Saturday Centus - The Ribbon

You know the drill … tell a story in 100 words or less using the prompt …This week prompt is "She lifted the stack of letters from the ancient chest" and it was written by the incredibly talented Judi of Rogue Artists Speak. 

I have cheated a bit …. My main character is male … so I have changed the “she” to “he” … hey, someone has to cheat … it kinda keeps things interesting don’t cha think?  And it totally unlevels the playing field and I need any advantage I can get   … tee he he

Light streamed in from the window, outside frost laden branches glisten and shone … an eagle circled high above in the brilliant blue sky.  The beauty of it all was so sharp and immense that he almost forgot why he left these mountains so many years ago. Turning to the task that lay before him he lifted the stack of letters from the ancient chest, his hands trembled as he fumbled with the faded and tattered bit of pink ribbon that bound them together.

Now scamper on over to Jenny Matlocks to read so many wonderful and entertaining short short stories!

Paper ....

i admit it ... i love paper ... all kinds of paper ... oh yeah, you know i do love the scrapbooking paper, but i also hunt down other paper for use in paper crafts.

love this beautiful floral paper ... its next on my list to play with

and the thrill of it can be in the hunt ... like when i walk into a thrift store and find vintage sheet music, or a text in french .... maybe something in an asian text ... all exotic looking ...

sheet music and french dictionaries ... what could be better

I love wrapping paper, tissue paper, newspaper, lined paper, graph paper, old air mail paper, crepe paper ... just about anything i can get my hands on ... it's just all so beautiful ...

monkeys playing in "the stacks"

a flower made of sewing pattern paper!

I do love my paper ... have a great day all! coming at from Jenny's uber cool Alphabe-Thursday meme ...

Peace, love & paper!
~Jo

Something simple ...

I have been doing so much blogging ... well reading blogs ... that i haven't done any creating since before christmas ... so i am thinking that i will just have to reduce some of my blog time ... and change it to play time.

Here are some photos of my last project ... a set of cards that i gave to my Mom & Dad for christmas.  When giving cards as gifts I like to keep them fairly simple, and low profile so extra costs are not incurred when they are sent off in the mail ...

I am not a great card maker so i do have to start off slowly ... I usually grab one of my favourite publications in this case Take Ten,  for some inspiration .... the 1st and 3rd cards are scraplifts from that publication.

I do love a black & white colour pallet for cards ...   it just keeps things simple

I loved this paper and thought it read well for both men or women ... the shiny blue harlequin strips on the first 2 cards are grunge board, painted with tattered angels glitter glam and then inked ... the 3rd and 4th cards are scraplifted from Take Ten ...  If you have never picked up a copy of this publication I would totally recommend it ... it is dedicated to cards that take roughly 10 minutes to construct ... it is published quarterly and it is always full of hundreds of terrific ideas.

Thinking of you cards are great for any time and any occasion ...  the 4th card is another scraplift from the winter 2010 issue of Take Ten.

Some cards just have to be bright ...

and some cards just have to be soft!  these cards are soft and very very simple ... they are actually all cut from one piece of paper.  I just loved that piece ... so sweet ...

thanks so much for stopping by ... enjoy your visits around the blogsphere ... and for me ... less writing, more creating ....
Peace, Love & Paper!
Jo

clothing Optional ....

... Tee he he .... fooled ya .... you came here expecting to find something a little bit naughty didn't you!

and here it is just a slight play on words ... what i really meant to say is that buying new clothes is an option!   and when you have a little monkey with you carefully guiding you in your selections sometimes you can walk out of the store with a full bag, and on other days ... and empty bag ...

Mona Lisa Mae helping me choose tshirts at Old Navy

Yes, it is true, Miss Mona Lisa Mae is a gifted stylist ... she should be dressing the A list, instead she is living happily in the burbs, helping me shop, and when she is bored, dressing Honey up in vintage baby & toddler clothing ....

Dontcha just wish you had your own personal stylist?  I know ...I'm living large here with Miss Mona ...

Honey in very vintage baby dress circa 1957

Honey in vintage corduroy jumpsuit, circa 1959

Honey looking gorgeous in pink, ruffles and dainty details, circa 1958

Honey rocking the last of the 80's in this velvet and satin dress circa 1989

Now strut (fashionably that is) over to Miss Jenny's blog to see what the other participants of the fabulous Alphabe-Thursday meme are doing

Peace, Love & Paper
~Jo

CHA - what's on your wish list

CHA is right around the corner and it seems like everyone in blogsphere has little sneak peaks.  The best site I have found so far for sneak peeks is Scrapbook Updates ... check out their lists of sneak peeks here.

Although I swore that I would cut way back on my spending this year (yeah right) I have found a few lines that i just "have to have"... and I am seriously limiting it to a few lines ...

Websters Pages Spring Market Line

everything in this collection is seriously gorgeous and happy and bright and vibrant and everything that spring should be .... and i seriously want it all.  This line is a preCHA release ... they are also releasing 4 other complete lines ... each of are equally as gorgeous.

These pins are not part of the Spring Market line, but they are new for CHA and would work beautifully with the line

double sided delicious papers!

love the fabric flowers!

also love these delicate Princess Petals

can you envision how cool your projects will look with all of these goodies!

Prima Marketing

I love just about everything Prima does ... although their papers on not on my must haves list I seriously need their new line of metal charms, including this bird cage ... i can see using loads of these on various altered projects ...

Yummy, yummy, yummy!

pretty flower centers and pretty laces

these flowers and leaves are amazing and they are all hand stitched ... i'm hoping they dont cost a fortune

more handstitched beauties!

Tim Holtz
Well you all know I have serious love for the man and his uber creative products ... but look at these butterflies ... who can resist

gotta have the butterfly tissue tape

and the butterfly stickers

and the butterfly paper ...

and butterfly dies ... be still my beating heart

yes, finally ... after years of waiting someone has made the perfect alpha ... i cant wait to get my hands on this ...

love it!

Graphic45 - Le Cirque

Okay clowns scare the crap out of me ... yes, clown fear does exists ... so why am I drawn the the new Le Cirque line like a moth to a white hot flame???  dunno ... cant explain, but it totally need this line and some of the stamps ... the stamps are just incredible  .... mais non?

these stamps just rock my world!

and so does this paper ... even though it has clowns

I dont know what i would make with this paper, but i love it!

metal flowers, how cool!

yummy ... this would look amazing on a mini album cover!

That's what I am looking forward to ... so what's on your must have list???

Peace Love & Paper!
~Jo

Saturday Centus - the stick

Well Ms. Jenny is getting very very wicked ... this week's centus can only consist of 25 words plus the prompt ... here goes ... the prompt is in bold.

The lottery ticket mocked her from the bathroom counter … it was really the little white stick and it’s blue mark that would determine her fate.

New ...

I have had such a day ... I started with good intentions ... I put yummy ingredients in the crock pot, set it on low and walked away, thinking that it was a good day to make some fab chilli ... at about 2:00 this afternoon, I was wondering why i didn't smell the chilli goodness ... turns out i did everything right but plug the crock pot in.   And then it was one thing after another ... each little mistake making me angrier and angrier ... having to drive all the way to the grocery store for one green pepper was almost the proverbial straw ... but hey ...I'm no camel ...

As I was driving home I had a vivid image of myself as an old crotchety man ...  mumbling and muttering because my tea was too cold and the fire wasn't warm enough ... looking out the windows for playing children to yell at ... cats to scare away from the garden ... the neighbours to complain about ... but I'm no old man either ...

When i finally did get home I did take a quick little walk into my little garden ...

I have been wondering if my hellabore was going to make it through the winter ... it has gone all spotchety and limp

and just when I was about to let this be yet another spoiler to my day, I bent over,  took a closer look, and saw this ...

yes, a clump flowers ... New growth coming from the same old earth ... it was then that I realized that it is a New year ... New week, day, hour, minute .... and each one of these increments was a chance to do something right, choose a different way of dealing with the issues, choosing to smile and breathe deep, choosing to celebrate the New that is all around ... and say good by to that old man ...

This post was brought to you by the letter N and the fab Jenny Matlock and her totally fun Alphabe-Thursday meme ... stop by for some good reading!

Oh geez, where are my manners ... little Miss Mona Lisa Mae has a New friend ... stay tuned for more from this little Mystery Monkey!

Peace, Love &Paper
~Jo

Saturday centus ~ The screen

Well this week dear Jenny has decided to give us a visual prompt instead of a written prompt ... yeah ... i enjoyed getting her words stuck in my brain ... rattling around, looking for companions of my own making ... now it's this d@*# picture ... which has me all confuzzled ... so here's the picture ... our prompt ... and here's what i came up with.

I got nothing … nadda, nil … get it?  This week’s centus has me feeling about as comfortable as a snowball in an orange grove … melting quickly with no place to hide … so here I sit staring at my almost blank screen … oh, but I do love this screen … after years and years of an ancient tiny screen that my daughter had bejeweled to “make it look pretty” this screen is an amazing pleasure … oh the things I can see … and the things I can’t!

Now make sure you click on the button to see what everyone else wrote!

Peace, love & paper!

~Jo

handMade ...

... not hand maid ... something i feel like once in a while when i am running errands and favours, and cooking, and cleaning and hand-washing & driving and you know ... all of that stuff ...

but for the purpose of this post ... the made is in handmade ... i do love to give handmade gifts for Christmas and all other gift giving celebrations

This is one of my favourite gifts that I made this year, for a dear friend who knits ... oh, and she is a bit of a witch ... the best kind of witch!

So this is the cover ... this is a little photo journal for my friend to record her knitted projects in ... I thought it would be cool for her to take pictures of her family and friends wearing the gifts she had knit for them.

Cast a spell ... this page contains a wand ...  The tiny wand pocket has a tarot card image ....the create page is actually an envelope

A little close up of the wand ... I just could not get a good picture of it, but it was painted with a clear glimmer glam and it is shiny and sparkly without being glittery ... hand stamping the wand was fun!

One envelope contains enchantments (small knitting needles, a gift certificate and other goodies) and the envelope with charms does contain actual charms and necessities ...

I loved this toadstool digital image from Land of Enchantment  (a very cool etsy shop for all of your digital needs) ... it serves as a title page to the journal.

Cast on ... just really means begin writing ... the pages are all 7Gypsies journal pages but i have added images to most of the pages ...

Cast off ... basically the end of the journal

A larger photo of the wand ... the end is tipped with many many layers of copper embossing powder and the tip is coated with iridescent embossing powder which changed the colour of the ink to a reddish looking glow ...

oh, and she made me a beautiful purple scarf knit with cotton/silk yarn (cuz my skin is kinda fussy) and she sewed cool little buttons on the corners ... yeah, she knows what i like!

I am joining Jenny Matlock and her alphabe-Thursday meme .... check it out, there's lots of good reading all about the letter M!

Peace, love & paper
~Jo