo ... and i am declaring it a happy, intuitive, beautiful colour ... one that is wanted and coveted by all ... one that looks like this ...

see how one side is more purpley than the other .... yeah ... somewhere in there i think you find indigo

 this ...

look at the 2 bottles starting with the 3rd to the right ... then kinda squint ... and i think thats indigo

or maybe this ...

kind of a blue toned indigo 

or even this ...

kind of a purple indigo

This post was sponsored by the incredible, wonderful, mysterious Indigo ... and of course Jenny Matlock's fun fun fun Rainbow Summer School Meme!