When things just fall together ....

... its a beautiful thing! An unexpected invitation brought five women together who quickly bonded, created awesome art, formed great friendships and had a very memorable long weekend.

Here's what happened .....

Cheryl from Ten Seconds Studio invited Terri, Roxanne and I to come enjoy a long weekend with her at her Bra Free Lake House. Carolyn from The Crafty Scrapper in Texas joined us too. Of course, we accepted .... upon arriving at the Lake House, the first thing we saw was the beautiful view from the deck overlooking the lake and inlet.

We then proceeded to turn the house into our art studio. Cheryl has done a grand job at setting this place up with lighting, supplies, table space and all the necessities a group needs for a great get together.

Roxanne volunteered to do all the food planning and cooking .... and she totally spoiled us. We ate like queens ....

This gorgeous creature came to visit every day, but this evening he came right up to us, stayed for awhile (he wanted dinner, I think) and then floated off into the sunset .....

The weather was perfect and we enjoyed many of our meals on the deck ....

enjoying the beautiful scenery ......

We were up early and stayed up very late (or is that early when you're referring to 2 am) creating together and inspiring each other. The slow burn technique that Terri and I learned from Julie Haymaker was a huge hit ... in fact, once we got everyone started with the woodburning it seemed like we were looking for any thing and any shape we could burn and color.

Here's a look at a few of the things we created with woodburning, paints, color pencils, paper and metal ......

And it was impossible to pick a favorite ......

Thank you Cheryl for a very special weekend.

If you're looking for a place to spend a bit of "girl" time, check out the Bra Free lake house or the country house ... I found it rather magical! You can get details on renting either location here

And now I'm off to put the finishing touches on a few of those projects ...

Enjoy your week!

Just a few days left ..

... to buy tickets for the breast cancer awareness fund raiser at Ten Seconds Studio.

Please help make this fundraiser a huge success .... and pick up a cool canvas along the way!

Go here to make your donation .... 20 tickets for $20 or 120 tickets for $100.

Go here to the October 4th posting to see the canvases. I had the opportunity to see them in person ... they rock!

You can make a difference!

Under the covers ...

... of the Carol Wingert Bountiful Harvest heirloom book.

Took a little bit of work and time to finish this project, but it was so worth it. Carol and her books are so full of techniques and inspiration!

First, the cover ... antique lace and appliques, the book is made of heavy canvas ..

Gold leafing, a beautiful print on old onion skin paper ....

A collage built on brown velvet ....

An interesting book making technique under "life" ...

Wax coated leaves and a spoon angel to guard the pocket behind her ....

Frogs and more appliques .....

More cool fabrics and trims ......

The last pages ... and a very fun trim on the edge of the back cover that Carol showed us how to make .....

Thanks again, Carol, for an awesome day and another beautiful heirloom book!

I'm off for a long, relaxing, funfilled girls only weekend in Texas!! Pictures next week!

Enjoy your week!!

Its ALL for the girls!!

Everywhere you look its coming up pink! Without a doubt, its Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Cheryl and Megan Darrow of Ten Seconds Studio is doing a fabulous fundraiser for the cause. I am thrilled to be a part of it, along with Terri Zwicker, Jennifer McGuire, Lisa Pace, Tim Holtz and numerous others.

There are ten amazing canvases that will be auctioned off ... and ALL proceeds go to saving the girls!

Click on the link above to be directed to the photos of the canvases and find out how you can help save the girls !!

Here's a photo of the corner of mine .... I failed to take a picture of the whole thing before it got shipped off .... is it lame if I attempt to win it back ..... because I think its one of the coolest things I've ever made .... and I can't duplicate it because of all the old rusty special pieces that went on it!! Hey, its all for the girls!!


Having two sisters (and numerous friends) that are survivors, this is a cause near and dear to my heart. Please help spread the word to make this fundraiser a huge success.

Click on over to Ten Seconds Studio and help save the girls!!

It's coming fast ...

... the holidays that is!

Just a quick card I made today .... Copics and Spicas ... you can't see all the glitter, but i can!

Spent the rest of the day working on my book from Carol Wingert's Bountiful Harvest. Its going to take some time to finish that project ... pictures for another day.