And the winners are....

It's that time....and I've randomly picked the winners for the Pay It Forward giveaway this week. Don't forget...sometime soon, some how, some way...PIF.

The winners are:

Tolegranny
Cheryl
Sallie
Kim

I've sent you all personal emails...but if you see this first, just email me your mailing address (even if you think I already have it, sometimes it's just easier to read it right off rather than look it up). I'll get your winning item out sometime this week.

Thanks for playing!

Christy

Pay It Forward

It's my turn to Pay It Forward.

Joy Meadows had a PIF on her Blog not too long ago, and I was one of the lucky ones to win one of the things she was giving away.

The one condition is, if you win...you in turn must Pay It Forward.

So, I'm posting these four items that will be given away next Sunday, January 17th at 5pm Indiana time. Don't ask me what time Indiana is on, as I went almost all of my life on Indiana time...and now we have to change our time twice a year and I don't know what if we're Central or Eastern or what...just Indiana time.

So, if you are one of the lucky to be selected from a hat...you could win a 4" x 4" chipboard heart book by Maya Row. If you'd like to see samples of what you might do with it, just check my Blog post out below this one. You could also win my Poinsettia Tag Art with ARTchix images, a Faerie Slipper wtih Magic Slippers Tag with Images from Paper Whimsy or a 5" x 6" small scrapbook that has already been started for you by me. The small album has approximately 8 pages. There are also extra stickers and such for you to embellish with once you've added your photos or art.

Don't forget to leave me a post below, along with a way to contact you should you win, AND plan to Pay It Forward yourself.

Small Heart Book Swap

Started another Heart Book Swap, but this book is smaller than the last. The first one I worked on was 6" x 6"...this one is 4" x 4" and is a cute little size.

The theme for this one was hearts...and the color Nancy picked was red. As you can see...I can't help throwing a little of my favorite turquoise in too.

I started out with a Maya Row chipboard heart book and took pink and mauve pins and pushed them in all the way around the heart.

I then took one of my newest scrapbook papers and cut them to size to paste on both sides of the heart. I used my Xyron machine to make this happen. I inked and chalked the edges.

I used Paper Whimsy images for both sides of the heart and added trim and blooms to enhance the images.

The first side I titled "Keep your hearts close, but your purse closer". Tee! Hee!

Another Arch

The birds began to sing...as they always do for me. Birds are a passion of mine and I really enjoyed creating these arches and being able to create them by using images that were so inspiring to me.

I used Twinkling H2O's on the arch to enhance the colors that I love so much. Turquoise is my color this year. It was a little tough getting the colors to adhere like I'd like...because the paper was a bit slick. I found if I used my finger to rub the color in that eventually the more color I built up, the easier it stayed on. You really can't see the colors well...and the sheen that they put off is amazing.

What you also don't see is that this chunky is 3-D. The back layer is flat on a 4" x 4" watercolor sheet, while the outside arch is sitting on top of foamy tape that helps it stick out and causes shadows. Then there's the last little touch of the feather. If I had thought about it...I have a Blue Jay feather that I've been saving to use. But, I'll use it another day for another project.

Gothic Arches

Last weekend I had the whole weekend to create art and I had a deadline coming up for the Gothic Arch Swap at ARTchix...so, I knew what I wanted to achieve when I worked on the arches...I just didn't know if I could pull it off.

This is one of the 6 Gothic Arches that I created. See the arch in the middle of the 4" x 4" Chunky? That was the inspiration for the rest of the chunky. I created the rest of the background to compliment the original arch. What is really cool is that I had already created the piece of green paper about 2 months ago and it was the perfect shade and color to match the arch. I got the blue paint out and found my large alphabet stamps and stamped the letters on. Then I decided I wanted a spattered look and got a toothbrush out and spatter some more blue paint along with some white paint to give the affect. I used a soft white pastel to outline the original arch. I used a white chalk stamp pad to go around the outside of the chunky. I love the birds...I'm a bird person...and decided that the feather was the perfect touch to this piece. Added the bird head in the tab and used Diamond Glaze to give it the glassy look. I also cut the word LOVE out and stuck it in the Diamond Glaze while it was still wet and then added more on top of it to give it the resin look.

I was happy with 5 of the 6 pieces...I guess there is always one that never quite lives up to the others....partially because I run out of the images that I really like. Guess I should stock up on more in the future.

I am so thankful for my friends that have left such wonderful comments about the Chunky that was selected for the Homepage Art over at ARTchix's Yahoo Group. Thank you for being my inspiration!