Postcard Art!

I hosted a project over at Paper Whimsy last month and the theme was called Spring Friends.  Everyone had to create something on a postcard sized base and then we swapped with another member of PW.  Below is my submission for the project. 

FLOWERS ATC Swap

Here is my submission for the monthly swap over at Creative Souls. The topic was Flowers. Of course I couldn't resist adding a vintage image to my composition. A lovely lady from Cemerony. And then all the lovely handcut flowers and a bird to dress things up.

April in Paris

Oops am a bit late with this! But here is the ATC made for Paper Whimsy monthly ATC lottery. The theme is April in Paris and here is my take on this lovely theme.

StEaMPunK aTC

Here is my first attempt at Steampunk.  I created this ATC for a swap at Creative Souls.  When you look at the images of the sweet girl you might think it is a picture (or half a picture) of two different girls. But it is not! It is one little girl image that I cut in half.  I think if  you took a picture of your face and cut  the image in half you might see two different people too!

Adorable girl and her Mother

This is a picture of my Aunt Emily and her mother, or as I called her, Busia.  My Aunt recently passed away and I thought I would do a little piece of art featuring my own relatives- for a change.  I also wanted to give something to my cousin Claudia, the daughter of Emily.  I took this image from a much larger picture of my father's family, nine members altogether.  I love working with these types of  vintage images and this one featuring my own family  was very

special to me.  Since my family is Polish I added a small map of Poland and a scrap of  music from a Polish Christmas carol. My sister and I used to sing Polish carols every Christmas season as we learned them in school.  Although my Busia looks very stern in this picture, she really was the sweetest and most gentle person.  She would make me graham cracker "sandwiches", with a thick layer of butter in between-Yum!

I also wanted to share a little story about my Busia as told to me by my Uncle Eugene.  My Busia grew up in Poland in the 1880's and lived on a farm with her large family who were tenant farmers. Due to their extreme poverty my Busia was sent out to be a maid at the landowner's house. She was a scullery maid and  began when she was only 9 years old, washing the dishes and pots and pans.  Later as a teen she came down with small pox.  This left her face very scarred. Her sisters worried that no one would wish to marry her.  They knew of a man  from a nearby town that had emigrated to America and wished to marry a Polish girl.  They thought this would be a good solution for my Busia.  So they packed her up and sent her to America. She met my grandfather and they were married.  They had seven children. One of them was my father.  So that is my little story.  I like to think that I and my sisters inherited some of the spunk and hardiness as shown by my Busia. Her maiden name was Antonina Klazura and she lived until age 103!

This is the ATC I created for the Paper Whimsy group's monthly ATC challenge. The theme this month is "I live my daydreams in music".  I used Paper Whimsy images and background paper.  Some fancy cutting put the parasol in her hands!

Island Fever

Just returned from the islands so I am showing a piece that has that island flavor! It is done on canvas board with Paper Whimsy image and background paper. I loved adding the jeweled accents if you can see them, it adds a bit of sparkle here and there.