HI to all of you.... so very sorry that it has been so very long since I have posted anything .... but the only excuse is that I have been very busy with so many other things...  

Teaching, cooking up harvested things..,  getting ready for the Ag Center Saturday markets... all that kind of thing...  and on top of it... just having fun in the studio making all kinds of goodies...  

So I thought after getting so many loving letters from ya'll that I had better share something with you...  

Yesterday Sande... my Bud and neighbor came down to play...  she is having surgery this morning... and so my thoughts and love are with her for a QUICK Recovery ... but we did get to play prior to her having to stay home and stay quiet for a while...  

So this is what I did while we played...  

 So I used a Tim Holtz box and re-arranged it a little bit...  putting a small one on the bottom, the largest in the middle and then a little one on the top...  

I wanted the tree to section to be crowded...  which I did get that look with very few items in the box...  

What fun Sande and I had...  She also created a wonderful box... entirely different than mine... all in Red, white and gold... but differently done...  and very elegant and pretty too...  

 This is the center of the box...  
In the very background I did use a watercolor of little trees...  against a pink sky... which we see so very often here at dusk...  

I used a gold garland around the tree and then used all different size pearls  to decorate it...  

Oh the lantern..????  
WAit...  until you see that all lite up... I love it.. 

 On the very top is a little tiny tree all decorated too.. with sequins and pearls... and also some picket fence around all the pearls...  (Stickles that is... )  

A little pair of ice skates are hanging there ready to be used... LOL... so much fun... 

 I had to wait until it got dark so that I could take this picture of the glimmering lantern...  I love the way it looks...  

I am going to be selling this and others like this at the Ag Center Saturday markets...  in Mill Spring, NC...  What fun we all have there too...  so many people to meet and see... 

 Down in the bottom box... I have a votive light... and it shows up the little houses all in the circle...  

Hope you have enjoyed this... I certainly did... and will try and take pictures of the other ones to share with you also...  

Hope you have a wonderful day... create something fun and enjoy what you are doing all the time...  Thanks for stopping by for a visit...  

Love, Light and Peace.... Bonnie 

Can you find the CAT???

This month on Altered Alice we have the honor of having Dilly Beans as our sponsor...  So you will see some really cute digital images here... 

 Before I show you the finished page, I am going to walk you thru the process...as I get so many questions about how I built a particular page etc.. so here are the facts... 
I started off with my favorite paper of all times... white CARD Stock!!!   nd I stamped some rubber stamps that I had made... I use so many leaves in my art, that these are amoug my fav's...  some archival Olive ink.. and that was done... then I used some Twinking H20's and colored the background...  I love this kind of look...  It is muted but great for the background of this active colorful page... 

Here is a close up of the leaves 

I also used a stencil with a gold dabber to create the branches...  

Sorry I didn't take a picture prior to adding all the other things...   

I have just gotten bitten by the Zen Tangle bug... and can't seem to stop doing everything in Tangles... LOL.. but I love it... so I had to add something to this challenge that I did in a tangle...  so here is my tree...  the 'snake' looking things are really suppose to be roots of the tree... oh well... I get carried away a little bit...  

I did this with a micron pen and then added color pencil to it.. . and then cut it out for this journal page... as I needed the separated limbs for something....   

Here is a close up of the branch... so that you can see all the little circles, and the leaves...  

Also the limbs... which are all done in the same pen and colored pencil.   

I love the tangles in this tree.. I had so very much fun with it all... 

Here is the top of the page , which is all tissue paper that I have dyed with Dylusions... love those sprays...  the colors are so very vibrant...  anyway.. .when the papers are dry, I glue them onto the page... and allow them to go where they want too... 

Okay...  so I created what is better known as a wiper card...  you can find the directions here... on SplitCoast Stampers... It is very easy to make... so I created that and attached it to my page... the reason for that is because I wanted to hide the little cat!!! 

This is  the completed page... but you haven't seen it all yet... The Queen of Hearts and Alice are on their way to play croquet and they are walking to the palace... and Alice kept on feeling like someone was following them... and low and behold... guess who it was???

Here is a close up of Alice and the Red Queen of Hearts... how precious are they???? 

Well there he is.... in postion that you always see this crazy cat... peeking out from behind a tree... LOL...  he is so funny...  I love him.... 

Here is a close up of the little one... peeking out of the tree branches...  I had a lot of fun making this page... and after I finished it, my neighbor and friend Sande came over to play for  a little while... and she fell in love with it... she is an Alice lover too... so she can really appreciate it... she kept on making the cat hide and then come out.. we are truly like two little kids playing!!!  And I love it all.. 

Well... that is the first project.. let me see if I can get this next one up... 

If you have forgotten the name of this particular blog is 

'Can you find the cat?'  

Well can you..??? 

You have to look into all the little cubbies of this configuration box... and maybe you will see him... 

Look carefully now!!!! He truly is hiding!!!  

On the very top of the configuration box, I had to add a Wonderland special... as things in Wonderland are never quite normal... or should I say that they are never quite the same as on this plane of living!!!  So I added a box that was a little bit unlevel!!!!  And put a dragonfly and a mushroom ...  the catterpillar has already turned into the beautiful butterfly... as you can see... 

I took one of those gold butterflies and colored it with alcohol ink and then decorated it with Liquid Pearls...  

A close up is below...   

You can see the Blue and orange mushroom here... a good shot of the two mushrooms... which I made from air drying clay.. and then painted with my Ranger Alcohol ink refillable pens... which I love... I can make my own colors... which I do...  what fun!!! 

A Wonderland configuration box is not complete with out a tea party... but there is no cat in any of these boxes at all..  I colored the little tea party and then added the little brass cup and saucer and tea pot...

My neighbor Sande and I were building these together... she was using the smaller one... but I had already started to make this one... but we were having fun making them..  She has these really cute little tags that she had picked up... and that is where I got this cute little tea pot tag... Thanks Sande...   Nest to that on the left... are the flowers with faces... the talking flowers.. see I told you that nothing in Wonderland is 'normal'!!! 

No cat there either!!!! 

Well here is Sweet little Alice... with the Drink me bottle behind her... and also the key is hanging up too...  but I don't see a cat.... do you???

This little bone china tea set, I bought about 25 years ago... and didn't know why... but I thought it was cute... only a few inches tall... and so cute... so I knew that it had to go into my Alice STUFF... and so here it is... I love it...   It was not made in China... it was made in Japan!!! 

The Queen of Hearts sees that one of her roses is WHITE???? 

What is going on here!!!  But this cute little Queen doesn't seem the least bit upset over that... 

As you can see here... but do you see the cat...??? 

I wonder where it is??? 

I wanted to add more things to this box... but I dont' have any right now... but as time goes on I will add more things to this... But I did add this pretty alcohol paper to this cubby...  no cat here either.. so where is that silly cat hiding now???  you never can tell when he will appear at all... what a fun place this Wonderland is!!! 

Oh Wow... there is he...  all of a sudden he was there..!!!  Well I will be!!! 

Hiding there all the time... I told you he was a crazy one... but how cute is he... 

Well as you can see... I think that they little Dilly Beans are so very much fun...  I know that you will want to have them for your collection of ALICE things... so jump on over here and get them... 

Okay... while I was building my configuration box, my good friend and neighbor Sande had to do hers too... she is the one that got me all involved in Altered Alice...  so I felt it was only fair that I show you her's too... It is so cute...  

Well My charming dial up is at an all time low of 16kbps... very very slow.. but I am getting these pictures up.. but can't move them around or anything!!!  But you at least get to see them... right??? 

 Sande used a piece of plastic and stamped the Queen on it... and then put the white and red roses behind it...  

Anyway...  Can you see the cat in Sande's box...  no one can... because it is not in there yet...  so cute...  the tea cups are all weird... because it is Wonderland...   So wild...  

Hope you enjoy this challenge.... I did... and I love these adorable Alice in Wonderland digital images  ... 

Thanks for stopping by for a visit... and have a wonderful day in WONDERLAND!!!  It is a glorious place to play and live... 

Love, Light and Peace....Bonnie 



Memory House

 

My Memory House is filled with knick knacks from the past years…..  also in the middle of the house is a tree… I lived on Oak Tree Lane as a child… and thus the tree… with the word FIND…. As I had to leave home in order to FIND myself…  to BE ME… my mantra at this time… to be 100% me in all ways… to create my art freely and to respect myself, (as well as all around me too)  but to live my life fully in all ways…    I am also trying to organize my things from the past into memory items… such as this house… 

I have put all these cute little things I have collected along my paths of finding myself…  or trying to do so… LOL.. I often wonder if I will fully find self.  When I was growing up, I use to baby sit for this family down the street and the husband and wife were very connected to all life… their kids were different in some ways.. some good, some not so good… but always free mentally to think freely… I always was drawn to that… as I was not brought up in a free thinking family… we had to do what others were doing… or do things that were ‘right’ so that others wouldn’t think we were different!!!  Go figure… now I live the opposite way in so many ways… FREE as a bird… doing as I choose to do in so many ways…  My husband is one of my biggest supporters in all ways… as we are both trying to do the same… Live freely and love it all.. 

Okay… got a little carried away… but you see memories do that to me…  give me direction… 

 

At the top of this house… there is a little wishbone… and  a dragonfly…  the wishbone is from one of our chickens…  a memory of the 200 birds we had…  we have a lot of fond memories in so many different ways..  The dragonfly represents my need to change and all the changes that I going thru…  

 

The little birds were something that I saved for as a child… they are little ivory birds that I love… that will date them… as ivory is not used for that anymore…  and also not at the price I paid for them…    As you can see there are flowers that I have made and also charms where I have use alcohol inks to leave a pretty flower…  Love these … making them and the end result…  so much fun… 

                                                            

 The words....  LIFE IS ABOUT CREATING YOURSELF... are so very prevalent in my life right now... so I found it fitting to add this to my memory house...  

 

In the center of the box, you can see the TREE… it is made from Tim’s Tissue paper… and the branches are long reaching…  with leaves that I stamped from stamps I made… this is my TREE…  my growth to FIND self…  The little blue bottle is a bottle that my hubby found one day digging in a fence row in New jersey… when we use to live there… many moon ago… 

 If you follow me at all.. you know I love flowers of all types... so here is one I made using a Tim Die cut... and also an embossed oval filgree Ideology piece... love using these... for all kinds of things... and the Pen nib for Journaling and writing of my life.. . 

 

Number 6… my lucky number that is always in my life…  along with a little dog that another neighbor gave me… she was a woman with a hubby but no children… very sad…  she always wanted children…  but had no luck…  thus the blue dog…  had to keep it as a reminder… to be thankful all the time for what we have, how we use it, and love it all…  not the material as much as the emotional… 

 

Okay… my little door….I had to have a secret room… and in this room (LOL) there are a few bottles… and in one bottle some little beads… I also love to bead and make jewelry.. and also a fly… as I love insects… I have always wanted to collect butterflies that have gone on to happier places… I have a few… but always wanted a lot of them… also it reminds me of all the birds nests I had when we lived in NJ… tons of them… and I had to leave them… just no room in moving… 

A good friend of mine painted this for me on a stone from Maine... she knew my love of snails and also knew of the love of art that we had as a mutual desire in life...  






A little hand carved dog... and I can't remember where I got this either... oh well.. 

 Another piece of ivory... but this came from my Mom's childhood charms...  it was on her bracelet and I always wanted it... and one day she gave it to me... I cherish it...  so this is the Jungle that it came out of...  I made the leaves from stamps I also made... 

 I have had a couple of Dachshunds in my life... and they were both females named Gwennie... so this is my Gwennie dog.. and it is in brass... they were the love of my life...  

 

At the bottom… I made little drawers and put some knobs on them…  Each drawer also has memories of certain good times…  some Sheeps wool that I got this year…  when I went over to see the lambing… a really wonderful day… and also Birthday candles from our daughter birthday this year…  a bracelet that I loved… but it is broken… and maybe I will find some one that will be able to fix it… 

Last... my sewing room...  
I put thread on these little tiny spools... you can see how tiny they are... as the thread looks thick!!!  The little bottle has buttons in it.. that are also very very tiny.... Just had to add that to this memory house... as there was a time when a quilt a week was my thing to do... now it is paper.. LOL... just different medias but still loving it all... creating has always been a love of mine... even in the kitchen.. I love to cook and create new dishes and ways to prepare the food we partake of...  

 I am sharing this house with you as part of the Challenge on Studio L3...     I have made quite a few of these configuration boxes... and if you check out the left side panel you will see more of them...  I also made some for our children for Christmas with Ornaments that they had when little... Also one of my husbands families mementos for him as a gift... Ones for my Mom to see fall... and also to light up her Christmas with a little light that really lights up...  How about the one I did and turned it into a clock... I really love using these boxes.. they are fun and easy to use...  be creative and allow your mind to run away with you...  

Thanks for stopping by today... and have a fun day... stay cool and enjoy the summer months...  Love, Light and Peace...Bonnie  

New project underway ! ! !

 Happy Sunday Morning...  Happy Challenge for Stamper Sunday.... Thanks Hels for using the theme of SUMMER colors...  I have been using them for a while trying to encourage the warmer air to circulate around the area... it settles for a few days.. then leaves and comes back again... maybe sometime soon it will settle in for a while... we lost a lot of our plants to the chill we had a few weeks ago... now everything has been planted again and hopefully it will be okay...  


I started on a new project yesterday...  I was totally frustrated by the fact that my new canon printer is not working again... I am very upset to say the least...  so I started on another project to try and pick my mood up... which it did for a while...  I decided to do a configuration box... but it is configured in a different way entirely... as I have a few extra boxes... and also wanted this one to be in the shape of a bird house...  so we will see how it turns out... 

 I also decided that I wanted to use a few things from when I was a child... ahem... these are antiques now...  don't like to admit that... but they are...  


The plastic is not like it is today at all.. it really looks like ivory...  


Anyway I had gotten these three little birds to put onto a shell pocketbook I was making... (with my mom's help)  and wanted these birds... they didn't make it onto the purse at all...  so I have kept them on a shelf or someplace since then...  finally they are standing up and have a home...  each home a little bit different...  this yellow one is so cute...  I put a printed flower in the back of this little box...  along with some bird paper... which I think is from My Minds Eye... but not really sure... 

 I have bits and pieces of all kinds of things on my work space... and they are sort of all finding homes...  so that it good... this banner is from Graphic 45 paper...  never quite made the last project...  


Here is the red bird... so cute... and a tiny little flower... the flowers here are made with the newest flower template of Tim's .... 

 I have wanted to make a secret little place and so I gathered up some hardware and went to work...  


The paper... graphic 45... the hardware Tim's....  the flower is also from the Tims newest flower die ....  

Inside... a BEE in a Bottle.. and then some graphic 45 things...  I love the bee in the bottle...  stamped and then inserted into the bottle... so much fun...  

There is also a little bottle of screws left over from the hardware hinges... and then a bottle of beads...  

I just had to share these with you... the box will take me awhile to make... but I will share it with you as I go along ... and will also share the completed project too.. 

Hope you have a nice day.... enjoy your day in all ways... and give yourself space to be YOU....  Thanks for stopping by for a visit... and hope to see you tomorrow... Love, Light and Peace...Bonnie