Do I look different to you?

...because since I took a class with Donna Downey I have changed.

Oh, but it's a good thing!

I've always admired art that included paint but have always been afraid to try it. In my mind I thought, "I'm not a painter." Oh sure, I can paint a basic frame or wooden box, but painting on canvas and having fun with it? Never before.

And now, never again will I shy away from it. I loved it!!! By the end of the 6-hour class my hands were covered in paint, gesso, gel medium, and ink. It was glorious!!!

And I finally got to use watercolor paints and they were SOOOOO much fun. I want to practice (play with them) for hours!!!

* * * * *

The next couple of photos are of Donna's inspiration journal. She graciously allowed us to photograph it, and I did take a bunch of pictures, but I'll just post my favorites here because you can see them for yourself on her blog.

Over the top creative. I'm swooning again just looking at these photos!

I have to admit that until I signed up for this class at PaperVineyard I had never heard of Donna Downey before - I just signed up because I loved the photos of the project we'd be creating. I have probably seen her work in the past, but never put a name to it. After reading the comments left on my last blog post I was surprised that so many of you knew who she was, so I thought I'd do a little research before I headed to my class that day. By the time I was done and headed over to the class, I was totally star-struck and nervous about being in her presence. :o) Silly, huh?

I will tell you this, Donna is a doll. Very down-to-earth, genuine, funny, talented, great teacher...I could go on and on. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to have met her and learned from her. Thanks to her I have new skills and I plan to use them! A lot.

Thanks, Donna, for the over-the-top-inspiration and the gentle push to try something new! I had a fabulous time at your class!!!

♥

Hooray for Saturday!!!

I'm so excited for today!
Carrie and I are getting pedicures this morning,
and I'm taking an art class this afternoon.

By the end of today I'll have

pretty toes and happy hands.

*****

Donna Downey {a designer for Prima} is teaching a few classes at my local scrapbook store {Paper Vineyard} this weekend. I signed up for her Fabric Scrapbooking class and I'm so glad the day is finally here!

This is not a photo of my project! It's a picture I got from Donna's website that shows an example of what we'll be creating today. (Check out her site and click on "Video Workshops." I might have to download one of those real soon...)

I'm particularly excited about this class because of the potential it has for pointing me in a new direction. Ok...not a complete new direction, but something new to add to the direction that I'm already headed... (mmm...did that make sense?) And I know Rinda will be proud of me. I'm going to be using gesso and gel medium for the first time ever (yikes and yay).

:o) ♥

PS: You just have to check out Prima's website to see the yummy flowers on the home page slide show!

PSS: Creative dry spell is over!

Just a quote for Friday

Ok...this is more than a quote, but I love this video that's going around and wanted to share it here on my blog. I love the idea of teaching our children the power of daily affirmations. This is priceless!

Breakfast at our house

I'm in a bit of a creative-dry-spell right now and don't have anything crafty to share, but I took this photo of my two fuzzy best friends this morning and thought I'd share it. Whiskers (on the left) LOVES ponytail bands and the plastic rings from milk jugs - forget the expensive cat toys. His little issue is that once he's done playing with them, he drops them in the water bowl. And poor Fancy (on the right) must drink from his toy bowl.

Aren't they the cutest? I love my cats!

>^..^<

My name is Deb, and I'm a collector.

And I'm proud of my collections:

turtles all over the place;

rubber stamps in my craft room;

crystals and pretty rocks in our family room;

roosters in my kitchen; and

antlers in our front room.

♥

In the corner of my craft room, to the left of my rubber stamp collection (showcased in the cool shelf that my hubby made) is a fabric strip that holds my button and pin collection. It's just two strips of unbleached muslin that I sewed together and it's hung with a piece of wooden dowel with a ribbon attached. It's about 4" wide, and 30" long, and I have been pinning little treasures to it for about 30 years now.

Whenever I travel or go to a concert or performance of some sort, I usually pick up a button or pin as a souvenir. When I first made this fabric strip and pinned the first few buttons on it, I remember thinking that I shouldn't have made it so big - that I'd probably never fill it completely... I'm still adding buttons to it, although they are pretty squeezed in at this point.
In the photo above:
My "band mom" pin from Carrie's high school marching band days; a pin from San Antonio, Texas from my trip there 9 years ago with my mom and sister; a gold mask stick pin from Venice, Italy; buttons from Hard Rock Cafe...

In the photo above:
Arizona professional sports teams; Wicked pin from New York Broadway production; button from Gwen Stefani concert; and one from Eric Clapton.

In the photo above:

Concert pins from Moody Blues, Alannis Morrisette, and Jimmy Buffet; helicopter pin from the one Carrie made me go up in while we were in New York...

In the photo above:

Yes. I saw the Backstreet Boys (Carrie's idea!!!); Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young; and Tom Petty

In the photo above:

Concert pins from Billy Joel, more Tom Petty, Maroon Five, and Justin Timberlake.

More concert buttons... John Mellencamp (my favorite!!!), County Crows, and Gwen Stefani (again).

You'll see that there are lots of Hard Rock Cafe pins as well as other little trinkets from various places that I've traveled. I would have never guessed when I sewed this strip together 30 years ago that it would someday contain such a variety of momentos. It's just a little glimpse into how I've kept myself entertained over the years, and I love it.

.

Do you have a collection of buttons and pins like these? How do you store your various collections?

And the winners are...

I have a hard time doing giveaways because I want
to give a prize to everyone who leaves a comment!

♥

For this giveaway, I decided to give both of these notebooks away. I divided the names into two groups - those who said they liked the tall heart, and those who liked the round one. (Neutral comment leavers were randomly placed in the mix.)

The tall heart notebook goes to Susan!

And the round heart notebook is going to Ruth!Congratulations, ladies! Please send me an email with your address and I'll get your prizes mailed this week.

My e-address is paperturtle [at] cox [dot] net

♥

All About Me ~ Blog Hop Project :o)

Welcome to my
"All About Me" Blog Hop Project

♥

Inspired by Big Picture Scrapbooking.
Organized by Mel.

Adapted by me.

Ah! I had SO much fun working on this little project. Yes, it's little. The entire thing fits into an Altoid tin and measures 2" x 3 1/2". Everything used in this project (except the photos, of course) came from scraps on my work table. And because it needed to fit back in the tin when folded up, I didn't use buttons or anything bulky for embellishments. Instead I reached for paper punches and a Slick Writer pen to outline each section.

***

There are over 20 bloggers participating in this blog hop. Now head on over to see what Cherry has to share! From her place you can continue your blog journey...

Happy trails!
xo

Just a quote for Friday

“You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
You are the guy who'll decide where to go.”

~ Dr. Seuss ~

{We have a niece and two nephews graduating from high school over the next two weeks. I made cards for each of them in their respective school colors.}

Pick-your-prize giveaway. ♥

Tall heart?

Round heart?

♥

I'll choose a name at random from
the comments on Monday, May 24, 2010.

.

xo

.

PS: Not only did I finish the custom notebook order, but I did it a day sooner than my goal, and I made a couple extra. :o)

Where in the world is PaperTurtle?

My husband and I spent this past weekend at our northern property with some friends...

(This is a picture of our little building where we store
our camp supplies, and also where Hubby and I sleep.
Look closely and you can see antlers on the rooftop...)

Taking pictures of some of the many wildflowers on our property right now...

And hula hooping... (me...not Hubby...)

Yes, we had a hula-hoop contest. Of the 5 of us, I came in third (that's me in the pink shirt), and little miss Molly (little girl in the red) was the ultimate winner!

Exploring nature...

Sharing food and friendship...

Good times...

This week in my life? SO much laundry that I'm overwhelmed just thinking about it! A custom order for 22 of these notebooks that must be in the mail by Thursday that I have not even started on. Diamondback game (Major League Baseball) on Thursday night with my brother and his fiance who will be here visiting from California. Shoot pictures and create post for the All About Me project to post on Friday evening. Family in town to celebrate my nephew's high school graduation with a dinner in his honor on Friday night. Barbeque and swimming at our house for everyone on Saturday. Plus this is a regular, full work-week for me. Phew.

So, if you don't hear much from me it's because I'm trying to keep my head above water! Can't wait till things slow down a bit so I can catch up on all my favorite blogs!

How does your upcoming week look?
Anyone want to come over and help me fold laundry?

:o)

Sometimes color inspiration comes from the strangest places.

I have a small book titled "Fortune-Telling Birthday Book." It contains a little paragraph for each day of the year so you can look up your birth date and read about yourself. (Kind of silly, but sort of fun.) At the beginning of each month there's a page that tells information about that month. For instance, here's what it says about May:

BIRTHSTONE: Emerald: Success in Love

FLOWER: Lily of the Valley

COLORS: Yellow and Red

I've never been crazy about emeralds, and lilies are my least favorite flower, but when I read "yellow and red" the other day I was instantly inspired. This is a combo I haven't used before (ever?) so I went straight to my craft room.

I purchased these small canvases from the dollar bin at Michael's a while ago. It was fun to go into my craft room and pull some things together without any pre-planning, using odds and ends that were on my craft table. It's kind of school-house-rock-style, but I like it.

And, I loved working with the red and yellow color combo so much that I decided to use that as the color scheme for the "All About Me" project I'm creating.

♥ ♥

I think I'll use this little birthday book as a monthly color inspiration. June's colors are light blue and white...

Just a quote for Friday

It is not because things are
difficult that we do not dare.

It is because we do not dare
that things are difficult.

~ Sinaca ~ My 21-year old daughter is buying a house!
Photo is of her future home, scheduled to close
at the end of this month.

Finish beach book... Check!

What a fun project this was! I loved working with these colors and the adorable pictures of my nephew, Stone.

All done.

♥

PS: Can anyone tell me how/why this happens? This photo was taken in landscape mode, uploaded and turned in the right direction. But when I upload it to Blogger it turns sideways? Any hints?

The final stretch

I'm a morning walker.

Every morning I get up, have one cup of coffee, put on my walking shoes and head out the door. I walk 1.5 miles in 25 minutes every morning. It's 25 minutes at the beginning of each day of quiet, all-to-myself-time.


Yesterday I took my camera with me to take some pictures that will be used in a project I'm working on. You see, my blog friend Mel is organizing a group project based on the class called All About Me from Big Picture Scrapbooking. As I began to think about the things I'll use in my little book, I knew my morning walk would have to be part of it.


I set up the self-timer and took this picture before I left the house of my well-worn walking shoes and un-tanned legs.

(Kind of a weird picture, but I'm gonna' use it for my book anyway,
so I'm going out on a limb and using it in this post as well...
I figure 20 years from now I'll wish my legs looked like this!)

.
Then, as the walk progressed, I didn't slow down and take as many pictures as I thought I would. Finally, toward the end of my walk I snapped this photo:

The final stretch of my walk.
The "darn-my-walk-is-almost-over" stretch.
The "my-house-is-just-around-the-corner" block.

How lucky am I to have this beautiful setting to walk in every morning? Very lucky right now...but things are heating up in the desert. Soon it will be really hot at this time of day, and things won't be so green and colorful...

But for now, I'll enjoy this final stretch of spring.

♥