Guest Designer Martica!

I am so honored to present this month's Designer!  She is marvelously talented and flexible in her approach, no matter what she does the results are AMAZING!

A little background....I asked her to take my sewing machine album, put her artistic talents to work.  I sent her a mixed bag of stuff with the instructions to use ANY or NONE of it.

I love her work, her sweet spirit, her kind nature and ANYthing she makes!

I'm thrilled to Introduce: Martica!

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Hi my name is Martica I have been happily married for 31 years and have 2 adult sons and one grandson. I live in sunny Florida and enjoy the beach and bike riding with hubby. I have always been creating since I was a child from drawing to crochet and cross stitching. I started with different mediums but when I tried scrapbooking in 1982 I did it because my 1st son was born and took 100's of pictures that I had no idea what to do with them. I used colored pencils and drew my own designs in album. I continued scrapbooking when my 2nd son was born but I stopped a few years later. Then my grandson was born in 2005 and I decided to start the hobby again I was so surprised to see what awesome stuff was out there for scrapbooking that I dove in heads first. I have not stopped since. I started out doing layouts, then creating mini albums and now I also alter and do mixed media.
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AND, Martica altered a cigar box for the Sewing Machine Album....here is a sneak peak:

Beautiful work!!

Thank you Martica!

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More from Martica:

My favorite style is shabby chic, vintage and victorien but I do enjoy trying different styles and ideas. Usually a paperline or a particular color/s inspire me to create. I can be watching t.v. and suddenly an idea will pop into my head and I would drop everything and start creating. When I start I have a general idea of what I want to do, then as I go along ideas will come to me and I continue creating.

I want to thank Melissa for inviting me to be a guest designer, I am very honored. She is a very talented artist so when she asked me I could not believe it. She designed a cool vintage sewing machine chipboard album that is awesome. I had to give it a try, it was so much fun to alter. It brought back memories of when my mother would sew for my sisters and I in the 60's. I went and did a retro theme style on album. I added lots of tags, buttons, trims, ribbon and even a little fabric, some which were included in kit that Melissa sent me. I then decided to add a (cigar box) to stand album on, that you have got to see. I will be posting pictures in my blog, marticadesigns.blogspot.com and a video in my YT channel soon. Thanks again Melissa and thanks to everyone for visiting..

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 Don't you LOVE her style?!?

Be sure to drop by her lovely blog: marticadesigns.blogspot.com

And, Click here for Martica's YouTube channel where she will be posting the sewing machine album and her Altered Cigar Box.

And if you would like to purchase the Sewing Machine Album leave a comment or go to my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/listing/104104290/bare-raw-chipboard-sewing-machine-mini

My new Mini Album design

For the last several months I've been working on a fresh idea for scrapbooking.  Mini Albums.  Not teeny minis but smaller in size than the traditional 12 x 12 inches.  And fewer pages.

Doesn't sound like a great idea but I know I'm not the only one out there who ends up with a few photos of an event or certain people.  For me, it is my Grandmother.  I have 6 maybe 7 photos of her and I want to pull her into Center Stage and make a big impact with these few photos!  The memories are wonderful and I look around my home and see her furniture and remember so much that I simply can not put her on a 4 page lay-out stuck in an album on a shelf. She deserves better.

Her essences is so important!  So, after looking and searching so many sites and not finding what I needed, I designed my own!

It is the cutest Chipboard Mini-Album!  It's sweet, shabby chic and VINTAGE!!  And I have some new things to add to the kit to make it SEW special! AND, if I need more pages for journaling memories, they are easy to cut out and put in the binder rings.

I bought Pink Paislee Butterfly Garden paper and began designing.  Pinks, blues, whites with text, cursive writing, postmarks and ephemera.  Then I made a kit!  Some of us like kits to guide us and some just want a blank album or the album and the Butterfly Garden paper already cut.  Either way, I'll get you what you are looking for!

And, what is UBER exciting is my very favorite You Tuber is going to take the album and finish it HER WAY!  I can't wait to see it AND she is going to be right here in August/September to show us her fabulous work and inspire us.  I'll post more about it later....I can hardly wait!

Stay cool,
Melissa

Tis the Season for Poinsettias

A Chipboard Mini Scrapbook Album + My Mind's Eye with a little Pink Paislee + Velvet Poinsettias + Glimmer, Shimmer, Sparklies and this is what you get:

It's layered to reveal the different pages and add interest.  Lots of room for photos and memories.
I've put it in my Etsy shop here.
Here is the Video!
Cottage Blissings,
Melissa 

Cyber GoofBalls, the Inchie Swap, maybe the Twinchie swap

Here are the items I made for the Inchie swap last year:



Those were my attempt at Zentangles.....I had NO idea Zentangles had actual patterns until Brenda (hugs, sweet friend) told me!  In 2012!










These are the inchies I received in return:



This is one of my mixed media Mermaids made with handmade papers, various paints, fibers and, of course, my favorite go-to: Glitter!



Ugh! Can't seem to locate the Twinchie swap but I did find a swap I started participating in right as Hubby first got sick...I could only do one double page but I like the way it turned out.



In person it was much less jumbled looking...here is the other page


thiscottagebliss.blogspot.com

There are three pull up windows that have little messages....this is under one of the pull ups.




I have learned a lot in these few months since we/hubby came home from the hospital...and I am now focusing my efforts to Scrapbooking and related items.

Thanks for looking!
Melissa

Christmas Day

We had a lovely day!

My MIL came, which is very rare, and my mom. Hubby picked them up and we had lunch, a small gift exchange and pleasant conversation around the fireplace. It felt good, like it should be, like family and love.

Hubby cooked his amazingly tender turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. Mom brought her squash casserole, corn pudding, cheese sauce and kibi. With a few additions and pies we were stuffed piggies and the food dishes looked barely touched.

MIL raved about my decorating and insisted I open a gallery for my artwork. So sweet and appreciated.

Christmas Day was relaxing and special.

Winter Window

Don't you love plants in a Kitchen window...and Christmas Cactus in bloom?





Coffee/Tea, a small kitchen garden...a lovely start to the day.

Getting Ready for Fall

Are you having those beautiful Fall mornings? Are the leaves turning beautiful shades where you live? Our first nice cool morning was Friday and today there was actually frost on the roof tops! So exciting to finally wave those upper 80 temperatures goodbye for a few months! Hubby and I ran errands and ended up at Michael's. We went in for glue and came out with a precious Feather Tree!

We wanted to set up the dining room for Thanksgiving and I am hoping to make a card out of one of the photos to use as invitations/greeting card...



Usually the first table is against the wall and holds desserts and such but Hubby liked the idea of it pulled out into the room.

This is the first year I have used the Fall houses and I love them! There is a church in the center and a house, the others are a cider mill, pumpkin patch and grocery store. I can see where collecting houses can get way out of hand! Who can avoid buying just One More? The mirrors are so very old and weather'd but I love 'em.





Here is the house and the church...



and the Cider Mill and Produce stand...we don't have many of these in Texas but Starbucks has an awesome pumpkin latte. I suppose we grab those Blissful moments however we can, where we can...then hold them dear.



Hubby saw it before I did. He is just that amazing. So he decided I need a white feather tree for my Birthday. No way was I going to say no...I love the way it looks with the fall leaves woven throughout.

Think I'll leave this up year around and change it out with the different holidays.



And one day, maybe my little grandkids will step up to my grandmothers sideboard, now painted white, and will play with the little people and animals in the scene and wonder about them.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

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Soon as I hit the publish button I realized I hadn't hung up my sign that JenniferB made.

So, here is the way the dining room looks now...



AND....since I didn't get a good photo of the little 'tree skirt' wrapped around the feather tree, I had to retake that photo, too. Made it last year from a pattern mimicking a Cathedral Window quilt. Have it on Etsy, reworked so it doesn't pucker in the middle and boy does it go together fast!



Enlarge that photo with the sign, I love the way she did it. She needs a blog...I'll run tell her...be back soon.