I'm baaacckk.

So sorry for the long absence. I had some visitors so i did not have time to blog. My mom, my sister and my niece came to California from frosty Canada for a 5 day stay. Unfortunately it was pretty chilly here, and of course now that they are gone it is back in the 80's!
My niece is quite interested in crafts - so we had fun doing a few techniques. We did a paper collage a la Lisa Kaus. You can see the pieces we did above. My sister (a self proclaimed un-artistic person) did the one in the middle - it came out quite good! My niece did the one on the right. She turned her house into a castle and added a bird on the roof. Next we did a shadow box with butterflies with the tim holtz adirondak ink techniques. We did rubber stamping on cards since it was both my mom's and my husband's birthdays. This was in between all the shopping and sightseeing. Then I showed Erica how to use a sewing machine. She made three cushions and hemmed a new dress and shortened some sweat pants.

Tomorrow my altered book group meets up so i am hard at work completing three spreads in Dorothy's book "Kissing". It is a cute book filled with photos of people, animals and art, small size, so the spreads go fast.
The first spread is called "How to French Kiss". I googled "KISS" to see what i would get for some ideas - and a very serious article from a medical health and well being site had these intructions. I just copied it into a word doc and changed to a type writer font. Cut it out, and glued it to the page in the book where there was a couple kissing in Paris, under the glow of Sacre Coeur. When i trimmed the instructions to fit - a sentence fell out - "If you have bad breath, check with your doctor." - well, i knew there had to be a medical link in there somewhere!
My second spread uses my husband's girlfriend Scarlett Johansson. Not really, but you know. Anyway - i picked her because of her kissy pink lips. It was cut from a magazine ad. I matched her with the song, "Sealed with a Kiss".(swak). I typed up a letter with the lyrics and tied it with a pink vintage ribbon, to match her lips. It does, "Dear Scarlett, So we gotta say goodbye for the summer...." I coated her lips with dimensional glue to make them even more "kissable". A dreamy sky background and a vintage beach photo complete the simple summery spread.
My third spread uses Gustav Klimpt's The Kiss. I found the image and blew it up to fit the book - turned sideways. There was a space at the bottom, which i filled with three patterned papers. Next i cut little squares of metallic paper and glued them randomly over the image. Coated the whole thing with gel medium. Add The Kiss in big metal letters.
I also have to prepare our workshop - which hasn't quite gelled yet in my head - but it will soon. My class tomorrow was cancelled - so it isn't the usual panic to get ready for everything.
On the job front, i have had a few interviews, including one with Cavallini & Co. - the paper company. I did not get the job - but oh man, they were the nicest people and their offices are filled with vintage furniture, collectibles and of course paper. It would have been my dream come true to work for them and be surrounded by that, but alas, it was not the right job for me. I have many irons in the fire, so something should come my way soon.

FYI - Cavallini & Co. is having a warehouse sale at their South San Francisco offices Nov 22nd. Check them out!