Puss in Boots and Gnomes

It must be Spring! The Gnomes are back in the flowerbed tossing around the pigskin, and tending to flowers. Those pretty blue bells are from some discount flower bulbs from the 99cent store that I threw into the ground and forgot about. A very pretty surprise when I looked out the window Sunday morning.

Well, I am finally getting chance to figure out how this new computer operates. Very frustrating when you can't find your old files, & have to learn how to manipulate programs all over again!! John is out at his train club, so I have had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours this evening poking around and accomplish something.
I have really missed being able to edit my photos after downloading; found the new app, downloaded it (don't tell John!) and started playing!
Photos were taken after the rain this weekend out in my garden. I have gotten some wonderful new plants from Annie's Annuals, and some are starting to bloom.
This whiteflower above, is Minoan Lace, seeds originally from Greece, natch! It is supposed to love the heat and sun, does not need lots of water, and will reseed itself (LOVE A SELF PLANTING GARDEN!!)
This flower is a Baby Blue Eyes. Small, grows sort of like Johnny-Jump-Ups, if you remember those (looking for some seeds for this season, and concerned that I haven't seen them yet.) Self-seeding, great ground cover for under roses and such, so the catalogs say. Hope so. they are a very pretty color blue, and are very perky.
John and I were out on a road trip on the west side of LA back last fall, and we found this church under construction in Hollywood. It is the Holy Transfiguration Russian Orthodox Church, and is really beautiful. It is very compact, but you can see they can put a lot in a small package! We have not been by since then, but they should have landscaping done by now, and have taken the last of the scaffolding down.
And this is a work in progress....a wee Puss in Boots for a dear friend. I used collaged napkins for the flowers and the rather unusual sky...but if it is a fairytale, what better than to show a hand writing the story? The Castle details were added in with watercolor pencils after cutting it from a scrapbook page. The Kitty was from some German punched paper images given to me. Not sure if I want to antique the background, or leave bright like this. I did use clear gesso over the original dried collage; worked out very nicely. The images are now level, and would take any more paint, ink or colored pencil well.

All in a weekends work.....

I have been working on these collages and things for several months now, but finally had the time to finish them off. Just a bit more varnish to finish out the inside of a couple of boxes and they are all done and ready for me to try and put on Etsy.
Used felt for the bottom of one box, but hand quilted little reversible pads for the others. I think that they are a little nicer looking and nicer to put your treasures down on.
The cat isn't collage, she just barged her way in. She was made for Day of the Dead last year, but is ready to roam and find another home.

Collage Camp!!

I would really love to go to Collage Camp this summer!
They were having a drawing coming up soon, and I hope that I get lucky!
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