Designing Diva's

Late again....

2009-12-09T03:39:00.000-08:00

Yes I'm late posting again - technically this month's meeting is not for a few more hours so I still made it in time......

We only had a small group again last month.

Here is Yvette's piece (her swap was MIA...)

Cindy's piece and her swap to Yvette

Sherry's piece and her swaps to Cindy and Cheri

And Greta's swaps to Cindy and Cheri

This month (today...) we are making a Christmas ornament and playing dirty Santa to see who gets to take them home.
I'll see if I can post them this week :o)

A few weeks ago.......

2009-11-15T14:46:00.000-08:00

Okay so the last meeting was a few weeks ago but I get points for posting the pics before the next meeting still right???

There were only the 4 of us last time so there aren't many pics to show but I really did like what everyone did with our challenge pieces.

First Yvette's and her swap piece to Cindy

Cindy's and her swap to Sherry

Sherry's piece

And Dana's photographic interpretation

And finally the pieces for next month's (..weeks...) challenge

See you back here soon!

September meeting

2009-09-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

We met this morning at Pimento's for a very yummy breakfast :o) We all had our block (or what we created with it) from last month and the next in our round robin swaps.

Dana's piece (missing her swap.....)

She used her block to stamp the colored background.

Sherry and her swap to Yvonne

Yvonne and her swap to Cindy

Cindy and her swap to Greta

Greta and her swap to Yvette

Yvette and her swap to Cheri (who couldn't make it this month)

And finally the pieces for next month's challenge

Back to school

2009-09-04T11:09:00.001-07:00

Well we never did manage to be able to get together during the summer so now that school is back in we picked up where we left off. We met at Dana's house this month and along with our challenge piece, each of us is doing a round robin art swap for the next few months so that we all get to take home a piece of each other's art to treasure. How fun is that?!?!?

Here is Cheri's piece and her swap to Cindy

Cindy's piece and her swap to Dana

Dana's piece and her swap to Greta

Greta's piece and her swap to Sherry

Sherry's piece and her swap to Yvette

Yvette's piece and her swap to Yvonne

Yvonne's piece and her swap to Cheri

I love that in a few months I will have a collection of these special little pieces of art. They are certainly something I will treasure!

And finally our challenge piece for next month

See you in September!

May challenge results

2009-05-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

This month we met at Scrappin' in the City so that we could do a little shopping while we chatted :o) I have to say that every month I am just blown away by the creativeness of these girls! I don't think you saw a photo of last month's challenge pieces but they were:

about 12 various sized and colored shopping bags from different stores

4 cd's

a National Geographic magazine

a marble

a (used) dryer sheet

2 paper condiment cups

a wire coat hanger

and a plastic container

And here are the results

Cindy decoupaged the outside of a shoebox

using the coat hanger to make the lines and on the inside she cut up the cd's for the flower petals and the bag handles for the centers

Dana's piece was entitled "suspension" - LOVE the colors!
Cheri's was the most ingenious (and you can see what we had to work with)

You're not looking at a a badly taken photo - she colored it purple - why didn't I think of that???

Yvette continued with her love of sewing with a "quilted" wall hanging which must of course contain a bird

And Sherry's piece (a modern work of art!) is entitled "hidden messages"

It has the words from all the bags hidden in it.

(edited to add) Love the idea that Yvonne came up with - a "signs of the times" scrapbook to commemorate what's happening right now

Another great challenge ladies! And here are the items for next month.

Enjoy your summer!

Greetings creative divas!

2009-05-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

I just got caught up on all your wonderful creations! I'm so envious of your talent! I miss the fun but honestly just don't have the time. I haven't even played with glass much lately with the wonderful boyfriend and the craziness of our company being bought filling up my days and nights. Keep up the great inspiration!

April 2009

2009-04-30T18:55:00.000-07:00

Even though not everyone was able to participate in this month's challenge the resulting pieces were as diverse as ever. I LOVED Sherry's "Doodle Button Book"

especially love that city doodle page.
Greta wowed us with a acrylic family scrapbook album

Cindy went with scrapbooking her family tooI thought Yvonne's art piece could easily be modified into a cool funky clock.
And Yvette made a picture for her youngest DD who likes - yes you guessed it - mice!

Sherry's sister chose the pieces for our next challenge and you won't even believe what they are!

March challenges

2009-03-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

Lunch at Panera and fabulous creative friends - what more could a girl ask for? This was what happens when you give a bunch of creative women and altoid tin and a mirror.... some you can still recognise, like Cheri's

and Sherry's

and Yvette's

and Cindy's (a pin cushion - though the time it took to do all those french knots I can't even imagine......)

But other's you have to look a little harder ... like Greta's

and Yvonne's

and Dana's (who included memorablilia from her grandmother in her piece)

And the April challenge pieces are

happy creating!

It's been a year!

2009-02-20T19:16:00.000-08:00

WOW! We've had 12 months of challenges now - can you believe it? And they all been so different and so inspiring. Can't wait to see what this next 12 months brings. Here are the fabulous creations with this month's challenge pieces.

Cindy's piece - look at the detail that went into creating this!

Dana used her pieces to make the different designs on the eggs - too cute!

Cheri's fabulous piece

Yvette's scrapbook page of her sister's bridal shower

Greta's clipboard - she used some of the cork for stamping

And Sherry's owl which I think is my favorite

And for next month challenge Cindy presented us with an Altoids tin and a mirror.

Hmmmm.... off to do some creative thinking!

First swap of the new year

2009-01-29T05:33:00.000-08:00

Well with that bottle as a challenge piece you would think that all the creations would come out pretty much the same but I was thrilled on how different each piece still looked. It was a fast a furious meeting due to other commitments but graciously hosted by the fabulous Cheri

Greta had beautiful mosaic papers covering hers and I love the butterfly and the beads!

Dana had real flowers in hers and the tissue paper mosaic coordinated with some small art pieces she made that you can see here

Cheri had the same idea with tissue paper but with very different results

Cindy turned hers in to a terrarium - love it!!!

Yvonne's is the perfect vase to hold flowers made for her by her children - you can't see in this photo but it has pretty stain glass flowers on the sides.

Yvette turned hers into 2 separate pieces (she is still on that bird kick...)

And Sherry wins the prize for the most original using her bottle to stamp the circles on her canvas completing a 3 part canvas series she has been working on.

Here are the challenge pieces for next month

They include a fabric swatch, Popsicle stick/tongue depressor, wine cork, acorn hat and bottlecap art. I'm off to create - won't you join us?

Christmas

2009-01-29T05:07:00.001-08:00

We had a lot of fun with our Christmas challenge and swap. The Challenge was to make an ornament or something that you could hang to exchange using anything at all. There were such varied but all beautiful creations and we had fun playing the dirty santa exchange.

Here is Dana with Greta's flower filled glass ornament

Yvonne's photo cube

Cheri with Yvette's birds and tree (claimed by Greta with a second set forDana )

Cindy's cross-stitched ornament (claimed by Sherry)

Cindy with Sherry's snowman wallhanging

Cheri's house of love claimed by Yvette

And Cheri with Dana's artwork

Sherry's mom provided us with January's Challenge pieces

Which include a paper towel, a frappucino bottle, a bead and a tin lid. Happy creations!

New Projects!!!

2008-11-19T10:23:00.000-08:00

Designing Divas met this morning at Panera. Here's our new artwork!
We had a small piece of wood to work with this month...can you find it in our projects?

Cheri's "Home" piece: How Cute and Sweet!!

What could be in Sherry's wonderful golden box? Sooo pretty!

And we welcome Cindy to our group!!! Her project is awesome!!! Take a peek...

Yvette's little bird and mushroom artwork...it's just precious!

Yvonne's very pretty and festive "Peace" hanging:

And another tree from me (Dana)...with feathers!

Edited by Yvette to add: Another new member joining us this month is Greta with her piece of her eldest DD

Next month we are to create something to exchange with each other...can't wait!!! You can use anything you want but it must be able to hang from your Christmas tree, a doorknob, or on the wall and can't be any bigger than 6" x 6".
This is Yvonne's piece from last month...beautiful verse and artwork, too!

Have a great month everyone!!! Happy Thanksgiving!

October meeting

2008-11-05T13:28:00.000-08:00

We were a small group this month but it was fun as always. Dana hosted and here is a group photo of us including Sherry's mom Jane who was in town visiting and decided to join in the fun.

Here is a close up of all the pieces
Dana's canvas entitled "Brittany's tree"

Yvette's scrap page of her beautiful new niece

Sherry's part 2 of a 3 part series (last month was part 1)

And Jane's frame

And here is the challenge piece we were given for next month

yep - that's it, just one wooden plaque, your choice of round or rectangular! I haven't decided yet whether it makes it harder or easier to just have the one piece........ I'll let you know next month.

Divas...Together Again

2008-09-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

A morning at Panera...eating, sipping, talking, and admiring each other's work!
Yvette and Yvonne

Sherry and Dana

Yvonne's Charming Nature Clipboard...

Yvette's Adorable Stephanie Bird Canvas...

"Stephanie was not born with brightly colored feathers like every one of her friends. She never let the situation get her down though. Thanks to her love of crafts she was able to make the most of what she had been given."

Sherry's Awesome Sparkly Canvas...

"One must make the most of every situation always"

Dana's Home Sweet Home canvas...

See you all next month...remember to make the most of every situation!!!

August challenge

2008-09-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

Sadly it has taken me until September to post the August challenges but that is just my life right now. We were missing Kathi and Cheri at this meeting so here are the other 4

Sherry turned her hand to yarn this time

and ended up with a cute purse!

I had looked at the pieces when we first received them and saw card and though I tried they never would become anything else - so a card it was

Dana did not feel the love she portrayed for this piece - even though it is purple - her favorite color!

And Yvonne had the most decorative of all the pieces.

Dana also brought along her July challenge to show us - her name is "Lady Bartlett"

Quite the looker don't you think?

Here are the pieces for September

they include

pipe cleaner

pony beads

Christmas lights

brown packing paper

stamps

ticket

phrase

glitter disks

Happy creating!

New challenge pieces

2008-08-03T10:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's taken me so long but here are the challenge pieces for August

It contains:

1 piece ribbon

1 piece patternd cardstock

1 petal

5 wood beads of various shapes and sizes

Needless to say I haven't started working on them yet and sadly I haven't got Dana's to her yet either. Oh well - school will start soon and we'll all be able to return to our regularly scheduled routines!

July Challenge

2008-07-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

Another month gone by and another month of fabulous creations. This month we met at Yvonne's house and though not everyone could make it this time we still had fun! The biggest challenge for everyone this month seemed to be the cork and the large teardrop crystal. Yvonne came up with this for her challenge

she painted through the wire mesh to create the pattern on the frame.

Sherry came up with a tea light holder (or pencil holder, or vase...) and coaster

She sliced the cork into little disks and punched holes in the center.
I (Yvette) was inspired by my recent etsy wanderings and made this Faerie watching kit which I knew my oldest DD would love

She spent a large part of this afternoon out in the garden hunting for Faeries :o) Included in the kit are a magic stone to help you see the faeries, a pouch to collect faerie wands, dust, wings or anything else you may happen upon and a notebook to record your findings. I carved a mushroom stamp out of the cork to decorate the tin with.

We were fortunate to have 2 guest diva's participate this month. The first one was Kathi's friend Melissa and here is what she came up with

She included the instructions so you can make one yourself:
Get a kid's canvas from Michaels. On the edges use alcohol ink. Then use acrylic paint to fill in center. Use dry brush method to put some paint on alcohol ink on the sides of canvas. Use glitter paint to color in star part of the wand. Attach rhinestones on the edge of star with adhesive. Cut wine cork to make the shape of the wand. Attach with E600. Shape jewelry wire and glue with E600 over cork. Shape wire mesh and attach to canvas with E600. Glue rick rack on to make the shape of ribbon on wand. Drill hole in the bottom of canvas and insert crochet needle for stick. Tie ribbon, chandelier fob, and copper colored disk on stick. Use E600 to glue glass globs to the top of canvas. Cover whole canvas with modge podge to protect it.
If you want to see more of Melissa's art work you can visit her etsy store or her blog

And lastly my sister Monique joined us and came up with this too cute wall decoration.

She has a thing for owls so they are included in much of her work. She also cut up the cork to make the branch for the tree. You can check out more of her creations in her etsy store (though you may have to wait till she gets back to Australia)

I'll post a photo of the new challenge soon and Dana who couldn't make it to the meeting promised to show us her creation soon too.

Happy creating!

June challenge results

2008-06-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

Another month of fabulous creations, fabulous refreshments (thanks Kathi) and fabulous ladies - but then again what else would you expect from a group of Diva's???

And here are the results

Sherri combined this month's challenge with her Deck of me card challenge and made a keepsake box

the inside is just as fabulous as the outside

Sherri's DD made one too - it matched her bathroom

Kathi's piece - love the reading quote

Another master piece from Dana

most of the challenge pieces are here

Yvonne's piece (the JOY actually stands for John and Yvonne with a "always" in the center - but joy works too!)

And Yvette's

the little bird makes me smile

Yvonne played catchup - remember that oatmeal container? Here's what she did with it.

And for next month here are the challenge pieces.

Thanks ladies!

Lunch at Panera

2008-05-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

We met at Panera to share our latest creations. Enjoyed having some yummies while we talked on and on about art ideas!

Painting Pottery at Cheri's House

2008-05-25T08:54:00.001-07:00

What a great afternoon at Cheri's house! We had a blast painting our plates! Thanks again Cheri!

Our First Creations!

2008-05-25T08:46:00.000-07:00

Here we are sharing our first creations! We had lunch, enjoyed getting to know each other, and had fun exchanging ideas!

June challenge pieces

2008-05-20T13:05:00.000-07:00

Here are the items we received for the June challenge

A page out of an old book

A flower (various colors)

A spiral paperclip

Twill tape

Celtic chipboard (various shapes)

Happy creating!

May challenge results and plates

2008-05-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

First here are the challenge results for May. I personally think that Sherry is this month's winner - check it out it's amazing!!!

Don't even ask how many hours she spent on this (or what time of the day/night those hours occurred in...) It's simply beautiful!

Another gorgeous painting by Dana - this time Irises

And if you haven't checked out her blog yet you need to go and do that! Oh and you'll have to hunt for where she used the challenge pieces again - but they are all in there!

Cheri did a mixed media canvas

I love the colors and the sentiment - and it's like an "Eye Spy" book to find all the challenge pieces - they're all in there!

Then my (Yvette's) little book

can I say it looks much more impressive in real life?? Of course not really all that impressive compared to the other ones.

LOVE this one by Sherri's daughter

I think she needs to send it to Fandango!

Kathi and Yvonne didn't make it to the meeting but hopefully they'll post their projects on here too.

Then Cheri gave us our plates back that we made at the last meeting, they turned out so good!

In order they are Cheri's, Kathi's, Sherry's and Yvette's. We didn't get a photo of Dana's so she'll have to post hers for us.

We'll put next month's challenge item's up in the next day or so in case you want to play along. Thanks for letting us share!

April challenge results

2008-04-24T10:11:00.000-07:00

I am constantly amazed how we receive the same objects and come up with such different things! Yvonne wasn't able to join us this month so we are missing her piece of art but here are the others this month

Dana outdid us all again with her beautiful piece of her grandmother's garden gate.

Where is the oatmeal container I hear you ask??? It's those pieces in the birdbaths.

Sherry and Cheri thought along the same lines but used completely different textiles. This is Cheri's

(Yes there is an oatmeal container and a knob hidden under there)

And this is Sherry's

she made good use of her rubber scraps from her newly mounted stamps :o)

I had this idea on the very day that we were given the challenge items

it came out quite well I think :o)

And last but not least this is Kathi's beautiful piece

and again you might have to look hard to find the challenge pieces...... that little smiley face hides a piece of the oatmeal lid, the knob is at the top and the twine tie on a little heart at the top too.

Beautiful work ladies! After we showed off our creations Cheri surprised us with the opportunity to paint some plates. Hopefully next month after they've been glazed and set we'll get to show photos of those too.

If you want to join us for next month's challenge here are the items

a paper lunch sack, a paper doily, a napkin, a playing card, a toothpick, a plastic coffee stirrer, and some yarn.

Wishing you creative success!

Join the challenge!

2008-03-28T17:04:00.000-07:00

Sherry's 2 daughter's decided that they wanted to join in the challenge too and here are their creations. The first is from her 13yr old

And this is from her 10 yr old.

Aren't they great????

We would love to see what YOU come up with - just post a link to your creation in the comments section. Here are the items we recieved for our March challenge

If you want to join our April challenge here are the items we were given to use

Yes that's right - an oatmeal container, a piece of jute and a wooden drawer pull. You have to use at least a piece of each of the 3 items but you don't have to use all of them and you can add whatever you would like to it - good luck!

March challenge photos

2008-03-25T12:37:00.001-07:00

March challenge items:

Starbucks cardboard coffee sleeve

Bamboo skewer

Plastic drink bottle lid

Pearl flower button

Burlap

Yvette's project - Escape!

The 12x12 canvas was painted with acrylic paints and then flower embellishments were added. The bottle cap is used to lift the Starbuck's image off the canvas

Cheri's project

Dana's project - C cup lady

The bottle cap was crushed and used in the tree trunk, the burlap was pulled apart and used in the dress, the coffee sleeve was cut apart and used in the belt and descriptive words, the bamboo skewer was also used in the belt

Kathy's project - Sunny Side Up Magnet.

Sherry's project - envelope book

The Starbuck's sleeve was used to make the "beads", the bottle top is that little nob on the spine with the bead sewn on top and bamboo skewers were used to be the spine of the book.

Yvonne's project - flower pot decoration

Welcome Designing Diva's!

2008-03-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

Here it is our own official blog! So come on in - post your favorite links, websites, photos and creations.