My ARTistic Life

Going on a Trip + ARTchix Specials

Turquoise waters, here I come!

Today I'm flying to the Bahamas! Lucky me, my parents live there so we're doing a house swap. They're staying here while we stay at their place. James and I are going to celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary! How exciting! I'm so looking forward to relaxing with my honey, playing in my mom's art studio, looking for beach treasures, swimming, reading books and more.

So, for this week, there's no art challenge. But I will be back next week when I'm in the Bahamas to share some of the fun I'm up to.
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ARTchix Special of the Week: "Bright Eyes" ATC Kit
(continues for another week, yay!)

Great news! You have another week to snap up this awesome special kit at half price. Here are 2 fun ATCs that I made using the products in our special kit. So fun!
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ARTchix Bonus Gift of the Week: Cool Stickers + Button!
(continues for another week, yay!)

Jackie McColl made this awesome ATC using the stickers and button in our bonus gift for this week! Cool! Get this bonus gift by simply placing a $25 order or more (before shipping) this week. Offer good only while supplies last so get 'em while you can.

Cuteness, Inspired by Gail Kohl & Winners!

Weekly Does of Cuteness: MoMo Gets Busted!

What a little rascal MoMo is! Recently, I caught her drinking out of my water glass! And look at her face afterwards, "What me? I didn't do anything."
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Inspired by Gail Kohl

Recently, I received some beautiful artwork in the mail from Gail Kohl. Gail, if you're out there, please email me. The email address I have for you doesn't work.

She sent me:

This beautifully decorated envelope! I love it! Look at how she cut the butterfly out of the Papillon Post and then included the remaining cut out separately. So clever! I also love seeing the eggs stamp from the Feather Your Next Post behind the handsome gents head...looks excellent!

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What a fun collage! Love how Gail played with our Party Hats in this piece! It's got me itchin' to play around with this idea with More Party Hats!
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Another fabulous collage from Gail! I love how she combined rubber stamps with our Seaside Faux Post. Looks so elegant!
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Winners from our Last Weekly Art Challenge: Play with Pink and Blue!

Wow, this was a popular one. I received lots of gorgeous pink and blue entries for this challenge. It was way too hard to pick one winner, so I picked 4! Here they are:

BECKY BENIGHT! What a bright and cheery collage! And I spy lots of cool ARTchix images: Art Fairies, Black Baroque Borders, My Art Challenges, Pink Dot Borders, Garden Collection and more!

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GENA BOONE-CURTIS! Wow, love how Gena used the black and white polka dot strips from the Chixies Art Flourishes Stickers! It's like they're radiating from the Seaside Cutie. Wow, great idea!
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LENNA ANDREWS! Love these twinchies and their uplifting phrases! I spy lots of ARTchix too: Pretty Bird, Her Words, Imagine and more.
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SHANNON SAWYER! This is just breathtaking! The Victorian Roses make a lovely frame around the central image. And the words from Tell Me Another Story are so perfect for this.

Congratulations chixies! You all win the new Chixies Art Blast Collection! Way to go! It will go in the mail to you ASAP. : )

New Art Challenge & New Specials!

Art Challenge of the Week: Play with Pink and Blue!

I made these fun ATCs for our recent Art Blast swap (inspired by our Art Blast Playing Cards). You can find them in the new Chixies Art Blast Collection. And you can also get them in our new bonus gift that's being offered for the next 2 weeks only.

To make them, I simply cut out ARTchix images (the ones that are available in our special kit) and glued them down to our ATC blanks with a glue stick. Lastly, I added a few rub-ons and defined my edges with watercolor crayon. These were so much fun to make and they came togther really quickly! Now I've decided that I'm in love with pink and blue! I can't wait to play with this color combination some more!

How to play in this art challenge: Make a piece of art (any size or shape) and play with pink and blue. Then scan and post it to your blog, flickr account or website. Next, click on "comment" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your art challenge post so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

If you don't have a website or blog or anything, please post your artwork for this challenge to our YahooGroup: Photos: Helga's Blog: Weekly Art Challenge.

Deadline: Tuesday morning, July 7, 2009.

Prize: My favorite will receive the new Chixies Art Blast Collection. I will announce the winner on Wed, July 8.

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ARTchix Special: "Bright Eyes" ATC Kit

These are the fabulous products that I used to make my ATCs above. I've put them all together for you so that you can enjoy making some fun, colorful ATCs too! Get them all bundled up for a special discounted price for the next 2 weeks only.

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ARTchix Bonus Gift: Colorful Stickers + Cool Button!

Prepare to be spoiled!!! If your ARTchix order is over $25 (before shipping), we will tuck in this super bonus gift! You'll receive colorful faux postage stickers featuring art by Helga, 2 "I love ARTchix stickers" by our talented featured artist: Sanna Burgess, AND a cool button that says "glamour girl."

Offer good only while supplies last so order today! : )

Cuteness, Winners, New Goodies & New Swap

Weekly Dose of Cuteness: Cute Couple!

A big congratulations to my adorable little brother, Peter, and his beautiful bride, Jen! They got married last weekend...it was a fabulous wedding! Wishing them a lifetime of happiness together! And great news, now I have a sister!!! : )
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New goodies, yay!

Introducing the new Chixies Art Blast Collection:

Treat yourself to this phenomenal collection of gorgeous art by our dear chixies! You'll find 2 sticker sheets...perfect for arting up your cards, envies and journal pages...plus, 1 cardstock sheet of ATCs...instant tags!...AND 1 paper sheet with various sizes for all of your mixed media projects.

See our website for lots of fun, new goodies and inspiration!
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New Swap: "Royal Bird" ATCs!

Join me in making fun ATCs with birds and crowns for our new swap! We have lots of brilliant, new sheets for this swap: Royal Inchie Birds, Royal ATC Birds, Bird on a Wire and more! Deadline is mid October. This is going to be a fabulous swap that you won't want to miss!
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Art Challenge Winners from Last Week: Art Up an Uplifting Quote!

We had lots of wonderful entries for this inspiring art challenge. I couldn't possibly pick just one winner....so I picked 4! Here they are....

You may remember that I picked Cheryl Carraway last week. I just love this piece and her quote "Renew Your Passions Daily" is so inspiring!
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Bonnie Ashurst! I love this colorful collage! And her quote from Moms around the world: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." It's excellent! And wowza, do I ever spy tons of great ARTchix items in this piece: ATC Inspirations, My Art Challenges, Handmade with Love, Buttons, Purple Baroque Borders, Turquoise Stars, Pink Flowers, and Inchie Love...just to name a few. : )
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Linda Kunsman! I love this quote and the clever way she transformed the butterfly into a kite. So cute! I spy Irridescent White Baroque Borders along the edges too. : )

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Lisa Robinson! Wow, I love this quote: "All that you love becomes a part of you." And I LOVE ARTchix! It really touched me to see so many cool ARTchix images incorporated into this piece. I spy Pretty Bird, Flying Inchies, Heart and Soul, Spoil Me, Chixies Crowns....just to name a few.
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So, what did these fabulous artists win???

A fabulous goodie bag filled with samples of some of our new products: Chixies Art Blast Collection, Royal ATC Birds, Royal Inchie Birds, Beachy Paper Dolls, More Wonderful Wings, More Party Hats and even more..... : )

Thanks so much for playing! Hope to see you in my art challenge that's due next week: Play with Pink and Blue!
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Happy Days!!!

As you may know, I'm an American living in beautiful Canada. This means I get to celebrate 2 holidays this week: Canada Day and 4th of July! Hooray! Wishing you all great days celebrating with your families and friends!

Cuteness & Inspiration Ahoy!

Art Challenge of the Week: Brighten Up an Uplifting Quote!
(continues for another week, yay!)

I'm going to give you another week to play in this fun art challenge. Art up an uplifting quote that you enjoy. We've received several gorgeous entries so far. It's so inspiring, I love seeing your favorite quotes brought to life! Here is one by Cheryl Carraway:

It says "Renew your passions daily." Isn't this piece amazing?! There is a spin dial in the middle that can point to: paint, write, sing, create, stamp, play...WOWW, LOVE this! I spy our Art Blast Playing Cards around the edges along with our Hats in Bloom, Butterfly Butterfly, Spoil Me chick and more. Just gorgeous!!! Cheryl is one of the winners for this art challenge! I will pick three more winners next week. : )

How to play in this art challenge: Art up a favorite, uplifting quote. Then scan and post it to your blog, flickr account or website. Next, click on "comment" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your art challenge post so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

If you don't have a website or blog or anything, please post your artwork for this challenge to our YahooGroup: Photos: Helga's Blog: Weekly Art Challenge.

Deadline: Tuesday morning, June 30, 2009.

Prize: My favorites will receive a fun goodie bags with a selection of our new products that we'll be introducing next week. I will announce the winner on Wed, July 1.

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ARTchix Specials of the Week: Sassy Style & Spring Blossom
(continues for another week, yay!)

Great news! You have another week to snap up these awesome specials at half price: our Spring Blossom transparency and Sassy Style collage sheet! Here are two gorgeous ATCs made using these great sheets. On the left, Cindy McMath put the Spring Blossom transparency on top of our Spoil Me chick. Looks awesome! And on the right, Sara Udstuen made this awesome ATC with the Sassy Style collage sheet. Love them!

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Weekly Dose of Cuteness: More Fuzzy Love!

James and I were lazy one night and left our tv-watching blankets on the floor. Look what we discovered the next day! Bruno and Stella sleeping on them. Too cute!

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Inspiration in My Email Box

Wow, look what I received recently....

Gena Boone-Curtis made this spectacular piece after being inspired by our recent art challenge to make a grid of art! Isn't it amazing?!! I'm so in awe of it! I'm going to send Gena a Chixies By the Sea Collection. : )

I spy so many great ARTchix images in this piece: Seaside Cuties, Classic Nudes, Mermaid Dreams, Royal Post and Fairy Dreams...just to name a few. : )
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Speaking of the Chixies By the Sea Collection....look at this awesome little book that Joy Spicer made using the images from this collection. It's so happy and colorful!!

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Another happy and colorful piece...check out this delightful collage by Pam Barnes! It features our Hats in Bloom gal coming out of a pot, so cute! Love the Butterfly Charm in her hat! And the birdies from Sweet Tweet look great here. You can also find our Gold Lace Borders, Gold Small Renaissance Borders and Gold Small Flower Borders around the edges. Fabulous!

See you next week! I'll be introducing our new Chixies Art Blast Collection and lots more!

New Quote Challenge + Specials

Art Challenge of the Week: Brighten Up an Uplifting Quote!

For this week, art up an uplifting quote that you enjoy.

I read this great quote in a magazine and wanted to do something special with it. Right now, my big goal is to lose weight so having this by my desk helps keep me motivated. One morning, I got up early and just wrote out the quote in thick markers. Then I dug out my scrap bin and just glued down random scraps of paper and doodled a bit with watercolor crayons and pens. This took me about 20 minutes to do. Try it, it's so much fun!

How to play in this art challenge: Art up a favorite, uplifting quote. Then scan and post it to your blog, flickr account or website. Next, click on "comment" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your art challenge post so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

If you don't have a website or blog or anything, please post your artwork for this challenge to our YahooGroup: Photos: Helga's Blog: Weekly Art Challenge.

Deadline: Tuesday morning, June 23, 2009.

Prize: My favorite will receive a fun goodie bag with a selection of our new products that we'll be introducing next week. I will announce the winner on Wed, June 24.

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ARTchix Specials of the Week: Sassy Style & Spring Blossom

These two sheets were used in the artwork made by our talented swap artists below. I was so inspired by how they really brought them to life! Wowza! Now you can play with them too! Get these gorgeous sheets for half price this week only! Follow this special link to purchase them.

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ARTchix Bonus Gift of the Week: Fab Stickers by Our Swap Winner - Norma Skoglund

For this week, get these awesome stickers featuring gorgeous art by our swap winner: Norma Skoglund! Simply type "SPOIL ME" in the comments section of your order and we will include this fabulous bonus gift with your order.

Or order one of our blog specials of the week and we will automatically include this bonus gift. Hooray!

Cuteness + Oodles of winners!

Weekly Dose of Cuteness: MoMo loves ARTchix swaps!

Whenever I'm picking the winners of our swaps, MoMo loves it! It means that I bring out her favorite bin to sleep in. Every time I turn around, she's in this bin and I have to keep shooing her out. It's funny!
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Winners of our Art Blast ATC Swap!

We had 55 wonderful artists participate in our Art Blast ATC swap. Everyone made gorgeous ATCs inspired by our Art Blast Playing Cards. Oooh, I had such a hard time picking the winners but in the end, I picked...

NORMA SKOGLUND! Winner! (Norma wins a $100 shopping spree on our website. Hooray!)

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: I love "all things ARTchix."

Comments: Your ART Blast cards are wonderful inspiration. Loved using the birds as a focal point. So I started with those and a pile of images cut from your collage sheets and a pile of transparencies.   I liked the backgrounds with the birds and found that if I cut out the focal point, I could slip other images behind them to add layers. I also used copic markers to add some color to the birds.

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JOAN LAWRENCE! Honorable Mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: the new white sheet with the baby doll head

Comments: I am always challenged with your contests but when you plant the seed of the project and what sheet or items to use; it does help with creating new artwork. I used some old vintage wallpaper I had gotten from ebay and I loved the results with your transparencies.

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FRIEDA OXENHAM! Honorable mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: definitely the transparency sheets

Comments: I used these in making the Art Blast cards and what I really adore about Artchix transparencies is that they are transparent enough to be able to see the background, while at the same time giving a clear outline of the image on the transparency. I love being able to build up layers on my cards in this way.
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SABINE BUSCH! Honorable mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: I love all your beautiful collage sheets. My favourites are all sheets with birds, mermaids and art dolls.

Comments: I had a fun day with my sister when we made our Art Blast ATCs together.
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CHRISTY LAUDIG! Honorable mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment:  I'm a real "eye" person.  As soon as I see a person, I look at their eyes, and look into their soul.  You can tell so much from someone's eyes.  So, my favorite product right now is..."The Eyes Have It" Collage Sheet.

Comments: I was a little intimidated by the Art Blast Swap and found the best thing for me to do was to "think" about what I was going to create.  I write a list of what the requirements are for the Swap...and then I pour over each of the collage sheets that we can pick from.  Then I lay out 6 blank ATC's and start picking a main image that I want to work with.  After that, I work on the background, and start adding other bits and pieces until I feel balanced.  I must admit, after I started putting them together, I felt more relaxed and enjoyed the whole process so much, I created another six.

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JENNIFER ROGERS-DANIELS! Honorable mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: Dreamboxes, all the German scrap, and the new sticker collections!

Comments: I really had fun making the ART blast ATCs. It was a challenge to me to combine the retro photo images with the nature elements.  Furthermore, it was a very limited color pallet for me to work with.  I decided to make tags that could be moved so you get more than one viewpoint when looking at these ATCs.

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LYNN MCMILLAN! Honorable Mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: That's a tough one; there are so many! :) I think the irridescent white mini border has to take the prize, though. It's cool as it is, and it's great to add a hint of color to and match whatever I'm working on.

Comments: I had a lot of fun making the Art Blast ATCs. I had an idea before I started, but it evolved as I went and the cards ended up looking almost completely different from my original idea. That's what I like about ARTchix swaps and challenges: I never know where the process will take me, but I have a great time on the way!

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PATTI SCHMID! Honorable mention.

Fave ARTchix Product at the moment: German scrap -- any color I can get.

Comments: The swap was quite a challenge for me.  Since I had a difficult time approaching the project, I just kept looking at the challenge cards and primarily focusing on the color scheme.  I had the Sassy Style collage sheet (have always wanted to use it); and then began building from there.  I think the black, red and white combination is really quite sophisticated.  Yet the do-dads made it work.  Little red accents pulled the whole thing together.

We will be introducing the amazing, gorgeous collection that was created from the artwork in this swap next Wednesday! Stay tuned for next Wednesday!

Also, good news, this swap will be mailed to all players by the end of this week or early next week. : )

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Winners of Last Week's Art Challenge: Make a Grid of Art!

We had 9 talented artists play in this fun art challenge. All of the grids of art were so cool that I had to pick 3 winners....

CYNTHIA FRENETTE! Love this, it's spectacular!

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LINDA FREEMAN! Love how she used a boggle game as the base for her grid. Genius!

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LENNA ANDREWS! Oh, this piece is so happy and colorful, it makes my heart sing!

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These 3 fabulous winners will receive:

The Chixies By the Sea Collage Sheet Collection! Hooray! : )

Grid Art Challenge + Specials

Art Challenge of the Week: Make a Grid of Art!

For this week, make a grid of art! It's so much fun! Here is my inspiration behind this challenge...

The other day, I was flipping through Somerset Studio's Gallery Summer 2009 Issue. I came across this wall art grid by Shari Ulman. I love it! It made me think about a piece of artwork that I have hanging in my bedroom...

I see this print every morning by Jan Williams when I wake up. No wonder I love grids so much! lol. In any case, seeing these 2 pieces above helped me decide what I wanted to do with my receipts and tickets from my trip...

Here are the business cards, receipts, tickets and ephemera that I collected in Amsterdam. (Note: I have 4 more bags of receipts for the other cities that I visited...lots more to do, lol!) I made a simple blue watercolor wash on watercolor paper for the background. Then I started cutting and ripping up my receipts, etc. I kept them all approx. business card size so that it would be nice and easy. And I cut up the receipts a bit so that you can see what we ate for dinner, etc. So, essentially, it's a visual travel journal of our trip. Pretty cool. They felt a little naked so I added some images from our When Dreams Take Flight collage sheet...and a few snippets from our Tell Me a Story collage sheet. For example, I added "beautiful dress" to the business card where I bought a gorgeous dress from. It still feels like it needs something. Hmmm...will let it percolate for a bit.

In the meantime, your challenge for this week is to make a grid of art! You can make the items in your grid any size you'd like but make sure they're all approx. the same size. They can be squares, circles or rectangles...your choice.

How to play in this art challenge: Make a grid of art. Then scan and post it to your blog, flickr account or website. Next, click on "comment" at the bottom of this post and leave a note with a link to your art challenge post so I know where to see it online. In addition, please link back to my blog. 

If you don't have a website or blog or anything, please post your artwork for this challenge to our YahooGroup: Photos: Helga's Blog: Weekly Art Challenge.

Deadline: Tuesday morning, June 16, 2009.

Prize: My favorite will receive a fun goodie bag. I will announce the winner on Wed, June 17.

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ARTchix Special of the Week: When Dreams Take Flight Collage Sheet

I love this sheet that my Mom designed! I enjoyed using it to spice up my grid collage above. Get this gorgeous sheet for half price this week only! Follow this special link to purchase it.

Order it today and get our free bonus gift: pretty papers from Paris!

Also, order it and play in our fun upcoming swap: Blue MOO Cards!

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I couldn't resist sharing this gorgeous altered house by my aunt, Dianna Rapp! She used an image from our special sheet above along with our E is for Egg sheet and our Lucky Bird Buttons. Love it!

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ARTchix Bonus Gift of the Week: Beautiful Papers from Paris!

For this week, get these lovely pieces of wrapping paper that I bought in Paris (cute birds in birdcages, cool pen nibs and beautiful palm trees)! Simply type "SPOIL ME" in the comments section of your order and we will include this gorgeous bonus gift with your order.

Or order our blog special above and we will automatically include this bonus gift. Hooray!

Note: Offer good while supplies last (we have 12 in stock!). Each piece of wrapping paper is approx. 4.5" x 5.5".

Cuteness + Published Chix + Winner

Weekly Dose of Cuteness: Fuzzy Love

Stella and Bruno are quite the fuzzy pair. They like to hang out together, it's so cute!

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Lots o' Published Chix, Hooray!

Did you know that you get 3 free ARTchix sheets of your choice when you are published with ARTchix products and mention us as a source? Check out some of the latest magnificent pieces of ARTchix art that were recently published....

Lenna Andrews' gorgeous mini quilt was published in Sew Somerset! You'll find an Mini Chix in the lower left. Awesome!
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Laura Haviland was published in Somerset Studio's Gallery - Summer 2009! Love her paper dolls with our fun Hat and Wonderful Wings.

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Jackie McColl and I were also published in Somerset Studio's Gallery Summer 2009. Yay! Jackie's house collage at the top includes a diva from our Flirt collage sheet along with our Black Lace Borders. And her cool piece on the right and my collage on the left feature our Sassy Style collage sheet and transparency sheet along with Tiny Dot Borders in black and white. Jackie's also includes a cute Black Crown.

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Rima St. John's cool book was published in Altered Arts' Summer 2009 Issue. You can find our Circle Pix images on tags along the cover.

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Check it out! Our butterfly girl is on the cover of Lisa Kettell's fabulous new book: Altered Art Circus!

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Winner of Last Week's Art Challenge: Make a Background out of Receipts & Ephemera!

We had 4 wonderful entries for this challenge. Oohh, it was a hard choice but in the end, I picked....

Cindy McMath! Cindy made a whole bunch of cool collages and she shows us how she started with a background of receipts and then painted over them on her blog. Great visuals! Cindy wins:

This fun goodie bag with gorgeous papers and velvet flowers that I bought in Paris and Amsterdam. Enjoy Cindy! : )