One World-One Heart Giveaway 2009

After so much fun last year, I am joyously participating in the One World-One Heart Giveaway again this year. If you would like more information on this great way to meet other blogging friends, I encourage you to visit http://oneworldoneheart.typepad.com/ and get the whole scoop.

My giveaway is open to anyone, you need not have a blog of your own to win. No Strings! All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment to this post. I will be drawing 3 winners. All winners will be announced here sometime Thursday February 12, 2009. I will print out the comments, and cut them out individually. I will then have Mike draw 3 winners names.

I'm giving away packages of my Enchanted Bubble Charms.




Make sure you leave me your ACTIVE e-mail or blog address in the comment so that I can contact you if you are one of the lucky winners!

UPDATE: Thank you for all the lovely comments! Winners will be drawn on Thursday Feb 12, 2009. Therefore, comments will end at 12:00 pm EST on Feb 12. Winners will be drawn and announced the evening of the 12th.

Thank you all so much for the kind comments! I have read each and every one, although I have not had time to respond personally yet, I intend to make my way back thru the list after the giveaway is over and get to know each of you a little better!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED! 2/12/09 12:01 pm EST.
Thank you so much for visiting! I will post the winners later tonight. Good Luck to all!
For any of you interested in the Clay Bubble Charms, I have a quick tutorial of a variation of them on my blog at http://backporchartessa.blogspot.com/2008/02/clay-bubble-charms.html.

Enchanted with the fairies

I think these fairies are like potato chips, I can't stop with just one! Here's a picture of one I did for my hair stylist! She's a creative soul, and I just thought she needed one of her own!

For her face, Maria herself is beautiful, so I used her picture. I made a photocopy and coated it with diamond glaze front and back. I cut it out and sewed it on the doll body and beaded around it.

The body I painted with lumiere paint, and mottled with craft paint and Staz-on ink and stamps. I then used Glimmer Mist sprays, and beads, charms, suede fabric. I glued butterfly wings together to have sequins on both sides. I added dolls hair with sewing and Fabri-tac glue. Maria has a pretty tattoo, so her fairie got one too, added with a Pitt artist pen. My favorite addition is the little scissors charm in her hand- they really open and close.

Art-y Goal Goodness

Giggles, my new studio muse
I've always had "goals." They were the fairly anemic, typical things. Get married to a great guy, get a creative job, travel, make art, be a good person kind of thing. I never really customized them. I used to balk at the idea of setting specific goals for myself. I have to set them at work, and I just didn't want the extra pressure of having something to pin me down in my personal life. This, I came to realize was really based on a fear of failing, a fear of disappointing myself or worse yet, loved ones. Once I learned the secret of letting go, and setting attainable and realistic goals, I was able to enjoy them. They have helped me to focus, and concentrate on what is truly important in my life, in my art. They have given me a direction, and are helping me to shape a path, reducing the chaos that comes of of trying to make decisions in the heat of the moment. Most of all, they have eliminated a lot of wasted effort. The satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment I get when I reach a goal seems to work wonders for my self esteem and resolve to accomplish more.

One goal this year, is to complete at least one creative project every other week. They can be abandoned projects from earlier, or new projects. Sort of a side goal that goes along with that is to as much as possible, use the items I already have on hand, squirreled away in my studio.

I have other creativity and inspiration goals, I'll have more on those another day....

To jump whole-hearted into this goal for this year, I spent Saturday with Amy Flowers of Shrew'd Arts, enjoying her Magical Faerie Doll, and Clear Acrylic Book classes. It was a wonderful, relaxed day of creating, meeting new friends, and catching up with some I haven't seen for some time. Amy is an encouraging, giving and extremely talented instructor, and the other artists creativity and friendliness all added to the fun of the day. Amy can be found at http://www.shrewdarts.com/classes.html

In creating Giggles, I played with Lumiere acrylics & stamping. I added beads, and craft paint, and tulle. We also learned an easy wool felting technique allowing for a light and airy feel. ( I really enjoyed this method, as it was really quick!)