I just finished these little "extreme inchies" for another trade I'm doing. An extreme inchie is the size of a "moo card" (aprox. 1 and 1/8 x 2 and 3/4 inches). The theme was 'Hints Of Spring'. I practiced doing image transfers of the flowers for my background, then I made the butterfly double sided so that it looked more "real" in flight. One rule for the swap was that we had to have a 3D element included.

hanging in this charming neighborhood

This little piece of artwork was created for the Hanging In This Charming Neighborhood swap. It is only 1.5 inches wide and about 2.5 inches high. We were to choose a "house" theme, create 20 out of heavy weight cardstock/watercolor paper and then emboss the edges to give it the effect of a soldered charm. Fun!

by the sea charm swap

This is the little charm I created for our recent By The Sea charm swap. It was my first attempt to solder. I just thought the glass bauble looked like it had a bit of beautiful blue ocean captured in glass...the pearl and shell just seemed to finish it off perfectly.

belated posting of artfest trades

I was really pushed for time in preparing for ArtFest this year so I never got the pictures of my trades posted. Better late than never! Above is my ATC. Below is a really close up of my charm. Last is a handful of the inchies I made. I traded everything and came home with some wonderful treasures.

all originals 4x4 fat book pages

These two pages were done for a monthly swap I participate in. The top one was for the March trade with the theme of "Birds of a Feather". The bottom one was for April with the theme "Green...for earth day".

seattle ~ pike place market

Guess what place this famous address belongs to? It belongs to the original Starbucks which is right across the street from Pike Place Market. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I couldn't resist buying a special gift card that can only be purchased at that location. I promptly used it to pay for my Tall Hot Chocolate! Beautiful spring tulips in the market.
Loved all the neon signs.

Yummy fresh fruit.

lingering in port townsend

We stayed an extra day after ArtFest to see a little more of Port Townsend. We spent the night at the Tides Inn and yes we stayed in the old part... didn't actually stay in this room but...

the front desk did have a well worn copy of the movie which we watched as the sun was setting. It was just a must do since the entire movie was filmed at Fort Worden, Port Townsend and The Tides Inn. View from our room that evening with the tide in.
Our morning view with the tide out.
Spent some time looking around town before we left. This is the old Waterfront Hotel.

View of the town along Water Street.
The Antique store where we found some cool things.

fort worden's less frequented areas

The old horse stables from the 1800's.
View of the jail cells inside the guard shack, currently the visitors center. Area on top of the old bunkers were the the guns were mounted.
Bunker door.

One of the tunnels inside the bunkers.

artfest ~ last morning

It was finally time to pack up and move everything out of our dorm room. My mom and I shared a room. Rooms are pretty sparse as always, but you are hardly in them anyway. This is her side of the room. Bed hung on a rack. I had an actual bed frame, but when you laid down the bed tilted to one side. It was like sleeping on a hill! All part of the full ArtFest experience.
Again, the view from our room.

The sun was coming up over the water and spilling across the front porch of our dorm. We were in 225...nearest the water. Dorm 225. Loved our rooms this year and the beautiful view.
The Commanders House was just across the field from us.
A view of the officers housing across the parade grounds.

The anchor.

artfest day three ~ tricia seggebruch

On this last day I took Tricia Seggebruch's "Alcohol Acrylic Magic". Here are her class samples for our class.
The early stages of my work on clay board.
The end result of this technique.
There was a lot of wait time for paint to dry so while I waited I took a few pictures of the School House Architecture. I just love all the white buildings at the fort.

artfest day two ~ nina bagley class

Nina was teaching her "Gatherings" class on this day. It is what she called her lovely portfolio collection of old book covers with their little shadow boxes attached. The shadow boxes were filled with various treasures. Here is one of the samples from her portfolio used for this class. To see her entire collection visit her blog entitled Ornamental.
This is the cover to my portfolio as I was working on it. In this picture I 'm wraping wooden dowels in copper wire mesh which eventually became the shadow box for my front cover.
My mom and I took this class together but my mom forgot her glasses that morning. When Nina found out she graciously gave her own pair to my mom to borrow. So here's my mom is in Nina's glasses...a little askew, but at least she could see!This class met in a spacious upstairs room full of windows with lots of soft light flooding in around us. See anyone you recognize?

bonfire at the beach ~ journal party

The begining of sunset at the beach. Even a short walk along the shore can reveal wonderful treasures for collecting.Tracy and Teesha provide fixings for hotdogs and smores during the Thursday night journaling party at the beach house. You have to cook them yourself on the bonfire, but that only makes them extra good!
This is inside the beach house where all the real journaling takes place. There were some beautiful journals being worked on and everyone seemed to really be enjoying themselves.

artfest day one ~ misty mawn class

My first day of classes was with Misty Mawn, she was teaching her "From Withinside Out" class. It was amazing to watch her work as she demoed her techniques. She made everything she did look effortless and always with a beautiful outcome. I was so taken with watching how she created during her first demo that I didn't even think about getting my camera. She worked so quickly with such creativity that you didn't dare take your eyes off her hands. I feel that Misty creates a really beautiful unique type of artwork. The image below is Misty's class sample.

I spent my entire class time mesmerized by her demos and just trying to paint my background pages. I never did get to the part where you actually painted a face!
These are my two finished background pieces...all I had to show for an entire days work! Oh but it was so much fun just playing with the paint and transfers.