I'm Published!!!

Come celebrate the PREMIERE ISSUE of Scraps of Color Y'all!!! Women of color scrappin' and sharing their love of history through creativity!! You won't see anything like this on the newstands!!!!!

.... and please check out my Painted Tags on page 46!!! I loved painting these and look forward to sharing my love of history and art with you via this venue.

Scraps Of Color E:SPIRE

My Solution To Finding Afro-Centric Background Papers

Hello Bloggers!

I've been so inspired lately by all the new products being previewed for 2011 ... but I still find lacking different papers with more afro-centric themes. I love vintage, but I refrain from purchasing many of the vintage papers and steampunk themed papers .. but recently, I came up with a way that would give me the look and feel of those types of papers - while still reflecting my heritage.

I posted a couple of YT videos sharing what I've been experimenting with:

Switching Gears - Painted Glass

Hello fellow bloggers!! I wanted to share with you a set of wineglasses I painted this week. I get glass orders all year round ... and after finishing up my latest custom order, I decided to paint an extra set and list it on ETSY.

I've been painting glassware for about 10 years online!! .. and I never tire of it. Funny though - I'm allergic to wine - so painting the glasses is the closest I get to using them for their intended purpose!

I have more glasses on my paint table that I'll be sharing with you soon.

Stay warm - and be creative!

GITTER DONE FRIDAY

Lawd ... what a mess. I stumbled across a blog challenge over on the Songbird Is Nesting blog - called Gitter Done. We were to take pics of projects around the house that we have been putting off ... no matter how ugly!! And then, kick in gear and begin getting it done.

So, I decided to FINALLY clean my "hidden room" ... the dreaded junk room. It started out as my son's playroom when he was a toddler, evolved into a guest room ... and when my significant other and I decided to part the ways - it became a temporary junk room.LOL

Well ... over a year later - it's now THE junk room ... and I am ready to GITTER DONE! I forgot to post last Friday, but I am not going to let another week go by and not begin on this room.

Before I can even decide what to do - I need to clean it out. PURGE!!!!!So far ... I have one big box ready to go to the trash heap.


Like Marianne said - it doesn't have to be pretty ... just Gitter Done!!!!

Saying Good-Bye

How many of us are lucky enough to say they KNEW, I mean REALLY KNEW a Great-Great Aunt? My beautiful "Aunt Bill" passed away this past week at the glorious age of 99 years old.

Ninety-nine years. Imagine all she's seen and experienced. All the changes in this world ... all the things that she went through in her younger life during a time when African Americans were treated abominably. To live to see the first Black President - something she told me she NEVER EVER EVER thought she'd live to see.

I adored her. She outlived both of my Grandparents, and luckily, I was fortunate enough to have had her as a constant in my life. She wasn't someone I JUST saw at reunions. She was someone that I saw, before moving away from New York, on a weekly basis.

I remember being a little girl, LOVING to hear stories of her and her beautiful sisters. I loved flipping through pages of her photo albums, oohing and ahhing at the clothes, LOL.

My family is a close one, and we live far beyond 100 years old .... so for her to lay down and enter eternal sleep at 99 - was shocking to me. I thought she'd live longer. I wanted, selfishly I suppose, to have her be there for maybe my son's wedding in 10 years?? **big smile**

When I remember her life, the life lessons she taught me ... I can't help but think all that we complain about these days are so trivial.

Bless you sweet Aunt Bill ... I'll miss you.

I Have A Project In Toletown's Ezine!

Toletown's January Ezine is out - and guess who has a project in it?? ME!! My project is the Vintage Valentine Purse - and it was fun to do.

This issue has TONS of projects for the paper crafter and decorative artist alike...and for the price of an e-pattern - you get an issue full of fun and beautiful designs! Hope you check it out!

Get Ready For Valentine's Day!! Part II

I created this card for Valentine's Day using the lattice hearts I punched out of scrap paper.

Get Ready For Valentine's Day!!

Guess what I did with this?

I made THIS!!!

I'm Fabulous

I'm FABULOUS! Aren't you? Yesterday into this morning I found myself slipping back into my 2010 Doldrums ... and decided - Nope. Not Today. I'm not going to do this ... and while looking for a new picture to change my holiday desktop ... I came across a painting that I did last summer ... and had added some words to remind myself how FANTASTIC I am....cause if I don't think so - who else will?

So .. if you're having a bad day ... a slow day ... a sad day ... telling yourself all the things you are not - just remember all the things that you ARE.

My Share For Jan 2011

I brought in the New Year painting, and this is one of the projects that I completed during my marathon painting & crafting weekend.


























For my lettering, I chose to use glitter Days of the Week words by Scribbles. I knew I wouldn't be using these in a scrapbook layout - but loved the look of the lettering, and knew they would be perfect to go around the boarder of my corkboard. So dig in those supplies and use what you have ... or whip out your paintbrush and paint something.

My SHARE For 2011

I'm not big on resolutions. I'm not even big on making promises. I only make promises that I KNOW I can keep ... so passing out a promise for me is like passing out 100.00 bills. Very few and far between, LOL.

But ... I've been looking at all the blogs and all the "words" folks are choosing for themselves to focus on ... and while I'm not going to do that - I *am* going to start doing something that I feel I've gotten away from in past years.

Sharing.

I am not a very open person. I'm extremely reserved and quiet and I've been that way since I was a child.

When I joined the online world in 2000, I was hooked on the now defunct e-circles and yahoo boards for artists. I found a wealth of sharing and giving which helped me to learn so many different things about art. People shared their techniques, their pictures, their how-to's ... and for a time, it was a very close knit community (I still have friends that I cherish from those days).

I don't know when things began to change ... maybe it was the loss of some of the groups ... maybe it was the growing competitiveness among some of the artists that led to book deals, magazine submissions, product endorsements, etc ... but the "spirit" of some of the very groups I loved began to change ... and with it ... the sharing.

So ... I have decided that while I wont' be able to do this every day or even every week ... I *can* share at least one project, from start to finish ... and if it helps you in any way ... if it inspires you in any way ... then I've achieved my objective.