Art of Mine

scan0006 Originally uploaded by sjmcdowell Hello Blogging Buddys, I wanted to show you my second ATC I made recently for my friend Jan over at "Laughing Dog Arts". I found out that Jan likes to trade ATC's and so I asked her if she would like to do a Swap and she said yes!! So I made her this one. I call it "Evening Flight"....I had this little scrap of a butterfly I found somewhere and part of the right wing was not even there and I kept it for a long time thinking well one day I will use it in something...so while I was hunting through my stash I found this little guy and I also had a scrap of a flower too that went with it. So I got out my paints and just started painting. I glued the butterfly on the edge and instead of gluing the little paper flower on I painted what the flower looked like on the bottom. Jan has already recieved it and loved it, so I felt it was ok to show it to the rest of you now!! Hope you like it too!! When I get the ATC that Ja

Hello All, Hope your day is going super great! I have been wanting to share with all of you a pillow and a lovely story that I had given to my swap buddy Mary when we did the Something New, Something Old, Something Borrowed, Something Blue swap over at "A Swap For All Seasons" this past June. We also had to include a Vintage wedding photo as well. In my search to find "The" perfect vintage wedding photo my husband and I searched the suburbs of Atlanta and my search took me to one of my favorite antique shops in downtown Roswell. I had asked the ladies if they had any VWP and one lady said she thought they had one in the corner of the shop so she went over to find it, a few minutes later she said they must have sold it. My husband started looking in the same area and told me to come over to him and he pulled out this wonderful photo he said "will this do" ? Oh my, be still my beating heart! YES I said. Later that evening I had said to my husband that there

Hi Dear Friends, It has been awhile since I posted something I have made and so I thought I would show you my lovely "Sea Shell Soap Box" that I finished a few days ago. When I received my lovely shell cuff bracelet from Diane Knotts a couple of weeks ago it was wrapped up in a beautifully decorated soap box. I had never seen anything like it before and thought I would try my hand in creating one as well. So here it is...the shells are from my trip to Florida two summers ago now and even the little sea grass I had salvaged from the beach and glued some on as well. I used a gold leaf pen to highlight both of the shells and around the scalloped edge of the vintage picture. I glued some pearls (not real ones) around the scalloped edge of the picture too. The paper I used all around the box is from the Ancestry.com line. I used some netting as well to frame the picture....which reminded me of fishermans netting. To keep the lid on I used some tiny velcro rounds to keep it clo

My Dear friend Mary sent me a letter and hang tag the other day and I wanted to share it with you. Mary and I met when we were picked as Swap Buddies for "A Swap For All Seasons" in June. We have remained good friends since the swap. I never knew what happiness blogging could bring into my life. I also want to thank my followers for taking the time to visit me and comment on the things that I make or pictures that I put up. I will be having a "Giveaway" soon,  I have been blogging for a year now...WOW, I did not realize till the other day that a whole year has gone by already since I started blogging!! I have loved every minute if it!! I love EACH of YOU and THANK YOU to All!! Susan

Wishing you all a very nice weekend!! Love to All Susan

Hello All!! I would like you to meet Mr. Seramu Bantam from Malasia. The Seramu's are the worlds Smallest Chickens and I was very happy to hold this little fellow for a few seconds, Mr. Seramu was too interested in what was below him....a BIG trough full of all his favorite things to eat!! On the fourth of July in our town of Woodstock we stopped by the Fair, and  I Had to go into the little petting zoo that they had set up and grab a tin can of delectable morsels for all my little farm friends. They even had Pygmy Goats....my ex father in law in England once told me I should buy about a dozen or so of Pygmy Goats to help keep the grass down in our yard....I never knew if that guy was kidding me or not!! Well I never bought the Pygmy Goats,... he probably wanted to borrow them for his lawn!! Anyway back to the petting zoo. There was also a medium sized PIG there and to keep himself cool he sat himself down in a water pan....Ha ha ha....Mr. Pig was sitting with his butt in the

Hi Blog Buddies, I wanted to share with all of you the other side of my Artist Trading Card from my friend Laura. On the other side of the Sister's card that I showed you in my earlier post, is this adorable picture of a little girl with the sweet bow and button..isn't she cutest thing!!! The top card  is a picture of a painting that Laura did of her Sister at an American Indian Pow Wow in North Dakota where Laura lives. Please go visit Laura's Blog site, you will love her fantastic works of Art there...and you will probably see in a couple of days my ATC I sent to Laura...believe me it is not all that great...but it was fun making it none the less!! This was my first try at making an ATC and I throughly enjoyed the experience. If you have never tried making an ATC, please try it out....and I'm sure you will be hooked! The next ATC swap will be in August and the theme will be Orange!!! Lots of Love and BiG of Hugs to ALL of YOU!! Susan

IMG_6173 Originally uploaded by sjmcdowell Hello All, I recently entered an Artist Trading Card swap over at Blissfull ATC Swap. http://blissfullatcswap.blogspot.com/ Those of us who signed up for the swap were asked to make one ATC which is 3'1/2" x 2"1/2 standard size. We could make our card using any medium we wished. I received my swap buddies card today from my swap buddy Laura. Our theme for July was "Sisters" and Laura made this beautiful little work of art made of wool felt that she hand sewn. The image of the three sisters was out of a vintage book from the 1920's. Laura also included the darling little easel to rest this precious work of art on.  Please stop over and visit Wendy and Debbie who started our Swap and take a peek in the next few days at all of the other ATC's that will be posted. Our mailing date was the 19th. so I got mine early!!! I have something else to add to what Laura gave me and will post it later today. God B

Winner of Miss Mary Originally uploaded by sjmcdowell What a lovely surprise this afternoon when I received a post from Mary of Green Paper letting me know I was the winner of the Miss Mary Hayes challenge. Over 40 ladies had submitted there renditions of Mary Hayes and some different stories that were made up of what we thought Mary would have been like...even a Ghost!!! Mary had put together a wonderful pack of Ephemera that I won, I will have to get busy and make wonderful things with it once I receive them!!! Please stop over a Green Paper and take a look at all of the wonderful versions of Miss Mary that the rest of the ladies have made, they are all wonderful and they are all very talented Bloggettes out here in Blogland!! Thank you Mary once again for putting this great challenge together for all of us I know we all had a lot of fun doing it. Love, Laughter and Blessings to All, Susan

scan0004 Originally uploaded by sjmcdowell Miss Mary Hayes of Waterbury Ct. was no ordinary woman and at an early age knew what she wanted to do with her life. Mary was not the type to sit idly by and wait for some man to scoop her up and marry her, no sir'e. what Mary wished for was to become a Botonist and to travel to exotic parts of the world to discover and catalog new plant species. Marys mother had died when Mary was three. Her father was a banker in New York City and took the train every morning at 6:30AM and came home every night by 7:00PM. Mary had learned from her Grandmother a love of plants and would help her in the greenhouse, from planting seeds to propagating. When she was 10 she had already planted her own vegetable garden and designed her own little secret garden. Marys love of plants developed into a hunger to learn more and so after highschool she went to study under a young but famous Botonist Professor Lee Vanderhorn at New Haven University. Mary attended

scan0003 Originally uploaded by sjmcdowell Hi Blogging Buddies!! I have now completed my Miss Mary art challenge and wanted to share it with all of you. Mary over at Green Paper is having the challenge and a wonderful Giveaway as well. We were given three elements to work with and to use them in any medium we wanted to create something unique. The three elements are of course the lovely lady Mary with the envelope posted in her name and the little bunch of flowers to the left by the bottom of her dress. I will post later with more details. Love and Happiness to All!! Susan

scan0002 Originally uploaded by sjmcdowell My Grandmother Elsa when she was 17 years old in 1909 embroidered this... as she called it her "Basket of Roses". She had left me a few of her embroidered pieces before she passed away in 1974. I cherish her lovely work and if anyone in my life inspired me the most it would have had to have been my grandmother Elsa. This lovely photo is of Elsa around the age of 17. I think it is one of the loveliest photos I have ever seen. My grandmother taught me how to hand sew when I was 7 years old and I had made many little clothes for my dolls, they would even have matching handbags! Elsa also made lovely clothing, Corsages, Shell jewelry, wrote poetry, loved to garden and play the piano. Elsa had a love of Roses all of her life and this exquisitely made Basket of Roses is a tribute to whom she was as a person, I being her only grandchild I feel privileged to have known her. Before Elsa passed away in 1974 just before I turned 18 she had se

scan0001 Originally uploaded by sjmcdowell Happy Monday Dear Blogging Buddies!! I have admired the wonderful creations made by Diane Knott for a long time. Recently Diane started to make Cuff bracelets made with shells, pearls, lace and ribbon. The first time Diane displayed one of her finished Shell cuffs, I immediately sent her a post saying that I would love to buy one from her. On Saturday I received my lovely bracelet from her... but that was not all...Diane had wrapped my bracelet in tissue paper and put it into a beautiful Soap box that she decorated with lace and pieces of tree bark and little silk flowers and paper roses that framed a beautiful lady. Diane also included one of her gorgeous tags that she made. I had to share this all with you and if you have never visited Diane please do so at.... http://dianeknottsmusings.blogspot.com/. Thankyou Diane I will cherish this forever!!!! Hope you have a wonderful and creative week dear friends, Susan

scan Originally uploaded by sjmcdowell The Declaration of Independance was signed July 4th 1776. "For the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Devine Providence, we, mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." Love and God's Blessings to All. Susan