Now that I am a certified SDU instructor , I will be teaching at Michaels. I have two different classes coming up. I made this vividly colored page with letters and images cut from plain cardstock using Cricut and Gypsy - Cartrides used were Robotz and Wall Decor and More. Embellishments - plastic rhinestones! Finally I have started on the backlog of wonderful vintage photos from my late mother's collection. What a life! SDU Scrapbooking classes will be at Michaels, Inglewood on Thursday evenings in January. Jan 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th from 6:00 - 8:00 pm . The classes assume no prior experience with scrapbooking and take you through organizing photos, choosing themes, designing layouts, color theory, journalling, embellishments and tips and tools. The class is normally $45 for all four, but register before the New Year and receive 40% off for a total of $27 for the four classes. Registrants also receive a one time 10% off your purchase coupon to buy materials for the class.

Happy Holidays! Please feel free to download this happy zentangle elf for your use. Get her here .

I have just heard that some recycled gift boxes I made using vintage magazine pages will be in an upcoming issue of Green Crafts . I'm very happy to have success with my first submission to this publishing group. No pics, but I'll post a link when the mag comes out.

Recently completed and sent off as the prize for my Natural Life Magazine diorama contest.

The next doll making odyssey, Coolaberration 2010, has commenced. My doll start and journal are detailed on the group blog.  Slightly different and more challenging than last time, we are importuned to send only a portion of a doll figure. Stay tuned.

This is "Dream of Peace" I have donated to the The Peace Project at Gallery 9  for auction. She is a 14 inch tall OOAK cloth and mixed media Dream Doll with internal wire and wood armature for support. I painted her face and designed her sparkling heart to evoke both Byzantine and Central American iconography. Her body is a vintage cottage style print from my late mother's collection, while her vivid skirt petals are a combination of vintage and used clothing fabrics, new quilting cottons, and vintage Indian and South Asian fabrics from my mother-in-law's collection. Tiny colored glass sead beads also appear in many cultures including African tribal adornments and traditional figures, and Native American textiles. Included in her hair decorations are handmade cloth beads made from some yo-yos from a very old quilt that is beyond repair, but represents the traditional feminine crafts of pioneer America. My idea is that her multi-sourced clothes, charms and embellish

Very late, but better than never, I hope. This an embellished, hand drawn paper doll around the theme of Moon. She's called "Moonlight Becomes Her." About 7 inches tall, with a hinged neck. (Pencil, marker, galvanized wire, glass beads, sequins, metallic thread.) She's a little different for me, since I tend to work in cloth most of the time. Swaps have a tendency to get away from me. I've got too many other things on my plate, including a doll I owe a little girl who won it, and the next Coolaberration2010 (which is going to be awesome!). So I think I'll stay away from any more swaps for now.

If you go to my Etsy store in about two weeks, you will find it empty of Dream Star dolls. That is because my Dream Star dolls are going to be carried by The Gallery 9 in Culver City in conjunction with their next juried exhibition, The Peace Project by The Whole 9 , opening September 25 . The Whole 9 is an artists' community with online portfolios and real life networking and creativity inspiring events. I'm super excited because the curator Lisa Shultz invited me over and hand picked the dolls to be in the gallery shop as part of this wonderful event. I hope that a whole new audience will see my art dolls. In addition I have donated a Dream Doll to be auctioned during the gala reception. She is a multi-colored doll with a hand painted face, encrusted with beading, embroidery and couched ribbons. She'll be wearing a vivid mix of patterns and prints, while on her hands different colored beaded spirals represent each of the Four Elements - Earth, Air, Fire and Water. I

Some of my gift tags are in a beautiful nature themed treasury by Etsy seller Baby Shower Supplies . It's lovely to be found and be in such grand company.

My good friend, and wonderful fiber and mixed media artist, Talitha Sherman is going to be teaching an awesome textile project with the Craft and Folk Art Museum here in Los Angeles. It's her first time working with that organization. Here's the full description: Sunday, August 15 (oh hey that's my birthday...) 1.00 - 4.00 PM The Fabric of Your Life: Family Tree Tapestry Celebrate your History with a Family Tree wall hanging made from meaningful fabrics. Join us to create a one of a kind piece of textile art celebrating your unique family and utilizing material that has journeyed with you. Bring your own fabric or choose from our supplies. Just about any fabric can be repurposed and turned into something special and new, your favorite old shirt, grandma's nightgown, bed sheets, almost anything. The fabric must be ironable; silks, satins and cottons work best. You will create your wall hanging with scissors, heat bond and an iron. First you'll fuse your

Readers of my recent columns might be interested in this Eco-Fashion history exhibit at the Fashion Institute in New York City. I know I am, but unfortunately getting there would be a bigger schlepp than I can manage. If any of you do go, I'd love to hear about it. Maybe they will have an exhibition catalog I could buy.

I will be demoing the Yudu at Michaels Hawthorne on Saturday, June 26, 1pm-5pm. Stop by if you are in the area, or check your local Michaels for a demonstrator. We are all over the place now. Wish I had my own.

Birthday at Disney. Cartridges used - Wall Decor and More, Cindy Loo, Birthday Cakes,

Making, Mothering, Musing - Creative Writing and Writings about Creativity. Information about upcoming projects, my writing activities and assorted wordy stuff about living an artistic life and parenting at the same time. So far all I've done is transfer some old blog posts and articles from Imagination Tribe on Ning, which is soon to be disbanded in favor of Facebook. But it may be new to some of you.

I've used my collage mermaid and some cricut images for this Thank You card. I had colored the mermaid herself with pencils and markers; then I did shading with oil pastels and Aquarelle water color crayons.

I'm planning on using this figure as a fairy in collage. Once again I made her using a combination of drawing and zentangles drawn over text. Go here to download her for free. Let me know if you use her.

You all know I love making gift and favor boxes from recycled food packaging. I had a ton of fun making these for my demo today. The small boxes are from a yogurt stick box, covered with a page of text from an art magazine I get that has really nice paper, and decorated with an assortment of flowers cut on the Cricut from security envelopes . These ones are black and white, and I also have saved a bunch with blue and white lining and even some red and white (I'm thinking Valentine's Day next year). The larger box uses pages from the same art magazine, otherwise on its way to the recycling box. I cut strips at random widths, decoupaged them to a remarkably sturdy cracker box, and used the Quantity feature to cut a ton of flowers from a couple of other pages that worked for color. Glitter paint, buttons - there we go. Later I can cut the recipient's name or other message on either a hang tag or to be affixed directly. These are going to by my next holiday gift packages. M

Here's my Michaels demoing schedule for this week and weekend. I'll be at the Hawthorne store : Thursday, April 22nd from 4.30pm until 9.00pm Friday, April 23rd from 4.30pm until 9.00pm, when you can also join in the monthly crop night group. Saturday, April 24th from 2.30pm until 7.30pm. Sunday, April 25th from 11.30am until 4.30pm. If you are in the area, please pop in and say hi! I can answer your questions about the Cricut Expression, Gypsy and the other fine crafting products made by Provocraft, and I'm even getting better at knowing my way around the Michaels store. I'll be posting some pretty layouts I've designed on the Gypsy as examples of a business promo use of the Cricut system. Plus I notice tons of kids coming into Michaels doing school projects about California Missions - guess it's that time of year. So I'm planning a mock project as a demo display. Good opportunity to learn something about the Missions. Pretty much all I know is that a coupl

I've created another collage figure for you. Download this Mermaid for free, print her and have fun. Please let me know if you make anything cool from her.

Included in the fabrics my MIL sent me, was a vintage yo-yo quilt. Or to be more accurate pieces of the top layer of a vintage yo-yo quilt. Quite stained and old, the quilt top is slowly deteriorating. Many of the pieces are silk, and some are vintage rayon. Some have separated into layers, and for some the hand stitches holding each rosette to its neighbor are the strongest part. I gently hand washed the bits I wanted to use in delicate detergent made for dolls clothing, and some disintegrated completely! However that doesn't mean that these elements can't be used for textile arts. For my most recent contribution to Coolaberration '09, Shimasani, I have appliqued washed pieces to a piece of lace and added beading and embroidery to make her underskirt, as well as attaching rosettes to the lining of her velvet cape. More pictures soon, when she is complete. I also have made a whole bunch of these small beaded buttons. Some have found their way onto Shimasani, and here are th

I'm very excited to announce that I have been offered a fabulous position demonstrating the Cricut made by Provo Craft in my local Michaels Craft store. I have been yearning for a Cricut for years and now it seems I will have the opportunity to learn all about it! I see it as a tool that would only enhance my ability to make all kinds of cool things, like these mini gift tags. I haven't been much of a scrapbooker up until now - I'm looking forward to moving into a whole new area of paper crafting and personal journalling. It's about time that some of the beautiful photographic material my mother left me is made into something. Meanwhile my Bead Head dolls will soon be presented with their own art journals. I've been using the Provo Craft Knifty Knitter for years. Currently in the works - a pair of upcycled cuffs from tie-bleached T-shirts for eventual submission to Altered Couture . Now how can I incorporate cut card shapes....I'm currently fascinated with

The first couple of Diorama entries have arrived at Natural Life Magazine. They are adorable - but this is just a teaser...Still plenty of time to enter.

Here's a hanging Thank You card I've made for some friends. The letters are polymer clay painted with some silver and bronze paints to give them sheen. The heart is pc too. I laminated the colored figure to a couple of layers of cardstock and made some hanging charms. You can download the figure and print her in different sizes using your own printer software. This is about 12 inches from loop to tail.

Lots of new earrings and pins on Jayn's Etsy store - lots of Spring colors.

I mailed some new recycled gift boxes, using vintage magazine pages, ribbons and buttons, to Somerset Studio magazine yesterday. That is the one that is about paper and mixed media art. I am now crossing my fingers.

Here are a couple of ways of using the open armed girl . One of these is Jayn's work on her money box, formerly a coffee can. The other is a card idea using paper collage and glitter glue over an altered vintage magazine page. The coloring is a combo of colored pencils and markers. More soon.

I'm very excited! My next article in Natural Life is about making miniature dioramas - and features a CONTEST! The first prize is one of my custom Dream Star Dolls in your choice of colors. Jayn is also contributing a pair of her sweet little bead earrings . We just love making miniature dioramas of all kinds, using recycled packaging as the foundation. Something fun to do for spring!

I'm trying something new. I'm trying a free file hosting service to make my clip art available for downloading. I have placed this happy collaged character there, that I have been using to make cards (more pics soon). So far over here she has held a "Thank You" banner and a "Happy Birthday" banner made from stamped and cut out letters. I colored and decoupaged her to assorted cardstocks. Please feel free to visit the site and download her and make prints for your use. If you use her online, please link back to this blog. More free figures will follow as I am inspired to do more paper and mixed media art. She loves to be embellished! Also I'd appreciate it if you'd let me know how the download process worked - it seemed pretty simple to upload and I have high hopes. I think you have to create a free account.

Just listed as an Ebay auction - "Journey" - OOAK Art Doll figure with Quartz Crystal Wand.

Eight, count 'em, eight hearts have flown out of my store, and this Moon and Stars Dream Star doll has also been sold offline. It's ironic since I have just entered her in a Winter colors contest over at Craft Stylish. If you feel called to go there and make a comment or hit the "love it" button, I won't complain. I have about four in progress dolls, but I'm putting my attention on the promised Haiti doll. Here's her start - a Dream Doll about 14 inches tall with an internal wire armature for support.

in my Etsy store with the heady scent of Indian musk and a touch of orange essence. They ship in clear cellophane bags which retain the fragrance. Here's my suggestion: fasten a diamond bracelet to the hanging loop so that when your lady pulls the pillow from the bag the bracelet comes out with them. Or pin a beautiful brooch to the pillow. Also wonderful for Valentine's day - the romantic hand made gift tags. They are very solid and would be the perfect embellishment to a nice box of fancy chocolates or tied around the neck of a perfume bottle.