artistic moms, a basket and a book....

I recently joined the Artistic Mothers group hosted by Trudy Callan....(click on the button on my sidebar to find out more....) The first project we are working on is making our background papers....Tonight I got down to it and made a huge creative mess and had a whole lot of fun...I already learned something awesome, when making background papers...I used regular copier white paper which is thin...normally to just paint it, it would still be flimsy. What I learned is to cover it with gesso first, then add your paints, inks or whatever you are using....I used a lot of gesso, a little water and had no trouble with the paper curling up at all...I made six papers..( from the mess you would've guessed at least 100!) I did three of the elements....fire, water and air.....Earth to me is brown tones, and I didn't have the right colors...next time....Each set had a mono print off the beginning page....Fun stuff and not a lot of thinking required.....






I also made another little Easter Basket for the basket swap hosted by Miss Rhea...These are so fun to play with....here is the end result.





Guess what color the recipient likes?
The other day I got some really cute Easter egg fabric and I am making pin cushions and pot holders......I made up this "big and bold" pincushion tonight.....it is big! The pattern is from a Better Homes and Garden Magazine...pillows, pincushions and bags....I whipped this baby up for practice in about twenty minutes total...I need to get button forms before I make the "Real ones"...The picture makes it look crooked, but it is not....The pins have flat heads and I just hot glued little jewels on them....cutie patooties...





Last of all, I wanted to share something really cool with all my blogging friends...Did you know you can turn your blog into a book complete with your pictures? You can with Blurb.com and it is super easy...




I put a lot of heart into my blog and who knows how long blogs will be around....I especially wanted a record for the kids, because a lot of my blog chronicles our lives together and a book is forever...This is my 2007 blog book....I have two more complete years to turn into books. I am super pleased with the way it turned out and it was only 29.99...My 2007 book has 145 pages and a ton of pictures...






I think it is a great buy and a great keepsake.....