Finally...a Paper Cowgirl post!

I can't believe I've been home from Paper Cowgirl for 2 weeks & haven't posted about it yet. But talk about fun, fun, fun! LOVED the cowgirl prom ...it was soo fun to see everybody in all their finery. I didn't get but a couple of pictures @ the retreat though. Don't know why...guess I just didn't feel like lugging my camera around everywhere. Sure am regretting it now though cause I only have my projects & vendor night goodies to share. :(

First up is my project from Sandra Feazel's rose painting class. I strayed from her class example by using another color palette & adding a bit of text though. I LOVED this class & I'm setting aside some time next week to practice painting my roses. I am determined to use more "art" in my artwork.

Second class was Lisa Pace's shadowbox class. I copied her class example almost exactly. This looks a LOT cuter in person!

My 3rd & final class was Karla Nathan's dress form class. Talk about fun! It was so much fun that her students bought up all the kits she brought for vendor night. We couldn't wait to make more! I adorned mine w/ fairy wings & a banner w/ "beautiful fairy" written in French. She has an online tut available here ....so you can make one too!

I am so glad that I signed up for the charm swap...there are so many wonderful charms! And I jingle-jangle the whole time I wear it. Like I'm not loud enough already!!! LOL My altered cigar box partner, Bonnie, is having some health issues & was unable to attend Paper Cowgirl. :( Please keep her in your prayers!

Vendor night shopping @ Paper Cowgirl is incredible.....INCREDIBLE! You wouldn't belive all the vintage goodies & mixed media art supplies...& all @ great prices! Look @ my score!

Box of chandelier crystals...all w/ flat backs so I can add pictures to them. 25 cents a piece from Jamie's booth....

Bronze painted baby shoes (they're not actually bronzed just painted to appear to be so...gotta love the thrifty creativeness!), old picture mats, tiny Snow White & Bambi playing cards.....

A wonderful ledger book (nearly all the pages have writing on it...it's grom a general store in the late 1800's), aged doorknobs, & optical lenses....

A vintage needlework catalog w/ wonderful graphics.....

Crepe paper ruffles & bits of bling.....

I got several rolls of vintage wallpaper...it's all very old & brittle. Rusty keys, old cabinet cards, a glittery bowl....

A French letter from 1792...wayyy cool!

A beautifully painted leather cuff by Sandra Feazel.

And a little handmade journal by Karla Nathan. LOVE it...it's so pretty inside that I don't know that I'll be able to cover it up w/ anything.

I'm kinda sad that it is over. There probably won't be any more art retreats for me until A Wicked Tea in October. I'm keeping the grands nearly every day this summer; so that I can get as much time w/ them while they are out of school, as I can. But we have been having crafting days & ethy're fun too...I'll share pics soon.

Stay cool...we've had the hottest June in 30 years!!!

Cowgirls have more fun!

I didn't sign up for as many swaps for Paper Cowgirl this year. I felt realllllly overwhelmed w/ the swaps last year & didn't want a repeat. ;) But I had a lot of fun w/ the swaps I did do. I've told y'all before how much I love box swaps so, of course I had to sign up for the altered cigar box swap, hosted by Shannon. Especially since I had just found a bunch of cigar boxes at a garage sale.

These boxes are a bit dfferent than the typical cigar box though. They are made of cedar but they're rectangular-shaped. And they were bright red! Several coats of paint remedied that though. I painted the whole thing white & then layered wallpaper scraps, crackle paint, shoe polish & some more dry brushing. I topped it w/ an image of a charlotte doll....blinging her out w/ a lace collar & rhinestone trim.

I covered the charlotte image in Ranger's Glossy Accent to give her a shiny finish, like a real porcelain doll.

I added a ruffle around the rim & trimmed it out w/ rhinestones too. You can never have too much bling!

I employed big glass beads as pedestals.

And added a few inspirational quotes.

I decorated the inside of the lid w/ sheet music that reads China Doll...adding a lace pocket for a frozen charlotte. Love how the ruffle frames the lid!

A blinged out paper clip holds vintage ride tickets.

Look at all I managed to get in that box! Although it was such a tight fit that I had to pull out the little roll of wallpaper you see at the top of the picture...I couldn't get the box to close!

I made a couple of resin baubles & backed them w/ filigree pieces.

Scrap of lace adorned w/ a vintage earring & a matchbox full of buttons....

I recently found some crown wine toppers @ Hobby Lobby. I bought several to use in projects & I'm sharing one w/ Bonnie. I'm also sharing one of the tiny, old leather bound books I found while junking a while back. Bonnie is a self-described paper freak so I know she'll love it.

I glammed up a spice bottle & inserted a few pages from a French to English dictionary.

I also glammed up a couple of birds since I still have BirdSong on my mind.

I always include a heart item in my swaps. For those of you who haven't heard me use the term before, it's a gift that makes my heart scream "Noooooooo! You want to keep me!". There were several items in this swap that my heart didn't want to let go of ...the tiny book & the frozen charlotte particularly. But it can't be something I have more of, or that I can (or will allow) myself to replicate. I have several of the tiny books & a few of the big frozen charlottes so even though my heart didn't want to let go of them, they didn't qualify as a "heart item".

So I'm giving Bonnie the necklace I made for myself to wear @ Paper Cowgirl. And my heart is screaming @ the top of it's lungs....."NOOOOOOOOO!" LOL It's made out of a matchbox & filled w/ resin (like the one I made for me for BirdSong) ... and it doesn't show up well in the pic but there's a beaded chandelier prism hanging from the bottom. I hope Bonnie loves it as much as I do!

I blinged it out inside & out.

The only other swap I joined was a charm swap...hosted by Trisha Louise. We made 12 art charms & will get back 11...one is for a very special cowgirl. ;) I made mine out of a resin bauble. They needed to be smaller than a quarter though so I couldn't use the paint pallettes I usually use as molds. I found candy molds that were the perfect size but they were a bit textured inside & didn't come out shiny & clear so I'm not completely thrilled w/ how they turned out. I added my usual bling by attaching a rhinestone to the jump ring. Cowgirls rule!!!

We also needed to make 12 filler charms. I made mine out of dangly rhinestrone strands.

Cindy works so hard at these gigs that I made her a little hostess gift...a Queen of the Cowgirls pendant. I used some of the beautiful, blue glass glitter I won at last year's Paper Cowgirl....adding a bejeweled paper crown & boots.

Yep, it's true...cowgirls do have more fun!!!!

Yee Haww!

Time for me to mosey on down to Waxahachie & have a boot-scooting good time w/ the rest of the paper cowgirls. I am sooo excited!

I typically don't get excited about these events until I am done w/ all that I need to do. And since I am typically a procrastinator & am working right down to the wire, I don't have time for much excitement to be built up. But I've been done w/ Paper Cowgirl preparations since last Saturday & I am about to explode w/ excitement. I didn't think Thursday was ever gonna get here!


Would you believe these boots used to be red, black & white? I bought them @ a garage sale last year for a dollar. I'm not a red, black & white kind of gal but they were only a dollar! I thought that maybe I'd do something w/ them & if not, I was only out a buck. ;) After seeing some altered shoes in a Somerset publication, I got the idea to paint them (using fabric paints so they'd flex). But they looked really artificial so I hit them over & over again w/ brown shoe polish...wiping it off & letting it settle into the cracks & creases, making them appear to be old leather. Then I stuck some glittery letters on them & added rhinestone anklets & now they're "cowgirl chic"! (cross your fingers for me that the paint doesn't scuff off but I've brought a spare pair, just in case)

And isn't the purse cute? I made it last year for Paper Cowgirl. I think it used to be an old 45 record case. How many of you are old enough to remember them? I am! *blushes*

I'll be back tomorrow w/ swap pictures...come see!

The Wicked Tea was awesome in every way!

First off, I gotta warn y'all about the amount of pictures in this post...there's a lot! So grab a cup of whatever, take a potty break & prepare yourself to be wow'ed...by the many talents behind Paper Cowgirl's A Wicked Tea.

I'm unable to copy & paste website addys (think it's a stupid trojan that I can't get rid of) so I'm not gonna embed links to blogs in this post. But you can google any blog name that you are interested in.

First up, the decor...oh my goodness, was it over the top fabulous! Ann Denise from Whim & Fancy Designs is known as being teh crepe paper queen but after this event, I think she earned the title, Queen of Everything. She not only taught a wonderful class but handled the decor & the food!

click on any picture & then click again to enlarge for details

I took this next shot before the cupcakes were brought out. But she transformed a chandelier into a cupcake stand...pretty clever, huh? (and one you will probably see me copy at some point LOL)

Candy bar...full of devilishly good treats. And party favors made by Ann Denise.

The breakfast station...AD made fruit salad, coffee & scones. She also made us a wonderful lunch w/ pasta salad, broccoli salad, chicken wraps & corn chowder. We ate good!!! ;)

Rose petal scones...they were fabulous!

And the teachers were as fabulous as the food...from left to right, you have Lisa from Tarnished & Tattered, Ann Denise from Whim & Fancy Designs, Cindy from Yapping Cat Studio ( Cindy is the backbone of Paper Cowgirl) & Lesley from Flatwoods Folk Art.

Here is one of the students (Grace came all the way from NY for the retreat!) in front of The Pink Cottage...the venue the Wicked Tea was held in. Quaint, quaint, quaint!

And the students...well let's just say there was a lot of snorting going on! LOL I knew most of them from previous Paper Cowgirl retreats but made a few new, cherished friends.

My table (the loudest table LOL)...from left to right; it's Jennie from The Pretty Pekingese, me, Grace from Grace in the Pink City & Jan, from Just Me Jan. I knew Jan already but we all clicked from the get-go...I couldn't have asked for better tablemates.

And now on to the projects. First up is Lisa's Coven Book class.

I strayed a bit from her class example, using a black bow & pearls instead of the tiny, old book of poems she provided us. That book is wayyyy cool & I just couldn't bring myself to glue it down. Plus, the hint of glam suits me & my style.

She showed us an awesome technique of using liquid resin (I think that's what it was... I may have to email Lisa & ask her)...it looks so cool "dripping" down the book.

I also went w/ a different image than Lisa provided....using one of a witche's tea party that I found in our goodie bags. How appropriate, huh?

And I realllly strayed from Ann Denise's class example. She taught us how to make noisemakers out of paper clay. Her's was really, really cute but it was painted in bright colors & I'm trying to stick w/ black & white for Halloween. So I used rhinestone buttons for eyes, gave it all a coat of crackle & then went over it w/ a watered-down burnt umber paint, wiping it off so it only stayed in the cracks.

I know it looks like a cross between an alien cat & a pig but I don't care...I love it! I added a pipe cleaner tiara & turned her into a Princess.

I glittered the back of her head to add more dimension.

And I wrapped the stick part w/ a strand of sequins & glittered the ball end. I LOVE my Princess Boo Kitty! I even wore the witche's hat I made & carried my Boo Kitty w/ me trick or treating. I drove everybody nuts waving the "wand" & chanting "Hocus Pocus, Dominocus!"

Lesley taught the Wicked Crone Necklace class....I loved it! Loved the class & I LOVE my necklace. I have worn it often since the Wicked Tea & have received many compliments on it. I'd like to make a couple more & am ordering more molds from Lesley.

Thanks so much to all the teachers for making it such a wonderful day. And a special thank you to Cindy, our head cowgirl. ...you're the best Cindy!