Musing Crow Designs

although it's always about this time of of year that I swear my feet are sprouting webs there is beauty and color in the bare limbs of trees, winter clouds that hang heavy in the valleys and bushes that display a warm,rich palette of russets, golds, greys and browns.

This month, over on Arts In The Cards we're using the color red as a theme. In fact the whole year will be filled with observations on colors. I plan to have a very good time ! 
This month's red theme got off to a good start using the wonderfulness of Tagxedo to create a word cloud about all things red. I printed the cloud onto silk gampi tissue and glued it to the card stock using my favorite Perfect Paper Adhesive (matte) and then added some small strips of red and black decorative papers.

I have some more post card sized cards to finish. This is a shortie week end for me. I'm working on Monday this week which I normally don't do...the up side to that is that I will have next Friday off. Hooray!

Happy Sunday to all and to all a good night.

It seems that a lot of people I know are are using the gloom of winter days to finish projects. I've been rethinking my felted bags lately - considering how to simplify my process so that I can try to sell them. At present just the handle takes me 2-3 hours and no one will pay for that I know! I had not planned to hop on the 'finish wagon' until I walked by this heavily beaded quilted felt wall hanging that I had made a couple of years ago.
Honestly, it did nothing for me as it hung on the wall. It was too small, at  9" X 12", to make any impact . I had just thought about how much I enjoy using the knitting bag I made and, as I walked past this, I thought about what a great knitting notions bag it would make. I took it down from the wall, washed it in the machine and set about making it into a bag. The size is decent although I could not add the gusset I wanted because of the heavy beading.  My hands were really aching when I finally finished it! Aside from bei…

Roses on My Table has a Valentine's theme for the PostMark'd Art swap this month. I decided to do a larger version of my Cowboy's Sweetheart ATC the swap. Unfortunately the textured metal hearts do not look as good in the image as they do in the hand. The edge is jute twine that I thought would tie in with the Cowgirl roper theme.
I'm not sure why I enjoy swapping these small pieces of art so much but I do.
The gals from Arts In The Cards and I have started a new venture - a journal quilt sized textile art theme that we have called "Arts In The Cards : ReVisioned". We'll have bi-monthly challenges and I'm just waiting for us to choose the theme to get going. I found I really needed a more textile oriented challenge - and I am hoping this will fill the bill. I designed the blog yesterday - but may have to tone it down in the future !
What are your plans for Heart (Valentine's) Day? WE'll be home being simple, snug and warm!

I've been staying at least the tiniest bit creative during the work - although work seems to make a real slug out of me and my energy level is nil in the evenings. The two ATC trade groups that I do try to stay current with are Arts In The Cards and Roses on my Table.
Arts In The Cards is celebrating our 2nd anniversary this month. The cards above are in honor of that achievement.
Below are the set I made for the Roses swap. The theme was "Cowboy's Sweetheart" which is about as far away from something that is comfortable for me as the man in the moon. I did have fun these though and I am so glad to return to the Roses fold after a brief hiatus at the end of last year. More soon! Happy MLK long weekend to all !

I found this article on Alice Regan's Blog . She got it from Marc and Angels website. Somehow it all rang true to me - some of the things are so obvious- obvious of course with the benefit of hindsight at my now less- than-spring-chicken age. I wish I had grasped some of these admonitions earlier in life - but hey - I get it now! I hope some you will find it an interesting article as well. 
Happy New Year! Happy New Avenues For Growth! Happy New Opportunities To be Creative !



As Maria Robinson once said, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.”  Nothing could be closer to the truth.  But before you can begin this process of transformation you have to stop doing the things that have been holding you back.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Stop spending time with the wrong people. – Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you.  If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room …

I've kept a journal for nearly 30 years. During most of that time my journaling was written, perhaps with some ticket stubs or other small memorabilia glued in. Thankfully, some years ago I discovered the wonders of art, or visual, journaling and ever since then my journals have had more allure than ever for me. It's something I look forward to doing.
Let's face it though - there are many days when there is nothing much of note to writeabout. Some days I simply note the temperature (to prove how moderate a climate I live in - albeit with a lot of winter clouds). As I paged through the November-December issue of Somerset Studio I stumbled across an article by Kate Crane in which she detailed how to compose a monthly calendar with just enough space to add some basic observations and doodles.
I was feeling impatient and, perhaps more to the point, very tired when I made this page - so, as you can see, my spacing is off, texture is lacking and and planning and forethought are s…