Working at Jan's

Here is the gang at Jan's including guest Caroline minus Jan who is the photographer today.

 Everyone was quite busy with their individual projects.  April worked on lettering on prayer flags.

 Caroline is crocheting granny squares to make a bag for her granddaughter.

 Jan is making thank you cards for the birthday gifts she received.

 Mary is getting a jump on Halloween cards.

 Pinky loves making the iris folding cards.

She is so good at it too!

Karen is also making Halloween cards.  I guess the rest of us had better get busy!

It was another fun day, all of us together.  We discussed relationships and laughed a lot.  Got our fix for another week!  Hope to meet next week at Pinky's.

Jan's Birthday Bash...

Sorry everyone...I had this all together and lost it somehow...some days are just like that.

We had the most wonderful day on the Long Beach Peninsula for Jan's Birthday Bash.  We started out with breakfast at Benson's By the Beach.  They were nice enough to give us a large table so we could do our ATC trade and let Jan unwrap her gifts.  We all traded ATCs made of the water color splash and spray papers that we had made at Karen's a few weeks ago...so much fun.   It was her choice to come to the "P".  On her list  of places she wanted to go to was Jean's Picture Attic to look for interesting art supplies, any and all thrift shops that we could find...We hit Reach Out, His Supper Table and hoped to go to Consign Me, but it was closed.  A big one on her list was Jack's Country Store and I think we all came out of there with something.  What a fun day, but the time just zoomed!  Before we knew it...it was time for lunch...we do some serious birthday bashing in our group.  We had lunch at the Dunes with Jan being the only really sensible muncher...having a turkey sandwich.  I'm not sure, but I think the rest of us had fish and chips.

Below are some pictures of our day and our birthday girl...

 This is a beautiful needle felted "treasure container" that a friend of Jan's made her for her birthday.  She brought it with her to share with us.  It was amazing.  There were many little boxes that opened inside and each one had a little treasure in it.  This was definitely a labor of love for a good friend.

 This batch of ATCs were created by April Wood.  We all were supposed to use some of the painted papers that we made at Karen's a few weeks ago...such a fun project.

 These ATCs are the ones Jan made.  She was sweet to give us each two.  Some of us were not quite so sweet...

 This batch was made by Mary Fox.  She made just the right amount...sorry to say.

Pinky made these eight.  She confessed the yellow Native American one was not on the paper we all made.  I don't know what we are going to do with her!

This next group is Karen's.  I grabbed the Texas one right away!  She gave us all two also.

 Breakfast and gift unwrapping at Benson's By The Beach in Long Beach, WA

 Jan is starting to unwrap her goodies...

 Our birthday girl, Jan Brattain...

 Still unwrapping...

 It goes on and on and on...nice shot of the breakfast dishes...

 Pinky, Karen, April, & Jan...Happy Birthday, Jan!

Pinky, Karen, Mary, and Jan...What a great day!!

Tuesday at April's

It was a great day!  We missed  Jan, though.

Karen's lovely work!

Karen busy working!

My neighbor, Linda, joined us for the day.

Linda is making a crocheted rug out of plastic bags.  This is something her grandmother used to do!  She will use them throughout her house.  This one is going to be a rectangle, mostly white with blue and red intermingled throughout.

Mary...what a smile!

Mary is working on our ATC challenge.  Can't wait to see them next Tuesday.

Here's our Pink!!!

Pinky's beautiful Iris Folding card.  Wonderful!

My neighbor, Serena (on right) and her girlfriend, Kitara.  They joined us for the day!

Serena's artwork!  Nice!

Kitara's artwork!  Lovely!

Karen's deck

We all had such a great time playing with papers and paint on Karen's deck.  The above photo shows the other side of her deck where it is a lovely peaceful oasis filled with beautiful plants and a water feature the birds play in.  So beautiful!

Here are the girls, taking refuge in the shade.  Be sure to scroll down to see all the photos April and Mary posted from the same day.

More Paper Painting! First of all let me tell you that I have spent SO MUCH TIME trying to post this 'thing.' So if anything is in the wrong place or looks terrible....I'm just admitting that I'm blog posting-challenged! I need a lesson, Jan/Mary!!! You girls need to sit me down and SCHOOL ME!!! Please!!!

Here is Jan, our instructor for the day.  She really knows what she is doing when it comes to painting paper.  She is awfully humble, but she was our star for the day!  Thanks, Jan, for helping by mixing up all the paints, and testing out all the different spray bottles.  You are a gem!

Jan's RAVEN.  First she painted this background and set it aside to dry.  Then she took a raven template (that she had made another time) and laid it onto a clean sheet of paper.  She sprayed all that (paper with template) with red.  Then before it could dry she picked up the raven template and laid face down onto this background.  Isn't it fantastic?  Wonderful, Jan!!!  Nice job!

Jan's book!  WOW, huh?  It's been painted and gessoed!  Looks pretty cool, doesn't it?  

Karen is just commenting on how much paint she got on her hands.  Hahaha!  We were all covered with paint!  Color-saturated, you might say!!!

I believe this is one of Karen's pages!  Doesn't this look great?  Great art was created today!!!  Great job, Karen!

Here is Mary with her paint shirt indoctrinated!!!  She's really 'into' it!  Lots and lots of painted paper produced by this lovely lady!!!

Mary's Raven is beautiful, isn't it?  Really nice work, Mary!

Here is a different style that Mary made.  This is a picture of a bird that is glued onto the face of her painted paper.  Nice effect! 

Pinky is wearing a pretty neat paint shirt that Mary loaded her.  Neat, huh?  Pinky did a fabulous job with her painted papers.  Look below:

Pinky's tree is gorgeous!  The loviest work yet!!!  Nice coloring!  She's a natural!

This is Pinky's fern.  I think it's out of order...but I'm not kidding....I have been on here FOREVER trying to get things in order.  SO....please, BEAR WITH ME.
 I LOVE this fern, Pink!!!


These last three are mine.  You can probably tell because they are purple and teal.  I even tried to do some with 'red'   but I couldn't stand it.  That color just doesn't 'ring my bell' like these do.  I mean....really....how can you go wrong, "I ax ya"... (a little My Cousin Vinny movie reference) with purple and teal.  

Here is Jan taking a 'time out' from all her own painting .  (I think she might have been the one to leave a little paint on the deck....not that I'm tattle-taling, or anything.)    :oP

We took our lunch break out on the deck in the shade.  We all brought our own lunch, but also enjoyed all the yummy snacks that Karen provided.  She even had WATERMELON.  It was delicious!  Thanks for the marvelous digs, Karen!!!