A WINNER AND A CONSOLATION PRIZE...

Thank you for the sweet, kind, and encouraging messages you offered on my 10 year blogging anniversary.  As promise a winner has been drawn...

DIANA GRAY!  

congrats, please email me you mailing address and I will get your gift in the mail, srpbabb@gmail.com

And also as promise I have a consolation prize...a new art tutorial featuring a free tutorial on making your mixed media art into a sticker sheet that can be used to enhance your other works of art.

(Video at end of post)

 Paint, Collage, Stamp

Ink, Charcoal, Smudge

Mark Making, Mess Making fun!

Trim A Tag:

Craft a Note:

Cut, cut punch, stick, embellish, use as tape, etc.

CONSOLATION PRIZE VIDEO:

Thank you for all your wonderful support through the years!

blessings,

Sandy

GIVE AWAY WINNER...

  I have to say a hearty "Thank You" to your overwhelming response to the idea of sharing a class beginning in January.  I have already begun work on it and can't wait to share this gift with you all.  Step-By-Step Saturday sneak peeks coming soon!

Now for the cuff winner...

Carola of Boxwood Cottage!

Congrats Carola, please email me your mailing information.

And a little sneak peek at my next Heritage Collection piece...

If everything falls into place I will finally have the first piece complete this weekend.  I had hoped to have it done by now but I never know what a day might hold with my mother so I have a super willy-nilly work schedule right now.

A very dear friend gifted me with a package of vintage ephemera from a variety of sources that were all produced in the 1800's.  The images below were printed in Harper's Bazar.  I think they are so intricate in detail and really beautiful.  I wanted to gift a few of these beautiful images to you...

 Enjoy!

A WINNER AND A CHALLENGE...

 (FREE IMAGE)

Thank you to all who entered in the give away.  Your answers were fun and inspiring and I can see we are a group of kindred spirits sharing a love for color, nature, and all things vintage!  

And the winner is...Tiffany of The Cranky Queen!

Congrats Tiffany, please email me your mailing address information and I will get started creating your one of kind treasure filled with goodies based on your likes.

(FREE IMAGE)

Are you feeling up to an artful challenge?  Well, Scott over at Vintage Image Craft has a great one for you with some great prizes to boot!  Here we are on the cusp of Spring with Easter right around the corner and what better way to celebrate than to make a basket or container using one of the great free images provided expressly for this challenge?

Here is what Scott has to say about the Spring Container challenge:

 (IMAGE SOURCE)

"Easter baskets. Bags of seeds. Vases of tulips. Jars of candy. And don't forget the humble egg. These are the "containers" of spring and Easter. What kind of unique container can YOU make using vintage images of spring?

Join our VIC Creative Challenge, April 2012, and create a unique Spring Container! Submit your craft photo, and if your Spring Container is selected, you will win a new copy of "The Artful Storybook," the fanciful survey of mixed-media, story-telling artwork, curated by acclaimed artisan, Terry Taylor.

You must begin with a Victorian vintage image of spring or Easter. Download FREE images from VIC's Facebook page, now into April. Or you can purchase ready-to-print Image Books from our VIC Store.

Incorporate one or more of those images into a unique craft that can serve as a container. Through Wednesday, April 4, you can submit your Spring Container craft photo to VintageImageCraft -- and you are in the contest!!

The top three winners will share adulation, international acclaim, and PRIZES!"

 VintageImageCraft invites you to submit your"Spring Container" by April 4, 2012!

For detailed instructions on submissions, click HERE.

While you are there check out the Easter Craft Page that features some super sweet free Easter craft tutorials.  I really love the faux chocolate egg!  

 (IMAGE SOURCE)

I'd like to give this one a try.

I hope you all enjoy a blissful weekend!

A Winner and A Preview...

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit."

-Albert Schweitzer-

Thank you to all who signed up for my give away but more than that, thank you for the precious encouragement you all give and the creativity you inspire. You have helped me to grow in my art and writing through your presence here at Quill Cottage. I think you would be surprised at how often I think of you and how thankful I am for this amazing blog community.

Through my encounters with you in the amazing community my inner fire of creativity that had gone dormant for a while has burst into flame and I am so grateful for that rekindling. The tips, techniques, tutorials, and written musings are just a tiny gift that I can give back to you in return for your friendship. I have said it before and I will say it again, in my book, you are all winners!

Now, for the give away winner, and the Custom Random Number Generator picks.....comment number.....3! Carmen's Cameo Slipper goes to Vickie of Sand Flat Farm. Congrats Vickie, please email me your mailing address.

In my last post I gave you a little sneak peek of a new art kit I have been working on and it is almost complete. This project was inspired by two women that I greatly admire, Dawn of The Feathered Nest, who shared the graphic I used in the project, Laurie of Charming Designs, whose canvas tote in the current issue of Where Women Create (blog) gave me the idea for a portable custom designed art kit.

I very much like the idea of a grab and go art kit that you can have supplies handy for small projects while traveling, while waiting, or for a little TV time crafting. Although incomplete I decided to show you some of the fun features of what I am calling my Take Along Tag. Here it is so far...(I still need to add the handle)

This 12 inch by 9 1/2 sturdy mat board tag in a pink, gray, and cream palette features 7 pockets for holding small paper or fabric supplies as well as embellishments and necessities for small crafting projects such as tags or ATCs. Dawn's sweet tweet embellishes a muslin zippered pocket...

Handy supplies, a pretty pink papered glue stick and speckled egg pin cushion...

A posy topped pencil for sketching...(mini sketch pad in the works)

Mini scissor...(needle threader and thimble to be added to scissor ring)

Supply garland of mini pins and spools of pretty pink petals, creamy dreamy hydrangea blooms, buttons, beads, lace, as well as hand dyed and stamped muslin ribbons...(Still have two spools to fill)

Paper pretties such as lacy stamped paper shapes, sweet tweet circles, shabby little birds, and hand dyed tags...

I am making little pull out folders for the pockets to hold paper goodies and will add some more paper goods. This was such a fun project to design and make. I hope to have it as well as some other new items listed in the shoppe some time next week.

In the meantime if you want to see some totally amazing art, go over and visit my new blog friend, Diane, at Diane Knott's Musings. I have so enjoyed getting to know her and viewing her creations. If you have never visited then you are in for a real treat.

I am off to make myself stay in my studio, so hard when there is snow to play in outside... and so many feathered... and furry friends...
wanting me to come out and play.
Now seriously, could you resist these faces?
Enjoy your day!

Blessings,
Miss Sandy

Birds of a Feather Blog Party and Victorian Valentine Winners.....

"Birds of a feather, flock together."

People ("birds") who are similar to each other ("of a feather") often spend time ("flock") with each other ("together").

(click on any photo to enlarge for better viewing)

Valentine's Day is most commonly celebrated as a holiday to express love and appreciation, most often in a romantic relationship. Today, I want to celebrate Valentine's Day in the relationship of friendship. I am blessed to have two very close friends, going on a twenty year friendship, who have stood beside me though thick and thin. I am doubly blessed to have "met" so many new friends in the blog community. I do consider my friends to be "birds of a feather", sharing similar tastes and spending time with one another.I joined with a group of artist through Soul Journal in participating in a Valentine Blog Party. The theme of the party is "Birds of a Feather". The idea is make an art journal page playing with the theme. I took one of the suggestions to pay homage to friendship. I created a two page spread in a small art journal I just began. I used images, words, and phrases that are symbolic of my friendship with my two oldest and dearest friends, Pam and Sharon. I think this definition pretty well sums up what true friendship is: Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more people. In a sense the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge , esteem, affection, and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crises. Friend's will welcome each others company and exhibit loyalty towards each other. Their tastes will usually be similar and may converge, and they will share enjoyable activities. They will also engage in mutually helping behavior, such as exchange of advice and the sharing of hardship.
A friend is someone who may often demonstrate reciprocating and reflective behaviors. Yet for many, friendship is nothing more than the trust that someone or something will not harm them. Friends have the tendency to desire what is best for the other as well as provide sympathy and empathy. Friends are honest, even in situations where it may be difficult to for others to speak the truth. Friends have a mutual understanding.I chose a nature theme for my collage journal pages. The base paper for this friendship collage is really special, it is ledger paper that my friend, Pam, used in her accounting class in college and it has her handwriting on it.

"A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails"

~Donna Roberts~"A true friend is one who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half cracked."

~Author Unknown~"The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship."

~William Blake~

"Friendship is a sheltering tree."

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge~"A True friend reaches for your hand and touches your heart."
~Author Unknown~"If you're alone, I'll be your shadow. If you want to cry, I'll be your shoulder. If you want to hug, I'll be your pillow. If you need to be happy, I'll be your smile. But anytime you need a friend, I'll just be me."

~Author Unknown~

As a special Valentine gift to you, dear blog friends, I made up a sheet of vintage bird images for you to use in your art. These are from various sources in my personal collection. Notice that each one is different, unique in shape, size, and color but they flock together so beautifully on the page. These birds represent the blog community of friends I have made, each one unique in skill, talent, and ability with blogs that differ in content but that sing so harmoniously the song of friendship, community, and connection.
Now, on to the winners of Victorian Valentine Give Away! If you missed the tutorials for these, you can visit here to learn how to make your own. And the winners are.....

#3 ~ Lady Farmer

#8 ~Tiny Bear

#11 ~ Vee

#15 ~ Laura

#24 ~ Becca

#30 ~ Dawn

Congratulations Ladies! Please email me your mailing information so I can get your packages on their way. There is a bit of a surprise involved as I will not tell you which one you won, you will have to wait until they arrive!

Happy Valentine's Day,

Miss Sandy