cereal box art

Here's another trash to treasure adventure

We ran out of cereal today and this beautiful cardboard box was just waiting for me to claim it for something other than the recycling man's giant truck.

so I sanded it ...

inked one piece and painted the other ...

tore it into strips and wove it together ...

added some inchies from Linda and Jean ....

added a story ...

added some doodads and doodles ...

and now I have an inchie hanging and keepsake of friends from around the world ...

wordless

(go see Wordless Anyday for more inspiration)

Flowers

onion flower

strawberry flower

lilac flower

child flower

(... thank you, dad, for the new camera!)

Welcome!

Welcome to today's little global Tea on Tuesday Tea Party!

I am not REALLY having tea out of these faerie sized tea cups (though my children have before). I'll actually be having a lovely cup of Red Zinger tea (hibiscus and rose hips) ... a tea my grandmother introduced me to when I was about 9 yrs old.

What am I up to today? 

Well, I start off Tuesdays with Shel Silverstein and a boy at school who needs a little Shel Silverstein in his life. 

We read for about 30 minutes and have a chuckle here and there at the genius and logic in all of Shel's rhyming "nonsense." 

It's nonsense that makes perfect sense. 

Especially when the world all around us is not making much sense at all.

Then I come home for tea and a visit with all of my blogging friends.

Around about lunchtime, I'll head back to school with a hot lunch for one of my own. 

The picky one who hates sandwiches and WILL NOT eat them. 

And - I know it - I'm wrapped around her little finger (quite shamelessly).

After that, I think I'll spend the afternoon with my camera and springtime.

Then it's off to a dead run from 3 pm to about 9 pm. 

I guess those are my clock hours around here. 

But I wouldn't trade it for any other time clock in the world.

How about you? 

What are you up to today?

(click on the images and say hello)

Inspirational Words

This week's addition to my Mixed Media Monday project is "Inspirational Words."

I already had "Welcome and Peace," which inspires me - but I thought I'd add the word "Friend" to that. Not to clarify who I would welcome and wish peace to - but to remind those I love that: 

You are Welcome

I Wish You Peace

and I'm Glad You Are My Friend.

The MMM themes applied so far are: dots, Easter (egg shells), mermaids, beach, and inspirational words. For today I stamped on metal sheeting and embossed it with a stylus.

May 1st Disintegration Project Reveal

When I first embarked on the disintegration project adventure (as documented globally here on The Altered Page), it was an expression of loneliness in friendship. I felt that I was putting something more than a bundle of papers "out in the cold." I was putting a part of myself and some hurts out there with it (see this post). This project has been a wonderful way for me to really begin to connect with my art in a personal way. I have discovered that when there are no words to say something - I can say it visually.

This piece did not disintegrate as much as I had imagined. Nor has my heart. The end result is a thing of beauty to me. I have seen changes in the "man-made" portion of this piece, but I have also seen the rain, snow, ice, sunshine, fog, maple tree add their touches. They have joined themselves to this piece and left evidence of their company.

In the last 14 weeks I have also had new friends leave evidence of themselves in my life. I have "kindred spirits" I didn't know I had. Friendship is a thing of beauty whether in disintegration or in sweet joining of forces and evidences. And hearts remain intact - whether near OR far.

Please check back on August 1st to see a second "reveal" of this work of heart.

Tea Party

(this is: Twinings Blackcurrant, Ginseng, Vanilla tea)

Today's tea was sent to me from the other side of the world (practically). Linda (Blue Eyed Girl is her blog) sent a wonderful package of happy goodies including tea, inchies, and wonderful embellie sort of things. See the lace on top of the pile? She made that lace herself using bobbins. Incredible! What I'm sending her is tea, inchies and embellies too - but alas, no handmade lace ;)

Making her own lace using bobbins has set her on some solid footing for making inchies dontcha think? The 1" size is obviously not too small for her to work some magic. Beautiful! She said this was her first time at making inchies!

The disintegration project update will be a final one on Friday May 1st. So no update today. In fact the disintegration project will be going into hiding after May 1st until August 1st (see this post).

I want to start having "Tea Parties" on Tuesdays though. Here's my idea: make yourself a cuppa (tea or coffee), post a picture of it on your blog with a little something to say about your day, and then link back here in the comments. We'll all make the rounds to see what's up with our blogging buddies and take a pause for some friendship over a hot cuppa .... sound like fun?

p.s. In fact, Linda is joining me for tea today .... go Here to see her lovely cuppa and a bit of her day :)