Wednesday, April 20, 2011

What's on Your Work Desk? Wednesday!

What have I been making today? Bubbles!


We are finally enjoying some warm spring weather, so the girls and I have been taking full advantage with lots of outside time.

{Bayla, collecting rocks}

I was THRILLED to get my next postcard from iHanna’s swap. Look at this beauty, which came to me all the way from Singapore:


Many thanks to Steph for sending me this beautiful butterfly card. It’s got collaging and stamping and drawing and painting—love it!

I thought I would share a couple of other little projects that have come up over the past month or so. First, my cousin turned 30 back in March, and her husband had the greatest birthday idea: He sent a letter to a bunch of her friends asking them to send a letter of some sort to her, basically giving her birthday wishes, telling her what she means to us, that sort of thing. He collected them in a notebook to give to her. Isn’t that an amazing idea? Here is the collage I contributed to her birthday notebook:
And a detail:
I found that saying, "You are beauty full" in a catalog (Pottery Barn, maybe?), and it's a perfect fit for my cousin!  I created this just before I made my postcards for Hanna’s swap, and you can definitely see that I followed the same design here as I eventually used for my postcards.

Back in February, I posted about my love for inchies, and shared some that my three-year-old, Katy, created on pre-drawn 1x1 squares using pencil and pen. iHanna commented on that post that I should cut them out and frame them. Just after that, I was reading Shona Cole’s The Artistic Mother, and one of her projects inspired me to make this for Katy:


I put in our Christmas card photo, both because she loves that picture of the whole family (including the cat!), and because I didn’t have any other photos developed to use! She is thrilled with her picture frame, and specifically told me that she didn’t want to display it upstairs in her bedroom because she wants to carry it around.

I am so grateful to iHanna for her suggestion; otherwise, Katy's artwork would still be stuffed in a file folder in the dining room!

I didn’t want my two-year-old Bayla to feel left out in all the gift-giving, so I gave her a little felt ornament I had made awhile back but had just stashed in the basement. She loves the book I’m a Little Teapot by Iza Trapani, so she was pretty happy with her little present:
Unfortunately, she picked off one of the googly eyes within two minutes of getting the ornament, but no matter…I’ll glue it back on eventually!

Here’s hoping that you, too, are enjoying some lovely spring weather, and can get some fresh air today. It does a world of good after winter, clouds, and rain!

8 comments:

Hoola Tallulah said...

The butterfly card is lovely, what a sweet treat! I also love the notebook you made for your cousin, such a great idea and what a thoughtful husband she has!

Nelly said...

I love your card "You are Beauty Ful" is a wonderful sentiment. Love your little teapot too. So sweet to have a wonderful keepsake with your daughters artwork. Yeah for iHanna suggestion and Yeah! for you for making the frame.

potterjotter said...

Aahh - I remember my lot playing bubbles in the sunshine. They're a bit old for that now (21, 21 and 16), but ... I bet if I bought some bubbles, they would anyway!

iHanna said...

Her drawings really rock (love the sun frame) and as a frame for the family the really shine. Thanks for sharing, so glad I inspired you to use them. Bet she is very proud!

laurie said...

such a great birthday idea and i love the page you made! i so enjoy those first few days of warm weather - we are already past that since it was over ninety today!

Janet said...

What fun! I still love blowing bubbles! Looks like you had a beautiful day to enjoy them.

I love the little gifts you made for your girls and I'm sure they love them too.

Parabolic Muse said...

googly eyes! googly eyes!!

Is that postcard swap thing the best ever?! I love this one. I liked the previous ones, too! In fact, I'm going to print them out, put them on cardstock, and add them to my stash, just like they sent them to ME!!

Okay, actually, I won't do that because I'm very tired. But they're awesome, that's my point.

Purple toddlers! yay!

Andria said...

Thank you, Tallulah, Nelly, Hanna, and Janet! Catherine, based on how much I enjoyed blowing bubbles for my 2-year-old (who hasn't quite mastered it yet!), your kids would definitely still love it; you're never too old to blow bubbles! Laurie, I lived in San Antonio for ten years, so I well remember those blazing temps; springtime in the mid-Atlantic is heavenly! Chris, I'm convinced that the acronym LOL was created for you!