Altered Puzzle Piece

My favorite clerk at Collective Journey uses an altered puzzle piece as a name tag. I have a few art events coming up, and I thought I'd do the same, rather than wear a generic sticky name tag. I'd have liked my name to be a bit bigger, but the next size alphabet stamps I have are the 1" stamps and those are too big. It's difficult to see, but underneath my name is a big flourish embossed with Tim Holtz Distress Embossing Powder in tea dye. It's maybe a bit too subtle ... I'll wear the puzzle piece on a fiber of some kind around my neck.

I Made Someone's Day!

Thanks to Jill, who says I "made her day" and gave me an award to prove it! Jill is a moderator on one of my favorite Yahoo groups and she's a really great friend.

The rules of the "You Make My Day" award say that I get to pass it on to ten people whose blogs bring me happiness, inspiration, and make me happy about blog land. I can let them know by email or through comments on their blogs. If you're lucky, you may get the award more that once -- that just means you're really loved! So, to keep the award going, here my ten picks (It was hard to decide!):

Leah @ Creative Everyday

Francine's Musings

Tyn @ Pookieville

Suzan @ Thrifty Collage Artist

Linda & Karen @ Journal Revolution

Dawn @ My Thoughts on Life, My World And the World at Large

Judy Wise

Marissa @ The Other Side of Me

Hermine's Place

Life is the Art

Stop by and visit my picks. You just might find a new blog to put on your blogroll.

Button Fairies

I'm a part of a swap on a Yahoo group. We are to create three Button Fairy Dolls and get three back. It's been a while since I participated in a swap; the last one was an ATC swap and I got one of my own ATCs back! I hope that doesn't happen again. There are some really neat button fairies being sent in. I hope mine are appreciated and enjoyed.

Mircoscope Slides

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon with my friend, Diane, and she taught me how to solder microscope slide pendants. I'm pretty pleased with my results. They aren't perfect, but they are a beginner's efforts. Now, I'm sorely tempted to spend my birthday money (February 11) on soldering equipment instead of joining the altered arts book club. I was initially going to buy a sewing machine, but my mother is going to give me hers.

Another Countdown

Lisa Vollrath is having a Valentine's Countdown -- free images! All you have to do is post the link on a discussion group, blog, chatboard, etc., then you can download her freebies. Go check them out.

Step Outside Your Box Saturdays -- Texture

This week's challenge for the Step Outside Your Box Saturdays Challenge is Texture. I love playing with texture and may yet do something new for this challenge, but right now I'm not feeling very well. Nothing serious, just a bit of a cold. The art I've posted is several months old; all of it was inspired by techniques learned from the book Celebrate Your Creative Self.

Check out the challenge and see other people's offerings. I'm sure you'll see some amazing art.