Birds & Zentangle ATC

This is the ATC I created for the May Gothic Arch swap for my Latest Trends Group. I had a lot of fun creating this ATC. I did Zentangles with my high school students the last week of school. This inspired me to create the Gothic Arch Frame for my ATC. Then I used bird scrapbook papers for the background and the colored cut out birds glued to the frame. The black and white birds were clip art from The Vintage Moth and The Graphics Fairy. The string in the bird's beak was made by coloring cardstock with markers and cutting a thin strip with an x-acto knife. I tried thread but could not get the effect I wanted. The cardstock curled as I cut it which was neat.

Paintings by My Students

These are some paintings in the style of famous artists that some of my high school art students created as an advanced project on ceiling tiles this year. I think they did a superb job! They laid out the main background shapes in pencil first. Then they painted the background colors in tempera paint. Layers of colors were built up until the correct depth was created. Finally the details were painted.

Flowers for Mother's Day

These are the incredible roses my son, Nate, and my husband, John, sent me for Mother's Day! I was so surprised. I received two dozen of them in so many beautiful colors. I divided them up and had one vase of just roses and another vase with my peonies and roses.

My Garden

The first two weeks in May my garden was gorgeous! The photos are the fruits of my many labors years ago. I have two peony bushes that gave me about a dozen incredible blooms this year. As they opened I cut them and brought them into the house to enjoy. The other photos are of verbena and pink salvia bush.

Camille

In April my husband, John, and I got a wonderful new dog, Camille! We call her Cami. We were so blessed to find Cami on Craig's List. Her family was moving and could not take her with them. After 11 wonderful years our other Great Pyrenees, Bianca, had to be put asleep last July. We had missed her so much this year. Cami is a delight and brings us so much joy each day!