Color me Crazy

WOW!! What a time it has been. I am a pretty private person, so the details of my crazy life are not as important as the fact that it has made "play time" difficult. Oh I manage, but the pressure of swaps became to much and I had to stop. At least for now. I will still try and do them now and again but I love to join swaps and I give 110% of myself to each one. It takes it toll. I know I'm not alone. I'm guessing this is what is called "Burn Out" , when you just hot a wall and fall.
I belong to this amazing doll group. I'm not even sure they do swaps but they do challenges and they give you months to finish, You get to keep what you do, which is also a plus for me. I always end up so in love with what I do I hate giving it up...Isn't that terrible? I'm really not at all a selfish person...I just become attached LOL Someone suggested making two. Are you kidding me? I give everything I have to one, two would kill me. Like I say, I will still do swaps...but for a while I have to curtail my activity and worry about me and my health for a change.
Meanwhile one of my groups is playing BINGO, Now there is something stress free and fun. WE had to make BINGO cards, put in words (we were given a bunch of words for each letter) and then send it to someone. We in turn got a Bingo card from someone else with words they picked.
So her is my Bingo card that went to LA.

Well I couldn't give the words away could I? Please note I used antique Bingo Chips LOL when was the last time you saw someone use Bingo Chips? My card is from my friend Mary...she does just beautiful work..I have figured out a way to use it without making a mess LOL I want to hang it in my studio.

Isn't it beautiful?? So that's it for today...there is much more going on and oh so many pictures. I'm working on a light bulb tutorial also. I found an easier way then the way I saw to clean out light bulbs.
I'm trying to get here more often. organizing ones life is NOT an easy job.

Forever is just too long

I feel like I have been gone forever. While busy preparing our other house to be rented I did manage to get some stuff done. It amazes me how much I can fit into a day when I don't have to stop for silly things like cooking, cleaning and shopping. When I am away by myself I just stay with it. I worked on the house, either packing stuff up, throwing crap away or deal with Real Estate people Ugh!! I did that for 8 hours and that was enough. then I showered and got busy with doing stuff I love.
I wanted to try and make doll faces like Susie Mc Mahon (if you don't know her you should check her out)
I have her pattern and her instructions. I have never worked with paint, always preferred water color pencils and chalk on cloth faces. These faces are made from paper clay. So here are the very first painted faces:

Don't laugh<g> I got some very positive feedback and some very good advice on what to do next time. But for the most part I was Happy with them. I joined an ATC swap. The theme was Silhouettes...I had forgotten how much fun ATC;s could be. I really have to spend more time with the ATC group.
I used one of my Unicorn cameos for one and I water colored another...

Then I had some more charms in mind. I LOVE making charms. I just saw a tutorial on UTEE charms that I can't wait to try. I collect  Matryoska   dolls, they have fascinated me since I was a little girl. I have one that has 15 nesters and the smallest one is 1/4 inch. That was too small for a charm so I made them a bit bigger and hung a glass crystal bead. The pic isn't all that great...I need a better camera :-(

Now they were my idea of fun.I don't think I did bad for one eye. I also gave out a Surprise Challenge to my group (Corinne and I share a small group of mixed artist- feel free to join us    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SharingOurMixedMediaArt/)      I sent each person who signed up , two Formica sample tags and told them to make something...This is what I made from mine.

I used Swellagents To make the tag and frame look like aged copper on one,  aged brass on the other...Then I did puzzle pieces in rusted iron..along with some of the do dads. Watch gears were left as they were for some sparkle. Chain is for hanging. I call them Friendship Frames.
While I do have more to share, I really have to get busy. I came home so the kids could visit here and celebrate  their Dads BD. They left today. Shot in the eye tomorrow. Old friends for company on Wed. until whenever and then back to long Island I go to set up contractors. It just never stops.
Wishing you all a very happy day...Hope I still have people who check on me once in a while. I know I've been away from here for a while....