Abidar finally meets Aurora!!!!

As everyone is aware that this past weekend there was a major solar flare so everyone in world pretty much had a level 10 chance to see the Aurora Borealis. We went as far as South River to Tom Thompson park, which is a beautiful little town and a gorgeous water way. We left here at 11 pm to give us ample time to get there to see if we could enjoy the light show in the sky. We got there, parked the car, and we waited and waited. 

        We could see nothing and yet a few cars pulled so we figured we stood a good chance to see them, as this was the first time that we have ever been there (for the same purpose) that we had seen cars pull in hoping to catch a glimpse. Keep in mind that Abby and I have been chasing this incredible phenomenon back even when Alan was still alive. But have never been successful.

     So people were pulling in and we were still waiting, and waiting and waiting. Then at one point Abby suggested that maybe its something that we can’t see them with the naked eye? So we already had the sky roof opened up and even though it was black and saw NOTHING I just snapped a photo into the darkness above us. When I opened up the photo that I took to my astonishment, there they were!!! All in their glory but cloud covered. But we didn't care, we were just so happy to see them we almost cried!

    We could actually see them in the photo but could not without the use of the camera. But I don’t care, we actually saw them and almost too faint but we still didn’t care. We were happy little campers driving home, how exciting....but disappointing at the same time because everyone else around the world had better photos of them that were posting their experiences on FB. I tried not to care but I was a bit ticked that we could not see them as well as everyone could. Big Sigh. Oh well something we could nothing about, right? So that was Friday night. 

    We went out again on Saturday night, this time not as far as South River, as we should have been able to see them from our place. It was still pretty over cast but we still went out, again leaving at 11 pm. We did not stay for as long or as late. But we went out AGAIN on Sunday night. 

    With them being a level 10 potential for seeing them we were very persistent, not to mention bound and determined! This time we drove out to Rosseau a different direction than the two previous nights. We drove almost to Parry Sound, but took the 121 home instead. Even though to us the Northern Lights were still at large, no where to be seen, so disappointing, but on the other flipside, A if we didn’t go we would have been more upset that we didn’t see any again, and B, we saw wildlife that we had not seen in donkeys ages, 5 or 6 years even. We saw, 2 deer on the side of the road, a dead raccoon, a fox that was so very close to hitting us. He came out on Abby’s side of the highway and from out of nowhere. 

    Don’t worry he is safe sound, but was so close though. The highlight of the entire weekend was that we finally saw a moose!!!  After at least a 5 year moose draught.  We were happy! Now that was exciting to see and almost made up for the lack of not seeing the Aurora Borealis. Oh and we saw two cat sized animals, we don’t think that they were cats, but they were probably martens. So all of that was really super cool to see. (Pics of Northern Lights   

2020 Rebooted!

 Ok, I have officially rebooted 2020 because it really sucked, I am sure that nobody has anything good to say about it, so I am jumping right ahead on into 2021, It's going to be a much better year for everyone!!!

I have so far, started 2021 on the right foot.  I owe only 3 projects, Hidden paper clips, a Halloween Pocket Letter and a Christmas PL.  I have the Hidden Paper Clips finished.  Now they just have to be scanned, posted and mailed out.  Here is the I made for today.

For January 4 2021, I actually made this one...It was the last one I made for my partner for the Hidden Paper Clip swap in Paper Passion.

For January 3, 2021 I spent the evening on Skype with my art Mentor Natalie.  She spent the evening making a book she had been wanting to make.  And I spent the evening making some mini embellishments of vintage style words, and images.  The small brown words, I used tea stained photo paper, and the larger words, I used tea stained regular paper.

Then for January 1st & 2nd, I made the first few of the Hidden Paper Clips for that swap.  

Here is the very first Hidden Paper Clip I made which I ended up giving to my Sister In Law, Karen who is slowly dying of cancer of the liver.  So sad, and breaks my heart big time.  I was talking to her on the phone the other night and described how I made these step by step to her.  She was so happy to have this when my brother gave it to her.

At any rate, I have been keeping myself busy.  And I am so excited, because Natalie and I have promised to craft on Skype every week to help keep each other motivated.  Our next Skype date is on Thursday this week.   💜

Prompt for today is "Create a vision board"

Since this is going to be an on-going project; I will have to keep coming back to this page to show improvements on how I have been progressing with my Vision Board.  But I will say this however, that I googled "how to create a Vision Board" and oh boy lots of goodies came up to investigate, which simply cannot be completed all in one day...

I did find something that will help me create mine, though...here is the image of a sketch that someone posted, so I will share it here with you.

This should not be  too difficult, right?  We shall see over time.....

Trading ATC and Art/Craft supplies - Daily Journal Prompts

January 3, 2020

1= 2019 in review
2= 2020 on Horizon (set goals, new techniques/art forms, etc)
3= create an entry page with dried&/or silk flowers
4= one technique you find yourself using repetitively

On January 3rd the journal prompt was create a page with dried &/or silk flowers.  Wow, I was like really?  That Yvonne sure is not making this year for me, whatever was I going to do???   Who has dried flowers in the middle of winter?  But then I remembered; omg, you won't even believe it...I was given a lovely gift from the Pastor's wife's Mother from our church....I never knew the mother but she made cards. I was given a couple of boxes of crafty goodies that I was welcome to go through and keep what I wanted and distribute what I did not want as I pleased.  I am so very rarely ever thought of for such things. You can imagine that this made me happy and that I was excited to get home and check it out.  Inside one of the boxes was a box of pressed flowers.  Yes, real pressed flowers, they were an awesome find, and of course one of the things I kept, for one of those "just in case I need it" projects.  And for January's challenge, of course was the day that I needed them for and just happened to find it...well, it took me a little bit, but I found them, and this is what I have done with them so far, I decided I was going to make a back ground out of them.   And I am quite impressed with how this project turned out.  Here is the photo:

Isn't that just absolutely gorgeous?  I will probably make an ATC or 2 and will probably make a birthday card out of this.  I love how it turned out.  Thank you so much for the challenge Yvonne!

January 4, 2020

1= 2019 in review
2= 2020 on Horizon (set goals, new techniques/art forms, etc)
3= create an entry page with dried&/or silk flowers
4= one technique you find yourself using repetitively

Now this one is an easy one!  The very first time I ever saw this technique was quite a while back, like maybe a few years....at least.  There were a set of video's on this site that offered demonstrations of a variety of techniques.  I love these video's because they are short, to the point, and well demonstrated without any silly chatter going on at all but belly dancing music.  Here is the link:  OneMinuteMuse it is the 3rd video, you can actually see the word "Saran" underneath the video before the rest of the name of it disappears.  Or here is the link to the actual video if you can't find it.  Saran Wrap Technique.

I recently found another site called Cloth Paper Scissors, where they have their own version of this technique that they call "That's a Wrap" with a beautiful written out description of step by step exactly how to do it.  I followed this and I ended up with 5 beautiful pages of this technique, so you cannot go wrong!  I did not get photos of all 5 pages but here are 3 different colours of ATC's that I'd already cut down before realizing that I was going to be documenting this on my blog.    But anyway here is a photo of 3 different colours of what I did.  

If you can actually bring the photo up closer to see the actual phenomenal detail.  The detail of this technique shows up very well especially on the pink one.  I love this technique, its simple, quick and not too messy even though your using paints.  Which I have been using up all of my cheap dollar store paints, which I won't be buying anymore, I will be moving over to the smaller tubes of acrylic paints.

Here is a photo of a pile of the ATC's that I was able to cut down from these beautiful pages I created and cut:

And last, but not least, here is the description they use on their site to describe how to do it, again, follow their direction step by step and you just will not go wrong, I promise!

1. Lay down a wash in a strong color or combination of colors.

2. Next, lay a crumpled piece of plastic wrap on top of your painting, making sure that it is in contact with the wet pigment.

3. Let the painting dry with the plastic wrap in place; this may take 24 hours or more. When you remove the plastic wrap, there will be lines in the wash left by wrinkles in the wrap. These lines can be enhanced with metallic colors or white ink to form more pronounced and decorative abstract shapes.

For softer lines, remove the plastic wrap before the painting is completely dry. You can also try this technique with wax paper or aluminum foil.

I love this technique not just because of the effect, but because you can line up several pieces of watercolor paper, paint on your wash, cover them with plastic, and go do something else while your background paintings "cook."

Jacqueline shows how to create so many watercolor art techniques for textured backgrounds, including using salt, sand, charcoal, powdered metallics, alcohol, Rit dye, absorbent ground, and more.

It's all in The Cloth Paper Scissors Book, along with scores of other techniques, tips, projects, and inspiration.  (This is not written by me, its taken directly from the Cloth Paper Scissors website.)

P.S.  I just used a piece of plain white cardstock and cheap dollar store acrylic paints, So it works with both.

2019 in review for Trading ATC and Art/Craft Supplies

OK Here we go, a new year and a new year!  This year I am going to do my utmost best to keep up with the journal the Yvonne Oliver posts over on Trading ATC and Art/Craft supplies group on Facebook.  I Have been a member there for quite sometime, since the beginning I think, and its the only group on Facebook that I can say that I am truly a founding member of. LOL I would like to be a little more active and focus my time mostly on this particular group.  

It is my intention to not only keep up, but to keep each entry short, sometimes it will be just an image with a description, and sometime it may be just a written entry.  Since it is already January 3rd, I will just go ahead and post the first couple of days here.

1= 2019 in review
2= 2020 on Horizon (set goals, new techniques/art forms, etc)
3= create an entry page with dried&/or silk flowers

January 1, 2020  &  January 2, 2020

In Review of 2019, it was a very bizarre year.  I had been so sick and tired of being so sick and tired and decided that in 2019 I was not going to keep my mouth shut regarding my pain.  My chronic pain and fatigue had been a misery for me pretty much since about 2011 or 12.  I know  that my closest and dearest friends know what is going on with me and that is all that matters.  But having said that, I'd been sent to numerous doctors and specialists and it has been discovered that I have Fibromyalgia and OsteoArthritis.   I am still waiting on getting into the Women's College Hospital.  It's been more than 8 months now, so I am sure I will be hearing something from them soon.

Throughout the year, Abby and I had made several trips to Embro, ON which the closest town to the Happy Hills Retirement Resort was where my Mom and Dad had been living for 15 years as their pre-retirement home.  As time went on, in 2019 Abby and I had talks and visits with them and realized something; that they were definitely not getting any younger. My Mom is 78 and my Dad is 83 now and it was not only time to move them out of that retirement resort and move them closer to our end of the world.  Driving to Embro was a 5.5-6 hours long one way! 

In August we prepared Mom and Dad and told them that we were going to parent-nap them for an entire week.  So, on August 30th, we drove down to pick them up, spent the night and drove back and we spent an entire day of visiting a variety of Senior Retirement homes for them to take a look to see if we could find anything they liked.  Sadly, there was not one single solitary appropriate living quarters that was not even slightly suitable or affordable for them.  Almost at the end of the day we got a call from a place that was not even on the list.  It was something that Abby was looking into before the parent napping was arranged.  An appointment came up that exact afternoon, and we went in, and we were all quite impressed and would you believe that was the place my Mom wanted to go to.  And that my friends was a wrap....that was the place we moved them too.  And they are quite happy there.

With my Dad have dementia and my Mom having her own issues (high risk of stroke) I can't even express how grateful I am to have my parents living closer to us.  They are now but a 15 minutes drive away from us...and they are in good hands at Chartwell.   Also the other most amazing thing is that they are only just around the corner from the local hospital in Huntsville.  

I absolutely love having them closer to us.  As soon as my parents got here, Dad ended up in the hospital for almost two weeks, with quite a serious situation and a week or two ago, Mom was taken to the hospital by ambulance and I was called at 5 am that morning. 

We have absolutely NO regrets for doing this.  We started praying about this at church early in August and it was TWO MONTHS TO THE DAY literally that the move from Embro was complete.....We love you so very much Mom & Dad!

January 2, 2013


1= 2019 in review
2= 2020 on Horizon (set goals, new techniques/art forms, etc)
3= create an entry page with dried&/or silk flowers

1. It is my heart's desire to want to do this challenge every single entry that Yvonne post's every single day or minimally group of days possible.
2. It is also my desire to spend more time with my Mom and Dad as I possibly can now that they live so close to us.
3. I want to explore more of a variety of different art technique back grounds
4. I want to start making cards to sell, and a variety of other different items that can be easy to make.   
5. This is the year I want to start selling die cut kits at local trades along with cards etc.
6.  I want to get my art cave all completely organized. 
7. I want to get all of my ATCs that I received in to binders
8.  I want to keep visiting this and adding to it as the new year goes under way.

WOW! Christmas coming soon already?

It has been a crazy dazy kind of year.  But the good news is that its almost over!  LOL!  Abby and I have been extremely busy moving my Mom and Dad from a 5 and a 1/2's hour drive away, making it a long and gruelling 12 hour day with them in the car.  I felt for them, especially my poor Mother who had been taking the brundt of everything, especially since my Dad had been diagnosed with progressive dementia.  So hard to see him like this...how ever we all shall prevail, right?

So this all happened by October 1st which made it a steady two months of getting them out of where they were, so needless to say, I have not been getting to spend too much time in my cave of late.  I did manage to get a few swaps squeezed in though, and I managed to get in the Halloween Howl and the Christmas Advent in which both were so much fun!

I intended this to be a longer blog but the holidays caught up to me, so I am just to post this and move right along!

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Valentine Flip Tag

 ok, here tag # 4....this one is my personal favourite.  The turtle is hand drawn and hand coloured by me.  I follow Draw So Cute on You Tube, she is just such a great teacher.

and more lol....like I said, the challenge only suggested 7 but I was having so much fun, I could not stop, so here is tag # 5.  The flowers are a card topper that someone so kindly sent to me as ephemera, at the bottom of this tag has been floating around here and there and everywhere in my cave for the last while, so I didn't bother to put it away because I figured it had to go out on a project for someone; so this was it...

So it started out like this, then I added a butterfly, and a fairy, so the caption here says, "My heart will always flutter for you Valentine" lol cute, eh?

Bridge to the Rainforest & Valentine Flip Tag Part 1

(Marjolien, do not read this blog unless you have received my package) I know I have shown one of these photos in my previous blog, but I wanted to point out that if you actually put the "bridge over troubled waters" below the "rainforest" it looks like they actually meet...pretty cool, huh?  And, no I did not plan this...lol

Next, I participated in a Valentines tag flip for the very time from my pal's you tube channel, Marjoliens Crafty World. I was only supposed to make at least 5 but I made 7 and had so much fun making them that I couldn't stop...these were for my pal Marjolien over Simcoe, Ontario, I hope she gets them soon.  I am sure she will as I had mailed them from Orillia.

Anyway this was the first one.  I hand drew and hand coloured the tree myself and decided to add the ribbon on the side of the trunk.  And so this is how the tag turned out....On the back I filled a little baggie full of good that I hope she will be able to use.

The Valentine caption here was:  "OWL always be your valentine!"                           

                                      

Here we have the second set of tags.  The background I printed off Google search, (don't worry, it was a free vector image, which I try to use as much as I can.  The Valentine caption here is "Muffin compares to you Valentine".  So fun!

                                                                                 

Valentine flip tag #3: First layer is a stencil of waves that I used to begin the affect of waves, then I used my waves die which seems to make it look more realistic, and added some super cute brads that I had from a few years back that I had purchased from Michaels.  And two adorable little fish dies that I got from the slow boat...The caption here reads, "will you 'offishally' be my Valentine?"

 

On A Roll

Today has been another successful day of creating art.  I hand drew these trees in a forest before I went out to run an errand in Huntsville this afternoon.

When I came home, I checked my emails and attempted to make a card for the Greeting Card Challenge over in the Paper Manipulator Group.  I was trying to follow this sketch that Bonnie posted.

Well, my first lame attempt, I came up with this.

I was really trying to make something out of home made paper that was sent to me in an envelope some time ago as ephemera.  But the more I tried to make it work, the more it would not work.  I even posted it in the group as my first attempt but when I saw how bad it was I immediately took it down...it made me sad, actually.

But I persisted and prevailed!!!  We are allowed 3 posts for the challenge and here are my first two!  I am far more prouder of these ones than the one above!

                  

I am wondering if the colours are all too close to each other for each card?  Not sure.  Abby said she loves the purple one.  (She has not seen the teal one yet) at any rate, I may or may not do one more, we'll see how the comments go in the group for them!

Looking forward to more creations tomorrow!

Another Creative Day

Here we are day 4 into a brand new year.  And I think I will repost those magical positive words that are still resonating with me...

I'm walking into 2019 with a clear heart and mind.
If you owe me, don't worry about it - you're welcome.
If you wronged me, it's all good - lesson learned.
If you're angry with me, you've won - I let it go.
If we aren't speaking, it’s cool - I wish you nothing but the best.
If you feel I've wronged you, I apologize - it wasn't intentional.
Life is too short for all the pent up anger, holding of grudges and extra stress or pain.
Here’s to 2019!! Make it your best year yet!

I can sooooooo relate to each and every one of these sentences!

If you are my partner for any of the swaps I am in from any of the groups, please stop here if you want to be surprised.

So far, I have made something creative every single day...which is one of intentions for 2019.

Here is what I created today:

January 4, 2019

The Letter S ATCs

The left one is a simple collage ATC of Shoes, however the one on the right is a collection of Stamps, but if you look closely, every stamp has something that starts with an S.  Scooby Doo, Snake, Super Heroes, Stars and Stripes (for my American Crafty friends) South Africa and a Sailboat. It was fun to go through all of my collection of old postage stamps to find these.

January 4, 2019

Happy New Years ATC

I still have to make another New Years ATC....but there is still plenty of time!

2019 - Positive Thoughts ONLY

I'm walking into 2019 with a clear heart and mind.
If you owe me, don't worry about it - you're welcome.
If you wronged me, it's all good - lesson learned.
If you're angry with me, you've won - I let it go.
If we aren't speaking, it’s cool - I wish you nothing but the best.
If you feel I've wronged you, I apologize - it wasn't intentional.
Life is too short for all the pent up anger, holding of grudges and extra stress or pain.

Here’s to 2019!! Make it your best year yet!

Words for 2019 are Peace and Love

If you are my partner for any swaps in any of the groups I belong to stop looking here, if you want whats in your envelope to be a surprise

Art I have completed so far this year

JANUARY 1, 2019

Halloween In November ATC (I was an angel for these)
The ATC on the left, the tree was hand drawn and both ATCs are on backgrounds created by Bonnie Coursolle 

Merry Halloween ATC
Both of these ATCs were created on backgrounds created by Bonnie Coursolle

JANUARY 2, 2019

Home made birthday cards

JANUARY 3, 2019

The Letter C ATC #1

The Letter C ATC #2

M, N, O ATCoins

I have other projects on the go, I will be sharing here as time goes on into the new year.  Looking forward to more swaps and challenges for 2019!!!

My October Daily Update

Hello Crafty Friends

Welcome to my Creative Cave once again where I have had quite an artful day today.  I started this morning with making my 2 Harvest ATCs for my partner on The Paper Manipulator.  These are harvest images that I printed from the Internet and simply used my copic markers to colour them in.  Its hard to believe that I am out of colouring practice with them.

So then I moved on to the next project on the list.  I wanted to make Halloween themed ATCs for the Alphabet Letter M but turns out that it was actually for the Letter O theme so I kind of wasted time making these.  However time was not entirely wasted on them as I will add them to my ATCs to be Traded collection. And I did have fun making them, though.  I think maybe I will put them into one of the envelopes in the book I am using for my October Daily for future use.   I just hope that my partner won't be too disappointed for the Letter O, as there are not many options for O in Halloween.  At least not that I could think of.

So, what does all of this have to do with my October Daily update?  Well nothing really, except that I'd been working on the front and back cover of my chosen book which I am altering from scratch for it in between projects.  Speaking of which, I really should add a layer of Mod Podge to the back cover before it gets too late in the so it can dry so I can decorate the front of it tomorrow.

Here is a photo of the book I have been talking about that I chose for my October Daily 2018.

When I saw this book at a yard sale, I jumped on it.  It was only a quarter, and at the time I had no idea what I was going to use it for.  So, when the idea of the October daily came up, I thought this would be just the perfect book.   As you can see, I will have to be altering completely front to back...fun, fun, fun...and it is something that I will be able to keep for myself for a change.

I don't know if you can tell the difference or not.  I can't in the photo, at least yet, maybe once the blog is up.   As it stands right now I have the front gessoed in black and have a light layer of Glossy Mod Podge on it.  There are some streaks but I am not worried as I will be completely decorating it all in Halloween themed images, die cuts and stickers.  I am thinking of not bothering to mod podge the back of the book as since I am going to decorate it too, that I will not need to.

Anyway, as you can see, I've had to alter the front and the back...and I will be altering each page as well.  All I can say is that, there is only a little bit of planning for me for this project but not too much.  Our budget is going to be on the low side to be able to go anywhere or do anything for the next couple of months, which is fine by me, as I will be happy to be home and in my creative cave when I can be.  Lord knows I have tons to do, I just hope that my health holds enough to let me enjoy this upcoming fall season.