DING! DING! DING! WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Greetings dear reader! Tonight is the night of the BIG announcement...who won the T-shirts? Who won the Scrapbooking/Altered Art Goodie boxes? Inquiring minds want to know... This time (to truly complicate things) I assigned each person with a number generated by a random number generator, and then I entered THOSE numbers into the generator to get my 4 winners. (Again, would anyone be offended if next time I do names on slips of paper and draw from a hat?!!?!)

Anyhoo, the winners of the Paula's Palace of Altered Art T-Shirts are:

Drumroll please... ihchicky and windy cindy! WOOHOO! YAY! YIPEE! Ladies, if you will email me privately with your snail mail addys, I'll get your shirts winging their way to you.

And now, the scrapbooking/Altered art Goodie boxes: Bunny B and TheTatums! 3 Cheers for the winners! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! Hip, hip, hooray! If you dear ladies will send me YOUR snail mail addys, I will get your goodie boxes shipped and on their way!

THANK YOU to all who entered and left your lovely comments about spring (Even you in New Zealand who is just now entering autumn!) I will be doing another T-shirt giveaway in a month or so...keep checking back!

COME ON'A MY HOUSE, MY HOUSE'A COME ON!

Greetings, dear reader! I have been waxing (literally) creative lately and haven't had much time to blog about all of the activity...(if you saw my scrapbook room, you'd KNOW I've been in the throes of some kind of creative friendzy...)

Anyway, I'll bet you're wondering, "What's up with all this "my house" stuff? Well I am glad you asked! I have joined the ezine Casa Bella and have been creating like a mad hatter ever since! Behold, the goods:

Here's my cottage-y version of the little house project. Our real home has only a few more square feet than this one (750) so we have always decorated in a cottage/flea market/vintage fashion. I wanted the house to reflect the same kinds of colors and styles we have in our home. I LOVED using the beeswax, and have only a few slices in my fingers from the German glass shards I sprinkled in while the beeswax was "curing."

This is a view of the windows. I used 7 Gypsies ATC Overlays for the windows, and then used vintage lace for curtains and old millinery flowers for the window boxes! It's really starting to look like home!

Here's a shot of the roofline, a German diecut, another ATC Overlay (the clock) and a blue feather. The clock symbolizes the time we spend together as family that makes a house a home. :-) (Aren't I the sappy one?)

This is my favorite part of the "Clouse House"...I wanted to add some charm (s) and thought of the quote "Home is where you hang your heart." SO I hung a heart, a flowr, and a little turquoise charm from the eaves of the house...like a little earring for the lady!

This is a vintage earbob I found in a resale shop. The other one will become a "party" for my finger! For some reason when I saw the colors I thought..."Hanging planter!" I just added the hanger and the vines!

Here is the detail of part of the roof. EVERY cottage must have a "Home Sweet Home" SOMEWHERE...oh! And a bluebird of happiness as well!

Here's a detail of the door...I wanted to use this gorgeous little silver frame every since I found it in the altered art store...I've been saving it for just such an occasion. The "C" is a rub on and stands for "Clouse" "Creativity" "Cottage", pick one! The little picket fence is actually made from "Wallies" (diecuts for your walls...they are applied like wallpaper) I used rub on flowers and made a little welcome sign on the "WORKING" gate. My husband said I could have actually BUILT a real fence in the time it took me to put this one together!

THEN, I made this project:

Here's my version of the project. I painted the wooden balls robins egg blue, and then used larger, white rubons because I think the bigger letters invites visitors to pick them up, read and investigate. (I'm VERY into tactile kinds of decorating!) Anyway, I used the Making Memories "Simply Stated" alphabet rubons...entitled "rummage". The balls say "peace, love, hope, faith, joy, grace"

Here is the little vignette I put together for the casa bella project....the crown on the dollhead came from the Bellatoria Ezine!

There are 5 more projects I must catch up on...I'll keep you posted! Meanwhile, why not check out the ezine offer? You can still subscribe!

Only 2 days til the spring drawing! Woohoo! Good luck to all!

More soon!



Paula

PS Now the song's stuck in your head, isn't it?

AND YOU THINK *I* AM WEIRD???

Greetings, dear reader! First, a disclaimer:

For those who think THIS counselor needs a counselor for the previous doll head post, I would just like to go on record and say that I have received a TON of personal emails and LOTS of remarks saying my disembodied bevy of baby doll noggins is bodaciously INSPIRATIONAL.

I'm not sure whether that proves that *I* am slightly LESS "broken" or that the majority of my readers are a truly creepy lot...either way, I'm glad my artistic expression provokes you...for the good or for the ill. :-)

Speaking of art, I have created my first digital ATC...here it is for your viewing (and downloading) pleasure:

For those of you who are Photoshop saavy, you can blot out my little avatar face in the heart locket and add your own...for those who are NOT, you can print this out (it is an official 2.5 x 3.5 ATC size) and then glue a tiny photo of yourself over my smiling face. :-) Really. I don't mind.

To finish the ATC, I added some (non-digital) stamps, rub-ons, stickers, and the FABULOUS 7 Gypsies ATC Overlays. They now have that grungy look I am so fond of...I used a corner rounder on the overlays because the cards were already curved. Behold:

This particular card is reserved for the amazing Cat! (I have made other similar cards for close friends and relatives...get yours ready to swap!)


I'm thinking of starting an ATC Swap Group...the Palace artists and myself are conspiring together... I'll let you know when the Kingdom Swap is at hand!

HELLO...DOLLY!

As those of you who follow my blog may remember, I have confessed to recently going through some kind of "dismembered doll head" phase. I have recently come upon some wonderfully creepy dollheads, (from dear friend Dusty)

Anyhoodlyhoo, without further adieu, I give you the "SPRING DOLLHEAD COLLECTION: How Does Your Garden Grow?"

You will see the above "collection" in many more photos and places...Photoshopped and otherwise...I'll keep you posted!

DING! DING! DING! NEWSFLASH! Taking the very good suggestion by Terisa (see comments) I have created a new Flickr Pool: Creepy Doll Heads! http://www.flickr.com/groups/creepydollheads/ :-) We with weird obsessions must stick together!)

More soon!



Paula

ANNOUNCEMENT! DING! DING! DING!

My baby Paul is engaged to the lovely Leah James! They are planning a November wedding! It's SO exciting! I'll have another beautiful daughter! YAY!

Their song selections: I'm In Love With You by Joy Willams and Sex Bomb by Tom Jones. I'll leave you to figure out which engagee picked out which song! lol

More soon!

Paula

WHAT IS THE MESSAGE OF YOUR LIFE?

The words to this song are amazing...I LOVE the message and the video is way cool! SING!

WIRED NO. 8: ANOTHER DARE!

Greetings, readers! Have you succumbed to the "dare blogs" and/or the layout challenges as I have? It's like my childhood nemesis standing with her tongue stuck out at me saying, "Na na na na na, you can't do it..." in that sing-song-y, bully-like fashion. I just can't bear it! And so, I've determined to take on more challenges...the added benefit is that it gets me into a creative place where I am often inspired to keep on creating! And that's a good thing, yes?

Anyhoo, the New Zealand blog has posted challenge # 43. It's from an ad layout they found inspiring:

And here's my "version" of said ad (with of course my favorite photo subject, my grandson):

When I see a cluster of pictures grouped together, I instantly think, "Collage." Of course, I instantly think, "collage" whenever I am inspired by most ANYthing. (blush)

Check out the blog...it's a hoot!

By the way, have you left a comment for the Giveaway yet? Hmmmmmm????

ARTSY MAMA VINTAGE PARTY SWAP: IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE!

Greetings, dear readers! I am SO EXCITED! My box from the amazing Collage Contessa just arrived with my ArtsyMama Spring Party paraphenalia...behold the goods:

Aren't the colors just DREEEEEEEEEEAMY? I absolutely LOVE everything! OH! And she even thought of the slightly frazzled hostess:

Chocolate and a card of encouragement! She absolutely thought of EVERYTHING! I sliced some oranges to have along with my chocolate (is there anything BETTER than orange chocolate? I submit to you there IS NOT!) And the little canvas I purchased from her Etsy shop is even more darling in real life! I can't wait to hang it in my scrapbook room!

All in all this was simply THE most fabulous swap (and swap partner) I've EVER had the pleasure of taking part in! WOOHOO! Perhaps I'll host a swap of my own someday?!?! What would YOU like to swap?!?!

"SPRING HAS SPRUNG" GIVEAWAY/CONTEST

Hello once again, dear reader!

I don't know what the weather is like in your neck of the woods, but here in Southern Illinois it seems spring has FINALLY sprung! The lilac and forsythia bushes are abloom, the tulip and dogwood trees are beautiful clouds of pink and white. My husband (much to his chagrin) dragged out the lawnmower for its maiden lawn voyage. Neither he nor the mower were very excited about the experience.

Now, weather report aside...here are the "rules" for the contest and the big T-Shirt and RAK GIVEAWAY:

1. Leave a comment on THIS post
2. Answer this question with your comment: "What is your favorite spring 'thing'?"
3. The contest ends at midnight on April 30th.
4. I will assign a number to all comments, and then run them in a random number generator.
5. I will select 4 winners!
a. 2 lucky winners will get a Paula's Palace of AltAred Art T-Shirt
b. 2 will receive a goodie box filled with a scrapbooking kit (papers from Bazzill Basics, Boxer Scrapbook, SEI and Ellison)(everything you need to create your own photo album), vintage fabric & trims, a few FAB altered art embellishments
c. each winner will also receive an original ATC created by ME!

WOOHOO! Go here if you want to see the T-shirts you may win!

Finished Project...Our Story

Greetings dear readers! Here is a project I finished since coming home from the CK Convention. I thought it appropriate that I make the book about the convention itself. Cool, yes?

I attached a little 7 Gypsies envelope book with the business cards of my instructors and some of the vendors from the convention. One of my faves: Rusty Pickle! (Don't you just love their grungy papers?)

Oh...I still have to post about the contest...I'll do that in another post! Latuh!

"SPRING HAS SPRUNG GIVEAWAY" or RAK MADNESS!

HAS SHE LOST HER MIND?!?!?! You ask...

Well, maybe.

Greetings, dear reader! I have some EXCITING news for you!

I'm doing another giveaway! It has been quite a while since my last one and so I feel compelled to "share the love" once again and treat a few lucky winners (yes, that's WINNERS plural!) to some totally groovy vintage goods, altAred art supplies, and scrapbooking goodies. PLUS two lucky winners will take home a lovely Paula's Palace of AltAred Art T-Shirt. Behold the lovely merchandise model:

"WAIT A MINUTE!" you say, "That is NOT a merchandise model." Well, you're right. In the middle of the afternoon on a Friday, merchandise models are tough to come by. So it's moi. Me. Myself. Deal wit it. teehee

I digress...here's a close up of said merchandise...both XL, both 100% washable. Be the envy of your friends! Be the FIRST to sport a Paula's Palace of AltAred Art Spring Edition T-Shirt! (To quote Ned Flanders, "WOOHOODLYHOO!")

Stay tuned this weekend for details about how to enter! YAY!