If you are the type of person who gets jealous, you probably don't want to read any further. There are goodies below. Lots of pretty amazing goodies. I am a lucky girl.
I had a day off Friday, and got in my getaway car and headed up the road to my friend Gaye's. The first thing we did when I got to her house was dig into the Butterkuchen (German cake). She had remembered something I said last year about wanting to try it, and made a special trip to get one at the bakery for my birthday. Yum, yum. Yes, I did indeed like it. (In fact, part of what I brought home with me was consumed for dinner that evening).
My unique gifts were a feast for the eyes. Gaye makes amazing collage sheets and gifted me with some, as well as a metal birthday ATC.
I don't usually ask for anything specific (and in fact, there are birthdays and holidays when we don't give each other anything, depending on what is interfering with life at the time). But I did ask for another Takin' Care of Business book, as my other one is full of business cards and moo cards. This one she made outshines all the others she has made in the past. She is always coming up with something new, like the circles put on the spine of this one.
All the above would have been more than enough for one person, but she has also been sneaking around behind my back, making a Shutterfly book like the one I made her. This one has pictures of things I have made for her over the past years. When we first met, that was back in the days of film cameras, not digital. There are things we have made and given away that we don't have pictures of, so I love having a record of some of my earlier art. She did a great job with the book.
This is one of my favorite page spreads. These were square canvases I made for her in 2008.
Afterwards, we did one of my favorite things when I'm in town--went to Hobby Lobby. They had a bunch of blank wood mounts in the sale bin, and I got a few, and this one specifically for my bird stamp I got last month. When I got it home, I stamped the image on the wood with black ink before mounting the stamp to the wood. Turned out great.
If there is one thing Hobby Lobby has a lot of, it's letters and numbers. I saw some oversized Scrabble blocks, about 5 or 6 inches square. They'd look great on a shelf if one had the right space for them. I liked the idea of these drawers with letters on them, but I think they could have done a better job with distressing them. The original price was too high, and the sale price ($700) was also way too much. But the idea is great.
If I were writing a tip column, I would pass along this tip from Gaye. I don't think she will mind if I do, because I have heard her tell our other artist friends many times... make copies of your art. Resize it and put several sizes and cropped areas on a page and print it out. You will have lots of collage pieces to use for tags, pockets, cards, etc. Great tip. Great day!!! Great fun!!!
