Don't ask how long

LOL.

The actual card took no time at all. The process of "ripping off masks and applying glitter"... well, let's just say, it's not a dollar card, lol. It's priceless .

~Shelley

Torture by any other name

Cruel and unusual punishment, make work project. Call it what you will, lol.

So why am I doing it? Maybe just to say "I can"?!

What am I talking about? Well... I've been cardmaking/crafting again. Went to a friend's yesterday. We'll call her the Glitter Queen, lol. That girl loves all that glitters. Made four cards. EVERYone had glitter of some sort. So... having learned a couple new techniques, I decided to play today.

Whew, gotta be patient (and/or certifiable). These are a LOT of work. You take a sheet of foil outline stickers, cut some "transfer tape" (makes a reverse image) and burnish the transfer tape to the sticker of choice, lift EVERYTHING (positive outline and negative "insides") onto the transfer tape, get some double-sided sticky sheet and put a suitably-sized piece onto cardstock, lift the protective top sheet, and burnish the sticker from the transfer tape onto the sticky sheet. Now comes the fun (ya, right, she says). Get some good tweezers and lift off portions of the stickers that are acting as "masks" and burnish some glitter onto the exposed portion with the fatty part of your finger pad. Repeat until it's all done to your satisfaction with multiple colours of glitter. Then you cut out the image and use it. Clear as mud? Easy-peasy she says.

I've definitely gone to the darkside. Me who is not a huge fan of glitter (the mess part, not the look, lol). Will now put my pieces together onto a card and post when done.

~Shelley

A blast from the past...

A lot has happened since I last posted. A lot of "stuff" (errands; dog grooming - this I like as it gives me mad money, lol; housework - did I tell you this is a "hobby" of mine and therefore I don't have "time for hobbies"? LOL; cardmaking and a Stampin' Up Girls' Night Out party here;... life) and a lot of, well, nothing, lol. You know, busy making busy.

So, today I was on Facebook and Mo's Digital pencil is one of my "likes". She posted a couple digi-images (for those of you "not in the know", these are "stamps" on your 'puter that you can re-size and print out to your heart's content - no fuss, no muss, no mess!) of cute Christmas doggies. Yup, not shelties. A cute Lhasa with it's Santa Hat on and a cute lab pup with a Santa hat in it's mouth.

Now, I KNOW Mo has or did have a border collie. How do I know this? Well, I had previously bought an image from her that was "sheltie like" and she informed me it
was of her border collie. Knowing it probably wasn't too much of a stretch, having insider information about this border collie lol, I taunted about wanting a sheltie... Of course, dog people are breed specific, unlike cat people who just like any cute kitty item, and others were looking for their own breeds. This insider information brought out the devil in me, though, and I wouldn't let go. So she promptly produced (ya, within less than an hour no less) a cute collie-type image with a candycane in it's mouth. But the Santa hat is sooooo cute, I whined.

Gee, and with that, up popped a collie-type dog (close enough to a sheltie for me, lol) with a darn Santa hat tilted at a rakish angle on his head! So I had to buy it!

Devil made me do it.

Further conversation prompted Mo to declare HER border would never stoop to wearing a Santa hat. Just wouldn't stand for it. Well, I said, "my" shelties would and did and have and probably still will, lol. Found the blasts from the past and posted them for everyone that had been on Facebook and just felt I had to put them here.


So, without further adieu, I share with you a pic of Sheena and Cricket at the Obedience Club Christmas party some 22 years ago dressed up as Reindogs. Yes, they won, lol. And of course, as I was hunting for those old, scanned photos, I found one of dear Sheena with a Santa hat. Too freakin' cute.

Enjoy.

~Shelley

The end of an era

It was a sad day today. Off went our almost 30 year old Roxton sofa into the garbage truck. It served us well. Aside from the foam backing in the cushions finally disintegrating, that sofa and chair stood the test of time well and solidly.

It saw us through our first years together as a couple. Then it proudly bore our weight as we added to our family. First came the cat, Tiffany; then the dog, Sheena; the second cat, Zonker; the kids, Daniel and Michael and many more pets and people.

It was spit up on, puked on, peed on (by one dog who shall remain nameless - mad at my husband one day, lol - okay, dear ol' Ripley. She was quite a character and we always knew where we stood with her... low on the totem pole [grin]). It held us as we celebrated each milestone - anniversaries, birthdays, baby and wedding showers...


It was a big sofa but we marched it to the curb last night thinking that the garbage men might take the chair and leave the sofa, which would mean we'd need to cut it up and put it out again. I heard the truck pull up so went out to meet the driver. I asked him if I helped him, could we put the sofa on the truck. No problem he said. So with a bit of a hitch in my stride and nostalgia in my heart, I picked up the big, handsome piece of furniture and said goodbye for the last time. However, it did not go without a fight, lol. The crushing mechanism needed to work over and over in order to crush the rockwood maple frame and steel springs. Finally, it had chewed it up enough to move on to the next pick-up. That bit of history has now moved onto the great furniture warehouse in the sky, lol.

~Shelley

The Quebec Show

Held in Boucherville, Quebec (south shore of Montreal), it was well-attended by registrants and exhibitors.

Lots of familiar names:

Della and Company - wow Bill and Della have some awesome metalware. And their booth is magnificent. It's a long trek for them, but they made the trip from the New England Traditions show in Connecticut, staying one night with Sharon & Marty McNamara. Their trip home to Texas after the show would take them about 5 days. Whew. Della does a newsletter from the shows to update those painters "at home". Worthwhile going online and signing up for it.
Settler's Cabin - with Sharon McNamara Black and her husband Marty
Heather Redick
Mary Owens
Gladys Neilsen
Tracy Moreau
Sue Beckerton
Brenda Levert
Wendy Fahey
Holly Hanley - who was demoing in the Coup de Pinceau (store) booth
Debbie Cotton, Lydia Steeves and Willow in our booth

Lots of exhibitors from the Quebec scene. Country Bear Woodcrafts; Rue des Beaux Arts; Art & Hobby; Madame Pickwick; Coup de Pinceau (the magazine); Diffuzart; Montreal Area Decorative Painters Guild; and lots and LOTS more. Some AWESOME talent, artists and booths. I really, really liked the paintings of Anne Grenier and bought a packet. Sadly, she does not have a website (yet, lol), but I would describe her painting as kind of "shabby chic" or English country cottage. Very soft, lots of florals and birds but not "realism". Just beautiful.

In the Rue des Beaux Arts booth, Mitzart was demonstrating on the Terraskin paper. Okay, must say I hadn't really given this "new paper" a chance when I first heard of it. Paper made of rocks. Okay. Looks like white posterboard to me, lol. Big whup. Lots of nice surfaces out there like Mi-tientes, canvas, wood... Well, let me tell you... the possibilities are ENDLESS [grin]. There is no grain to fight with. It will take paint, watercolours, colour pencil, watercolour pencils, sprays, regular graphite, cheap pens... metal implements can be written with (yup... think keys, stylus', stones, etc.). It is water-resistant so can be dropped in water or taken out in the rain and you don't have to worry about your work being damaged. It can be diecut. It can be heated and then manipulated. You can erase on it or scrub off your paint and you do not take off or damage the surface like on paper. It can be off-set printed. It doesn't buckle. It can be rolled and when un-rolled it goes back to completely flat. Need I go on? Yup, I'm excited. And it's available through many of our artstores already (DeSerres, Curry's, Wallack's...). Gonna play with some, lol.

So yes, the show was great, the people were great, the art was great (still seems to be lots of interest in the Faux Vitraille painting - faux glass painting on solid surfaces as well as glass and glass-type surfaces; similar to Gallery Glass, Decoart Glass Stains and "leading"), demos... and we'll go back next year!

~Shelley

What was she thinking?

Well, I made it home safe and sound from the Salon des Arts Decoratif painting convention despite the dingbat lady in the red pontiac sunbird who came onto the freeway thru Montreal from one of the inclined on-ramps hidden behind a "wall" and proceeded to shoot across my right front bumper. I was boxed in but had some freedom to brake lightly and managed to avoid a good thump and then woke her up with my horn. Grrr. She "started" and looked a little embarrassed but that didn't dissipate my shock and anger. Dingbat.

It was about 2 hours and 40 minutes door to door which included one "necessary" stop, lol. Sure beat the almost 4 hours it took to get there on the 13th. I got stuck on the highway when it was reduced to one lane at St.Albert through to Maxville (just before the Quebec border). That was an hour sitting in traffic. Funnily enough, it was surprisingly easy getting through Montreal at 2 in the afternoon. Go figure.

The show was awesome, despite the fact we couldn't start set-up 'til Thursday. We were hoping we could start on Wednesday night. That way we could at least lay out the booth and put stock under tables where we could pull from on the Thursday. Oh well, the best laid plans... everyone pitched in, though, and set-up went smoothly and was done by dinner. Yippee.

The show opened at 9 a.m. each of the three days. Ugh. 9-9 on the Friday (9-5 on Saturday and Sunday). Made for an incredibly long day. We were whacked. I'm not sure the foot traffic was as busy as last year, but it still never let up and we were kept hopping. We had translators in the booth this year which made it easier for those doing demos and for technical questions about product, etc. I was okay on cash and elsewhere as my "franglais" is passable and the customers were tremendous. They were happy, helpful with the language barrier and just so positive and friendly. It was a great
experience. Sunday, however, was slow and the couple of us in the booth were chatting (in English) and those coming into the booth quickly switched into English if they could. Mid-afternoon I was alone except for our translator who was tidying a corner when someone came into the booth and in rapid-fire French asked me something. Seen a deer caught in the headlights? Think that's probably what I looked like (and felt like), lol. I was horrified, lol. But the wonderful customer quickly realized what had happened and switched to English and we laughed about it and I gained my composure. I was at a total loss for any kind of language in that moment (believe it or not [grin]) I was so tired. Too funny.

Met lots of great people and artists and it was a great show.

~Shelley

P.S. - oh... and my soulmate brought me a bouquet of flowers (yellow carnations - my favourites) to welcome me home (and a PaintWorks magazine I had my eye on). I'm so spoiled!

Kolinsky Sable and Magpies

Absolutely nothing to do with each other, lol. Nothing.

But... having just updated about my Calgary trip the other day, it was still on my mind and I was thinking of the beautiful black and white birds I'd seen swooping across the skies and landing in trees and on rooftops. The first sighting riveted my gaze. I had to find out what they were. Closer inspection... they were magpies. Fascinating birds to me and conjured up the Windex commercial where they are talking and laughing raucously at the humans who clean their windows so well they end up walking into them. Gee a bird wouldn't do that, lol. But annoying to Calgarians who would just as soon religate this bird to any other province that would have them [GBG]. They had beautiful long tails and were just, well, striking. Have always liked the "bad boys", lol. Guess they're kind of like our Blue Jays or starlings and crows. Annoying to other birds and people, but striking and smart as whips.

And today, I decided to get my nails done. Yup. Imagine my surprise when the manicurist pulled out a Kolinsky Sable brush to apply the acrylic with. Now, I really shouldn't have been surprised, as many of our decorative brush companies made their start in the cosmetic brush industry. When I commented on her choice in brush, she pulled out another company's "bargain" brand nylon bristle brush and proceeded to tell me all about why the Kolinsky was superior to the other, lol. Yes, I was amused. Too funny.

Okay... off to go finish packing and sorting out my stuff for the Quebec show. Will drop my doggies off at my friend's in the morning then back home to pack the car.

~Shelley