Mystery Monday for June

Each Monday a new photo will be posted. Follow the same as before, comment here that you are participating, and then email me your guess. Every Monday a new photo will be posted but we will only have one winner per month. All the responses will be put in the drawing, and yes I am still going to put in everyone's name, right or wrong, it's That you played that counts! :)

So, then at the end of the month I will draw one name from all those who emailed me a guess for all the months photos, (yes you can do one week, two weeks, etc or all!) and the winner will get a special Mystery Monday gift just for them. This way I don't get overwhelmed and no one will get shortchanged. I am doing this because I know it's great to get something just for you because you are special, and my readers are special to me. I found out that this is a world wide feeling when participating in the OWOH event as I choose to make something special for each of my winners. In fact they each got two gifts! So I want to continue this on through out the year which will carry us through to the next OWOH event.

I know many of you have found my blog and become followers through that event but maybe didn't win the giveaway so this is like another chance, or many more! :)

So I hope you all will continue to participate, and don't worry, if you won before, that's ok, please keep playing. If I draw a name of a previous winner I will give you a 'consolation prize' and draw a new winner so you still have a chance too!

And now for this weeks photo



The only hint I will give you is that this is a part of a reproduction of a famous painting by a well known Master Artist (deceased). What I want from you is either the name of the painting or the Artist.

PS, also a great palette to work from for a summer design if you are looking for that special inspiration!

Have fun!

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Last Day to enter May Giveaway!

Fresh Start Bead by HeART of Eden Beads

Don't forget get your entry in by midnight tonight (I'll be lenient and give you till tomorrow morning when I wake up) for the May Mystery Monday photo contest.

Read the details and review all the photos for this month on this post here.

Remember there are two prizes this month, one general drawing from all the guesses and another drawing from all correct answers to what all the photos are taken from.

Send me your guess today. I'll announce the winners tomorrow!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I am off to the Bead Show!


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Mystery Monday May 24 Number 4 in Series

This month we are doing it a bit different, you can read about it here.

This photo is number 4 in the series.





Remember: This month I have decided to go with a theme. All the pictures will be related. You can send your guess in as usual each week, but for the last week, I will ask you to give me a final answer. As you know all answers get an entry. But for this last week only those correct will be put into a bonus drawing. This is the fourth photo. Have Fun!

Next week I'll reveal the last photo and ask you for your final quess!

Mystery Monday for May - Week 1

We are starting our second Month of Mystery Mondays (this one is a bit late because I announced the winner yesterday from Aprils giveaway).

This month I have decided to go with a theme. All the pictures will be related. You can send your guess in as usual each week, but for the last week, I will ask you to give me a final answer. As you know all answers get an entry. But for this last week only those correct will be put into a bonus drawing. So here's the first photo. Have Fun!



If you need instructions on how this giveaway works click here.

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Last week For April Giveaway of Mystery Monday

Ok, today's picture is the last one for April so make sure to get your guesses in by May 2nd. I will draw and announce the winner on May 3rd.


Directions on how to enter can be found in this post.

Last weeks Photo can be seen here.

Have fun guessing!

Mystery Monday - April 19th Week 3

I've got a few more entries for this month, I sure hope to get more, Remember, the prize is a special gift made just for you!

This weeks photo



Entry directions here.
Last weeks Mystery photo here.

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One World One Heart Update

Hello, It is still Passover for me so I scheduled this post for you. I thought you might enjoy an update on my OWOH goings on. If you remember I got in on this event the last week (actually 9 days before it ended), so visiting all those blogs was like a Internet marathon and I still have not gotten to all of them, but I will! I decided, (because I always over-do), to have nine winners. I could have just given any of my completed pieces of art work but in the spirit of the event, that of coming together, sharing, learning about and meeting other artists I wanted my offerings to be special.

So I had a mystery giveaway, which turned into a custom giveaway. I decided that I wanted to make a special something for each winner. I had visited their blogs, and some had shops so I visited them, read profiles and website and then wrote to each one and told them that I wanted to make something special for each of them and would they share a bit more about themselves with me that I may not be able to find on their blogs or elsewhere. And they all were very happy to share in the spirit of this event. I was overwhelmed learning about all these fabulous women from around the globe. There were many things we had in common but I was also enthralled by our differences. The drawing gave me winners from here in the US to Canada, Finland, Scotland, Israel and all the way to New Zealand . I was thrilled to be able to connect with these talented ladies that I most probably would never have met otherwise.


But I knew it was going to take some time to make something special for each winner and I didn't want them to think I'd forgotten them so I decided to make a little something for each of them to remember the event by. What I came up with I especially liked because it allowed me to be eco-friendly at the same time. Since the event was called One World One Heart I thought what better way to commemorate this event than to make hearts with the world? Well not really the world but a vintage world map I had. So that is what I did. I cut out the map and then cut it into sections that would fit on some card stock backing. I choose blue, like in the oceans and also gray and white card stock. I used gel medium to join them together and then put under a stack of books overnight to dry and to keep from curling.

The next day I took about 7 of my own heart stencils and went about tracing hearts on the map pieces, making sure to capture the countries my winners were from in at least one of them. I had a bit of trouble with New Zealand since I had two winners from there so one winner had to have a heart of the adjacent country of Australia. The US was a bit tricky too as my Canadian winner was located not far from the border of one of my US winners but at least they got the right country's!

To these country hearts I added others from around the world and many were ocean hearts too, even some of the south pole, Antarctica. Then it was time to take all these and to make a heart string for each one. I laid out the countries first and then had to balance the rest of the string by color and shape and size of the remaining hearts. That took some doing but they finally all fit. Now I needed a way to join them together and make it easy to hang. Good old fashioned cafe curtain rings were my answer and I just happened to have enough. I sewed most of them with heavy cotton thread and then tied the top to the curtain ring. On the bottom I had taped a little paper strip with the country name on it so I could keep them all straight. When I saw them all hanging there like that I knew that I needed a 'flapper' but not one made just of paper. So I thought about it for awhile and decided on making them from metal, aluminum which is lightweight and could catch a breeze easily.

So I set about making these. I got hubby to cut them out for me but I drilled them using my new dremel and bench vise. Then I stamped each one with the country of origin ( from me so the US) and then the country of the recipient winner. Then I textured each one all around with my ball peen hammer and sanded the edges to make them safe. Just making these tags took me two hours, the time was adding up.

Then I wanted to make a special envelope for them, so I made each one a recycled magazine envelope that I cut out and sewed together from six carefully selected pages. Then to make sure that they wouldn't be crushed in their travels I cut out squares of cardboard from cereal boxes and carefully taped each string around the square with the flapper charm on the left. These were then put inside small ziplock bags to protect from any moisture on their travels and then inserted into the envelopes. Each was then hand addressed with little notes to the mail lady (she loves my envelopes and sometimes makes my husband late for work because she has to look at each one and ogle over it!) on where to attach the postage and where on the envelope to attache the customs slip.

All in all when I finally finished them I realized it had taken me 4 days to complete with about 15 hours total to make them all. But I was pleased with the result and thought it would be a meaningful remembrance. Oh, part of that time was in writing to each one individually a fairly long note explaining what it was and that I was working on their special 'something' which would follow as soon as I had it ready. Now these were sent out on March 11th and I've heard back from about half of them that they received them, I hope the others got theirs as well. I have also begun to send out the special gifts and will update you in future posts about what they are as some who entered my drawing were interested in what the mystery may be! so look for those posts in the future. If you've missed any about the OWOH I always try to label them with that tag or you could just look up in the search bar at the top OWOH and you will see all the posts regarding it!

I sure did love this event and am kinda glad it is stretching out a bit, if there's one thing that can be extended and shared in this whole wide world it's love, don't you agree? :)

All nine envelopes Custom Addressed, and ready to mail out. Notice I found a use for all these CD stickers I had laying around, they make cool address labels!

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Mystery Monday - And we're BACK!

Yes Mystery Monday has returned, Thank you my readers for allowing me my trip around the world with OWOH this past week. Next year if Lisa has it again I shall be ready, because you really do need all three weeks to do this, not one! In fact for those of you participating in my One World One Heart giveaways, the Mystery of who my winners are will remain a mystery a bit longer as I was up late trying to visit as many of the other blogs on the journey as I could before the deadline (I actually fell only 10 shy of seeing half of them!). So I haven't drawn my winners yet, but I will contact each and every one of you when I do later today and will post the results. Since you are here you may want to get in on my weekly Mystery Monday giveaway. The rules are simple.

1. View the Mystery Photo
2. Leave a comment on this post saying you are participating
3. Email me with your guess (I allow up to three) before next Monday, but DO NOT post your guess in the comments! :)
4. Next Monday I will draw a name from all the correct guesses and they will win a mystery surprise from me!
5. If you guessed correctly but your name is not drawn and you participate in the next Mystery Monday your name will be added twice, so that's two chances to win! So it pays to keep coming back and guessing, and besides that, it's fun! It's not just guessing what the photo is, but it helps to stretch your eye towards details and if you are an artist in any medium that will help you tremendously in your artwork!

So without furthur ado, I present you with this week's Mystery Monday Photo:


Yes, this one is in Black and White so you have to use your imagination more. Color gives us so much more information than we realize when we look at objects and shapes and wildlife even.

So, Animal , Vegetable or Mineral? I'll let you guess! :)

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Mystery Monday Photo and Winner Revealed!

Remember I said I went into my studio to find some interesting mystery pictures for you? So I hoped this would help you in guessing what it could be, related to art supplies, tools, that kind of thing. But again I seemed to have stumped most of you. I promise to make the next one easier, which will not be next week since that is February 15th and the day that I will be having my drawing for the One World, One Heart Giveaway. (Today is the last day to sign up so check it out!) I'm giving away 9 prizes that day and don't want too much confusion. I just signed up on Friday and already have over 100 entries. There are over 1000 participants so still have a week to stop by and sign up. So we will get back to our regular Mystery Monday on February 22 and I promise I will make it easier! :)

So who is our winner this week? Did you take a look and guess but not email me? If you got it right you may be kicking yourself now. Here is the photo. Sometimes the old is better than the new. For sometime I had been using a hand held plastic version that comes in a kids pencil case , then I got an electric version. The plastic never worked right, even one I got from the notions department at the sewing store and the electric eventually died on me, so back to basics, 'Standard' basics that is. For those of you who are teachers, I imagine this should have been easy for you. ;)

As an artist many of you probably use one of these for things such as altered art, scrap booking, mixed media pieces and even my favorite, polymer clay.

Know what it is yet?


Here's a wider angle photo , mounted on my new shelving unit on my work table. It is the best sharpener you can have as far as I know. You can sharpen all sizes of pencils, and it doesn't break off the point like others do. It has an inside mechanism that is sharpened steel and works like it should on the wood, shaving it just right. It sharpens my oil color pencils to a great point to get into the stamped crevices of the baked clay. Yes, I color my clay sometimes after baking with colored pencils. You can see that in this ACEO I made last year.

I was actually going to give you this picture below, because if you have one or ever emptied one, you would recognize this, but I thought I would play on the abstract of the design of the holes and let your imagination take you there.

I loved all your answers, some made me burst out laughing! I had lots of Bobbins, and phone dials and even a hubcap! :) but my favorite was 'Brass Knuckles'. I have to say that wasn't my most dangerous sounding guess, my husband, who has used this numerous times to sharpen his pencils for wood working, thought it was a Revolver! Oy! If I need Brass knuckles and a revolver in my studio I can honestly say I wouldn't be producing that much art! Or I am such a bad artist that I have to threaten people to like and buy my art? I don't think I'm that bad. :) lol

So after this entertaining Mystery I had only one correct answer and that was from Mary Lamoray! Hooray! I am glad I didn't stump everyone. I think I have as much fun reading your guesses as I hope you do making them!

Please all come back on Feb 22 for a new Mystery! I love sharing this time with you and I finally figured out where I got this idea from. A long time ago I was a subscriber to GAMES magazine. I'm not even sure if it's still published, in fact I don't recall seeing it on the Magazine stands at Barnes and Nobles or Borders, so maybe not. But I love puzzles and non contact games, more games of strategy. They used to have a feature each issue that had a page of I think a dozen pictures, close-up and strange angles of ordinary objects and you had to guess what they were. I love the study of details, proportion, light and more and guessing was only half the fun. I think a great exercise for any artist, don't you? So I am glad you all are having fun with this and keep coming back and starting off your week with something fun to look forward to!

Congratulations again Mary, I have your address and will send you a grab bag that is useful to your art and not too big because I know of your storage issues! :)

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Feeding your Creativity Friday - One World, One Heart

Bienvenue! Dobro pozhalovat'! Bienvenidos! Benvenuti! Irashaimasu! Merhaba! Foon ying!Huan ying! Velkomen! Brucha haba'a! Bine ati venit! Witaj! Welkumme! Dobrodošli! Tervetuloa! Vítejte!Velkommen! Bonvenon! Tervetuloa! Kalos orisate! Suswaagatam! Benvenuti! Sveika atvykusi!

I'm sorry but the deadline is here! I won't be taking any more comments towards the drawing. I will be drawing the 9 winners later on today and announcing them as soon as possible. Thank you all who visited and participated!

WELCOME! And THANK YOU for stopping by my Blog! I've rolled out the Welcome Mat (my special Magic Carpet!) for old friends and followers and new friends to be from around this great green earth of ours! I am pleased to have stumbled upon the blog of Lisa Swifka, A Whimsical Bohemian, it is a fantastic blog , you must save that link and go back and visit it often. I honestly don't know how I got there, I go through dozens of emails per day and hundreds of websites, especially when writing for my own blog or just looking for something and one link leads to another, but somehow I found this wonderful event. Designed by Lisa in 2007 it is in it's fourth years and each year the participants grows abundantly.


UPDATE!!! I will be taking entries until 6am EST Feb 15th , then I will draw the nine winners and make an announcement later tomorrow morning. Thank you all for visiting me! :)


In a nutshell each participating blog owner is offering a heartfelt giveaway. When you get your ticket you go to the link above and you will see all the participants from around the world listed on the right sidebar. Just click on them and you will be taken to a page on their blog similar to mine. You will see this same poster. Visit them, learn about them a bit and leave a comment and you are entered into their giveaway. All winners will be announced and posted on Feb 15th (unless otherwise noted on individual blogs).

What a wonderful way to draw us closer together? I love it, I am just sorry I didn't know about this back in January when it started, I would have had time to plan better but since it's still open until the 8th I am throwing my blog in to the wonderful mix!

So welcome fellow Bloggers from around the world.

Rules: Very few!
Please leave me a comment so I know you were here and tell me what country you are from! Also please make sure that your icon links back to your blog where your email is listed somewhere so I can contact you if you are a winner! That's all you need to do to be entered into my drawing!

I am sorry to say I don't have a giveaway all prepared, but between now and the drawing date I will make something special just for this occasion, and knowing me, it will be more than one, so we may have many winners! (Please see below for update) For those who are new to my blog I already run a weekly giveaway on Mondays, called Mystery Monday, you can look back through my blog to see what that is about. I also have other weekly features such as:

Team T International Tuesday where I highlight a member of my etsy team which is composed of all kinds of artists and craftsmen/women.

What's New Wednesday - where I let you know what's new with me, my artworks, shops, contests I'm entered into and more. This coming week I will reveal the creation I made with the Beads I received in a huge Bead Soup Party Swap! So if you love beads and Jewelry stop back and see what I and over 80 others have created with our 'Soup'!

Thrifty Thursday I share what I've found in my searches and also from my many emails that will help you stretch your money further so you can have some left over to help others and buy craft supplies! :) Also eco friendly tips!

Feed Your __________ Friday, this day I present something to feed your soul, mind, body or as the case in this post, your creativity and sharing and learning about others. Always something different, and hopefully inspiring for you!

I don't post much on the weekends, time to rest, and regroup, but sometimes I have pre-scheduled posts, or reminders about the Mystery Monday giveaway to get your entry in, or maybe just share with you some of the joys I find outside my window each day with all the wild life in my yard there is always something interesting or amusing going on! So I hope you will enjoy your time here and please come back again, or subscribe to RSS feed or click on the Google button over my followers in the sidebar! Let's not let this be a one time visit, I'd love for you to come again!

Now getting back to the GIVEAWAY.......................
I am currently in a large bead swap which will be revealed next Wednesday so as I finish off my project for that I may also make something special for the giveaway here. I will try and post pictures of them as soon as possible.


Right now we are bracing for a Blizzard, BRRRR, and I haven't had great photography weather but will do so as soon as I can. If you would like to know a bit about my artwork you can visit my shop in the sidebar or my Flickr site for more pics!

I can tell you this, although I am mainly at present an Artist working in Polymer Clay, I also like to do paper art, recycled and re-purposed art, collages, photography, textile art projects and more! So it could be anything! The anticipation makes it more fun, don't you agree? :)

Again Welcome!!! I am so happy to have you visit me and I hope you enjoy your time spent here and will come back soon!

Now get on your magic carpet and ride on out to discover more wonderful blogs!

GIVEAWAY UPDATE! I love it that so many have come to visit me even though I started late. I have been gathering some prizes together and so far have these teasers to offers (no pics I still like the idea of a surprise!) Something green, something heartfelt, something to inspire, something to be creative with, something to wear, something to read, something to share, something for fun AND something to listen too!

Ok, I couldn't resist, must post some teasers for you. Some of these are prizes, others may be components I may use to make you something with. I'd love to tailor each prize to the winner drawn so these may change.




That's right, one prize for each day I have been on the ride!

How's that to peak your interest? :)

Again, thanks to Lisa for organizing this fantastic event!

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