Art for Annette with a little help from my friends

The next person on my International players list is Annette.  You may know her better as Voodoo Vixen.  I know she is a very dear friend who has gifted me with many good things, including friendship, over the years I've known her.  She is also the reason I decided to host this swap.

Now that my friend Annette has received her swap pages, I can show you what I made for her.  Annette's theme is Proverbs, Sayings, and I included Adages, which are very similar.  When I did an internet search, I found this at Difference Between:

There are many sayings in English language that reflect wisdom and truth and are based upon generations of experience. These sayings are short and to the point and convey a deep meaning. Sayings are simple and yet effective as they hit the nail on the head. They mostly convey a moral lesson and are witty which is why they last for a long time. There are many different types of sayings and adage and proverbs are just two of them.

An adage is a saying that is quoted frequently by people and is often something believed to be true.  "No pain, no gain" and "Where there's smoke, there's fire" are both adages.

Proverbs are sayings that reflect or impart common sense which are true because they have been experienced countless times.  "A stitch in time saves nine" is a proverb.

To further add fuel to the fire (don't you just love this adage?) from Difference Between:

• Both an adage and a proverb are sayings, but proverb is more common than an adage in everyday life.
• There is a practical aspect of a proverb whereas an adage is believed true because of long standing or use.
• If one looks up Webster’s, he finds that a proverb has been defined describing it as an adage.
• Adage and proverbs have many similarities, but they are not interchangeable
• A proverb can be an adage.

 Now that we're all on the same page, or still confused as the case may be, here are my pages I created.  Unlike everyone else, Annette's pages are  8" x  8"  for US players and 20 cm x  20 cm for European players.

Charity begins at home was the first page I created.  I began with a gelli print, then added paint chip squares to make the houses.  I had been given the three die cuts and I used a large button to act as the moon.

I sewed practically everything this time, and used a stencil to create the word "Charity."  The bird was one gifted me by my friend Cindy at Pink Bird Studio.  I used variegated green thread on both the front and bobbin side.

This is the reverse side and I have my dear friend Corrine Gilman to thank for the main stencil on this page. 
I got the idea to make the stencil wonky until I got it just right in the final drawing.  The "practice" pieces were created on more paint chip samples. 

The words on the final drawing were also created using a stencil.

I originally had a horse and cart that was an old ad from a magazine from the 1970s.  I saved it to use on Annette's page, but once I looked for it, it was gone.  Instead, I went on the internet and found two images from different sites and printed them out, even though I had no colored ink.  The background for this page was made using Twinkling H2Os.

I got out two different alphabet stamp sets and began stamping, something I'm not known for.

I got so concerned with correctly positioning the final letter E, I forgot to check if it was facing right side up or not.  Live and learn, I guess!

My next page was a collage.  The two backgrounds were dressmaker's tissue and part of a map of my city.  They were held together with a piece of plastic tape measure.  I know lots of people don't like dangling thread, so I try to cut the threads as close as possible.  However, for this piece, I purposely chose to leave them long, thus reinforcing the saved stitch.

The pocket in the upper left is some of my iris dyed fabric.  The "9" didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, since I have no feed dogs that will drop.  I had these silver glittery tags I glued together, then added the proverb.

I added some goodies to this pocket, but forgot to share them.  I even got out my colored pencils and tried to liven up the words.

I created this cup during 30 drawings in 30 days a couple of years ago.  Originally I was going to add a painting I found in a magazine, but I thought Annette might actually prefer something I laughingly created myself.

I had a LOT of trouble with the copper thread I used in the bobbin.  I have no way to control the tension on the bobbin, although believe me, I tried.  My bobbin has no screw that will change the tension, so I am out of luck.  The copper thread is simply too fine for my machine.

I added bits of copper to the page

so it didn't look like I had simply recycled the art.

An adage, or maybe just a bit of humor was appropriate for this page. 

Adding to the problem with my bobbin was the extra heavy black thread I used as my top thread.  I'm sure you can see the copper thread showing through.   I looked for an old key, but all I could find was a rubber stamp from a 1999 set of retired Stampin' Up stamps.

This page was so unadorned, I can only hope Annette will like a pure black and white page.

Another collage because I had too many sayings and not enough pages.   I painted the background using a foam brush.

Since I was afraid of weight and thickness of the package, I decided to place all these on a single page.   Somehow I failed to get a close-up of the door, but it is a picture from a travel brochure in Morocco, and I thought Annette would appreciate that.  This is the front of the next page, but I fear I didn't leave enough room on the left for Annette to add it to her tip-in book.

I stamped the apple on a piece of fun foam and fussy cut it.

I have Chris of PearShapedCrafting to thank for the bee postage stamps.  What a genuine blessing they turned out to bee (pun, not proverb).  Along with the bee stamps, I added some of my dried flowers from my yard.

Another collage, this one that deals with money.  I used Monopoly money for the background after I couldn't find enough Chinese fake money.  I am SO proud of myself.  This was a brand new, still in its wrapped plastic and sealed Monopoly game.  I have had it for years, and now I have no excuse not to use it in my art.  It is the reverse of the previous page.

For those not familiar with US money, this is a penny, or a one cent coin equaling one-hundredth of a United States dollar.  I understand these will soon be collectors items since, as of 2015, they are no longer being minted.  The word penny is from the British coin of the same name, which has a similar value. The plural of penny in the US is pennies, while in the UK is pence.  Although all pennies used to be made of pure copper, they are now composites of sandwiched metals, with only pure copper plating.  At least Annette can say she owns a piece of history and will never be broke!

I spent a lot of time looking on the internet for a pound sign, then looked in WordPerfect, my writing software of choice.  If only I had started there!

For my final page, I glued two very glittery heavy cardstock weight scrapbook pages together.  I created some flowers and stems by stamping various images onto heavy patterned cardstock, then added some of my handmade shimmering mists.

The centers of the flowers were very dimensional buttons.  The empty seed container was the final addition.  I almost added a butterfly, but was afraid it would get smashed in the mail.

For the reverse page, I began with letters sent to me by Erika, aka BioArtGal.  In my thank you note to her, I told her she must have read my mind about many of the things she sent me.  These letters were just two of the beautiful things she sent.

The camera must have been in the perfect spot to pick up all that glitter.  I meant for the cover to be sloppy, but in the end, it was even more so than I wanted.  The problem was, the stamp set I used had foam backing (it was a gift from my friend Kathy) that didn't stick to my acrylic block. So the term "hand stamped" was more true than I would have wished for.  Yes, I ended up holding the stamps and stamping them with the palm of my hand acting as the block!

Other than the inside front and back covers, all these sayings were in a book also sent to me by Erika.  I couldn't have asked for a better gift, and Erika admitted it helped free up her craft room, too.  The phrases were in a book from HOTP and were parchment, copier weight colored paper, or vellum.

All of the pages in the book were sprayed with my handmade shimmering mists, then I sewed them into the book before adding the sayings.  Feel free to peruse these at your own pace.

And now, all good things have come to an end!
This looked like a British saying to me, so I used it for the tag I cut from what was left over from the 12" X 12" cardstock.

The empty space where my watermark is in the photo now holds my name and other relevant information about the swap.   I contemplated adding bling to the bottom of the tag, but it didn't feel right for some reason. 

Instead, I added swag to the tag fibers.

Thank you so much for visiting me today.  And thanks to all the wonderful art friends (Cindy, Corrine, Erika, and Kathy) who contributed tools or supplies that helped me put these pages together.  I am very grateful.  And I am also grateful for YOUR continued support of my art.