Card making.

I love to make cards! Several years ago my son needed a card and a gift for a birthday party. We went to the store, purchased the gift and the card and as I was walking toward the car I thought that the cost was a little more than I had expected, so I looked at the reciept thinking we may have been mischarged. The card was $4.00 and that was for a plain, no frills card! At that point, I decided that I would make my own cards and have been doing so ever since.

Now I've decided that since I come up with some cards that I really like on occassion, I should take photos of them if I would ever want to reproduce them. A lot of the time, I'm just so-so happy with what I've done, but if I get something good, here it will be.

My "Other" Blog - art, color, & water.

Gosh, not hardly a week into this whole blogging adventure and I've already started a second blog. This one is to showcase my original watercolors and drawings. This is the more "highbrow" KayakChickee! LOL. Anyway, check it out at http://www.artcolorwater.blogspot.com/ or see the "My Original Art" link on the right.

New header!

I am so excited and feel such a sense of accomplishment to have made my own header for this blog! I must've had a "smart" moment! Yeah!

atcsforall.com

This is the new site of those members from atcards.com. I'm the same at the new site as I was at the old site, however, I may only be posting cards that are available for trade, not those already traded. We'll see. The site gladly welcomes new members, so check it out! It's a wonderful group of people.

The other site closed down within weeks of the announcement; not at the end of the month as they originally stated.

It's great to have a new site to trade on and amazing to have it so quickly.

My knitted past...

These are a couple of things that I've knitted in the past.


The first is a swing coat via Vogue Knitting from the 1940s. It was reprinted by them in the late 1980s. It was quite the undertaking for me and I haven't done anything this complicated since.


The second is a tank sweater done within the last few years. I had to reknit the front since my son sucked it up with the vacuum when I was a inch away from finishing it! He felt so bad that I couldn't even get mad at him. A horrible sweater to knit since it was entirely K1, P1. It doesn't even fit! (sigh)


Currently, I am working on a "Harry Potter" scarf, started in July 2007 while my son and I were waiting in line at Barnes & Noble to register for the seventh book release party. When I finish it I will tell the whole story.


I finished reknitting a pair of wristlets last night. I have to sew them up and then I can try them out. They were too loose before; so I thought to reknit them, now I'm afraid they may be too small.


Well, such is my knitting life. At least the scarf will fit, right?

Sweetheart Dinner

This past Saturday night we went for dinner at the Felt Mansion. It was a fundraiser for the church youth group and the Zeeland High School Jazz band. It was a beautiful snowy night and the mansion was incredible! My mom mentioned that her father had some part in creating the woodwork there and as we walked around; I wondered if I was looking at some of his craftsmanship. I wish I had known him.

ATC Gallery

I just wanted to post these ATCs that were some of my favorites from my atcards.com gallery, just to have them "out there".

Some of these have found loving homes around the world and I think that is great! I mentioned to someone who lives on the Isle of Man in Great Britain that if only we could share art like this and just get to know each other a little bit better on a personal level perhaps we wouldn't have the world problems that we have. She agreed. I could go on and on about that. Maybe another time...

I don't think I will be keeping up with my one ATC a day for the year; but I do intend to keep experimenting creatively with them.

I'm not sure that I will get involved with another trading website either; though never say never, right? I'll just have to see what happens on that front.

Right now, I'm off to make some cards for a card swap. I hope to post some of my favorite card designs from time to time too.

ARGH!

I was saddened this afternoon to read that the atcards.com website is shutting down the end of the month. I suppose there is still a chance that someone will resurrect it and that it won't happen, but I am prepared for the worst. I've PMed all my "buddies" on the site and maybe they will follow me here and we can continue to trade. I'll greatly miss the contact, the galleries, the discussions, and the great ideas but most of all the swaps and trades.

I had committed to doing one ATC a day for the year 2008 and posting them on that site. Perhaps I will post them here.

I sold a painting!

I have a couple of paintings hanging on the second floor in the new Zeeland Hospital. They have been there for about three years since the new hospital opened. Well, I sold one! I was so excited! I haven't sold a painting in years. The one that sold is of a single tree reflected in the water and it was titled "The Great Dismal Swamp". The picture was in watercolor and done from photos taken in Virginia. I can't locate a photo of that painting, but I thought I would include this one of Laketown beach. Having sold a painting gives me new inspiration to perhaps start painting again. I hung another in place of the "swamp" picture titled "The Badlands" which is another watercolor of, what else, the Badlands of South Dakota.

Riemersma & Son Woodboats

The wood for this sign came from a neighbor's fence that was falling down. My husband has an interest in assembling wooden kayaks and I imagined a future business venture with his son who currently in fourth grade. I think he was an infant when I made the sign. I love how it turned out (for the most part).

Wine Tasting Altered Book

I received this blank book kit from one of the ATC Groups gals and put it all together with the theme of "Wine Tasting". My hubby and I do this for a weekend every Fall. Anyway, the poem in it is this: "With wine at hand one reaches the happy state where all men are wise, all women are beautiful, and even one's children begin to look promising." I thought that was really funny. Here are a couple of images from the completed book. I did have fun putting this together, but it was A LOT more work than I thought it would be. I'm not sure that I will be doing too many more altered books.

www.atcards.com (no longer online)

(Note: atcards.com is no longer online. Go to http://www.atcsforall.com/ instead.)

I've enjoyed doing ATCs since the summer of 2006 when I participated in a class at the Arts Council. This year I decided to commit to do one ATC a day for the year 2008. So far, so good. I may post some of my work here; but I have it posted for sure on the atcards website. The link is below.

http://www.atcards.com/forums/member.php?u=1581

New studio space.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to show you guys a couple of pictures of my studio. It's in a quarter of my basement and about 17 x 16. I have a used Haworth office cubical desk coming to replace and old restaurant table. My husband says that since it is Haworth it is good enough for a basement. :) He works for another office furniture manufacturer. Actually that restaurant table will probably move to the middle of the space and the bumper pool table that is there right now covered with a piece of MDF will probably go to Bibles for Mexico. I have been gifted almost all the fixtures in this studio, including the cabinets and my husband is a VERY handy man. I am so blessed, it is getting to be quite the useful space!

New Post = First Post

Hey there! I thought for my first post I would tell how I came to decide to do this blog. I have a couple of "creative" friends who have blogs here; Kelli Perkins and Becky Teusink, and I've been so inspired by their creativity and their sharing it with the world; that I decided to do that too. Thank you for your inspiration.

My interests and what I hope to share here are: knitting, ATCs, rubberstamping, card making, watercolor painting, and misc. altered art projects.

A shout out to the gals from the ATC class: Kelli, Marianne, Lori, & Aimee and to my family for their love, support, new studio (Thanks Bob!) and allowing me the time to be creative. Thanks for your challenges and inspiration!