August is going to be a busy month. I have a lot of writing to do, especially for my presentation at Good Vibrations . Don't worry, it's all been scheduled. The Michaels classes I am offering in August are: At Hawthorne: Spotted Canary School Beginner's Scrapbooking: Fridays 5,12,19,26th,  12.30-2.30pm Paper Ed: Paper Bag Mini-Albums: Saturday August 13th, 11.30am-1.30pm How to use your Cricut class: Wednesday August 17th, 6.30-8.30pm At Inglewood: Spotted Canary School Beginner's Scrapbooking: Saturdays August 13,20,27th, Sept 3rd, 3.00-5.00pm Martha Stewart Glittering Class: Saturday August 20th, 10.30am-12.30pm Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page: Saturday August 20th, 12.30-2.30pm Paper Ed: Texture WOW: Saturday August 27th 12.30-2.30pm Paper Ed: Paper Bag Mini-Albums: Saturday September 3rd 12.30-2.30pm The Crop Night at Inglewood is Friday August 19th starting I believe at 4pm. * Had to change the photo - I forgot I had submitted that other

Here is my work so far on two Kabuki Dream Dolls. These are definitely one of a kind, in a very short series. Their faces, which I painted, are not any particular mask - I wouldn't presume - but more of a general rendering of the style . The fabrics were bought new for a change, from a specialty quilt store. But a few years ago. As you can probably tell the Floral Kabuki Dream Doll is a little further along than the Black and White. I plan to dress them in wrap style Japanese pants (Hakama) or perhaps a skirt, and removable short kimono  style jackets. Expect more beading, couching, applique and some embroidery. I'm still thinking hard about their hair. Being Dream Dolls they are about 14 inches tall, with an internal wire armature for support. I don't know whether The Gallery 9 will want them for their store, or whether they will be on my Etsy . I recently received some vintage and distressed wooden beads that may be part of the final result. They will include a d

I have some pretty things in my Etsy store at the moment, but my new FB friends and recent Twitter followers may not be aware of them. Since my Dream Star One of a Kind Art Dolls are being exclusively represented by The Gallery 9 in Culver City, CA, I'd love it if you'd take a look at some of my paper crafted items. Like these Handmade Romantic 3D Gift Tags . All Four Handmade Romantic 3D Gift Tags Set of 4 coordinating hand made oval gift tags in muted warm pinks and browns. I hand painted, stamped and aged sheet music, which I stiffened with card. I made double layered, hand cut lotus flowers in several varieties of pretty scrapbook papers. Each gently spinnable flower has a unique button center. I added the sentiments with rub on letters, and finished the tags with an eyelet and matching ribbon & yarn tie. I aged the parchment paper on the back but left plenty of room for your handwritten greeting. They are a one of a kind set. Size: 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches

How can a week go by so fast. Here's another Friday Sketch.

I've decided that with so many people wanting to know how to scrapbook, that I'd jump into that pond. I'm going to try publishing a sketch each Friday. (So it's a little late tonight, but I started earlier.) Any how, this is a pretty basic, simple sketch that I think would look nice on a paper with a decorative treatment. I love using text as a design element, so I often add a tag with a quotation or a word.  Have fun, and I'll try and do a layout using this sketch to post shortly.

I'm delighted to report that my Dream Star Dolls in The Gallery 9 have sold. Gallery 9 supports The Peace Project , a wonderful initiative working to bring medical equipment, art supplies, and opportunity to people in post war Sierra Leone. More about that on Lisa's spiritually moving blog, The Human Parade . But the good news is that they have asked for more dolls! Yay. I'm sending over those I have two of which are brand new, summery colored dolls. Her charms include a wee cupid, and a vintage millefiore glass bead. Hand painted petals for her skirt. The other two are wintery colored plaids, including a holiday doll. Handmade polymer clay charms and vintage paper mache pearl beads. Tiny Santa charm These are all I have complete right now. Better get making!

If I wasn't teaching scrapbooking this Saturday, I would love to head out to the next Swap-o-rama-rama at the Renegade Craft Fair (why aren't I selling there??!!?) at Los Angeles State Historic Park . Again that is this coming Saturday, July 16th. BTW Michaels is offering teachers 15% off your total purchase with your educator ID - every day not just Fridays.

This is something of a scraplift - not of any particular layout, but of this type of patchwork look scrapbooking layout idea in general. I had quite a collection of leftover pieces of paper and cardstock. I cut many of these into 3.5 inch squares, and I have quite a nice pile in other colors too. They worked well because I have a few small square photos. I added machine stitched frames for interest, with variegated thread. I'll be doing some more with other colorways, because it is so quick and effective.  I used the ScraPerfect Perfect Crafting Pouch to prep the paper for stamping nicely, and the Perfect Cleaning Cloth to wipe up the residue, and clean the finger prints off the photos. I added some small wooden flat beads to embellish the title bloc, using Best Glue Ever and the Embellie Gellie stick to pop the discs very easily onto the tacky glue drops. Cards/Papers: Colorbok, K&Co, DCWV, Recollections Glue: Elmers Dot Runner, ScraPerfect Best Glue Ever Tools: Embe

You can see the all the photos and the full deets on this cute layout at the the ScraPerfect blog .