Brightest card I've ever made

I think this wins as the brightest card I've ever made. But, I'm trying to brighten someone's day, and if you got this in the mail, how could you not be happy? Plus, it's an unexpected thing, so that always makes a person happier, right? Well, as long as it's not a bill.

I'm unsure if you can read the stamp in the bottom, it says "A Friend is a Keepsake of the Heart". I'm still trying to figure out focus, but, this time I used my camera phone, which I believe came out better than the actual camera. I also used the Auto Contrast button in Picasa and the Sharpen Button. Those helped a lot, but I'm still learning.

Since I don't make a lot of cards, I thought I'd try using a sketch, and since I was making it with a sketch, I thought maybe I'd try a challenge sketch. So, here's the sketch from Crafty Sentiments, and I just found out that you're supposed to use blue, which I did. I actually tweaked the sketch a little bit, so I hope that works out OK. I used one strip on the side, instead of two, and I flipped it 90 degrees, and then added my text on the bottom, or kitty-cornered from the diagonal piece.

So, here are the challenges I'm entering this in:

Crafty Sentiments - Sketch
Stampin' When I Can - Stickers, the heart is a sticker
Stacey's Stamping Stage - Colors: Only Orange, Green Galore, Yo Yo Yellow, and Pixie Pink, or something close to them, I hope mine are close enough.
PaperPlay Challenges - Stickers, once again, the heart

Book Sale Finds

One great thing about working at the library is when we have books donated, I get to look at them before they are moved back to the donation room. And last weekend we had one of our semi-annual book sales, so I was really looking at the books we had coming in.
Somehow I have managed to screw up the order of these pictures, so bear with me. I also want to apologize if any of the photos are blurry, they always look so in focus on my camera and then I open them on the computer and they're blurry, I haven't figured out how to fix this yet. If anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it.
This book below, I got for $10 which I thought was a pretty good deal. Inside it I found a bunch or 4 and 5 leaf clovers. But I have no idea what to do with them, anyone got any suggestions? I've never seen tiny 4 leaf clovers, let alone big ones and 5 leaf clovers as well, I'm so glad someone found them and decided to press them and then happened to forget them and I got to have them.
The inside of this book has tons of information on household items. The copywright dates are 1948 and 1950. I had originally planned to use pages for artwork, but I think I just want to keep it.

Here's the front of the book, it's called The Everyday Reference Library.

This book, was a plain white book, inside I found it to be 365 Days of Nature and Discovery. Looks like a great book to alter, or use some of the pages inside. I paid $2.50 for it.Here's what a few of the pages look like:

Here's the front of it:

This book is the Autobiography of Santa Claus. My mom collects Santa's, and though I figure she'll never read this book, I thought it might be a nice addition to her collection. Now, as long as I don't lose it before Christmas, that would be great. This book was $.50

This is the inside of Nature in America, it also had a lot of fun pictures in it. This book was $.50

And here's the cover of it:

I bought this book because I'm trying to cook from scratch more, and I thought this might be a nice easy book to start with. This book was $.50

This book, I decided to buy for my father, who's a big MASH fan. This book was $4.00

This is the inside of a book called Ghost Towns of the West, also had a bunch of really cool pictures. Plus, I always liked looking at abandoned buildings. This book was $2.50

Here is the cover for that book:

I spent $20.50 on all these books, which I think is a great deal, considering they were all probably about $20 each or more new. Plus, I get to support the library, win-win solution for all.

WINNER!!!

Paper Giveaway Winner
So, I put the 5 names in a bowl, and my guinea pig started chewing on one, and that one turned out to be Nancy.

So, Nancy, please email me your address, so I can get this bundle out to you.

Paper Giveaway pictures

OK, as of now, only Susan wants all this paper. Which I'm sure is totally OK with her. But, here are some pictures of what you will win:
There's plain and patterned cardstock, lots of miscellaneous little pieces, a lot of this is from paper packs where I didn't like a certain pattern.

There's handmade paper, stamped images, paste paper, napkins.

A Butterick pattern, with only one piece missing, a printing of a digital file of art dolls, book pages, misc. promotional cards.

Promotional pieces from an art college, origami paper, calendar pages, some pieces of fabric, plus some sequins.

But, if no one else wants it all, I will gladly just send it all to Susan. Please tell your friends, pass the word.

Like I said before you have until April 5th to enter, then I will use the random number generator, or if there's only a small amount of entries, I'll just pull a name out of a hat. Anyone can enter, just leave a comment on this entry, or the orginal one to enter.

Good Luck!

Almost Done

I think I'm almost done with this piece. I was at a standstill after posting the last pictures of this piece, so I showed it to my mother and she suggested dividing it up into segments. We both liked the 3 segments over 4 segments. I think the paper I used for the divisions works well as it has the blue of the background and the black that makes the divisions stand out. I also added the "seahorse" in the bottom left hand corner. This image was taken out of some promotional material book from an art college. There's also some blue sand at the bottom of the left hand corner segment, and the new swirl in the right segment. I am kinda bummed that it didn't come out cleaner, but now it's too late for that. I'm trying to add more texture because the piece is way too flat for my tastes, but I don't want to add too much. I like the subtle texture of the layered paper, but I'm not totally satisfied.
What do other people think? Any comments are appreciated.

UPDATE

I updated my blog candy post. Check it out here.

My art closet

I figured I'd take a picture of my art closet so you all could see what a small space I have to work in. I'm standing in the doorway looking in. Around the corner on the left is a tupperware with all my supplies. And on the floor there is a tiny workspace, the closet is right at the top of my stairs, on the other side of the wall on the left is my stairs. Luckily I have a hallway I can work in. I do have more pictures I'll post later.
And here is what I've done on that One World One Heart art piece, I didn't successfully make it in finishing it this weekend, helping my dad set up his new computer, grocery shopping, and a little slacking off got in the way. But, this is what I do have done, and I'm not sure if I'm doing more or not. I love it the way it is right now.

In the corner are some shells I collected when my dad and I went to Florida quite a few years back. The scrolly things are cut out of some paper I got in a DCWV 12x12 stack of paper. I cut all the blue and green and black scrolls out by hand (my special tiny papercutting scissors really came in handy for that. The seahorse is a creations imaginations sticker. I sprayed adhesive on the scrolls and glued them down and then coated the whole thing except the large seashell with modge podge. I really like how it turned out. Here's a close-up of the scrolls:

I think the scrolls need a tiny bit of defining, and I may incorporate a few more sea things into the piece (I have a yogurt container of sand on my kitchen table). Any suggestions or comments?