April Has A Challenge For Us!

April told us she would have a challenge for us on Tuesday. She presented us each with a coffee travel mug. It pulls apart so you can decorate the outside of the cup any way you choose. We are to each take these home this week and come back next Tues with our transformed mug...very fun!

The mug April has in her hand shows what it looks like when the colored paper is removed.

The next pic shows the mugs as we received them.

The bottom pic shows Jan's addition to her jean jacket. She did a small project quite some time ago and has added it to the jacket. Make sure to double click to see the detail of her work.

We will all gather at Pink's next week to present our mugs to one another.

Tuesday at April's...

Another great Tuesday...Each of us were working on different projects this week.
Pic #1 is Jan working on her multicolored rag rug. The combination of various colors really makes this one "pop."
Pic #2 is Pinky working on her rag rug in burgundy.
Pic #3 is April's cards that she was working on. We have some excellent card makers in our group.
Pic #4 is Karen's postcard making project.
Pic #5 is Mary's project of making some hot pads for on the table. She did the sewing and now will be adding a back and a loop to be able to hang it up.

Don't forget to double click for a close up of their work.

Star Fish Ornaments...

We all brought beads and tools to work on ornaments. Double click on the group pic to see the detail. All were so different. Some of us made two of them and some of us made a couple pairs of earrings. I meant to take a pic of April's earrings and forgot, so April...if you are reading this, you might post a pic of yours.

We all had such a great day. Marlene learned first hand what a crazy group this is.

I got a kick out of Maddie. She asked how often we meet and we said every week, when possible. She said she only sees her best friend about once a month. In my mind I was saying, we are blessed :>))

Next week we will head to April's and start a mug challenge that she has for us. No doubt, it will be fun! That's what this is all about...art, friendship, and laughing...

The bare pic of the star fish is what we started with. These cute little star fish are from the Phillipines. Mary had a bunch of seed beads for us to use. We all brought extras and beads to use for the project. I think you could do this with any kind of star fish. April has an orament trade for Christmas in her family...so she is one step ahead!

OK, April...I know the beads are not in the proper rainbow logical order :>))

Welcome Marlene and Maddie!

We were at Mary's for Tuesday this week and had a wonderful surprise...Marlene Hawkins, a regular on our blog, came to visit us. I have known Marlene for awhile and Pinky has met her also. The others in our group met Marlene for the first time Tues.

Mary had a little...not exactly a challenge and definitely not a lesson...crafting time making an ornament from a star fish that comes from the Phillipines, wire, and beads. As you can see by the group pic (scroll down to next post to see), they are all very different from one another. They just all turned out great!!!

Marlene brought us all, including Joan, a beautiful ATC. What a neat surprise! I enclosed a pic of those also...so fun!

April Working on Her Rag Rug...

The double pic of Karen is supposed to be April! Boy...you can sure tell I am back from Arizona!!! :>))

The next pic is of Mary's rag rug gone wrong...now a purse/bag...who would every guess! As I was working on my rug, it started curling up and made itself into a bag! No kidding!

Hey girls...we all had such a fun day yesterday. I enjoyed every minute. It was so fun watching April spend her birthday money!...very fun. Today is her actual birthday and we wish her a very happy day.

Last Week Pics...Sorry Girls :>((

Last week was a nutsy week for me and I am ashamed to say I never did get the pics posted...so, better late than never...here we go.

Jan is showing us a beautiful new scarf...so fantastic. Karen is working on cards X 2 :>)) Ooops. Pinky is continuing on her rag rug. The striking round rug was made by April. She finished it while we were together.

Celebrations and give aways

Yesterday we celebrated April's birthday.  She was taken by surprise and that was fun.  As far as she knew we were meeting at Mary's across the river so when Karen missed the turn for the bridge, April was flustered. " You missed the turn!  You can turn around here....what's going on?"  she didn't know whether to be worried or excited.  I told her we were kidnapping her and soon her concern changed to anticipation.  We pulled in to the restaurant and when we brought her inside, there were Mary and Pinky, waiting at the table for us.  April was very pleasantly surprised!  We all had some beverages and planned our day, which basically was to go SHOPPING!  We took our 50% off coupons to JoAnn's and found some things to buy.  Then we went off to the bead store, the scrapbooking store, the cafe for lunch,

on to Goodwill and finally hit Staples.  Then it was time to drop off April at her work and the rest of us headed for home.  Everyone seemed to have a fun day.  Next week we will meet at Mary's.

It was also our day to choose the winner of our final give away.  Since it was Karen's gifts this time, we asked her to choose a number and she chose the number that corresponded to Karen S over at Creative Kick.  Please contact Jan and send her your mailing address, Karen, and she will mail your gifts to you right away.

We all sure had fun with this give away.  It was good to get some new followers but it was mostly fun to pick out or create some things we thought people would enjoy receiving.  I hope you all did enjoy the gifts as much or more than we enjoyed the giving.  Please keep coming back, I'm sure there will be more art projects to share again soon.  April picked up some mugs that she is going to challenge us to decorate.  They are the lidded travel coffee mugs that one can insert decorations into between the outer and inner cup parts.  Watch this space, should be interesting. 

Sixth and final give away!

This final give away is contributed by Karen. No, it isn't a box of chocolates although who would complain about that?

Open the boxes and what do you see? Lots of very cool items that all of us here are coveting! The round box is full of all kinds of beads. Well, not ALL kinds of beads, but there are plenty of them in many colors, shapes and sizes.

The chocolate box is chock full of wonderful things mostly created by Karen. There are three ATC's (Artist Trading Cards).

Several wonderful tags, some cards of buttons, some envelopes Karen made out of old calendar pages, a couple of new pens.

She is so talented at making greeting cards and has included a fabulous set of six of them, plus envelopes. She created several of these using vintage pages from an old children's book. Cute doesn't begin to describe them! If you want to be our next winner of this marvelous give away, just leave a comment on this post. If you are or become a follower that will allow you 2 chances to win this. We will pick a winner next Tuesday, April 12th.

 Here are four smiling faces, Pinky, Karen, Mary and April.  What a good looking happy group!  We sure have fun.  We hope you have fun anticipating winning this final give away.  I hope the photos show up this morning!