Little Red Studio

Enter a Great Contest

One of my favorite sites, The Vintage Workshop, is sponsoring a contest on their blog...Here!  Just click on the link and read all about it.  The Vintage Workshop has some great downloadable images and I have used a number of them for cards and gifts.  All of them have a vintage look, of course, and there are many to choose from.  Some of my favorites are floral, but I also love the Christmas and Easter designs.  Here is a design from their White and Black Christmas ll (IE334) collection that I digitally colored and used as a Christmas card.

 

I added the stars, the music and the text, as well as the color.  Check out their site for more information on the contest and their images. 

Gypsy Doll for the Gypsy in Me....

I finally finished my Gypsy art doll.  She has an Asian look, and I love the colors.  I used painting techniques I learned from a class at Moss Hill Studio Workshops.  The body of the doll is an old red oil can!  I used a lot of fabric and lace from my large stash, and hand-dyed some of it.  The little "hat" is a hand-dyed lace leaf and the tiny rose is real.  It is dried and glossed.  I found the perfect wooden base when I visited my son and his family in March.  He had a lot of old carved wooden pieces from Indonesia, and I found a square one with the original paint.  That inspired me to finish her.  Here she is....

Be sure to check out Moss Hill Studio.  She has wonderful online classes!  Joanna Pierotti is also a very prolific doll artist and a real inspiration to me.  I have seen her work featured in several books and magazines.  Her blog is Moss Hill Blog.  Thank you, Joanna!

Sweet Digital Fun

I love Photoshop!  I could spend hours (and often do) just playing with photos that I have taken, some of them as long as 20 years ago.  I discovered this website, Pugly Pixel, yesterday, and had some fun with one of their free downloads.  The subject is my granddaughter, a photo taken about 4 years ago.  She is intently drawing in her sketch book.  She and her older sister are both very artistic, and we had a great time in early April taking a Chinese Watercolor class together in Maryland.  We also spent one whole day creating Easter cards with rubber stamps, watercolor pencils, embossing powder, stickers and more.  I love doing artwork with my grandchildren....I just wish they all lived closer to me so we could do that more often.

The background of this photo was created in Photoshop using one of my pictures of a hibiscus to begin with.  the flourish is a brush from Cottage Arts.  They have great digital scrapbooking papers, brushes, blends and more.  

 
 

Guide to Eating Flowers

Guide to Eating Flowers: Edible Flowers ListUse this list to find out which flavors of your favorite edible garden flowers will be best for any... Guide to Eating Flowers: Chocolate Cake with Mint FlowersThis delicious mint chocolate cake can be made with any kind of mint flowers.... Guide to Eating Flowers: Pork Chops with Sage FlowersThe sage flowers in this pork chop recipe are a classic accompaniment for any pork or poultry dish.... Wildcrafting: Edible Wild Greens Recipes20 nutritious and delicious ways to eat your edible wild greens.... Richters Herbs: Edible PotpourriA great salt substitute that can be used fresh or dried, this recipe is from Cathy Avery, marketing...

via www.herbcompanion.com

The Creative Connection blog

Each week on The Creative Connection Blog, we will be posting new information about THE CREATIVE CONNECTION and all of those involved.  We will also be offering weekly contests with goodies from our amazing teachers.  So stay tuned and stay in touch.

via thecreativeconnectionevent.typepad.com

Antiques and Friends

Saturday I took a little road trip with two like-minded friends, Maggie and Judy...we love primitives and antiques.  The first shop was in Columbia, Missouri, and it was packed with people.  It was the Spring Open House for the shop called Friends Together Antiques.  They are only open on Fridays and Saturdays, from 10 to 5.  I didn't get any photos inside because of the number of people, but also, the owner wasn't there and I only asked permission to photograph the outside.  It is a delightful place for primitive antiques and people were buying!  Since I just took a two week trip (more about that in a later post), my budget was a little on the tight side, so my only purchases were some old letters and ledger papers.

I will use these in my collage artwork.  I usually scan the originals and use them for digital collage.  I can't bring my self to use the originals!

Here are some photos of the outside of the shop...

  
 

We drove from Columbia to Rocheport, Mo, a delightful small city on the Missouri River.  I wrote a post on that city last fall.  We made a stop at one of our favorite shops, White Horse Antiques, then had a great lunch at Abigail's.  I had a mixed green salad with warm brie, strawberries, apples, cranberries, walnuts and  a vinegarette.  Dessert was a yummy warm chocolate-raspberry pie, all fudgey and rich!

We also shopped at Richard Saunders, Inc., another favorite place for antiques and accessories.   I came home with a small indoor fountain for my upstairs den/computer space/guest room.  That is my favorite room for meditating and I thought the fountain would add a nice touch!

This is the room before I added the computer, printer, etc.  I love this room!

The friend who did the driving on this trip, Maggie Bonanomi, is finishing her third book, to be published in late summer or early fall.  Her other two books are With These Hands and Nature's Offerings.  They are both listed on my blog under Favorite Books.

It was a great day spent with great friends.  Even the weather was perfect.  What more could I ask for?

Shop HearthSong's Online Catalog

HearthSong strives to enrich the lives of children and strengthen family relationships by being the trusted source of safe, enduring products that inspire creativity and imaginative play, teach cooperation and respect, and support the celebration of life.

via www.hearthsong.com

Check out my Slide Show!

Digital Scrapbook Pages

 I have been doing a lot of digital artwork for the past two years.  This week I downloaded a some digital scrapbook paper and elements from Webster Pages.  They also have great non-digital papers, elements, etc.  Since my Mom passed away 25 years ago this month, I created two pages featuring her.  She was beautiful and I have some good photos to work with.  

Some of my other favorite digital paper sites are Cottage Arts and Oscraps.  More and more sites are starting to include downloadable artwork in their shops.  The Vintage Workshop has a lot to choose from.  They are not a scrapbook site, but have terrific digital images.  

Have fun browsing!

 

Scrapblog - My Mom