New decorative boxes

I call this one "Marin". She looks like she is spending a day by the sea.



This is my version of a "black sheep bunny". Why should the Easter bunny have all the fun? Spotty here wants to have an Easter egg hunt too;)




Snowball looks like she wants to hear what Spotty has planned.

Of course Little Red and Wolf are joining the others in my etsy shop.

Just wanted to show you what I've been doing with my spare time. I had so much fun painting these litttle 3" paper mache boxes. My Dad and my friend Kelsey came over and I gave them a box to paint too. Tell me, what do you like to paint? Leave me a comment and I'll come visit your blog.

Oh how I love paper dolls!

My obsession with creating continues. I made this paper doll out of some scrapbook paper and some of my vintage blue pearl baby buttons. Not exactly sure what to do with her yet. She makes me smile when I look at her. My Mom plays paper dolls with her granddaughter all the time. She uses her vintage ones and then she and Little Miss cut up magazines to make their own. They love cutting up the "American Girl" catalog. Did you play with paper dolls when you were younger? It really is fun to make one. I highly recommend it!

Le Chaperon Rouge

Well I did it! I listed my bunny creations on etsy. I also created my version of Little Red riding hood and her "friend" the wolf. I might try ebay for those. I really like the idea of etsy but I wonder if ebay wouldn't be better in the long run. I wrote their names on the paper mache boxes in French. Those four years sitting in French class during high school are slowly coming back to me (with the help of dictionary.com). I then sprayed two coats of gloss protective coating on them.

Holy Cow I'm going to list my first thing ever on ETSY!

This is a paper doll I made after I lost out on bidding on one on eBay.

This is the Easter display I set up in my living room this morning. Oh how I love my Jackson Pottery bunnies! If you click on the picture you can see it in detail.
I'm thinking of using this photo to list my bunny.
SOLD Thanks Mary


This is one taken outside. Kind of a overcast day but it was the best I could do.

Hello fabulous readers! I have been saying for a long time now that I want to start my folk art business. I have an ETSY account set up in my great-grandma's name. Her maiden name was Rosa Emma French. Isn't that a beautiful name? She married my great-grandfather and became Rose Smith. I'm thinking of the business name "Blooming Mind Studio". Mostly because I think I'm out of my blooming mind most of the time.

I want to thank so many of you in "bloglandia" for inspiring me with your creativity and your kind words about my adventures into crafting!

Puppets and Easter Bunny toys!

This is a recycled rock candy stick that I painted to make a cute little Easter bunny creation.

This was a variation on the theme. I made this with a paper mache box and a dowel rod I rescued from a wall cloth calendar.

Here is the puppet I made at the Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre yesterday with my boys. I was going for an Irish lass but the boys thought she looked liked the Poison Ivy from Batman.:)

This is what the place looked like from the outside. (close up shot of the way cute Owl)

The front of the theatre, it is located in the town of West Liberty, Iowa. (Click on picture to see the detail better)

The boys and I had such a great time at the Puppet Theatre working on our finger puppets and the foam core stage. They each got their own stage to decorate and they made several puppets. I absolutely love doing things with the boys. The cost was $10 for each kid. Parents were free!

What do you like to do with your kids? I'm always looking for ideas. Especially those that don't cost and arm and a leg to do. :) Spring break is next week, yikes!

My Frida and a shot at cake decorating

This is my version of Frida. My husband asked who was the Asian girl with the unibrow. What can I say? I was trying for ethnic but I guess I didn't quite capture the hispanic element. Anyway this is my donation to the Art Center.

This is my Dad's contribution. Can you tell he lives to fish? He calls this one Mighty Muddy.
This was my attempt at Dr. Seuss style fish. This was my cake to decorate for Dr. Seuss Night at the kids' school. It was a challenge but I was pleased for my first attempt at cake decorating.

This is my friend Nicole's version of The Cat in the Hat. Not her first cake rodeo. Isn't she good at this? We both had Dr. Seuss books to look at but we still had to do it freehand.

I was asked by my sister to do a painting for the Muscatine Art Center Mosaic Art Project. They sold 300 canvases for $5 each and people took them home and painted them then they brought them back. The artist gets the $5 back and the art center is doing a blind buy for $20 for each artwork. My sister said there were a lot of wonderful pieces donated. They will be on display in the art center I think on the 15th of March. In April there will be an Artist Reception where they will serve refreshments and give everybody a chance to discuss their art. My Dad and I each took on a 6"x 6" canvas and I think the results turned out pretty good.

The next thing I took on was a Dr. Seuss birthday cake. My friend baked the cakes and crumb coated them and then brought them to my house for decorating. She made one white and one chocolate. The chocolate had chocolate mousse in the middle and her Swiss butter creme frosting was delightful! I decorated the one with the fish and she did the Cat in the Hat.


I went to Michael's over the weekend and bought another canvas. It is a 5" x 5" Gallery style with 1 1/2" stretcher. Trying to find the right thing to do on it. It was about $7 on sale so I want to do something really cool on it. I've got a couple ideas and as soon as I get off the computer I'm going to try my luck at it. Check back to see what I come up with.

Now I know why experienced Bloggers use...

Tooter Puff is in "time out". See next picture why.

She didn't think I would find out who made this mess in the kitchen.


This is where she came from.

I loved these pictures from the post I deleted so I decided to put them back on for the fun of it.

Okay so I was so excited to see that someone left me a comment aout the Monster doll I made for my niece's 6th birthday. I clicked on it to see what it said and it had an appeal for money or art to be donated to someone I've never even heard of before. I decided to delete the entire post to get rid of the unwanted comment. If people are in a real jam I am more than happy to help but how do I know this wasn't just some computer savy spammer.